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The language of ESG sustainability reports of Chinese listed companies

A preliminary corpus-assisted keyword analysis from an ecolinguistic perspective

 | Roma Tre University | Lab on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
ORCiD logo with link | Lab on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice | Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
 | Lab on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice | Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
 | Lab on Area Studies for Sustainability Transformations (LAST), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice | The University of Hong Kong
Published online: 1 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.24038.con
Abstract
Amid increasing global environmental concerns, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting has become standard practice for listed companies; few studies, however, analyzed Chinese ESG reports from an ecolinguistic perspective. This study employs quantitative corpus-assisted ecolinguistic methods to systematically compare vocabulary choices and discourse patterns in a corpus of 136 sustainability reports, further divided into two subcorpora — those issued by leading Chinese (public) companies by revenue (List A) and those aligned with Sustainable Development Goals criteria (List B). Results from combining keyword analysis and thematic clustering reveal diverging sustainability and political discourses across the two subcorpora, suggesting that commitment to SDGs and ownership influence language use. These variations center around two main poles, one driven by economy and State ideology (List A) and the other by a techno-oriented perspective (List B), reflecting the diverse approaches currently present in China’s sustainability arena.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Ecolinguistics
      • 2.1.1The ‘Ecology’ of language and ecological linguistics
      • 2.1.2Corpus-assisted ecolinguistics
    • 2.2ESG reporting
      • 2.2.1ESG practices in China
      • 2.2.2Textual features of ESG reports
  • 3.Existing gaps, research questions, and goals
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Sample composition
    • 4.2Semantic annotation
    • 4.3Instruments and analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Frequency
    • 5.2Keyness
      • 5.2.1List A vs List B
      • 5.2.2List B vs List A
    • 5.3Summary of results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Authorship contribution statement
  • Notes
  • References
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