A Sociolinguistic Study of Register in Ecological Texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/wjfh.Vol22.Iss3/Pt3.1862Keywords:
Register, ecology, Hallidayan approach, contextual analysisAbstract
This qualitative study employs register analysis to examine lexical expansion in environmental discourse and how institutional language codifies new terminology to represent ecological phenomena. It investigates emerging nouns, verbs, adjectives, abbreviations, and noun phrases in the online cooperative agreement on ocean plastic pollution established following the 2019 G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. The study focuses on linguistic developments resulting from international efforts to address ocean plastic pollution. Adopting a Hallidayan approach, the analysis operates on two levels: a linguistic level that identifies lexical features and a contextual level examining field, tenor, and mode. The findings reveal that noun phrases are the most frequent linguistic feature in the selected text. Contextual analysis further demonstrates that the agreement centers on ocean pollution and is written in a formal institutional register. The study highlights the role of environmental discourse in generating and institutionalizing specialized terminology.
Downloads
References
Chang, S,. (2011). Institutional discourses on Plastic Pollution in the North Pacific Gyre. Institutional Discourses on Plastic Debris. https://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/es196/projects/2011final/ChangS_2011
Halliday, M.A.K. (1964). Syntax and the consumer. In C.I.J.M. Stuart (Ed.), Report of the Fifteenth Annual (First International) Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language (pp. 11–24). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1975). Language as social semiotic: towards a general sociolinguistic theory. London: Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Part A. In M.A.K. Halliday and R. Hasan, Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. (2002). Linguistic studies of text and discourse. Volume 2 in the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday, edited by Jonathan Webster. London: Continuum, 23-81.
Halliday, M.A.K., McIntosh, A. and Stevens, P. (2007). The users and uses of language. In Volume 10 of the Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday. London: Continuum, 5-37.
Horvath, B,. (2018). Ways of observing studying the interplay of social and linguistic variation. In (Mallinson,C,. Childs,B,. & Herk, G,. (Ed). Data Collection in Sociolinguistics Methods and Applications (2nd Ed)
Holmes J,. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2nd ed). England : Longman
Irwin A. 2001. Sociology and the environment. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hamdallah Khudiar, R. (2023). A Comparative Genre Analysis of English News Reports about the Russian- Ukrainian Crisis. Wasit Journal for Human Sciences, 19(2). https://doi.org/10.31185/.Vol19.Iss55.441
Luu, C,.(2019). How language and climate connect. https://daily.jstor.org/how-language-and-climate-connect/
Matthiessen, C,. (2019). Register in Systemic Functional Linguistics. Register Studies. Matthiessen_2019_RegisterinSystemicFunctionalLinguistics_rs.18010.mat.pdf
Moore, A,.( 2017). Register analysis in systemic functional linguistics. The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics (pp.418-437). Routledge -10.4324/9781315413891
United Nations Environment Assembly (2019). plastics-joint-statement_clean_final.pdf
Wardhaugh, R,. (2006). An introduction to sociolinguistics (5th ed). Blackwell
Wardhaugh R, and Fuller J (2015) An introduction to sociolinguistics (7th ed.) Wiley Blackwell.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Hamsa Samea
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
