In this study, Richard Alexander presents a series of original and empirically based case studies of the language and discourse involved in the discussion of environmental and ecological issues. Relying upon a variety of different text types and genres including company websites, advertisements, press articles, speeches and lectures Alexander interrogates how, in the media, press, corporate and activist circles, language is employed to argue for and propagate selected positions on the growing ecological crisis. For example, he asks: How are ecological and environmental concerns articulated in texts? What do we learn about ecological problems through texts from differing sources? What language features accompany ecological discourse in differing contexts and registers? Attention is especially directed at where this discourse comes into contact with business, economic and political concerns.
Recenzijos
"For anyone interested in language, ecology and politics, the book is an eye-opener and should be compulsory reading."--Alwin Fill, Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik
"The survival of humanity depends on our ability to change the attitude most people have towards the environment and Alexander's work can help us follow the right direction." - M. Cristina Caimotto, University of Torino, Italy
List of Tables
vii
Acknowledgements
xi
1 Introduction
1
(10)
2 Integrating the Ecological Issue
11
(16)
3 Ecological Commitment in Business
27
(14)
4 The Framing of Ecology
41
(13)
5 Talking About `Sustainable Development'
54
(11)
6 Wording the World
65
(18)
7 Shaping Environmental Discourse
83
(29)
8 Resisting Imposed Metaphors of Value
112
(22)
9 Engineering Agriculture: Who Pays the Price?
134
(29)
10 Language and Orwell's Problem
163
(26)
11 Concluding Obfuscation and Disinformation
189
(26)
Appendices
215
(2)
Notes
217
(8)
Bibliography
225
(10)
Index
235
Richard J. Alexander, Full Professor of English Business Communication at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Publications include Aspects of Verbal Humour in English and New International Business English (co-author Leo Jones).