An Analysis Of Pragmatic Empathy In President Xi’s Overseas Addresses From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Empathy is common in human interactions, and it is an effective method for people to interact with the outside. Empathy originated in German aesthetics to study the sentiment infiltration between human beings and objects. Then it got its broad application in the study of human psychology and language. The ubiquity and significance of empathy has made it a hot research object in various fields such as psychology, sociology, and linguistics. It was Chinese linguist He Ziran (1991) who first applied empathy in the field of pragmatics and put forward the concept of pragmatic empathy. In his view, pragmatic empathy means the encoding and decoding of language message from the perspective of others’ side by stepping into the shoes of others. Professor He studied pragmatic empathy mainly from the aspects of pragma-linguistics and social-pragmatics, which set a milestone for the present studies of pragmatic empathy. Pragmatic empathy as a comparatively new conception gets its extensive application in analysis of human language in manifold occasions. Speech is a communication act aiming at attracting the audience and influencing them or even persuading them by the use of some language strategies. In order to realize these purposes, the speaker must master the method to seek commons in opinions and realize empathy in emotions with the audience. Thus the speaker must employ pragmatic empathy in the speech by thinking from the audience’s point of view, considering their feelings, emotions and intentions, and tailor the language to satisfy their communication needs.In2013, from March to September, after having been elected as the president of the People’s Republic of China on March14, Xi Jinping conducted a series of overseas trips to countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa as China’s new head of state. The theme of President Xi Jinping trips abroad is "friendship and cooperation". These overseas trips, according to the comments of China and foreign media, are historic and fruitful. During these trips, President Xi delivered six addresses in Russia, Tanzania, Congo, Durban and Mexico, Kazakhstan respectively. President Xi’s addresses achieved great success in preaching Chinese foreign policy of peace and development, and established a favorable international image for himself and China by employing multiple language skills with his own personal style. Distinct from other speakers,President Xi use plain language to get close to the audience, which contributes much to realizing empathy with them. It is found that in President Xi’s addresses, the employment of pragmatic empathy breeds his unique style of "common speech" and plays a major role in realizing the power of the speech. This thesis conducts a tentative study to analyze the pragmatic empathy in President Xi’s addresses in foreign countries from the perspective of adaptation theory. Based on Verschueren’s adaptation theory (2000), the author points out that pragmatic empathy is an outcome of linguistic choice-making and a process of contextual adaptation.According to adaptation theory, language use is a continuous process of making linguistic choices on language forms or communication strategies with reference.to internal and external factors. Pragmatic empathy as an effective language strategy is widely used in President Xi’s addresses by conscious choice-making in language and continuous contextual adaptation. In the six addresses of President Xi’s in foreign countries, it is found that the linguistic realization of pragmatic empathy is mainly embodied in the frequent use of first person deixis and the quotation of famous sayings and stories. And the author also makes an exploration in the internal and external factors which exert great impact on the application of pragmatic empathy in Xi’s addresses. The use of pragmatic empathy is actually a process of the speaker’s adaptation to the contextual correlates:the factors in mental world, social world and physical world.Based on these point of views, this thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter is an introduction for the whole thesis. This chapter presents the background, purpose and significance, methodology and structure of the study. The second chapter is the literature review of the thesis. It brings together the concepts about empathy and pragmatic empathy. Definitions of empathy and pragmatic empathy are given, and the development of empathy are introduced briefly. An overview to the present studies on pragmatic empathy is also made in this part. Chapter Three offers a theoretical foundation for the thesis. This chapter gives a general description of adaptation theory, introducing the main points of this theory. It is found the adaptation theory perfectly matches Professor He’s study of pragmatic empathy, which provides a solid theoretical basis for this study. Chapter Four is the main body of this thesis. An analysis of pragmatic empathy in President Xi’s overseas addresses is conducted in this chapter. Some basic information about President Xi’s three overseas visits is introduced firstly to unfold the basis and background for Xi’s addresses. Then the analysis goes to the linguistic realization and contextual adaptation of pragmatic empathy in President Xi’s overseas addresses. The language devices of pragmatic empathy in Xi’s addresses can be manifested from two aspects:the use of first person deixis and the quote of famous sayings and stories. The employment of singular personal pronoun "I" and plural personal pronoun "we", and the quote of famous sayings and people-to-people interaction stories fully display empathy and contribute much to President Xi’s distinctive speech style. The contextual adaptation of pragmatic empathy explores the internal and external reasons for the adoption of pragmatic empathy in Xi’s addresses. Context factors in mental world, social world and physical world exert great influence on the use of pragmatic empathy. Chapter Six is the conclusion of the thesis. The major findings, limitations and suggestions of this study are discussed in this part.In sum, the present study presents an effective communication strategy-pragmatic empathy which matters much to create President Xi’s distinctive speech style. This thesis provides a better understanding to the pragmatic empathy with reference to the adaptation theory. Through careful analysis on realization form and generation mechanism of pragmatic empathy, this study will cast light on the pragmatic characteristics of President Xi’s overseas addresses and enlighten other speakers in speech making.