Discursive Identity Construction In Talk Show Interview

Jin Xing,the hostess of Jin Xing Show,has been widely recognized in a large measure for her effective strategies of identity construction.Drawing on insights from pragmatic and rhetoric as two closely interrelated disciplines,the thesis aims to give a unified account of her discursive identity construction in her talk show interviews.In all,thirty interviews of hers,spanning more than half a year,were collected as the data for the study.And a general approach integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis methods was adopted to identify the types,characteristics and motivations of self discursive identities constructed by Jin.The results show that Jin mainly constructs four interactional identities through social deictic expressions,i.e.the default institutional identity as hostess,the identity as professionals in fields of the interviewees,the identity as a relative/friend of the interviewees and the identity as a guest/audience constructed through pragmatic empathy.Of the four types the identities as hostess and as a relative/friend of the interviewees were the most frequently constructed.Corresponding with the interactional identities,three personal identities were constructed as well.The authentic hostess identity was constructed by means of emphasizing the authenticity of her program,asking private issues or negative rumors about interviewees and talking about the deficiencies of herself and the guests directly.Sharing her stories and perspectives with the interviewees and audiences,the authoritative insider identity was built up.Moreover,Jin showed her concern about the problems of the interviewees and audiences that they had in their lives and careers as a sister or friend of them,leading to an affinitive relatives and friends identity.With Campbell’s theory of ethos and Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory,the motivations of Jin’s discursive identity construction were revealed.That is,it is imperative to eliminate the resistance of the hearers and get their identification on the one hand,and to adapt to particular social and mental worlds on the other hand.The study is instrumental in explaining the popularity of Jin’s talk show interviews and furnishes practical advice for use in interactions in general.