概念隐喻理论基本观点、构成与映射机制、隐喻识别与话语分析、生态语言学与生态话语观、生态价值与企业生态形象建构

Abstract This study aims to explore the target concepts of metonymical and metaphorical uses of ‘head’ in Jordanian Arabic (JA) compared to those used in Tunisian Arabic (TA). Extended conceptual metaphor theory (ECMT) as envisaged by Kövecses (2020, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 18, 112–-130) is adopted as the theoretical framework. Data analysis reveals that through metonymic metaphors, the head in JA is used to profile character traits, mental faculty, cultural values and emotions. The head in JA is also capitalized upon to provide explanations of several daily life experiences. The primacy of head in JA was clear in the informants’ comprehension of the means by which embodiment provides the grounding for cognition, perception and language, which supports Gibbs’ (2014, The Bloomsbury companion to cognitive linguistics, pp. 167–184) ‘embodied metaphorical imagination’. Similarities in the cultural model of head between the two dialects were found, yet differences were also detected. In contrast to TA, the head is more productive in JA in profiling character traits and emotions. These differences were attributed to the existence of a cultural filter that has the ability to function between two cultures that belong to one matrix Arab culture and differences in experiential focus between the two examined speech communities.

: Conceptual metaphor theory posits that metaphors are cognitive phenomena shaping our understanding of the world, not just linguistic tools. This essay explores the metaphor "Love is a Journey" within this framework, analyzing its grounding in embodied experiences and its impact on understanding love. Like mapping, projection, embodied simulation, and conceptual integration play key roles in shaping language, thought, and perception. While the theory contributes significantly, critics challenge its universality and call for more empirical support. Counterarguments suggest alternative perspectives on love, such as an existential state or a state of being, and emphasize cultural and personal variations. Recognizing these perspectives enriches our understanding of metaphorical concepts in the realm of romantic relationships, highlighting the complexity and diversity of human experiences.

This research paper investigated the representation of the Aqsa Flood War (2023-2024) within the authorized discourse remarks of the Palestinian spokesman, Abu-Obaidah, by tackling the conceptual metaphor theory and the critical discourse analysis theory. All of the discourses released by Hamas over the first three months of the war were gathered and analyzed using Van Dijk’s critical discourse analysis theory and George Lakoff’s Conceptual metaphor theory. The two approaches were utilized to examine the connotation of Hamas' rambling speeches that were full of implied signification. The data were obtained from online videos of Abu-Obaidah discourses, and the transcripts were translated from the source language, Arabic, into English. The result indicated that many war themes were highlighted within the official remarks of Hamas like war rhetorical statements, war’s achievements, jihadists’ glorifications, implied / direct threats for the enemy, war justifications, and ongoing actions. Indeed, Hamas speeches project their ideologies showing the terrorism of the Israeli party and how they occupied their holy land.

Abstract In Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Kövecses, 2020), I offered a comprehensive overhaul of “standard” conceptual metaphor theory. The present paper attempts to demonstrate how the new view of CMT can handle metaphorical idioms. To this end, I analyze four metaphorical idioms from the thematic area of money (throw money about, money slips through someone’s fingers, be a cash cow, money keeps someone/something afloat). The analysis assumes and starts out from the observation that money-related metaphors are based on two generic-level conceptual metaphors: money is a moving entity and money is a force. Extended CMT adds to CMT the notion of “mental space-level metaphors” that were largely ignored in “standard” CMT, but are given an important role in extended CMT. These are the metaphors that represent actual, contextual meanings in a metaphorical usage event. Traditional CMT-type analysis cannot account for the emergence of such idiomatic meanings because the mappings, or correspondences, of standard CMT work on a single, generic level (frame-, domain-, or even image schema level). However, the contextual meanings of naturally used metaphors (including those of metaphorical idioms) are much more information-rich and specific. The conceptual metaphors on the image schema, domain, and frame levels are offline structures in long-term memory, whereas the conceptual metaphors on the mental space level occur only online in working memory. In online communication, speakers mobilize the static image schema-, domain-, and frame-level metaphors at the mental space level, where they create highly specific mental space-level metaphors. Given this framework, it becomes possible to explain how and why the four metaphorical idioms have different contextual meanings (as represented by different mental space-level metaphors), but, at the same time, why they also share certain conceptual metaphors on the frame-, domain-, or image schema-level. Additionally, we gain new insight into how the emergence of novel metaphorical idioms occurs with the help of and constrained by a previously existing large system of hierarchically arranged conceptual metaphors.

The phenomenon known as metaphor is an extremely complex mental event – we cannot capture its complexity if we tie ourselves to existing standard views on metaphor. This book offers fresh insight into metaphor, updating an established theory, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), in the context of current cognitive linguistic theory, and clarifying many of the issues that researchers in the study of metaphor have raised against CMT. Starting with an introduction to CMT, the subsequent chapters set out propositions for extended conceptual metaphor theory, including a discussion on whether literal language exists at all, whether conceptual metaphors are both conceptual and contextual, and whether they are both offline and online. Providing a fresh take on a constantly developing field, this study will enrich the work of researchers in areas ranging from metaphorical cognition to literary studies.

Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also reflects the concept projection between source and target domains in human cognition. Previous sequence tagging-based metaphor identification methods could not model the concept projection, resulting in a limitation that the outputs of these models are unexplainable in the predictions of the metaphoricity labels. In this work, we propose the first explainable metaphor identification model, inspired by Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The model is based on statistic learning, a lexical resource, and a novel reward mechanism. Our model can identify the metaphoricity on the word-pair level, and explain the predicted metaphoricity labels via learned concept mappings. The use of the reward mechanism allows the model to learn the optimal concept mappings without knowing their true labels. Our method is also applicable for the concepts that are out of training domains by using the lexical resource. The automatically generated concept mappings demonstrate the implicit human thoughts in metaphoric expressions. Our experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed model in metaphor identification, and concept mapping tasks, respectively.

Pragmatics is a field of linguistics that observes the use of language as a social human behaviour and examines how linguistic features and contextual influences interact in translation studies. Cross-cultural pragmatics emphasizes the necessity of examining discourses on the basis of cultural context. Interpreting the translated text at the cross-cultural pragmatics level and examining cognitive processes are common areas of translation studies and pragmatics. For this reason, it is known that this field brings a new perspective to translation studies in terms of contextual meaning creation, reception, interpretation and analysis. Translation and interpretation of idiomatic expressions is one of the most problematic areas for the translator since s/he has to work as a bilateral negotiator on the basis of cross-cultural influences in both the source language and the target language. At this point, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory that guides the translator enables us to see language and translation studies as a field of social practice by analysing the similarities and differences between cultures. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to examine the problems experienced during the translation of idiomatic expressions and to focus on the similarities and differences between metaphorical conceptualizations of both languages (English and Turkish) on the basis of cross-cultural pragmatics. Thus, some translation examples taken from an authentic source are presented in order to show how metaphor is handled in translation. In these examples, how translators handle metaphorical expressions is discussed on the basis of conceptual metaphor theory in terms of similarities and differences between languages.

Although Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of conceptual metaphor has been extremely popular and successful, it has been criticized in many respects, one of which is its alleged inconsistency. This criticism presupposes that the principle of non-contradiction is the most important pillar of scientific theorizing because its violation turns the theory into logical chaos. Against this background, the paper asks: What kinds of inconsistencies emerge in conceptual metaphor theory and how should they be evaluated? In order to give an answer, the authors introduce Kertész and Rákosi’s (2019) [2012], (2022) p-model as a metatheoretical framework, with the help of which they analyse those arguments which charge conceptual metaphor theory with inconsistency. The authors conclude that if the dichotomy between inconsistency and consistency is replaced by the sophisticated distinctions among strong p-inconsistency, well-motivated permanent p-paraconsistency, temporary p-paraconsistency, and p-consistency, then the initial question can be answered in a straightforward manner.

Human’s head takes the most important part in human’s part of body which leads to the frequent use of  head in language uses. This study therefore aims to investigate how head is conceptualized through the use of metaphor in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and how the conceptual metaphors are projected through image schemas. The data were obtained  from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) as a rich data sources relevant to the study. This study applied qualitative descriptive study through the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT)  proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (2008). Sentences which contain head metaphors were selected, analyzed, and categorized to relevant conceptual metaphors through the bridge of mappings to characterize the relationship between two concepts (source and target domains) in the metaphorical process and image schemas.  The findings of the study showed that head is mostly metaphorically used as a container which is conceptualized as a head is a container.The most image schemas used are containment schemas which show in-out,  full-empty,  and surface schemas. The image-schemas have indeed been shown to likely become the basis of numerous metaphorical constructions and have been helpful to understand how people cognize their world.

There is an increasing trend in revealing the effect of conceptual metaphor on activities in the context of education. In order to shed light on future studies in this field, it is necessary to review the development and critiques of conceptual metaphor theory in general and applications and previous studies under the context of education in particular. This paper defines the term "metaphor" at first and further reviews its implications in constructing the conceptualization of educational-related concepts. Problems and challenges of conceptual metaphor theory are also discussed.

Abstract Many geoscience phenomena cannot be perceived at human temporal or spatial scales. As a consequence, we can only understand many processes that drive geological phenomena through analogical reasoning. Building deep conceptual understanding requires instruction that activates the appropriate source analogs and allows students to build useful conceptual metaphors. In this paper we illustrate, using plate tectonics as an example, how educational guidelines for teaching geosciences can be developed by linking the Model of Educational Reconstruction with Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Qualitative content analysis in combination with systematic metaphor analysis of scientific textbooks and semi-structured interviews conducted with students (n = 36) provided insight into the image schemas used by scientists and learners. Difficulties in understanding plate tectonics structures and processes, e.g. subduction, arise because many students understand tectonic plates as single bodies, rather than composites. Similarly, students’ difficulties explaining plate movement result from activation of a push rather than a pull schema. Through exploring schemas for plate tectonics, we illustrate the value of combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Model of Educational Reconstruction for (1) understanding alternative conceptions as grounded in image schemas and (2) developing educational guidelines for improving instruction.

A major insight of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) is that it added a strong, empirically testable cognitive dimension to the study of metaphor that is capable of changing the way we think about metaphor not only in language, but also thought and action, and, ultimately, the way we do philosophy (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999). In the paper, I argue that CMT itself needs to be changed in several ways. In particular, I suggest (1) that it has to be given a much more elaborate contextual component than is currently available, (2) that even its cognitive dimension needs to be refined, (3) that it requires a component that can explain the actual usages of metaphors in natural discourse, and (4), and most significantly, that it needs to be changed in such a way that the modifications under (1), (2), and (3) can be integrated into a unified and coherent theory of metaphor. The paper is based on my forthcoming book Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Kövecses, 2020).

No abstract available

Abstract I discuss three large issues relating to media language. (1) How does conceptual metaphor theory affect the way we see the conceptual system that characterizes the main participants of communication in the media? (2) How do conceptual metaphors structure the language (and thought) used by the media? (3) Is the metaphorical mind of the participants of media communication a “self-contained” mind immune to the influence of context or is it affected by it?

Adopting Lakoff’s (1990) “cognitive commitment”, we make the argument that an under-employed means of testing tenets of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (cmt), and in bridging the gap between studies in cognitive linguistics and experimental cognitive psychology can be through the use of episodic memory tests. We provide examples of the utility of episodic memory for studying cmt, emphasizing the use of the drm False Memory Paradigm. We then describe its utility with other tasks, most notably with Release from Proactive Interference methodology. Although these tasks are based on episodic memory, they are heavily influenced by semantic information, making them useful tools to examine conceptual metaphors. We conclude by describing how episodic memory tasks could be employed to test the automaticity assumption of cmt.

