Why Talk That Way: A Discursive Study of Parents’ Pragmatic Identity Construction in Chinese and American TV Shows

Given the relative scarcity of research on the identities constructed by parents from a discursive perspective, this article explores how parents construct their pragmatic identity in family discourse. To this end, the authors chose the couples Luo Su and Bi Shengnan in Tiger Mom and Cat Dad and Bob Duncan and Amy Duncan in Good Luck Charlie as the subjects. Based on Chen's (2013) analytical framework, discursive practices concerning identity construction were analyzed in the two couples’ parent–child conversations. A comparative study was then conducted on the identity construction between the Chinese parents and their American counterparts. Applying thematic discourse analysis to identify, analyze, and report patterns within data, this study finds that speech act, deixis, discourse content, discourse features, grammatical choice, and style are discursive practices employed in identity construction. Using these devices, the two couples construct three types of pragmatic identities: instructive parent identity, authoritative parent identity, and amiable parent identity. In addition to the three common identities, Luo Su and Bi Shengnan construct a utilitarian parent identity while Bob Duncan and Amy Duncan construct a narcissistic parent identity. Besides the descriptive study, this article also attempts to explain why Chinese parents and American parents construct similar and/or different identities.