The Discourse Analysis Of Diplomatic Interviews From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

As the ambassador is a representative of the nation,his diplomatic discourse is an important carrier for shaping the national image and declaring position,which is worthy of study.Adaptation Theory provides an ideal theoretical framework for the ambassador’s discourse analysis due to its strong explanatory power and adaptability.This thesis selects Cui Tiankai,Chinese Ambassador to the United States,as the research object.Accordingly,his 16 interviews with mainstream international media from 2013 to 2019 are gathered as the corpus data.By using quantitative and qualitative methods,the thesis analyses Ambassador Cui’s discourse from the aspects of properties of languages and contextual correlates of adaptability,and aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What are the linguistic characteristics of Ambassador Cui in the interviews? And what is the relationship between these characteristics and properties of language in the Adaptation Theory?(2)What pragmatic strategies does Ambassador Cui mainly use in foreign media interviews? How does it manifest at the linguistic level?(3)From the perspective of Adaptation Theory,what are the reasons and motivations behind the choice of these discourse strategies and language characteristics?The study shows that:(1)there are four language characteristics of Ambassador Cui in interviews,namely frankness,argumentativeness,euphemism,and fuzziness.The three properties of language provide the premise and basis for the alternation and mutual effect of the four language characteristics of the ambassador.Conversely,the latter is also the reflection of the former in actual communication.(2)In terms of the answer form,Ambassador Cui mainly chooses three pragmatic strategies: pragmatic directness,pragmatic evasion,and pragmatic vagueness.The linguistic realization of pragmatic vagueness is various and complicated,which is manifested at the lexical,sentential and discourse level.(3)By means of three pragmatic strategies,the ambassador’s discourses adapt to the contextual correlates such as the mental world,physical world,and social world in the context of diplomatic interviews.Therefore,the ambassador’s communicative goals are achieved.Based on the discourse analysis,this thesis selects the ambassador as the new research object,providing new materials for the study of diplomatic language,and broadening the scope of application of the Adaptation Theory.Meanwhile,it helps to increase readers’ sensitivity to international political situations and discourse values and provides a reference for public relations language.