Main characteristics and concept of ecological discourse

"Научный аспект №7-2024" - Экология

УДК 504

Паркул Алмас Отжанулы – магистр филологических наук Казахского университета международных отношений и мировых языков имени Абылай хана (Казахстан, г. Алматы).

Abstract: This article examines the concept and characteristics of ecological discourse, analyzing its role in raising environmental awareness. The study highlights the increasing importance of ecological issues in the 21st century and their representation in media. The findings underscore the significance of ecological discourse in shaping public consciousness and informing environmental policies.

Keywords: ecological discourse, globalization, ecology, environment, linguistics.

In 21st century the interest regarding ecological issues has been increased which has led to the new concept as ecological discourse. The awareness of the planet’s population of the harmful impact on people on the state of the environment has led to the fact that the political leadership of various countries is required to take immediate measures to protect the environment. Moreover, society has become increasingly interested in environmental issues, which is reflected in publications in the press, as well as messages on radio and television related to environmental issues.

A discourse has certain properties or components: the addressee, the addressee, the goal, the time frame, the social context. The valences "what", "how", and "about" are mandatory in distinguishing the type of discourse, since they serve as the object of linguistic research [7].

  1. Halliday characterizes discourse through the parameters "participants," "topic," and "method" [1]. The topic of the discourse is understood as the sphere of social interaction, where participants use language as the main tool of cooperation. The participants of the discourse are considered along with their status and role tasks, socially significant relationships, and the function performed through language to achieve a particular goal. The formal and meaningful organization of the text, the channel of its representation (oral or written), and its communicative purpose (motivation, persuasion, explanation) are also considered.

In our opinion, the "topic" parameter is one of the traditional and basic criteria classification of discourses in modern linguistic research. Among the most common in the special literature, N. N. Mironova identifies the following types of discourses according to this criterion: pedagogical, political, scientific, critical, ethical, legal, military, parental, etc. This classification can be supplemented by business, mass-informational, medical, and other types of discourse. Since the object or topic of a discourse can be any area of human activity, this list is open-ended[5].

Thus, based on the criteria of the typology of discourse proposed by M. Halliday and B. V. Krasnykh, we consider it possible to distinguish the environmental discourse by the "theme" parameter, to which we will refer a variety of texts of various functional styles and genres, from monographs to works of popular and fiction literature, as an expression in the language of environmental themes and problems. This is a coherent, oral or written text, conditioned by the situation of communication on environmental topics. The key concept and theme of ecological discourse is nature and the state of the environment.

The first time the concept of “ecology of language” was mentioned by the American linguist A.Haugen in 1970, who initiated the study of ecology and linguistics. In later works, he defines the ecology of language as “the science of the interaction between language and its environment”, where the environment of language is understood as a society that uses language as one of its codes. Language is only in the minds of its speakers and their social natural environment…The ecology of a language depends on people who learn it, use it and pass it on to other people[4].

Ecological discourse is the object of the study of linguistic ecology. Therefore, this the direction of ecolinguistic research would be more accurately and correctly called the study of ecological discourse. We can also consider the ecological discourse within framework of the political one. This type of discourse is both sociopolitical and sociocultural phenomenon. Ecological discourse actively forms an ecological consciousness, passing through a variety of concepts and points of view. Moreover, it should be also pointed out that ecological discourse can be researched within the framework of a mass media discourse, which is directly related to the mass media with all its inherent characteristics. It should be clarified that we consider environmental discourse as a separate type of discourse, a special text, the elements of which can occur in various types of communication situations.

The analysis of the Internet media materials revealed that each electronic newspaper has its own thematic plan of publications, permanent headings and information sections. Each newspaper has its own face, which is determined by the characteristics of the audience, politics, professionalism of its creators, etc.

In the course of our research, we found that environmental topics are very popular for English-language media, and it can be noted that the popularity increases every year. Environmental issues concern not only journalists working in the above-mentioned media, but also ordinary citizens who actively comment on published articles and news sections. We have identified which categories are considered in the specified Western press. The analysis revealed the following categories:

– The Times Online – News (UK News, World Politics, Environment, Weather, Tech&Web News, Related Reports, Topics), Comment, Business, Money, Sport, Life & Style, Travel, Driving, Arts & Entertainment ("Times Online": "News of the United Kingdom" ("World Politics", "Environment", "Weather", "Technology and the Internet", "Reports", "Main Topics"), "Comments", "Business", "Money", "Sports", "Life and Style", "Travel", "Road News", "Art and Entertainment»);

– The Telegraph – News, Sport, Finance, Comment, Travel, Lifestyle, Culture, Fashion ("Telegraph": "News", "Sport", "Finance", "Comments", "Travel", "Lifestyle", "Culture", " Fashion»);

– The Guardian – News (UK, World, US, Politics, Media, Education, Society, Science, Technology, Football, Weather), Sport, Comment, Culture, Business, Money, Life & Style, Travel, Environment, Blogs, Video, Jobs ("Guardian": "News" ("United Kingdom", "World News", "Politics", "Media", "Education", "Society", "Science", "Technology", "Football", "Weather"), "Sports", "Comments", "Culture", "Business", "Money", "Life and Style", "Travel", "Environment", "Blogs", "Videos", "Jobs»);

– The New York Times – World, Politics, Business, Technology, Sports, Science, Health, Arts, Style, Travel ("New York Times": "World News", "Politics", "Business", "Technology", "Sports", "Science", "Health", "Art", "Style", "Travel").

It can be noted that in the two British newspapers we have taken for analysis (The Times, The Guardian), the topic of the environment is placed in a separate category Environment, which is very important for understanding the degree of consciousness of the British public. In addition, examples of environmental discourse can be found in the categories News , Environment, Weather , Living Green , as well as in the categories Science, Tech & Web News , Health , Travel. In our opinion, the individual components that are of interest to our research were analyzed [5].

Note that the environmental discourse in the speech of politicians is characterized by a special use of oratory and the desire to exert a certain impact on listeners and readers, while journalistic environmental discourse can be more informational in nature, although in this case the emphasis is also on persuasiveness.

Summing up, we can say that politicians in Great Britain and the United States pay great attention to ways to improve the environmental situation, and environmental problems are considered not only at the national level, but also on a global scale. This approach points to the fact that the seriousness of environmental problems is recognized by the world community, and political leaders of the world powers are responsibly approaching the task of environmental protection.

References

  1. Halliday, M. A. K. (1991). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. University Park Press.
  2. Blair, T. (2005, November 2). Speech to the London G8 climate change conference. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/nov/02/greenpolitics.frontpage
  3. Obama, B. (2008, July 16). Full text: Obama’s foreign policy speech. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jul/16/uselections2008.barackobama
  4. Haugen, E. (2001). The ecology of language. In A. Fill & P. Mühlhäusler (Eds.), The ecolinguistics reader: Language, ecology, and environment (pp. 57–66). London, New York: Continuum.
  5. Mironova, N. N. (1997). Types of discourse: Theory and practice.
  6. The Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com
  7. Варшавская, А. И. (2003). Субкатегоризация и широкое/узкое понимание дискурса (грамматика дискурса). In Материалы XXXII междунар. филол. конф. Вып. 3 (pp. xx-xx). СПб.: Филол. фак. СпбГУ.
Автор: Паркул Алмас Отжанулы