The Climate Crisis as A Supernatural Being in English News Reports 2019-2023: An Ecolinguistic-Critical Metaphor Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the ideological and ecolinguistic role of the SUPERNATURAL BEING metaphor in English online news reports on the climate crisis. The data selected for this study are 96 online English news reports issued from 2019 to 2023 on several official English news websites. Employing a mixed-method approach, the data are analyzed quantitatively using AntConc software and qualitatively using Charteris-Black’s (2004) Critical Metaphor Analysis and Stibbe’s (2015) ecolinguistic model. The findings show that the SUPERNATURAL BEING domain has three subcategories: IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ARE A GHOST, WILDFIRES ARE ZOMBIES, and IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CRISIS ARE A MONSTER. Ideologically, the SUPERNATURAL BEING domain plays a significant role in highlighting the magnitude of the climate crisis and in evoking public fear, while downplaying human responsibility for the climate crisis. Ecolinguistically, this domain is evaluated as destructive due to its framing of the climate crisis as a myth, contributing to climate inaction rather than encouraging solutions to the issue.

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Journal of the Faculty of Arts
Volume 85, Issue 4
April issue: Social Sciences and Languages
April 2025
Pages 1-23

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