Critical Pragmatic Studies on Chinese Public Discourse

Xinren Chen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000699852
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Public discourse constitutes the language environment of a town or a city, which forms part of the social environment of a country or a region. Based on extensive first-hand data collected from public places, mass media and the Internet, this monograph attempts critical pragmatic studies of public discourse in the contemporary Chinese context. By applying pragmatic theories and analytical instruments to the analysis of the data, including business names, advertisements, public signs and notices, and news, the book showcases such discursive practices as personalization and subjectivization and reveals such social problems as unhealthy social mentalities, "pragmatic traps", suspect discrimination, and vulgarity. It exemplifies a way of combining the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach and the pragmatic approach with a clear focus on the pragmatic issues. This book will not only be a necessary addition to the academic discipline of pragmatics in general, and critical pragmatics in particular, but also lay bare the problems existing in the use of public discourse and suggest several ways to improve such use. While it addresses the Chinese data only, the proposed analyses may contribute to international readers' understanding of public discourse in contemporary China and serve as a reference for similar researches worldwide.

1
Introduction

1.1 Objective of the study

The objective of this book is the study of public discourse (PD)¹ in the context of contemporary China.

1.1.1 Definition of public discourse

By public discourse, we refer to the genre of language used in public spheres (Verschueren, 2016) by various social bodies (administrative, commercial, financial, educational, etc.) for the primary purpose of transmitting public information or messages. The term “public spheres” refers to public places, public media, public networks, etc., which are open and accessible to the public and which are subject to the general public’s observation and supervision. Thus, we have public places such as airports, railway, coach or bus stations, piers or wharfs; scenic areas like parks, museums, and historical relics; places of public entertainment like cinemas, theatres, karaoke bars, and ballrooms; and spa centers, sports centers, banks, shops, supermarkets, hotels, post offices, telecommunication offices, hospitals, streets, and roads. We also have public media such as newspapers and magazines, television, and radio. Furthermore, we have public networks such as the Internet-based QQ, WeChat, blogs, and bulletins. Discourse that occurs in these public spaces and that provides the general public with access to public information constitute what is termed public discourse. On the other hand, discourse that occurs between or among individuals and thus is not accessible to other people in these public spaces does not belong to this category. Understandably, public discourse is the most frequent and encompassing form of language use in daily social life, compared with institutional discourse like courtroom and classroom discourses or interpersonal discourse in face-to-face or non-face-to-face encounters.

Essentially, public discourse is different from the interpersonal discourse that occurs between or among individuals² and the institutional discourse that occurs in institutional contexts. As a category of language use, public discourse is socially situated and publicly oriented. Producers of public discourse are generally social entities, whereas the recipients are the general public or certain special but non-specified groups of people. In contrast, interpersonal discourse serves as a bridge between individuals who can be intimates or old acquaintances, such as parents-children, husband-wife, friend-friend, and colleague-colleague, or who can be strangers or new acquaintances. Likewise, institutional discourse is restricted to communication in institutional or organizational contexts such as police stations, courtrooms, labor arbitration centers, insurance companies, traffic bureaus, classrooms, parliaments, congress rooms, meetings, and conferences. The participants in the interaction are certain social bodies or organizations and certain specific individuals or groups, respectively.

In general, public discourse can be classified as being several important types. According to Wang and Yuan (1999), in terms of content type, it comprises advertising language (also including posters and peddlers’ shouts); advocating language (including all forms of slogans); public signs (including tips, directions, warnings, reminders, and so on); service language, news reports, and commentaries; commodity instructions; and social catchphrases and neologisms.³ Even shop names, brands, plate names, labels, and public notices are all forms of public discourse. As they rightly highlight, public discourse, denoting all forms of language use between non-individuals, is a form of language use with an extremely broad definition and obscure boundary, to the extent that it is hard to draw a clear demarcation line between it and non-public discourse. In addition, in terms of register, public discourse can take both written and spoken forms. The former encompasses posters, public signs, tourist brochures, written advertisements, news reports, etc., whereas the latter includes news broadcasting and advertising on TV or radio, oral announcements of messages in public places, public speeches, etc.

