A A COMPARATIVE ECOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY DISCOURSES IN PAKISTAN AND SWEDEN: MAPPING NARRATIVE METAPHOR AND IDEOLOGICAL STANCE
Keywords:
Climate change, Ecolinguistics, human, nature, Pakistan , SwedenAbstract
This research analyzes the Pakistan and Sweden’s 2012 and 2017 environmental policy. The study utilizes the theories of Fairclough (1992) 3 dimensional model as well as Stibbe’s (2015) ecolinguistic theory “stories we live by”. Through the structural amalgamation of these two theories, the generated corpus’ were analyzed using a qualitative method approach. This approach involved the use of Sketchengine for the initial quantitative part which assists in the analysis and the application of the theoretical portion for the qualitative analysis. The results of the study suggest that there are major differences in the discourse surrounding the same issue of climate change in the two countries, with Sweden utilizing a more ecocentric approach with a holistic attitude towards this issue, whereas Pakistan utilizing a more anthropocentered language, which centers the issue of climate change around human society. Moreover, the results of this study suggest that there is a direct link between the language and ideologies used to represent the issues central to both the countries. The findings demonstrate that environmental discourse is closely connected to national priorities and ideological perspectives. They also reinforce the role of language in shaping perceptions of climate change and environmental responsibility.
Downloads
References
Agbeleoba, S., Orebe, O., Adekunle-Ojo, G., & Owolabi, O. (2025). Ecolinguistic and critical discourse analysis of environmental narratives in sustainable development goal communications. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 13(5), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20251305.12
Alexander, R., & Stibbe, A. (2013). From the analysis of ecological discourse to the ecological analysis of discourse. Language Sciences, 41, 104–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2013.08.011
Ali, A., & Shaheen, M. O. (2024). Ecolinguistics and media: Analyzing the semiotic framing of environmental issues in Pakistani newspapers. The Journal of Cultural Perspectives, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.63672/gphs3161
Aleksandraviča, D. (2025). Ecolinguistics as a framework for understanding the role of learners’ identity and agency in foreign language acquisition. Respectus Philologicus, 48(53), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.15388/respectus.2025.48.4
An ecological discourse analysis of engagement resources in news reports on marine conservation in China Daily—Volume 11, Number 1 (2025)—IJLLL: International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics. (2025). https://www.ijlll.org/show-93-928-1.html
Approaches to environmental communication—Storytelling as, and for, sustainability. (2025). Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. https://internt.slu.se/en/calendar-originals/2025/3/ec-conference/
Cheng, M. (2022). Theoretical framework for ecological discourse analysis: A summary of new developments of ecological discourse analysis. Journal of World Languages, 8(1), 188–226. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0030
Cheng, M., & He, W. (2021). News reports about the Sino-US trade war: An ecolinguistic approach. Journal of World Languages, 7(3), 428–460. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0021
Colloquiums in German and Dutch: Janine Aloe on biodiversity discourses in US-American media. (2025, May 14). Stockholm University. https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-slavic-and-baltic-studies-finnish-dutch-and-german/calendar/events/2025-05-14-colloquiums-in-german-and-dutch-janine-aloe-on-biodiversity-discourses-in-us-american-media
DiscourseNet. (2026, July 1). European systemic functional linguistics conference, Gothenburg, 1–3 July 2026. https://discourseanalysis.net/en/european-systemic-functional-linguistics-conference-gothenburg-1-3-july-2026
Fan, W., & Xu, W. (2025, June 7). Artificial intelligence and civil discourse: How LLMs moderate climate change conversations. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12077
Fatima, A., Naeem, A., & Batool, K. (2026). Ecolinguistics and climate change discourse: The power of language in shaping environmental action. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19667074
Fusari, S. (n.d.). Influence of eco-destructive ideologies on environmental communication in workplaces in Italy and Pakistan. University of Bologna. https://amsdottorato.unibo.it/id/eprint/12386/
