An Ecological Analysis Of The Old Man And The Sea From A Systemic Functional Perspective

As global environmental problems are becoming increasingly serious,ecological issues have become a hot research topic in various academic fields,and linguists also pay their attention to these issues.Ecolinguistics is an interdisciplinary between ecology and linguistics,and it has a history of more than 20 years.Ecological discourse analysis is a subcategory of ecolinguistics.At present,most of domestic and foreign related studies apply the theory of critical discourse analysis to ecological discourse analysis.However,ecological discourse analysis differs from critical discourse analysis in many aspects,so it is not suitable to equate the two,or to consider ecological discourse analysis as a subcategory of critical discourse analysis.New approaches to ecological discourse analysis should be explored.Systemic Functional Linguistics provides a complete theoretical basis for ecological discourse analysis,so it is possible to be applied as a new way of exploration.Under the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics,this thesis makes an ecological analysis of Hemingway's classic work,The Old Man and the sea,and explores ecological relationships between man and nature and ecological implications.It is hoped that this thesis will arouse people's attention to ecological issues,establish correct ecological views,and offer a new study approach to ecological discourse analysis.This thesis mainly chooses transitivity system and Appraisal Theory to describe and analyze the data.Non-human entities selected from the novel are mainly sea creatures(including FISH,man-of-war,sea turtles,birds,the big marlin and sharks)and the sea.Their ecological relationships with the old man are analyzed respectively.Research findings are briefly introduced as follows.The ecological relationships between human and nature can be generalized as exploitation and confrontation.FISH,man-of-war,sea turtles,birds and the sea are exploited by the old man;the marlin and sharks stand for natural powers which are in confrontation with him.Besides,in the old man's interaction with nature,he was dominated by the idea of anthropocentrism.As to those sea creatures which were used by him,the old man's behaviors and attitudes suggest their instrumental values for him.With respect to the marlin and sharks,he tried to conquer and kill them for showing off his pride as human or for self-protection.So the key premise of solving ecological issues is that human beings should reconsider their status in the whole ecosystem,abandoning the idea of anthropocentrism and establishing the idea of biocentric equality.