Constructing conflict: a critical metaphor analysis of disagreement patterns in communication among older Chinese adults

This study examines how older Chinese adults in multigenerational households use metaphor to manage intergenerational conflict in disagreement episodes. The data include 12 publicly available televised family mediation cases from The Third Mediation Room (515 minutes; ∼90,450 words). The analysis applies Critical Metaphor Analysis following Charteris-Black’s three-stage procedure (identification, interpretation, and explanation). Critical Discourse Analysis guides the explanation stage to relate metaphor use to power relations and social values. Five recurring source-domain clusters emerge: NATURAL PHENOMENA, AGRICULTURAL LABOR, FAMILY AND THE HUMAN BODY, ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS, and TABOOS AND RELIGION. These clusters help participants define what the conflict concerns, assess behavior and obligations, and negotiate caregiving responsibility, reciprocity, and authority. The findings also show that metaphors serve interactional purposes: they reduce face threats, strengthen or redirect blame, and support moral positioning of self and others. At the same time, metaphor use reflects and sometimes challenges widely shared expectations about filial duty and changing intergenerational relations in contemporary China. The findings show that metaphor is a key resource for making family conflict understandable and morally meaningful in mediated talk, and they add evidence to discourse research on aging in a Chinese cultural context.