伴侶言談與關係親密感：以關係促進策略和逾界語言建立伴侶中心立足點

Abstract

本論文探討語言如何協助伴侶提升親密感，和建立幸福伴侶關係；以互動社會語言學的研究方法，來檢視親密伴侶在互動中，使用關係促進策略（如：親暱稱謂、幽默對話）和逾界語言（如：講髒話、性相關談話、兒語）建立伴侶中心立足點；我將伴侶中心立足點定義為，伴侶輸出與解讀語句時，優先考慮維繫關係和諧與促進親密感的溝通方式。本研究的語料來自美國和臺灣情侶的訪談及自然對話，總計超過120小時的錄音內容，透過分析這些語料，討論伴侶如何於語言情境中，以伴侶中心立足點溝通，進而增進伴侶親密感、緩解傷害關係的情境、並為彼此提供情緒支持。伴侶的語言使用，構成伴侶中心立足點的三個概念領域，分別為愛情區、安全地、遊樂場，這些概念領域，為伴侶相處提供相關的心理動機、概念資源、及對親密關係的期待，支持伴侶建立以關係和諧為優先的溝通。隨著親密關係發展，伴侶通過互文性語言使用，反覆協商和創造語意，將增進關係親密感的語言資源，整合成他們專屬的伴侶語，藉著使用伴侶語中的語言策略，伴侶可在伴侶中心立足點和個人中心立足點間切換，在對話中兼顧親密連結和個人需求。本論文對語言如何建立親密伴侶關係的研究成果，能為社會語言學和關係科學領域，提供理論及應用層面的寶貴見解。This dissertation explores the role of language in enhancing intimacy and building fulfilling relationships in the context of romantic relationships. Taking an interactional sociolinguistic approach, I examine the relational-enhancing strategies (i.e., terms of endearment and conversational humor) and verbal transgressions (i.e., swearing, sex-related talk, and babytalk) romantic couples may use as linguistic cues to establish a couple-centered footing in interaction. I define a couple-centered footing as the ways romantic partners align with each other to prioritize the harmony of the relationship and foster intimacy in utterance production and interpretation.Based on over 120 hours of conversational data from American and Taiwanese couples’ elicited conversations, interviews, and naturally occurring interactions, I investigate how couples establish a couple-centered footing to enhance relational closeness, mitigate relational-harming situations, and provide emotional support in context. Three conceptual spheres—the love zone, the safe space, and the playground—emerged as the main sources that constitute and are constituted by the linguistic constructions of the couple-centered footing, providing the psychological motivations, conceptual resources, and shared relational expectations for romantic couples to manage their conversations.As relationships develop, couples negotiate and create meaning through intertextual language use, integrating linguistic resources into their couple-lect to achieve relational and communicative goals. By balancing between a couple-centered footing and an individual-centered footing in conversations, romantic partners can tend to their relational connection while managing a sense of selfhood. With a view to bridging the fields of sociolinguistics and relationship science, the current research provides valuable insights into the ways couples can use language to nurture intimacy and loving connection in romantic relationships.