Pragmatics is an extremely down-to-earth linguistic discipline despite having complex theories. It has made tremendous progress in theory and application in the last decade, as evidenced by the clear trends toward paying more attention to the use of language in various social contexts and using relevant theories from other disciplines more frequently to conduct interdisciplinary research. In addition, greater importance is being attached to social constructivism in the study of transdisciplinary issues such as linguistic politeness, face, identity, stance, image, and trust, as well as more emphasis being placed on integrating the perspectives of multiple subjects, such as speakers, listeners, bystanders, and commentators, in the analysis of interactions. Furthermore, more stress is being placed on the integration of multi-contextual factors, such as the communicative context, the sequential context/co-text, and the sociocultural context, as well as on a preference for qualitative research or a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, and the use of multimodal discourse analyses.

Due to the influence of constructivism and post-structuralism, the “linguistic turn” began to appear at the forefront of international politics and international relations studies in the late 1980s. As a powerful discourse strategy, the constructive role of metaphors in political news discourse has gradually attracted attention in academic circles. By drawing on Charteris-Black’s (2004) theory of critical metaphor analysis, this paper analyzes the metaphors with “TPP” and “US Withdrawal from TPP” as target domains in the reports on “US Withdrawal from TPP” by mainstream media in the US, thus revealing the ideological meaning and biases hidden in these reports and analyzing their constructive impacts on social cognition. The results revealed that, although the impact of US withdrawal from TPP on China is multifaceted, the US media use metaphors to emphasize the favorable impact of this event on China while concealing its adverse impact on China, and to promote the “China threat theory”. Through the use of metaphors, the US media attempt to persuade readers to construct a certain mental model about this event. By repeatedly using these metaphors to convey the same point of view, the US media intend to strengthen the mental model constructed by the readers in order to promote the construction of a relevant social context model, and to achieve the purpose of influencing the public’s views and constructing reality. In light of this, domestic media should use media resources effectively in order to impact the agenda setting and to establish its own discourse system in the international community.

Research methods in translation studies are derived but distinct from traditional humanistic research methods. Research methods in translation studies fall into three levels in the hierarchy of all methods: philosophical methods at the macro level, general methods at the meso level and specific methods at the micro level, each of which belongs to corresponding methodological systems. Philosophical methods guide and constrain the other two types. General methods enrich philosophical ones from the bottom to the top and expand specific ones from the top to the bottom. Philosophical methods include universal connection methods, development methods and contradiction analysis methods. General methods consist of two sub-types: dialectical thinking methods include analytical and synthetic methods, inductive and deductive methods, qualitative and quantitative methods, a combination of macroscopic and microscopic methods, methods of consistency between history and logic, and abstract-to-concrete methods; systems science methods include those adopted in systems theory, information theory, cybernetics, dissipation theory, synergy theory and mutation theory. Specific methods, which are the largest in number, can be directly operated and used.

This paper adopts the perspective of deliberate metaphor theory, an emerging theory of cognitive metaphor, to examine 34 of President Xi Jinping’s by-lined overseas articles from 2014 to 2018 as a corpus to elaborate on the top leader’s diplomatic concepts in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Through a comparison of Chinese and English texts, this paper aims to investigate the translators’ understanding of deliberate metaphors in the diplomatic ideas and translation strategies employed. This paper attempts to contribute to extending President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic views that are reconstructed by interpreters for target text readers in a panoramic way to truly clarify China’s diplomatic views and attitudes. The goals are to promote friendly relations among countries and for the world to develop in a climate of peace and stability.

In this paper, the author, as the initiator of the theory of Translator Behavior Criticism, answers researchers’ questions concerning the possible origins, causes, and the applications of the theory. For its applications, the author specifically takes the analytic hierarchy process to be the method in order to get the theory improved and the studies strengthened through theory carding, doubts clearing and collaborative learning.

