A Comparative Study Of Pragmatic Identity Construction In Online Advertising Discourse

With the increase in the internet popularization rate,the number of internet users is on the rise.In such an era,advertisers use the internet as the carrier to publish profitable commercial advertisements on social media platforms,so as to promote their products.Since online advertisement has the characteristics of wide spread,beyond the restriction of time and space,and strong interactivity,the identities constructed by advertisers can be perceived by general netizens at any time.At the same time,advertisers interact with potential consumers more frequently,so it has a more significant impact on their purchasing behavior.In addition,different from identity construction in the real world in which advertisers are subject to various restrictions,such as the pressure from real-time feedback,in a virtual space,advertisers can easily employ discourse to construct favorable identities in online advertising.Therefore,research on discourse-based virtual identity construction is more meaningful.In previous studies,many identity concepts are still limited to the macro-level of social classification,and identity researches mainly focused on advertisements from traditional media,such as newspapers,magazines,and television.By combining Chen’s(2013a,2018)pragmatic identity theory with Wang’s(2016)framework of advertiser’s identity,the present study,with the quantitative method and qualitative method,takes Proya’s advertisements on Microblog and Estee Lauder’s advertisements on Twitter as the corpora source,and investigates the discursive practices for constructing advertisers’ identities on the social media platform,and explores the differences and similarities in the construction of advertisers’ identities in Chinese and English cosmetic advertisements,and analyzes the reasons behind them.This paper aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What discursive practices do Chinese and English cosmetic advertisers employ for constructing identities in advertisements?(2)What are the differences and similarities in discursive practices for constructing Chinese and English cosmetic advertisers’ identities?(3)What are the reasons for the differences and similarities in discursive practices for constructing Chinese and English cosmetic advertisers’ identities?The study finds that advertisers utilize various discursive practices to construct different self-aspects of identities.(1)Evidential sources from authoritative organizations and previous customers are employed by advertisers to construct an objectively reliable self-aspect.(2)Technical terms are used by advertisers to construct a professional self-aspect.(3)Boosters are utilized by advertisers to construct an affirmative self-aspect.(4)Advertisers employ informal style(e.g.colloquialisms),personal pronouns(e.g.inclusive we and you),directive speech act,salutation(e.g.nicknames addressing the advertiser and nicknames addressing the audience),and emoji to establish consumer-intimate self-aspect.(5)Advertisers construct a socially-conscious self-aspect through discourse content,which is embodied in their social consciousness as a citizen and service spirit to the people,society,and country.Similarity exists concerning the identity construction of advertisers in Chinese and English cosmetic advertisements: more emotional identities than rational identities are constructed by advertisers both in Chinese advertisements and English advertisements.The differences are as follows:(1)the frequency of objectively reliable self-aspect in Chinese advertisements is higher than that in English advertisements.(2)The frequencies of affirmative self-aspect,consumer-intimate self-aspect,and socially-conscious self-aspect in English advertisements are much higher than those in Chinese advertisements.In the combination with relevant literature and corpora analysis,this study holds that the communicative nature of online advertising discourse,the satisfying of audience’s emotional needs,and the culture behind the language are the main reasons for the similarities and differences in the frequency of various self-aspects in Chinese and English advertisements.Different from previous researches on advertising discourse conducted from the perspectives of communication,semiotics,and sociology,the present research applies the concept of pragmatic identity to online advertising discourse,and investigates the discursive construction of advertisers’ pragmatic identity in online advertising discourse,which expands the research scope of advertising discourse to some extent.Besides,the present study explores the relationship between language,context,and identity in advertising discourse,which will contribute to the interdisciplinary development of pragmatics,sociology,and communication.In terms of practical significance,it can provide some enlightenment for cosmetic advertisers in the design of advertising content,such as language strategy.