A Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Tourism Discourses From The Perspective Of Genre Analysis

With the development of economic globalization, tourism has become one of the most rapid growing industries in the world. Tourism discourse plays a significant role in tourism promotion. However, in China, the quality of the English version of tourism discourse is not satisfying. Most of them can not reach a satisfactory effect in attracting foreign tourists. Thus, this study makes a comparison of English and Chinese tourism discourses from the perspective of genre analysis, aiming to identify the move structures and linguistic features of English and Chinese tourism discourses and to find out their similarities and differences on move structures and linguistic features. The findings of this study may be significant for the translators of tourism discourse, tourists and English learners.This study is based on sixty tourism texts, including thirty Chinese and thirty English. All the samples are collected from official or authoritative travel websites on the Internet. Based on Swales? move-step model and Bhatia?s model for promotional genre, this study is conducted to answer the following questions:(1) What are the structures and linguistic features of English and Chinese tourism discourses?(2) What are the similarities and differences between English and Chinese tourism discourses on structures and linguistic features? Both qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted in the study. Firstly, the specific moves used in each text are identified, and the general move structure of tourism discourse is summarized. Secondly, the occurrence of each move is calculated, and the move structures of English and Chinese tourism discourses are identified respectively. The similarities and differences on move structures are analyzed through comparison. Thirdly, the linguistic features of English and Chinese tourism discourses are identified with the help of the corpus software, CorpusWordParser and AntConc 3.3.0. The similarities and differences on linguistic features are analyzed through comparison. Finally, the possible reasons are analyzed from aspects of communicative purpose, cultural pattern, thinking mode and condition of market economy.The major findings of the study are as follows:(1) The general move structure of tourism discourse is identified as “headline”, “motivation”, “targeting the market”, “tour overview”, “honors and titles”, “detailing the tourist attraction”, “celebrities or tourists endorsement”, “facilities or activities”, “travel tips”, “additional tourist attractions nearby”, “prospect of the tourist attraction” and “soliciting action”.(2) English and Chinese tourism discourses share most of the moves. The obligatory moves of English and Chinese tourism discourses are the same, namely, “headline” and “detailing the tourist attraction”. “Motivation” and “honors and titles” have similar frequency. Most moves are realized in similar ways. However, “targeting the market” and “additional tourist attractions nearby” are specific to English tourism discourse. “Prospect of the tourist attraction” is specific to Chinese tourism discourse. “Tour overview” is realized by different steps, with location and highlights for English tourism discourse but location, coverage, main attractions, explanation for Chinese tourism discourse. As for “Detailing the tourist attraction”, English tourism discourse details the tourist attraction mainly by highlighting the specialties, but the Chinese tourism discourse mainly by describing the tourist attraction. In addition, English tourism discourse pays more attention to “facilities or activities” and “travel tips”, while Chinese tourism discourse pays more attention to “tour overview”, “celebrities or tourists endorsement”, and “soliciting action”.(3) As for linguistic features, English and Chinese tourism discourses differ a lot. English tourism discourse tends to be reader-oriented by frequently adopting the personal reference “you” and modal verbs “can” and “will”. The language of English tourism discourse is informal and interactive, tending to use common words and daily-used expressions. However, Chinese tourism discourse is content-oriented, frequently using tourism-related vocabularies and numbers. The language of Chinese tourism discourse is formal and literary, employing large amount of positive words and rhetorical devices. The feature that English and Chinese tourism discourses share in common is the frequent use of superlatives.(4) The similarities and differences are possibly caused by four factors, namely, the communicative purpose, cultural pattern, thinking mode and condition of market economy. The same communicative purposes ensure the similarities of English and Chinese tourism discourses, while different cultural patterns, thinking modes and conditions of market economy result to the differences between English and Chinese tourism discourses.