A Study On The Image Of China In The English Translationof Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Discourse

Drawing upon the theories of critical discourse analysis,comparative literature imagology and functionalist translation,this dissertation depicts the image of China revealed in the English translations of Xi Jinping’s diplomatic discourse through a deep and thorough exploration of the use of high frequency words,certain vocabulary and sentence structures by using corpus-based approach,text comparison analysis and quantitative and qualitative methods.The dissertation compares President Xi’s diplomatic speeches with those of American President--Mr.Trump,and analyzes the factors contributing to the construction of the national images of the two countries.The dissertation tries to provide a reasonable solution from the perspective of translation imagology,so as to construct an objective and accurate national image.The research addresses the following four questions: First,what are the national images revealed in the English translation of President Xi’s diplomatic discourse?Second,what are the differences between the national images constructed by the two national leaders’ diplomatic discourse(the English version)? Third,what are the images revealed or constructed by the English texts? And finally what is the connotation of the national image construction in the diplomatic discourse and what are its methods?In order to answer the above questions objectively,the study has created a Chinese-English parallel corpus of President Xi’s diplomatic discoursefrom March,2013 to April,2019 and an English corpus of Trump’s diplomatic discourse from January,2017 to April,2019.The texts of President Xi’s discourse and the English translations are available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.And the English corpus of Trump’s discourse on diplomacy could be downloaded from the website of the White House.By exploring the key words,modal verbs,and high-frequency nouns and verbs in the English texts of President Xi and President Trump’s diplomatic discourse,the research reveals that the high frequency words used by the two presidents are quite different.By studying the sentences and contexts which include these words,the research tries to depict the national images of the two countries revealed from the texts,analyse the causes coustructing these images,and discuss the connotation of the national image construction in the diplomatic discourse and its methods.This research reveals that:(1)the English translations of President Xi’s diplomatic discourse haveconstructed the image of a responsible socialist country with profound historical background,cultural prosperity,economic development,and social stability,which adheres to peaceful development,promotes mutual development,maintains international fairness and justice,and contributes to humanity.(2)the factors leading to the images which are related to the English speech texts include: the use of quantitative strategy;positive words,certain high-frequency words,and words with concrete meanings;and the contents of the texts are logical,scientific and systematic,and also the use of proper translation strategies in choosing suitable words,sentence patterns and speech forms,etc.(3)The factors behind the English texts which also contribute to the national image building include: the national diplomatic policies,the leaders’ chrisma and experience,the source text,the traditional Chinese culture and the translation strategies.(4)There are some problems found in the translation which affect the national image building,such as the logic problems,pragmatic problems,misunderstanding of the original texts,the wrong use of collocations,etc.The comparisons of the Chinese and English versions of President Xi’s diplomatic discourse and analysesof the translation strategies as well as the problems of the translations yield some suggestions with regard to the translation of the diplomatic discourse.Considering the uniqueness of the diplomatic discourse,the ideal way of translation is to realize the equivalence in the content,form,and communication functions.If there are difficulties in practice,we should first consider realizing the equivalence in political function and communicative function,and the specific methods used should be decided by the original texts.If there is any doubt about the content or connotation of the original text,the translator need to consult the speaker or other experts beforehand;if there is no draft available before the occasion,the literal translation should be preferred.In addition,we should also do the translation assessment,and evaluate whether the translation has achieved the same political as well as the communicative functions,and whether it has constructed the expected national image.And the assessment resultshould guide the future translation of the diplomatic discourse.Based on the empirical comparison between the translated diplomatic discourse corpus and the original English corpus,and on the basis of objective description of the language features,the study objectively reveals the national image construction effect of the translated versions.And by comparing the source text with the target text,the study shows whether the translation has revealed the expected same national image.This research is of great significance for understanding the national image building effect and acceptance of the translated versions and to the assessment of the translation strategies of diplomatic discourse.