Discursive construction of China’s ecological images : a corpus-assisted discourse study

Abstract

Abstract：It has become increasingly popular to study how to tell China’s stories in a proper way and build a positive ecological image of China. Drawing insights from the recent development in corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, this study constructs a multi-dimensional analytic framework for corpus-assisted ecological discourse studies, and illustrates how this framework works by giving a multi-dimensional analysis of the construction of China’s image in China Daily’s climate change news reports. The findings suggest that the representations of climate change in China Daily are consistent with the traditional ecological philosophy of“natural harmony”and“hierarchical order”and the principles of conscience, proximity, and regulation. It constructs a responsible, committed and active national image for China but a negative image for developed countries. 如何讲好中国故事，建构良好中国生态形象，已然成为学界研究的热点。本文借鉴和吸收语料库语言学和话语分析最新研究成果，建构语料库辅助生态话语研究多维分析框架，并以《中国日报》气候变化新闻报道为例，演示如何运用该框架进行国家形象建构的多维分析，以此展示语料库辅助生态话语研究的作为空间。研究发现，《中国日报》气候变化报道凸显了中国传统的生态“和谐”和“差等”思想，并遵循“良知原则”、“亲近原则”和“制约原则”，建构积极主动、信守承诺和全力以赴的中国生态形象以及不积极、不主动、不信守承诺的发达国家生态形象。