Due to the continuous improvement of China’s international influence, China’s national image has gradually become one of the focuses of current research. As media discourse plays an important role in shaping a national image, the proportion of media discourse in the research on China’s national image is increasing. Based on the relevant reports on the Sino-US trade war in the mainstream media in China and the US, this paper analyzes the metaphorical construction of China’s image in the media discourse in China and the US by applying Charteris-Black’s method of critical metaphor analysis, which includes the three stages of metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation, and metaphor explanation. The study revealed that the media in China and the media in the US differ in the choice of the metaphors used to construct China’s image. While the American media use more war metaphors than the Chinese media, the Chinese media use more game metaphors than the American media, which is sound proof of the tendency for the American media to choose to antagonize trade disputes while the Chinese media opt to resolve trade disputes by means of healthy competition. Furthermore, the media in the two countries tend to construct different images of China by using different conceptual metaphors: American media construct negative images of China, such as the “enemy of US” that “harms the interests of US”, while the Chinese media manage to establish a positive image as a “win-win partner” that pursues peaceful development.

Processability theory has undergone more than 20 years of development since 1998. Although it is one of the most influential theoretical models that explains the general laws and processes of second language (L2) acquisition, it has not yet received sufficient attention in China. This study first introduces lexical-functional grammar as the theoretical basis of processability theory, followed by the development process and main content, including the development stages, processing procedures, and the conditions of language transfer. A review and an evaluation of its application in the acquisition of L2 Chinese is then presented. The advantages and disadvantages of processability theory are then discussed. Processability theory focuses on the operating mechanisms for language processing and language ability in the brain, but predicting the developmental sequence of L2 acquisition via processability theory is not sufficient, as it minimizes the role of L1 transfer and does not consider the impact of semantic information on defining the stage of syntactic structure. Finally, the development trends of processability theory are discussed, and some directions for future research are suggested.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the debate between the poet and critic Khodasevich and Adamovich lasted for ten years, which constituted the most important public event in the Russian poetry circle of Paris. The main content of the debate between the two critics included the evaluation of emigre poetry, the inheritance of traditional Russian poetry, the writing enlightenment of the younger generation of emigre poets, etc., and the classic literary style represented by Pushkin and the new poetry represented by the “Paris Tone” style have become the main focus of debate. In essence, the ten-year controversy reflects the general creative anxiety of the emigre poets and the realistic dilemma they faced in terms of identity. It also reflects the overall cultural crisis in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

As a new NLP machine learning model with an extensive ability to produce content, ChatGPT has the potential to transform traditional translation teaching models. However, ChatGPT may also decrease students’ ability to learn autonomously, may undermine teacher-student relationships, damage academic integrity and knowledge security, and lead to ethical and ideological risks. In order to address the challenges and to make full use of ChatGPT in the teaching of translation, it is necessary to change the traditional way of teaching, to reform the teaching process, to improve students’ ability to learn autonomously, to increase education in translation ethics, to control ideological risks, and to enhance teachers and students’ digital literacy.

Interactional linguistics (IL), a research methodology in linguistics, has attracted a significant amount of attention in China in recent years. As a conversation analysis (CA)-informed research methodology, IL is closely aligned with and is directly related to CA. This paper first introduces the theoretical foundations, the research objectives, and the research procedures in IL, and then takes On the Functions of Compromising Response via Haoba — Towards an Interactional Linguistic Approach by Zheng Juanman (2018) as an example to reveal some of the problems in Zheng’s research so as to highlight the necessity of adopting correct ways to conduct empirical research based on the IL framework. We hope that our fellow researchers will strictly adhere to the principles of IL, master the correct research methods of IL, and conduct objective, scientific and convincing IL empirical research.

Starting from the divergence and convergence of the current linguistic, socio-cultural, and cognitive paradigms of Translation Studies and drawing on the research of Social Cognition, this article introduces the concept, question and methodology of Socio-cognitive Translation Studies. It is proposed that translation be viewed as social cognition, that is, an interlingual operation shaped by the translator’s perception, interpretation, and conceptualization of the social world. Facilitated by the conceptual tools, theoretical and methodological models of Social Cognition, this combinatory approach may help to reach a more inclusive and coherent account for the ontology and methodology of Translation Studies, to raise some new questions meaningful both theoretically and practically, and to shed some new light on the research of the translator’s behavior.

