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Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 48:1 (2025) ► pp.4–27

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Applied semantics and climate communication

ORCiD logo with link | Griffith University
 | Griffith University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

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This article was made Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license through payment of an APC by or on behalf of the authors.

Published online: 27 July 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.22028.bro
Abstract
This paper explores ways in which applied semantics (coming out of Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach) can inform effective communicative strategies for action on climate change. After framing discussion, it presents three case studies, which are intentionally disparate in nature: contrastive semantics of the expressions ‘climate crisis’, ‘climate emergency’, and ‘climate catastrophe’; a semantically-enhanced examination of how public inquiries into extreme weather events help shape climate discourse in Australia; the semantics of ‘the economy’ in everyday English and the implications for climate change discourse. We argue that climate action communication is clearer, more resonant, and more effective when it uses or builds on ordinary words and local meanings.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background on NSM theory and methodology
  • 3.Climate emergency, climate crisis, climate catastrophe: The semantics of ‘mobilizing expressions’
  • 4.‘Public inquiries’ as shapers of climate discourse
  • 5.‘The economy’ in climate discourse
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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