Abstract Current dominant narratives of economic growth, consumerism, and anthropocentric views on human existence, to name a few, are behind the driving forces responsible for the increasing destruction of the very own ecological systems that all life depends on. By utilizing tools of Discourse Analysis while adopting an ecological perspective, the free online course The Stories We Live By (TSWLB) offers a practical and accessible framework in which stories can be critically evaluated, questioned, and resisted. Crucially, students are encouraged to apply their newly acquired theoretical insights to search for alternative stories to live by. While current approaches of impact assessment beyond academia can be measured more readily in the sciences, it is harder to assess whether, how, and to what extent humanities research produces change in society; arguably, the digital format of the course adds to the complexity of assessing its impact. In this article, the authors aim to draw attention on the inherent value of the dissemination of traditional academic tools beyond academia. By combining both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in relation to the free online course TSWLB as a case study, the article provides an innovative tool to effectively measure impact which renders itself suitable for a wider range of disciplines across both traditional and digital humanities.
当前占主导地位的经济增长、消费主义和人类中心主义对人类存在的看法，仅举几例，是导致所有生命赖以生存的生态系统日益遭到破坏的驱动力。免费在线课程《我们赖以生存的故事》(the Stories We Live By, TSWLB)利用话语分析的工具，同时采用生态学的视角，提供了一个实用且易于理解的框架，在这个框架中，故事可以被批判性地评估、质疑和抵制。最重要的是，鼓励学生运用他们新获得的理论见解来寻找生活的替代故事。虽然目前学术界以外的影响评估方法可以更容易地在科学领域进行衡量，但很难评估人文科学研究是否、如何以及在多大程度上产生了社会变化;可以说，课程的数字化形式增加了评估其影响的复杂性。在这篇文章中，作者旨在引起人们对传统学术工具传播的内在价值的关注。通过结合与免费在线课程TSWLB相关的定性和定量方法作为案例研究，本文提供了一个创新的工具来有效地衡量影响，使其适合于传统和数字人文学科的更广泛学科。
{"title":"The Stories We Live By and the stories we won’t stand by: Measuring the impact of a free online course in ecolinguistics","authors":"Mariana Roccia, Jessica Iubini-Hampton","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Current dominant narratives of economic growth, consumerism, and anthropocentric views on human existence, to name a few, are behind the driving forces responsible for the increasing destruction of the very own ecological systems that all life depends on. By utilizing tools of Discourse Analysis while adopting an ecological perspective, the free online course The Stories We Live By (TSWLB) offers a practical and accessible framework in which stories can be critically evaluated, questioned, and resisted. Crucially, students are encouraged to apply their newly acquired theoretical insights to search for alternative stories to live by. While current approaches of impact assessment beyond academia can be measured more readily in the sciences, it is harder to assess whether, how, and to what extent humanities research produces change in society; arguably, the digital format of the course adds to the complexity of assessing its impact. In this article, the authors aim to draw attention on the inherent value of the dissemination of traditional academic tools beyond academia. By combining both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in relation to the free online course TSWLB as a case study, the article provides an innovative tool to effectively measure impact which renders itself suitable for a wider range of disciplines across both traditional and digital humanities.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"33 1","pages":"58 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84408088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, medical texts on the pandemic have enjoyed wide popularity, and one of the key issues has always been the accuracy and dependability of the information they contain. The use of evidentiality, a linguistic system which functions to indicate the source and credibility of information, is thus worth exploring in COVID-19 texts. Adopting a synthesized framework within the overall model of systemic functional linguistics, this paper sets out to investigate the lexicogrammar and semantics of evidentiality on the basis of data collected in the form of both specialized and popular texts on COVID-19. Evidentiality in these texts is explored along four dimensions: (i) evidential taxonomy, where specialized texts favor reporting, while popular texts favor belief and inferring; (ii) information source, where specialized texts highlight the voices of authorship, original research, and patients, whereas popular texts highlight the voices of scientists, institutions, countries, and laypeople; (iii) modalization, where specialized texts typically indicate a higher degree of modal responsibility than their popular counterparts; and (iv) engagement, where specialized texts favor dialogic expansion and popular texts favor contraction. It is hoped that these findings will shed light on linguistic variation according to different contextual configurations, as well as clarifying rhetorical conventions in discourse communities of science.
