| Corporate identity construction refers to a series of self-definition and the continuous revision process of self-construction so that it can influence society's attitude and evaluation.In recent years,linguists have been devoting themselves to studying corporate identity construction mainly focusing on these elements such as corporate discourse,cultural background and social function.However,they ignore the relationships between these elements and corporate identity construction.Considering that,this thesis makes an attempt to study what the relationship is between corporate identity construction and its discourse from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis.This research selects the annual reports of Chinese automobile companies(Chang An,Saic and Dongfeng)and annual reports of American automobile companies(GM,Ford and Chrysler)as linguistic data.Employing the quantitative and qualitative research methods,it tries to explore the application and distribution of discursive strategies including the strategy of reference(nomination),the strategy of predication,the strategy of perspectivization,the strategy of argumentation,the strategy of intensification or mitigation,and compare the corporate identity construction in annual reports of Sino-American automobile companies based on the theoretical framework of Discourse Historical Approach.This thesis aims to answer the following three questions:(1)How are discursive strategies distributed and used in annual reports of Chinese and American automobile companies?(2)What similar and different corporate identities are constructed by the application of discursive strategies in annual reports of Chinese and American automobile companies?(3)What are the causes for the corporate identity construction?This research finds out that the distribution of five discursive strategies occupies a similar proportion.Through the further analysis of application of discursive strategies,there are similarities and differences between corporate identity construction of Chinese automobile companies and corporate identity construction of American automobile companies.Firstly,the topoi of law and the topoi of number are used to construct the corporate identity of the reporter in annual reports of Sino-American automobile companies.Secondly,the strategy of predication and the strategy of perspectivization are applied to construct the corporate identity of the seller in annual reports of Sino-American automobile companies.Besides,the strategy of intensification is also used to construct the corporate identity of seller in annual reports of Chinese automobile companies.Thirdly,the strategy of predication and the strategy of perspectivization are employed to construct the corporate identity of the decision-maker in annual reports of Sino-American automobile companies.The difference lies in the different realization of linguistic devices of same discursive strategy so that the different corporate identities are constructed in annual reports of Sino-American automobile companies.Firstly,for the employment of referential strategy,the corporate identity of the professor is constructed in annual reports of Chinese automobile companies.However,the corporate identity of the guider is constructed in annual reports of American automobile companies.Secondly,for the employment of the strategy of predication,the corporate identity of the idealist is constructed in annual reports of Chinese automobile companies.However,the corporate identity of the realist is constructed in annual reports of American automobile companies.Thirdly,for the employment of the strategy of perspectivitation and the strategy of intensification,the corporate identity of the leader is constructed in annual reports of Chinese automobile companies.However,the corporate identity of the negotiator is constructed in annual reports of American automobile companies.The causes for the similar corporate identity construction are mainly influenced by the special genre of corporate annual reports and its communication strategy in order to achieve corporate intentions.Meanwhile,the essence of corporate identity construction is a social and historical practice.Due to the different discourse context between China and America,different corporate identities are constructed in annualreports of Chinese and American automobile companies through the application of discursive strategies,reflecting their social and cultural characteristics.This research possesses some theoretical and practical significance.Firstly,it improves the comprehension of Discourse-Historical Approach and explores its application.Secondly,it enriches the research about business discourse.Besides,it will be useful for understanding and writing the corporate annual reports. |
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