An Analysis Of Appraisal Resources In Xi Jinping's Political Speeches

Political speeches are used to manifest positions,clarify opinions,and broadcast assertions about domestic affairs and foreign relations.As a kind of special discourse,political speeches are one of the targets and focuses of discourse analysis.Meanwhile,political speeches are one of the most important ways for a country to transmit the information to the world,and they also bear witness to political history,playing a significant role in international communication and political life.This study,taking Xi Jinping's speeches as an example,explores the distribution and function of appraisal resources in political speeches.After taking up the office,Xi Jinping has delivered many political speeches,receiving unanimous praise and having a profound impact at home and abroad.As a chairman,Xi Jinping's speeches show the spirit and personality of Chinese leaders,receving a widespread attention of scholars at home and abroad.In light of appraisal theory,this thesis tries to analyze the distribution and function of appraisal resources in Xi Jinping's political speeches from the perspective of PAD.Moreover,it discusses the features of the speeches reflected by the distribution.The corpus of this research is Xi Jinping's three political speeches.One speech is Continue to Strive for the Realization of Chinese Dream,another one is We Are the Ones That Break the Bones,and the last one is Towards a Mutually Beneficial Partnership for Sustaainable Development.The thesis adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches.It is found that appraisal resources are widely distributed in the three political speeches.All in all,there are 1595 appraisal items in the three political speeches.These resources distribute unevenly,attitude resources occupy 51%,and engagement resources and graduation resources take up 26% and 23% respectively.It is obvious that attitude resources take up the largest proportion.In the aspect of attitude resources,positive attitude is far more than negative attitude.There are 713 positive attitude resources,and 107 negative attitude resources.In the aspect of engagement resources,the three political speeches are more inclined to pronounce in contraction system and entertain in expansion system.Engagement resources have 419 items in all,while pronounce resources take up 102 and entertain resources take up 160.In the aspect of graduation resources,force resources exceed focus resources greatly.The force resources occupy 92%,while the focus resources account for 8%.Based on the distribution of these appraisal resources,the thesis concludes that Xi Jinping's three political speeches have four features: first,in terms of style,the three political speeches are positive and uplifting;second,with regard to language,the three political speeches are concise and clear;third,in the aspect of political position,the three political speeches are clear-cut;fourth,on the content side,the three political speeches are filled with Chinese sayings,bearing rich cultural connotations.From the perspective of PDA,these appraisal resources benefit the unity of Chinese people,the improvement of the situation of Taiwan Strait,and the communion of international relations.This research reveals the makings of Xi Jinping's political speeches,putting forward a good reference for other politicians.Meanwhile,this research proves the feasibility of appraisal theory in the analysis of political speeches and enriches the study of PDA.