Abstract In the hospitality sector, effectively responding to online reviews is vital for hotels to uphold their reputation and customer rapport. Taking 120 positive review responses and 120 negative review responses from Chinese hotels on Ctrip as the corpora, this study conducts a comparative analysis on the similarities, differences, functions and motivations of stance marker use and identity construction. It is found that both sides show similarity in the use of boosters, emotional markers, and the communicator identity construction. However, positive review responders use nicknames and evaluative markers more frequently and highlight the inviter identity, while negative review responders employ more first-person plural forms and hedges and emphasize the service provider identity. The findings reveal that responders to positive and negative reviews demonstrate both commonalities and distinct priorities in shaping positive hotel images and engaging with guests, offering insights for business practitioners to optimize their pragmatic strategies in digital communication.
Abstract This study examines the rhetorical strategies and pragmatic functions employed by Prophet Mohammad in Hadiths on faith. The data are a substantial portion of Hadiths in Arabic taken from the second chapter ( bāb al-imān ‘the book of faith’) in Sahih Al-Bukhāri . The analysis draws insights from Aristotle’s three persuasive appeals — logos, pathos and ethos, Austin’s (1962) Speech Act Theory and Mey’s (2001) action-theoretic societal pragmatics known as the theory of Pragmatic Acts. Findings reveal that Prophet Mohammad persuades by employing classification, cause and effect, metaphor, analogy and pun, and sharing personal experience. Compelling arguments are developed through the speaker’s appeal to the audience’s rational thinking, emotional attitudes, and moral principles. These persuasive elements are a suitable foundation for accomplishing pragmatic acts such as reiterating, encouraging, guiding, warning, inspiring and exhorting.
Abstract This study investigates how young Hindi heritage language learners in New Zealand use colours as an indexical resource to construct and negotiate multilingual identities. While previous research has focused on linguistic signs and data collected from adults, children’s semiotic meaning-making practices remain under-researched, particularly in heritage language contexts. Drawing upon the concepts of direct and indirect indexicality and embodied indexicality, this study analyses twenty linguistic reflection drawings and interviews from heritage language learners. The analyses reveal that older participants demonstrated nuanced ideological negotiations, for example, by rejecting monolingual norms through multimodal compositions. The study expands the concept of indexicality to include non-verbal semiotics such as colours and argues for a ‘sensory turn’ in indexicality research as multilingual identities are not just discursive but sensorially and affectively embodied.
Abstract Drawing on data from 24 hours of video-recorded interaction of two bilingual (Korean, English) children aged between three and five, we use multimodal conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis to show how pretend membership categories are invoked and mapped onto the children during social pretend play. In the examined data, the membership categories (person typifications) are organized into standardized relational pairs , such as “host” and “guest,” for which the existence of an incumbent of one category makes the existence of an incumbent of the other category programmatically relevant. The analysis shows some of the resources, which include place names and language alternation, through which the mapping of categories is contextualized, made relevant, and attempted or accomplished. The analysis also shows how mapping can be unproblematic and fleeting and how attempted mapping can be ignored, which highlights the necessity of collaboration for social pretend play. Data are in English and Korean.
Abstract This study examines how fishing metaphors, where romantic partners become “fish” and dating becomes “fishing,” structure relationship discourse on Chinese social media. By analyzing the viral terms 海王 (Sea King) and 海后 (Sea Queen) in online discussions on Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A platform), we find gender asymmetries in evaluation and pursuit strategies, yet convergence on a central practice: “fish farming,” which sustains connections through minimal engagement while deferring commitment. The metaphors naturalize inequality by mapping the principle of status-matched pairing as ecological zones, where cross-class desire registers as a species mismatch rather than a legitimate ambition. Departing from love is a journey metaphors that frame romance as cooperative progression, fishing metaphors recast dating as strategic predation where partners are evaluated, captured, and maintained while commitment remains marginal. In sum, fishing metaphors reveal how digital dating discourse enables individuals to feel strategically empowered while reproducing the social hierarchies that constrain them.
Abstract This paper explores the linguistic landscape of City Road, Cardiff, using Vertovec’s superdiversity theory to analyse how multiple languages, particularly Arabic script and Chinese characters, shape the public and economic spaces of this diverse urban area. Through a combination of photographic analysis of signage and interviews with shop owners from Jordan, Pakistan, Egypt, and China, this study examines how businesses use language to cater to their own communities while navigating the broader, multicultural environment. The research reveals that while most businesses primarily serve their linguistic and cultural groups, the interaction between language, culture, and economy creates a dynamic landscape where identity and commerce intersect. This study highlights how multilingual signage reflects both cultural retention and cross-cultural exchange, contributing to the broader understanding of how superdiversity transforms urban spaces. The conclusions drawn from City Road are applicable to other superdiverse areas around the world, making this analysis relevant for urban studies and sociolinguistics.
