A Pragmatic Presuppositional Study On President Xi Jinping's Speech At G20 In Hangzhou

Since the notion of presupposition has entered the field of linguistics,it soon became an important theory both in semantics and pragmatics.The theory of pragmatic presupposition was mentioned by Robert Stalnaker.Stalnaker(1974)thinks,"A speaker presupposes that P as a given moment in a conversation just in case he is disposed to act,in his linguistic behavior,as if he takes the truth of P for granted,and as if he assumes that his audience recognizes that he is doing so".As for political discourse,it is very important no matter for domestic government or international communication.Within our country,a president must try his best not only in delivering his political thoughts and policies to his people but also how to make his people trust him and support him.At international level,as we all know the world is developing toward a direction of globalization and leading a road called community of common destiny for all mankind.Therefore,from the perspectives of national and international,how to use political discourse properly is worthy of thinking and researching.At the same time,it has very important realistic and strategic significance for China's rise and national rejuvenation.In this thesis,it will analyze the speech of President Xi delivered in G20 Summit in 2016 in Hangzhou from the perspectives of sematic presupposition,pragmatic presupposition and presupposition triggers,then regard pragmatic presupposition as the key point to go through a detailed analysis.This paper intends to study the significance of pragmatic presupposition used in political discourse at national regulation and international communication levels,and how to shorten the gap between people as well as how to narrow the gap among countries.Meanwhile,this thesis will analyze the speech material with the theory of presupposition to discuss the political achievement by using this kind of discourse in different situations.This thesis not only can complement the practical use of presupposition in political discourse analysis,more importantly it can give some valuable implications in how to use language effectively to fulfill personal political purpose.