In view of representativeness, extensiveness, and feasibility, this book will limit its attention to business names, advertisements, public signs, public notices, news headlines and reports, weather forecasts, and the like.

1.1.2 Functions of public discourse

Public discourse plays a multitude of roles in our social life, as classified and illustrated below.

1) To inform

One of the primary social functions of public discourse is to provide specific and useful information to the general public. For example:

• (1) 紧急出口 (Emergency Exit)
• (2) 售票处 (Ticket Office)

“Emergency Exit”, as in sign (1), may be used inside buildings to inform the public of the evacuation route in the event of fire or other emergencies. Similarly, we may find “Ticket” or “Ticket Office” in public places where admission is by ticket only. With the information provided by sign (2), the public are informed as to where to buy tickets to gain access to tourist spots, exhibits, performances, transport vehicles, etc.

Although information provision is one of the primary functions of commodity descriptions, notices, posters, road signs, advocating discourses, etc., it is not necessarily their only function. Take journalistic discourse, for example. One of its primary functions is also to inform by providing the public with the latest news; however, since news reports often embody the political viewpoint of the reporters or their agencies, they may sometimes have an additional ideological function. The latter role, characteristic of news discourse, is often the target of critical discourse analysis (e.g., Chen, 2017; Fang, 2001; van Dijk, 1998; Wang, 2015). To avoid repetition, we will instead approach the subjectivization issue of journalistic discourse in Chapter 9.

2) To direct

The second most important function of public discourse is to direct the public in how to perform certain acts. For example,

• (3) 请按顺序排队 (Please queue up.)
• (4) 请依规定整齐停放 (Please park [your bicycle] in order.)

In many public places such as bank counters, hospital clinics, canteen service points, etc., we find a “Please queue up” sign, like that in (3), whose function is to avoid disorder or chaos. Also, signs like “Please park [your bicycle] in order”, as in (4), are found in public places where bicycle riders are requested to correctly park their bicycles.

It should be noted that directive public discourse can be strong or weak in tone. For example,

• (5) 所有行李必须接受安检 (All luggage is subject to inspection.)

Compared with those in examples (3) and (4), the form of direction in (5) is much stronger. In public places such as security checkpoints at the airport, at metro or railway/coach stations, passengers are required to comply with directions, such as that given in (5), to a greater extent than in other locations.

3) To remind or warn

While giving directions is generally in the general public’s interest, issuing reminders or warnings generally attends to the addressees’ interests or welfare. For example,

• (6) 小心玻璃 (Mind the glass.)
• (7) 有电危险 (Danger! Electric shock risk!)

Out of consideration for the public’s safety, health, property, and so on, some public discourses are displayed in public places to serve as a reminder or warning, where facilities or utilities are exposed to the public. “Mind the glass” in (6) reminds the public to be cautious that they do not hurt themselves by unintentionally breaking the glass. On the walls of power distribution centers, the use of “Danger! Electric shock risk!”, as in (7), serves to protect members of the public from electrocution.

It is worth noting, though, that a reminder like (6) can also have an additional directing function because it can be interpreted as directing the addressee not to break the glass, which is also beneficial for the addresser.

4) To forbid

Contrary to directive public discourse that serves to take certain actions, proscriptive public discourse is meant to disallow, forbid, or ban certain acts. For example,

• (8) 禁止携带易燃易爆物品 (Inflammables and explosives are forbidden.)
• (9) 请勿带宠物入内 (No pets are allowed.)

“Inflammables and explosives are forbidden”, as in (8), is commonly found at airports and stations and on trains, coaches, buses, etc., and “No pets are allowed”, as in (9), is commonly used in parks, entertainment centers, universities, and so on. Proscriptive public discourse serves the interests of the majority by restricting the (improper) behavior of individuals, although there are exceptions. For example, one may legally erect a “No Parking” sign at the front of one’s house or premises to prevent others from parking in a private space.

