The natural ecology of language: Difference between revisions

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'''Definition'''
'''Definition'''


* Language exists in a natural ecology: this approach investigates how language relates to the biological and ecosystemic surroundings (topography, climate, fauna, flora, etc.). Steffensen and Fill (2014: 7)
The natural ecology of language is an approach that investigates how language exists in its natural ecology: it is primarily concerned with investigating how language relates to its biological and ecosystemic surroundings (topography, climate, fauna, flora, etc.)<ref>Steffensen, S. V. & Fill, A. (2014)''', ''''Ecolinguistics: the state of the art and future horizons', ''Language Sciences, 41'', pp. 6-25.</ref> The ecology of language as a framework was put forth by Einar Haugen in his work ''The ecology of language'' (1972), in which he defines language ecology to be "the study of interactions between any given language and its environment." <ref>Haugen, Einar. 1972. ''The ecology of language''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.</ref>
* The ecology of language is a framework for the study of language conceptualised primarily in Einar Haugen’s (1906-1994) work The ecology of language (1971/1972). • language ecology “the study of interactions between any given language and its environment”.
**Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA): Human interaction with the environment is both mediated and influenced by language. EDA is the analysis of any type of discourse under the ecological framework (Alexander and Stibbe 2014). According to Alexander and Stibbe (2014), EDA can be divided into two main strands: (1) the analysis of ecological discourse and (2) the ecological analysis of discourse. The first deals with “the ways humans use language to talk about ecology” (Alexander and Stibbe 2014: 105). It represents the strand of ecolinguistics which Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) in their definition of critical ecolinguistics identified as the text-critical one. The second strand takes into account that other discourses, too, have an impact on how humans treat the systems that support life. It includes the system-critical part discussed by Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) which was pioneered by Halliday’s (1990) “New Ways of Meaning: The Challenge to Applied Linguistics”
***Climate change?
**Ecosystemic Linguistics is an approach developed by the Brazilian ecolinguist Hildo Honório do Couto (2018). According to this approach, the linguist should be an ecologist who studies language phenomena rather than just applying the Penz and Fill ecology metaphor to language. Language is viewed as a process of interaction that consists of the following three types: person-person interaction (communication), '''''person-environment interaction (reference)''''', and structural interaction (grammar).
*Ways in which the environment is reflected in language
**Topography - tells more about the environment and surroundings
** Language-specific knowledge connected to plants and environment
** Classification of ''flora'' and ''fauna'' based on Latin.




'''Some concrete studies on language and its ecology:'''
There are general ways in which the natural environment can be reflected in a language. For example, the language-specific knowledge related to plants, animals, and environment can be reflected in the vocabularies of languages, and the topography of the language environment can be reflected in the demonstrative system of a language. Additionally, the classification of ''flora'' and ''fauna'' based on Latin is attested in many languages.


* Altitude (Everett 2013)
'''Some concrete studies on how language is affected by its ecology'''
** Everett, C. 2013. Evidence for direct geographic influences on linguistic sounds: The case of ejectives. PLos ONE 8(6): e65275. <nowiki>https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0065275</nowiki>.
* [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0065275 Everett (2013)] on how altitude influences linguistic sounds
* Climate (Everett et al. 2015; Everett 2017)
* [https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1417413112 Everett et al. (2015)] and [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01285/full Everett 2017] on how climate affects the phonological systems of languages
** Everett, C., D. E. Blasi & S. G. Roberts. 2015. Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: Connecting the physiological and geographical dots. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(5): 1322-1327.
* [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aav3218 Blasi et al. (2019)] on how changes in human bite configuration has affected the sound systems of languages
** Everett, C. 2017. Languages in drier climates use fewer vowels. Frontiers in Psychology 8. <nowiki>https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01285/full</nowiki>.
* Diet (Blasi et al. 2019)
** Blasi, D. et al. 2019. Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration. Science 363: eaav3218.




'''Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA)'''


'''[[Related linguistic fields]]'''
Human interaction with the environment is both mediated and influenced by language. EDA is the analysis of any type of discourse under the ecological framework (Alexander and Stibbe 2014). According to Alexander and Stibbe (2014), EDA can be divided into two main strands: (1) the analysis of ecological discourse and (2) the ecological analysis of discourse. The first deals with “the ways humans use language to talk about ecology” (Alexander and Stibbe 2014: 105). It represents the strand of ecolinguistics which Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) in their definition of critical ecolinguistics identified as the text-critical one. The second strand takes into account that other discourses, too, have an impact on how humans treat the systems that support life. It includes the system-critical part discussed by Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) which was pioneered by Halliday’s (1990) “New Ways of Meaning: The Challenge to Applied Linguistics”.




'''Ecosystemic Linguistics'''


Ecosystemic Linguistics is an approach developed by the Brazilian ecolinguist Hildo Honório do Couto (2018). According to this approach, the linguist should be an ecologist who studies language phenomena rather than just applying the Penz and Fill ecology metaphor to language. Language is viewed as a process of interaction that consists of the following three types: person-person interaction (communication), '''''person-environment interaction (reference)''''', and structural interaction (grammar).


'''[[Possible research questions]]'''
 
[[Related linguistic fields|The linguistic fields related]] to the natural ecology of language are multiple, as are the [[possible research questions]] that could be investigated relating to the natural ecology of language.
 
 
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Revision as of 21:51, 15 December 2022

Definition

The natural ecology of language is an approach that investigates how language exists in its natural ecology: it is primarily concerned with investigating how language relates to its biological and ecosystemic surroundings (topography, climate, fauna, flora, etc.)[1] The ecology of language as a framework was put forth by Einar Haugen in his work The ecology of language (1972), in which he defines language ecology to be "the study of interactions between any given language and its environment." [2]


There are general ways in which the natural environment can be reflected in a language. For example, the language-specific knowledge related to plants, animals, and environment can be reflected in the vocabularies of languages, and the topography of the language environment can be reflected in the demonstrative system of a language. Additionally, the classification of flora and fauna based on Latin is attested in many languages.

Some concrete studies on how language is affected by its ecology


Ecological Discourse Analysis (EDA)

Human interaction with the environment is both mediated and influenced by language. EDA is the analysis of any type of discourse under the ecological framework (Alexander and Stibbe 2014). According to Alexander and Stibbe (2014), EDA can be divided into two main strands: (1) the analysis of ecological discourse and (2) the ecological analysis of discourse. The first deals with “the ways humans use language to talk about ecology” (Alexander and Stibbe 2014: 105). It represents the strand of ecolinguistics which Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) in their definition of critical ecolinguistics identified as the text-critical one. The second strand takes into account that other discourses, too, have an impact on how humans treat the systems that support life. It includes the system-critical part discussed by Fill and Mühlhäusler (2001: 6) which was pioneered by Halliday’s (1990) “New Ways of Meaning: The Challenge to Applied Linguistics”.


Ecosystemic Linguistics

Ecosystemic Linguistics is an approach developed by the Brazilian ecolinguist Hildo Honório do Couto (2018). According to this approach, the linguist should be an ecologist who studies language phenomena rather than just applying the Penz and Fill ecology metaphor to language. Language is viewed as a process of interaction that consists of the following three types: person-person interaction (communication), person-environment interaction (reference), and structural interaction (grammar).


The linguistic fields related to the natural ecology of language are multiple, as are the possible research questions that could be investigated relating to the natural ecology of language.


  1. ↑ Steffensen, S. V. & Fill, A. (2014), 'Ecolinguistics: the state of the art and future horizons', Language Sciences, 41, pp. 6-25.
  2. ↑ Haugen, Einar. 1972. The ecology of language. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
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