To change or not to change: Transformations of ecological metaphors in Chinese government microblogs

In the wake of global environmental change, China’s focus on ecological civilization has intensified. Political leaders’ ecological thoughts are predominantly manifested through language, such as ecological metaphors within ecopolitical discourse, and their authoritative statements are disseminated by other political entities across various platforms. This study presents a refined framework for metaphor change analysis, aiming to examine how the ‘Life Community’ metaphor is communicated in Chinese government microblogs. Results show that the ‘Life Community’ metaphor undergoes transformations on the linguistic level, forming a continuum of metaphor change that spans from incremental change to fundamental change. Furthermore, the beneficial ecological orientation of the metaphor does not change in communication. Two new modes of fundamental changes are identified for the first time, including changing the source domain into the target domain, and integrating the source domain with the target domain. This study offers valuable insights into the role of eco-metaphors in Chinese ecopolitical discourse.