{"title":"Evidentiality in science from specialization to popularization: A case study of COVID-19 texts","authors":"Jinyi Huang, Jinjun Wang","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, medical texts on the pandemic have enjoyed wide popularity, and one of the key issues has always been the accuracy and dependability of the information they contain. The use of evidentiality, a linguistic system which functions to indicate the source and credibility of information, is thus worth exploring in COVID-19 texts. Adopting a synthesized framework within the overall model of systemic functional linguistics, this paper sets out to investigate the lexicogrammar and semantics of evidentiality on the basis of data collected in the form of both specialized and popular texts on COVID-19. Evidentiality in these texts is explored along four dimensions: (i) evidential taxonomy, where specialized texts favor reporting, while popular texts favor belief and inferring; (ii) information source, where specialized texts highlight the voices of authorship, original research, and patients, whereas popular texts highlight the voices of scientists, institutions, countries, and laypeople; (iii) modalization, where specialized texts typically indicate a higher degree of modal responsibility than their popular counterparts; and (iv) engagement, where specialized texts favor dialogic expansion and popular texts favor contraction. It is hoped that these findings will shed light on linguistic variation according to different contextual configurations, as well as clarifying rhetorical conventions in discourse communities of science.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"73 1","pages":"124 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80103231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic, as a public health emergency of international concern, is the most extensive one to afflict humanity in this century and poses a grave threat to human life and health. Facing this unknown, unexpected and devastating disease, China makes an all-out effort to fight against it shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world. Based on the ecosophy of “diversity and harmony, interaction and co-existence” and with ecolinguistic appraisal system as the theoretical framework, this study provides an ecological discourse analysis of news coverage of COVID-19 in China in The Times and The New York Times, two major Western mainstream media outlets, aiming to reveal the appraisal characteristics and ecological orientations of the news coverage on this public health emergency as well as the attitudes of the two major Western mainstream media outlets concerned towards China’s fight against COVID-19, thus helping people to understand the news discourse on this major public health emergency and in turn to distinguish different media positions. It is found that both news outlets employ more negative appraisal resources to express their attitudes towards China’s fight against COVID-19 and their news coverage is to a greater extent eco-destructive.
{"title":"An ecological discourse analysis of news coverage of COVID-19 in China in The Times and The New York Times","authors":"Yahong Xue, Qianqiu Xu","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic, as a public health emergency of international concern, is the most extensive one to afflict humanity in this century and poses a grave threat to human life and health. Facing this unknown, unexpected and devastating disease, China makes an all-out effort to fight against it shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world. Based on the ecosophy of “diversity and harmony, interaction and co-existence” and with ecolinguistic appraisal system as the theoretical framework, this study provides an ecological discourse analysis of news coverage of COVID-19 in China in The Times and The New York Times, two major Western mainstream media outlets, aiming to reveal the appraisal characteristics and ecological orientations of the news coverage on this public health emergency as well as the attitudes of the two major Western mainstream media outlets concerned towards China’s fight against COVID-19, thus helping people to understand the news discourse on this major public health emergency and in turn to distinguish different media positions. It is found that both news outlets employ more negative appraisal resources to express their attitudes towards China’s fight against COVID-19 and their news coverage is to a greater extent eco-destructive.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"109 1","pages":"80 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88592397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract A number of studies on transitivity systems of languages have been conducted in the field of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Different linguists have described the transitivity systems of English, French, German, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Telugu, and Pitjantjatjara, adopting an upward approach which is not effective enough for discourse analysis. So far, there has been no description of the transitivity system of Myanmar in literature. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a clear description of the transitivity system of Myanmar that functions as one of the clause analysis methods from the experiential perspective. To construct a workable transitivity system of Myanmar, the present study follows He’s (forthcoming) (He, Wei. forthcoming. Categorization of experience of the world and construction of transitivity system of Chinese) new description of the Chinese transitivity system containing 32 types of processes that represent our experience of the world. Unlike previous studies, He (forthcoming) proposes autonomous and influential processes of action, mental, and relational clauses with no description of ergativity hypothesized by Halliday (1985) (Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood. 1985. An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold) and Matthiessen (1995) (Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. 1995. Lexicogrammatical cartography: English systems. Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers). This new model is more comprehensive and effective than previous ones because it adopts a downward approach which can smoothly be applied to discourse analysis. In this paper, the transitivity analysis of Myanmar clauses is performed in accordance with the theories put forward by He (forthcoming) and the semantic configurations of 32 processes in Myanmar transitivity system are illustrated with authentic examples. Findings show that the proposed transitivity system of Myanmar can analyze clauses effectively and it is compatible with the discourse analysis of Myanmar. These findings will make an important contribution to further study of the systemic functional grammar of Myanmar.
