magazinelogo

Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Online: 2576-0548 Downloads: 832283 Total View: 5430710
Frequency: monthly ISSN Print: 2576-0556 CODEN: JHASAY
Email: jhass@hillpublisher.com
Article Open Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.02.028

Identity Construction through Lexical Choices: A Corpus-based Approach

Haibin Wu

School of Public Service, Guangdong Engineering Polytechnic, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

*Corresponding author: Haibin Wu

Published: March 29,2023

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how the Hong Kong identity is discursively constructed through the lexemes used in the Chief Executive’s Hong Kong Policy Address Speeches from 1997 to 2020. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a combination of various approaches. A socio-cognitive approach is adopted to elaborate the identical construing of a community. The corpus-based findings in the social, historical, or cultural context are applied to determine the interrelations between discursive practices and social practices. The collocations of different keywords show that a situation in which a category of words is frequently associated. It is likely that explicit policy statements and speeches can reveal a set of beliefs and values. The analysis of lexical choices in the self-built corpus demonstrates how the Chief Executive presents himself/herself as a representative of the HK government and the people. These policy address speeches construct three specific types of identity: group, capitalism, and authorization.

References

Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse & society, 19(3), 273-306.

Burnett, H. (2017). Sociolinguistic interaction and identity construction: The view from game‐theoretic pragmatics. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 21(2), 238-271.

Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy, society, and culture (3 volumes). Blackwell, Oxford, 1997, 1998. 

Fairclough, N. (2009). A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. Methods of critical discourse analysis, 2, 162-187. 

Fairclough, N. (2013). Language and power. Routledge. 

Fairclough, N. (2014). Dialogue in the public sphere. In Discourse and social life (pp. 170-184).

Flowerdew, J. (1997). The discourse of colonial withdrawal: A case study in the creation of mythic discourse. Discourse & Society, 8(4), 453-477.

Flowerdew, J. (2004). Identity politics and Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty: Analysing the discourse of Hong Kong’s first chief executive. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(9), 1551-1578. Routledge.

Gee, J. P. (2004). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. Routledge. 

McEnery, T. (2019). Corpus linguistics. Edinburgh University Press.

McEnery, T. (2019). Corpus linguistics. Edinburgh University Press.

Toolan, M. J. (2002). Critical discourse analysis: critical concepts in linguistics. Vol. 4, Current debates and new directions. Routledge. 

Van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Critical discourse studies: A sociocognitive approach. Methods of critical discourse analysis, 2(1), 62-86. 

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology. Methods of critical discourse analysis, 2, 1-33.

How to cite this paper

Identity Construction through Lexical Choices: A Corpus-based Approach

How to cite this paper:  Haibin Wu. (2023) Identity Construction through Lexical Choices: A Corpus-based Approach. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science7(2), 401-407.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2023.02.028