Pragmatic Identity Construction In Impoliteness

The study of(im)politeness in computer-mediated communication(CMC)is a burgeoning area of study:in pragmatics.Fruitful as(im)politeness studies may be,few have focused on conventionalization and non-conventionalized impoliteness,let alone the analysis of identity construction in impoliteness based on these two notions and social psychological theories.On the basis of impolite Sina Weibo comments on Yang Shuping’s commencement speech,this thesis aims at a qualitative study on identity construction from pragmatic and social psychological perspectives.Or rather,the analysis of identity construction in this thesis is based on Simon’s(2004)integrative approach,different types of identities proposed by Tracy&Robles(2013),conventionalized impoliteness formulae and non-conventionalized impoliteness.By making comparisons between Culpeper’s(2011)conventionalized impoliteness formulae and the corresponding formulae used in Chinese context in a critical way,the thesis reveals and discusses several Chinese impoliteness formulae shown in the data and they are(1)a single compound word or noun serving as the personalized negative vocatives;(2)conventionalized impoliteness formulae"这/这AI个/这种a;P+NP","连+NP+都+VP";"真是+NP," serving as personalized negative assertions;(3)conventionalized impoliteness formulae"数词+量词+NP"serving as the personalized negative references.Besides,inconsistencies indicated in Culpeper’s(2011)conventionalized impoliteness formulae classifications are also pointed out by the author.This thesis further examines and discusses factors exacerbating the offensiveness of impoliteness.More specifically,based on what is summarized in Culpeper(2011),some light is shed upon the impoliteness exacerbating factors in computer-mediated communication represented by microblog comments,which are(1)the use of punctuation or emojis;(2)the number of comment characters or language style;(3)lexical or grammatical ways of intensifying the degreeofimpoliteness.Furthermore,the analysis of the working data also reveals several regularities.First,under appropriate conditions,a certain collective identity included in an individual identity may provide a basis for another collective identity.Second,the data analysis reveals another noteworthy characteristic of self-aspects which can be illustrated as follows:under appropriate conditions,self-aspects can provide the basis for another self-aspect.Third,it is found that identity can not only serve as a marker that allows people to recognize themselves as the origin of their thoughts and actions,but also serve as a marker that allows people to explain the origin of others’ thoughts and actions.Fourth,the self-aspect of an individual can help construct the self-aspect of a group or community to which the individual belongs.Fifth,the author finds that the context in use makes a particular self-aspect salient not only in self-interpretation but also in the evaluation of others’ behavior or performance.Sixth,personal identities can be strengthened to increase the persuasiveness and offensiveness by the mentioning of interactional identities.The seventh and last regularity is that comments which belong to the group of context-driven non-conventionalized impoliteness caused by the absence of behavior usually involve the use of metalinguistic impoliteness labels.It is hoped that the present study within pragmatic and social psychological perspectives will contribute to a better understanding of impoliteness and identity.