<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE root>
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" article-type="research-article" dtd-version="1.2" xml:lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title xml:lang="en">Russian Journal of Linguistics</journal-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Russian Journal of Linguistics</trans-title></trans-title-group></journal-title-group><issn publication-format="print">2687-0088</issn><issn publication-format="electronic">2686-8024</issn><publisher><publisher-name xml:lang="en">Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba (RUDN University)</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">43741</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.22363/2687-0088-42984</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="edn">NSIJQA</article-id><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="en"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="ru"><subject>Статьи</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="toc-heading" xml:lang="zh"><subject>Articles</subject></subj-group><subj-group subj-group-type="article-type"><subject>Research Article</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title xml:lang="en">Net zero and protection: Framing environmental action in Corporate Social Responsibility reports of rail companies</article-title><trans-title-group xml:lang="ru"><trans-title>Углеродная нейтральность и защита природы: экологические мероприятия в социальных отчетах железнодорожных компаний</trans-title></trans-title-group><trans-title-group xml:lang="zh"><trans-title/></trans-title-group></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3462-8387</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Bondi</surname><given-names>Marina</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Бонди</surname><given-names>Марина</given-names></name><name xml:lang="zh"><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) and founding director of the CLAVIER centre (Corpus and Language Variation in English Research). Her research centres on textual, pragmatic, and phraseological aspects of academic and professional discourse across genres, discourse identities, and media.</p></bio><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>профессор английской лингвистики в Университете Модены и Реджо-Эмилии (Италия) и директор-основатель центра CLAVIER (Corpus and Language Variation in English Research). Ее исследования посвящены текстуальным, прагматическим и фразеологическим аспектам академического и профессионального дискурса в разных жанрах, дискурсивных идентичностях и средствах массовой информации.</p></bio><email>marina.bondi@unimore.it</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8614-2664</contrib-id><name-alternatives><name xml:lang="en"><surname>Nocella</surname><given-names>Jessica Jane</given-names></name><name xml:lang="ru"><surname>Носелла</surname><given-names>Джессика Джейн</given-names></name><name xml:lang="zh"><surname></surname><given-names></given-names></name></name-alternatives><bio xml:lang="en"><p>Postdoctoral Fellow (RTd-A) at the Department of Studies on Language and Culture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Sciences and her main research interests concern corporate social responsibility (CSR), communication, trust building, corpus linguistics, and evaluative language.</p></bio><bio xml:lang="ru"><p>постдок (RTd-A) на кафедре изучения языка и культуры Университета Модены и Реджо-Эмилии. Она имеет степень PhD в области гуманитарных наук, а ее основные исследовательские интересы касаются коммуникации в сфере корпоративной социальной ответственности (КСО), укрепления доверия, корпусной лингвистики и оценки в языке.</p></bio><email>jessicajane.nocella@unimore.it</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/></contrib></contrib-group><aff-alternatives id="aff1"><aff><institution xml:lang="en">University of Modena and Reggio Emilia</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="ru">Университет Модены и Реджо-Эмилии</institution></aff><aff><institution xml:lang="zh"></institution></aff></aff-alternatives><pub-date date-type="pub" iso-8601-date="2025-04-02" publication-format="electronic"><day>02</day><month>04</month><year>2025</year></pub-date><volume>29</volume><issue>1</issue><issue-title xml:lang="en">Ecolinguistics: Consolidating a research paradigm</issue-title><issue-title xml:lang="ru">Эколингвистика: объединяя исследовательские парадигмы</issue-title><fpage>128</fpage><lpage>147</lpage><history><date date-type="received" iso-8601-date="2025-04-08"><day>08</day><month>04</month><year>2025</year></date></history><permissions><copyright-statement xml:lang="en">Copyright ©; 2025, Bondi M., Nocella J.J.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="ru">Copyright ©; 2025, Бонди М., Носелла Д.Д.</copyright-statement><copyright-statement xml:lang="zh">Copyright ©; 2025, Bondi M., Nocella J.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2025</copyright-year><copyright-holder xml:lang="en">Bondi M., Nocella J.J.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="ru">Бонди М., Носелла Д.Д.</copyright-holder><copyright-holder xml:lang="zh">Bondi M., Nocella J.