In this essay, I challenge the use of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in the premodern Chinese setting. The dominant, implicit assumption in the literature is that conclusions reached by CMT on the ways in which cognition operates can be applied in toto and without qualification onto the makers of classical Chinese texts. I want to challenge this assumption and argue that textual evidence from premodern Chinese points to a different cognitive process. Differences in the use and conceptualization of image-based thinking as well as differences in the understanding of the relationship between words, images, and the world reveal a different cognitive process. However, I do not wish to argue for a total abandonment of the insights of CMT. Rather, I call for the need to properly qualify its findings in light of premodern Chinese use and conceptions of image-based language.

Abstract George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory is by and large a theory of what (abstract) concepts are, how they are structured, and how this structure is acquired — i.e., by mapping of structure from one more concrete or sensory-motor specific domain to another more abstract domain. Conceptual metaphors therefore rest on “cross-domain mappings.” The claims to the effect that our abstract concepts are metaphorically structured and that cross-domain mappings constitute one of the fundamental cognitive meaning-making processes are empirical and can therefore be put to the test. In this paper, I will critically assess Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theory of concepts in light of recent experimental findings. Many such findings provide evidence for the psychological reality of cross-domain mappings, i.e., that structure activated in one domain actually can perform cognitive tasks carried out in another domain. They do not, however, support the claim that the structure of our (abstract) concepts is still metaphorical, as Lakoff and Johnson claim — that is to say, that our mind actually does perform cross-domain mappings when we process conventional conceptual metaphors such as “Death is Rest” or “Love is a Journey.” Two conclusions can be drawn from this: (1) it is necessary to distinguish between cross-domain mappings (which are psychologically real) and the metaphoric structure of our concepts (which is not, in the sense that such concepts do not any longer activate cross-domain mappings when processed); (2) Conceptual Metaphor Theory is not an adequate theory of concepts. I will therefore sketch another more viable theory of concepts where the structure of our concepts is defined as the full ecology of their situations of use, which includes the kind of situations (objects, agents, interactions) they apply to and the kind of emotional, cognitive, bodily, and behavioral responses they elicit. On this view, the contents of our concepts are to be considered as vague predicates, with vague extensions, which take on a specific form in their situation of use.

Abstract My goal in the paper is to examine a variety of visual experiences that appear to evoke visual metaphors. This is a range of experience types that extends from “sign-like” visual experiences to “non-sign-like” visual experiences. I propose that visual metaphors are evoked by paintings through winner’s podiums all the way to cityscapes and scenes in nature. The latter two (non-sign-like) cases, cityscapes and natural scenes, are not commonly subjected to serious examination from a CMT perspective. However, they provide us with new challenges in the study of visual metaphors, since they greatly extend the range of visual experience that might give rise to visual metaphors. I suggest, further, that the comprehension or interpretation of all of these visual experiences, including sign-like and non-sign-like alike, makes use of the same metaphorical processing mechanisms. The visual metaphors that are evoked by visual experiences can be based either on correlations or resemblance.

No abstract available

Abstract Rumi’s Masnavi is one of the most profound works of Persian mystical literature, rich in metaphors and allegories, and it conveys spiritual concepts and religious meaning. The metaphor of the way plays a central role in illustrating the spiritual journey toward unity with the divine. This article explores the concept of the way in the Masnavi by analysing conceptual metaphors that employ the source concepts of the straight road, as well as the circular way. These metaphors help to elucidate Rumi’s perspective on the spiritual journey and the unity of existence. First, we discuss the transtextual relationship between the Masnavi and the Qurʾan, arguing that the Masnavi is a hypertext to the Qurʾan with its own exegetical tradition. As such, it constitutes a second-degree hypotext. Next, we discuss key intellectual influences on Rumi and present elements of his mystical worldview that inform the conceptual metaphor of the circular way. We posit that Rumi reinterprets the Qurʾanic lead metaphor of the straight road as a metaphor for the spiritual journey in a circular way. Finally, by analysing the tale of “The Parrot and the Merchant,” the article demonstrates how this metaphor can serve as a hermeneutic key to unlock the multilayered mystical meanings of the allegorical narratives in the Masnavi.

This study examines the use of metaphor in selected songs from Adele’s album 21 through the lens of Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (1980). Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the research analyses seven tracks: “Rolling in the Deep,” “Rumour Has It,” “Turning Tables,” “Don’t You Remember,” “Set Fire to the Rain,” “Love Song,” and “One and Only”—to identify the types and functions of metaphor within the lyrics. A total of 60 metaphorical expressions were found and categorized into three major conceptual types: structural (28), orientational (19), and ontological (13). The dominance of structural metaphors indicates Adele’s reliance on analogy-based mappings to construct emotional narratives, while orientational metaphors reveal how spatial concepts encode emotional states. Ontological metaphors further demonstrate how abstract feelings are framed as concrete entities, enhancing intimacy and emotional resonance. The findings suggest that metaphor in Adele’s songwriting operates not only as a stylistic feature but also as a cognitive mechanism that shapes how emotional experience is represented and interpreted. This study contributes to stylistics and cognitive linguistics by highlighting the role of metaphor as a meaning-making resource in contemporary song lyrics.

This study conducts a contrastive analysis of the conceptual metaphor “finance is fluid” in Vietnamese and English electronic news, based on a dataset of 200 metaphorical expressions (100 per language) collected from online financial articles. Employing the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) by the Pragglejaz Group (2007), the research systematically identifies and categorizes metaphorical language mapping financial concepts onto fluid dynamics. Two main cognitive models are established: (1) “financial situation is the state of liquid” accounting for 57% of Vietnamese and 55% of English cases, and (2) “supplying finance is supplying liquid” comprising 43% and 45% respectively. Key expressions such as “ngập” (flooded), “chảy” (flow), and “bơm” (pump) in Vietnamese, and “drown,” “flow,” and “pump” in English, illustrate both universal and culture-specific metaphorical patterns. The findings reveal subtle differences in linguistic choices but a shared cognitive mapping across both languages. Importantly, the study discusses concrete implications for TESOL, highlighting how awareness of metaphorical structures can enhance learners’ comprehension, translation, and communication of financial concepts in multilingual contexts.

This study aims to identify and analyze the functions of conceptual metaphors used in Prabowo’s ASEAN summit’s speech, particularly in how they concretize abstract political challenges, personify values, and motivate collective actions. The data conducted in this study is taken from President Prabowo speech at ASEAN summit 2025. Beside classifying the conceptual metaphors, the mapping proposition structure by agent, actor, and object are also used in this study. By examining the domain source and target based on Lakoff and Johson theory of conceptual metaphor and also proposition by Lakoff and Johnson, the result shows that the most metaphorical expressions used in the speech is ontological metaphor. The findings highlight that the speech particularly demonstrates ontological metaphors to concretize abstract global political challenges while personifying values such as inclusivity, collaboration, and desire also create developmental, collaboration, and stability ideologies. Furthermore, the propositional mapping showed that the president as a leader or navigator collectively join in navigating and countering transboundary threats, thereby strengthening the persuasive function of the speech. Thus, this study provides an advance of the understanding of metaphors function in political communication and provides practical insights for improving rhetorical strategy and critical public discourse

This paper aims to sketch the current state of metaphor research, tracing its development from classical rhetoric to contemporary approaches including multimodal, cognitive, pragmatic, and critical perspectives. It outlines the theoretical foundations of metaphor and its conceptual, cultural, and communicative functions, emphasizing how metaphors, grounded in embodied experience and image schemas, both shape and reflect cognition, culture, and ideology. The discussion engages with Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT), Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT), and Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), while highlighting its cross-cultural variation and use across multiple domains. Metaphor has become a central lens for exploring how we conceptualize, interpret, and relate to the world. In addition to this global overview, the paper enriches the field with a selective review of Vietnamese metaphor studies, showcasing how Vietnam-based research contributes to the overall conceptual landscape. It argues that metaphor research now stands at an interdisciplinary crossroads. Emerging directions include examining metaphors across new modalities such as speech, sign language, gesture, film, emoji, memes, and advertising, and exploring the growing role of digital and AI-mediated environments in meaning-making. At the same time, the paper underscores the growing importance of metaphor awareness in language education as a means of strengthening learners’ interpretive and critical skills. We conclude that metaphor is a foundational cognitive and cultural resource - dynamic, adaptable, and central to meaning-making in diverse social interactions, and recommend future research on metaphors in digital and AI-mediated contexts, in language education, and in developing context-sensitive methodological frameworks.

Introduction. This article addresses the multimodal conceptual metaphor in the modern English and Ukrainian political media discourse.Purpose. The purpose of this study is to identify the cognitive-semiotic mechanisms of metaphorical construction of discourse-generating concepts of political discourse in social networks. To reach this aim, an immediate task of this research is to describe the concept of WAR and related concepts of UKRAINE, PARTNERS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA presented through visual and audial modes by verbal, graphic, and cinematic semiotic resources. The material for the analysis was drawn from the news discourse of American and Ukrainian Telegram channels, which cover the course of the Russia-Ukraine war for the period from spring 2022 to spring 2024.Results. This present study helped clarify the methodological principles of the formation of a multimodalconceptual metaphor. The research made it possible to single out mechanisms of cross-mapping underlying the multimodal conceptual metaphor of WAR as an effective way of influencing the users’ world construals by verbal, visual, and cinematic semiotic resources in the posts of news telegram channels.Originality. The novelty of this study lies in the choice of its object, subject, and material, as well as a cognitive-semiotic framework of their analysis. Today, a cognitive-semiotic approach to the online media discourse opens up new perspectives for political linguistics.Conclusions. In the posts Ukrainian and English telegram news channels, both verbal and visual semiotic resources are able to construct conceptual metaphors of WAR, The mechanism of multimodal construction of conceptual metaphors of WAR is related to conceptual metonymy. I claim that in the muiltimodal media discourse, the target concept of WAR and source elements involved in the process of cross-mapping can belong to the same or different semiotic systems, thus forming a verbal or hybrid visual-verbal conceptual metaphor

In this article, the author analyzes the conceptual metaphors politics is a pond, a politician is a carp and a politician is a pike in Czech political discourse. The investigation is based on the theory of conceptual metaphor and follows the principles of ethnolinguistics and cognitive linguistics. The author shows how the specific features of these conceptual metaphors relate to the Czech linguistic worldview and proposes metaphorical mapping that conveys salient features of the target domain (politics and politicians). The conceptual metaphor politics is a pond helps the speaker to depict a problematic domestic political situation that needs to be changed. The metaphors a politician is a carp and a politician is a pike are usually used to create the “friend-foe” opposition in political discourse. The conceptual metaphor a politician is a carp discloses the passivity and laziness of politicians and their inability or unwillingness to change the current situation. On the other hand, the conceptual metaphor a politician is a pike can be used to indicate both the positive qualities of a politician (activity, energy, initiative) and the negative ones (greed, selfishness, cruelty). The use of culturally specific conceptual metaphors allows a politician to establish close contact with the audience to increase the number of loyal voters.