系统功能语言学对语言及物系统进行了大量的研究。不同的语言学家对英语、法语、德语、日语、他加禄语、汉语、越南语、泰卢固语和Pitjantjatjara语的及物系统进行了描述，采用了向上的方法，但对语篇分析不够有效。到目前为止，文献中还没有对缅甸及物系统的描述。本文的目的是从经验的角度对缅甸语及物性系统进行清晰的描述，并将其作为分句分析方法之一。为了构建一个可行的缅甸及物性体系，本研究遵循了He, Wei。即将到来的。世界经验的分类与汉语及物性体系的构建)对汉语及物性体系的新描述，包含了代表我们对世界经验的32种过程。与以往的研究不同，他(即将出版)提出了自主和有影响的行动、心理和关系分句过程，而没有描述哈利迪(1985)假设的述及性(哈利迪，迈克尔·亚历山大·柯克伍德，1985)。功能语法入门。伦敦:Arnold) and Matthiessen (1995) (Matthiessen, c.m.i.m. 1995)。词典语法制图:英语系统。东京:国际语言科学出版社)。该模型比以往的模型更全面、更有效，因为它采用了向下的方法，可以很好地应用于语篇分析。本文根据He(即将发表)的及物性理论对缅甸语从句进行了及物性分析，并用实例说明了缅甸语及物系统中32个过程的语义结构。研究结果表明，所构建的缅甸语及物系统能够有效地分析从句，并且与缅甸语的语篇分析相兼容。这些发现将为缅甸语系统功能语法的进一步研究做出重要贡献。
{"title":"Construction of the transitivity system of Myanmar","authors":"Lai Yee Win","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A number of studies on transitivity systems of languages have been conducted in the field of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Different linguists have described the transitivity systems of English, French, German, Japanese, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Telugu, and Pitjantjatjara, adopting an upward approach which is not effective enough for discourse analysis. So far, there has been no description of the transitivity system of Myanmar in literature. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a clear description of the transitivity system of Myanmar that functions as one of the clause analysis methods from the experiential perspective. To construct a workable transitivity system of Myanmar, the present study follows He’s (forthcoming) (He, Wei. forthcoming. Categorization of experience of the world and construction of transitivity system of Chinese) new description of the Chinese transitivity system containing 32 types of processes that represent our experience of the world. Unlike previous studies, He (forthcoming) proposes autonomous and influential processes of action, mental, and relational clauses with no description of ergativity hypothesized by Halliday (1985) (Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood. 1985. An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold) and Matthiessen (1995) (Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. 1995. Lexicogrammatical cartography: English systems. Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers). This new model is more comprehensive and effective than previous ones because it adopts a downward approach which can smoothly be applied to discourse analysis. In this paper, the transitivity analysis of Myanmar clauses is performed in accordance with the theories put forward by He (forthcoming) and the semantic configurations of 32 processes in Myanmar transitivity system are illustrated with authentic examples. Findings show that the proposed transitivity system of Myanmar can analyze clauses effectively and it is compatible with the discourse analysis of Myanmar. These findings will make an important contribution to further study of the systemic functional grammar of Myanmar.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"19 1","pages":"156 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85038812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Much has been written about the ecological perspectives of Buddhism and Daoism, as examples of philosophies which emphasize process, impermanence, interconnectedness, and compassion for nature. And the interconnectedness of the various elements of the biosphere and the Earth’s crust is the basis of ecological Gaia theory. Some physicists and process philosophers have drawn attention to the inadequacies of European languages to represent the world of quantum reality, radical undifferentiated wholeness and interconnectedness, and the dynamism and uncontrollability of the material world. Notable among these were physicists David Bohm and David Peat, who looked to Blackfoot, an Algonquin language of North America, for a better representation of the natural world as interacting processes. This article explores some of the commonalities between Buddhism/Daoism, process philosophies, modern physics and ecological theory. It then addresses the question of the affordances different languages and grammars provide for a deep ecological representation in tune with quantum physics and Buddhism/Daoism. The climax of the article starts with the work of Michael Halliday on the local grammar of William Golding’s The Inheritors (Golding, William. 1961 [1955]. The Inheritors. London: Faber), and performs a similar grammatical analysis of two passages from Golding’s later work Pincher Martin (Golding, William. 1956. Pincher Martin. London: Faber). It concludes that the Neanderthal mind style and life style in The Inheritors and the world of the drowning Pincher Martin are represented in a grammatical style more appropriate for a Buddhist/Daoist/quantum physics/deep ecological worldview of human interaction with the natural world.
