Critical Discourse Analysis of the Image of China in the Russian Version of the Report on the Work of the Government with a Case of Russian Verb Aspects

��������� �� http://www.allbest.ru

Shaanxi Normal University, Chang'an South Road 199, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 710062, People's Republic of China

Critical Discourse Analysis of the Image of China in the Russian Version of the Report on the Work of the Government with a Case of Russian Verb Aspects

Yuan Tao



Aspect is an obligatory grammatical category of Russian verbs that consists of both perfective aspect and imperfective aspect as a pair. Based on both self-compiled Chinese-Russian parallel corpora of the Report on the Work of the Government (China) (2008-2017) and comparable corpora of the Report on the Work of the Government (Russia) (2008-2017), this paper presents the intra-lingual, inter-lingual and prosodic analyses of the image of China reflected in the Russian version of the Report on the Work of the Government (China): 1) image of China is created by comparing the verb frequency of two aspects in translational corpora and comparable corpora and analyzing the modal meaning and interpersonal function of Russian verbs; 2) ideology in the Russian version is discussed by comparing �V+ T i� structures in source texts with its counterparts (long passive participles or imperfective aspect) in target texts; 3) main concerns of Chinese government in the past decade are illustrated by focusing on semantic prosodies of collocates (its types and distributions) with high-frequency imperfective verbs in target texts. It concludes that the image of China in translational texts is populist, flexible, responsible and concerned over its national welfare and people's livelihood.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, verb aspects, modals, language and government image.



����������� ������ �������� ������ ����� � ������ � ������ ������������� �� ������� ����� ������� �������� �����

���� ���

����������� �������������� �����������,

��������� �������� ����������, �����

������ ��������� ������������ ��������� ������ ������������� �����. ������������� ������ ������ -- ����������� ������ ��������, � ������� -- ��� ��������. � ������� ����� ��� ������ �������������� ���������, �������� ������� ���������� ������� ������������ � �������������� ����. �� ������ ������� � ������ ������������� ����� (2008-2017)� �� ��������� � ������� ����� � ������� � ������ ������������� ������ (2008-2017 ��.)� � ������ ���������� �������������� � ������������ ������ ������ ������������� �����. �����������, ��� �� ������� ����� � ����� ���������� ��������� ����� ����� ����� ������������� ���� ����� ��������, �� ���������� �������� � ������������� �������. � ������� ������������� ������ �� ������� ����� ������ �������� �V + �1�, ���������� ��� ��������� ��������� ��� ������� �������������� ����, �������� ������� �������������� ������� � ��������. � ��������� ����������� � �������� �������������� ���������� ������������� ����� ����������� ��������� �������� �������������� ����. �� ��������� ��� ������� �� ��� ����, ��������� �� �����������. ����� ����� �� ������ � ������, ��� ����� ������������� ����� � ���������� ������� ������� � ������ ������������� ����� (2008-2017)� �������� ������������ � ������������ ������. ����� ����, ����� ����� �������, ��� ������������� ����� ������������ ��������� � ������� ������������� �������������� ������.

�������� �����: ����������� ������ ��������, ��� �������, �����������, ����� �����.



Introduction

�Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), as one possible approach to analyzing discourse, focuses on the relationship between language, power, and ideology, i.e., an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a social practice� [1]. CDA is also a process of �denaturalizing� discourse: by means of analyzing linguistic forms in a discourse, the hidden nexuses among language, power, and ideology may be exposed; how rulers of a country use language to control ideology and safeguard their power may be disclosed [2].

CDA originated from critical linguistics (CL). Since its inception, CL has offered a new perspective on the study of discourse and language for discourse is not only a reflection of social reality but is also a key component of social practice whereby people can understand and explain social behavior through language and discourse.

CDA has been widely applied to a variety of discourse types and it deepens people's understanding of nexus between language and society. In academia, great attention has been paid to people's primary concerns over politics reflected in CDA and the unique lens through which to look at social phenomena. However, due to the small size of texts and its limited representativeness in the traditional CDA research paradigm, a number of researchers have criticized its lack of systematicity and objectivity in interpreting discourse; moreover, they have begun to doubt the standards of careful, rigorous and systematic analysis applied in CDA. Furthermore, they have begun to question the validity and fairness of certain analysts attempting to prove their points through CDA for their analyses fell into the circular reasoning [3-6].

Stubbs and Gerbig and Hardt-Mautner, among many opponents of CDA, have tried to combine corpus linguistics with CDA to increase representativeness of texts [7-8]. A good case in point is Stubbs' Text and Corpus Analysis: Computer-assisted Studies of Language and Culture in which he applied corpus linguistics tools to reveal ideology hidden in texts [9]. Since then many researchers have confirmed the feasibility of combining corpus linguistics with CDA and proposed new theoretical perspectives [10-14]. A recent example is Vessey who outlined how corpus-assisted discourse studies approach can add useful dimensions to studies of language ideology with examples from a larger comparative study of French and English language ideologies in corpora of Canadian newspapers [15].

