ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the pragmatic and critical discourse studies on various genres of public discourse in the Chinese context that pertain to this study. Specifically, it presents a survey of related studies on public signs, reports those related to advertisements and those dealing with news headlines and reports. Then it details some major changes and problems that have occurred in the use of public discourse in China, in order to provide some background for the understanding and interpretation of the issues addressed in subsequent chapters. Finally, it summarizes the review and determines the research space to be occupied by this book.