Discourse is both a social practice and a cognitive psychological process. The basic framework of any social political activity is an intrinsic cognitive mechanism, particularly with regard to political activities of which linguistic activities are the main part. Therefore, it is necessary to include cognitive linguistic theory in the discourse analysis of social politics, and to combine the cognitive aspects of language with social politics. The hidden ideology behind language can be revealed by analyzing the cognitive mechanisms in the human brain. Based on Chilton’s neuro-cognitive model, this paper presents an analysis of the remarks made by former U.S. Vice-president Pence regarding the administration’s policy toward China in 2018 under the guidance of discourse space theory and image schema theory. The research findings suggested that China was positioned as a negative entity in the peripheral area of the discourse space. By further investigating the CONTAINER-PATH image schema used in the speech, we found that China was constructed as an intruder that encroached on American interests, and as a barrier to free internal development. This paper presents a cognitive discourse analysis of political discourse based on the combination of image schema and discourse space theory. Audiences can understand the power and ideology behind discourse practice and how this controls discourse more clearly, which will enable them to form the habit of critical thinking and to explore the truth objectively.

This article examines the newest trends in the study of metaphors, similes, and metonymies, as well as their interaction in the theoretical framework of relevance theory (RT). The continuity hypothesis pertaining to the loose use of language has been criticized. RT scholars are attempting to explain metaphors and metonymies by combining RT and theories drawn from cognitive linguistics; similes could be analyzed via the explanatory mechanism of an ad hoc concept, but the function of the pragmatic markers of similes remains undetermined, and the interaction of metaphors and metonymies could be investigated by studying the lexical use of opposite compounds and noun-noun compounds. There could be defects in the above-mentioned explanatory RT mechanisms, which entails RT scholars’ continuous investigations. This study will not only reveal the newest trends in the research on metaphors, similes, and metonymies from the perspective of RT, but will also provide insights to broaden the extent of the research and the scope of application of RT.

This paper, which traces the origin and research status of corpus-based translation studies, highlights the disadvantages of current corpus-based translation studies, and proposes that translation studies based on multilingual corpora should be conducted to expand and deepen corpus-based translation studies. It is argued that the main topics in translation studies that are based on multilingual corpora include translation universals, translation norms, translation units, and translation strategies and methods. Translation studies that are based on multilingual corpora will not only overcome the limitations of the current corpus-based translation studies that rely excessively on monolingual or bilingual corpora and expand corpus-based translation studies, but will also provide an important basis for the study of translation theory that will have universal significance and will promote the development of general translation studies.

Intersubjectivity refers to sharing the experiences of emotion, perception, and language among more than two participants. Language is not only rooted in our bodies, but also in society and intersubjectivity. The paper shows that, when we explain the cognitive foundation of semantics, cognitive linguistics pursues the principle of individualization, thus failing to resolve the contradiction between embodiment and intersubjectivity. In order to address this research gap, we need to borrow ideas from phenomenology. Zlatev proposed the concept of embodied intersubjectivity, which combines embodiment and intersubjectivity as two complementary aspects of the same phenomenon. According to this point of view, speakers and hearers produce “cognitive coordination” together; in linguistic communication, speakers invite hearers to participate in the inferences evoked by linguistic expression, thus altering the cognitive system of hearers and modulating their common ground accordingly. Normal linguistic usages not only have informative functions, but also have “argumentative” functions. Therefore, speakers can influence others’ minds, attitudes, stances, and spontaneous actions through language. Critical cognitive linguistics reflects intersubjectivity because the former is concerned with linguistic usages and their associated conceptual structures, as well as the ideological and legitimating functions these conceptual structures have in speech situations; in other words, people’s ideologies, stances, ideas, points of view, and the acceptability thereof are affected by language. Critical cognitive linguistics can remedy the omission of sociality and intersubjectivity, and can embody “the social turn” in cognitive linguistics.

This paper adopts the perspective of lexico-constructional pragmatics to consider pun of traditional rhetoric as a pun trigger, and regards pun in the true sense of the term as a pun construction. In terms of sound, form, meaning, and effect which are four essential pragma-rhetorical parameters, pun constructions fall into three categories: the {X + same sound, same form, varied meaning and effect + X} pun construction, the {X + same/similar sound, similar form, varied meaning and effect + X} pun construction, and the {X + same/similar sound, varied form meaning and effect + X} pun construction. With regard to pragmatic effects, it is found that in addition to what has been addressed in earlier studies, such as humor, novelty, and association, pun construction can be employed to present the rhetor’s emotional attitudes, to circumvent excessive frankness, to deliberately misinterpret an utterance, or to downplay embarrassment. The paper also addresses semantico-pragmatic ambiguity, inheritance, networks, and the pragma-rhetorical effects of pun constructions.

