A Study On Transitivity System Of The News On Wandering Elephants From The Perspective Of Ecological Discourse Analysis

Due to the increasing ecological problems,ecolinguistics has attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad.As one of the main research approaches of ecolinguistics,ecological discourse analysis focuses on the relationship between language and ecology,which has active effects on arousing people’s awareness of protecting the environment.The migration of wild elephants in March 2020 has attracted wide attention,and conducting ecological discourse analysis on it is therefore conducive to stimulating readers’ awareness of protecting animals and promoting the construction of ecological civilization.This thesis selects the news on wandering elephants in China Daily as the research data and explores its ecological orientation to guide people to co-exist harmoniously with nature.From the perspective of ecological discourse analysis,based on the transitivity system,this thesis analyzes 71 news on wandering elephants in China Daily from March18,2020 to September 11,2021,aiming to explore the characteristics of the transitivity system distribution and the realization of the transitivity system as well as the ecological thoughts embedded in the news on wandering elephants.The findings are as follows: First,for the distribution of the transitivity system,the proportions of participants are the highest.For the distribution of processes,the proportions of material processes are the highest;for the distribution of participants,the proportions of material participants are the highest,and the proportions of elephant participants are higher than those of human participants;for the distribution of circumstances,the proportions of location are the highest.Second,for the realization of the transitivity process,the material process vividly shows the wandering elephants’ migration and people’s endeavor to safeguard them along the way;the relational process describes the status and characteristics of wild elephants and the geographical location of elephants in the journey;the mental process shows the consciousness activities of people and wild elephants;the behavioral process describes the physical behaviors of people and wild elephants;the verbal process shows people’s concern for wild elephants;the existential process shows the existence of natural things in nature.For the realization of the participants,the transitivity participants describe the subjects and objects associated with the transitivity process.And the participants are mainly realized by elephant participants,reflecting that people consider elephants as the central position in the environment.For the realization of the circumstances,the circumstances describe the time,place,and distance associated with the migration of wild elephants.Third,for the construction of ecological thoughts,the ecological thought of care is reflected mainly through material processes,relational processes,mental processes,and the personification of elephant participants.Besides,the ecological thought of wellbeing of and valuing living is reflected mainly through numerous material processes and people’s role as ecological builders.It is hoped that the study will stimulate readers’ ecological awareness of animal protection,promote the harmony between humans and nature,and provide some suggestions for environmental news editors.