Corpus-assisted International Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Sino-US Diplomatic Speeches

The General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly（UNGA）provides an opportunity for member states of the United Nations to discuss international issues on an equal footing.It is also an important platform for gathering consensus among countries.Diplomatic speeches delivered at the General Debate of the UNGA by national leaders or senior officials have been the research focus in the field of linguistics,but most of the relevant studies focus on critical discourse analysis（CDA）,mainly to reveal the ideology and power relations implied in discourse.However,it is relatively few to reveal the discourse influence and ecological meanings conveyed by the speaker or the country and the impacts of discourse on the construction of international relations from the perspective of ecolinguistics.As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the world’s two major economies,China and the United States assume special international obligations and responsibilities.It is of great significance to study the ecological orientations and ecological meanings conveyed by the two countries’diplomatic speeches at the General Debate of the UNGA.This thesis,with the transitivity system as the framework and under the guidance of the international ecosophy“duo yuan he xie,jiao hu gong sheng”（Diversity and Harmony,Interaction and Co-existence）,conducts an international ecological discourse analysis（IEDA）of the diplomatic speeches made by China and the United States at the General Debates of the71^stto 77^thsession of the UNGA combining both corpus-assisted quantitative and qualitative methods realized by the software UAM Corpus Tool.It aims to reveal the ecological orientations and meanings conveyed by the discourse.In addition,this study puts forward reasonable suggestions for eco-beneficial diplomatic discourse expressions.Findings suggest that,in terms of participant roles in transitivity resources,both China and the United States make full use of Life and Lifeless participants in the international social ecosystem,making them interact well with each other.Chinese diplomatic speeches attach great importance to world peace and stability,cooperation and economic growth,multilateralism and international order,etc.However,the US diplomatic speeches give concerns for the US itself,its allies,freedom,military,sanctions,etc.In terms of circumstantial roles,both the speakers of China and the US pay more attention to Place and Time.Besides,Chinese speakers employ more eco-beneficial Quality,Means,Purpose and Behalf.While the US speakers use more eco-ambivalent Behalf and eco-destructive Comitative and Purpose.In the use of transitivity process,both China and the United States mainly use material processes,mental processes and relational processes.China uses material processes to characterize its actual actions to promote the development of countries around the world;the United States uses material processes to characterize its defending American interests and its threats to other countries.For the ecological orientations and meanings,in China’s diplomatic speeches,the eco-beneficial discourse accounts for 91.80%,followed by eco-ambivalent discourse accounting for 8.20%without eco-destructive discourse.The ecological orientation as a whole is beneficial,mainly conveying the ecological meanings of China’s adherence to peace and development,seeking cooperation and win-win results,building a community with a shared future for mankind and promoting the stability and development of the international social ecosystem.In the US diplomatic speeches,the eco-beneficial discourse accounts for 48.84%,the eco-ambivalent discourse accounts for34.68%and the eco-destructive discourse takes up 16.48%.On the whole,the eco-beneficial orientation is weak,which conveys that the US holds egocentrism and purses“American First”,unilateralism and hegemonism,damaging the stability of the international social ecological system.This thesis provides an international ecological discourse analysis perspective for the study of diplomatic speeches and it can also contribute to calling on two countries to adopt more eco-beneficial discourse,abandon eco-destructive discourse and build a stable,harmonious and sustainable international social ecosystem.