Ecolinguistics

Ecolinguistics, or Ecological Linguistics, emerged in the 1990s as a new paradigm of linguistic research, one which took into account not only the social context in which language is embedded, but also the ecological contexts 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 the ecosystems that life depends on. The main example Halliday gave was that of 'economic growth', describing how 'countless texts repeated daily all around the world contain a simple message: growth is good. Many is better than few, more is better than less, big is better than small, grow is better than shrink', which leads to ecologically destructive consequences.

In 1996, the publication of David Abram's book, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World, put ecological linguistics on a broader footing, elucidating a phenomenological approach to the ecology of language (Abram, 1996).

Since Halliday's initial comments, and after the publication of Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous, the field of ecolinguistics has developed in manifold directions, employing a wide range of linguistic frameworks and tools to investigate the linguistic factors at play in both unsustainable societies and genuinely sustaining cultures. The International Ecolinguistics Association, characterizes ecolinguistics in these terms:

"Ecolinguistics explores the role of language in the life-sustaining interactions of humans, other species and the physical environment. The first aim is to develop linguistic theories which see humans not only as part of society, but also as part of the larger ecosystems that life depends on. The second aim is to show how linguistics can be used to address key ecological issues, from climate change and biodiversity loss to environmental justice."

In this way, the 'eco' of ecolinguistics corresponds to ecology in its literal sense of the relationship of organisms (including humans) with other organisms and the physical environment, which is a sense shared with other ecological humanities disciplines such as ecocriticism and ecopsychology. This is distinct from metaphorical uses of the term in areas such as Linguistic ecology and studies of the environment of language learners, which are also sometimes referred to ecolinguistics.

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