Henan Province, which is located in the hinterland of Zhong Yuan or the Central Plains, has undergone a magnificent transformation during the twentieth century, and has produced 160 translators who have contributed to the development of the region. This study combined internal and external methods of translation history, and collected and clarified the biographical information about Henan translators and the materials for their translations with the aim of investigating the collective characteristics of this group and their relationship with their native land. By objectively evaluating the historical contribution and social status of this group, this paper intends to call on present and future translators to continue their undertakings with a view to shedding light on the training of regional translators and foreign language researchers, and on telling “the Yellow River stories” and the “Henan stories”.

The concept of the metaverse has gradually become a hot topic among scholars, and relevant research on the metaverse is developing accordingly. Some scholars have predicted that the era of the metaverse is imminent. This paper first introduces the concept, the origin, and the related studies of the metaverse, followed by an elaboration of the development of language services from the perspective of the metaverse, particularly the research into the digital language services in the metaverse in China. Based on this, the paper presents suggestions for language services that employ metaverse technologies, as well as the problems to be solved in areas such as humanist ethics, resource development, and regulations during the integration of these two items. This paper will be of benefit to studies related to the metaverse and to digital language services in China.

The enclosure movement, which reached its peak during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain, had a dramatic effect on the ecological system and the lives of people in rural areas. Two of George Crabbe’s poems, The Village and The Borough, are representative of rural writing in Britain at the turn of eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, Crabbe adopts an anti-pastoral mode to reveal the reality of rural poverty resulting from the ever-expanding enclosure movement. His work is different from that of the Neoclassicist pastoral poets’ merry representations of pastoral scenes, as well as from that of sentimentalist poets’ images of the “good old days”. By adopting the perspective of the relationship between the enclosure movement and the two selected poems, this paper will investigate the reasons for the ecological deterioration in rural areas, the uneven distribution of wealth, the moral degradation in the countryside, and the expanding impact of the enclosure movement, which led to the polarization of social classes and corruption in politics. Unfortunately, Crabbe’s name remains unknown to most readers today, largely due to the difficulty in identifying his achievements as a result of him not being associated with any particular literary school. In fact, certain types of critical realism pervade Crabbe’s poems, particularly his criticisms of the enclosure movement, although his attacks on this movement are indirect. The present paper also mentions the phenomena of peasants being pirates and village prostitutes, as well as fake elections and the description of early workhouses in Britain, which have significance for the study of history to some extent. Furthermore, since George Crabbe is not well known in China, it is hoped that this paper will increase Chinese scholars’ interest in Crabbe and inspire a new approach to the study of Crabbe’s work.

The Graeco-Arabic translation movement, which spanned the 8^th to the 10^th centuries, was one of the main events in the flourishing of Arabic culture in medieval times, and together with major translation activities in other cultures, such as Bible translations in the West and Buddhism translations in China, contributed to translation activities across the world. The Graeco-Arabic translation movement was characterized by intensive translation practices, a vast scale, lasting continuity, and a profound influence that was unprecedented in any other ethnic nation or culture. In terms of translatology, it is worth noting that the translation movement also resulted in a wealth of discourse about translation which, apart from providing contextual resources for understanding this epoch-making event, exhibits some characteristics of contemporary translation theories. However, this treasure has generally been neglected in academic circles, and its historical and theoretical significance has largely been hidden from sight. In view of the philosophy of generating discourse about translation, two representatives of a group of translators during this period, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Al-Jāḥiẓ, were selected and an interpretation of their remarks about translation is offered with reference to contemporary translation theories, with the aim of presenting Arabic scholars’ generalizations and deliberations about translation activities, thus providing the opportunity for interactions concerning discourse on translation among various cultures worldwide.

