St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia

University of Washington, Seattle

University of Arizona, Tucson 12/06/2013

Ecology of Language: A South-East European

Point of ViewAngel G. Angelov

Truly, how could I tell you everything that characterizes the life of birds! How cranes stand night watch, taking turns by relieving each other. Some of them sleep, others go around in a circle and keep watch over them. And when the allotted time for the watch is over, the crane, who has finished his service, cries out and goes to sleep. The one who replaces him now watches the rest, as he was guarded before. The same order can be seen when flying. First one leads, than another. Once he has led the flock for some time, he passes the leadership of the flock to another.

• “Shestodnev” by St. Joan Exarch a medieval Bulgarian scholar, writer and translator, one of the most important men of letters working at the Preslav Literary School at the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century

questions:

• Could public and international institutions to manage linguistic processes?

• What is the essence of the term biocultural niches and can we (linguists) talk about cultural niches as ecologists talk about biological niches?

• What is the prognosis for regional dialects? Is there a way to save them as a means of communication even in rural communities?

• Dialect leveling and urbanization - what do "green ideas" have to offer to explain these processes?

• Why linguistic rights, not language rights?

Basic issues in this presentation:

• The essence of an ecolinguistic approach

• The terms "linguistic human rights," "social responsibility" and "glocalization“

• Language planning in the era of globalization

Tabl. 1. A comparison between linguistic subfieldsSu

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• Historical development of the language

• Territorial distribution of the dialects

• Language contacts• Language change• Contrastive

observations on phonology, grammar, lexicon

Dialectology

• Dialects – full description• Standard language• Language territory

Sociolinguistics

• Speech societies• sociolects• mezolects• professiolects• Language in its social

contexts

Ecolinguistics

• logosphere• Language in our human

environment (Umvelt) • The bio-, socio-,

thechnosystems interactions

• Language in its global (and universal) context• Macro- and micro-

sociolinguistics• linguistic variability• Linguistic markers and

variables• language Planning• language Policy• Language and media• Language of the city

• Communication in the complex ecosystems (various networks of rivers, streams, canals and infrastructure; a complex ecological terrain that includes the hydrologic, geologic, transportation, utility)

• Relationships between global and local in language use (international contracts)

• Language diversity• Endangered languages• Informational pollution• Virtual communication

• Descriptive• Language mapping• Historical phonological

laws• Modeling grammatical

rules• Vocabularies‘

collections

• Discovering diagnostic features

• Quantitative (sociometric) studies

• Statistic approaches and ANOVA

• Contrastive sociolinguistic studies

• Zoomorphic metaphors• Modeling communication

behavior in ecosystems• From language

documentation to language revitalization

• Linguistic activism

Feedback Model in early biocybernetics – Theoretische Biologie, 1920.

Jakob Johann von Uexküll (1864-1944) – Якоб Йохан фон Юкскюл (рус. Икскюль).

The grammar of experience: the cover of An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. (1994), by M.A.K. Halliday, showing the types of

process as they have evolved in English grammar

Fig. 2. Functions of Language

According to Jacobson (1960) - There are six factors of an effective verbal communication.

To each one corresponds a communication function (Referential, Expressive, Conative,

Poetic Phatic, Metalingual)

The formalist principle: The function of natural language.

Analogy between the concepts of "context" and "umvelt" (living environment, ambient)

Bachman and Palmer's model (1996) of Language Knowledge

Hoffmeyer J. (1996). Signs of Meaning in the Universe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hockett's design features and their implications for human language (16 features)The Design Features of Language was a phrase coined in the 1960s by the American linguist Charles Hockett.

instincts vs. rituals and transmitted knowledge

Types of areas around our planet: lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, magnetosphere, biosphere,

and noosphere, logosphere

Владимир Вернадски (1863-1945)

Zoomorphic and geomorphic metaphors

• Tree of biological evolution (Darwin) - Tree of language evolution (Schleicher)

• Ecosystems and populations in crises - demographic issues, migration and cultural systems in crisis

• Food chains - language contacts• Endangered species - endangered languages (IUCN

Red List )• Pollution of the Planet – information pollution • Climate change (global warming) – language

globalization

Analogies between biology and electrical engineering

Digital (memory) cell - biological cellWeb - InternetOrganism - machine, apparatusEcosystem – context of communicationFood chain - peaceful coexistenceBiodiversity - linguistic and cultural diversity

Ecolinguistics’ task: helping to resolve the conflict between the bio- and techno-systems

Definitions with a view of the main terms

• Linguistic human rights - this is a legal term. The term linguistic rights has a narrow meaning, in linguistic terms. In English the distinction exists - Linguistic Human Rights vs. Language Rights, for example: Universal declaration of Linguistic Rights.

• In French, it is only one term: Déclaration Universelle des Droits Linguistiques.

