An Appraisal Theory-based Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Diplomatic Speeches

As a part of political speeches，a diplomatic speech refers to the speech given bythe state leaders or high-ranking diplomats in diplomatic activities. Not only is it animportant tool for a country to safeguard its own interests and to maintain goodrelationships with other countries, but it also embodies its attitudes and stances ininternational affairs and states its diplomatic policies.With the consecutively deepening of globalization and multi-polarization,international cooperation becomes an inevitable trend, and interaction betweencountries becomes more frequent. As an important ingredient of a diplomatic activity,diplomatic speeches have attracted much attention from domestic and foreign scholars.In the linguistic field, the majority of relevant studies have been done from theperspectives of discourse analysis, pragmatics, critical discourse analysis and sociallinguistics. Few attempts have been made in applying Appraisal Theory into the studyof diplomatic speeches, let alone the comparative study between diplomatic speechesof different countries, such as Chinese diplomatic speeches (CDSS) and Americandiplomatic speeches (ADSS).In this present study, two groups of altogether twelve samples of CDSS andADSS are collected from authoritative domestic and foreign websites, each groupincluding6speeches and making up six pairs of speech chosen to be consistent in thetopic or situation. All the samples put into the framework of Appraisal Theory, theauthor makes a comparative study of appraisal resources in CDSS and ADSS by acombination of quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology. The study isattempted to reveal the similarities and differences in the distribution of appraisalresources between CDSS and ADSS, uncover the reasons behind the distributionfeatures, and explore how appraisal resources work for the speaker’s diplomatic purposes.The results show that CDSS and ADSS have a lot in common, and meanwhile,they also differ from each other in some respects. The results are summarized asfollows:(1) On the sub-level of Appraisal system, the rank scaling from high to low inCDSS is Graduation, Attitude and Engagement, yet the rank scaling from high to lowin ADSS is Engagement, Attitude and Graduation.(2) Within Attitude, CDSS and ADSS are quite similar: Appreciation takes up thelargest proportion, Judgement the second largest, and Affect the smallest; the positiveresources far outnumber the negative ones. It is found out that the speaker inclines tomake positive evaluations in diplomatic activities, aiming to create a good image ofhis own country and express kindness and friendship towards other countries. Moreimportantly, a harmonious interpersonal atmosphere is created, which helps him winsupport and get aligned with the actual and potential audience. As a result of culturaldifferences, they slightly differ in that CDSS are inclined to be more positive, whileADSS tend to be freer in expressing personal feelings.(3) As for Engagement, CDSS and ADSS also share some similarities: they bothtend to utilize more Dialogic expansion to open broader dialogic space for negotiationof all possible viewpoints. This can be explained by the contemporary internationalbackground characterized by the increasingly deepening globalization andmulti-polarization. In terms of Dialogic contraction, CDSS and ADSS differ in thatADSS employ more Deny than CDSS, which is closely related to the Americanpeople’s sense of superiority caused by their high international status in the worldscene.(4) Under Graduation, the similarities between CDSS and ADSS lie in that Forceis far more preferred than Focus, and that Raise in Force occurs more often thanLower. That is, the speaker tends to upscale resources to strengthen his attitudinalinvolvement in ADSS and adjust his responsibility for what he said. Besides, CDSSand ADSS differ in that CDSS tend to utilize Soften resources, while ADSS incline toemploy Sharpen ones, which indicates Chinese leaders’ and high-ranking diplomats’ cautiousness and their American counterparts’ attempts to highlight their ownviewpoints.This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to theresearch background, research objectives and significance and the organization of thewhole thesis. Chapter Two is literature review mainly focusing on the elaboration ofthe domestic and foreign studies of Appraisal Theory and diplomatic speech. ChapterThree contributes to the detailed introduction of the Appraisal system. In this chapter,what have been discussed also include research methodology, sample collection andresearch procedures. In Chapter Four, the author makes a comparative study of theappraisal resources between CDSS and ADSS in order to find out the similarities anddifferences in between, and the reasons behind the distribution features are alsoexplored here. Chapter Five gives a conclusion to the whole thesis, and it alsoinvolves the discussion of limitations and suggestions for further studies.The study tentatively makes a comparison between CDSS and ADSS withinAppraisal Theory, which can not only broaden the scope of its application in discourseanalysis but also provide a new perspective for comparative study. In addition, it alsofacilitates a better understanding of diplomatic speeches.