A Corpus-Based Analysis of Discourses on the Belt and Road Initiative : Corpora and the Belt and Road Initiative

This book series publishes original monographs and edited volumes in the investigations of different types of corpora (including text, speech and video) with a particular focus on intercultural studies. The differences in language use expressed in comparable corpora can be analyzed from an intercultural perspective. The emphasis is on excellence and originality in scholarship as well as synergetic interdisciplinary approaches and multicultural perspectives. Books exploring the role of the intercultural studies in the research fields of translation, linguistics, and culture, with a corpus-based approach will be especially welcome. The series publishes books that deal with emerging issues as well as those that offer an in-depth examination of underlying issues. The target audiences of this series include both scholars and professionals who are interested in issues related to intercultural communication across different cultures and social groups, which are reflected by the investigation in comparable corpora. Corpora and Intercultural Studies book series is published in conjunction with Springer under the auspices of School of Foreign Languages (SFL), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). The first series editor is the Dean of SFL at SJTU, and the book series editorial board consists of leading scholars in the research field of corpora and intercultural studies in the world. Preface Acknowledgments Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction 1.1 Research Background 1.2 Research Rationale 1.3 Belt and Road Initiative 1.3.1 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) 1.3.2 BRI and China’s Neighboring Countries 1.4 Significance of the Study 1.5 Objectives of the Research 1.6 Research Questions 1.7 Summary References 2 Review of Literature 2.1 Studies on Critical Discourse Analysis 2.1.1 Language, Ideology and Media Power 2.2 Studies on Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics 2.2.1 Critical Discourse Analysis 2.2.2 Faircloughian CDA and Conceptualization of Power 2.2.3 Corpus Linguistics 2.3 Studies on CPEC and BRI 2.3.1 Pak-China Friendship: Iron Brothers 2.4 Topography of China Pakistan Economic Corridor 2.5 One Belt One Road (OBOR) 2.6 Gwadar Port 2.7 Summary References 3 Theoretical Framework and Methodology 3.1 Overview of CDA and CL 3.2 Theoretical Framework of the Present Study 3.2.1 Fairclough Three-Dimension Model 3.2.2 Corpus-Based CDA 3.2.3 Merger of CDA and CL 3.3 Procedures of Data Collection 3.3.1 Corpus for the Study 3.4 Software Used in the Study 3.5 Analysis of the Results 3.6 Keywords and Corpus Techniques 3.7 Summary References 4 Perceptions of China Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative 4.1 Representation of CPEC in PENC by Frequency Items 4.2 Representation of CPEC in PENC by Keywords 4.3 Collocation of ‘Iron Brothers’ and China-Pakistan Alliance 4.4 N-Grams of Targeted Words 4.5 Bigrams of Top Twenty Keywords 4.6 Collocates and Concordance Lines 4.7 Top Twenty Collocates in PNEC 4.7.1 Collocates of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC) 4.7.2 Collocates of CPEC with T-score 4.8 Representation of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) 4.9 Concordance Lines 4.9.1 Concordance Lines of “CPEC” 4.9.2 Concordance Lines of “BRI” 4.9.3 Concordance Lines of ‘China’ 4.9.4 Analysis of Selected Keywords Pertinent to CPEC 4.9.5 Concordance Lines of “We” References 5 Perception of BRI and CPEC in Indian Newspapers 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Perception of the BRI and CPEC by Frequent Items in IENC 5.3 Key Terms Against BNC in IENC 5.4 Biagram of Top Twenty Keywords Against BNC 5.5 Concordances of CPEC in Indian Sub Corpus 5.6 Modifiers of “China” in Indian Corpus 5.7 Concordances of “Threat” in Indian Sub-corpus 5.7.1 Application of “Threat” as a Noun Co-occurring with Modifiers 5.8 Concordances of “We” 5.8.1 Verbs Collocating with “We” 5.9 Concordance of ‘China’ 5.10 Keywords Against BNC in Indian Sub-corpus 5.11 Representation of BRI by Co-occurring Adverbs 5.12 Summary References 6 Discussions: Similarities and Differences of BRI and CPEC in Media Discourses of India and Pakistan 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Comparison of Keyness of PENC and IENC Against BNC 6.3 Belt and Road Reshaping the Future 6.4 Geo-Strategic Perspective 6.5 Pak-India Relations 6.6 Indian Influence on CPEC 6.7 The US Factor in Discourses of PENC and INEC 6.8 The China Pakistan Economic Corridor of the BRI Concept, Context and Assessment 6.9 Debunking Condemnation on CPEC 6.10 Summary References 7 Conclusion 7.1 Key Findings 7.2 Limitations 7.3 Future Directions References This book adopts a corpus-based critical discourse analysis approach and examines a corpus of newspaper articles from Pakistani and Indian publications to gain comparative insights into the ideological construction of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) within news discourses. This book contributes to the works on perceptions of BRI in English newspapers of India and Pakistan. A multi-billion-dollar project of BRI or the "One Belt One Road” (OBOR), CPEC symbolizes a vision for regional revival under China's economic leadership and clout. Propelled by the Chinese Premier’s dream to revive the Chinese economy as well as to restructure and catalyze infrastructural development in Asia, BRI is aimed at connecting Asia via land and sea routes with Europe, Africa, and the Middle Eastern states.