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Chapter One Introduction
China’s national image has been distorted by western media for a long period. It was notuntil recent years that China realizes importance of constructing China’s national image.However, Chinese scholars mainly study the construction of Chinese image from theperspectiveof communication, politics, sociology and international relations. Only a few studies areconducted from a linguistic perspective. President Xi stressed in this selected report that theChinese nation will be unable to rejuvenate itself without full confidence in China’s rich andprosperous culture. Therefore, China must improve its capacity for engaging in internationalcommunication so as to tell China’s stories well, present a true, multi-dimensional, andpanoramic view of China, and enhance China’s cultural soft power. To tell China’s story andbuild a positive and objective national image, China should pay attention to the use of linguisticresources. Linguistic resources are important informational resources as well as culturalresources (Wang Shikai, 2009: 20). The proper use of linguistic resources is an effective way toconstruct China’s national image which is also one focus of this study.Taking the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the theoretical framework,this paper will firstly focus on the linguistic resources used in the English version of Xi Jinping’sreport to the 19th NCCPC. Two corpus tools, Antconc 3.4.4w and BFSU Qualitative Coder 1.1,will be used in the course of classifying and marking. And then this study will analyze hownational images of China are constructed through these known linguistic resources. At last, thenational images constructed in the report will be concluded.There are six chapters within the thesis. Chapter One is the beginning part as well as theintroduction of this study. The research background of the study, the purpose and significance ofthe study and the overview of this study are mentioned in this partChapter Two is the literature review of this thesis. This part respectively reviews national image, national discourse and SFL.Chapter Three presents the theoretical framework of this study which mainly concernsabout the metafunctions.Chapter Four is the research study. In this section, the researchquestions are listed firstly, and then the analytical procedure is displayed.Chapter Five is the core of this thesis. Based on Halliday’s SFL, this part firstly analyzes thelinguistic resources used in the English version of Xi Jinping’s report to the 19th NCCPC andthenexplains how the national images are constructed in this report and what functions it exerts.Finally, the national image constructed in the report will be concluded.Chapter Six gives theconclusion of this thesis. The major findings of the study, theimplications of this study and the limitations and suggestions for further studies are all given inthis part.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to National Image
When it comes to the study of national image, scholars prefer to study it from twocategories: one refers to the self-construction image of a country, that is, the image that a countryis shaping or trying to shape, which is also known as national identity (Rusciano, 2003); theother is the international image of a country which is perceived by other countries in the world(Bennett, 2005; Buhmann & Ingenhoff, 2015; Sun Youzhong, 2002, 2009). Some specific worksrelated to the two different orientations are listed below.In western countries, there exist manyworks which describe China’s national conditions.Chinabound: A fifty-year memoir (1982) and The United States and China (1983) written byFairbank are two books which study Chinese traditional culture. In these two books, the authorintroduces the nature, culture and life style of China in detail to let westerners have a generalunderstanding about China. Isaacs’ book (1959), Scratches on Our Minds: American images ofChina, expresses China’s images from the perspective of reporters. Mackerra (1989) describeshow western people understand China’s politics, economy, diplomacy, society, culture andenvironmental protection in his book Western Images of China. He thinks that the images ofChina in the west depend not only on the performance of China itself, but also on the interests ofthe west. Lane (2008) talks about China’s lunar calendar from 1895 to 1935. In addition to theabove mentioned works, Jonathan Goldstein’s (1991) America Views China: American images ofChina then and now and Chin-Chuan Lee’s (1994) China’s Media, Media’s China are also booksabout China’s national image. There are also some scholars who focus on China’s currentproblems or put up with some suggestions for Chinese issues. For example, Ramo (2007: 12)points out that China’s greatest strategic threat today is its national image. National images aredirectly associated with the reputation that a country needs in the international society. China isin the course of building its national images, and it is unavoidable that it will have somestrengthens and weaknesses (Sheng, 2011). Ramo (2008) gives some suggestions for Chinatobuild its national image in his book. Xie and Page (2013) indicate that China’s national imagewill become more positive if it accelerates its economic and social development.
