An Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Introduction Part Of Chemical Research Papers

Ecological discourse analysis draws on linguistic theory and analyzes texts under the guidance of ecological philosophy to reveal the ecological thoughts of individuals or groups behind the discourse.The discipline of chemistry is closely related to ecology and the chemical discourse implicitly influences the ecosophy of the chemists.The “introduction part” of the research paper serves as a general overview of the whole text and attracts the interest of the readers.The study aims to explore what ecological thoughts are embodied in the “introduction part” of chemical research papers.This study chooses five international journals that fit the descriptions of five secondary disciplines of chemistry in the Ministry of Education as the research corpus according to the classification of chemical journals by the Royal Society of Chemistry(average impact factors >3.00 in the last three years),with 10 papers each and 50 in total.Based on the transitivity system and the Theme system,an analytical framework was established and the corpus software UAM was used for annotation to explore the ecological thoughts in the “introduction part” of chemical research papers.The findings of the transitivity system are as follows:(1)In the “introduction part” of the chemical research papers,the six processes are all reflected in the corpus,and the proportion is in descending order: material process,relational process,verbal process,mental process,existential process and behavioral process.Material process and relational process are frequently employed.(2)The proportion of participants is as follows: inanimate social participant,inanimate physical participant,animate human participant and animate nonhuman participant.Inanimate participants are relatively more.(3)The proportion of the circumstances of the transitivity system is in the order of location,manner,extent,cause,accompaniment,role,matter,angle and probability.Location and manner are the most two frequent.The findings of the Theme system are as follows:(1)In the “introduction part” of chemical research papers,the number of unmarked Themes is dominant.(2)From the perspective of ecological discourse analysis,the proportion of different types of unmarked Themes are as follows: inanimate social Theme,inanimate physical Theme,animate human Theme and animate nonhuman Theme.The proportion order is consistent with the proportion of participants.The findings show that(1)Material process and relational process are frequently employed.The material processes include the actions of chemical investigations,experiments and measurements.The relational processes describe the information and characteristics of chemicals,products and substances.(2)Participants of transitivity system and Themes are important research contents of ecological discourse analysis,revealing the author’s research concerns and starting point.Theme is the supplement of participants.Inanimate participants and inanimate Themes are relatively more.Social factors include chemical products,chemical experiments,chemical studies and chemical contributions.Physical factors pay attention to chemical elements,chemical substances,chemical reactions and chemical phenomena.(3)Location and manner account for relatively large proportions.Location indicates places and temporal contents related to chemistry,and manner usually expresses various means,qualities,and comparisons,with less ecological relevance.(4)The discourse in the “introduction part” of chemical research papers is not very ecological.Most of the participants and the Themes are inanimate,which is caused by the characteristics of the discipline.However,the proportion of the animate nonhuman is too small,which reflects the lack of concern for nonhuman creatures.The central ideas of the discourses revolve around human beings,whose interests are the main starting point for chemical researchers,with little mention of nonhuman life forms or the negative effects of chemistry on them.Both the transitivity system and the Theme system embody negative ecological thoughts such as anthropocentrism and incrementalism.This study is helpful for chemical learners to understand the ecological thoughts in the“introduction part” of chemical research papers,and be able to read with awareness of the negative ecological ideas lurking behind chemical academic discourse to use more ecologically friendly language in the choice of expression and writing.At the same time,it also has implications for the study of ecological discourse analysis.