Analyzing Intertextuality In Microblog Discourse: A Case Study On Sina Microblog Of People’s Daily

Since Sina Microblog was launched by SINA Corporation in 2009, this new media with a 140-character maximum limit has become an instant Internet hit in China and thereby formed a new language phenomenon. As a typical kind of traditional media, party newspapers begin to employ microblog to diffuse information, guide online public opinions and improve their own competitive power. In view of the above-mentioned facts, the present thesis takes Sina Microblog of People’s Daily, the most important party newspaper of China, as its object of study and attempts to explore the phenomenon of intertextuality involved in microblog discourse.This thesis, through integrating Bhatia‘s(2010) patterns of discourse realization in professional contexts and Fairclough‘s(1992) conceptualization of intertextuality, proposes a multi-perspective model for studying the intertextuality in microblog discourse. By applying this model, the thesis carries out the analysis from three dimensions. It firstly examines the intertextual manifestations in microblog discourse in terms of manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Then it explores the functions of intertextuality in microblog discourse through a careful elaboration of the collected data. Finally, combining the theory of context with the specific characteristics of microblog discourse, this thesis illustrates the generative mechanisms of intertextuality.Through this three-dimensional analysis, it is found that intertextuality, as an important linguistic feature, permeates through microblog discourse in the form of manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Manifest intertextuality in microblog discourse has the following five main manifestations: allusion, discourse representation, presupposition, hyperlink, and parody. While interdiscursivity in microblog discourse is manifested in the following four forms: blended interdiscursivity, embedded interdiscursivity, switched interdiscursivity, and chained interdiscursivity. Moreover, the study finds that intertextuality serves four major functions in microblog discourse, namely, evoking schemas, attracting attentions, guiding online public opinions, and creating intimacy. Finally, through investigating the specific characteristics and the contextual resources of microblog discourse, the thesis summarizes the main generative factors of intertextuality in microblog discourse into four mechanisms, namely, physical mechanism, linguistic mechanism, cultural mechanism, and mental mechanism. According to the physical mechanism, the physical world is a unified whole with everything in connection with something else, and this universal interconnection serves as the material basis for the generation of intertextuality, which makes it possible for intertextuality to exist in many different forms. However, many other conditions are needed for generating intertextuality. In addition, linguistic mechanism shows that linguistic sign is a combination of a signifier and a signified, and the arbitrariness and conventionality of language are the essential generative factors for the application of intertextuality in microblog discourse. Cultural mechanism indicates that, along with the increasing communication between different countries, regions and nations, multicultural interactions contribute to the mutual absorption of different languages, which provides opportunities for the generation of intertextuality. Mental mechanism tells us that, in order to satisfy readers‘ psychological needs, microbloggers have to utilize intertextual techniques to enrich their ways of expressions and forms of language.The analysis of the intertextuality in microblog discourse can expand the scope of intertextual studies and thereby improve readers‘ critical awareness. It is hoped that the present investigation may provide a new perspective for the research on intertextuality of microblog discourse.