�CDA approach to a government's image through translations will involve ideology, i.e., ideological factors in translated versions. Translation researchers have focused on this issue since 1980's� [16, p. 215]. Andre Lefevere once pointed out that �translators or re-writers adapt, manipulate the originals they work with to some extent, usually to make them fit in with the dominant, or one of the dominant ideological and poetological currents of their time� [17]. �Ideology in translation refers to translators' or interpreters' underlying ideas and interpretation system in their work� [18, p. 123]. Therefore, �translating behavior is likely to be influenced and even controlled by translators' ideology and literature outlook or by existing political order, thereby resulting in the loss of the stylistic tone and originality of the source texts� [19]. �The recent years have seen the claim of corpus-based approach to probing into the ideology in translation and the concept of corpus-based critical translatology� [20].

So far, we believe that corpus-based CDA can be performed to resolve ideological issues in both translational and non-translational texts. This paper is an attempt to understand how the Chinese government is portrayed in the Russian version of the Report on the Work of the Government (China) (2008-2017) (hereafter the R-Report) by focusing on the modality and ideology in the translational texts.



1. Literature Review

As mentioned in the introduction, Stubbs and Gerbig combined corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis in 1993 [21]. Since then, interface studies have been carried out at the theoretic level [22-24] and empirical level. For the latter, on the English version of the Report (2000-2009), Zhu Xiao-min investigated the distribution of WE and its Chinese equivalents (S,ffl) and found WE outnumbers its Chinese equivalents, and underlying ideological factors are explored [25]. Tang Li-ping , on the basis of China-related data from such prestigious papers in the US as The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times (1 September 2008 -- 31 December 2010), investigated how such papers constructed the image of China implicitly from the perspectives of evaluative prosody and semantic prosody [26]. Qian Yu-fang and Tian Hai-long listed the key words and word clusters in their corpus of the Report (1999-2008) and revealed the role of the Report as institutional talk in promoting social reform [27]. Shao Bin and Hui Zhi-ming focused on Western media's interpretation, evaluation, and discourse construction of �China Dream� through concordance lines and collocation groups in their corpus with data from Lexis Nexis News database [28]. In the theoretical framework of �extended units of meaning� [29-30], Hu Jiang conducted a CDA of Western media's China-related military reports and found the media's attitudes towards China to be mainly negative and unfavorable [31]. However such interface studies have been conducted unanimously in English and Chinese, which has not been the case in Russian and Chinese.

This paper aims to fill this gap by studying the image of China in the Russian version of the Report (China) (hereafter RVRC) with focus on Russian verb aspects. The following reasons motivate the choice to focus on aspect: 1) there are verb aspects in both Russian and Chinese and much research has been done in both Russian [32-33] and Chinese [3437]. �Verb aspect is an obligatory grammatical category in Russian� [38], i.e., each verb has either perfective aspect or imperfective aspect. Aspects are pervasive in both translational texts and non-translational texts; 2) Modality refers to the indeterminacy between the positive and negative poles, which interpersonally construct the semantic region of uncertainty that lies between yes and no. Russian verb aspects are rich in functional and modal meanings by which we can reveal ideological factors hidden in institutional discourses (e.g. the Report), and the image of China in RVRC can be achieved likewise.

So far, research on Russian verb aspect has been very detailed: Bondarko studied them in the framework of functional grammar [32]. Shelyakin pointed out that �modality- aspects association� can be realized with some tense-aspect forms of Russian verbs, or infinitives, or imperatives, or subjunctive forms of Russian verbs [33]. Zhang Jia-hua analyzed the functional and semantic category of Russian verbs [38]. Yang Ming-tian (2000) focused on the subjective modal meaning of both perfective and imperfective verbs [39]. Deng Ying studied the subjective modal meaning of Russian verbs on given occasions and she also studied the presupposition meaning of aspects of Russian verbs from the perspectives of pragmatics or cognitive linguistics [40].

At the core of the present paper is the notion that, through translation, the image of the government is constructed differently across different countries. Russia is one of the superpowers and also one of the important neighbors and strategic partners of China. With the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative, many researchers have conducted research on China image in Russia [41-47]. However, their research has been done from historical, philosophical, cultural and immigration perspectives. There is scant research on the image of China through the analysis of institutional discourse in Russian to the best knowledge of author of this paper.

Literature review mentioned above indicates that a further interface study of China image reflected in Russian translation is needed in terms of corpus-based CDA and Russian verb aspects. For CDA, two questions are raised: what are the linguistic features in RVRC compared with non-translational texts and source texts? What are the ideological factors that underlie such linguistic features? For Russian verb aspects, three questions are raised: how many modal meanings do Russian verbs (both perfective and imperfective) have? What are the high-frequency verbs (and their aspects) in the RVRC? What are the ideological features reflected by those verbs (their collocates)?

2. Methodology 3.1. Database

Institutional discourse is the primary concern in CDA. Data in the current research are from two reports: The Report on the Work of the Government (China) (2008-2017) (the Report) and ����� � ������� (Russia) (2008-2017) (hereafter R-Report). Ten years of the Report and their Russian versions constitute parallel corpora while 10-year R-reports, comparable corpora with each year's report being a separate corpus respectively. Annotations have been done in terms of meta-texts, part of speech and verb aspects. Software ICTCLAS is employed to segment Chinese words, which is complemented by manual check. Details of corpora are in Table 1.

Fig. 1 Table 1 Details of the Corpora

Table 1 shows that there are slightly more Russian words in parallel corpora than in comparable corpora but the difference is small. Moreover, years of the reports are the same. In this way, we can make the data elicited from these corpora comparable.