The purpose of this study is to examine how conceptual metaphors are used by SZA in her song lyrics. Finding the source domain and target domain of the conceptual metaphors used in song lyrics is the main goal of this study. A descriptive qualitative research approach is used, which includes semantic analysis and conceptual metaphor mapping in song lyrics. The information used consists of five well-known SZA songs that were specifically chosen. The author defines conceptual metaphors in 5 lyrics from SZA's song. In the “Kill Bill” song there is 1 conceptual metaphor, in the “Snooze” song there are 2 conceptual metaphors, in the “The Weekend” song there 3 conceptual metaphors, in the “Nobody Gets Me” song there are 4 conceptual metaphors, and in the “Open Arms” song there is 1 conceptual metaphor. The research provides our understanding of how conceptual metaphor is used in song lyrics and shows the depth of creativity and artistic expression found in SZA's songs. The findings of this study may be helpful for future semantics and cultural studies research, as well as for developing a deeper understanding of both the complexity and the beauty of SZA's song lyrics. Keywords: Conceptual metaphor, Lyrics, Songs, Semantics

Conceptual Metaphor has been a prevalent theme in the linguistic field for the recent twenty years. Numerous scholars worldwide have shown interest in it and published many academic papers from various stances on this topic. However, so far, there have been few rigorous scientific mapping investigations. With the help of bibliometric analysis tool, we selected 1,257 articles on Conceptual Metaphors published from 2002 to 2022, as collected in the Web of Sciences Core Collection database, from unique cognitive perspectives. The global annual scientific output of Conceptual Metaphor, including the cited articles, sources, keywords, and research trends, will be examined in this study. The most notable findings of this study are the following. First, there has been an upward trend in Conceptual Metaphor research over the last two decades. Second, the five most prominent research groups on Conceptual Metaphors are in Spain, the United States of America, China, Great Britain, and Russia. Third, future research on Conceptual Metaphors may focus on corpus linguistics, neurolinguistics, psychology, and critical discourse analysis. The interdisciplinary study may enhance the growth of Conceptual Metaphors.

From the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics, the paper analyzes the conceptual metaphor WOMEN ARE ANIMALS in 20th-century Vietnamese literary works. The theoretical framework for this study includes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the Great Chain of Being model of Lakoff and Turner (1989), and the Metaphor Identification Procedure of Pragglejaz Group (2007). Through a survey of 50 short stories and novels written by famous Vietnamese authors, 6 low-level metaphors as well as the mapping mechanism from the source domain to the target domain, is discovered and explained. The findings reveal that women are mainly portrayed as wild animals, livestock, pets, or birds. Metaphorical linguistic expressions, then, convey a biased view towards the low and inferior role and position of women in the family and society. Negative ideological values in the representation of women are explored to show that women are considered to be small, weak, dependent on men, and serve as their recreation. Vietnamese people's thinking and cultural characteristics are also reflected in this metaphor.

This article examines a proverbial saying "Wisdom is a tree of life" (Prov. 3:18) through the lens of conceptual metaphor. Such a metaphor works by mapping two conceptual domains. The direction goes from the SOURCE domain (an ancient myth of a miraculous tree that whets human’s appetite for eternal youth) to the TARGET domain (a concept of wisdom in life). Conceptual metaphor helps us to understand that the tree metaphor in Prov. 3:18 instills in the readers’ mind a kind of reward powerful enough to motivate them to pursue wisdomand to persevere in that quest. The boon will arouse their desire so that they will do anything. This article also suggests that the tree metaphor in Proverbs receives its fuller sense through Prov. 11:30; 13:12; 15:4. Conceptual metaphor, thus, enables the reader to notice a holistic presentation of the book of Proverbs, which has been all too often considered as a compilation of various self-contained sayings. Abstrak Artikel ini menganalisis ungkapan "Hikmat adalah pohon kehidupan" (Ams. 3:18) dengan perspektif metafora konseptual. Metafora konseptual adalah sebuah pendekatan linguistik yang menitikberatkan pemetaan relasi yang terjadi antara dua domain yang berbeda. Pada ayat tersebut, akan dicermati arah pergerakan dari domain SUMBER (yakni, sebuah mitos kuno tentang pohon mujarab yang berkhasiat menghidupkan) menuju domain TARGET (yakni, konsep kebijaksanaan dalam hidup). Tidak seperti metafora stilistika yang berfokus pada aspek keindahan bahasa metaforis itu sendiri, metafora konseptual lebih berfokus pada proses pemahaman kognitif yang ada dalam benak si pembaca. Melalui kajian konseptual ini, akan ditunjukkan bagaimana metafora pohon kehidupan (Ams. 3:18) beserta aspek mitologisnya menstimulasi imajinasi para pembaca tentang adanya ganjaran yang amat menggiurkan ketika seseorang mengejar hikmat. Ia akan tergerak untuk melakukan segala daya upaya dalam meraih hikmat demi memperoleh ganjaran tersebut. Artikel ini juga bertujuan menunjukkan bahwa ketiga pemunculan lain dari metafora pohon ini (pada Ams. 11:30; 13:12; 15:4) rupanya berperan menyajikan gambaran yang lebih utuh mengenai pohon mujarab ini. Apabila dilihat lebih luas lagi, keempat ayat secara bersama-sama mengikat seluruh isi kitab Amsal. Metafora konseptual tentang pohon kehidupan ini menawarkan sebuah gagasan holistik terhadap pembacaan kitab Amsal. Kata-kata Kunci: metafora stilistika, metafora konseptual, hikmat, pohon kehidupan, ganjaran

As one of the major theories in cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor has received lots of attention from scholars at home and abroad since it was first brought up. Metaphor is a cross-domain mapping from one concrete conceptual domain to another. Cognitive linguists recognize that metaphor converts complex and abstract concepts into intuitive and specific concepts, which is conducive to the understanding of abstract concepts and conducting abstract thinking. This is also why conceptual metaphor was widely used in economic discourse utilizing familiar concepts to help people comprehend abstract and obscure economic concepts. Based on the related theories of cognitive linguistics, taking economic passages about Chinese economy and business activities in The Economist as an example, this paper aims to find out and analyze some representative conceptual metaphors describing Chinese economy in economic discourse by the methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis with the hope to help ESP learners with their learning of economic discourse.

This study aims to explore the metaphorical concept of "MEDIA AS FIRE" in both Vietnamese and English from the perspective of Cognitive Linguistics. This research utilizes the Metaphor Identification Procedure of the Pragglejaz Group (2007), in conjunction with descriptive approaches, statistical analysis, and classification strategies, to scrutinize the conceptual metaphor "Media is Fire" and its underlying metaphors. A total of 193 metaphorical expressions from media discourse are examined (113 in Vietnamese and 80 in English), revealing three primary cognitive models: "Media is Heat," " The ability to transmit the energy of Media is the ability to transmit energy of Fire," and "Media is Burning," along with the mapping mechanism from the source domain to the target domain. Furthermore, this research emphasizes the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of fire-related metaphors between the two languages. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for teaching, learning, and translating conceptual metaphors, thereby enhancing cross-cultural communication skills for Vietnamese English learners."

This paper has applied the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor theory to the analysis of the source and target domains of metaphors that are used in two English nineteenth century sonnets, both written by contemporaneous female poets. The quantitative and qualitative results of the textual analysis have clearly revealed that Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 23 centres around the conceptual mapping of the journey of love and life with that of possession. In contrast, Christina Rossetti’s sonnet Remember tackles the central conceptual mapping of death as a journey in relation to its further experiential connections. In addition, the application of conceptual metaphor theoryLakoff and Johnson, 1980) in identifying the frequencies and densities of metaphors’ conceptual domains has resulted in unravelling the thematic structures of both poems. Discovering such a textually attested relationship between the densities of metaphorical conceptual domains and textual thematic structure has neither been fully explored nor identified before in the genre of English female sonnets.

Stemming from the widespread appearance of war metaphors in Vietnamese sports news, the article conducts the research on the emergence of metaphors related to the source domain of war in Vietnamese sports news. The International Commentary section aims to clarify the relationship between “sport” and “war” in Vietnamese mind maps. This article analyses the conceptual metaphor sport as war underlying the metaphorically used words and expressions in Vietnamese sports news and explains the mapping scheme between source domain and target domain. Based on the experiential correlations and knowledge mapped from source domain to target domain, the article shows typical thinking of the conceptual construction, which is both universal and typical of Vietnamese people thinking, indicating the hierarchy in conceptual thinking. The primary metaphor sport as war, through mapping scheme, the article proves the appearance of derivative metaphors in sports news such as sports competition as a battle between the warring parties; the footballers as military participants; the main footballers in competition are the weapons in the war; tactics in competing in a sports event as tactics in battle; the actions of footballers are the actions of the warring parties; fouls and misconduct are destroying an opponent in battle; coach as battle commander; winning/losing the match as winning/losing the battle. The current study’s findings are the metaphors grouped into categories: battle activities, battle devices, battle results/consequences, battle tactics. The article’s research results may help journalism students in writing skills and use conceptual metaphors in writing news and articles; suggest to sports bulletin editors how to use conceptual metaphors in news and articles to increase attraction for readers and listeners; and make matches more excited, dramatic and attractive.

The aim of this article is to present some insights and reflections as a result of the application of the MIPVU procedure for metaphor identification in Lithuanian and discuss several methodological issues. Firstly, the paper presents the background to the methodology and illustrates its application to Lithuanian. Secondly, the article discusses some difficulties in applying this method to Lithuanian in annotating words as (non)metaphorical. Namely, problematic issues include the following: identification of metaphorical meaning motivated by grammatical cases; demarcation of lexical units, establishing contextual and basic meanings of words based on their definitions provided in available dictionaries of (contemporary) Lithuanian, and the fuzzy boundaries between homonymy and polysemy. As a conclusion, some tentative suggestions are provided regarding more effective application of the MIPVU tool to the analysis of Lithuanian.

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Automatic metaphor detection has often been inspired by linguistic procedures for manual metaphor identification. In this work, we test how closely the steps required by the Metaphor Identification Procedure VU Amster-dam (MIPVU) can be translated into prompts for generative Large Language Models (LLMs) and how well three commonly used LLMs are able to perform these steps. We find that while the procedure itself can be modeled with only a few compromises, neither language model is able to match the performance of supervised, fine-tuned methods for metaphor detection. All models failed to sufficiently filter out literal examples, where no contrast between the contextual and a more basic or concrete meaning was present. Both versions of LLaMa however signaled interesting potentials in detecting similarities between literal and metaphoric meanings that may be exploited in further work.

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This paper presents a small-scale study of figurative language production in essays written by Georgian learners of English. The method of metaphor identification implemented in the study is a slightly modified version of MIPVU (Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit), Instead of MIPVU’s approach to the identification of lexical units and metaphors, which distinguishes phrasal verbs and idioms, our approach differs depending on the decomposability of multiword units, whether phrasal verbs or idioms. The study explores the major challenges that may arise in trying to assign figurative meanings to the constituents of multiword units, and it also illustrates the major steps of MIPVU: 1) identification of lexical units in the text, 2) determining the contextual sense, 3) selecting the basic sense based on a dictionary, 4) deciding whether the relationship between the basic and contextual sense is metaphorical or not. This study is part of a project to identify different kinds of errors made during figurative language production, with a special emphasis on the errors influenced by L1.

This article presents a review of the latest procedures for identifying metaphor in multilingual texts and different types of discourse. The choice of methods for identifying and decoding metaphorical expressions is the starting point of any research in the field of metaphorology. With the development of corpus linguistics methods, the volume of analyzed material has grown thousands of times. So, the identification of linguistic expressions in discourse that realize conceptual metaphors has become one of the most challenging issues of modern metaphorology. The paper describes theoretical foundations and historical background for the solution of this issue. It is shown that it is impossible to verify this or that method without a large-scale approbation; in this connection, the developments of research groups (PALASIGMET, PRAGGLEJAZ) proved to be the most perspective. The MIP (metaphor identification procedure) was finalized in the metaphor laboratory of the Free University of Amsterdam with the name MIPVU. This methodology was a great success all over the world, however, in Russia only a few articles of introductory character have appeared. This article summarizes the experience of applying the procedures of metaphor identification in different languages and types of discourse.