</copyright-holder><ali:free_to_read xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"/><license><ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0</ali:license_ref></license></permissions><self-uri xlink:href="https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/43741">https://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/43741</self-uri><abstract xml:lang="en"><p>Transport companies face the dual challenge of addressing transparency issues in communicating their potential role in environmental disasters while cultivating trust with stakeholders. Set against this background, this paper explores how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports showcase companies’ awareness of both their role as social actors and their impact on the planet and the community. More specifically, it aims to investigate how environmental issues have been framed and described by companies operating in the rail sector from a linguistic and discursive perspective. From an eco-linguistics perspective, this paper examines trigger words that are used to frame issues related to the environment in CSR reports of rail companies. Specifically, we avail ourselves of a corpus consisting of CSR reports published in English between 2021 and 2022 by rail companies of both English-speaking and non-English speaking countries. An analysis of our corpus highlights recurrent phraseological units related to zero and protection, suggesting some basic frames of corporate environmental action. A close study of the lexico-grammatical patterns linked to such words shows different trends in the disclosure of reports from both a linguistic and discursive perspective. Results shed light not only on how companies represent themselves through the genre of CSR reports, but also on cross-cultural differences. Specifically, countries using net zero as their main objective present themselves as efficient while those preferring climate protection as caring. The study contributes to the further understanding of the role of corporate social responsibility in environmental action. By framing environmental protection and net zero not only as a mission but also as a corporate strategy, rail companies seem to reinforce their public image in an increasingly eco-conscious market.</p></abstract><trans-abstract xml:lang="ru"><p>Перед транспортными компаниями стоит двойная задача - решать вопросы прозрачности, сообщая о своей потенциальной роли в экологических катастрофах, и одновременно укреплять доверие со стороны заинтересованных сторон. В связи с этим в данной статье рассматриваются отчеты о корпоративной социальной ответственности (КСО), которые демонстрируют осознание компаниями своей роли как социальных субъектов и своего влияния на планету и общество. Цель статьи - показать, как компании, работающие в железнодорожном секторе, формулируют и описывают экологические проблемы с лексической и дискурсивной точек зрения. С позиций эколингвистики в статье анализируются слова-триггеры, которые употребляются для трактовки вопросов, связанных с окружающей средой, в социальных отчетах железнодорожных компаний. Исследуется корпус отчетов о КСО, опубликованных на английском языке в период с 2021 по 2022 год железнодорожными компаниями как англоязычных, так и неанглоязычных стран. Анализ корпуса позволил выделить повторяющиеся фразеологические единицы, связанные с углеродной нейтральностью и защитой природы, предлагая некоторые рамки корпоративной экологической деятельности. Исследование лексико-грамматических моделей, связанных со словами-триггерами, выявило различные тенденции в раскрытии информации как с лексической, так и с дискурсивной точки зрения. Результаты показали, как компании представляют себя через жанр отчетов по КСО, и выявили некоторые кросс-культурные различия. В частности, страны, использующие углеродную нейтральность в качестве основной цели, позиционируют себя как эффективные, в то время как страны, предпочитающие защиту климата, - как демонстрирующие заботу об окружающей среде. Данное исследование вносит вклад в дальнейшее понимание роли корпоративной социальной ответственности в экологической деятельности. Формулируя защиту окружающей среды и углеродную нейтральность не только как миссию, но и как корпоративную стратегию, железнодорожные компании пытаются укрепить свой общественный имидж на рынке, который становится все более чувствительным к экологическим проблемам.</p></trans-abstract><trans-abstract xml:lang="zh"/><kwd-group xml:lang="en"><kwd>environmental action</kwd><kwd>climate protection</kwd><kwd>genre of CSR reports</kwd><kwd>lexico-grammatical patterns</kwd><kwd>discursive strategies</kwd></kwd-group><kwd-group xml:lang="ru"><kwd>экологическая деятельность</kwd><kwd>защита климата</kwd><kwd>углеродная нейтральность</kwd><kwd>жанр отчета о КСО</kwd><kwd>лексико-грамматические модели</kwd><kwd>дискурсивные стратегии</kwd></kwd-group><funding-group><funding-statement xml:lang="en">Research financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research: “Communicating Transparency: new trend in English-language corporate and institutional disclosure practices in intercultural settings” (PRIN 2020TJTA55).</funding-statement></funding-group></article-meta></front><body></body><back><ref-list><ref id="B1"><label>1.