A Contrastive Critical Metaphor Analysis Of The Corporate Identity Construction In The English Profiles Of Chinese And Foreign Internet Enterprises

In 2019,China Academy of Information and Communication released the 2019 edition of report on development trend and prosperity index of China's Internet industry.The report lists the top 30 global Internet companies by the end of 2018.The report also pointed out that due to the influence of multi-factor resonance,the prosperity of the Internet industry has declined,and the momentum of rapid development has encountered certain resistance.The Internet industry has entered a new era of transformation and adjustment.In this critical period,the construction of corporate identity of Internet enterprises is particularly important.How to convey enterprise information to the public through corporate profile and establish a positive corporate identity has become the focus of thinking for major Internet enterprises.In view of this,this thesis intends to make a contrastive study of conceptual metaphors in the English profiles of Chinese and foreign Internet enterprises by using Critical Metaphor Analysis(CMA),aiming to analyze the different ways of constructing corporate identity in China and foreign countries,and reveal the hidden ideas in the English profiles of the two sides.In addition,through the analysis of critical metaphor,we can explore the causes of different views from the political,economic and cultural perspectives.The selected corpus of this study comes from the English introduction of the official websites of Chinese and foreign Internet enterprises.Through metaphor identification,metaphor interpretation and metaphor explanation,this study aims at the following key questions: 1.what are the similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors in the English profiles of Chinese and foreign companies? 2.How do Chinese and foreign companies construct their identities through the use of conceptual metaphors? 3.Why do Chinese and foreign companies construct their identities through the different use of conceptual metaphors?The results are as follows: 1.Conceptual metaphors commonly used in the corpora of Chinese and foreign corporate profiles are Construction Metaphor,Measurement Metaphor and Journey Metaphor;2.In foreign corporate profiles,the use of Human Metaphor and Friend Metaphor accounts for a relatively high proportion,and there is a large gap between the use frequency of foreign corporate profiles and that of Chinese enterprises;3.Chinese enterprises mainly construct the corporate identity of leaders,pioneers and advisers,while foreign enterprises mainly construct the corporate identity of cooperators,friends and self-confident professionals;4.This thesis uses the metaphor model of Charteris as the analysis framework,and analyzes the reasons in terms of politics,economy and culture in social resources.Politically,China and the West are respectively the unitary power structure and the separation of three powers,which lead to different positions of enterprises.Economically,China has made rapid progress from self-sufficiency in the early days to reform and opening up.However,capitalism sprouted earlier in the west,economic development has been stable,and more attention has been paid to communication with users.Culturally,because China is a culture of collectivism,large power distance,large uncertainty avoidance Index and masculinity,and has always paid attention to the superiority of its own identity,with serious hierarchical differentiation,enterprises often distance themselves from users when constructing corporate identity,and usually take the leader,pioneer as their own identity.While foreign enterprises prefer to construct corporate identity of friendly,professional and confident because of the culture of individualism,small power distance,small uncertainty avoidance Index.The above research findings can provide some reference ideas for domestic Internet enterprises to write a corporate profile suitable for foreign markets to a certain extent,which is beneficial for domestic enterprises to better go abroad and enter the international market.At the same time,the limitations of this study can also provide a reference for future analysis.