| In September and October 2013,Xi Jinping put forward the major initiative of jointly building the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”,which attracted wide attention at home and abroad.Upholding the Silk Road spirit of “peace and cooperation,openness and tolerance,mutual learning,mutual benefit and win-win”,China seeks development with other countries and has won a lot of positive support.However,cultural differences may lead to misunderstandings,and some countries have questioned “the Belt and Road” Initiative(B&R for short).Xi Jinping's diplomatic speech,as an official discourse,plays a crucial role in disseminating B&R ideas,eliminating misunderstandings and reaching consensus.Therefore,it is meaningful and valuable to study Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R from the perspective of discourse.At present,discourse studies on Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches are often conducted within the framework of critical discourse analysis,rhetoric,cognition,etc.,lacking the perspective of cultural discourse.Therefore,based on the principles and analytical framework of Cultural Discourse Theory,this thesis makes a cultural discourse study on Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R.The data of this study is from the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China:https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/ and https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/.It collects35 diplomatic speeches on B&R delivered by Xi Jinping from September 2013 to April 2019 in countries along B&R and attending major diplomatic occasions.The study aims to address the following three questions:(1)What specific linguistic realization forms and discursive strategies are employed in Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches to construct B&R discourse?(2)What kind of purposes or effects have Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R achieved?(3)What are the cultural and historical relations embodied in Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R?This thesis takes a quantitative and qualitative analysis method to analyze the data with the help of corpus.In terms of the qualitative method,a statistical analysis of lexical choices and discursive strategies is conducted with the help of the software AntConc.With regard to the qualitative method,the analytical framework of CDS is adopted for in-depth qualitative content analysis of the data so as to interpret the specific representation of Xi Jinping's B&R discourse.The major findings of the study are as follows:(1)The use of high frequency words and words collocation depicts China as a responsible power.Discourse strategy mainly involves referring to real stories,historical events and Xi Jinping's personal experience,citing quotes from famous people and quoting allusions,proverbs or sayings,and verses from ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries,as well as strategy of unambiguity.(2)Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R play an important role in conveying China's friendliness,convincing more countries to join B&R and dissolving the theory of China's threat.(3)Xi Jinping's discourse is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture as well as ancient and modern Chinese history.This study not only supports the feasibility of Cultural Discourse Theory in the analysis of diplomatic discourse,but also provides guidance and suggestions for speakers to tell Chinese stories well in foreign exchanges.Moreover,it also provides a new perspective for audiences to interpret diplomatic discourse.Finally,limitations of the present study are discussed and suggestions for further studies are pointed out.The innovation of this thesis lies in that a cultural approach is conducted to the analysis of Xi Jinping's diplomatic speeches on B&R.The focus of the study is not merely confined to the analysis of the language itself,but the hidden cultural and historical relations that influence the style of the discourse are investigated. |
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