Linguistic aspects of personal identity research: theoretical grounds (the case study of the literary biography by W. Isaacson “Steve Jobs: Biography”)

Abstract

The subject of the paper is linguistic aspects of personal self-identification in the literary biography. This project aims to outline the linguistic aspects of personal identity research. The topicality of the research is to clarify the theoretical grounds by which the linguistic aspects of the personal identity actualization in the text of the literary biography can be revealed. The general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization), the contextual and interpretive method, and discourse analysis as well are used in the paper. The novelty of the paper is determined both by the object of the study and the angle of the analysis currently presented by means of the theoretical grounds. As a result of the research, it has been established that the matter of studying the identity of Steve Jobs is correlated with a number of philosophical concepts (self-knowledge, self-realization, self-identification, self-evaluation), the main means of implementation of which at the verbal level is the linguistic strategy of self-presentation. The starting level in the typology of Steve Jobs’ linguistic personality is pragmatic. Its main units are motive, linguistic strategy and tactics. The description of Steve Jobs’ self-identification, which is directly related to the realization of the motives of self-knowledge, image creation, and creative self-expression, is important for W. Isaacson, Steve Jobs’ biographer. The realization of the self-knowledge motive is based on auto-communication; this motive is not related to communicative strategies and is actualized through such forms of self-knowledge as memories, self-observation, self-analysis, and self-evaluation. The motive of image creation is realized through the linguistic strategy of self-presentation. The creation of Steve Jobs’ image is embodied through a number of tactics (self-praise, appealing to authorities, exculpatory self-defense, criticism, positioning himself as an example to follow, etc.). The motive of creative self-expression has a mixed character, since its implementation involves both an external (model) addressee and auto-addressability. In future work, investigating the peculiarities of self-identification process linguistic realization and Steve Jobs’ self-presentation in the literary biography “Steve Jobs: Biography” might prove important.