“Let’s … together”: Rapport management in Chinese directive public signs

Xiaochun Sun and Xinren Chen
Nanjing University
Abstract

This study, drawing on a modified version of Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Model (2008), attempts to probe into the underexplored phenomenon of apparent rapport management in Chinese directive public signs in terms of face, sociality rights and obligations, interests, and interactional goals. Based on the analysis of data collected from four cities in China, this study demonstrates how some Chinese producers of directive public signs make varying and various discursive efforts to enhance rapport with the general public. It is argued that this “personalization” characteristic of Chinese directive public signs suggests their producers’ attempt at doing rapport with the public. This research, while extending the scope of discussion on rapport management from the interpersonal to the public sphere, might serve to explain why some Chinese directive public signs (directives in particular) are not terse.

Keywords:
Publication history

Date received: 19 January 2021

Date accepted: 15 July 2022

Published online: 17 January 2023

Table of contents

Public signs ( 公示语 , gongshiyu, in Chinese) refer to words or sentences posted on walls, windows, doors, poles, etc. Public signs offer notices, instructions, cautions, warnings, etc. to the public. Being widely used in cities and towns, they seem to have attracted far less attention from pragmaticians than other genres of language use such as advertisements and news discourse worldwide (Ansari and Babaii 2005; Fowler 1991; van Dijk 1988a, 1988b).

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