5) To persuade

This is the primary function of advertising public discourse. By means of various techniques, both manufacturers and advertisers seek to attract the attention of the public and persuade them to purchase goods or services. For example,

• (10) 市中心生 态庭院 (An ecological courtyard downtown)

The advertisement in (10) is for real estate. By highlighting the advantages of being located in a downtown district but being ecological in nature, the advertiser seeks to attract the attention of potential purchasers.

6) To educate

Public discourse like advocating slogans are primarily used to publicize and popularize proper conduct and, at the same time, discourage misconduct, thereby educating the public in the ways of civility and morality. For example,

• (11) 尊老爱幼是一种美德 (Respecting the elderly and loving the young is a virtue.)
• (12) 保护环境 (Protect the environment.)

Unlike directive public discourse that targets explicit and specific acts, the advertising slogans in (11) and (12) convey general codes of proper conduct, which can then be applied to specific directive discourses, such as “Please give your seat to the elderly” on metro trains or buses or “No dumping here” in an open, public place.

7) To provide rapport

Although it is primarily oriented towards the public rather than individuals, public discourse is sometimes directed towards performing affective functions for its social members. For example,

• (13) 欢迎光临/欢迎您再次光临 (Welcome/Welcome back.)
• (14) 用户至上 用心服务 (Clients are our priority We serve whole-heartedly.)

At the reception areas of restaurants, hotels, karaoke bars, etc., we may find signs such as (13) being used with signs similar to (14) being located on the inside or outside of banks, telecommunication centers, and so on. These discourses convey respect, care, and goodwill to the targeted public, thus fulfilling the function of emotional engagement.

From the perspective of Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969), the first function of public discourse corresponds to the performance of assertive speech acts; the second to the sixth functions correspond to that of directive speech acts, with the last function corresponding to that of expressive speech acts. For the second to sixth functions, there is variation in terms of rank of imposition, with binding effects of varying degrees on the public.

It might be misleading to list the various functions of public discourse as presented above, though. Thus, three caveats are necessary. First, the list is by no means exhaustive. Second, not every instance of public discourse involves all the functions concerned. More often than not, a single instance of public discourse performs only one primary function. Third, some (complex) instances may enact two functions at the same time, as in (15):

• (15) 禁止垂钓 保护环境 (Fishing is forbidden. Protect the environment.)

The public sign in (15) is a complex case in that it has two parts and performs two functions. The first part (“Fishing is forbidden”) conveys the imperative message of forbidding fishing in the current location (i.e., a river or a lake), whereas the second part (“Protect the environment”) communicates the educational message of protecting the environment. Yet, it should be noted that the two functions are not on an even par; rather, in the current context, the first function is the primary one, while the second function is secondary or supportive. Basically, the educational message in the second part serves to support the forbidding role of the first part. Similarly, some advertisements not only persuade, but also provide rapport, a function that we shall investigate in Chapter 8.

Indeed, the functions of some public discourses may be very vague or these functions may be hard to demarcate. For instance, we are unlikely to take the weather information broadcast on radio or TV, or the notices of real estate transfer printed in newspapers, etc., as being solely informative. Rather, by providing the relevant information, the producer of these public discourses aims to influence the public’s behavior by reminding them to put on proper clothing (or bringing an umbrella, avoiding thunderstorms, etc.) or by encouraging them to purchase the real estate under transfer and so on.

Furthermore, some public discourses perform one function on the surface but enact another underneath that could be described as an indirect speech act performance (Searle, 1969) in speech act theoretic terms. For instance,

• (16) 此地禁止吸各种香烟! 连皇冠牌香烟也不例外 (No smoking here. Not even the Crown brand.)

The public sign in (16) is apparently one that stipulates a rule against smoking. In fact, it is a carefully designed advertisement for the Crown brand of cigarette.

1.1.3 Properties of public...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Research background
• 3 Theoretical foundations
• 4 Social mentalities behind Chinese business names
• 5 “Pragmatic traps” in Chinese advertisements
• 6 “Suspected” discrimination in Chinese public discourse
• 7 (Non-)civility in Chinese public discourse
• 8 Personalization in Chinese public discourse
• 9 Subjectivity in Chinese journalistic discourse
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendices
• References
• Index