Drawing on the notion of affiliation in systemic functional linguistics, this paper presents a theoretical framework for positive discourse analysis, and examines the ecological civilization in microblogging discourse via a corpus-based approach and close discourse analysis. The research identifies and summarizes four types of ecological civilization topics, five aspects of ecological civilization construction, and the most influential microbloggers in ecological discourse. It focuses on the construing function of microblogging discourse, and explores the construal of communities and the negotiation of identities. The paper introduces new ideas for positive discourse analysis and the study of community and identity, and provides a fresh perspective for the study of ecological civilization and microblogging discourse.

Wang Rongpei is a renowned contemporary translator of Chinese classics. He has translated more than 60 Chinese classical works in his lifetime, among which eight works, including Shijing, have been selected for inclusion in the Library of Chinese Classics due to their outstanding contributions to the English translation of Chinese classics. Based on the English-Chinese parallel corpus of Shijing, WordSmith was used to investigate Wang Rongpei’s translation style on both the lexical and the syntactic levels by comparing his English translation of Shijing to the English versions by Legge, Pound, and Xu Yuanchong. This study discusses both T-type and S-type translator styles, based on which the interpretation of the motivations is proposed. While reflecting the translator’s style directly by using the statistical data of corpus, exploring the translator’s style by considering the source text is helpful for revealing the essence of translation objectively and comprehensively.

Pragmatics and translation studies experienced enduring development from 1988 to 2020. These two disciplines interact and intertwine with each other, and have become stronger by supporting and supplementing each other over time. Based on the core periodicals of CNKI, this study used Microsoft Excel and CiteSpace visualization software to present a review of translation studies over the past thirty years (1988 to 2020) from the perspective of pragmatics. The review involved aspects such as the annual publication volume, the research methods, the periodical publication volume, the publishing author, the research focus, and the research features. The results revealed that, after a long period of development, pragmatics-based translation studies have entered a period of stable development with a decreasing number of works being published. In addition, the published research focused on the theoretical constructions and theoretical applications of relevance theory. Moreover, the features of translation studies based on pragmatics are tremendous progress in interpreting studies, in-depth developments in translation strategy studies, and the broad research scope of translation studies. However, while pragmatics-based translation studies mainly involve humanistic research, empirical research only accounts for a small portion. This paper aims to provide references for future pragmatics-based translation studies by providing a review of the previous research.

Conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy are high-level human cognitive working mechanisms concerning experiences while ideational grammatical metaphor focuses on lexical-grammatical expressions of the concepts processed by the high-level cognitive mechanisms. This paper presents a realization framework of ideational grammatical metaphor through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. The conceptual meaning expressed in the grammatical metaphorical form can be realized through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. The conceptual meaning expressed via conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy motivates the realization of ideational grammatical metaphors. In ideational grammatical metaphor, conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy are the main cognitive mechanisms with the changes in process, rank, and form.

The novel Der Tod in Venedig by Thomas Mann depicts the crisis experienced by the writer Aschenbach at the beginning of the twentieth century and his failed attempt to find a new way. The protagonist’s experiences exemplify the searching and dilemmas of artists at the end of the century. By also considering other works by Thomas Mann, this paper analyzes the causes of the artist’s crisis in this novel and the reason that it cannot eventually be overcome according to two aspects, namely the influence of the success morality in civil society on artists and the liberating effect of decadence on the nature of artists. An artist has two opposing instincts, namely creative self-control and destructive indulgence. Influenced by success morality, the two opposing instincts can be seen as “the heroism born of weakness” in Aschenbach, or decadence. Exerting his self-control, Aschenbach devotes himself to art and pursues morality and form rather than knowledge, which leads to rigidity in his work. Drawing on mythology, Aschenbach turns to Eros to escape the crisis in his life and work; the artist’s indulgence is expressed completely via the influence of decadence, and ultimately causes his death. The opposition of the two instincts in artists causes decadent artists to be unable to overcome decadence and to become heroes to save the time.

Tyou-renga, which dated from the Heian Period, is the most representative Japanese Waka. Although there are several papers on Tyou-renga in Chinese academic circles, not one has addressed Tyou-renga and its Chinese translation to date. With the aim of enriching the study of this work, and based on the fundamental types and theories pertaining to the Japanese Tyou-renga, this paper focuses on the overground Seninn-renga, the underground Seninn-renga, and the Generals’ Hyakui-renga as the main objects of study. Starting with a discussion of the basic types and main theories relating to the Japanese Tyou-renga, followed by a specific analysis of the primary source information about the style, the language, the rhetoric, and the sub-text of each Tyou-renga, this paper attempts to translate all the representative Tyou-renga into Chinese based on Venuti’s theory of foreignizing translation and domesticating translations, and to solve the problem of foreignization and domestication in the Chinese translation of the Japanese Tyou-renga.

