An ecolinguistic analysis of the salience of non-human beings in children’s literature as represented by Katherine Applegate’s Wishtree

Document Type : مقالات بحوث مبتکرة

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Department of English, Faculty of Al-Alsun, Minia University, Minia, Egypt

Abstract

This paper aims to study Wishtree by Katherine Alice Applegate from an ecolinguistic perspective by revealing how the non-human elements of nature, as represented in the novel by the tree Red, the crow Bongo, and the other birds and animals, are depicted saliently and prominently. In contrast to other branches of linguistics that concentrate on the function of language in human-to-human communication without taking the broader environmental context into account, ecolinguistics concentrates on the function of language in increasing the importance and prominence of the non-human world. The study investigates whether the salience patterns mentioned by Stibbe (2015) in his framework of ecolinguistics are present in the novel and whether they are employed for the same purpose, i.e., foregrounding the non-human species and presenting them as important and worthy of consideration. The paper adopts a descriptive qualitative approach to the analysis of the novel, surveying the linguistic and discursive elements which construct the salience and high prominence of the non-human living beings. Based on the analysis of the salience techniques and how they contribute to the revelation of the prevalent ecological ideology in the novel, its text is assessed as to whether it exemplifies a beneficial, ambivalent, or destructive ecological discourse. The analysis reveals that five linguistic devices are used to give prominence to non-human entities: basic-level terms, individualization, personalization, activation, and imagery. The researcher concludes, according to the study’s ecolinguistic analysis, that Wishtree is an ecologically beneficial discourse.

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