A Contrastive Analysis Of The Discursive Strategies In Chinese And American Government Documents On American Women’s Conditions

This thesis takes discourses on American women’s conditions selected from“Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being” by the Americangovernment and “Human Rights Record of the United States” by the Chinesegovernment as data. It applies strategy of argumentation, strategy of predication andstrategy of intensification of Discourse-Historical Approach to make a contrastiveanalysis of different strategies used in the above-mentioned discourses. It intends toreveal how the American documents and Chinese documents reflect Americanwomen’s conditions with different discursive strategies.The strategy of argumentation means that the speakers use different topoi tojustify certain positive situations or describe some negative ones. The strategy ofpredication is to use evaluative attributions of positive or negative traits in thepredicates (including adjectives) to label social actors more or less positively ornegatively. The strategy of intensification tries to intensify the illocutionary force ofutterances (Wodak and Meyer,2001:73).Considering the authority of the source of the data, the author collects documentson American women’s conditions from both Chinese and American governmentwebsites. Twenty-four extracts on American women’s family life, employment, healthand violence against women are selected for a contrastive analysis. In the process of analysis, firstly, the author analyzes the24extracts one by one, finding out thestrategies employed in discourses. Then, in terms of the same problem, the authorcontrastively analyzes the different strategies used in American and Chinese extractsand studies the underlying reasons. Finally, the findings are as follows:The American discourses use the topoi of burdening, history, justice, usefulnessand disadvantage to confirm the American women’s conditions. The discourses aboutthe American women by the Chinese government use the topoi of number,humanitarianism, justice and danger to reflect the serious problems of the Americanwomen. The American documents use positive devices to show the Americangovernment’s positive attitudes to women. The Chinese documents use negativedevices to reflect that the American government should improve the Americanwomen’s conditions. The American discourses use prepositional phrase to intensifythe increasing trend of women’s income, and use quotation of law to stress Americangovernment’s attitude of caring women. The discourses by the Chinese governmentuse adverb of degree to intensify the big wage gap between women and men, and usepassive voice to intensify the fact that women suffer from serious violence.This study has some practical significance. First, this thesis can improve readers’critical awareness and help them understand the underlying meanings in thediscourses. Second, this thesis will help writers express their ideas more skillfully byapplying the discursive strategies. Third, this thesis can improve the communicative competence of diplomatic personnel so as to build a harmonious environment.