The 2nd Symposium of Frontiersin Functional Linguistics and Discourse Analysis was held on December7 and 8 in the School of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University. DeanHuang Guowen delivered a speech entitled "What is harmonious discourseanalysis in the Chinese context".

  The symposium brought together leading scholars from around China toshare their latest research and ideas on functional linguistics and discourseanalysis. Key topics included theoretical concerns, multimodal research,discourse analytical directions and reflections on the theory of SFL, etc.

  Dean Huang Guowen's speech aimed to outline a framework for harmoniousdiscourse analysis based on characteristics of the Chinese context. He pointedout that critical ecolinguistics examines the use and system of language andstudies issues of ecological language in relation to the ecosystems that lifedepends on and is therefore not only society-oriented but alsoecology-oriented. He further observed that harmonious discourse analysisattempts to investigate the role of language in the life-sustaininginteractions of humans, other species and the physical environment and explorehow the relationships can be understood, modified, maintained and/or reinforcedin a given society by the choice of language, which highlights the importanceof the role played by the use of language in addressing ecological issues. Asthe study of ecolinguistic issues is value-laden and sometimesculture-specific, Prof. Huang emphasized that China has its own considerationand understanding of the relationships between human beings and the physical environmentat different stages of development.

  The symposium concluded with a roundtable discussion on current researchand future directions.

(Reportby Qin Jianhua)