ABSTRACT
Although identity has been taken as a research topic in various fields, its definition is always a tricky issue upon which no consensus has been reached yet. From the sociological perspective, Goffman (1974: 7) posits that role is an aspect of personal identity. In the pragmatics tradition, many scholars approach identity from its relation to face or role: Ting-Toomey (1994: 3) argues that face is an identity-boundary issue; Scollon and Scollon (1995: 34–36) discuss face in terms of the interpersonal identity of individuals in communication and the self as a communicative identity; Thornborrow (2001) regards identity as a person’s social role. Along this line, Spencer-Oatey (2007) proposes that in cognitive terms, face and identity are similar in that both relate to the notion of self-image (including individual, relational and collective construals of self), and both comprise multiple self-aspects or attributes.