2.2 Introduction to National Discourse
According to Zhao Qizheng (2011: 96), national discourse refers to the discourse used by acountry in its own development and in the process of dealing with international relations. He points that national discourse is constituted by political discourse dominated byofficial and non-political discourse dispersed among people. Chen Rudong (2011) regardsnational discourse as a concrete manifestation of the implementation of national discourseability.It is a kind of national communication behavior which aims at spreading nationalinformation,shaping national image, promoting national soft power and solving international and domesticproblems. Any discourse concerning national policies, affairs and interests can be seen asnational discourse. Wen Qiufang (2017) gives her opinion that national discourse refers to theoral and written language behaviors of a person or an institution engaged in serving the nationalinterest. These language acts can express the national will, the national spirit and the country’scultural essence. They are the concrete embodiment of the national discourse system, and aretheindex to weigh the national discourse ability. According to her, the research scope of nationaldiscourse can be divided into four aspects: the discourse of national leaders, the discourse ofnational institutions, the discourse of national media and the translation of national discourse.Just as the definition shows, the carrier of national discourse includes both oral and writtenlanguages (Wen Qiufang, 2017). The concrete contents of national image are as follows: Thediscourse of national leaders mainly refers to the national leaders’ speeches in dealing withdomestic and foreign affairs. The discourse of national institutions mainly refers to the speeches,and various papers, reports and white papers delivered by government departments at variouspress conferences. The national media discourse refers to the official articles or speechespublished by government’s paper media, radio, television and new media. Wen Qiufang (2016)regards the translation of national discourse as the translated versions of national leaderdiscourse, national institution discourse and national media discourse which are used to spreadChina’s ideal and belief to the world. According to the classification of national discourse, theEnglish version of President Xi’s report to the 19th NCCPC can be regarded as a part of thetranslation of national discourse.
Chapter Three Theoretical Framework..........................13
3.1 Ideational Function..........................................................................................13
3.2 Interpersonal Function.................................................................................... 14
3.3 Textual Function..............................................................................................15
Chapter Four Research Methodology............................................................17
4.1 Data Collection and Research Questions........................................................ 17
4.2 Analytical Procedure....................................................................................... 18
Chapter Five Data Analysis and Discussion................................................21
5.1 Linguistic Resources in the Report................................................................. 21
5.2 Data Analysis.................................................................................................. 31
5.3 The National Images Constructed in the Report.............................................57
Chapter Five Data Analysis and Discussion
5.1 Linguistic Resources in the Report
The words in a text are not chosen casually. Instead, speakers or writers consciously choosecertain words to express their thoughts and ideas. At the beginning of this chapter, high frequency words are firstly taken into account. With the assistance of Antconc software, the tableof high frequency words is generated. Because of the limited space, this thesis only selects thetop 20 high frequency words in the English version of President Xi Jinping’s report to the 19thNCCPC. Some function words, including articles, prepositions, conjunctions andetc. areexcluded from the table.Table 5.1 lists the top 20 high frequency words used in the report. It can be seen fromTable 5.1 that “party” is the most frequently used words, which appears 321 times in the report.The second frequently used word is “people”, which appears 272 times. As this report is mainlyabout China’s achievement and strategic measures, it is obvious that “Chinese” (195 times) and“China” (174 times) will take a large part of the report. “Development” (165 times) is a noun and“develop” (77 times) is a verb, but they both have the similar connotation that is “the gradualgrowth of sth so that it becomes more advanced, stronger, etc.” (Hornby, 2009: 547). Therefore,these two words will be discussed together later in 5.2.1. “New” as an adjective is moreoutstanding than others, which appears 126 times in the report. In 5.2.1, those mentionedprominent words will be analyzed in detail. And some national images discursively constructedbythose high frequency words will be presented.