{"title":"Ecology, physics, process philosophies, Buddhism, Daoism, and language: A case study of William Golding’s The Inheritors and Pincher Martin","authors":"A. Goatly","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Much has been written about the ecological perspectives of Buddhism and Daoism, as examples of philosophies which emphasize process, impermanence, interconnectedness, and compassion for nature. And the interconnectedness of the various elements of the biosphere and the Earth’s crust is the basis of ecological Gaia theory. Some physicists and process philosophers have drawn attention to the inadequacies of European languages to represent the world of quantum reality, radical undifferentiated wholeness and interconnectedness, and the dynamism and uncontrollability of the material world. Notable among these were physicists David Bohm and David Peat, who looked to Blackfoot, an Algonquin language of North America, for a better representation of the natural world as interacting processes. This article explores some of the commonalities between Buddhism/Daoism, process philosophies, modern physics and ecological theory. It then addresses the question of the affordances different languages and grammars provide for a deep ecological representation in tune with quantum physics and Buddhism/Daoism. The climax of the article starts with the work of Michael Halliday on the local grammar of William Golding’s The Inheritors (Golding, William. 1961 [1955]. The Inheritors. London: Faber), and performs a similar grammatical analysis of two passages from Golding’s later work Pincher Martin (Golding, William. 1956. Pincher Martin. London: Faber). It concludes that the Neanderthal mind style and life style in The Inheritors and the world of the drowning Pincher Martin are represented in a grammatical style more appropriate for a Buddhist/Daoist/quantum physics/deep ecological worldview of human interaction with the natural world.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"6 1","pages":"1 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87750101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract As a significant indicator of College students’ ability in academic English communication, academic papers, especially their condensed abstracts require various writing techniques among which the use of grammatical metaphors (GMs) is typical. To improve the English academic writing level of Chinese postgraduate students, it is significant to compare their use of GMs with that in expert research articles. On the basis of Halliday’s reclassification of GMs, this study aims to compare the characteristics of GMs in abstracts of MA theses and expert research articles (RAs). It is found that there is universal use of nearly all GM types in both groups. The two groups are similar in that they share the top five most frequently used GMs, and there are no significant differences in the use of more than half of the GM types. However, the overall GM frequency of expert RAs is significantly higher than that of MA theses. Significant differences are also found in the use of six GM types. Furthermore, some correlations between certain GM types found in expert RAs are missing in MA theses. Reasons for these differences may include the limited understanding of GM, the underdeveloped cognitive ability, the genre differences, and the first language differences. Based on these findings, implications for teaching and learning are discussed.