</label><mixed-citation>Alexander, Richard. 2009. Framing Discourse on the Environment: A Critical Discourse Approach. London/New York: Routledge.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B2"><label>2.</label><mixed-citation>Alexander, Richard. 2018. Investigating texts about environmental degradation using critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics techniques. In Alwin F. Fill &amp; Hermine Penz (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics, 196-210. London/New York: Routledge.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B3"><label>3.</label><mixed-citation>Becken, Susanne &amp; John Hay. 2012. Climate Change and Tourism. From Policy to Practice.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B4"><label>4.</label><mixed-citation>London/New York: Routledge</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B5"><label>5.</label><mixed-citation>Bondi, Marina. 2016. The future in reports: Prediction, commitment and legitimization in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Pragmatics and Society 7 (1). 57-81.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B6"><label>6.</label><mixed-citation>Catenaccio, Paola, Giuliana Garzone &amp; Martin Reisigl. 2023. Introduction. Dimensions of framing: Representation, cognition, interaction. Textus, English Studies in Italy 1. 7-24. https://doi.org/10.7370/108616</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B7"><label>7.</label><mixed-citation>Dahl, Trine &amp; Kjersti Fløttum. 2019. Climate change as a corporate strategy issue: A discourse analysis of three climate reports from the energy sector. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 24 (3). 499-514.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B8"><label>8.</label><mixed-citation>Elkington, John. 1994. Towards the sustainable corporation: Win-Win-Win business strategies for sustainable development. California Management Review 36. 90-100.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B9"><label>9.</label><mixed-citation>Entman, Robert M. 1993. Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication 43 (4). 51-58.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B10"><label>10.</label><mixed-citation>Fløttum, Kjersti (ed.). 2017. The Role of Language in the Climate Change Debate. Taylor &amp; Francis.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B11"><label>11.</label><mixed-citation>Fuoli, Matteo. 2012. Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BP’s and IKEA’s social reports. Discourse &amp; Communication 6 (1). 55-81.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B12"><label>12.</label><mixed-citation>Fuoli, Matteo. 2018. Building a trustworthy corporate identity: A corpus-based analysis of stance in annual and corporate social responsibility reports. Applied Linguistics 39 (6). 846-885.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B13"><label>13.</label><mixed-citation>Fuoli, Matteo &amp; Annika Beelitz. 2023. Framing the path to net zero: A corpus-assisted discourse analysisof sustainability disclosures by major corporate emitters, 2011-2020. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 29 (3). 361-388.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B14"><label>14.</label><mixed-citation>Fernández-Vázquez, José-Santiago &amp; Ángel Sancho-Rodríguez. 2020. Critical discourse analysis of climate change in IBEX 35 companies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 157.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B15"><label>15.</label><mixed-citation>Fill, Alwin &amp; Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.) 2001. The Ecolinguistics Reader: Language, Ecology and Environment. London: Continuum.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B16"><label>16.</label><mixed-citation>Gao, Feng, Yubin Li, Xinjie Wang &amp; Zhaodong (Ken) Zhong. 2021. Corporate social responsibility and the term structure of CDS spreads. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money 74. 101406.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B17"><label>17.</label><mixed-citation>Harré, Rom, Jens Brockmeier &amp; Peter Mühlhäusler. 1999. Greenspeak; A Study of Environmental Discourse. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B18"><label>18.</label><mixed-citation>Hart, Cristopher. 2023. Frames, framing and framing effects in cognitive CDA. Discourse Studies 25 (2). 247-258. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614456231155071</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B19"><label>19.</label><mixed-citation>Mühlhäusler, Peter &amp; Adrian Peace. 2006. Environmental Discourses. Annual Review of Anthropology 35. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1081388 (Accessed 5 February 2025).</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B20"><label>20.</label><mixed-citation>Nervino, Esterina, Joyce Oiwun Cheung &amp; Jiayi Chen. 2024. Charting the path of sustainability discourse research: A systematic review of applied linguistic studies. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 862-883.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B21"><label>21.</label><mixed-citation>Jaworska, Sylvia. 