As the technology of the "metaverse+" continues to develop rapidly, it will usher in a new round of scientific and technological revolutions, and will generate unprecedented opportunities for strategic development in translation education. However, there is a lack of research on the integration of metaverse technology and translation education in academia. This paper identifies the major problems in traditional translation education, and explores the potential applications of metaverse technology to the teaching and learning of translation modes, educational resources, and teaching evaluations. Based on the latest development trends in metaverse technology and the new demands for the development of translation as a major, this paper presents three development paths for integrating metaverse technology into translation education. These are: (1) competent translation education departments that strengthen the top-level design of smart translation education and establish the collaborative mechanisms among talent cultivation units, industries, and research institutions in order to construct an innovative translation education pattern that is characterized by the coordinated efforts of the government, enterprises, universities, and research institutions; (2) promoting the awareness of translation teachers and learners regarding the principles underlying digital twins and improving their digital humanities literacy; and (3) encouraging the competent departments, colleges, universities, teachers, and learners that are involved in translation education to upgrade their thinking about smart translation education and to join hands with educational technology supporters to create a new translation education ecology. This paper concludes by urging educators to maintain a rational view of the metaverse, to remain true to the nature of translation education, and to seize the opportunities afforded by the metaverse era to reshape the landscape of translation education.

Languages are linked closely to national security, and national language security has assumed a pivotal role in the Chinese Path to Modernization in the current era. Consequently, it has become an important area of research within the broader framework of the holistic view of national security. We argue that a comprehensive exploration of national language security is essential, and encompasses various dimensions such as the academic system, the disciplinary system, and the discourse system. This exploration serves to establish a theoretical foundation and to provide practical guidance for the development of a governance system to address national language security within the context of overall national security. Accordingly, current investigations into national language security should prioritize the construction of a theoretical framework for national language security, which includes defining the conceptual scope and fundamental issues pertaining to national language security, and conducting international comparative research on language security theories and methodologies across diverse countries and regions. This approach entails drawing insights from the academic and methodological frameworks of language security worldwide, thereby offering valuable references for the advancement of studies of Chinese language security. Moreover, attention should be paid to the examination of disciplinary systems and discourse systems within the area of national language security. This endeavor involved exploring language and cultural security, the political security of language, and the security of language resources on various levels, encompassing different fields, regions, and spaces (such as the internet). A holistic understanding of language can be attained via this comprehensive investigation, ranging from its fundamental nature to its practical applications, and from micro-level sociolinguistics to macro-level language sociology. Several esteemed domestic scholars have been invited to share their valuable insights to facilitate these endeavors. It is our sincere hope that more colleagues within the academic community will focus on and actively engage in research on national language security.

A term is a concept inside a domain, and a new concept is often expressed via a new term. The paper presents some of the new terms in A Dictionary of Translation Studies in China (Revised and Enlarged Edition), which is to be published in 2023, as examples to investigate the trends in translation studies. According to the statistics, the new terms mainly arose in the following four fields: traditional Chinese translation theory, modern Chinese translation theory, western translation theory, and translation technology. The terms represent recent academic achievements in a variety of disciplines, such as linguistics, information technology, sociology, ecology, philosophy, and psychology. The interdisciplinary approach is applied extensively in translation studies at present.

As a rising power in the world, China is eager to develop a discourse system with Chinese characteristics for international audiences, which is an extremely challenging task. This study presents a model to make the discourse system more accurate and internationally influential, and emphasizes the role of translators in its construction. Translators are advised to be politically knowledgeable and better prepared for international communication. They should also improve their language skills, adopt a target-oriented approach to translation, strive to overcome cultural barriers, and devise better discourse strategies. Moreover, this study proposes suggestions for equipping aspiring translators with political knowledge and awareness in higher education institutions in terms of the curriculum design, the content selection, and training plans, which will assist in the efficient achievement of three interrelated goals, namely ideological and political education, translation skills, and capacity building.

