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Title Orienting Green Discourse: A Corpus-Based Ecolinguistic Study of Economic Discourse on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Author(s) Ms. Humera Faraz

Abstract Orienting Green Discourse: A Corpus-based Ecolinguistic Study of Economic Discourse on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) This research explores the economic discourse produced around China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by analyzing a corpus of 1.2 million words to find cognitive structures and linguistic patterns representing socioeconomic and ecological/environmental areas in the discourse of CPEC. In addition, this research also determines how identified linguistic patterns and cognitive structures develop six stories by following Stibbe’s (2015) story framework of eco-critical discourse perspective and Sen’s (1999) sustainable development approach. The data for this research is taken from the official website of CPEC, and the unofficial data comprising Pakistani and Chinese English newspapers (2016-2020) from online e-paper websites. The theoretical framework of this research includes theories from cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis. The corpus analysis provided frequencies and statistical significance scores to find frames, metaphors, salience, appraisal, and facticity patterns that helped discover the type of discourse/ideologies. Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provided a word list for corpus analysis. The findings indicate that the representation of socioeconomic areas (5719 hits) and (CPEC-socioeconomic collocation =7.59442 MI score) in CPEC discourse is found to be more frequent as compared to the eco-environmental (1807) hits and (CPEC-ecoenvironmental collocation= 2.64534 MI score) representation in the CPEC discourse. The story of frames is developed through 55 socioeconomic frames (22 problem or extrinsic frames, 34 predicament or intrinsic frames) and 66 eco-environmental frames (40 problem or extrinsic frames, 26 predicament or intrinsic frames). The story of conceptual metaphors is developed through 12 metaphors for CPEC, 11 for socioeconomic, and 4 for ecoenvironmental areas of Pakistan. Some examples include: Nature is a resource, CPEC is a human being, poverty is a war, and Pakistan’s environment is a patient. The story of salience is employed in CPEC discourse with the help of verbs of focus, vitality, and vi significance such as explore, implement, accelerate, and promote. The most salient verb is ‘promote’, with salience stats 7.36823. Similarly, CPEC has been appraised well for bringing socioeconomic uplift to Pakistan using 51 positive appraisal items, primarily adjectives. In comparison, it has been appraised as bad for the environmental health of Pakistan by using 18 negative appraisal items. Facticity or conviction patterns have been employed using expert authorities’ opinions, such as environmentalists, economists, ministers, and field experts. Moreover, modal verbs such as: will are used most frequently with eight areas, and hedging words like believe/s and think/s, are also used in the collocation ‘environmentalists-believe’ (11.23230) and policy makers -- think (7.49041) to validate descriptions of socioeconomic and eco-environmental areas of CPEC discourse. The CPEC discourse is ambivalent due to the combination of 5 areas with anthropocentric ideologies and four areas with ecocentric ideologies. The Ecosophy of the CPEC discourse starts with anthropocentric ideologies and ends with ecocentric ones.

Type Thesis/Dissertation PhD

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2023-09-19

Subject PhD English Linguistics

Publisher Department of English (GS)

Contributor(s) Dr. Jamil Asghar Jami

Format As per departmental guidelines

Identifier Dr. Muhammad Haseeb Nasir (PhD English Program Coordinator)

Source PhD

Relation PhD

Coverage PhD

Rights PhD

Category PhD English Linguistics Thesis

Description PhD English Linguistics