Exploring Identity Work in Chinese Communication - Softcover

Chen, Xinren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 135027321X ISBN 13: 9781350273214

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

Synopsis

There is growing acceptance among pragmaticians that identity is often (de)constructed and negotiated in communication in order to impact the outcome of the interaction. Filling an important gap in current research, this book offers the first systematic, pragmatic theory to account for the generative mechanisms of identity in communication. Using data drawn from real-life communicative contexts in China, Xinren Chen examines why identity strategies are adopted, how and why identities are constructed and what factors determine their appropriateness and effectiveness. In answering these questions, this book argues that identity is an essential communicative resource, present across various domains and able to be exploited to facilitate the realization of communicative needs. Demonstrating that communication in Chinese involves the dynamic choice and shift of identity by discursive means, Exploring Identity Work in Chinese Communication suggests that identity is intersubjective in communication in all languages and that it can be accepted, challenged, or even deconstructed.

About this title

About the Author

Xinren Chen is Professor of English Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Institute at Nanjing University, China.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 135027321X
• ISBN 13: 9781350273214
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260