Analysis Of Pragmatic Identity Construction In English Recruitment Advertisements

Identity construction is a hotly-debated topic in pragmatics,systematic linguistics and sociolinguistics.In recent years,the focus on identity analysis has changed from its essentiality to identity construction.Chen(2003)put forward the concept of "pragmatic identity" that denotes one identity in line with the context which is chosen consciously or automatically.Therefore,identity analysis has deepened into other aspects,including construction process,context and communication purposes.The thesis takes English recruitment advertisements as research subject.It claims that English recruitment advertisements will construct levels of pragmatic identities for both recruiters and applicants for the purpose of recruitment.Furthermore,discursive strategies and purpose of pragmatic identity construction will be discussed.The research questions mainly include three: 1)What pragmatic identities are constructed in English recruitment advertisements? 2)How pragmatic identities are constructed through discursive strategies? 3)What are purposes and motivations of pragmatic identity construction? More specifically,the thesis will firstly conclude pragmatic identity in recruitment advertisements in the fourth chapter,and then explore micro and macro discursive forms by discussing linguistic forms and strategies,and lastly explain the interpersonal and recruiting purposes,as well as the adaptation to contextual factors including social world and mental world.The significance of this research lies in that it combines pragmatic identity with recruiting advertisements.By exploring peculiar features of recruiting discourse,the thesis explains explicitly the pragmatic identity in terms of types,construction strategies and purposes,for the aim of enriching the analysis coverage of identity construction.Furthermore,it is demonstrated that pragmatic identity is closely affected by context,interpersonal relation and power.