Research procedure

�Aspect in Russian is also a functional-semantic category referring to movement features and distribution features of an action. Such features can be realized through morphology, word formation, lexical-semantic or syntactical devices� [40, p. 47]. Usually, a Russian verb consists of perfective and imperfective that constitute a pair of aspects (������� ����). Each aspect has its constant aspect meaning and variant aspect meaning. Verb aspects in translational texts may be different from their counterparts in non- translational texts or source texts. Collocates of high-frequency verbs (their aspects) in TT demonstrate evaluative prosodies.

This paper will:

1) numerate, then compare Russian verbs (two aspects) in RVRC and R-reports and try to disclose ideological meanings hidden in different aspects with the help of modal connotations of Russian verb aspects. Meanwhile, aspects of high- frequency verbs will be discussed to reveal social distance and power relationships between speakers and listeners;

2) talk about the equivalence of the verb aspects in TT to the annotated verb aspects in ST in order to expose the ideological meaning embodied in aspect choices in the translation process;

3) extract high-frequency verbs and their collocates in TT so as to find China's concerns, outline the semantic framework in China's propaganda in Russia and disclose the ideological denotation.

3. Intra-lingual comparison of aspects in two Reports

As mentioned above, we have annotated Russian verbs in both RVRC and R-reports. With ParaConc, we figured out the distributions of two aspects in two corpora as shown in Table 2 and Figure 1 respectively.

Table 1 Aspects distribution in two corpora

Years	RVRC		R-report
	imperfective	perfective	imperfective	perfective
2008	689	256	256	423
2009	760	324	245	368
2010	458	231	232	411
2011	781	381	228	378
2012	766	242	229	344
2013	484	242	305	425
2014	498	251	317	432
2015	615	288	218	376
2016	587	308	352	363
2017	724	277	287	423
Total	6362	2800	2669	3943

RVC-Rim = imperfective verbs in RVRC; RVC-Rp = perfective verbs in RVRC;

RRim = imperfective verbs in the R-reports; RRp = perfective verbs in the R-reports

Figure 2 shows clearly that imperfective verbs (the former) outnumber perfective verbs (the latter) in RVRC, especially in years 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2017

The former is 2-3 times the latter; however, perfective verbs are more than imperfective ones in the Rreports but the difference is small and they are nearly the same in 2016. In addition, imperfective verbs in RVRC exceed both perfective verbs and imperfective verbs in the R-reports. Meanwhile, curve for it (RVC-Rim) fluctuates while the other three curves are nearly flat, which indicates that RVC-Rims are striking and will be our research focus. �The action a Russian imperfective verb indicates is unlimited and has the feature of completeness� [38]. By analyzing an imperfective verb in RVRC, we may know its modal meanings and ideological characteristics in RVRC. As usual, the Report on the Work of the Government (China) consists of four parts: Review of the work in the past year, major tasks of the government for this year, self-construction of the government itself, and diplomacy and international affairs. Through observation, most imperfective verbs occur in the second and third parts, for example: �i1�j��D���N���{�H��C�v�c���D�ȉ��O�y� ��O�C�|��a�Ð��S�Z�И�ᢓW�V���́B�c�O�S�Z�����I�B�����͌� ��C�K�{���匋�\�����v�͓x�C�������{�n�V�{��ᢓW�D���C�����B�� ���́C�ő��V���́B (1) zu�hao j�nni�n zh�ngfu g�ngzu�, y�o baw�hao yixi� s�ndi?n� d�s�n, p�iy� h� cu�sh�ng j�ngj� sh�hu� f�zh?n x�nd�ngl�. d�ngqi�n j�ngj� z�ngzh?ng de chu�ntong d�ngl� jianru�b�x� ji�d� ji�g�ux�ng gaig� l�d� ji�ku�i sh�sh� chu�ngx�n q�d�ng f�zh?n zh�nlu�, gaiz�o chu�ntong yinq�ng, daz�o x�ny?nq�ng. �-�������, �������������� ����� �������� ���� ���������-�������������� �������� (���), �������� �� ����. ������, ����� ������������ ��� �������, ���������� �������� ������������ ����������� ������, �������� ������������� ��������� �������������� ��������, ���������������� ������ � ��������� ����� ��������� ���������.

