Using semantic tagging to examine the American Dream and the Chinese Dream

Semiotica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (227) ◽  
pp. 145-168
Author(s):  
Zhide Hou
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
American Dream ◽  
American English ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
Semantic Tagging ◽  
Positive Representation ◽  
The Chinese Dream

AbstractThis paper uses Wmatrix to generate semantic tagging to compare corpora of media representations between the American Dream and the Chinese Dream. The USAS tagger is used to assign the semantic field tags to the America Dream Corpus (ADC) and the Chinese Dream Corpus (CDC). The motivation of this study is to replicate the studies using an automated and inclusive method based on semantic tagging (Potts, A. & P. Baker. 2012. Does semantic tagging identify cultural change in British and American English? International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 17(3). 295–324), and more importantly, to conduct a broad semantic categorization on both national dreams so as to uncover the cultural, social and historical similarities and/or differences. It is found that the cultural difference of the individualistic home and work association of the American Dream versus the collectivistic nation and world attributions of the Chinese Dream. The different historical stage and social-economic contexts are disclosed from the different temporal positions from time category, and the contrastive tags associated with negative representation of the American Dream and positive representation of the Chinese Dream.

The American Dream meets the Chinese Dream: a corpus-driven phraseological analysis of news texts

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-340
Author(s):  
Zhide Hou
Keyword(s):  
American Dream ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Cumulative Effects ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
Concordance Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Home Work ◽  
The Chinese Dream ◽  
Semantic Prosody

Abstract This study is a corpus-driven examination of frequent lexical words and keywords in the news texts related to the American Dream and the Chinese Dream. Based on Sinclair’s (Sinclair, John McHardy. 2004. Trust the Text. Routledge: London) five categories of co-selection as framework, it discusses the patterns of co-selection across the corpora of news texts, with a particular focus on the cumulative effects of the co-construction of situated meanings and establishment of ideological positions associated with the two dreams. The corpus linguistic tool Wordsmith is used to generate frequent words and keywords for detailed concordance analysis along both syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations in order to indicate collocation, colligation, semantic preference, and semantic prosody. The findings demonstrate the individualistic home, work and education associations of the American Dream versus the collectivistic attributions of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. The study not only confirms different cultural practices, but also reveals different social-historical conditions, and political influences associated with media representations of the American Dream and the Chinese Dream.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Driven Analysis of Media Representations of the Chinese Dream

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhide Hou
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
English Language ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Chinese Dream ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Strong Control

<p class="PACLICAbstracttext">The Chinese dream describing a set of ideals received numerous media reports after its proclamation by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2012. Making use of the rich source of media data, this article explores the ideology and ideals of the Chinese Dream represented in China’s state-run English-language newspapers. Modeled on the approach of corpus-driven discourse studies and combining the theoretical framework and methodological approaches of Critical Discourse Analysis and corpus linguistics, this study attempts to yield new insights into the media representations of the Chinese Dream. A corpus of the Chinese dream is analyzed using software Concgram (Greaves, 2009) by creating information on the frequency distribution regarding the most frequently occurring two-word/three-word concgrams, and related concordance lines. Findings shown Chinese President Xi’s speech on the Chinese Dream has strong control of ideological positions in media representations.</p><p class="PACLICAbstracttext"> </p>

scholarly journals Talking About “Chinese Dream” and “American Dream” From an Intercultural Communication Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Xiaochi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
Wonderful Thing ◽  
The Chinese Dream ◽  
Cultural Connotations

Dream is usually a beautiful or wonderful thing, and often begins from the pursuit of beautiful or wonderful thing and the desire for happiness from poverty or suffering. The Chinese Dream and the American Dream have their own different cultural connotations especially under the influence of their own cultural values. Therefore, the author tries to compare the Chinese Dream with the American Dream from an intercultural perspective, discusses the cultural connotations of the different two dreams and focuses on the comparative analysis on the different intercultural values of the different two dreams, so as to deeply understand the Chinese Dream and American Dream from its history, culture, and its cultural values.

scholarly journals Sociological Discourse-Analysis of the “Chinese Dream” Concept

Discourse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-78
Author(s):  
N. B. Pomozova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Chinese Dream ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Reflexive Sociology ◽  
The Chinese Dream ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Sociological Discourse

Introduction. Today, China and its foreign policy priorities largely determine global international politics. The PRC is one of the main partners of Russia. The need to understand the meanings that the Chinese leadership lays in its main political concepts determines the relevance of this study. The intensification of foreign policy demanded from the Chinese leadership an appropriate discourse, formalized in foreign policy concepts of a global scale. One of these concepts is the “Chinese Dream”. Its semantic content, at a first approximation, is opposed to the “American Dream”. If in the “American Dream” the interests of the individual and his/her well-being are at the forefront, then in the case of the “Chinese Dream” , on the contrary, at the top of the pyramid of values are the interests of the state, then society, and only then the individual.Methodology and sources. The methodological basis is sociological discourse analysis, combined with reflexive sociology, through which the author aims to expand the interpretation of the “Chinese dream” and reveal its additional, not obvious meanings. The empirical base was a sample of direct speeches by the leaders of China (Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping) and their speeches at the CPC congresses. The works of Alvin Gouldner, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault were used as a theoretical basis. The author also analyzed some theoretical works of one of the main authors of the concept of the “Chinese dream” Li Junzhu, and in the context of the method of reflective sociology were studied and presented his biographical data.Results and discussion. From the standpoint of sociological discourse analysis and reflexive sociology, the article examines the context of the concept of the “Chinese dream” based on the publications of one of its authors Li Junzhu and the speeches of the PRC Presidents at the congresses of the Communist Party of China who used this formulation in their speeches. In the study, based on biographical facts, Li Junzhu shows socio -political reflection, as a result of which the concept under consideration was formulated. The academic background and experience of working with Chinese living abroad contributed to the theoretical development of the concept, which, as a first approximation, bears the load of an attractive national idea of the “American Dream” type.Conclusion. Discourse analysis also reveals a broader semantic content of the concept, which extends to China’s foreign policy and its vision of the system of international relations. When building a dialogue with China, it is useful to take into account this semantic construct, which is contained in the consedered concept.

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