{"title":"A contrastive study of grammatical metaphors in abstracts of Chinese MA theses and expert academic writing","authors":"Zishan Huang, Hui-Chih Yu","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As a significant indicator of College students’ ability in academic English communication, academic papers, especially their condensed abstracts require various writing techniques among which the use of grammatical metaphors (GMs) is typical. To improve the English academic writing level of Chinese postgraduate students, it is significant to compare their use of GMs with that in expert research articles. On the basis of Halliday’s reclassification of GMs, this study aims to compare the characteristics of GMs in abstracts of MA theses and expert research articles (RAs). It is found that there is universal use of nearly all GM types in both groups. The two groups are similar in that they share the top five most frequently used GMs, and there are no significant differences in the use of more than half of the GM types. However, the overall GM frequency of expert RAs is significantly higher than that of MA theses. Significant differences are also found in the use of six GM types. Furthermore, some correlations between certain GM types found in expert RAs are missing in MA theses. Reasons for these differences may include the limited understanding of GM, the underdeveloped cognitive ability, the genre differences, and the first language differences. Based on these findings, implications for teaching and learning are discussed.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"1 1","pages":"199 - 222"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89790072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-01DOI: 10.1515/jwl-2021-frontmatter1
{"title":"Frontmatter","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-frontmatter1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-frontmatter1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79421805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Ecolinguistics studies the interactions between language and ecology. It investigates whether the stories created by language are destructive or beneficial to all the constituents of the environment. In search of positive stories for our environment, this article focuses on vegan campaigns which generally bring awareness about veganism that, in turn, advocates protection of nonhuman animals and abstention from their exploitation. Nonhuman animals are part of the ecosystem and the way they are portrayed in language may determine the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. As vegan campaigns refer to nonhuman animals as sentient living beings, it is important to analyze whether the language and image of these campaigns articulate their purposes and create beneficial stories for nonhuman species. This article explores the stories regarding nonhuman animals in 27 posters of the vegan campaign “Go Vegan World” and examines how these stories are shaped and whether they are aligned with vegan values. The study is approached from an ecolinguistic perspective with a focus on multimodality where the language was analyzed through van Leeuwen’s Social Actor and Social Action theory, and the image was analyzed with Kress and van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design. Further, the analysis involves the ecosophy defined as a personal ecological philosophy of relationships between human and nonhuman animals, plants, and the physical environment. The findings suggest that the campaign language and image shape three stories: salience where nonhuman animals are individuals with their own feelings and lives; conviction that nonhuman animals matter as much as humans; ideology where biocentrism is promoted. By comparing these stories with the article’s ecosophy, an ecolinguistic analysis showed that they are largely beneficial in representing nonhuman animals as sentient living beings who are equal to humans.
{"title":"Representing nonhuman animals as equals: An ecolinguistic analysis of vegan campaigns","authors":"Alena Zhdanava, Surinderpal Kaur, K. Rajandran","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Ecolinguistics studies the interactions between language and ecology. It investigates whether the stories created by language are destructive or beneficial to all the constituents of the environment. In search of positive stories for our environment, this article focuses on vegan campaigns which generally bring awareness about veganism that, in turn, advocates protection of nonhuman animals and abstention from their exploitation. Nonhuman animals are part of the ecosystem and the way they are portrayed in language may determine the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. As vegan campaigns refer to nonhuman animals as sentient living beings, it is important to analyze whether the language and image of these campaigns articulate their purposes and create beneficial stories for nonhuman species. This article explores the stories regarding nonhuman animals in 27 posters of the vegan campaign “Go Vegan World” and examines how these stories are shaped and whether they are aligned with vegan values. The study is approached from an ecolinguistic perspective with a focus on multimodality where the language was analyzed through van Leeuwen’s Social Actor and Social Action theory, and the image was analyzed with Kress and van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design. Further, the analysis involves the ecosophy defined as a personal ecological philosophy of relationships between human and nonhuman animals, plants, and the physical environment. The findings suggest that the campaign language and image shape three stories: salience where nonhuman animals are individuals with their own feelings and lives; conviction that nonhuman animals matter as much as humans; ideology where biocentrism is promoted. By comparing these stories with the article’s ecosophy, an ecolinguistic analysis showed that they are largely beneficial in representing nonhuman animals as sentient living beings who are equal to humans.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"12 1","pages":"26 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87809015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In recent years, in Nepal, while some languages of the nation are on the verge of extinction, some foreign languages (such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese) are emerging as new attractions among the youths and adults and are widely taught in the marketplaces through the private sector initiative. Against this backdrop, in this article, we have examined the current foreign language teaching and learning situation drawing on qualitative empirical data obtained from the institutes involved in foreign language instruction in a city in Gandaki Province of Nepal. The data were collected from a survey in forty institutes, ten individual interviews and five focus group discussions. Drawing on the data, an ecological model was adopted, which focused on dynamic interaction, co-existence, and competition among languages, and findings were discussed in line with these aspects of ecological understanding. Findings revealed that learning foreign languages has been established as a conduit towards economic gains and opportunities for employment and education, which has largely been contributory towards reshaping the ecological relationship among the foreign languages in Nepal.
