CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
Terminology is a kind of logic language and its denotative meaning should be corresponding to the concept. However, when a term which is characterized by precision, emotional neutrality and stability is used in a non-specialized text, its denotative meaning might be extended or restricted, far from the original significant meaning, and then the extended or restricted meaning could be understood clearly with the help of emotional association. When a layman encounters an unfamiliar term, normally he or she would deduce its possible meaning through semes involved in this term. But in most cases, the determinologized term would not match up with its original meaning. That is to say, a term is changing in a non-specialized text in terms of its denotative meaning and interpersonal meaning. This is a major topic in text terminology.
For decades, environmental protection is a crucially global problem, which has a great impact on politics and economic development. Thousands of firms participate in the Environmental Protection Agency’s partnership programs, and many others participate in industry-led environmental programs such as those of the world Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Chicago Climate Exchange, and the American Chemistry Council’s “Responsible Care” program. (Lyon & Maxwell, 2011). Through these efforts, transnational corporations (TNCs) try to construct an environmentally-friendly image to convince consumers to purchase “green products” due to the increasing eco-awareness of the public. However, based on eco-linguists’ surveys and investigation, the fact is that TNCs have been greenwashing their dismal environmental performance by posing as friends of the environment. Greenwash is used to describe the act of misleading and deceiving consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, which has been a central topic in Critical Eco-linguistics.
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1.2 Operational Definitions
This part will explain some vital concepts involved in this thesis. They are “Terminological Variation from Functional Aspect”, “Terminology” and “Doublespeak”. When the concept of “Terminology” is described in this part, the relevant knowledge about it will be introduced as well to make a further understanding of the terminological variation in meanings and functions.
1.2.1 Terminological Variation from Functional Aspect
Terminological variation from functional aspect is the topic of this thesis. In order to make this concept understood well, I’d like to introduce another two pairs of concepts, and they are separately the pair of “langue” and “parole” and the pair of “meta-function” and “performing function”(Sun, 2009).
(1) “Langue” and “Parole”
Langue (French, meaning “language”) and pa