Abstract Address and danmu have each, separately, been widely explored over the past decade. However, the features of address in danmu comments remain underexplored in the scholarly field. By drawing on danmu comments, this paper aims to investigate how address is manifested in polite and impolite comments. Results reveal that commenters make use of a large repertoire of pronouns to achieve impolite effects, while both kinship and non-kinship terms exhibit distinct patterns in frequency and form between impolite and polite comments. Across all three categories, address plays a dynamic role in delivering, amplifying, and reshaping meanings, a process driven by the intricate interplay between address choice, (im)politeness, and the specific technical features of danmu .
Abstract This study proposes a redefinition of the pragmatic foundations of linguistic communication, based on the notion of failed execution as an autonomous analytical category. Drawing on qualitative analysis of a curated illustrative set of context-light digital utterances marked by syntactic incompleteness, referential opacity, and intentional suspension, the study demonstrates that communicative success need not hinge on classical felicity conditions or on strict adherence to conversational maxims. Instead, it is stabilized through inferential uptake and implicature derivation within relevance-guided interpretation. Through utterance types such as ‘This changes everything,’ the paper argues that failed execution is a recurrent and productive module of natural discourse. The research thus positions itself at the intersection of formal pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and discourse analysis, proposing an extension of implicature theory and a departure from traditional locutionary models, through an inferential theory grounded in relevance and interpretive convergence. The paper concludes by offering a theoretical systematization of failed execution as a regulative principle of contemporary communication, and by outlining new avenues of inquiry into opaque and underdetermined linguistic practices.
Address and danmu have each, separately, been widely explored over the past decade. However, the features of address in danmu comments remain underexplored in the scholarly field. By drawing on danmu comments, this paper aims to investigate how address is manifested in polite and impolite comments. Results reveal that commenters make use of a large repertoire of pronouns to achieve impolite effects, while both kinship and non-kinship terms exhibit distinct patterns in frequency and form between impolite and polite comments. Across all three categories, address plays a dynamic role in delivering, amplifying, and reshaping meanings, a process driven by the intricate interplay between address choice, (im)politeness, and the specific technical features of danmu.
In this paper we explore the pragmatic components of the speech act of thanking in Chinese and Japanese linguacultures, focusing on thanking in social media communications. We approach thanking by using an interactional and relational speech act typology, focusing on it as a response to face-giving acts. Data were collected through adapted discourse completion tasks on social media, where participants composed messages to benefactors. The findings demonstrate that the speech act of thanking serves as a temporary restoration of face balance, encompassing various pragmatic components. Pragmatic components of thanking in both Chinese and Japanese linguacultures share similarities, reflecting cultural values of 'reciprocation' and 'modesty'. While Chinese thank bridges interpersonal distance, Japanese thank emphasises contextual facts. Componential speech act analysis captures subtle differences between closely proximate linguacultures.
This study examines how FISHING metaphors, where romantic partners become "fish" and dating becomes "fishing," structure relationship discourse on Chinese social media. By analyzing the viral terms (Sea King) and (Sea Queen) in online discussions on Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A platform), we find gender asymmetries in evaluation and pursuit strategies, yet convergence on a central practice: "fish farming," which sustains connections through minimal engagement while deferring commitment. The metaphors naturalize inequality by mapping the principle of status-matched pairing as ecological zones, where cross-class desire registers as a species mismatch rather than a legitimate ambition. Departing from LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphors that frame romance as cooperative progression, FISHING metaphors recast dating as strategic predation where partners are evaluated, captured, and maintained while commitment remains marginal. In sum, FISHING metaphors reveal how digital dating discourse enables individuals to feel strategically empowered while reproducing the social hierarchies that constrain them.
This study proposes a redefinition of the pragmatic foundations of linguistic communication, based on the notion of failed execution as an autonomous analytical category. Drawing on qualitative analysis of a curated illustrative set of context-light digital utterances marked by syntactic incompleteness, referential opacity, and intentional suspension, the study demonstrates that communicative success need not hinge on classical felicity conditions or on strict adherence to conversational maxims. Instead, it is stabilized through inferential uptake and implicature derivation within relevance-guided interpretation. Through utterance types such as 'This changes everything,' the paper argues that failed execution is a recurrent and productive module of natural discourse. The research thus positions itself at the intersection of formal pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, and discourse analysis, proposing an extension of implicature theory and a departure from traditional locutionary models, through an inferential theory grounded in relevance and interpretive convergence. The paper concludes by offering a theoretical systematization of failed execution as a regulative principle of contemporary communication, and by outlining new avenues of inquiry into opaque and underdetermined linguistic practices.
