| The regular press conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China is one of the main channels for the Chinese government to release information about diplomatic activities,elaborate on foreign policies and explain China’s position on major international issues.It is also an important information source for foreign media to report or comment on China’s internal and foreign affairs.At regular press conferences,journalists often put forward sharp,tough and conflict-prone questions.As the official representative of China,Foreign Ministry spokespersons must respond appropriately,which requires them to pay attention to the strategies in response.The predecessors mainly study diplomatic discourse from the perspectives of linguistic features,pragmatic features and rhetorical features.Diplomatic discourse is a typical type of argumentative discourse,but there are few studies on diplomatic discourse from the perspective of argumentation.In order to enrich this research,based on Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s new rhetoric and supplemented by Liu Yameng’s further classification of facts,this thesis studies the argument strategies spokespersons adopt in response to 317 conflict talks at regular press conferences from the perspective of argumentation,and the reasons of adopting such argument strategies.The selection range of corpus is from January 1st,2018 to December 31 st,2018.The research method is qualitative analysis.The research has found out that in response to the eight sub-categories of conflict talks raised by journalists at regular press conferences,spokespersons adopt eighteen argument strategies in total,which are utilizable facts,values,understatements,non-contestable facts,rhetorical questions,example,comparison,cause and effect,presumption,means and ends,analogy,reciprocity,interested fact,an essence and its manifestations,contradiction,whole-part relation,symbol and rule of justice.Among the eighteen argument strategies,there are five of them that not only account for a high percentage,but also appear in almost every sub-category of conflict talks.The five argument strategies are utilizable facts,non-contestable facts,values,rhetorical questions,and understatements.On this basis,the research has alsofound out that the use of these five argument strategies accords with the way of speaking through reason,emotion and politeness in the Chinese culture rhetoric view,as well as the way that westerners accept persuasion through reason and emotion.In these five argument strategies,utilizable facts and non-contestable facts appeal to reason,which reflects the logical thinking ability of spokespersons,and emphasizes to persuade the audience from the logical aspect.Values and rhetorical questions appeal to emotion,which enhances the tone of spokespersons’ response,thus reaching the emotional resonance with the audience.Understatements appeal to politeness,which helps spokespersons to convey their intentions in a more euphemistic way,so that spokespersons are polite and appropriate in front of the audience,thus shaping the personality charm of spokespersons and finally getting the audience’s conviction.This research has important significance both in theory and in practice.At the theoretical level: combining the argument discourse with the diplomatic discourse,this research provides a new perspective for the study of spokesperson response discourse.At the same time,it also enriches the theoretical research system of Perelman’s argument strategy to a certain extent.At the practical level: this research not only has certain help to understand the diplomatic language and its operational mechanisms,as well as to understand the true intention of Foreign Ministry spokespersons’ response discourse,but also has certain reference significance for the cultivation of diplomatic personnel.Moreover,this research also provides some enlightenment for ordinary people to master argument strategies in daily life,thus expressing their views accurately and appropriately in interpersonal communication. |
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