Ecolinguistics

Ecolinguistics emerged in the 1990’s as a new paradigm of linguistic research which took into account not only the social context in which language is embedded, but also the ecological context in which societies are embedded. Michael Halliday's 1990 paper New ways of Meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics is often credited as a seminal work which provided the stimulus for linguists to consider the ecological context and consequences of language. Among other things, the challenge that Halliday put forward was to make linguistics relevant to the issues and concerns of the 21st century, particularly the widespread destruction of ecosystems. The main example Halliday gave was that of ‘economic growth’, where he described how the orientation of the English language with regard to unmarked terms such as large, grow, tall, and good gives growth a positive aspect, despite the negative ecological consequences. Since Halliday's initial comments, the field of ecolinguistics has developed considerably, a recent development being the application of ecolinguistics to Education for Sustainability by the Language & Ecology Research Forum. The discipline of ecolingusitics is traditionally divided into two main branches, eco-critical discourse analysis and linguistic ecology (see Fill 1996), although this distinction has been criticized as reductionist (sEco-critical discourse analysis

Eco-critical discourse analysis

Eco-critical discourse analysis includes, but is not limited to, the application of critical discourse analysis to texts about the environment and environmentalism, in order to reveal underlying ideologies (eg, Harré et al 1999, Stibbe 2006, 2005a, 2005b). In its fullest formation, it includes analysis of any discourse which has potential consequences for the future of ecosystems, such as neoliberal economic discourse and discursive constructions of consumerism, gender, politics, agriculture and nature (eg, Goatly 2000, Stibbe 2004). Eco-critical discourse analysis does not just focus on exposing potentially damaging ideologies, but also searches for discursive representations which can contribute to a more ecologically sustainable society .

Linguistic ecology

Pioneered by Einar Haugen, this branch of linguistics uses the metaphor of an ecosystem to describe relationships and interaction among the diverse forms of language found in the world, and the groups of people who speak them. A healthy language ecology consisting of a wide diversity of forms of language is claimed to be essential for healthy ecosystems, since local ecological knowledge is built into local language varieties (see Mühlhäusler 1995).

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