| Previous studies of national image in the Linguistic field have mainly been conducted from discourse-historical and dialectical-relational perspectives.However,their studies fail to focus on the cognitive mechanism of text-consumers,which leads to insufficient interpretation of ideological reproduction.Construal Theory,as a cognitive framework for Critical Discourse Analysis,fills the gap with a shift of focus from linguistic patterns to cognition.Therefore,a study on the discursive construction of national image from construal perspective helps to uncover how text-consumers interpret the ideology hidden within a text.Based on Construal Theory,the present study adopts qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze 20 pieces of President Xi’s diplomatic speeches in order to elaborate the discursive strategies for national image construction.Through the observation of the samples,three major findings are drawn: i)In light of the distributions of construal patterns,three main discursive strategies predominantly employed in speeches are agent-orientation strategy,goal-orientation strategy and deontic-orientation strategy;ii)The images of the Builder of World Peace and the Defender of International Order are cognitively construed through action chain schema and force-dynamic schema,whereas the image of the Contributor to Global Development depends on the operations of path schema and force-dynamic schema;iii)The idea that different construal patterns are alternatively operated to constitute distinctive discursive strategies is to convey that China,as a member of international community,is striving to undertake its responsibility of safeguarding world peace,to make a commitment for international order and to fulfill its duty of promoting global development.This study cuts into the new perspective of the integration of construal operation and critical discourse analysis,and is of great significance to future studies on national image construction at home and abroad. |
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