About the Author

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Mingyou Xiang is Professor of English and linguistics with interests in pragmatics and functional linguistics at University of International Business and Economics. He received his Ph.D. in linguistics from Shanghai International Studies University in 1998. He worked as Postdoctor from 2002 to 2003 with Professor Paul Hopper at Carnegie-Mellon University. Between 2004 and 2008, he was Head of English Department at Tongji University. He was Founder of the Ph.D. program in linguistics at Tongji University and Co-founder of the Ph.D. program in Foreign Languages and Literature at Beihang University and University of International Business and Economics. He was awarded the title of "New Century Excellent Talents" by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2009. He is now Dean of School of International Studies at University of International Business and Economics.. He has been Author of more than 70 journal articles and Lead Author of 6 books. Mian Jia is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests are pragmatics, (im)politeness, persuasion, and social influence. His recent work appears in journals such as Journal of Pragmatics, Lingua, and Text & Talk. He has received distinctions from American Pragmatics Association, National Communication Association, and International Communication Association. Xiaohui Bu received her master's degree in linguistics and applied linguistics from Peking University in 2018. She was awarded the National Scholarship, the honorary title of Outstanding Graduate of Beijing, the certificate of Outstanding Student Leader in internships and activities, and so forth for her performance in different aspects. Her recent work appears in journals such as Foreign Language and Literature Studies and the Journal of Chinese Sociolinguistics.