5.2 Data Analysis
In transitivity system, the six different types of processes as well as their participants are allcrucial to reveal the words’ hidden ideology and construct the country’s national image. In thispart, the process and its participants of the transitivity system will be discussed. The materialprocess, relational process and mental process are three mainly used processes in this Englishversion of President Xi’s report to the 19th NCCPC. The other three processes only account for arather small proportion which does not have much influence on this study. Thus the thesis willnot give analysis of these three processes.Material process is the “process of doing and happening”. In general, material process is themost frequently used process. And it is also appropriate for this report. It can be obviously seenfrom Table 5.2 that material process is the most prominent process, occupying more than half ofthe contents. Material process mainly focuses on the description of objective events. By usingmaterial process, this report draws a vivid picture of Chinese events. As shown in Table 5.3, thematerial process “improve” is the most frequently used verb. Besides, Li Xiaoqian and HuKaibao (2017) also take the collocation of “improve” as an example and find its collocationsdemonstrate the Chinese government’s attitude towards future works and its determination toimplement it. Therefore, this study will mainly investigate the collocations of “improve”.“We” is the dominant Actor in all material processes in this report, which is also thedominant Actors in the material process of “improve”. “We” refers to Chinese people and theCommunist Party of China. By the use of “we”, this report can bring the message closer to theaudience. The word “we” implies that the Communist Party of China and Chinese people standon the same side and they have the same fate. On the one hand, this usage can narrow thedistance between the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people and prove that theCommunist Party of China is capable of governing. The use of “we” shows that China’sdevelopment needs all Chinese people’s efforts. On the other hand, it constructs the image thatChina wholeheartedly serves for the people. It can express that China is a united country and abig family. China is a country where the people are the masters of the country.
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Chapter Six Conclusion
Finally, the distribution of marked topical theme and unmarked topical theme are listed. Thetotal amount of unmarked themes exceeds the marked ones. Two dominant marked themes, timeadverbial and place adverbial, are used to show the critical time points and key areas for China’sreform and development.After analyzing these linguistic resources one by one, the general national imageconstructed in the report are concluded, which are “the firm follower of Chinese CommunistParty, the representative of the people’s interests, the down-to-earth actor in nationalrejuvenation, the practitioner of democracy and legal system, the determined defender ofincorruption, the confident and courageous socialist, the pioneer that keeps pace with time andthe advocate of peace and development”. In summary, this report builds some comprehensive,real and objective national images of China. These rather positive images can help foreignreaders better understand China.The implications of the study can be divided into two perspectives: theoretical implicationsand practical implications.Theoretically speaking, national image has been studied in many fields such as internationalpolitics, public relations and economic field. Studies that investigate national image from theEnglish version of national discourse are scarce. By analyzing the English version of XiJinping’s report to the 19th NCCPC, this study can provide a linguistic approach to the study ofself-construction of national image in the translation text. It can also prove that SFL is aneffective theory in revealing the hidden ideologies of the English version of national discourse.Besides, this study combines the discursive construction of national image and national discourse,which can deepen the research of national image.Practically speaking, the present study can give some enlightenment for the translation ofnational discourse. The findings in this thesis can give translators implications to let thetranslation works more realistic and objective to suit foreigners’ preference.This findings and implications have been mentioned above; this part will list somelimitations of this study and give some suggestions for further studies.Firstly, because the theory of SFL is complex and some definitions within this theory areambiguous, it is unavoidable that there may have some mistakes in the course of classifying andlabeling. And it is inevitable to contain some subjectivity or uncertainty in the process ofqualitative analysis. But the author examines the data again and again in order to reducethemistakes and keep the accuracy of the data.Besides, this study does not do a comprehensive study of SFL. Only the key elements ofSFL, high frequency words, transitivity, modality and theme, are mentioned. The follow-upstudy can analyze this report from other perspectives of SFL.Secondly, this thesis only concentrates on the English version of Xi Jinping’s report to the19th NCCPC, it is better to make a comparison between the Chinese version and the Englishversion to find some similarities and differences. Under that circumstance, some usefulsuggestions can be supplied to the translators.Thirdly, the national images constructed in this report are not fully analyzed. Only theoutstanding images are listed in the thesis. As this report is the collective wisdom, it still has thevalue of in-depth research.
参考文献（略）