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This study explores conceptual metaphors in online football journalism, focusing on how Lionel Messi’s career is constructed in media discourse. Grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), the research analyzes a corpus of ten online news articles (approximately 10,500 words). Metaphorical expressions were identified using the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU). The analysis reveals that journalists frequently rely on metaphorical language to structure and interpret Messi’s career development. Two prominent conceptual metaphors emerge from the data: A Football Career Is a Journey and a Football Match Is a Theatrical Performance, which both organize the narrative of Messi’s career into stages of growth, challenge, and accomplishment, as well as portraying football matches as dramatic performances that highlight skills, spectacle, and public attention. In the end, the findings demonstrate the important role of metaphor in shaping how sports media narrate athletic success and construct the image of football legends.Nghiên cứu này tìm hiểu các ẩn dụ ý niệm trong bình luận báo chí bóng đá trực tuyến, tập trung vào cách sự nghiệp của Lionel Messi được xây dựng trong diễn ngôn truyền thông. Dựa trên lý thuyết Ẩn dụ Quan niệm (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), nghiên cứu phân tích một kho ngữ liệu gồm mười bài báo trực tuyến (khoảng 10.500 từ). Các biểu đạt ẩn dụ được nhận diện bằng Phương pháp Nhận diện Ẩn dụ MIPVU. Kết quả phân tích cho thấy các phóng viên thường xuyên dựa vào ngôn ngữ ẩn dụ để cấu trúc và diễn giải sự phát triển sự nghiệp của Messi. Hai ẩn dụ quan niệm nổi bật xuất hiện từ dữ liệu bao gồm: Sự nghiệp Bóng đá là một Hành trình và Trận đấu Bóng đá là một Buổi biểu diễn Sân khấu. Cả hai ẩn dụ này vừa giúp tổ chức cốt truyện về sự nghiệp của Messi thành các giai đoạn: trưởng thành, thử thách và thành tựu, vừa khắc họa các trận đấu như những màn trình diễn đầy kịch tính, làm nổi bật kỹ năng, tính giải trí và sự chú ý của công chúng. Sau cùng, các phát hiện cho thấy vai trò quan trọng của ẩn dụ trong việc định hình cách truyền thông thể thao thuật lại sự thành công của vận động viên và xây dựng hình tượng của những huyền thoại bóng đá.

Metadiscourse focuses on the interactional dimension of communication, what Sinclair (1981) called the 'interactive plane', and the coherence of interpersonal resources used to organise discourse (Hyland, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2010). In this vein, we have analysed a corpus of recorded guided meditations from lay and religious meditation contexts. We have searched for explicit signals instantiating metaphors that guide the meditation practice by marking successive genre stages. The Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) (Steen et al., 2010) is applied to identify this type of meta-discursive mark. Three types of guided meditation are compared for the signalled metaphors used to guide meditative practice and their functions. The results show that metaphor signalling plays an ostensive communicative function in organising the text contents and serving the purpose of both maintaining the audience's attention and achieving their comprehension of the mental processes they are involved in during the meditative practice. The conclusions suggest a view of metaphor usage as a metadiscursive mechanism conveying non-denotational meaning and a clue factor in meditation discourse.

Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports are strategic tools for winning stakeholder support and trust through building and maintaining favorable identities and positive images. Literature review: The metaphorical construction of corporate identity in CSR reports has received little scholarly attention. Research questions: 1. What are the main genre-specific conceptual metaphors used in Chinese and American CEO letters within CSR corporate reports? 2. How do the metaphors build companies’ corporate identities? Data and method: We collected 630 Chinese and American CEO letters in CSR reports, identified linguistic metaphors by using the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU), inferred genre-specific conceptual metaphors, and conducted comparative analysis of metaphor-based stance and identity. Results and conclusions: Although Chinese and American companies share several genre-specific conceptual metaphors, there exists variation in the metaphor scenarios used to produce the stances and evaluations that contribute to favorable corporate identity construction. In the economic dimension, companies from both countries portray themselves as “capable builders,” “competent players,” and “hard-working gardeners,” but only Chinese companies identify themselves as “active architects and travelers following national policy.” In the environmental dimension, Chinese companies delineate themselves as “determined environmental protectors” and “faithful friends” of nature, while American companies describe themselves as “environment-conscious travelers”and “responsible stewards” of nature. Both identify themselves as “good corporate citizens” in the social dimension.

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Abstract Ecological discourse analysis (EDA) has sparked growing attention in ecolinguistics. To reveal the status and trend of EDA (2014–2023), this research conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) on this topic, employing the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement as the established standard. After analysis, the SLR revealed that the number of EDA increased significantly between 2014 and 2023. Notably, Chinese scholars demonstrated the greatest focus on this topic. While EDA was widespread across various countries, international collaboration still needs to be enhanced. Meanwhile, some scholars tended to conduct EDA by adopting multiple research approaches. This SLR also unveiled the latest focuses on EDA, such as the language and its relationship with ecosophy, the ecological influence of discourses, the noteworthy topics of climate change and children’s literature, and the gap of the study on video discourse. This enables the employment of multimodal discourse research and interdisciplinary approaches for EDA to be the future trend. Since this SLR gives a comprehensive description of the trajectory of EDA, it can offer a meaningful reference for the studies relating to EDA in the linguistics domain.

By incorporating larger datasets on tourism promotion, this paper aims to 1) identify metaphors used to promote Indonesian nature and 2) discuss the promotion frames ecologically based on the metaphors used. The data acquired from the Indonesia Travel website were uploaded and analysed using Sketch Engine and WMatrix5, with the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) of Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 2003) applied within the ecolinguistics framework proposed by Stibbe (2015).). The analysis revealed that metaphor-related words were found in collocational and non-collocational relations in the form of adjectives, nouns, verbs, compound adjectives, and compound nouns to promote Indonesian topography, national parks, non-human species, and nature-based activities. The examined metaphors frame Indonesian nature as THE HOME OF COLOURFUL, UNUSUAL GEMS. However, the dominance of 'prosperity' and 'purity' as selling points articulates human stewardship of the ecosystem. The paradoxes of familiarity and attractiveness identified through metaphors express an eco-ambivalent discourse. Indonesia's natural wealth, conceptualised as a 'treasure', perpetuates a colonialist agency that stewards nature. Future research could look into how English metaphors are translated into Indonesian in tourism promotion discourse. The research can then determine whether the Indonesian metaphors produce a more beneficial discourse for the readers.

Based on the textual function of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this study employs the theme system to conduct an ecological discourse analysis of Xi Jinping's important speeches at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The aim is to explore the ecological sense of the selected text and further validate the practical value of He and Ma’s extension of the theme system in ecological discourse analysis from the perspective of ecolinguistics. The findings reveal that the markedness of participant role themes effectively highlights the ecological attributes of clauses. In the discourse, participant roles of social factors often serve as themes, with various ecological factors alternating, reflecting the diversity and interactivity of these roles. This underscores the broad participation and cooperation across the globe under the Belt and Road Initiative, further illustrating China’s steadfast commitment and contributions to advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. Consequently, the discourse demonstrates a strong ecological orientation and is therefore regarded as ecologically beneficial.

Abstract Ecological discourse within educational contexts serves as an externalized manifestation for scholars and educators in ecolinguistics to embrace ecological responsibilities and convey positive ecological philosophies. While ecological discourse analysis predominantly employs English as its analytical language, exploration of discourse analysis models based on other languages remains scarce. Therefore, this study, grounded in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and the Transitivity Theory, aims to refine the roles of participants, process semantics, and environmental components. Through qualitative and quantitative research, it investigates college-level Russian educational discourses under the guidance of ecological philosophy to unveil their ecological orientation.

In light of the degradation of the ecological environment, linguists have integrated ecology with linguistics, giving rise to the emergence of ecolinguistics. Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA), as a form of discourse analysis, serves as an analytical approach within the field of ecolinguistics. Considering that Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) can be applied in analyzing ecological discourses and acknowledging the existing differences between Chinese and English languages, this paper conducts an EDA on both Chinese and English translations of “Song of Peach Blossom Land” from a transitivity perspective, aiming to present disparities in translation skills and accuracy. The results reveal that material processes account for over 50% of processes in all three texts and are consistently observed throughout them. Natural ecology is portrayed through depictions of the peach blossom land’s scenery; social ecology is presented by describing the social background and friendly relationship between the fisherman and villagers; spiritual ecology is embodied by his decision to leave his hometown but ultimately return to this land again. Furthermore, disparities in translation skills and accuracy exist within the Chinese-English translation.

Abstract In the last few years, the European Union (EU) has been creating a wide range of educational resources for teachers and students to encourage discussion in class on sensitive issues such as environmental protection and sustainability. Following the tradition of multimodal discourse analysis and research on ecolinguistics, this study aims to analyse the webpage “Environment, climate and energy”, from the EU website Learning Corner, focussing on a sample of informative and didactic resources aimed at explaining the institution’s environmental policies to younger generations. In particular, the analysis will try to detect the main verbal and visual discursive strategies employed by the EU in order to communicate the institutional discourse on environmental protection to the young and develop eco-friendly consciousness. Furthermore, the research will also take into account the intersemiotic relation of the collected data and see whether the EU employs any positive discursive features as alternatives to the mainstream environment discourses to promote sustainability and sensitize young citizens to it.

Discursive turn and ecological turn serve as catalysts for the burgeoning of ecolingustics. As the central paradigm of ecolinguistics, ecological discourse analysis aims to analyze all discourses from the perspective of ecology. The literature to date suggests that, at present, most of the studies about ecological discourse analysis are limited to natural ecology, and the applications of transitivity in the ecological discourse analysis mainly focus on processes. Therefore, based on the ecosophy of “Holism”, this study applies transitivity focusing on participants to the ecological discourse analysis of Chi Bi Fu and its two English translations, aiming to shed light on the ecological roles of concrete participants in the interpretations of “three dimensional ecology”. The results reveal that five types of concrete participants jointly delineate the universal equality of natural ecology, the optimistic transcendence of spiritual ecology, and the dialectical unity of social ecology. Natural inanimate participants are the implementers of natural ecology and the carriers of spiritual ecology; non-natural inanimate participants play the auxiliary roles of expressing spiritual ecology; human animate participants experience spiritual ecology; non-human animate participants are the implementers of natural ecology and the coordinators of spiritual ecology; and integrated participants act as the inspirations of “three dimensional ecology”. This study further argues that the transitivity-based translation strategies may lead to the passive, backgrounded, and implicit ecological roles of the original concrete participants, thereby influencing the ecological representations of the source text.

With the development of the society, ecology has been become the core issues.As the inter-discipline between ecology and linguistics, ecolinguistics focus on the relationship between human and the nature, how language has effect on the nature.Emily Dickinson, a great American poet, has written about 1,700 poems that mainly focus on the joy of life, nature, life, and so on, some of which have been explored by different perspective.However, it is few to analyze them from the metafunction of systematical and functional linguistics with ecological perspective.According to M. A. K. Halliday's Systematic Functional Linguistics, this paper chooses a nature poem of Emily Dickinson-"I Have a Bird in Spring" to conduct an ecological analysis to show how poets express their attitude towards nature by language and illustrate a study way of ecological analysis.

Animals, as an indispensable part of our ecosystem, have been represented in various ways, ranging from sentient beings deserving of the same rights as humans to objects lacking intrinsic value. These representations reflect societal ideologies, which, in turn, influence how people perceive and treat animals and the related ecological issues. This study examines how polar bears, bats, and whales have been represented in relation to three ecological crises of the Anthropocene: climate change, disease transmission and marine pollution. The study focuses on The Globe and Mail , Canada's most influential national newspaper. By applying corpus‐based ecological discourse analysis, the study reveals how animals are portrayed in these environmental crises and uncovers the underlying ideologies at play. These ideologies, such as anthropocentrism, human exceptionalism, and shallow environmentalism, often contradict the ecosophy of ecolinguistics.

