1 Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic has a profound impact on the world. The discourse game between China and the United States on the issue of virus traceability has become an important discourse event. The Chinese and American media have shown obvious confrontational characteristics in the issue of virus tracing, and the offensive and defensive strategies of both sides in discourse deserve in-depth analysis. Based on authentic corpus, this study adopts corpus linguistics to explore the antagonistic characteristics and strategic operation of Chinese and American media's traceable discourse in the COVID-19. The research aims to reveal new discoveries and insights on discourse competition and conflict, deepen understanding of the important role of discourse offense and defense in international competition, and provide inspiration for China's external discourse communication. The study will systematically analyze the confrontational characteristics of both sides' discourse, deconstruct the strategies used in discourse games, explore the national positions and ideological differences behind discourse construction, and summarize the main features and research significance of "confrontational discourse".

2 Research Methods

This paper introduces the construction and analysis techniques of the Chinese and American media COVID-19 traceable news reporting corpus. The corpus includes both the American media library and the Chinese media library, collecting news reports from January 2020 to December 2021 from mainstream media in the United States and China, respectively. Analytical techniques include word collocation analysis, word index analysis, and semantic trend and rhyme analysis. Word collocation analysis is based on co-occurrence data, using T-score and MI3 indicators to extract significant collocation words. Word index analysis summarizes the forms and semantic characteristics of collocation words. Semantic trend analysis reveals the co selection of node words and meanings, while semantic rhyme analysis reveals the speaker's communicative intention and attitude. These techniques help to deconstruct discourse representations and uncover the attitudes and positions of discourse participants.

3 Data Results and Analysis

This chapter explores the antagonistic characteristics and discourse strategies of Chinese and American media in COVID-19 traceable discourse through collocation data analysis, semantic group classification, semantic trend and semantic prosody analysis. Research has found that there are significant opposing discourse representations and attitudes between Chinese and American media in terms of virus sources, virus attributes, and traceability investigations.

4 Discussion and Conclusion

Through a comparative analysis of the discourse construction and meaning representation of the Chinese and American media on the issue of COVID-19 traceability, this paper reveals the discourse conflict and confrontational characteristics of the two countries' media on this issue. Research has found that the virus tracing discourse of Chinese and American media presents significant semantic trends and semantic differences, reflecting different national interests, positions, and ideologies. American media has violated the principle of authenticity in constructing discourse on virus tracing, lacking evidence to support it, while Chinese media focuses more on offense, defense, and game theory. In addition, the inherent logic of adversarial discourse suggests that discourse events do not have a direct correspondence with real-world events, but are driven by ideology and national positions. The intense discourse confrontation between Chinese and American media is a reflection of the current reality of China US relations, and is also a component of the competitive and confrontational characteristics of China US relations. The article also explores the relationship between language use, discourse effectiveness, and discourse hegemony, pointing out that the repeated use of language by the media enhances discourse effectiveness and has a subtle impact on audience cognition. The US media, relying on its extensive influence and discourse hegemony, accuses China of tracing the origin of the virus. Although it is not consistent with the facts, it will have a significant influence of seduction and incitement. This study provides a new perspective and analytical framework for understanding the discourse confrontation between Chinese and American media on the issue of virus tracing, which has enlightening significance for both the theory and practice of discourse analysis.