2018. Change but no climate change: Discourses of climate change in corporate social responsibility reporting in the oil industry. International Journal of Business Communication 55 (2). 194-219.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B22"><label>22.</label><mixed-citation>Jarowska, Sylvia &amp; Anupam Nanda. 2018. Doing well by talking good: A topic modelling-assisted discourse study of corporate social responsibility. Applied Linguistics 39 (3). 373-399.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B23"><label>23.</label><mixed-citation>Law, Locky &amp; Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen 2023. Revisiting Halliday’s (1990)'New ways of meaning: The challenge to applied linguistics': What has changed and what still needs to be done? Linguistics and the Human Sciences 15 (3). 337-368.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B24"><label>24.</label><mixed-citation>Kolk, Ans, David Levy &amp; Jonatan Pinkse. 2008. Corporate responses in an emerging climate regime: The institutionalization and commensuration of carbon disclosure. European Accounting Review 17. 719-745.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B25"><label>25.</label><mixed-citation>Lee, Eun-Mi, Hyun Jung Lee, Jae-Hyeon Pae &amp; Seong-Yeon Park. 2016. The important role of corporate social responsibility capabilities in improving sustainable competitive advantage. Social Responsibility Journal 12 (4). 642-653.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B26"><label>26.</label><mixed-citation>Levy, David &amp; Daniel Egan. 2003. A neo-Gramscian approach to corporate political strategy: Conflict and accommodation in the climate change negotiations. Journal of Management Studies 40. 804-829.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B27"><label>27.</label><mixed-citation>Lischinsky, Alon. 2015. What is the environment doing in my report? Analyzing the environment-as-stakeholder thesis through corpus linguistics. Environmental Communication 9 (4). 539-559.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B28"><label>28.</label><mixed-citation>Megura, Matthew &amp; Ryan Gunderson. 2022. Better poison is the cure? Critically examining fossil fuel companies, climate change framing, and corporate sustainability reports. Energy Research &amp; Social Science 85. 102388.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B29"><label>29.</label><mixed-citation>Norton, Cherry &amp; Mike Hulme. 2019. Telling one story, or many? An ecolinguistic analysis of climate change stories in UK national newspaper editorials. Geoforum 104. 114-136.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B30"><label>30.</label><mixed-citation>Peeters, Paul. 2007. The impact of tourism on climate change [Paper presentation]. Policy dialogue on tourism, transport and climate change: Stakeholders meet researchers, UNESCO, Paris, France.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B31"><label>31.</label><mixed-citation>Pitrakkos, Panayis &amp; Warren Maroun. 2020. Evaluating the quality of carbon disclosures. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal 11 (3). 553-589.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B32"><label>32.</label><mixed-citation>Pollach, Irene. 2018. Issue cycles in corporate sustainability reporting: A longitudinal study. Environmental Communication 12 (2). 247-260.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B33"><label>33.</label><mixed-citation>Ponton, Douglas M. 2023. More than just a tree: Ecolinguistics and responses to the felling of ‘Hadrian’s tree’. Russian Journal of Linguistics 27 (4). 797-819. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-36732</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B34"><label>34.</label><mixed-citation>Sinclair, John. 2004. Trust the Text: Language, Corpus and Discourse. London; New York: Routledge.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B35"><label>35.</label><mixed-citation>Stibbe, Arran. 2015. Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live by. Routledge.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B36"><label>36.</label><mixed-citation>Yu, Danni &amp; Marina Bondi. 2017. The generic structure of CSR reports in Italian, Chinese, and English: A corpus-based analysis. IEEE Transactions on professional communication 60 (3). 273-291.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B37"><label>37.</label><mixed-citation>Zappettini, Franco &amp; Jeffrey Unerman. 2016. ‘Mixing’and ‘Bending’: The recontextualisation of discourses of sustainability in integrated reporting. Discourse &amp; Communication 10 (5). 521-542.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B38"><label>38.</label><mixed-citation>Penz, Hermine &amp; Alwin Fill. 2022. Ecolinguistics: History, today, and tomorrow. Journal of World Languages 8 (2). 232-253.</mixed-citation></ref><ref id="B39"><label>39.</label><mixed-citation>Halliday, Michael A. K. 2001 [1990]. New ways of meaning: The challenge to applied linguistics. In Alwin Fill &amp; Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.), The ecolinguistics reader: Language, ecology and environment, 175-202. London: Continuum.</mixed-citation></ref></ref-list></back></article>
