A Study Of Context Adaptation In Process Of Pragmatic Identity Construction

Identity construction has always been an important topic in the field of humanities and social sciences.In recent years,with the development of identity construction research,scholars from different disciplines have paid more attention to the topic of identity construction.As for identity,many scholars defines identity from different perspectives including Sociology,Psychology and Linguistics.As for identity construction,identity construction has experienced the development process from Essentialism to Constructivism.As for Essentialism,it is believed that identity is innate and static,and identity is regarded as the sum of human characteristics or a tool to divide different social groups.Later,with the development of Constructivism,people believe that identity is not fixed.Identity can be deliberately used and fabricated by the speaker in a specific communicative context.The study of identity should be connected with context.Later,Chen Xinren(2013)put forward the Pragmatic Identity Theory,which provides a new theoretical perspective for the development of identity Constructivism.Chen Xinren(2013)points out: "before entering the social communication context,the speakers usually have a variety of social identities.However,once they are in the specific communicative context,the speaker may just choose one identity(sometimes more than one identity)to participate in the current dialogue and understand communicative language.At this time,other social identities still exist,but in the shielding state.Chen Xinren(2013)refers to this contextual identity which is intentionally or unintentionally chosen by the speaker as “pragmatic identity”.The construction of pragmatic identity is inseparable from communicative discourse,which is the medium to realize the construction of pragmatic identity.If the speakers want to get rid of some unhappy experience in communication,the speaker must choose proper communication strategies that are suitable for the current communication context to construct various pragmatic identity.Therefore,Chen Xinren(2013)also puts forward a variety of discourse practice types related to identity construction,such as code selection,speech act,stylistic features,feedback,feedback,modal particles,vocabulary selection,address forms and discourse features.Coincidentally,it is also emphasized that speakers need to adopt appropriate strategies to choose language according to the current context.Verschueren’s(1987)Linguistic Adaptation Theory and Chen Xinren’s(2013)pragmatic identity theory coincide in certain aspects.According to Verschueren’s(1987)Linguistic Adaptation Theory,the essence of the speaker’s language use is the process in which the communicators choose the appropriate language strategies according to the communicative context to achieve the communicative purpose consciously.There are three characteristics of Linguistic Adaptation Theory,namely,variability,negotiability and adaptability.This paper mainly makes an analysis from the perspective of contextual adaptability in the above three characteristics in Linguistic Adaptation Theory,including the analysis of physical context,social context and mental context.Based on the Linguistic Adaptation Theory and the Pragmatic Identity Theory,this thesis analyzes the contextual adaptation in the process of pragmatic identity construction.In the process of pragmatic identity construction,with the purpose of achieving different pragmatic identity construction,the speaker has to consider the constraints of different contextual factors in the process of communication,that is,the physical context,social context and mental context.In order to achieve the purpose of communication,ensure the smooth progress of communication and then achieve the purpose of constructing different pragmatic identities,the speaker needs to consciously use various pragmatic strategies to adjust the content of the discourse and realize the adaptation to various contextual factors.In this paper,the author uses the methods of observation and qualitative research to analyze the communicative discourse of four interview program,including The Oprah Winfrey Show,The Allen Degeneres Show,The Daily Show and The Reciter.On the basis of Chen Xinren’s Pragmatic Identity Theory and Verschueren’s Linguistic Adaptation Theory,the author puts forward the research questions of this thesis:1.In the selected corpus,how do the hosts adapt to the physical context,social context and mental context?2.What kind of pragmatic identities do the hosts construct in the process of adaptation to the above three contexts?3.What discourse strategies do the hosts adopt when constructing pragmatic identities?Through the transcribing and text analysis of interview discourse,the author finds that in TV interview program,the speaker adapts to three contexts: physical context,social context and mental context.Among them,physical context includes time context,space context and the appearance of communicators;social context includes social status context,age context,power context,intimacy context and culture context;mental context includes face context(quality face and identity face),emotional context(positive emotion and negative emotion),interpersonal harmony context.In the process of adaptation to the above contextual factors,the speaker constructs a variety of pragmatic identities in different stages of the interview program including the beginning,the subject and the end,such as the introducer,the guide,the listener and the evaluator.In the construction of the four pragmatic identities,a variety of discourse strategies are adopted by the host.In the construction of the introducer’s pragmatic identity,the discourse strategies include the style and the lexical choices.In the construction of the guide’s pragmatic identity,the discourse strategies include discourse features,modal particles and interrogative sentences.In the construction of the listener’s pragmatic identity,the host’s discourse strategies are mainly feedback,including verbal feedback and non-verbal feedback.When constructing the evaluator’s pragmatic identity,the host mainly uses discourse strategies including discourse features,expressive speech act.The theme of this thesis is to discuss contextual adaptation in the process of pragmatic identity construction.The author hopes to reveal the influence of physical context,social context and mental context to the construction of speaker’s pragmatic identity through the study of interview discourse.Therefore,the author hopes that this thesis can make some contributions in enriching the research of identity construction and helping people have a better communication with others.