Attitudinal Resources In Foreign Ministry Spokespersons’ Remarks On The Belt And Road Initiative: A Generic Approach

With the improvement of China’s comprehensive national strength and international influence,China’s diplomatic discourse has unfolded the story and majesty of China to the world,in which the Belt and Road Initiative（BRI）marks an indispensable theme.Although a large number of scholars have studied it from diverse facets such as translation,pragmatic strategies and interpersonal meaning,few have incorporated generic structure into the exploration of the interpersonal meaning of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons’remarks on the BRI.Therefore,drawing on Attitude System of Appraisal Theory and Generic Structure Potential（GSP）,this study conducts a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the attitudinal resources in the spokespersons’remarks from January 2018 to January 2022 in terms of affect,judgement and appreciation.And there are two research purposes.One is to ascertain the GSP of this discourse,and the other is to reveal the distribution features and interpersonal meaning of the attitudinal resources in this genre.Accordingly,it is found that,firstly,the GSP of this genre is B^?·(C^?·)(E^?·)(A^?·)(S^?·),i.e.there are five structural elements,namely,Background（B）,Comment（C）,Explanation（E）,Anticipation（A）and Suggestion（S）,among which the Background is the only obligatory element,whereas the other four are optional.Besides,all elements are iterative and have no fixed collocation.Secondly,the overall distribution of the attitudinal resources can be characterized by“appreciation resources>judgement resources>affect resources”,indicating that the remarks are emotional but still objective and rational.Specifically,the Background predominantly employs composition of appreciation and valuation of appreciation to publicize the advantages of the BRI.The Explanation not only emphasizes composition of appreciation and valuation of appreciation but also makes full use of capacity of judgement to affirm BRI participants’strength.The Comment maintains the dominant position of valuation of appreciation and augments the utilization of satisfaction of affect and security of affect to clarify China’s true feelings on the BRI.The Anticipation prefers tenacity of judgement to demonstrate China’s unswerving attitude to promoting the BRI.The Suggestion mainly utilizes propriety of judgement to respond to unreasonable words and deeds on the grounds of the BRI,and safeguard national sovereignty as well as dignity.Generally speaking,this study can not only enrich the research dimension of BRI-related diplomatic discourse,but also help readers deeply comprehend the interpersonal meaning of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons’remarks.