The integration of ecological civilization into disciplinary education has made the environmental value guidance of English textbooks a key research issue in foreign language education. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Ecolinguistics, this study conducts a transitivity analysis of nature-related ecological discourses in Chinese junior secondary English textbooks (FLTRP edition) to examine the ecological values embedded in the textbooks. The findings show that material, relational, and mental processes dominate the textbooks’ ecological discourses, featuring extensive depictions of human ecological activities, psychological responses, and entity relationships. The high frequency of animate and physical participants reflects human attention to the ecological environment and efforts toward ecological protection. Based on the analysis, this paper identifies three types of ecological values in the textbooks and proposes suggestions for making ecological ethics explicit in English teaching, providing a reference for integrating environmental education into foreign language instruction.

Recently, ecological damage and environmental pollution have become increasingly serious. Experts in various fields have started to study related issues from diverse points of view. To prevent the accelerated deterioration of the ecological environment, ecolinguistics emerged. Eco-critical discourse analysis is one of the important parts of ecolinguistics research, that is, it is a critical discourse analysis of the use of language from the perspective of the language’s ecological environment. Firstly, an ecological tone and modality system are constructed from an ecological perspective. Under the guidance of the ecological philosophy of "equality, harmony, and symbiosis", this study conducts an ecological discourse analysis on the Sino-US trade friction reports, aiming to present the similarities and differences between the two newspapers’ trade friction discourses and to reveal the ecological significance of international ecological factors in the discourse. Secondly, this method establishes a vector expression of abstract words based on emotion dictionary resources and introduces emotion polarity and part-of-speech features of words. Then the word vector is formed into the text feature matrix, which is used as the input of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, and the Back Propagation algorithm is adopted to train the model. Finally, in the light of the trained CNN model, the unlabeled news is predicted, and the experimental results are analyzed. The results reveal that during the training process of Chinese and English datasets, the accuracy of the training set can reach nearly 100%, and the loss rate can be reduced to 0. On the test set, the classification accuracy of Chinese text can reach 83%, while that of English text can reach 90%, and the experimental results are ideal. This study provides an explanatory approach for ecological discourse analysis on the news reports of Sino-US trade frictions and has certain guiding significance for the comparative research on political news reports under different ideologies between China and the United States.

With the rapid development of economy, the ecological problems are becoming more serious. Ecolinguistics emerged jointly with the “ecological turn” [1] among numerous disciplines. The present research conducts a contrastive Ecological Discourse Analysis under the framework of Thematic Theory of Halliday, aiming to examine the thematic choices made in the environmental speeches from the US and UK and shed light on the implications of their respective ecological ideologies. Findings suggest that, a major part of the US’s theme selections is animated (46.4%), express a philosophy of “America first”, and therefore indicate the notion of “anthropocentrism.” More inanimate theme selections were made in the UK than in America (39.4% vs. 28.4%), showing that the British public are more considerate of their surroundings. Both nations have shown certain responsibility as economic powers in the face of serious environmental problems

This research is an ecolinguistic study of UNICEF Environmental Reports “Nutrition in Emergencies” (June, 2018) in relation to the Sustainable Developmental Goals. It serves to identify the linguistic structures that highlight the role and responsibility of universal organizations and institutions in shaping the public’s views that are at the heart of sustainable development, and how one can be more socially involved. This research tackles potential influences the study of ecolinguistics can have on significant real-world issues, and how linguists can involve themselves in attending at these issues for a ‘sustainable future’. This research follows Stibbe’s (2015) model of analysis, namely, the framing technique. It attempts to reveal the frames used by UNICEF (June 2018) discourse via identifying the triggering words and then derive the source frames and their target domains. Accordingly, six texts are analyzed and the results show that there are many framings reflected by UN discourse that try to shape the worldview in relation to this report and that these texts are positive and beneficial since they are aligned with the ecological philosophy and ethical consideration to the lives and wellbeing of other species.

Abstract This article is a summary of the newly published book New Developments of Ecological Discourse Analysis. On the premise of reviewing the overall development of ecolinguistics, this book firstly develops the Hallidayan approach and defines Ecological Discourse Analysis as an independent paradigm. Based on the guiding principle of the ecosophy, “Diversity and Harmony, Interaction and Co-existence”, it then expands and extends the experiential, interpersonal, textual, and logical metafunctions within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Consequently, it constructs the theoretical systems of Ecological Discourse Analysis from the perspective of ecolinguistics: the transitivity system, mood system, appraisal system, Theme system, cohesion and coherence system, and logical system. This book presents readers with a comprehensive and applicable theoretical framework for Ecological Discourse Analysis, that is, “ecological grammar”.

As an emerging discipline, ecolinguistics has been of considerable interest to scholars at home and abroad in different fields, with the deterioration of global ecological situation and the improvement of people’s ecological awareness. Ecolinguistics should be concerned not only with the studies on the relationship among human, nature and society, but also with the studies on the language itself, such as sound, form and meaning. Therefore, taking as a theoretical framework attitude system, a subsystem of Appraisal Theory, this paper will analyze how the attitudinal resources are distributed and then reveal the ecological meaning and the hidden ideology embodied in news reports as well as explore how environmental news reports affect human ecological awareness and the ecological environment in terms of environmental news reports selectively collected from China Daily in 2022.

Ecolinguistics studies the interaction between language and its environment. The ecological discourse analysis in the framework of ecolinguistics refers to the analysis of any discourse that has a potential impact on the ecosystem. The systemic functional linguistics of Halliday and the approach of ecolinguistics provide rich theoretical perspectives for ecological discourse analysis. The ecological discourse analysis based on systemic functional linguistics can help to reveal the ecological concept and ideology behind the ecological discourse, so as to improve people’s awareness of ecological protection and build a harmonious relationship between man and nature. Under the analysis framework of systemic functional linguistics, this thesis will analyze the ecological discourse of Jack London’s novel The Sea Wolf to explore the ecological orientation behind this novel.

Ecological crisis increases into the biggest current issue since COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. The awareness and perception about the relationships between environment and other organisms has moved slowly. Meantime, the ecological terminology is developing as extraordinary topic to discuss in all aspects because has had a major effect on our live. As a new transdisciplinary paradigm formed by the combination of ecology and linguistics, ecolinguistics principally studies the influence of language use on human beings, nature and other organisms. This paper essentially uses transitivity of systemic functional linguistics theory proposed by Halliday to analyze the ecological discourse of COVID-19 speech by Dr Tedros in World Health Organization (WHO) YouTube Channel. Therefore, the ecological philosophy of this paper explores from the theory of Ecological Philosophy that addresses our understanding, as part of the environment in which we live, and how we learn and act on environmental issues. Present research employed qualitative, descriptive method containing observation. Results revealed ecological discourse analysis of transitivity system theory can be used in shedding light on use of language in this speech to invigorate the perception by understanding based on the three ecologies, there are environment, social relations and human (mental) subjectivity. Furthermore, on mood system analysis, this speech consists of larger number of declarative moods and some interrogative moods. In summarization, finding of current study will deliver a theoretical foundation of ecological discourse analysis for future researchers in the field.

Ecolinguistics explores the interplay between language and the ecological environment, encompassing humans, animals, and nature. Recent research trends have increasingly focused on critical discourse analysis (CDA), potentially overshadowing foundational ecolinguistic principles. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed ecolinguistics publications from 2011 to 2022. The methodology involved collecting relevant publications, sorting and correcting metadata, and performing a bibliometric analysis using tools like VOSviewer and Mendeley Desktop. The analysis addressed publishing trends, citation patterns, author collaborations, keyword trends, abstract content, contributing nations, and key topics within ecolinguistics and CDA. Findings reveal (1) erratic growth in ecolinguistics publications, (2) fluctuating citation counts, (3) infrequent collaboration among authors, (4) a strong association of specific keywords, (5) significant connections in abstract content, (6) the United Kingdom and the United States as leading contributors, and (7) identification of 17 specific topics within ecolinguistics. The study highlights a lack of sustained interest in ecolinguistics, with a disproportionate focus on CDA, suggesting the need for a more balanced approach that incorporates comprehensive ecological issues. Enhanced data and perspectives from ecolinguistics should inform and expand discourse function theories.

Ecological discourse analysis is an important field in the study of ecolinguistics, which attempts to reveal the relation between human beings and the ecosystem through discourse analysis within an ecological framework. The view of language in systemic functional linguistics provides theoretical perspectives for ecological discourse analysis. The interpretation of ecological discourse through the experiential, interpersonal and textual meaning can provide insights into how discourse plays a role in constructing the relationship between human beings and the ecosystem. With the help of this framework, researchers can effectively and directly reveal the ecological meaning realized through languages, so that they can identify the types of discourses to promote eco-beneficial one, resist eco-destructive ones and refine ambivalent ones.

Against the backdrop of growing global attention to environmental issues, language, as a key tool for constructing environmental awareness, plays an indispensable role. This study explores the role of three grammatical structures, namely passive voice, active voice, and nominalization, in environmental discourse. Based on foregrounding theory, transitivity analysis, grammatical metaphor, and green grammar, this research conducts a case analysis of environmental discourse about various environmental topics, demonstrating how grammatical structures shape the transmission of information and the cognitive responses of recipients, particularly the articulation and comprehension of environmental topic discourse. The study ultimately aims to reveal how these grammatical structures collectively intensify the sense of urgency and responsibility associated with environmental issues for both sides of writers and readers.

Language is a primary means by which humans comprehend global warming. This cognitive phenomenon employs metaphors, rhetoric, and other cognitive frameworks to facilitate reasoning. This study examines the role of metaphor in conceptualizing global warming in contemporary English environmental discourse, drawing on Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Critical Metaphor Analysis, and Framing Theory. 30 key environmental communication pieces and reports from BBC Environment, The Guardian, National Geographic, and NASA Climate News (2019–2024) were analyzed. With the Metaphor Identification Procedure, the qualitative analysis identified four metaphorical patterns: GLOBAL WARMING IS A DISEASE, WAR, FIRE, and MORAL PUNISHMENT. These metaphors affect people’s emotions, morality, and cognitive understanding of global warming. The study found that metaphorical framing can increase environmental awareness but also reinforce anthropocentric and crisis-based worldviews. The work enables cognitive linguistics, ecolinguistics, and environmental discourse research to collaborate through metaphor, which mediates knowledge and generates meaning in the context of global warming communication.

The subject of this study is the types of conceptual metaphors in the ecological speeches of China's President Xi Jinping. The object of research is the specific roles of conceptual metaphors. The author delves into 15 types of metaphors found in Xi Jinping's speeches, among which anthropomorphic metaphors (mainly reflecting the relationship between humans and nature, the various roles of developed and developing countries in global environmental governance), road metaphors (mainly depicting the correct path of multilateralism in environmental protection), construction metaphors (mainly highlighting the central role of the United Nations in global environmental governance and China's specific work on ecological construction), and others can be distinguished. Special attention is given to the reflection of President Xi Jinping's intentions through the use of metaphorical means in ecological texts. Within the framework of this study, the MIP metaphor identification procedure was used, and a corpus of 22 speeches delivered by Xi Jinping at various environmental forums and summits from 2013 to 2024 was analyzed. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the study of Xi Jinping's ecological texts from the perspective of national image formation. Based on the generalization of the national image formed through metaphors in Xi Jinping's international ecological speeches, the following three key aspects were highlighted: 1) China's image as a country that shows care for people and holds the correct view of nature and ecology; 2) China's image as a responsible great power that seeks to contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to global environmental governance and take on the challenging tasks of environmental governance; 3) China's image as a country adhering to an eco-centric international system based on international law, and supporting the order of global environmental governance.

