SUBMITTED BY: DILAWAR SAJJAD

SUBMITTED TO : MAM SHAFAQ

CLASS: 5TH MORNING
DEPARTMENT: ENGLISH

A Positive Discourse Analysis of Diplomatic Speech of President Xi in COVID-

19

1. Introduction :
The most widespread pandemic to affect humanity in a century is COVID-19. It is a dangerous challenge
that threatens human life and health and is a major crisis for the entire world[1]. Since the epidemic’s
start, China has stood for international collaboration and exchanges, lending its strength and wisdom to
the fight against the disease on a worldwide scale. But several nations politicised the virus, laying the
blame on China, and some groups accused China of being the target of abusive lawsuits and President Xi
has so made addresses at a number of significant international events, outlining China’s efforts to
combat the disease and urging other sides to step up their collaboration in order to tackle this global
crisis together. This study, which approaches the COVID-19 epidemic from the perspective of positive
discourse analysis, employs vocabulary, syntax, attitudinal resources, semantic domain features, and
distribution to investigate how President Xi Jinping, through the creative use of discourse expressions,
represents China’s position in the pandemic and urges all nations to establish a community of human
health in order to combat it collectively.

.Through the application of corpus analysis tools and appraisal theory as a framework, this
paper employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the
vocabulary, syntax, and semantic pragmatics of the selected corpus’s evaluation resources in
particular contexts. The speeches made by President Xi Jinping on significant diplomatic
occasions during COVID-19 are used as a corpus. President Xi is reported to have advocated for
increased international cooperation in order to communicate China’s strength, voice, and
wisdom to the world community. He also used a more positive and appreciative lexicon when
introducing China’s efficacy and experience in combating diseases.

2. THEORETICAL BASIS:
The practise of continuously comprehending and analysing language symbols and social
structures is known as discourse analysis. Harris (1952) first proposed it as a formal branch
of linguistics, and it has since been refined in numerous useful innovations. Discourse
analysis is now focused on examining the interaction between language and society rather
than only the relationship between language form and meaning, thanks to the development
of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and Therefore, during the international conference on
critical discourse analysis in Birmingham, UK, in 1999, J.R. Martin introduced the idea of
“positive discourse analysis,” which can be used to design a better society on the basis of
the deconstruction of critical discourse analysis. He anticipates that this constructive theory
would counterbalance the negative consequences of criticism on society in the context of
power analysis, enabling discourse analysis to realise peaceful linguistics and the creation of
a better society. When compared to revealing ideology and social power through political
discourse, this expands and enhances critical discourse analysis. In Han (2017).
Three sub-systems comprise the appraisal theory put forward by Martin and White (2004).
These sub-systems are the main analytical instruments of positive discourse and are
categorised as engagement, attitude, and graduation. A key component of appraisal theory,
the attitudinal system is composed of three subsystems: affect, judgement, and
appreciation. It describes the assessments and evaluations of human behaviour,
texts/processes, and phenomena that the mind is influenced to form (Wang & Ma, 2007).
From the standpoint of interpersonal function, all three subsystems have positive and
negative, explicit and implicit, and polarity distinctions.In order to influence or even alter
the audience’s cognition, emotion, and attitude, the theory focuses on how speakers
present their subjective positions of approval/disapproval, enthusiasm/hatred,
praise/criticism, and so on regarding the topic being discussed. It also addresses how
speakers create a particular self-identity and create an ideal audience group that shares
their emotions and values. The appraisal theory has been applied by Chinese scholars
(Wang, 2004; Chen & Zhao, 2016; Dong, 2019) to examine news, political discourse, and
other discourses in recent times.
To sum up, this paper aims to analyse the attitudinal resources in President Xi Jinping’s
diplomatic speeches and their role in the construction of the community of human destiny
by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. This is because of the
significance of President Xi Jinping’s speeches in major diplomatic settings in the context of
the COVID-19 epidemic, and the strong operation of the evaluation theory. The framework
 of appraisal theory is used, and the speeches made by President Xi Jinping on major
diplomatic occasions during COVID-19 are selected as the corpus.

3.Positive Discourse Analysis:

3.1 Positive Discourse Analysis at Lexical Level:
In the two speeches with positive meanings, the most common types of appraisal terms are
noun and adjective phrases. Table 3 displays the results of using Wmatrix to count and arrange
the positive terms that occurred more frequently in the corpus.