Example 1 is in the second part of the Report. In this example, there are five verbs. Except for ���������������� that can be either perfective or imperfective, the other four are imperfective. Judging by the modal meanings in general, Russian imperfective verbs can be categorized as those denoting concrete process (Group A) and those denoting infinite recursive process (Group B). Imperfective verbs denoting intention as a subcategory in Group A can be used to describe speakers' intention and desire in the process of an action. Imperfective verbs in Group B can be used to describe a regular action and to embody obligation and responsibility. Imperfective verbs in Group B also indicate that speakers have confidence in fulfilling an action. Therefore, analyses of China image implied in imperfective verbs can be done from two dimensions: 1) obligation and responsibility Such phrases as ����匋�\�����v� (to intensify structural reform) and ������ �D ��� (to boost efforts to implement strategies of�) demonstrate China's obligation and responsibility. Their Russian equivalents are imperfective verbs, indicating that Chinese government is the bearer of public welfare and interests and the government is ready to shoulder a variety of responsibilities in politics, law and administration, economy development and reform promotion. With the help of imperfective verbs, RVRC presents Russian-speaking readers with an image of a responsible government who cares most its people's welfare and interests; 2) desire and intention Example 1 shows that China has decided to develop and progress further by �innovating the traditional engines�, a desire and intention realized through imperfective verbs that are embedded in a syntactical pattern �v + complement�. This pattern demonstrates that China has a clear aim to embrace the future and has the bravery to innovate. Such pattern is brief and economical and fits the economy principle of language, which implies that China has determined to be pragmatic, to lower the cost and improve the efficiency in its administration. As for the sentence patterns, there are a lot of �infinitive sentences� (�to + v sentences�) in which imperfective verbs are embedded. In RVRC, this pattern is special and in real sense it is a complex structure denoting future without ����� (=we shall/will). More examples follow: �i2�j ���C�ێ��S�Z�^�s�|�ݍ������ԁB (2) d��r�Cbaoch� j�ngj� y�nx�ng ch�z�i h�li q�ji�n. ��-������, ���������� ���������������� ��������� � �������� ������������. (= ��-������, ����� ���������� ���������������� ��������� � �������� ������������.) �i3�j��R��暌�Ɖ��א�ƌ�暁C�R��ƔN�����x���הN��������x� (3) �y�u xi�nzh�ngh�uzh�o gaiw�i xi�nzh�oh�uzh�ng�Cy�u qiy� ni�njian zh�d� gaiw�i ni�nb�o g�ngsh� zh�d��

...������� ������� ������ ������� �� ����� �������������� �� ��������� ����������������� ����������, ������ ���� ����� �������� ������ ������ ����� ��������� ����������; �������� ����� ���������� �������������� ����� �������������� ������������� ������� ������ ������ �������� �������� �����������.

= ...����� ������� ������� ������ ������� �� ����� �������������� �� ������ ����������������� ����������, ������ ���� ����� �������� ������ ������ �� ��������� ����������; ����� �������� ����� ���������� �������������� ����� �������������� ������������� ������� ������ ������ �������� �������� �����������.

In Russian, there are two ways to express the future: compound future (that consists of the relevant form of the future tense of ���� and the imperfective infinitive) and perfective future (expressed by conjugating a perfective verb). In RVRC, compound future rather than perfective future is used for the former can express a fact in a euphemistic way while the latter is used to express a separate and concrete event in a straight and emphatic way.

In Russian, ���� has its modal meaning. Although in Russian grammar, it is regarded as an auxiliary verb in compound future, the hidden ���� in examples 2-3 equals to will. Palmer (1989) held that will can express modal future, indicating speaker's attitudes towards and opinions on propositions in a statement [48]. Halliday argued that �as for mo- dalization, must ranks the first among modal verbs when it comes to their probability and as for modulation, will ranks lower when it comes to its inclination� [49], i.e., must implies speaker's power and authority while will, speakers' inclination to be equal with listeners. In RVRC, implicit ���� rather than perfective future has been widely used because the latter implies ������ (= must). Implicit ���� succeeds in playing the interpersonal role in mediating Chinese government and its people in terms of the following aspects: 1) it helps to show that government shoulders responsibility so as to gain people's approval; 2) it helps listeners (people) to get closer to the speaker (government) emotionally so that both of them have more in common and have more empathy; 3) it helps listeners (people) to learn that the intention of the government becomes the promise, i.e., the government is willing and ready to fulfill the obligation. In this way, listeners become more and more confident in the government. Altogether, implicit ���� in RVRC helps to incorporate government's attitude, responsibility and devotion into the discourse so that a positive and favorable image of government has been created: the government is ready to struggle for people's welfare, to listen to people's appeal and to carry out its duties.

4. Inter-lingual comparison of aspects in two Reports

Aspect as an English word emerged in 1835 and derived from Slavic grammar [50]. �After its introduction into Chinese, much research has been done on Chinese verbs and findings show that Chinese can be typologically defined as an aspect prominent language and a Chinese verb always belongs to certain aspect� [51]. In Chinese, there are many devices to mark verb aspects such as �T1� (perfective aspect marker), �^� (continuous aspect marker), and �Ɣ (experiential aspect marker). In this research, we take �v+T 1� as an example to investigate the distribution of Chinese perfective verbs and their Russian counterparts as shown in Table 3.

Table 3 shows there are 282 �Chinese perfective verb + T� structures in ST among which 153 were translated into perfective verbs in the past tense and in an indicative mood. Here TT equals to ST in terms of both tense and aspect. 59 were rendered into long passive participles in the past tense with TT being equivalent to ST in aspect but some changes in modality; 70 are translated into Russian imperfective verbs in the past tense and in an indicative mood and are equivalent to ST in tense with some changes in aspect.