As stated in the report of the 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, human beings and nature constitute the community of life, and human beings should respect, adapt to, and protect nature. The community of life refers to the harmonious co-existence of humans, other life forms, and the environment. As part of the community of life, human beings play a significant role in protecting the eco-system and in sustaining life. The ecological news report in People’s Daily that has the creation of ecological civilization as its central concern focuses on the human-nature relationship, and thus constructs the community of life discursively. The present research is an attempt to propose an analytical framework for the analysis of the community of life from the perspective of ecological civilization. The study used the concordance of high-frequency words and an analysis of thematic networks to investigate the discursive construction of the community of life in the ecological news report in People’s Daily with reference to the discursive construction of ecological relationships and ecological care in building an ecological civilization.

This study, which included 140 first-year non-English majors as participants, attempts to explore the effects of textual factors on the inference performance in English reading comprehension. The results are as follows. First, the causal sequence context is more conducive to the participants’ inference performance than is the causal flashback context, as it allows them to expend fewer cognitive resources to process the causal relationship when reading. Second, the prominent effect of the first-person perspective needs to be highlighted in medium-length stories with relatively simple plots, as this assists the participants to participate more actively in the inference of contextual patterns. Third, text coherence and narrative perspective have an interactive effect on the participants’ inference performances. In causal sequence order, the dominant effect of the first-person perspective is superior to that of the third-person perspective. The results increase the understanding of the roles that are played by textual elements in reading inference, thus clarifying the impact mechanism of text coherence and narrative perspective on reading inference.

As I Lay Dying is a representative work published by the famous American writer William Faulkner in the year 1930. The book centers on the description of a family’s journey to the town of Jefferson for the burial of the matriarch, Addie. Since its publication, the novel has attracted the attention of researchers who have been interested in the novel’s characters, the religious tropes and the artistic means. Comparatively speaking, the social elements of the novel are seldom discussed. The present authors believe that this novel is not only a representation of the life of poor white farmers, but also suggests the battle between the town and the countryside, as well as the identity construction in the south of the United States. The pressures and restraints exerted on the Bundrens when they struggle to be a part of the urban community indicate the structural domination of the town over the countryside. The shift of perspectives disrupts the narrative coherence, and presents the Bundren family as a fragmented, conflicted, and vulnerable group, thus suggesting the plight of rural whites during the process of urbanization. This article explores the hierarchical distinction between the town and the countryside, the journey of the Bundrens, and the resistant “representational space” of Addie and others from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory. Faulkner shows his strong humanistic concern by describing these white farmers’ struggles to survive in a narrow space.

The bilingual experience may enhance cognitive reserves by allowing individuals to resist the cognitive decline associated with the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Preliminary evidence from prospective and retrospective studies has shown that the bilingual experience may delay the age of onset and the age of diagnosis, but may not decrease the incidence rate, which can be explained by neuropsychological research. A scrutiny of research designs in previous studies suggests that the inconsistency in the results is likely due to the complicated language background of bilinguals and the diverse ways of quantifying bilingualism. Future studies require a more detailed analysis of older adults’ language backgrounds. In addition, the bi-dialectal experience is a widespread linguistic phenomenon in China, and may also protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegeneration diseases; thus, it merits more systematic research on the part of Chinese researchers.

Based on the “Data Base of African English Media” created by the College of Foreign Languages, Qufu Normal University, this study delves into the coverage of China-Africa relations in English media in nine African countries, and analyzes the important topics, attitudes and media power reflected in the reports via a data-driven approach. The findings revealed that cooperation and development were issues of common concern in the African media, that the economy was the center of interest, and that infrastructure was another frequently reported issue. In addition, different African countries have individual focus of attention; for example, Egypt pays more attention to bilateral political and economic exchanges, Ethiopia to labor and employment issues, and Zambia to agriculture and rural development. The study also revealed that African media generally expressed a positive attitude toward China-Africa relations and affirmed China’s positive role in Africa’s economic and infrastructure development, but there were still concerns despite the overall positive attitudes. By analyzing negative discourses, the study identified the specific concerns of African countries and the influence of Western media on African media. The suggestion is that, in order to promote healthy China-Africa relations, it is necessary to take targeted measures in African countries in accordance with the situations and concerns of each country, and it is important to strengthen China-Africa media cooperation to promote the dissemination of Chinese discourse.