{"title":"Examining foreign language teaching and learning in Nepal: An ecological perspective","authors":"Prem Prasad Poudel, M. Baral","doi":"10.1515/jwl-2021-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jwl-2021-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In recent years, in Nepal, while some languages of the nation are on the verge of extinction, some foreign languages (such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese) are emerging as new attractions among the youths and adults and are widely taught in the marketplaces through the private sector initiative. Against this backdrop, in this article, we have examined the current foreign language teaching and learning situation drawing on qualitative empirical data obtained from the institutes involved in foreign language instruction in a city in Gandaki Province of Nepal. The data were collected from a survey in forty institutes, ten individual interviews and five focus group discussions. Drawing on the data, an ecological model was adopted, which focused on dynamic interaction, co-existence, and competition among languages, and findings were discussed in line with these aspects of ecological understanding. Findings revealed that learning foreign languages has been established as a conduit towards economic gains and opportunities for employment and education, which has largely been contributory towards reshaping the ecological relationship among the foreign languages in Nepal.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"11 1","pages":"104 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75359627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-02DOI: 10.1080/21698252.2020.1819519
Ruijie Zhang, Wei He
ABSTRACT Following a systemic functional approach to ecolinguistic studies, this study explores the Chinese transitivity system's interpretative potential in revealing the dynamic relationship between human beings and their living places. The research extends the transitivity system under the ethical framework of Ecological Sense of Place, drawing on theories from human geography and traditional Chinese philosophies. Within such a premise, the system of process configurations and participants of Chinese process types are reinterpreted, arguing that both the participant and the process should be judged through an ecological lens concerning their function in construing the human-place relationships. The scale of influence and environmental stances of Participant roles is addressed, following a belief that every entity contains participative potential as -er/-ed role of a process. Place as a circumstantial role is expressly acknowledged for their contribution to circumscribe people-place relationships. Regarding the process types, a reconsideration of their emotive, cognitive and agentive features is proposed to reveal the embedded attitudes toward places. These observations extend the knowledge on how the transitivity system can be refined to show the speaker/writer's attitude toward the ecology and its further influences on the collective understanding of human-nature relationships.
{"title":"Human-nature relationships in experiential meaning: transitivity system of Chinese from an ecolinguistic perspective","authors":"Ruijie Zhang, Wei He","doi":"10.1080/21698252.2020.1819519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21698252.2020.1819519","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Following a systemic functional approach to ecolinguistic studies, this study explores the Chinese transitivity system's interpretative potential in revealing the dynamic relationship between human beings and their living places. The research extends the transitivity system under the ethical framework of Ecological Sense of Place, drawing on theories from human geography and traditional Chinese philosophies. Within such a premise, the system of process configurations and participants of Chinese process types are reinterpreted, arguing that both the participant and the process should be judged through an ecological lens concerning their function in construing the human-place relationships. The scale of influence and environmental stances of Participant roles is addressed, following a belief that every entity contains participative potential as -er/-ed role of a process. Place as a circumstantial role is expressly acknowledged for their contribution to circumscribe people-place relationships. Regarding the process types, a reconsideration of their emotive, cognitive and agentive features is proposed to reveal the embedded attitudes toward places. These observations extend the knowledge on how the transitivity system can be refined to show the speaker/writer's attitude toward the ecology and its further influences on the collective understanding of human-nature relationships.","PeriodicalId":93793,"journal":{"name":"Journal of world languages","volume":"14 1","pages":"217 - 235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80449555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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