Metadiscourse In Diplomatic Discourse And The Implied Stances

As an important language resource,metadiscourse plays an indispensable role in constructing communicators’ stances.However,studies on metadiscourses in diplomatic discourse and the stances constructed through them are in their infancy.Based on Hyland’s(2005)classification of metadiscourse and Hao Ling’s(2015)study on stance,this thesis investigated the metadiscourses in diplomatic discourse and the stances they construct,aiming to answer the following two questions:(1)What metadiscourses do the spokespersons use and what is their distribution in Chinese diplomatic discourse?(2)What are the types and frequencies of stances constructed by spokespersons through metadiscourses in Chinese diplomatic discourse?In order to answer the above questions,a corpus is constructed.The corpus consists of the spokespersons’ responses at 38 regular press conferences obtained from the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China,totaling105,626 Chinese characters.Annotation and analysis are carried out through UAM Corpus Tool 3.3.The results reveal that 8281 metadiscourses are used by spokespersons,including 2429 interactive metadiscourses and 5852 interactional metadiscourses.Further analysis leads us to draw the following conclusions:Firstly,all ten types of metadiscourses have been used by spokespersons,but with varied frequencies.In interactive metadiscourses,transitions are used most frequently,followed by endophoric markers.Evidencials are the third,the fourth being frame markers,followed by code glosses.Among interactional metadiscourses,the frequency of engagement markers is the highest,the second being boosters,followed by self mentions and attitude markers.Hedges are used the least.The different frequencies of the five types of interactive metadiscourse reveal that the spokesperson attaches great importance to the clarity,acceptability and credibility of the arguments contained in the discourse.The varied frequencies of the subcategories of interactional metadiscourse indicate that the primary task of the spokespersons is to clearly express the state’s views on various events.During speaking,they will avoid using hedges as much as possible.Secondly,the spokespersons construct four different stances through various metadiscourses,namely,identity stance,attitudinal stance,textual stance and epistemic stance.The frequency of identity stance is the highest,followed by attitudinal stance and textual stance.The least used one is epistemic stance.The frequency of identity stance and attitude stance is relatively high,indicating that the primary task of the spokespersons is to construct the identity of the country in response to different issues and express the attitude of the country.At the same time,spokespersons must ensure that their discourse is accurately conveyed to the public.Therefore,the spokespersons select several categories of metadiscourse to construct textual and epistemic stances.This study provides a new perspective for the study of metadiscourse and stance.It can also enlighten the diplomatic spokespersons to construct appropriate stances through metadiscourse and help the public understand how spokespersons construct stances via the use of metadiscourses so as to have a better understanding of Chinese diplomacy.