Table 2 Distribution of �V+T1� and their translation

ST		TT
		Perfective	Imperfective
V+Ti	Indicative mood in the past tense	Long passive participles in the past tense	Indicative mood in the past tense
282	153 (Sub-group A)	59 (Sub-group B)	70 (Sub-group C)



Translation in Sub-group A is equivalent to ST in both tense and aspect, which is a common translation practice and is not the concern in our paper. Rather, we focus on the other two sub-groups to find out the hidden ideology reflected in their partial nonequivalence translation. Although long passive participle (the former) is one of the declensions of a perfective verb, its grammatical and modal meanings differ from those of verbs (the latter) in an indicative mood for the latter denote action, process and results while the former denote features and state; so long passive participles have features and functions of adjectives [52]. For example: �i4�j��������a������416���s���R�ᓙ����� (4) �f�np� quxi�o h� xi�f�ng le 416 xi�ng x�ngzh�ng sh�np� d�ng sh�xi�ng� ��� ���� �� ������� �������� ���� �������� �� ���������� ����������� ���������� 416 ����������� ���������� ����������������� �����������. �i5�j�S��30���N���v�J���C�䚠ᢓW�������ǍD�I������b�a铐������ (5) J�nggu� 30 du� ni�n gaig� k�if�ng,wogu� f�zhan ji�nl� le li�nghao de w�zh� j�chu h� tizh� ti�oji�n� � ���������� 30 � ������ ��� ������ ������� ������� ������������ ���� � ����������� ������� ��� ������������ ��������. Results of an event that an adjective modifies tend to be constant, which even become one of the features of the event so that people feel the security and stability of the event for the results are not easy to change. Example 4 is a good case in point for long passive participle ��������� ���� �������� makes people feel that the government has delegated the power for government reviews is not a short-term action but will bring long-term welfare to the local or lower-level governments.

In this way, the image of China has been created that is far-sighted with stable development. In addition, the past tense of Russian imperfective verbs can express a concrete process, and implies that the observing time for an action is prior to the time when a speaker utters something or is in parallel to the time when an action is taking place.

The observer is also a participant of the event or an agent of the action [38]. Examples 6-7 help illustrate these points:

�i6�j������?�e�ޔƍߊ����C�����И��������������C�ی엹���ƈ��S�a�� �����S�B (6) y�nl� daj� g�l�i f�nzu� hu�d�ng qi�nghu� sh�hu� zh��n z�ngh� zh�liw�ih� le gu�ji� �nqu�n h� g�ngg�ng �nqu�n. ��������� ����������� ��������� ������������� �������, �������������� ��������������� � ������������ ������������. �i7�j�ݍ���a�͖ؗʑO�C�S���e���l���t�o���ɑ�h���C��?��?������ �ҁB (7) z�i k�nn�n h� y�l� mi�nqi�n�Cqu�ngu� g�z� r�nm�n f�ch� le j�d� x�n l�o�Cy� b� y�b� zou le gu�l�i. ����� ����� ���� ���������� � ���������� ��-�� ��� ��������� ��� ����������������� �����, �������� �������� ������, ��� �� ����� ������ ���� ����. In example 7, ������ߘҔ was translated into ������ ���� ���� (imperfective v + complement), which shows readers that the government and its people face pressure together and overcome difficulties together in their tough trip. Such translation has played the following roles: 1) it helps to show readers that the government is not only an administrator but also a participant in developing society, struggling for a better life and shouldering responsibility, which helps to bridge the gap between the government and its people and to create a positive government image of transition from an administration-oriented government to a service-oriented one; 2) imperfective verb helps to show readers the attitude of the government as a participant, to strengthen the relationship between the government and its people and to show the willingness of the government to communicate with its people equally, thereby creating a populist and flexible government image. 6. Prosodic studies on high-frequency verbs and their collocates As mentioned in Sections four and five, imperfective verbs outnumber perfective ones in the Report. So imperfective verbs are our concern when it comes to prosodic issues. The analysis is made in the theoretical framework of �extended units of meaning� [29-30]. The procedures are: 1) to retrieve high-frequency verbs first and then to extract verbs' prominent collocates in the span of L5-R5 such as direct complements of a verb or subjects of a verb ending with -��2 in RVRC; 2) to make a statistical analysis of the collocates (usually nouns) of retrieved verbs and figure out the T value of those nouns [53-54]; 3) to retrieve indirect cases of nouns with their T values?2; 4) to analyze the semantic inclination of those nouns and generalize their semantic prosodies; 5) to dwell on the semantic inclination of the collocates of high-frequency verbs so as to disclose the government image of China in RVRC. Data retrieval from RVRC yielded five imperfective verbs with high frequencies: ������������ (454), ������������(��) (375), ����������(��) (347), ������������� (283) and �������� (218). Then we extracted five prominent collocates of each of the five verbs and calculated their collocation frequencies and T values, as shown in Table 4.

Table 3 Prominent collocates of high-frequency imperfective verbs, frequency and T-values

Imperfective verbs	Prominent collocates	Frequency	Frequency with node words	T-values
	��������	794	102	9.824
������������ (454)	����	356	59	7.519
	����������	187	47	6.759
	������������	156	29	5.284
	������������	213	25	4.851
	����������	115	55	7.372
	���������	173	77	8.817
������������ (375)	���������	431	54	7.179
	����������������	141	31	5.494
	������	39	10	3.127
	�������������	320	68	8.142
����������(��) (347)	�������	746	70	8.127
	�������������	88	25	4.953
	������������	156	34	5.759
	����������	58	14	3.699
	��������	794	78	8.628
	�������	746	68	8.042
������������� (293)	����������	187	40	6.257
	������	49	21	4.558
	������������	235	26	4.995
	��������	794	59	7.491
	�������������	320	43	6.468
�������� (238)	�������	746	40	6.107
	�������������	88	31	5.538
	����������	187	35	5.858

Table 4 shows 25 nouns that are regarded as prominent collocates (with T-valu- es > 2) with node words [49]. �Semantic prosodies can be categorized as positive, neutral and negative ones� [9, p. 176]. Among five verbs (node words), ������������ and ������������(��) are neutral while the other three ����������(��), �������������, �������� are positive. Twenty-five (tokens, but 17 types) prominent collocates are all about development, reform and construction (concerns of Chinese government). We than sub-categorize them into three groups according to their semantic meanings: Group 1: development and achievement (��������, ������, ����������, ����); Group 2: economy building, reform and opening-up (�������, �������������, ���������, ����������, �������������, ������������, ����������������, ���������, ����������); and Group 3: law and social stability (������������, ������������, ������).