Habib, S., & Kalim, S. (2025, April 25). Language for the planet: Advocacy rhetoric and ecological narratives on social media. International Journal of Social Sciences Bulletin. https://ijssbulletin.com/index.php/IJSSB/article/view/615
Javed, F., & Nayab, D. (2025). A comparative study of environmental discourse: An ecolinguistic perspective. AHSS Journal. https://doi.org/10.35484/ahss.2025(6-III)26
Jiayi. (2023). [Title information incomplete in the supplied reference]. Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 5(16). https://doi.org/10.25236/fsst.2023.051606
Mohamed, F. A. E. (2025). Investigating EFL learners’ perceptions and reflections on the impact of ecolinguistics in raising environmental awareness. American Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Innovation, 4(2), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.54536/ajmri.v4i2.4009
Muliawan, M. S. D., Simpen, I. W., Satyawati, M. S., & Suparwa, I. N. (2024). Revealing the salience of hashtags on the @pulauplastik account through ecolinguistics lens. LITERACY International Scientific Journals of Social Education Humanities, 3(2), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.56910/literacy.v3i2.1630
Nawab, S., Wasti, A. T., & Hassan, S. S. U. (2025, July 23). Ecological discourse analysis of the textbook of English language. Language and Language Research Journal. https://llrjournal.com/index.php/11/article/view/183
Padam, J. (2021, March 22). Language, ecology and the stories we live by. University of Gloucestershire. https://www.glos.ac.uk/content/language-ecology-and-the-stories-we-live-by/
Ponton, D. M. (2022). Ecolinguistics and positive discourse analysis: Convergent pathways. Lingue e Linguaggi, 51, 91–106. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1974-4382/15506
Poole, R. (2025a). Ecolinguistics: Consolidating a research paradigm. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 29(1), 6–16. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-43172
Prahallad, L., & Mamidi, R. (2025, May 26). Analyzing biases in political dialogue: Tagging U.S. presidential debates with an extended DAMSL framework. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19515
Pramawati, A. A. I. Y. (2025, December 29). Ecolinguistic digital learning (EDL): Integrating environmental discourse and digital literacy in EFL classroom. Journal of English Language Teaching. https://ejournal.unmas.ac.id/index.php/joselt/article/view/13342
Publications. (2025, August 28). Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University. https://www.uu.se/en/centre/multidisciplinary-studies-on-racism/research/publications
Rahayu, F. E. S., Hasyim, M., Arifin, M. B., Lukman, L., Zamruddin, M. P., Mubarok, A., & Setyoko, A. (2025). Framing the future: An ecolinguistic analysis of government and media discourses on Indonesia’s new capital (IKN). https://doi.org/10.64252/dyhdqc84
Rusmawaty, D., Zahra, M. I., Fathinah, F., & Azzahra, Y. M. (2025). A critical ecolinguistic analysis of environmental discourse at Mulawarman University: Conservationism and eco-modernism in university social media. Conference on English Language Teaching, 73–82. https://doi.org/10.24090/celti.2025.1347
Sadiq, U., Alam, R., & Rehman, A. A. U. (2025). Ecolinguistic analysis of environmental discourse in Pakistani print and digital media. The Critical Review of Social Sciences Studies, 3(1), 3495–3505. https://doi.org/10.59075/pr64q758
Saleem, M., & Khan, J. (2025). Climate change in Pakistani media: An ecolinguistic analysis of Dawn climate reports (2020–2025). Journal of Social Sciences Review, 5(3), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.62843/jssr.v5i3.573
Shahnaz, A., Ahmad, M. H., & Asghar, R. (2025, December 30). Erasure of the green land for a promising future: An ecolinguistic study of social-media discourse in housing advertisements in Pakistan. International Pakistan Journal of Language and Literature. https://ipjll.com/ipjll/index.php/journal/article/view/294
Song, X., Bakar, K. A., Abas, A., & Halim, W. F. S. W. A. (2025). A systematic literature review on ecological discourse analysis (2014–2023). Journal of World Languages, 11(1), 50–74. https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2024-0034
Stibbe, A. (2015). Ecolinguistics: Language, ecology and the stories we live by. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315718071
2024 Environmental Performance Index—Sweden. (n.d.). Environmental Performance Index. https://epi.yale.edu/country/2024/SWE
World Bank Open Data. (n.d.). World Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=CN-PK-IN
Xing, Y. (2024). An exposition based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional modeling. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070426
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Farah Kashif

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.


