Ecological Change and Language Change

ANDALAS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIO-HUMANITIES- VOL. 2 NO. 1 (2020) Available online at : http://aijosh.lppm.unand.ac.id/index.php/aijosh/ Andalas International Journal of Socio-Humanities | ISSN 2715-601X (Online) | Review Ecological Change and Language Change Handoko1 1 Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Andalas, Indonesia ARTICLE INFORMATION Received: April 23, 2020 Revised: June, 2020 Available online: July 27, 2020 KEYWORDS Ecology, Language Change, Agriculture, Language Vitality CORRESPONDENCE E-mail: A B S T R A C T The current article discuss short description of language and ecology, or ecolingusitcs in regard to the language and social change. The article discuss the concept of ecolingustics and some approach to the study. Then, we discuss how the change of ecology and ecosystem affect the language, especially regarding language vitality. The paper also provide some examples of agricultural lexicon that rarely used due to the change of agricultural system. There some aspect that affect the language change, including language contact, environment change, language standardization, and the attitude of the speaker. INTRODUCTION Recently, linguistic studies have undergone a very rapid development. Many researchers no longer focus on grammatical structure (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantic). They seek to associate linguistic forms with non-linguistic aspects, such as anthropology, sociology, politics, and psychology. One of the studies that began to be of great interest to linguists is the relationship between language and ecology (ecolinguistics). Haugen (1972) firstly mentioned the relation of language and it’s environment. Since then, many researchers began to focus their attention to ecological aspect of language (Makai, 1993; Fill, 1993; Mühlhäusler, 2003; Couto, 2007). Language ecology can be defined as the study of the relationship between language and its environment (Alwin & Miihlhausler, 2001). The language environment is the community in which the language is spoken. Instead of focusing on the structure of language, the study of language and environment focuses on the relationship of the speaker and other natural entities, including human, animal, plant, and other living and non-living entities. As Van Lier (2004) highlighted that “the environment includes all physical, social and symbolic affordances that provide grounds for activity’’. Moreover, ecology involves psychological aspects (including the relationship of language with other languages and multi-lingual speakers) (Haugen, 2001) and sociocultural aspects (including the relationship of language and society in which the language serves as a medium of communication) (van Lier, 2002) . Therefore, the ecology of language is determined by the people who learn, use, and distribute the language to others. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. Some rights reserved ANDALAS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIO-HUMANITIES- VOL. 2 NO. 1 (2020) Steffensen and Fill (2014), mentioned some main approach concern on the study of language and it’s environment, among others: • Language as symbolic ecology, this focuses on the use of language as a symbolic system of the given society. This approach depicts how multiple language co-exist in the certain geographical area or social institution. • Language and natural ecology, this approach focuses on the relation of physical entities, including biological aspect, such as flora, fauna, climate, and topography. The approach can be traced back to Sapir-Whorf hypotheses about the linguistics relativity. • Language and sociocultural ecology, this focuses on investigation on how language relates to the social and cultural of speakers and speech communities. • Language and cognitive ecology: this approach focuses on the relationship of the dynamic relationship of biological organism and the environments, how they can adapt to the environment and change. Among the topic discuss in this approach is the complexity of metaphor and the cognitive process. ECOLOGY OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE CHANGE As with living beings, language is born and dies. A language survive of extinct is determined by the speaker. It will will survive and develop if its speakers maintain the language and will die and extinct if no one uses the language. Language as a tool or instrument of communication helps human beings to achieve their goals. By using these tools, human beings can lives and interact with other human beings to meet their needs. As human, language is not a static and absolute form, it is dynamic and change overtime. Therefore, the ecology of language also studies how it can be more "good", more "rich", more "green" for humans. Example: 1. Bersih itu indah (Clean is good) 2. Dilarang membuang sampah disini. (No littering) Both utterances have the same meaning and purpose, but the first utterance feels more "cool" than the second utterance because there is no element of coercion. The first sentence is declarative sentence which in pragmatic has a neutral force. It is quite different to the second form which is the imperative form. This form force the participant to do a certain action which of course will violate a politeness strategy and threaten the face of the participant. The variety of functions and purposes of language use then give rise to unlimited variations of lingual forms (performance). Haugen (in Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001) studies linguistic variation in relation to ecology. He argues that among the common factors of language variation are status and intimacy. Status refers to the power (power) and influence (influence) in a group of people. Intimacy (intimacy) is related to solidarity, shared values, friendship, love, and values that arise in the life of a family or community group). These variables are usually represented by [+ status], [-status], [+ intimacy] and [-intimacy]. For most language speakers, these variables are mutually exclusive. In addition there are several other variables such as location, and formality, In addition, the spread of language through population migration in areas dominated by speakers of a particular language can also be variable in language variation that separates between dominant (dominant) and dominated (dominated) known by the term autonomy ANDALAS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIO-HUMANITIES- VOL. 2 NO. 1 (2020) (autonomy). Language autonomy can give rise to new language variants or even the loss of inferior languages. As is the case in Jamaica which is influenced by English, and produces its own language. di woman dem = the women Mi ron = I run (habitually); I ran Mi a ron = I am running Mi ena (en+a) ron = I was running Mi en ron = I have run; I had run Other cases also occurred in Singapore where Malay language as a native language mixed with English and Mandarin. Don’t kacho me when I want to work! (Malaysia) When we get home, we ask daddy to changkol the garden (Singapore) You didn’t come by car? (India) Y (...truncated)