ENVIRONMENTAL METAPHORS IN GLOBAL CLIMATE DISCOURSE: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY OF UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE REPORTS

Abstract

 Ecolinguistics implemented linguistic patterns to environmental texts to disclose the hidden beliefs. This research examined the use of environmental metaphors of the United Nations climate change reports that also focused on Corpus linguistics. The work gained importance in the domain of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), suggested that abstract ideas were organized through observed experiential fields (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The reports were downloaded from the climate change website of UNFCCC and IPCC. The Corpus analysis tool AntConc 4.3.1 were used to check collocation patterns, concordance analysis, keyword identification and metaphorical expressions (Pragglejaz Group, 2007). The study inspected data gathered through qualitative and quantitative approaches. The findings exhibited various conceptual metaphors such as Climate Change as War, Climate Action as Journey, Climate as Economic Resource, and Earth as a Living Organism. The Metaphor of War symbolised loss and crisis often framing climate change as a global threat (Flusberg, Matlock, & Thibodeau, 2018); journey metaphors conceptualized climate reduction (Charteris-Black, 2014); economic metaphors associated environmental discourse with market ideologies (Koteyko & Nerlich, 2007); while organism metaphors provoke ethical responsibility by representing the planet and ecosystems. By integrating corpus linguistics with metaphor research, the project advances the study of ecolinguistics and climate communication. It provides a clearer understanding of linguistic choices.