《纽约时报》关于亚马逊干旱事件新闻话语的趋近化研究

A Study on the Proximization of The New York Times’ News Discourse on Amazon Drought

2023年,全球范围内极端天气气候事件频发。其中,亚马逊地区热带雨林持续干旱,面临严峻的生存挑战。本研究基于趋近化理论,尝试探析《纽约时报》关于亚马逊干旱事件的新闻报道中趋近化策略情况,揭示话语背后隐含的生态意识形态。研究结果显示,《纽约时报》的新闻话语以空间趋近化策略为主,时间趋近化和价值趋近化策略为辅;在空间趋近化上,描写了以亚马逊雨林为核心的指示中心内部实体与气候变化等多个指示中心外部实体的对立阵营,强调亚马逊地区受到的实际威胁;在时间趋近化上,情态、对比句式等多种话语形式表明外在威胁的持续性,突出事件十分紧迫;在价值趋近化上,对比描写指示中心内部实体积极意识形态与指示中心外部实体消极意识形态,为未来意识形态冲突做铺垫。本研究通过传递亚马逊干旱事件具有严重性和迫切性的观念,进一步加深民众对该事件的认知,呼吁更多民众积极投身亚马逊雨林保护行动。In 2023, extreme weather and climate events occurred frequently worldwide. Among them, the Amazon rainforest faced severe challenges due to prolonged drought. Drawing upon the proximization theory, this study aims to analyze the employment of proximization strategies in The New York Times’ coverage of the Amazon drought event, uncovering the implicit ecological ideologies behind the discourse. The findings indicate that spatial proximization strategies predominate in the discourse of this event, supplemented by temporal and axiological proximization strategies: the news discourse describes the two opposing camps of inside-the-deictic-center (IDC) and outside-the-deictic-center (ODC) and highlight the physical threat faced by Amazon rainforest concerning spatial proximization;regarding temporal proximization, the multiple uses of discourse forms, such as modalities and comparative sentence structures, underscores the ongoing nature of external threats, highlighting the urgency of the event. In terms of axiological proximization, the comparison of IDC’s positive ideology and ODC’s negative ideology construct the possibility of realization of future ideological conflict. By conveying the severity and urgency of the Amazon drought, this study deepens public awareness of the event, calling for increased public engagement in Amazon rainforest conservation efforts.