The pragmatics of chinese proverb quoting in the english and the russian-language mass media of PRC

Abstract

Mass media of PRC in languages others than Chinese native (in the present research English and Russian) are a form of cross-cultural communication between China and the rest of the world. In other-language mass media China not only presents its views and attitude to the events described, but also reveals China “the whole self” by employing the fragments of its traditional verbal culture, proverbs in particular being the ways of self-expression. However, the research provided evidence that the foreign-language press of China carefully considers the appropriateness of proverb quotations, and thoroughly estimates the degree of transmitted by them informal and indirect culture-based information, which the target audience is capable or incapable to grasp, share, and abide by. Proverbs generally being among the most indirect strategies of reasoning and persuasion in some contextual use may convey straightforward and strict judgments. The paper studies significant theoretical issues and application aspects of proverb quoting in the foreign-language press of PRC which depends on crucial questions of cross-cultural pragmatics: first, the addressor’s natural urge for culture-based self-expression alongside with striving for intelligibility to the foreign target audience, and second, the addressor’s choice of higher/lower context in communication with different cultures-addressees. This accounts for the discrepancy between presentation of information in the English-language press of PRC and the Russian-language periodical of China. Both questions suggest a wide range of options in proverb quoting (preserving/omitting a proverb, original proverb with glossing/loan translation, meaning/connotation modulation of a proverb, etc).