Cogent Arts & Humanities

The relationship between language and ecology, conceived widely, comprises multiple strands. This collection focuses on Ecolinguistics in terms of the discoursal representation and meaning construction of the “natural environment” and human relationships with it. This places the collection within the tradition of Critical/Positive Discourse Analysis (CDA/PDA).

Climate change, pollution and resource depletion are increasingly acknowledged as major threats to life and civilisation, and environmental discourse is implicated in this threat through the choices made within and between languages. Traditionally, however, CDA has challenged racist, sexist, and capitalist ideologies, involving competing groups and classes and conflicting identities. Our present crisis demands an ecologically-focused PDA, stressing and celebrating the interconnectedness and dynamic relationship of all social groups with the “natural” world.

Though there is scope for critiquing the typically harmful and unscientific media constructions of “nature” and nature-human relationships, the collection’s emphasis is on alternative and more positive discourses.  These may be in non-European (perhaps endangered) languages with their radically different constructions of nature and our place within it.

The theories and techniques of analysis might include any of the following (overlapping) approaches: Narratology; Conceptual metaphor theory/(Critical) Metaphor analysis; Corpus linguistics; Multimodal analysis; Semantics and Pragmatics; Systemic-functional, Cognitive or other semantically-oriented lexico-grammars; Comparative linguistics; Ecostylistics.

The articles should concentrate on text analysis or textual exemplification. Although articles may analyse at more abstract levels, e.g. comparative grammar, lexical statistics from a corpus, patterns of conceptual metaphors, such articles should also give textual examples and evidence of actual use, and avoid intuitively fabricated examples.

Articles exploring the interface between languages/discourses and ecologically positive ideologies, philosophies, or scientific theories would be particularly welcome.

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About the Guest Advisor

After studying English at Oxford University, and obtaining his Ph.D at UCL, supervised by the late Randolph Quirk, Andrew Goatly embarked on a teaching and research career in colleges and universities in the UK, Rwanda, Thailand, Singapore, Austria, and Hong Kong. He is now semi-retired in Canterbury, UK, but remains an Honorary Professor of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. His books include The Language of Metaphors (Routledge 1997, revised edition 2011), Critical Reading and Writing in the Digital Age (2^nd edition with Preet Hiradhar, Routledge 2016), Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology (Benjamins 2007), Explorations in Stylistics (Equinox 2008), Meaning and Humour (Cambridge 2012), and Two Dimensions of Meaning: Contiguity, and Similarity, in Metonymy and Metaphor, Language, Culture and Ecology (Routledge 2022). He is a keen amateur singer and active within the Green Party UK.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

The Guest Advisor does not have any Conflict of Interest to disclose.

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