Political Discourse Analysis in Translation of Speech Texts on “One Belt One Road (OBOR)”: A Dialectical Cognitive Approach

Abstract

Topic on "One Belt One Road (OBOR)" is the main idea of China's Xi Jinping political speech conveyed at the forums of multilateral and bilateral cooperation since 2013. The speech texts on OBOR as a case study is analyzed through qualitative analysis within a dialectical cognitive method, and mainly aims to explore the main characteristics and features of the speech texts, as well as the impacts on cognitive aspect. In this study, data is gathered from official websites of the PRC's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in UN Mission and in Brisbane. There are 6,722 Chinese characters and 3,261 English words of speech texts translated by the diplomatic missions' translators to be explored. As a result, the study not only describes the objective of a Political Discourse in diplomatic speech texts (i.e. to gain acceptance from the communication's audiences), but also identifies their linguistic features and the impacts. In short, China applied "three plus one" dialectics as OBOR speech texts' structural strategy to achieve its aim. The dialectics principles, which are based on the Chinese culture of Confucianism (and is part of Van Dijk's cognitive rhetorical models), consist of: (1) change principle, (2) contradiction principle, (3) general relationship or holistic principle, and (4) compromise-based justification or harmony principle. It is shown that China applied quite different structural strategies of dialectics in the multilateral platform of UN, and in bilateral cooperation with Brisbane of Australia. Therefore, it is easier to be accepted or more effectively persuasive.