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Discourse and transformation

A discourse-historical approach to understanding energy in China’s diplomatic discourse

ORCiD logo with link | Shanghai International Studies University
ORCiD logo with link | Shanghai University of International Business and Economics
Published online: 2 July 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24025.jia
Abstract
This paper sets out to investigate the representation of energy in China’s diplomatic discourse in a context where power structures within and among nation-states are shifting and energy is becoming more politicized. To do this, this research adopts corpus-assisted discourse-historical analysis to examine discursive strategies and investigates the way energy is constructed in China’s diplomacy. Results show a dichotomy of an active ingroup and an indifferent outgroup, revealing a reversal of power in the fierce competition of discourse in the international energy sector, which serves as a catalyst for the creation of demand for new energy sources and the development of new energy industries. The analysis of grounded linguistic evidences also signifies that discourse is the site where power is not only enacted and performed, but also negotiated and contested.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Energy diplomacy and discourse
  • 3.Unmasking discourse through the corpus-assisted DHA
  • 4.Data and methods
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Discourse topics
    • 5.2Discursive strategies
      • 5.2.1Nomination and predication strategies
      • 5.2.2Argumentation strategies
        • 5.2.2.1Topos of responsibility and topos of definition
        • 5.2.2.2Topos of reality
        • 5.2.2.3Topos of numbers and topos of contributions
      • 5.2.3Intensification and mitigation strategy
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
References (38)
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