A corpus-aided ecological discourse analysis of the Rosemont Copper Mine debate of Arizona, USA. (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Poole, Robert
• Is Part Of: Discourse & communication. Volume 10:Number 6(2016)
• Page Start: 576
• Page End: 595
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Corpus-aided discourse analysis -- ecolinguistics -- ecological discourse analysis -- environmental communication -- environmental discourse; Discourse analysis -- Periodicals; Communication -- Periodicals; 401.405
• DOI: 10.1177/1750481316674775
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-4813

Abstract

This article reports a corpus-aided ecological discourse analysis (EDA) of texts from an international mining company and an environmental advocacy group regarding a proposal to build a massive open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona, USA. The analysis details the grammatical and semantic clusters within the controversial environmental debate and how these clusters reflect the values and beliefs of each group as well as their conceptualization of the mountains and the environment. The integration of the ecolinguistic framework with corpus linguistic methods of keyword analysis as well as part of speech (POS) and semantic tag analysis facilitated the identification of clusters of linguistic features perpetuating a dominant and ultimately destructive cultural discourse that places humans in a role of dominion and authority over the environment in the company texts. In contrast, clusters within the oppositional discourse forwarded by the environmental group promote the aesthetic value of the land and a need for responsible environmental stewardship.