This study investigates how the goals of the Green Saudi Initiative (GSI) are communicated through multimedia, with a specific focus on the promotional video From Ambition to Action. Besides, it explores how verbal, visual, and musical modes interact to construct ecological values, evoke emotional engagement, and promote pro-environmental behavior among diverse audiences. Grounded in Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Martinec and Salway’s (2005) framework of inter-semiotic relations, the analysis examines how ideational meanings, interpersonal positioning, and textual coherence are realized across multiple semiotic resources. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between language and image, interpreting how these modes complement, enhance, or expand one another in the layered construction of environmental meaning. The study reveals how the video strategically employs cohesive multimodal strategies—such as metaphor, emotional tone, and symbolic imagery—to enhance its persuasive impact, establish national identity, and align ecological messaging with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and global sustainability goals. In doing so, it highlights the potential of multimodal discourse to foster public understanding, inspire emotional resonance, and encourage behavioral transformation. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of environmental communication and offer practical insights for the design of more effective educational and advocacy campaigns tailored to the cultural and ecological context of Saudi Arabia.

From mother nature and carbon footprints to greenhouse gasses and the race against global warming, popular discourse on environmental issues is saturated with metaphor. Some people view these metaphors as obfuscating or ineffective, while others believe they are crucial for improving climate communications and environmental attitudes. In this paper, we provide a systematic overview and evaluation of the use of English metaphors in Anglo environmental discourse, drawing on a range of empirical and popular media sources. We begin by discussing the role of metaphor in language in thought. Next, we introduce a range of metaphors used to frame discussions of (1) our relationship to nature (e.g., the earth is our common home), (2) our impact on the environment (e.g., we are knocking the climate off balance), and (3) how we should address this impact (e.g., reduce our ecological footprint). We classify these metaphors along several dimensions, including how conventional they are, how systemic they are, how emotionally impactful they are, and how aptly they capture the topics they are used to describe. From this analysis, we derive several promising candidate metaphors that may help increase public understanding and engagement with environmental issues. However, we note that such claims must be tested empirically in future research; currently, there are few large, systematic, replicable experiments in the literature assessing the impact of environmental metaphors. We conclude by offering general recommendations for using metaphors in communications about climate change and sustainability.

With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent. As an important means of information dissemination, news discourse not only reflects the degree of social concern about environmental issues, but also largely shapes the public's cognition and attitude towards these issues. Metaphor, as a way of thinking, can simplify people's cognitive process and play an important role in news discourse practice. This paper organically combines the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with the Critical Metaphor Analysis research paradigm, extracts 384 green development news reports from China Daily from 2016 to 2023 as the research object, and organizes them into electric files to form a self-built corpus. The purpose is to explore the metaphorical expressions in news discourse and conduct critical analysis through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, so as to provide a language strategy reference for the external dissemination of China's green development concept in the context of emphasizing international cooperation to protect the global environment.

Environmental discourse is gaining increasing prominence worldwide, shaping political agendas and public perceptions amid urgent ecological crises. In Pakistan, environmental issues have historically been marginalized within political rhetoric, despite the country facing severe challenges such as pollution, deforestation, and waste mismanagement. Maryam Nawaz’s Suthra Punjab (Clean Punjab) campaign—a high-profile political initiative launched to address environmental cleanliness and development in Punjab province—marks a significant moment where ecology enters mainstream political discourse in the region. This study employs an ecolinguistic approach, guided by Arran Stibbe’s theoretical framework, to analyze the campaign’s speeches, promotional materials, and media coverage. Using qualitative discourse analysis, the research identifies key ecological metaphors, framing strategies, identity constructions, and appraisals embedded in the campaign language. Findings reveal that the campaign effectively uses environmental metaphors such as “cleanliness as purity” and frames ecological responsibility as a marker of political legitimacy and moral governance. While the Suthra Punjab campaign foregrounds an environmental agenda, the analysis suggests that much of its discourse negotiates between genuine ecological advocacy and symbolic political messaging designed to mobilize voter support. The construction of in-group identities—“responsible citizens” engaged in environmental stewardship—contrasted with negligent “polluters,” serves both to galvanize public participation and reinforce political narratives. This research contributes to ecolinguistic scholarship by extending its application into South Asian political contexts, and to political communication studies by elucidating how environmental language functions rhetorically in Pakistan’s electoral politics. It illuminates the complex interplay between language, ecology, and power, underscoring both the potential and limitations of environmental discourse as an instrument of political leadership and social change.

The article provides an overview of numerous, frequently divergent views on the environmental security concept in mediated Internet communication and highlights the ambiguity of its interpretations. In this regard, there arises a need for a more precise definition of the concept “environmental security”, since linguistic accuracy can be helpful in understanding the mechanisms for ensuring it. The article aims at identifying the key role of figurative narratives in explaining the essence of environmental security as a controversial concept. The research relies on methods of deep semantic analysis, interpretive and critical discourse analysis. The study material is English-language discursive metaphors, elicited by continuous sampling and reflecting different interpretations of environmental security. Scientific novelty of the study lies in the substantiation of the explanatory potential of metaphorical narratives across various discourse types. The authors argue that metaphorical language acts as a cognitive mechanism for interpreting and highlighting key aspects of sustainable “communication” with the environment. The need to find an effective metaphorical narrative that covers different aspects of environmental security is emphasized. The presented analysis of environmental security metaphors revealed their main types (military, medical, governance metaphors), as well as their disadvantages in providing an adequate view of modern threats due to insufficient information among the population about the need for emergency actions to save the planet.

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A substantial body of research pertaining to ecological issues has significantly centered its attention on laying out the deleterious, harmful and destructive consequences stemming from human actions upon the environment. This emphasis often revolves around negative metaphors that evoke fear, threats, and danger, leaving the positive aspects of green and sustainable future relatively unexplored. This paper adopts a Multimodal Positive Discourse Analysis (MPDA) approach to scrutinize visual socio-cognitive metaphors presented in 11 environmental cartoons disseminated by the Indian Council of Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) on diverse ecological issues. The study aligns with Forceivelle's (1996 & 2009) theory of multimodal metaphor and Hart's (2008) model of critical metaphor analysis in the light of Martin's (2004) Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA) theoretical framework. Therefore, emphasizing the significance of visual metaphor in the formulation of new and positive eco-friendly scenarios through the process of projection and integration across two distinct input spaces. The results of the study show that positive scenarios such as hope, success, aspiration, ambition, and optimism have been motivated in the generic space, providing an antithesis to the predominant negative scenarios characterized by stereotypes of eco threat, harm, insecurity, and instability.

This study investigates the role of metaphorical concepts in shaping the interpretation of the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment (2003), an annex to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. Analyzing the English, French, and Russian versions of the Protocol, the study identifies and analyzes the presence and function of ontological and orientational metaphors, examining their potential influence on the parties' understanding of the document's provisions. Through a comparative linguistic analysis, the study explores language-specific variations in metaphorical expression and investigates the role of metaphorical conceptualization in fostering cross-cultural communication within the context of international environmental law. The findings, presented systematically in a table, contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay of language, metaphor, and legal discourse, offering practical implications for teaching socio-political translation, intercultural communication, and English and French language instruction.

This study examines conceptual metaphors of climate change and environmental degradation in Pakistani English print media through a Cognitive Ecolinguistic Discourse Analysis. Given Pakistan's acute climate vulnerability and the limited linguistic research on its media discourse, this research aims to identify metaphors, classify their source domains, uncover ideological meanings, and evaluate ecological orientation within newspaper coverage. The study is grounded theoretically in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), integrated with Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004) and Stibbe's (2015) ecolinguistic framework distinguishing destructive, ambivalent, and beneficial discourse. Data were collected through purposive documentary analysis of digitally archived articles from three newspapers, Dawn, The Express Tribune, and The Nation, from a population of approximately 300 climate-related articles (100 per newspaper), from which 90 articles (30 per newspaper) were purposively sampled based on metaphorical density and thematic relevance. The Metaphor Identification Procedure served as the primary analytical tool. Findings reveal four dominant source domains—war, disease, journey, and personification—constructing Pakistan as a climate-vulnerable victim while invoking justice and civilisational continuity. The discourse was predominantly ambivalent, with beneficial framings emerging mainly through nature personification.

Abstract This article presents an ecostylistic analysis of the use of metaphor and framing in The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century, two lectures by the Victorian polymath John Ruskin. The metaphors and frames identified and examined here are those triggered by the two title words ‘storm’ and ‘cloud’. The overall purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the ‘storm-and-cloud’ metaphors and frames are beneficial discursive strategies urging us humans to preserve the ecological structures all living beings rely on. Since they are key practices in the text, the entire discourse conveyed by the lectures can also be defined as beneficial. Furthermore, a comparison of the metaphors and frames catalogued in the three databases, Master Metaphor List, Metalude and MetaNet Metaphor Wiki, reveals that these are deployed in an innovative and distinctive way in the lectures. Finally, while ecolinguistic metaphor and framing investigation mostly discusses destructive and ambivalent metaphors and frames about nature, this article, which instead considers beneficial discursive strategies, strives to make an analytical contribution to an undeveloped ecolinguistic and ecostylistic research area.

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ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the ECOSYSTEM HEALTH metaphor which has long prevailed in environmental communication. Following the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we propose a contrastive view on the use of the ECOSYSTEM HEALTH metaphor in environmental discourse: we distinguish the metaphorical expressions used before the pandemic from the ones used during the pandemic. This distinction is aimed at identifying the new arguments promoted by COVID-19 metaphors. The publications released by the international environmental organization Extinction Rebellion are of particular interest. Through a detailed analysis of texts published between January and July 2020, we show that the impact of COVID-19 has modified our understanding of the ECOSYSTEM HEALTH metaphor. While environmentalists used to depict the environment as a SICK BODY prior the pandemic, the occurrences discussed below demonstrate that COVID-19 metaphors highlight the human characteristics associated with the source domain HEALTH.

Addressing river pollution and understanding the role of children in environmental conservation are essential for maintaining ecosystem health and sustainability. This study used positive discourse analysis to explore children's discourse about river pollution in Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected using walk-and talk ethnographic interviews with 15 children aged 7 to 11 years. The findings reveal that these children employed five discursive strategies: (1) nomination: metaphor, comparison, and cultural practices; (2) predication: positive attitude in the forms of disposition and behavior; (3) argumentation: contrast and parallelism; (4) perspectivisation, involving a type of religious representation that includes references to the Creator, the Prophet, and hadith; and (5) intensification and mitigation: mood choice and expression of surprise. These strategies serve as persuasive tools implicitly communicated to various stakeholders to promote a culture of sustainable living. If implemented, they would provide clean water, locations for biodiversity exploration, and safe recreational areas. However, these findings cannot be generalized. Future research could expand upon this work by utilizing the list of questions developed in this study to focus on children from various age groups who may have different perspectives and cultural approaches to river pollution.

This study explores the use of the strategy of erasure in environmental science discourses to explore the deletion of the agent. Three environmental science textbooks have been chosen for analysis. Stibbe’s (2015) framework of erasure has been used as a model for analyzing the data. He asserts that the natural world is marginalized in texts through the use of certain linguistic strategies; these strategies run throughout the whole discourse to construct the erasure of the ecosystem. The researchers aim to identify erasure at the level of void, which is the complete erasure or deletion of the agent from these discourses. Stibbe mentions nine linguistic strategies for the construction of erasure in environmental discourses. These strategies are passive voice, nominalization, co-hyponymy, hyponymy, metaphor, metonymy, construction of noun phrases, transitivity patterns and massification. For the construction of void, the researchers have analyzed the strategies of passivization and nominalization. It has been found that these strategies are pervasive in the discourses, thereby deleting the agent and constructing void. The study suggests a new way to look at the language of ecological discourses and proposes further studies on how euphemistic language in these discourses can negatively influence readers. Keywords: erasure, mask, void, environmental discourse

Metaphor is deeply pervasive in human life. It is not only used in aesthetic or literary languages but also in everyday colloquial speech. This study aims to investigate conceptual metaphor in ecological discourse related to mangrove conservation on the eastern coast of North Sumatra and decipher the underlying ecosophy. The researchers also sought to figure out the ecosophical values reflected in the metaphor using an ecolinguistics perspective. A qualitative method was employed to explore the metaphorical expressions concerning mangroves. The data were collected from a report and an interview related to mangrove conservation at Pantai Sejarah Tourism Centre and Mangrove Conservation in Belawan, North Sumatra. The data were analyzed using Steen’s Metaphor Identification Process (MIP). The results showed that there are 23 instances of conceptual metaphors, categorized into five metaphorical conceptualizations: ‘mangroves are war’, ‘mangroves are people’, ‘mangroves are a valuable commodity’, ‘mangroves are building’, and ‘mangroves are containers’. These conceptual metaphors have specific linguistic expressions that establish the metaphors. Each metaphor was examined under the lens of ecosophy to determine whether or not the language used promotes the ecosophy. The implications of the study reflect that conceptual metaphors indeed exist in ecological discourse on mangrove conservation, indicating that mangroves are cognitively conceptualized in people’s minds, talked about, and integrated into everyday life.

