APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND CLIMATE CHANGE DISCOURSE: THE IPCC 1.5° REPORT

Back to Page Authors: Robert Dormer

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Keywords: applied linguistics, IPCC, climate change discourse, discourse analysis

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Abstract: In all corners of climate change discourse, a complex, crucial and burgeoning area of language use, it is recognized that language choices matter. Consequently, it has recently emerged as an object of analysis within linguistics. Among the diverse areas of this discourse, the series of official reports produced by the IPCC, of which the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5° (SR15) is the latest, have lately been the subject of a modest but interesting body of research adopting linguistics approaches involving content analysis, readability, rhetorical tone, and micro-linguistic features of (un)certainty. This paper attempts a register analysis of the IPCC SR15 SPM, informed by replication of these approaches, supplemented with comparisons of the SR15 to prior IPCC Reports and media coverage. It is found that the use of formalized expressions for expressing (un)certainty is becoming more consistent and that non-formalized linguistic devices of (un)certainty have been virtually discarded. Further, while methods from prior studies on polyphony in IPCC discourse yielded little information to inform the register analysis, content analysis perspectives are useful in delineating IPCC reports as a register in terms of keyword features and sentiment tone. It is argued that although largely sidelined in the multi- and trans-disciplinary (socially scientific) response to climate change, linguistics perspectives have a key role to play in identifying and understanding this important subarea of climate change discourse.

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