Research article (RA) abstracts have received considerable attention in the academic writing literature. However, studies regarding stylistic features and linguistic realizations of literary research article (LRA) abstracts remain limited. In the present study, a corpus-based multi-dimensional analysis is conducted to compare the stylistic differences between 600 English RA abstracts in empirical linguistic and literary studies. The results reveal that, compared to empirical linguistic RA abstracts, LRA abstracts tend to be lower in each of narrative, explicit, persuasive and abstract dimensions. Specifically, in terms of linguistic devices, literary scholars tend to employ the present tense verbs, attributive adjectives, time adverbials and necessity modals, whereas their linguistic counterparts prefer to use past tense verbs, passive voices, nominalization, conjuncts and wh-relative clauses. These differences could be attributed to variations in the disciplinary discourse practice in these two disciplines. These findings have implications for English academic writing instruction and research.

Based on 13 journals of foreign languages published between 1979 and 2019 and retrieved from the CNKI database, this paper maps out the scientific knowledge in the field of foreign language teaching in China using CiteSpace information visualization technology. The research hotspots, frontiers and evolution in the field since the opening-up of China are also analyzed. It is found that college English teaching is the focus of most foreign language teaching research in China. The relevant theoretical research has focused on teaching mode and autonomous learning, while the relevant empirical studies have mainly targeted second language acquisition, learning strategies, academic English and English writing. The research frontiers included learner, autonomous learning, teacher development, academic English and flipped classroom, and the research focus has gradually shifted from general English to academic English. The most significant change in the evolution of research is the shift from teacher-centered to student-centered autonomous learning. This paper argues that the academic community should strengthen the research on the theory and application of foreign language teaching with Chinese characteristics, while also promoting research on teaching reform for English majors and teaching of non-general languages. This could allow foreign language teaching to serve the Going Global and Belt and Road development strategies.

Civilization co-exists with ecology. Colleges are responsible for cultivating undergraduates’ ecological literacy during their college life. The present study has aimed to gain insights into the applicability of ecolinguistics in the cultivation of ecological literacy in college English classes. By means of discourse analysis, three conclusions about students’ ecological literacy cultivation in the framework of ecolinguistics have been drawn: a) the green concepts constructed through the study of green grammar are helpful to cultivate students’ ecological literacy; b) eco-metaphor studies can raise the students’ ecological awareness; and c) ecosophy is critical in the field of harmonious discourse analysis. The study shows that under the theoretical framework of ecolinguistics, Eco-College-English course can be an accessible way to promote the education of ecological literacy.

In response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US, nations such as China recognized the importance of foreign language to national security. Following the event, the close relationship between foreign language and national security has drawn unprecedented attention not only from the media, but also from world leaders. Against such a backdrop, China has been in urgent need of a foreign language strategy for the purpose of national security and national development. To this end, both the Chinese people and government should consider the key role that foreign language has played throughout Chinese history, while accounting for the nation’s current national security needs and the current state of foreign language proficiency throughout the country. In recent years, China has made considerable progress in foreign language strategy research and strategy development. In the future, China can aim to develop its foreign language strategy from the perspective of national security.

To mend the rifts and ease the conflicts between the parties torn apart during the US presidential elections and to regain the continuing support of the entire nation, newly-elected US presidents tend to construct identification with the audience by narrating past events in their inaugural speeches. Drawing on Burkean identification theory, this article aimed to study the types of identification-oriented narratives employed by the US president-elects. Both the statistical data and speech texts have been analyzed. The results have shown that the historical origin, the Founding Fathers, the situation, the American Dream and some common values are important topical means manipulated by the newly-elected US presidents to build identification with the audience. When relating American history, recalling American historical heroes and narrating ethnic stories as well as other events concerning common values, the presidents have managed to regard themselves and all other American citizens as the descendants of the Founding Fathers. Meanwhile, they have also associated themselves with the great leaders who have led America out of difficulties in the past, the audience with the ordinary historical heroes in their endeavor for the country, and the present situation with a certain historical period. This study has attempted to combine narratives, rhetoric and speech discourse organically in the hope of extending related studies.

In the translation of children’s literature, there are often two problems in the use of pragmatic explicitation: the lack of necessary pragmatic explicitation and the excessive use of pragmatic explicitation, both of which have an adverse impact on style reproduction. Based on an analysis of the relationship between pragmatic explicitation and style reproduction, this paper proposes that the stylistic equivalence principle be used for pragmatic explicitation in the translation of children’s literature. Translators should do their utmost to understand the pragmatic presuppositions contained in the context of the source text and fill in the cultural and cognitive gaps for the target readers by emphasizing or making explicit the implied information. Meanwhile, translators should avoid losing the literary creation mechanism of the source text, such as metaphor and suspense, so that the expected effects of mind style, emotion style and aesthetic preferences in the target text may be reproduced and stylistic equivalence may be achieved. Following the stylistic equivalence principle when using pragmatic explicitation in the translation of children’s literature is helpful for translators to achieve style reproduction in the target text and can not only improve the readability of the target text, but also leave space for readers to think, feel and appreciate, which is valuable for improving the quality of children’s literature translation.

A corpus-driven approach in this critical discourse study is adopted to analyze anti-language phenomena in films. Anti-language is an extreme social dialect variant, which exhibits special forms at the pronunciation, lexico-grammar and semantics levels. Mr. Six, released in 2017, is a film in which the family and brotherhood are intertwined and the male protagonist ends in tragedy. The subtitles of this film are collected as a social corpus for studying marginal discourse and cultural translation. Most scholars analyze the film from the perspective of cultural translation to demonstrate how the audience in the target language (i.e., the English) might perceive Beijing dialects (source language culture) through translations. However, there is still little research on the cultural translation of anti-language in films. By analyzing the marginality of address, plot and discourse, this paper explores the cultural marginality of anti-language translation in the subtitles of Mr. Six. The forms of address amongst the characters include discourse symbols of the identity of marginal groups. The plot reveals the polyphonies of multiple voices, and the choices of aggressive and non-aggressive anti-language in the discourse conveys different cultural prosodies.

Linguistic landscapes originally referred to publicly presented and displayed language items, including street signs and shop names. The definition has recently been expanded to account for the use of various types of semiotic resources in public spaces. Focusing on multilingual and multimodal communication in superdiverse metropolitan cities, linguistic landscape studies have aimed to reveal sociolinguistic issues of ideology and identity through the analysis of public signage. Internationally, linguistic landscape research has moved away from the ethnolinguistic vitality theory and quantitative distribution analysis to adopting more in-depth and interdisciplinary perspectives, including metrolingualism and ethnography. However, linguistic landscape studies in the Chinese context still tend to focus on counting the frequency of language, categorizing signs and making speculative statements about sign makers. To further understand the complexity of linguistic landscapes, this paper offers a comprehensive review of the extant theories and approaches in the field, with a focus on superdiversity, metrolingualism and ethnography. It aims to provide new analytical perspectives for linguistic landscape researchers in China and additional references for further research into the underlying reasons for the structuration of linguistic landscape.

Court interpreting studies is a key subfield in interpreting studies, law studies, and sociology, and has recently drawn increasing attention. This article summarizes the research topics, perspectives, and methodologies of international court interpreting studies and analyzes the status quo of court interpreting studies in China, with the aim of identifying an appropriate route for the future development of court interpreting studies in China. This research suggests that court interpreting studies in China should touch upon a wider range of research topics and work on the improvement of research methodologies. In addition, more effort should be made to provide practical guidance for the development of court interpreting training, the improvement of interpreters’ professional skills and the court interpreting industry, and the development of a rule of law system as a whole.