“Long Live Chairman Mao!!!! Your People Miss You!!!!”: Development of the Involvement System to Describe Social Positioning in Digitally Mediated Communication From China

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 English Language and Linguistics, Faculty of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

2 School of Humanities and Languages, Faculty of Arts, Design, & Architecture, University of New South Wales, Australia

10.22055/rals.2021.17010

Abstract

This study reports on the development of the interpersonal discourse semantic system of involvement based on the analysis of evaluative meanings in 3 different data sets of Chinese digitally mediated communication. It builds on prior work developed within tenor and interpersonal meanings. Within the proposed system, 3 kinds of interpersonal meaning dimensions are posited. The first relates to the relative status between interlocutors and participants within a social hierarchy and is, thus, named social hierarchy. The second relates to the positioning of the person posting and others in relation to how close their relationship is and is, thus, named social distance. The third relates to who is being positioned within the other 2 dimensions and is called involvement type. Within the 3 data sets of digitally mediated Chinese communication (i.e., forum posts, SMS, and chat room messages), we found that the Chinese interlocutors frequently positioned themselves and others in relationships both within a social hierarchy as well as in relationships concerning their relative social distance. Results show there are a number of linguistic realisations of these 3 involvement systems which Chinese interlocutors use to negotiate their relative social positions in digitally mediated communication.

Keywords

Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics
Volume 12, Issue 2
Theme Issue: Systemic Functional Linguistics and Appraisal Analysis: Recent Contributions to English Language Research
September 2021
Pages 74-88

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