This study applies the visual grammar theory to the multimodal ecological discourse analysis of the students’ presentation PPT slides in business English class. It investigates the process of meaning construction through a quantitative analysis of 160 images and a thorough qualitative analysis of 2 specific images. The results reveal that students’ ecological values embedded in PPT design are delivered via intersemiotic play of multimodal semiotic resources. And it is found that students’ ecological values are in accordance with the ecosophy of “Diversity and Harmony, Interaction and Co-existence”, which highlights the harmonious coexistence between man, society and nature.

Slogan has a sound mass base in China for thousands of years，functioning as guidelines for civic practice. Even today, Chinese slogans are often employed by the government to promote policies and socio-cultural values. This paper, adopting an ecolinguistic approach, explores the development of Chinese slogans during the four economic stages since the foundation of PRC (People’s Republic of China) to find out how slogans influence the relationship between men, and man and the ecosystem. It is discovered that Chinese slogans in the recent decades have experienced great changes in terms of discourse type, the beneficial degree of discourse and the ecosophy they carry. They changed gradually from destructive discourse to harmonious discourse and they reflect the transition of Chinese ecological philosophy—from ‘anthropocentrism’, ‘growthism’, and ‘classism’ to ‘harmonism’. It is hoped that this study can shed light on the eco-discourse analysis to policy language and will bring insight into its future creation.

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the research is to analyze the linguistic features of the advertisements, to reveal the stories, developed by manufacturers, which appear to be ecologically protective and aligned with the values of ecosophy. Further, it aims to identify the role of language in establishing ecological preferences for consumers. Methodology: The data has been collected from the official websites of five food manufacturing companies, which is made limited to beverages and dairy products. The advertisements are analysed under the theoretical framework of Agenda Setting Theory and Framing Theory, using the model of ecolinguistic analysis by Stibbe (2015). Main Findings: It is incurred that the food manufacturing companies develop different stories that are succinctly insinuated, where the readers consider them mundane but the stories instill certain perceptions in readers’ minds and tame the purchase choices of consumers in daily life, through the use of language. Application of this study: The research dismantles the ecological stance of the discourses and evaluates them in the light of ecosophy, it is helpful for the general public to identify the ecologically destructive discourses and how food manufacturers can improvise their discourses to increase consumerism. The language is used in such an emollient manner that the readers assume it to be for the sake of marketing but they clad the ideology of consumerism in each story. Novelty/Originality of this study: The study is unique in the sense that it involves the area of linguistics in combination with ecology. It unveils how linguistics discourses in advertisements frame stories to replace the use of natural products. The linguistic discourses are used as a tool for commercial purposes, however, the purpose is to commercially glorify the product as a better source of natural outcome in front of consumers.

This chapter explores linguistic devices which are used to perform ecocultural identities, defined as identities which include consideration of not just humans but also other species and the wider ecological systems that sustain life. Of the many possible ecocultural identities available some have the power to influence people to care and protect other species and the ecosystems that life depends on, and these are considered to be ‘positive’. The chapter analyses language features in the book Land of the spotted eagle by Luther Standing Bear in the search for language features which help to instantiate positive ecocultural identities. The methodology used is an adaptation of Positive Discourse Analysis, where texts are analysed for features that align with the values system (or ecosophy) of the analyst. The linguistic devices described in the chapter include metaphor, appraisal patterns, agency, pronoun use and semantic inclusion. The purpose of Positive Discourse Analysis is to describe linguistic features which could be selectively combined, with careful consideration of the context, to promote particular value systems; in this case to promote care for humans, other species, and wider ecological systems.

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Budući da je u hrvatskom odgojno–obrazovnom sustavu veći naglasak na obrazovnom aspektu nego na odgojnom, potreba promišljanja o ekološkom odgoju mora zauzimati važno mjesto u nastavi. Predmet Hrvatski jezik strukturno i organizacijski obuhvaća tri povezana predmetna područja, pa je potrebno promišljati o mogućnostima koje nastava hrvatskoga jezika pruža. U radu su analizirani tekstovi u udžbenicima za predmet Hrvatski jezik od 1. do 4. razreda osnovne škole koji mogu posredovati ekološke vrijednosti.

This study explores the intersection of gender representation and ecological values through a critical ecolinguistic analysis of the hashtag #ibukudietplastik featured on the Instagram account @griyaluhu. Grounded in Stibbe’s (2015) “stories we live by” framework, the research uses a descriptive qualitative method and employs critical discourse analysis to examine how language constructs ecological narratives and gendered roles in digital media. Primary data consists of captions and photographs from Instagram posts using the hashtag. The findings indicate that women particularly mothers are framed as key moral agents in environmental action, with their domestic behaviors valorized through positive evaluation. While these narratives promote ecological awareness and foster collective engagement, they may also reinforce traditional gender expectations by positioning sustainability as primarily a woman’s responsibility within the household. The study contributes to understanding how digital storytelling in environmental campaigns both empowers women and perpetuates patriarchal norms. This research offers insights into the dual function of Ecolinguistic narratives in shaping societal views on gender and sustainability.

This study aims to examine cultural and ecological representations in an Indonesian high school language textbook, exploring how cultural preservation and environmental sustainability are portrayed to support character education and civic values. Guided by a critical paradigm, this research adopts a critical discourse analysis approach framed by cultural ecology and ecological systems theory. Narrative, descriptive, and visual texts in the textbook were analyzed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis model to identify patterns and thematic constructions of cultural and ecological discourse. The analysis reveals the presence of several interconnected themes, including ethnic diversity, traditional arts, local technologies, and environmental stewardship. Illustrations of traditional dances, indigenous transport, and climate-action activities function as pedagogical tools that foster cultural identity, environmental awareness, and responsible citizenship. The findings highlight the textbook’s role in embedding local wisdom and ecological values within the national curriculum. This study contributes to the understanding of how high school language textbooks construct cultural–ecological knowledge by integrating cultural preservation with sustainability discourse. It underscores the value of visual and textual representations as agents of sociocultural harmony and environmental consciousness, and offers implications for future research on classroom reception and long-term impacts on students’ ecological and cultural literacy.

Global ecological crises such as climate change, deforestation, and pollution demand the urgent integration of sustainability values into all areas of education, including language learning. Although the Indonesian Language curriculum offers substantial potential to foster ecological awareness, its pedagogical application remains underexplored. This study aims to investigate the integration of eco-pedagogical values within Indonesian Language learning in the context of the Merdeka Curriculum at junior and senior high school levels. A qualitative descriptive approach was employed using content analysis as the central method. Primary data were obtained from national policy documents, Indonesian language textbooks, teaching modules, and curriculum frameworks. These were complemented by interview data from school principals and language teachers across Bali Province, providing insight into both institutional policy and classroom-level implementation. The analysis revealed that ecological themes are consistently embedded in various genres of language texts including descriptive, narrative, expository, and procedural forms. Topics such as biodiversity, natural disasters, environmental ethics, and conservation practices are explicitly integrated into learning materials. Key national programs including the P5 initiative, the Adiwiyata School movement, and Permendikbudristek Number 37 of 2022 play a supportive role in reinforcing these values. The findings indicate that Indonesian Language learning serves a dual purpose by enhancing linguistic competence while simultaneously cultivating students' ecological literacy and ethical responsibility. This study contributes to the advancement of language education that supports sustainable development and encourages environmentally conscious citizenship.

Large language models increasingly generate environmental discourse, yet there is no standardised framework for evaluating the ecological narratives they produce. We introduce a structured prompt corpus and a reproducible multi layer evaluation framework grounded in ecolinguistic theory, operationalising five dimensions of ecological alignment: anthropocentrism, agency attribution, erasure of non human impacts, evaluation of growth, and responsibility framing. The framework integrates human judgement, an ecosophy aligned model judge, and automated semantic metrics, and is applied to outputs from ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Ecophora , our ecosophy guided model. Ecophora achieves the highest alignment across all layers, with near ceiling judge scores of 159 / 160 and 142 / 160 , together with the strongest automated composite performance. Divergences between automated metrics and holistic judgement indicate that ecological vocabulary alone does not guarantee ecological reasoning. The proposed framework provides a scalable methodology for benchmarking ecological alignment and assessing narrative shifts in language models.

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PurposeUnderstanding the role of corporate strategies in sustainability has become a hot topic for scholarly research. Meanwhile, firms strive to innovate and shape their positive image in the contemporary business arena. Past research has ignored investigating whether and how sustainability-oriented corporate strategies could drive innovation and firm image among external stakeholders. To address the said research gap, this paper examines the path through which sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation improve green corporate image and green innovation capabilities (i.e. green process and product innovation).Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a quantitative survey-based method. The online survey was adopted to collect data from employees working at the managerial level in the equipment manufacturing sector. The data collected from 343 managers that was complete in all aspects was used for empirical analysis using structural equation modeling. Direct and indirect relations were evaluated.FindingsThe findings reveal that sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation drive green innovation and green corporate image. Findings further show that external knowledge adoption underpins these effects of sustainability-oriented corporate strategy and environmental regulation.Originality/valueThe study delivers theoretical and practical understandings of the importance of sustainability-oriented corporate strategies to green corporate image and green innovation capabilities.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports are important non-financial disclosures that provide insights into an enterprise’s commitment to social and environmental responsibilities. With the escalation of global environmental challenges, the focus on the disclosure of environmental responsibility information within CSR reports has intensified. As CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) is an environmentally sensitive corporation, this study investigates the legitimation strategies utilized in the environmental discourse of the CNPC’s English CSR Report of 2022, aiming to understand how CNPC constructs its legitimacy in sustainable development for international audience. The findings reveal that: (1) five principal legitimation strategies are employed—authorization, moralization, rationalization, mythopoesis, and altruism—with rationalization as the dominant strategy, representing 65.45% of all cases; (2) these strategies are grounded in diverse sources of legitimacy, such as collective authority and moral values, and are manifested through distinct lexical and syntactic choices; (3) these legitimation strategies constructs an authoritative and credible corporate eco-friendly image for CNPC. These findings contribute to the understanding of legitimation strategies in institutional environmental discourse and offer practical implications for enterprises aiming to enhance their international reputations in sustainable development and facilitate global expansion.

In an era marked by growing environmental concerns, businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in influencing customer behavior, particularly in the context of sustainability and green practices. This paper aims to examine the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Customer Green Behavior (CGB) through the mediating role of corporate image, service quality, customer trust and customer satisfaction. A convenient sampling technique was employed to collect the data sample. A total of 741 questionnaires were distributed across four different hotel sectors in China. By using Structural Equation Modeling, the results suggest that CSR significantly influences CGB. Moreover, corporate image, service quality, customer trust and customer satisfaction show a partial mediating effect in the relationship between CSR and CGB. The study findings suggest that the hotel industry should invest in CSR initiatives to enhance CGB by conducting pro-environmental activities. This study emphasizes how important CSR initiatives are in encouraging customers to adopt eco-friendly behavior. Overall, the results of this study extend the understanding of CSR, CGB, corporate image, service quality, customer trust and customer satisfaction in the context of the hotel industry and offer theoretical and managerial implications for developing and developed economies. The originality value of this research lies in its comprehensive examination of the mediating effects of corporate image, service quality, customer trust and customer satisfaction on the relationship between CSR and CGB in the hotel industry. Furthermore, the study’s focus on the specific context of China adds novel insights to the existing literature on CSR and CGB. Discussions, limitations and research suggestions for future study are also provided.

