On the English Version of China's Energy Transition: National Identities in the International Publicity Discourse of Chinese Energy from the Perspective of Transitivity
Keywords:
transitivity, energy discourse, China's Energy Transition, English version, national identityAbstract
This study analyzes discourse from the perspective of transitivity, which helps to uncover the social significance embedded in energy-related discourse. Utilizing the English version of the white paper titled China's Energy Transition, released by the Chinese government in 2024, a corpus has been built, and high-frequency keywords were extracted by using the corpus software AntConc. The transitivity of the discourse was annotated with UAM Corpus Tools and analyzed. The findings indicate that the English version of the white paper predominantly employs material process within its transitivity, while relational process, mental process and other types are subordinative. This pattern highlights China's achievements and conveys a cautious approach to energy construction and development. Consequently, it constructs national identities for China as a global contributor to energy development, a leader in green development, and an advocate for energy transition.
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