A Study On The Interpersonal Meaning Of President Xi’s Diplomatic Speeches From 2017-2021

President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches deliver China’s diplomacy of preserving peace,openness,inclusiveness,equality,mutual benefit,and win-win cooperation,making China’s voice heard by the world.Based on Halliday’ s interpersonal function and Martin’s appraisal theory,combining qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,the thesis analyzes the distribution of mood,modality,personal pronoun and engagement in President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches with the software Ant Conc and UAM Corpus,in order to discuss how the interpersonal meaning is realized by President Xi’s diplomatic speeches.The research shows that the declarative is most frequently used,followed by the imperative,and the interrogative is the least in mood system.The declarative in the speeches makes statements about China’s policies,guidelines,national situations,and specific measures of fighting the epidemic.Although it does not constitute a verbal conversation between the speaker and the audience,it conveys certain messages to the audience.The imperative generally appears at the beginning or at the end of President Xi’s diplomatic speeches.It usually makes an appeal to the audience.In addition,President Xi’s diplomatic speeches are highly authoritative.As a result,the small amount of interrogative mood can make the audience think more about the speeches in a proper way,maintaining the authority of the speeches.In the analysis of modality,the use of modulation is much greater than that of modalization.Modulation in the speeches indicates that China will assume more responsibilities and obligations in prospective international cooperation.On the other hand,the modalization is mostly used in the speeches in order to state objective facts and express determination of cooperation.Regarding the three values of modality,median value is the most frequently used,followed by the high value.And the low value is the least.Median value sends the messages which can be easily accepted by the audience.High value shows firmness and authority concerning matters of principle and the national position.In the diplomatic speeches,President Xi rarely uses ambiguous words to avoid uncertainty.It is the reason why the low value is the least.In terms of personal pronoun,the first person is used most.The first person plural forms are more than the second personal pronoun and third personal pronoun.Among them,the inclusive “we” is used most frequently,shortening the distance between the speaker and the audience,giving the audience a sense of intimacy.In engagement system,dialogic expansion is used more frequently than dialogue contraction.The use of dialogue expansion provides dialogue space for negotiation of all possible views and propositions.In diplomatic speeches,President Xi Jinping uses many quotes to spread Chinese culture,making the information more authoritative.In dialogic contraction,President Xi often uses negative words to express his firm political stance,shaping the peaceful and friendly image of China.The thesis provides a useful reference for the appreciation of future diplomatic speeches.It extends the application of interpersonal function and appraisal theory in discourse analysis,too.