Subject Positioning In Chinese Real Estate Advertisements: A Critical Approach

This thesis is a critical analysis of subject positioning in Chinese real estate advertisements.Subject positioning is a term closely related to Althusser's understanding of "subject," "ideology," and "interpellation". Subject positioning means the process through which language constructs a social position for an individual and thereby attempts to make him/her an ideological subject. Discourses usually provide people with social positions. People's occupation of the positions is usually accompanied by their unconscious acceptance of a set of ideologies embedded in those discourses. The critical study of subject positioning in discourses can reveal how discourses attempt to position people as various kinds of subjects and the ideologies hidden in those discourses.Advertisements usually attempt to position their readers as potential members of certain communities based on consumption. The critical analysis of subject positioning in advertisements can provide people with insights into the ideologies embedded in the advertisements.Using a framework combining Fairclough's three-dimensional model of discourse, Halliday's experiential and interpersonal metafunctions, and Maslow's theory of a hierarchy of needs, the present study focuses on subject positioning in Chinese real estate advertisements and exposes how the advertisements attempt to position their readers as four kinds of subjects and the major ideological work of the advertisements—classifying people into different social strata.