Let's assume that each token of verb corresponds to one collocate in RVRC. In all, there are 1707 collocates with five verbs (454 + 375 + 347 + 293 + 238) among which Group 1 account for 24 % (414) with Groups 2 and 3 being 41 % (689) and 6 % (106) respectively. And the rest of 1707 are collocates that are sporadically distributed and we label them as �others� (29 %). Figure 2 gives us a clear picture of their distribution:

Fig. 3 Distribution of collocates of highfrequency verbs



Figure 2 shows the biggest part is Group 2 in which collocates are all about reform, economy building and reforms at all levels. Here are some examples: ��������������� �������� ����������� � ��� �������; ���������� ����������� ������� ������� ��������; ���������� ���������������� �������������, ������������, ����������, ���������� � ������������������ �������������. Meanwhile, corresponding verbs are all of positive semantic prosodies, which demonstrates that reform and construction are of the top priority in the eyes of the government. What's more, Chinese government will deepen, promote, strengthen reform and construction in the future. In addition, development is also the key concern of the government for there are many �v + complement� structures involving development (positive prosody) such as ������������ ���������� � �������� �������� ���������; ������������� �������� ������� � ����� ������. Finally, opening-up, law and social stability have also been the key concerns of the government.

Analyses of prominent collocates and �v + complement� structures in RVRC help to create a positive and favorable image of China: sticking to building economy, implementing the policy of reform and opening-up, safeguarding social stability, strengthening the legal system and focusing on the national economy and people's welfare. From RVRC, Russian readers can feel China's determination to promote its economic development and feel its achievements, which is also the same concern of both the public and sinologists in current Russia. �Sinologists in Russia believe that China has been the third largest economy power� [55]. Chinese economy is also one of the key concerns among sinologists and economy researchers in Russia for Chinese economy development has offered new insights for Russian economy (now in transformation). �Russian sinologists also believe that China, after giving up the former USSR developing mode, has been a successful example in improving its economy by great leaps and bounds� [56]. Therefore, compared with Western views, the image of China in Russia is more positive, successful, and pragmatic. Many Russian people hold that Russia should learn from China and draw lessons from China. Such good image of China should be in part attributable to prominent collocates and �v + complement� structures in RVRC.



Conclusions

chinese lingual verb translation

The current paper, on the basis of self-compiled parallel corpora of the Report on the Work of the Government (China) (2008-2017), has explored the image of China as it is reflected in the Russian version of the Report from the perspectives of intra-lingual comparison, inter-lingual contrast and distributions of high-frequency Russian verbs (their collocates) and their semantic prosodies. It concludes that Russian version of the Report has projected a positive and successful image of China.

1) More imperfective verbs are used in Russian version of the Report on the Work of the Government (China) than in the Report on the Work of the Government (Russia). The modal meanings of imperfective verbs have projected a positive image of China that is ready to embrace the future with a clear aim and is ready to shoulder the responsibility and to listen to people's appeal;

2) A large number of �perfective verb + T � structures in ST has been translated into long passive participles and imperfective verbs in TT, two forms whose modal meanings help to present readers with a flexible and populist image of China that is willing to strive with its people for a better future;

3) Certain high-frequency imperfective verbs in RVRC stand out. Semantic prosodies of these verbs and their collocates have revealed the concerns of Chinese government and the image that Chinese government hopes to show to Russian readers; semantic classification of those verbs and collocates shows readers that China is a good and successful example of sticking to building economy and focusing on national welfare and people's livelihood.



References

1. Fairclough N. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London; New York, Longman, 1995.

2. Fairclough, N., Mulderrig, J., Wodak, R. Critical Discourse Analysis. In: van Dijk, T. A. (ed). Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. London, Sage, 2011, pp. 537-631.

3. Widdowson H. G. Discourse analysis: a critical view. Language and Literature, 1995a, vol. 4, 3, pp. 157-172.

4. Widdowson H. G. Review of Fairclough: Discourse and Social Change. Applied Linguistics, 1995b, vol. 16, 4, pp. 510-516.

5. Stubbs M. Whorf's children: critical comments on critical discourse analysis: In Ryan, A., Wray A. (Eds). Evolving Models of Language. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters; BAAL, 1997.

6. Toolan M. What is critical discourse analysis and why are people saying such terrible things about it? Language and Literature, 1997, vol. 6, 2, pp. 83-103.

7. Stubbs M., Gerbig A. Human and inhuman geography: On the computer-assisted analysis of long texts. In: M. Hoey (ed.) Data, Description, Discourse. London, Harper-Collins, 1993, pp. 64-85.

8. Hardt-Mautner G. Only connect critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. University of Lancaster. Available at: http://ucrel.Lancs.ac.UK/papers/techpaper/vol 6.pdf. (accessed: 05.06.2019).

