Guo Yingdong. The Hint and Its Persuasiveness in Diplomatic Discourse

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.7

Yingdong Guo

Postgraduate Student, Department of Romance and Germanic Philology, Far Eastern
Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia

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https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1235-5783

Abstract. The assertion that different types of hints exert varying degrees of persuasive effect has been empirically confirmed. However, how these different types of hints influence native and non-native audiences remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study, considering the characteristics of logical, textual and contextual hints in the Chinese diplomatic discourse, tests their persuasive potential and specificity when identified by native and non-native audiences. To achieve this goal an experiment was held: we recruited 90 participants, including 30 native speakers each of Chinese, Russian, and English, and conducted a comparative analysis using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) based on participants' accuracy rates. The results indicate that the persuasiveness of different types of hint is not fixed. Overall, logical hint tends to demonstrate stronger persuasiveness due to their higher logical consistency and lower dependence on contextual and cultural factors. A comparison of Chinese, Russian, and English participants shows that contextual hint is the most persuasive for Chinese participants because, for native speakers, greater implicitness is associated with stronger persuasiveness. Logical hint is the most persuasive for Russian participants, which may stem from their sensitivity to the logical structure of language. Textual hint is the most persuasive for English participants, which is consistent with the tendency of English, as a low-context language, to rely on explicit semantic markers within the text itself.

Key words: hint, persuasiveness, Chinese diplomatic discourse, textual hint, logical hint, contextual hint, GLMM.

Citation. Guo Yingdong. The Hint and Its Persuasiveness in Diplomatic Discourse. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2026, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 82-94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2026.3.7

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