• In German it is the other term: SPRACHRECHTE Auf Veranlassung des IDV (Internationaler Deutschlehrerverband) übersetzt von Torvald Perman

Attempt to define:

• language is a core value of the individual and of speech groups. A separate language has symbolic capital and it is convenient for those who share it, but overall, supranational language has other advantages:– it removes barriers to communication and knowledge. Humans have an ability to

learn (and teach) different languages, which is a prerequisite for solving the problem. Language loss has a catastrophic impact, i.e. it is a significant loss of diversity.

• Today we talk about the right of individual language as a fundamental human right. “Human rights” are an ontological problem "(Brandt 1995). There is a conflict between individual and collective identity and the different perspectives between the principles of identifying: self-determination is not synonymous with identification.

• Often the question of freedom of speech vs. language rights are confused. The rights of an individual language is related to the determination of its status, i.e. ad hoc addresses the question of the functions of language (formal or colloquial). In a number of international documentations the terminology of the issues of language rights and linguistic genocide is still unsatisfactory.

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

Opening for signaturePlace: StrasbourgDate : 5/11/1992

Entry into force1/3/1998

Status as of: 4/12/2013Signed by 33 countries;Total number of ratifications/accessions:

The term "social responsibility"

• In my view we need a theory of social responsibility with regard to issues of culture and language. Such a theory exists regarding some collective responsibilities with respect to legal entities. This theory is developed especially in view of the damage to the environment done by different companies working mainly in the field of energy, and the use of land resources and fishing.

• The issue of social responsibility today is increasingly linked with the so-called bioethics posed in the 70’s in the U.S. (in conjunction with organ transplantation). Today, bioethics is on the rise especially in the field of medicine and legal cases like organ transplantation, blood transfusion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, life extension, contraception, abortion, cloning , etc).

• This term is new and should be related to issues of language. Contemporary life needs more effective language planning, which now has a supranational dimension. Language planning is a topic familiar from many works in the field of macrosociolinguistics, but now it needs significant additions from ecolinguistics.

Language Planning (traditional view)

• Corpus Planning - consistently builds vocabulary richness (purism), creating regulatory grammar, developing specialized languages, registers and literary genres. It is natural processing, but supported by the collective care and will of the educated classes, i.e. graphization, standardization, modernization, establishment of a written tradition.

• Status Planning - self-identification and identification, collective decisions and convening of congresses. Ethnic convergence, divergence, denial of autonomy or desire for autonomy.

• Acquisition Planning - particularly relevant to developing and former colonial countries. Presence of diglossia and bilingualism. Associated with the planning of prestige. Extremely important is the role of the University, which complete the generational circle of education and provides linguistic reproduction.

Тable . 2. Language Planning in the Era of Global Changes

New and Old Spheres of Use:• Media• Every day communication• Official performances• Literature• Science• Mobile communication

and InternetMacro- and micro-languagesCare for the language users with disabilities (Sensory disability, Intellectual disability)

Functions Planning

Lingua Franca or Local Language – a difficult

choice according to the status, prestige, competence and

intelligibility

Leveling Planning

• Global discourse and global culture

• Intra-language leveling and on a conceptual level

• Intercultural comprehension

• Transfer of concepts• Loss of concepts

Vitality Planning

• Lexical leveling – transfer of morphemes and other elements

• Transfer of syntax and phrases

• Transfer of word formation

• Simplification of the grammar

• Developing specialized registers for the needs of science and education

• Translation or language training in foreign languages

• Maintenance of dialects and regional and minority languages

• Appropriate linguistic autonomy

• Care language media of disadvantaged groups

• Planning migration and demographic shifts

Some facts:

• According to a report by UNESCO since 2010 the biggest languages today are - Mandarin 14.1% , Spanish 5.85% , English 5.52% , Hindi 4.46% , Arabic 4.23% , Portuguese 3.08 % , Bengali 3.05% , Russian 2.42% , Japanese 1.92% , 1.44% Punjabi (percentages indicate the proportion of the language users).

• 90% from 7000 languages will disappear in the next 100 years;

• 19 languages in South America today have only one carrier , in Australia there are 250 endangered languages, including in the next 10 years will only survived 15 ( Zuckerman 2013 ) .

The consciousness of the storks approaches almost that of the understanding of verbal creatures. They all arrive at one of these places where they live, and again at a certain time -- as they had previously agreed – then all fly away. The care and protection of old storks by younger would be enough of a lesson for our children, if only they would see how much more they loved heir father and mother. Storks stand in a circle around the father when he loses his feathers, they cover him with their wings to keep him warm. They offer him food and help him as best they can by lifting him from both sides with their wings and carrying him. Hence the famous saying, in which all good deeds are called “stork gratitude”. St. John Exarch

Thank you for the attention.

Ecolinguistics is an old and new science - it contains old wisdom and morals gleaned from our ancestors and what is new comes from changes in our daily lives. Unfortunately, the trends are alarming, but the methods of ecolinguistics can be considered to be reliable.