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Purpose Environmental issues have triggered the need for sustainable behavior around the globe. The tourism industry’s rapid growth also contributes to environmental degradation through natural resource depletion and excess water and energy utilization. Based on social identity theory, this study aims to assess the impact of environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives on green customers’ citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the study assesses the mediating effects of green trust, customer–company identification and green image. Design/methodology/approach This study is a quantitative approach, and purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data from the hotels’ customers from northern areas of Pakistan. This study used partial least square-structural equation modeling to analyze the data of 426 customers. Findings The study’s findings show that environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives significantly impact green customers’ citizenship behavior, green trust, customer–company identification and green corporate image. However, the relationship between green corporate image and green customers’ citizenship behavior was insignificant. Furthermore, the study’s results revealed that green trust and customer–company identification partially mediate between environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior. Practical implications The findings suggest that hotels’ environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives improve green customer citizenship behavior, green trust and enhance customer–company identification. Therefore, hotel industry managers should consider reinforcing existing environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and make further efforts to highlight the importance of such initiatives for environmental sustainability, which ultimately affects customers’ green customer citizenship behavior. Originality/value This research developed a novel framework to understand green customers’ citizenship behavior in the tourism industry. It extended the literature on environmental corporate social responsibility initiatives and green customers’ citizenship behavior. In addition, the research adds value by confirming the significant direct and mediating role of customer–company identification in tourism industry context.

Sustainability reports provide a corporate performance’s comprehensive view from economic, social, and environmental perspectives to help stakeholders identify progress and areas for improvement as well as increasing public awareness. However, given the rising issue of “greenwashing,” false environmental claims often shown in company reports, it is important to examine the authenticity of a sustainable report, especially in its alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to see whether the report actually reflects ecological responsibility or simply to improve stakeholder trust and company image. This study aims to examine the sustainability report of a fishery industry in Indonesia. Using a mix-method, i.e., combination of AI tools for initial summary of the report and qualitative Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA), especially the framing and erasure theories of Stibbe (2015), the research seeks to identify the report’s alignments with indicators concerning responsible consumption (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and ocean ecosystems (SDG 14). The finding shows that there are inconsistencies between the company’s ecological principles and its sustainability claims as revealed from its framing and erasure narrativization. The report’s focus on creating a corporate self-image as a consumer and market-driven company results in a lack of visible ecological accountability.

Corporate sustainability reporting has gained attention, but research gaps persist in applying ecological discourse analysis (EDA) to corporate texts. Current studies often rely on critical discourse or thematic content analysis, overlooking the ecological dimensions of language. There is a lack of integrated SDG discourse analysis that captures the complex interdependence of environmental issues and limited attention to subtle linguistic strategies companies use to frame compliance and sustainability, often bordering on greenwashing. This study addresses these gaps by applying an ecological discourse analysis to a fishery company's sustainability report. Data was taken from the English sustainability report of PT. Dua Putra Makmur Tbk (DPUM), downloaded from the company’s website, www.duaputra.co.id. The collected data were examined through an ecological discourse analysis (EDA) framework assisted by the UAM corpus tool to investigate the modality as the interpersonal vehicle that uncovers the company’s intention in building public trust and showing its commitment to the ecological equilibrium. Findings reveal that modality is mainly employed to show the company’s commitment to maintaining sustainable business practices. Ecologically, the sustainability report articulates an ambivalent discourse since the ecological commitment is concealed in the report, proven by the absence of modality referring to ability and willingness

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Purpose Society is asking for a humanized business strategy. In this paradigm-shifting, the first change is in companies’ discourses. This paper aims to analyze an organization’s discourse involved in a scandal (environmental crime) from the perspective of corporate social responsibility and organizational spirituality. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an interpretive qualitative study using discourse analysis encompassing Samarco, a joint venture between Vale S.A. and BHP Billiton. The collapse of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, caused the spillage of approximately 56 million cubic meters of iron ore and silica tailings, among other particles affecting 41 cities and three indigenous reserves degrading 240.88 hectares of Atlantic Forest, until reaching the Atlantic Ocean. This paper analyzed the company website and all public documents available, both before and after the crime, Code of Conduct (2014), Annual Sustainability Report (2014) and Actions Report (2016), Biennial Report (2015–2016 and 2018–2019) and the Transaction and Conduct Adjustment Term (2016). This study chose the data considering the series of judicial processes in course, environmental crime’s delicacy, and its consequences for Samarco employees, stakeholders, affected communities and families. Findings The spiritual elements underlined in organizational discourses are different from the corporate practice in their everyday interactions with their stakeholders. As a result, the organizations’ identity seems problematic. The company has failed to provide an environment that encourages spirituality. Originality/value This is the first article to analyze a company’s discourse involved in a scandal through the lenses of corporate social responsibility and organizational spirituality. It contributes to the research concerning irresponsible management and the rhetorical use of spirituality in management.

Environmental communication by extractive corporations frequently produces a distance between reported claims and material conditions in the field. This study examines how PT Semen Padang, a state-owned cement producer operating the Karang Putih limestone quarry in West Sumatra, discursively constructs its reclamation and revegetation programme, and the extent to which that construction corresponds to independently verifiable material conditions. Grounded in the critical paradigm, the study applies Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis through a document study of fourteen documents, consisting of three corporate primary documents (the 2021 Annual Report, the 2022 Annual Report, and the 2024 SIG Sustainability Report) and eleven comparative documents comprising corporate communication materials, independent academic publications, environmental oversight reports, and media coverage published between 2014 and 2025. The analysis proceeds across the micro, meso, and macro levels and is supported by source triangulation. The findings indicate the presence of characteristics that may be categorised as greenwashing, operating through three constructive mechanisms, namely the reframing of a legal obligation as voluntary excellence, visual-textual symbolism associating the corporation with nature, and the mobilisation of external authority as an instrument of legitimacy, as well as through four communicative mechanisms: selective framing, visual symbolism, intertextuality, and the intensification of positive narratives when public pressure rises. Comparative data indicate discrepancies in three aspects: functional reclamation reported at approximately 37 percent of the 18.6-hectare target; ambient PM10 averaging 246 µg/m³ in a settlement 500-650 metres from the emission source (Latifa, 2025); and the complete absence of any discussion of karst hydrological function. The study positions CDA combined with material triangulation as a productive analytical tool within communication science.

This paper adopts the lens of environmental ethics to explore whether there is a disparity between the ethical approaches of a company in comparison to those expressed by stakeholders in relation to environmental issues, specifically those communicated through the corporate environmental report. Discourse analysis is adopted to explore the environmental section of the sustainability reports of the case study company as compared to the responses of a sample of the company’s stakeholders, using the lens of three branches of environmental ethics: utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics. Results indicate that the ethical approaches expressed in the case study company’s environmental reports were grounded in utilitarianism and deontology, in contrast to a virtue ethics approach expressed by external stakeholders. The disparity widened as the relationship between the company and the stakeholder became less direct. This disparity signals a failure to meet one of the primary purposes for preparing sustainability reports: to engage with stakeholders. As such this research contributes to the literature by identifying a disparity in the how this information is communicated compared with how it is perceived by stakeholders. This has important implications for the success of current stakeholder engagement practices.

This bachelor’s thesis investigates how sustainability discourses in the mining industry are used to legitimize continued exploitation in the Global South, with a particular focus on Glencore’s 2023 Sustainability Report. The study is based on a critical discourse analytical approach inspired by Norman Fairclough and employs Wallerstein’s world -systems theory as an analytical framework to reveal the power structures embedded in the company’s sustainability communication. Through a combined content and discourse analysis, the study examines how technology – particularly AI, automation, and traceability systems – is portrayed as a solution to occupational and environmental issues. The study demonstrates how technology is granted discursive agency, which diverts attention from corporate responsibility and places ethics within the domain of technology. Furthermore, it discusses how actors such as Tesla and JP Morgan, although not direct counter voices, contribute to reinforcing the dominant sustainability discourse by reproducing core-periphery relations. The analysis shows that sustainability is often reduced to a matter of technical compliance rather than social or ecological justice, which ultimately risks undermining the transformative potential of the sustainability concept.

This article aims to study the discourse on corporate governance (CG) from the perspective of ethos (lexical route) and the enunciative situation explicited in a published text of a Sustainability Report of a publicly traded multinational, Santander. Theoretical assumptions of Corporate Sustainability, Corporate Governance, Corporate Communications, Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis of French line were addressed. The latter also constitutes the methodology used for the making of research. To undertake this work, three analyzes were performed: data linguistics, arguments and communication strategies used in the text production. The CG is understood as belonging to the social responsibility that makes up the tripod of Corporate Sustainability, along with Environmental and Economic.

No abstract available

Over the past years, companies have started to focus more on sustainability communication as a tool of expressing the environmental responsibility and improving the trust of the stakeholders. There is a big disparity between the corporate sustainability assertion and real environmental practice, especially through greenwashing. This paper will examine the linguistic practices used in corporate environmental reports in order to find out how sustainability is discursively produced. Based on the qualitative approach based on critical discourse analysis (especially the three-dimensional model by Fairclough), the study will consider a sample of 5-10 corporate sustainability reports of large industries. The analysis reveals some common characteristics like the use of ambiguous lexical decisions, modality and hedging, passive constructions, and positive framing, all of which lead to ambiguity and selective representation. The results indicate that corporate discourse is often more focused on image building as opposed to transparency. The paper ends with the necessity of more transparent, responsible practices of sustainability communication to decrease the difference between the discourse and the real environmental performance.

This paper explores discourse strategies in environmental reporting (ER) adopted by Saudi listed companies as a response to changes in stakeholder demands, and how these strategies are used to persuade stakeholders of the firm’s legitimacy. Guided by the legitimacy theory and persuasion strategies framework, the contents of annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports published between 2015 and 2023 (N = 42) by three selected cases of listed companies in three different sectors are analysed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to understand firm strategic communication response to various stakeholder demands. Analysis revealed the use of (1) relative clauses as linking devices, (2) transitional words and phrases to present results and (3) quantifying noun determiner phrases. The results of the CDA highlighted that (1) corporations that make more transparent environmental disclosures in their ER adopt mental, relational and material processes; (2) the discourse featured in such reporting operates at both the macro and meso levels by highlighting the relevant organisational, national and global aspects of their environmental efforts; (3) firms that have adopted GRI standards tend to seek to change their readers’ minds regarding the value of their environmental efforts aiming to secure stakeholder engagement and diminish risks While their ISO-adopter counterparts manage their reputation by seeking to shape their readers’ responses; (4) hard disclosure seeks to shape and alter readers’ perceptions of firms’ environmental efforts by including evidence. The paper contributes to the environmental accounting (EA) literature by using CDA to explore how discourse is used by sensitive industries to persuade stakeholders and maintain legitimacy. Second, it contributes to the CDA research methods literature in the context of environmental reporting, where the English language is not the main language of local stakeholders. It is hoped that the study’s tentative integration of Nwagbara and Belal’s (2019) analytical approach with Jowett and O’Donnell’s (2012) persuasion strategies framework will enhance the CDA-based literature on ER produced by corporations in emerging economies such as Saudi Arabia (SA).