THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ECOLINGUISTICS AS A NEW INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AREA

Abstract

The article deals with the theoretical and methodological foundations of ecolinguistics as a field that explores the relationship between language and the environment in its various manifestations. We trace the origins of ecolinguistics and its gradual transition from the study of ecological discourse as such to the analysis of ecology representations in other discourses. It is argued that ecolinguistics should be distinguished from ecology of language, since the latter is focused on interlingual relations and applies a quite different methodology. We also outline the principle of ecosophy, which underlies the methodology of ecolinguistic research, as well as the types of lexical and grammatical features representing key ideologies that influence the public perception of the environment and environmental measures. Furthermore, we explicate the ecolinguistic classification of discourses into destructive, ambivalent and beneficial for the environment, with the consideration of methodological variations corresponding to each: in particular, the use of critical discourse analysis for destructive discourses and positive discourse analysis for beneficial discourses. Attention is paid to multimodal discourse analysis as one of the complementary methods of ecolinguistics, as well as to corpus-based methods that allow for a more accurate and complete elucidation of environmental narratives of certain social groups in a synchronic or diachronic perspective. The possibility of implementing ecolinguistic principles in pedagogical practice, especially in language training, is highlighted. We conclude with the promising directions of ecolinguistic research in the modern context of Ukraine, where ecological awareness is at an extremely low level and hence the ecolinguistic vector of research seems to be highly relevant.