Identity Construction Of Energy Enterprises From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Energy is the material basis for human survival and development and also the driving force for economic development.Discourse analysis on energy has high research value for the development of energy industry.Identity research is a research focus in the field of humanities and social sciences and it also has become an important issue in the field of linguistics in recent years.From the perspective of social constructivism,language constructs social identity,social relations and people’s understanding of the world.By reviewing the previous studies,it can be found that the research on identity construction mostly focuses on national identity,teacher identity and so on.Few people pay attention to the research on the identity construction of energy enterprises.According to Adaptation Theory,language can be studied from the perspectives of cognition,society and culture and language use is a continuous process of language choice that is often influenced by factors within or outside the language.This view is consistent with the idea of language constructing identity for they both emphasize the dynamics of language choice and discourse communication.This study takes annual reports of China National Petroleum Corporation as the research object.Based on the corpus-based research method,the research analyzes the annual reports from the perspective of Adaptation Theory.The results indicate:(1)The identities of powerful enterprise,international enterprise,developmental enterprise and innovative enterprise are constructed in the annual reports.(2)The choice of language in annual reports adapts to different enterprise identities.“Signed” is the strongest collocational word of “CNPC” in order to adapt to the identity of international enterprise;“continued to + positive verbs” is the strongest collocational linguistic form of “we” and “will” is the highest frequency modal verb in order to adapt to the identity of developmental enterprise;the highest frequency verb forms in the annual reports are the past participle and past tense in order to adapt to the identity of powerful enterprise;“new” is the highest frequently used adjective in order to adapt to the identity of innovative enterprise.(3)The identity construction of energy enterprise and linguistic choices adapt to different contextual correlates.The identity of powerful enterprise adapts to the positive face want in the mental world.The identity of international enterprise adapts to both cultural norms in social world and also physical world.The identity of innovative enterprise adapts to cultural norms in social world.The identity of developmental enterprise adapts to both physical world and also the expectation of the readers in the mental world.This study aims to establish a good image of energy enterprises and enhance China’s energy strength by exploring the identity construction of energy enterprises.