A Study on the Identity Construction of the Host in American Talk Show from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory—The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as an Example

Abstract

There is a close relationship between language and identity construction. This paper selects the February 17 phrase in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as the corpus based on Verschueren's language adaptation theory, based on speech act theory and conversation analysis theory, and the author use quantitative and qualitative analysis methods discusses the different types of pragmatic identity constructed by the host and the strategies of identity construction. The major finding is the identity construction of the host Jimmy Fallon includes Commercial advertising promoter, Program guest introducer, Program flow controller and construct pragmatic identity adapts to the context, including physical context, social context and psychological context. The host has different pragmatic identity construction，which is the result of the game between various powers.