A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis On United Nations General Assembly Resolutions:from 71^st To 75^th

As the chief deliberative,policy-making,and representative organ of the United Nations(UN),the United Nations General Assembly(UNGA)is regarded as the widest participation forum on world affairs.However,the UNGA has long been criticized as a ritualistic,non-authoritative “cheap talk” hub or a mere “talk shop” of sterile discussions in which states enflame problems rather than solve them.To better understand the ideological and political nature behind the UNGA discourse,this corpusbased study conducts a detailed critical discourse analysis(CDA)based on a self-built corpus consisting of textual resources concerning the UNGA resolutions.With the combinative method of quantitative and qualitative analysis,the study adopts Fairclough’s three-dimensional model with a special focus on language text and social practice.With the support of corpus tool as the data processor and research instrument,the study first categorizes the(key)wordlist statistics with a focus on words related to the international issues.Following keyness and frequency,the study moves on to investigate the three most popular words in the caliber,namely,“international”,“development”,and “rights”,for lexical profiling via collocates,concordances,and cotext review.Through semantic analysis,several remarkable representative collocates can be recognized,including “international community”,“sustainable development”,and “human rights”,touching upon the subjects of community(re)construction,sustainability escalation,and rights movement.Apart from the context of co-text,the study also focuses on the social practice layer in Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for linguistic realizations of UNGA’s discourse in order to mine the socio-linguistics implications and power relationship within the discursive practice.This study finds that the post-2016 UNGA discourse is closely linked with the shift of major international political leadership while balancing out its wordings and phrases in the context of international peace and development.Meanwhile,the essay contends that with the UNGA actively incorporating the sustainable development goals(SDGs)into its agenda,the Chinese government should utilize the UNGA as another crucial battleground in international political games and find room for the interpretation and implementation of the SDGs to develop a political discourse system with Chinese characteristics.The study builds itself on the integration of the studies of digital humanities and applied linguistics,which has not only drawn some deep findings on UNGA discourse,but also provide meaningful insights for critical discourse studies as well as corpus-based studies.Future research should focus on characteristics of spatiality in various discursive dimensions of UNGA’s historical and dynamic development.