9. Stubbs M. Text and corpus analysis: Computer-assisted Studies of Language and Culture. Oxford, Blackwell, 1996.

10. Baker P. A Useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse and Society, 2008, vol. 3, pp. 273-306.

11. Fairclough N. New Labor, New Language? London, Routledge, 2000.

12. Flowerdew J. Identity politics and Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty: analyzing the discourse of Hong Kong's first chief executive. Journal of Pragmatics, 2004, vol. 9, pp. 1551-1578.

13. Orpin D. Corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis: examining the ideology of sleaze. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 2005, vol. 10, 3, pp. 7-61.

14. Partington A. The Linguistics of Political Argument: The Spin-doctor and the Wolf-pack at the White House. London; New York, Routledge, 2003.

15. Vessey R. Corpus Approaches to Language Ideology. Applied Linguistics, 2017, vol. 38, 3, pp. 277296.

16. Xu Jun. Fanyilun [On Translation]. Wuhan, Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe, 2003. 215 p. (In Chinese)

17. Lefevere A. Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame. London; New York, Routledge, 1992. 8 p.

18. Zhuang Rou-yu. Lun duoyuan xitong lilun yanjiu fanyi de yishi xingtai de juxian [Limitations of translation ideology research from the perspective of polysystem theory]. Translation Quarterly, 2000, vol. 16, 17. 123 p. (In Chinese)

19. Chen De-hong, Zhang Nan-feng. Xifang fanyi lilun jingxuan [Selected Readings of Western Translation Theories]. Hongkong, Xianggang chengshi daxue chubanshe, 2000. (In Chinese)

20. Hu Kai-bao, Li Xiao-qian. Yuliaoku piping yixue [Corpus-based critical translation studies: Connotations and implications]. Zhongguo waiyu, 2015, vol. 1, pp. 90-100. (In Chinese)

21. Stubbs M., Gerbig A. Human and inhuman geography: On the computer-assisted analysis of long texts. In: M. Hoey (ed.) Data, Description, Discourse. London, Harper-Collins, 1993, pp. 64-85.

22. Tang Li-ping. Yuliaoku yuyanxue zai piping huayu fenxi zhong de zuowei kongjian [The potentials of corpus linguistics in strengthening critical discourse analysis]. Waiguoyu. 2011, vol. 4, pp. 43-49. (In Chinese)

23. Guo Song. Jiyu yuliaoku de piping huayu fenxi [Corpus-based critical discourse analysis]. Tianjin waiguoyu daxue xuebao, 2011, vol. 8, pp. 12-17. (In Chinese)

24. Zhang Shu-jing. Yuliaoku zai piping huayu fenxi zhong de zuoyong [The application of corpus to critical discourse analysis]. Zhengzhou daxue xuebao, 2014, vol. 3, pp. 130-133. (In Chinese)

25. Zhu Xiao-min. Piping huayu fenxi shijiaoxia de �Zhengfu gongzuo baogao� yingyi yanjiu -- jiyu yuliaoku de diyi rencheng daici fushu kaocha [Corpus-based critical discourse analysis of English version of the Report on the Work of Government-with a case of first pronoun plural]. Waiyu yanjiu, 2011, vol. 2, pp. 73-79. (In Chinese)

26. Tang Li-ping. Meiguo dabaozhi zhongguo xingxiang de yuliaoku yuyanxue fangfa fuzhuxia de piping huayu fenxi [Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis of China Image in the US Prestigious Newspaper]. Beijing, Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe, 2016, pp. 43-49. (In Chinese)

27. Qian Yu-fang, Tian Hai-long. Huayu yu zhongguo shehui bianqian: yi zhengfu gongzuo baogao weili [Discourse and social changes in China with a case of the Report on the Work of the Government]. Waiyu yu waiyu jiaoxue, 2011, vol. 3, pp. 40-43. (In Chinese)

28. Shao Bin, Hui Zhi-ming. Xifang meiti shiyeli de �zhongguomeng� -- yixiang jiyu yuliaoku de piping huayu fenxi [Corpus-based critical discourse analysis of China Dream in the western media]. Waiyu yanjiu, 2014, vol. 6, pp. 28-33. (In Chinese)

29. Sinclair J. New evidence, new priorities, new attitudes. In: Sinclair, J. (ed). How to Use Corpora in Language Teaching. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2004, pp. 271-299.

30. Sinclair J., Carter R. Trust the Text: Language Corpus and Discourse. London, Routledge, 2004.

31. Hu Jiang. Yiyi danwei yu piping huayu fenxi -- jiyu yuliaoku de xifang meiti shehua junshi baodao yishi xingtai fenxi [Meaning units and critical discourse analysis: Corpus-based study on China-related military report in the Western media]. Jiefangjun waiguoyu xueyuan xuebao, 2016, vol. 5, pp. 73-81. (In Chinese)

32. Bondarko A. V. Theory on Functional Grammar, Tense, Aspect and Mood. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1990. (In Russian)

33. Shelyakin M. A. Connection between Mood and Aspect. Teoriya funkcional'noi grammatiki. Temporal'nost'. Modal'nost'. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1990, pp. 110-122. (In Russian)

