A Pragmatic Study Of The Construction Of Women Neighbors’ Relational Identity

Identity,as Bucholtz and Hall(2005)defines,is the social positioning of self and other,which has long been a heated,favored and researched topic by scholars from various fields and disciplines.So far,there has been no wholly agreed interpretation on what “ identity” actually is.Influenced by sociolinguistics,pragmatics and conversation analysis,identity is viewed as an active,ongoing and dynamic process in interaction,instead of being fixed,static and preexisting.“Identity emerges from the specific conditions of linguistic interaction”(Bucholtz,2005:588).And individuals are able to construct,negotiate or even negate identities in the production of discourse.This study draws on Chen’s(2013)concept of pragmatic identity and Tracy’s(2013)definition and classification of identity,to explore the relational identity to define women neighbors’ relational identity in communicating their problems in life,and apply Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory to establish the theoretical framework to study the construction process of women neighbors’ relational identity,aiming to explain how and why interactants in neighborhood construct their identities.The main research questions include:(i)What relational identities are constructed among women in neighborhood when talking about their problems?(ii)What linguistic forms and strategies do women in neighborhood apply to construct those relational identities?(iii)Why are these relational identities constructed among the women in neighborhood?To answer the questions above,this study take as research data women neighbors’conversations in the heated TV series,Ode to Joy(欢乐颂).The major findings are as follows:(i)In neighborhood,three main relational identities are constructed,namely,the relatives or friends identity,the expert-novice identity and the mediator-disputant identity;(ii)Typical linguistic forms and discourse strategies used to construct relational identities in this study include:applying different address forms,sharing a variety of topics and stories,using informal language,direct referring to personal knowledge and expertise,self-classifying,pressing,and reframing and then bridging;(iii)Two contextual correlates:one is communicative intention like comforting others,helping solve problems,and maintaining friendly rapport,and the other is the sociocultural value-kindheartedness in neighborhood;(iv)Different relational identities are contextually represented or constructed,and switch dynamically.This study shows that identity construction is essentially a dynamic process in which interactants choose certain linguistic forms and discourse strategies to construct their desired identities,thus achieving their communicative purposes or adapting to sociocultural values..This study has made some contributions.First,it enriches research on identity and identity construction in the everyday talk,specifically women neighbors’ talk in this study.Second,a thorough understanding of women neighbors’ relational identity from the pragmatic perspective can be achieved by applying the Linguistic Adaptation Theory to analyze the interaction of women in neighborhood.What’s more,the analysis of women neighbors’ relational identity,practically speaking,can provide hints to deal with neighborhood relationship in real life.