Critical Discourse Analysis Of Intertextuality In Speeches Within Intercultural Contexts

Intercultural context is one of the important scopes of intercultural communication study.Based on Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA),the objective of the thesis is to study proverbs,idioms,quotations and self-quotations in political speeches by Chinese and Australian national leaders in diplomatic visits.With SPSS and AntConc applied as the quantitative tools,671 intertextual references are identified in 192 speeches from 2008 to 2017 and analyzed as discourse practice,text and sociocultural practice.Intertextuality,which is the absorption and transformation of previous texts into new ones,is defined and established by several scholars including Julia Kristeva,Roland Barthes and Norman Fairclough in the late 20th century.In recent years,different types of intertextuality in political discourse have been studied by several researchers from home and abroad.Along with such growing importance,more attention should be paid to the role of quantitative methods,comparative analysis of political speeches from various nations,as well as concealed ideologies and values in intertextual references.The results of the study show that(1)quotations,according to sources,can be further categorized into cultural quotations,political quotations and quotations from others,while self-quotations into "I-quotations" and "we-quotations".Chinese national leaders tend to quote proverbs,idioms and cultural quotations,as well as intertextual references from China,whereas Australian national leaders prefer political quotations and "I-quotations".The differences in terms of direct or indirect mode and representing verb are also revealed in both corpora.(2)The high-frequency intertextual references in Chinese speeches belong to Chinese proverbs and idioms with folk wisdom like harmony,equality and peace,while those in Australian corpus,which are fewer in quantity,are mostly political quotations and self-quotations.With regard to high-frequency words and collocations,national leaders from both nations frequently adopt first person pronouns and words related to people,world and cooperation.Chinese Dream and peaceful international relationship are emphasized by Chinese speakers,but Australia’s relationship with Asia and other nations are frequently mentioned by Australian speakers.In addition,small power distance,collectivism,weak uncertainty avoidance,long-term orientation and restraint are found more noticeable than their opposite values in the wording of intertextual references,though individualism is more obvious in Australian discourse than in Chinese discourse.(3)The national leaders’ ideologies are revealed in the analysis of sociocultural practice.Intertextual references in Chinese speeches have cultural orientation,while political orientation is found in Australian corpus.Speakers from both nations intend to carry out various intercultural dialogues and to present a positive self-image.The results in cultural dimensions show the speakers’ intention of promoting national values and their consensus of values in the international environment.The present research integrates Cultural Dimensions Theory with CDA to shed light on the methodology of intertextuality and provides a better understanding of Chinese and Australian political speeches within intercultural contexts.The thesis concludes with the analysis results and limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.