34. Wang Li. Zhongguo xiandai yufa [Modern Chinese Grammar]. Beijing, Shangwu yinshuguan, 1943/1985. (In Chinese)

35. Lu Shu-xiang. Zhongguo wenfa yaolue [A Gist of Chinese Grammar]. Beijing, Shangwu yinshuguan, 1944; 1982. (In Chinese)

36. Gao Ming-kai. Hanyu yufalun [Chinese Grammar]. Beijing, Shangwu yinshuguan, 1948; 2011. (In Chinese)

37. Dai Yao-jing. Xiandai huanyu shiti yanjiu [ Tense and Aspect Systems in Modern Chinese]. Hangzhou, Zhejiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1997. (In Chinese)

38. Zhang Jia-hua. Xiandai eyu tixue [Modern Russian Stylistics]. Beijing, Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe, 2004. (In Chinese)

39. Yang Ming-tian. Dongci biaoda de zhuguan qingtai yiyi [Subjective and modal meanings embodied in Russian verbs]. Zhongguo eyu jiaoxue, 2000, vol. 4, pp. 32-37. (In Chinese)

40. Deng Ying. Shilun eyu tifanchou de zhuguanxing jiqi dui eyu jiaoxue de qishi [Subjectivity of Russian verb aspects and implications for Russian teaching]. Waiyuyanjiu, 2011, vol. 2, pp. 46-51. (In Chinese)

41. Af Lukin. Eguoxiang kan zhongguolong: 17-20 shiji zhongguo zai eluosi de xingxiang [China (17th- 20th centuries) in the Eyes of Russian]. Chongqin, Chongqing chubanshe, 2007. (In Chinese)

42. Li Sui-an. Zhongguo yu eluosi: guojia xingxiang zhi bijiao [A comparative study on country image of China and Russia]. Xiboliyayanjiu, 2007, vol. 4, pp. 53-55. (In Chinese)

43. Qiang Xiao-yun. Shilun guoji yimin yu guojia xingxiang de guanlianxing -- yi zhongguo zai eluosi de guojia xingxiang weili de yanjiu [Correlation between international immigrants and country image with a case of China image in the eyes of Russian]. Shehui kexue, 2008, vol. 7, pp. 62-68. (In Chinese)

44. Sun Fang. Eluosi de zhongguo xingxiang [China Image in Russia]. Beijing, Renmin chubanshe, 2010. (In Chinese)

45. Li Wei. Eluosi yanzhong de zhongguo -- yingxiang zai e zhongguo xingxiang de wenhua yinsu fenxi [Cultural factors affecting the image of China in the eyes of Russian]. Guowai shehui kexue, 2011, vol. 1, pp. 91-96. (In Chinese)

46. Shen Ying, Wu Gang. Eluosi quyu meiti zhong de zhongguo xingxiang -- yi �zhoubao�, �shiyejie�, �wulaer zhengzhiwang� baodao weili [China image in Russian media with cases of State Newspaper, Entrepreneurship and Ural Politics Web]. Eluosi dongou zhongya yanjiu, 2013, vol. 1, pp. 17-22. (In Chinese)

47. Zhu Jing-tao, Shi Ya-jun. Eluosi shehui yulun zhong zhongguo xingxiang renzhi de �erlv beipan� -- yi jinnian e shehua mindiao wei kaocha wenben [Antinomies in understanding China image in Russian media with cases of China-related survey in Russia]. Wuhan daxue xuebao (zhexue shehui kexueban), 2015, vol. 1, pp. 103-108. (In Chinese)

48. Palmer F. The English Verb. London, Longman, 1989.

49. Halliday M. A. K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London, Arnold, 1994; 2000, pp. 88-91.

50. Chen Qian-rui. Dangdai timao lilun yu hanyu sicengji de timao xitong [On the Aspectual Theories and the Four-level Chinese Aspectual System]. Xanyu xuebao, 2005, vol. 3, pp. 20-28. (In Chinese)

51. Shang Xin. Yinghan ti fanchou duibi yanjiu [A Contrastive Study on English and Chinese Aspectual Categories]. Shanghai, Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 2007. (In Chinese)

52. Wang Ya-min. Hanyu dongtai xingrongci yu eyu xingdongci bijiao yanjiu [Contrastive Study on Dynamic Adjectives in Chinese and Adjective Verbs in Russian]. Xibei shida xuebao (shehui kexueban), 1997, vol. 3, pp. 103-106. (In Chinese)

53. Wei Nai-xing. Yuyi yun yanjiu de yiban fangfa [Approaches to studying semantic prosodies. Foreign]. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu, 2002, vol. 4, pp. 300-307. (In Chinese)

54. Tao Yuan, Hu Gu-ming. Zhishi dongci yuyi yun fanyi yanjiu -- jiyu ehan pingxiang yuliaolu de zhuanye wenben [Research on Semantic Prosody of Causative Verbs in Academic Texts from Russian- Chinese Parallel Corpora]. Wuhan daxue xuebao, 2015, vol. 1, pp. 119-124. (In Chinese)

55. Vasyukhin O. V., He W. Economic Development in China. Problemy i perspektivy ekonomiki i upravleniia: materialy III Mezhdunar. nauch. konf. St. Petersburg, Zanevskaya Square Publ., 2014, pp. 230231. (In Russian)

56. Zhiguleva V. V From plan to market, the PRC experience in the reform of the pricing system (19782005). Moscow, Publishing house RAS, 2006. (In Russian)

��������� �� Allbest.ru

...