Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Living Planet Report 2016-2020 From The Perspective Of Appraisal Theory

Ecological discourse analysis,as one of the important research methods of Ecolinguistics,has gradually gained the notice of scholars after entering the 21 st century.In recent years,there have been many combined studies on ecological discourse analysis and Appraisal Theory.Based on this,the thesis uses Sketch Engine as a corpus analysis tool to select three reports amount to 118,589 words of Living Planet Report from 2016 to 2020(hereinafter referred to as the Reports)as a corpus for ecological discourse analysis,which is carried out on the basis of Appraisal Theory and guided by the ecosophy of “Diversity and Harmony,Interaction and Co-existence” through a self-built corpus.The following three research questions are explored by combining quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis:(1)What are the distribution features of attitude resources in the Reports,and what kind of ecological dialogue space is established between readers and the ecological subjects in the Reports?(2)What are the distribution features of engagement resources and graduation resources in the Reports,and what kind of ecological dialogue space is established between readers and authors of the Reports?(3)What is the ecological orientation of the Reports?The findings of the research are as the follows:(1)Of the attitude resources,the negative attitude resources are the most frequently used,accounting for 59.7%,which are mainly about the evaluation of natural ecological subjects;while the ratio of positive attitude resources is 40.3%,which are mostly the evaluation of political ecological subjects.In the Reports,negative attitude resources are used to express concerns about the current status of natural ecological subjects;while positive attitude resources are used to affirm and praise the actions of political ecological subjects in dealing with ecological problems.The rational allocation and use of negative attitude resources and positive attitude resources create an objective,scientific,and rational ecological dialogue space between the Reports? authors and the assessed ecological subjects in the Reports.(2)In engagement resources,monogloss resources account for 44.5% and heterogloss resources account for 55.5%.Among the four categories of heterogloss resources,declaration resources account for 21.6% and denial resources account for 19.8% respectively.The ratios of declaration resources and denial resources are higher than 9.9% of inclusiveness resources and 4.2% of affiliation resources.Among the graduation resources,raise force resources account for 34.4% of the total graduation resources,and sharpen focus resources account for 44.8%.The Reports strategically use engagement resources and graduation resources.Among them,the extensive use of monogloss resources,raise force resources,and sharpen focus resources is to compress the dialogue space between the authors and the readers.(3)After judging the ecological orientation,it is found that the proportion of beneficial discourses is 32.4% and the proportion of destructive discourses is 25.6% respectively.And the proportion of neutral discourses is 42.0%,which is higher than that of beneficial discourses and destructive discourses in the Reports.The distribution features of various appraisal resources provide objective and reliable data support for the comprehensive analysis of two types of ecological dialogue spaces,one is the dialogue space between the readers of the Reports and the assessed ecological subjects in the Reports,and the other is the dialogue space between the readers of the Reports and the authors of the Reports.Thus,the specific roles of appraisal resources in constructing the ecological dialogue spaces in the Reports are essentially explored.The results show that,compared with the way of establishing dialogue space by expressing emotional tendency with attitude resources,the way of establishing dialogue space with engagement resources and graduation resources is more direct and effective.In the engagement resources,declaration resources and denial resources compress the dialogue space,strengthen the attitude of the authors of the Reports,and exclude the voices of other speech communities except for the authors.And in the graduation resources,raise force resources and sharpen focus resources also have the effect of compressing the dialogue space,which not only shows that the authors?standpoint is firm and clear,but also warns the readers of the increasing seriousness of ecological problems.Overall,attitude resources account for 64.9% of appraisal resources,while engagement and graduation resources in total account for 35.1%.In the Reports,the correct ecosophy and scientific,rigorous attitude are used to describe ecological facts,while appraisal resources are used to assist the realization of ecological significance.What?s more,the attitude resources are used to enhance the Reports? value orientation and emotional orientation,and to stimulate the sense of ecological consensus of readers,actively leading readers? ecological thought construction.From the perspective of Appraisal Theory,a corpus-based ecological discourse analysis of the Reports is conducted in the study to further deepen our understanding.The study probes into their discourse characteristics,so as to provide reasonable suggestions for the construction of ecological discourse in the future.It also cultivates and strengthens readers? ability to interpret the ecological awareness contained in the texts,which is conducive to actively guide readers to construct a healthy ecological philosophy.