This paper explores the origin of dun as rhythmic unit in new Chinese metrical poetry by re-examining a well-known dispute between Sun Dayu and He Qifang, which was initiated by Sun Dayu. After comparing the differences between dun and yinzu (or meter in Sun Dayu’s term), the paper concludes that Sun Dayu’s accusation that He Qifang stole “his creativity” in terms of yinzu is in fact invalid, and there is also a general misunderstanding of the concept of Sun Dayu’s yinzu among poets and poetic scholars, who consider it to be a “sound group” instead of meter in Sun Dayu’s sense of the term. As the mainstream translation method for contemporary Chinese poetry translation is “dun for foot”, the clarification of the difference between dun and yinzu, as well as of the origin of the rhythmic unit promoted by new Chinese poets, is of great significance in the further identification of the poetic defects of dun in the construction of poetic meter. On one hand, it is conducive to enabling Chinese poetry translators to better understand the essence of dun; on the other hand, it is also helpful for allowing us to identify the problems in the development of new poetry with meter.

When entering the new era, China’s higher Arabic education should not only continue to introduce the Arab world to China but, more importantly, to introduce China to the Arab world. To tell the story of contemporary China in detail we must first understand contemporary China. The multilingual version of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China is an authoritative text for understanding contemporary China. The “Understanding Contemporary China” series of textbooks adheres to the principles of systematic arrangement, comprehensive coverage, integrated learning, ability orientation in the compilation process, and emphasizes the characteristics of each textbook, which is a key link in the in-depth advancement of the “Three Advances” work, which is an important resource for foreign-language majors to keep pace with the times and to respond to the urgent needs of the country. The “Understanding Contemporary China” series of textbooks is an effective way to innovate and improve the foreign-language professional knowledge and curriculum system.

Against the broad background of the cognitive sciences, the theory of relevance between situation and state of mind (TRSM) provides a way to approach the study of the expression and understanding of language use based on the principle of mutual interaction between a human being as the cognitive agent and the situation via the cognitive devices of relevance between the situation and the state of mind. TRSM defines the relevance between the situation and the state of mind as the "state of affairs + feelings", with the state of affairs being the situation and the feelings being the emotion emerging from the cognitive agent. The situation and the state of mind are always correlated, with the feelings emerging from the state of affairs, and the state of affairs providing an explanation of the feelings.

Cao Yu is considered the founder of modern Chinese drama; he wrote and adapted a total of 13 dramatic works during his lifetime, most of which have been translated into English. These English translations have mainly been published as stand-alone books, with a few appearing in journals or being included in anthologies of translations, involving 19 translators from both China and the West. This paper reviews the English translations of Cao Yu’s plays in terms of the translators and their translations, with a particular focus on the translation of four of his masterpieces, Thunderstorm, The Sunrise, The Wilderness and Peking Man. This study revealed that the English translations of Cao Yu’s works were characterized by slow translation updates, outdated language use in translations, and a lack of translators, which has affected the dissemination and acceptance of Cao Yu’s plays in the English-speaking world to a certain extent. This paper can provide references for translation practitioners, and is important not only for the research on Cao Yu and drama translation studies, but also for the promotion and dissemination of Chinese literature across the world.

Oppositional collocation is a particular pragmatic phenomenon that operates by contrasting positive and negative meanings to highlight a certain positive sense. This structure can achieve certain semantic and emotional effects that cannot usually be achieved through consistent semantic collocations. Both Chinese and English have such semantically-oppositional collocations; that is, a commendatory adjective plus a derogatory adverb means something extremely positive, such as 帅呆了 (handsome+dumb+le = extremely handsome), 好得要死 (good+de+wanting to die = extremely good), or damn good, terribly glad. This paper first presents a working definition that confines the research to the collocation between an adverb and an adjective. The formal features of this type of collocation in Chinese and in English are then compared. A key point is the analysis of degree adverbs in the two languages, which are believed to have undergone a certain degree of grammaticalization, together with the collocational features. The conclusion provides a three-dimensional interpretation of the collocation’s expressive mechanism, involving the discourse context, usage conventions, and expressions of emotion.