Understanding Political Debates from the Perspective of Appraisal Theory of China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/bej.2023.7Keywords:
BRI, CDA, appraisal theory, appraisal resources, political discourse, cooperationAbstract
This paper examines political speeches of President Xi’s Work Together to Build the Silk Road Economic Belt and The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road using corpus based critical discourse analysis. The corpus of the study comprises political debates of President Xi on the Belt and Road Initiative. The study employs appraisal theory and corpus based CDA to reveal the perception of China’s mega project. The study reveals that the use of attitude and graduation resources, where the former seems mostly positive and the latter are abundant in force with enough focus. The study also highlights the significance of Belt and Road Initiative. Finally, it is highlighted that the Belt and Road Initiative will have a significant impact on the development of future international community. However, the Initiative faces many obstacles, including a lack of central cooperation, political regime and belief conflicts, and international feasibility issues.
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