National Identities in Major Emergency: A Corpus-based Analysis on Interactional Metadiscourse in Regular Press Conference about COVID-19

Abstract

Addressers’ metapragmatic awareness affects the language-choosing process and achieves diverse identities construction in different social contexts. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese spokespersons endeavor to shape public opinions and defend national interest in Regular Press Conference through appropriately-employed languages, so as to avoid groundless criticism and probable panic among public. Based on Hyland’s model of interaction, the present paper thus explores the discursive construction of national identities in spokespersons’ remarks regarding the COVID-19. Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory is adopted to explain spokespersons’ employment of interactional metadiscourse in Regular Press Conference. The result shows that (1) self-mentions, attitude markers and boosters are made considerable use in remarks; (2) national identities as firm defender, responsible upholder and sincere friend are intentionally constructed; (3) spokespersons consciously adapt to the official context by adopting different metadiscourse resources. This analysis attempts to provide suggestions for international communication and shed some light on discursive strategies used in key context.