A Study Of Chairmen's Statements In Chinese And American Bank Annual Reports From The Perspective Of Iconicity

Banks in China should make full use of the opportunity brought by the “Belt and Road” initiative to expand their business overseas,and thereby banks' external communication has become quite necessary and important nowadays.The annual report of bank is one of the public documents,among which chairman's statement is the part read most widely,so its language has attracted lots of scholars.However,the previous studies on American or Chinese chairmen's statement of bank annual report mainly focus on the stances of readers or the language itself.Thus this study aims to analyze and discuss the relationships between language structure and the chairmen's cognition of the banking industry environment from the perspective of iconicity so as to explore the similarities and differences between Chinese and American banks' chairmen's statements,which is hoped to provide insightful reference for improving the drafting of Chinese bank's chairman's statement.Iconicity theory that reveals the corresponding relations between language forms and their meanings can provide a new theoretical framework for the study on the languages in American and Chinese chairmen's statements.Fifteen chairman's statements from American and fifteen from Chinese banks' annual reports are analyzed respectively so as to explore how the language forms in chairmen's statements reflect their goals and effects and to discuss the similarities and differences between English and Chinese chairmen's statements at syntactic and discourse levels.Two research questions are put forward:1.What iconicity is reflected in the chairmen's statements of American and Chinese bank annual reports at syntactic and discourse levels?2.What similarities and differences can be found in the iconicity reflected in the chairmen's statements of American and Chinese banks at syntactic and discourse levels?The study has analyzed the syntax and discourse of chairmen's statements from American and Chinese banks based on iconicity theory,and the findings can be summarized as follows: firstly,the iconicity reflected in the American and Chinese chairmen's statements includes the sequence iconicity,quantity iconicity,distance iconicity and markedness iconicity.Secondly,the similarities found in the iconicity reflected in the two countries' chairmen's statements are that at syntactic level both American and Chinese chairmen's statements largely apply the degree from low to high of sequence iconicity to introduce their achievements to shareholders,which increases the readers' acceptance and deepens their impressions of banks.Besides,the quantity,distance and markedness iconicity have also been applied to increase the readability and publicity effects of chairman's statements at syntactic level;at discourse level both American and Chinese chairmen's statements apply sequence,quantity,distance and markedness principle of iconicity to highlight the importance of different parts to different degree,which enhances readers' comprehension and achieves the coherence of chairman's statements.Thirdly,the differences found in the iconicity reflected in the two countries' chairmen's statements are that the reflection of iconicity in Chinese chairman's statement is relatively simple at syntactic and discourse levels,mainly including the application of degree from low to high of sequence iconicity,jargons and quotations of markedness iconicity at syntactic level and repeated expression of quantity iconicity at discourse level.On the contrary,American chairman's statement tends to apply various reflections of iconicity at syntactic and discourse levels to achieve the diversity of syntax and discourse.The differences are due to the distinctive culture,grammars,ownerships of bank and economic systems of China and America.