Parenting Styles as Reflected in Discourse: Analyzing Father's Letters in Dad Where Are We Going

Studies on parenting styles have not paid enough attention to discourse analysis, which offers solid linguistic evidence as support. This paper presents an analysis of two fathers’ letters in the Chinese reality TV show Dad Where Are We Going within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The letters are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively in terms of the fathers’ choices from such systems as Speech Function, Transitivity, and Attitude; while linguistic features thus identified are explained based on Baumrind’s theory of parenting styles. It is found that the two fathers’ letters differ in linguistic features, which in turn construe features of two different parenting styles, i.e. ‘authoritative’ and ‘permissive’.