Table 3 shows that the high frequency words "people", "community", "treatment", and
"cooperation" reflect the speech's topic and President Xi's presentation of China's efforts in
prevention, control, and treatment, as well as his appeal for active cooperation among all
nations. There are a lot of modal verbs in the verb vocabulary because Xi use them in
conjunction with a single noun or phrase and infinitives rather than a single verb to convey the
sense of hope, resolve, and desire. Adjectives with great frequency, such as "global,"
"international," "African," and others, reveal the implicit positive attitude meaning. The
concordance indicates that President Xi may have expressed some expectations or
recommendations for a worldwide anti-epidemic campaign in his remarks. Furthermore, a lot of
speeches also contain high-frequency words with clear positive attitude meanings, such
"public," "major," "stable," and others. Adverbs are less common, but when they do occur, they
usually come after verbs, demonstrating China's strength in fighting the virus and the
significance of international cooperation.
3.2 Positive Discourse Analysis at the Syntactic Level:
For some implicit attitudinal expressions, it is important to recognize and assess meaning at
both the lexical and syntactic levels. According to Zhu (2009), implicit evaluation is primarily
represented in the conceptual meaning of discourse and is influenced by readers' attitudes,
discourse participants' linguistic sensitivity, and the activation of contextual knowledge. Liu
(2007) examined the potential of attitude in grammatical structure based on the corpus,
compiled common phrase patterns for implicit evaluation, and integrated grammar and
vocabulary to demonstrate the viability of implicit evaluation. Thus, this discussion will focus on
the positive interpretation of discourse analysis at the syntactic level.
Section 1 We have to establish global and regional reserve hubs of anti-epidemic supplies and
respond to public health emergencies faster.
The transitive terms "responded" and "establish" in Excerpt 1 have positive meanings when
used in the right situations, but they lack an explicit attitude. The first employs. While the latter
uses the positive evaluation word "anti-epidemic" to produce positive discourse, the former
uses quickly to suggest that we should actively respond to the global epidemic. This means that
President Xi called on the international community to strengthen global public health
governance, improve the speed at which public health emergencies are responded to, and
establish a global and regional epidemic prevention material reserve center. In this discourse in
a foreign language, the use of the present perfect tense also carries a certain positive attitude
significance within the given situation.
Excerpt 2 With love and compassion, we have forged extraordinary synergy...

We have shared control and treatment experience with the world without reservation..

Although the present perfect tense in excerpt 2 lacks emotional significance, it fully explains a
number of significant steps taken by China to combat the global epidemic and the success of its
domestic virus fight, as well as expressing gratitude for the proactive role played by
international organizations like the World Health Organization. Positive remarks like "love,"
"compassion," and the preposition phrase "without reservation" support this claim.

3.3 Positive Discourse Analysis at Discourse Level:

The text's lexical units can be automatically annotated by the USAS embedded in Wmatrix,
which can also identify semantic domains that are difficult to pinpoint at the lexical level
(Rayson, 2008). Several domestic scholars (Sun ya, 2014; Tang and Shi, 2016; Sun, 2018) have
also employed this function in their research. Liu and Wang (2017) have noted that the majority
of the significant semantic domains are able to provide a typical summary of the research text's
main content.
Thus, this tool will enable this study to discuss the main ideas in President Xi's two speeches as
a whole, as well as qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the distribution and features of the
speech text's semantic domain. Top ten semantic domains that have statistical significance are
listed in Table 4.

Political speech is defined as taking sides, elaborating on them, and sharing them with the
public regarding the internal and external affairs of the country (Li, 2003). According to Table 4,
the most significant semantic in the observed corpus is S8 + (helping), with an LL value of
162.03; B3 (medicine and medical treatment) is next with an LL value of 160.97; W3 (geographic
terms) is next with an LL value of 121.65, etc. This clarifies that the subjects covered in
President Xi's speech go beyond China's successes in combating the epidemic and its role in the
global pandemic. however, they frequently urge all nations to support the idea of a global
community with a shared future, bolster international cooperation and exchanges, offer
assistance to those nations and regions that are least able to handle the epidemic, and
ultimately fulfill the good intentions to end the pandemic. It presents China to the world
community as a responsible and upbeat nation.

4 CONCLUSION:
This paper, which is based on the appraisal theory, primarily examines how Xi's speech
discourse was positively constructed in the two main diplomatic domains during the COCID-19.
It examines the speech's attitude sources from various vocabulary, syntactic, and pragmatic
levels using corpus tools. It is discovered that the resource for appreciation is used the most in
these two speeches. President Xi shared China's experience combating epidemics, introduced
the world to China's efforts and victories in this fight, and showcased China's strength and
intelligence in supporting the worldwide effort to combat disease. Additionally, he urged all
nations to step up their cooperation and solidarity in order to fight the pandemic. These two
speeches not only significantly advance the development of global and regional public security
but also play a significant positive role in the construction of China’s foreign image.