A Study On "Salience" And "Erasure" In Climate Fiction The Road

McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road in 2007 shows the author's thinking about the environment,human nature and faith of human beings by describing a father and his son's hard journey to survive at the end of the world.Nowadays,many scholars at home and abroad have studied it from the perspective of ecological environment or literary criticism,but few from the stand of ecological linguistics.Against this background,this study attempts to take the theory of meta-functions in systemic-functional linguistics as the theoretical basis,seek the realization of “salience” and “erasure” in The Road,explore the ecological consciousness of novel language and the interaction between language and ecology,so as to enhance people's awareness of environmental protection.Specifically speaking,in terms of the ideational function,“salience” and“erasure” are mainly realized from the transitivity system and voice.For example,in the two scenes of children burnt snakes and Man-eating cellar,the language repeatedly uses snakes to act as “doer” or “sayer” to achieve “salience”,which embodies the equality of all things;as for the description of scenes after the disaster,the passive voice is often used,omitting the “doer” to realize “erasure”,which is not beneficial to the sustainable development of the ecological environment.In the terms of the interpersonal function,“salience” and “erasure” are mainly realized from the mood and modality.For example,in the dialogue between the father and his son,the father uses more declarative mood and his son uses more interrogative one,which helps the realization of “salience” to show that they are the same as a father and his son in normal life,and “erasure” is achieved by the father's interrogative mood,which shows the father would like to erase his higher status compared with his son.And for modality,“salience” is realized by using high modality in the conversation betweenthe father and his son,and “erasure” is realized by using low modality.“Salience”shows that facing the disaster,the father has the absolute right to decide,and the son also respects his father's decisions.“Erasure” embodies the meticulous love between the father and his son.In terms of the textual function,“salience” and “erasure” are mainly realized from the cohesion and theme structure.Such as the use of repetition in the dialogue between the father and his son,and the prepositional phrases employed as the theme structure,which could promote the realization of “salience”,while “erasure” is realized by ellipsis the “doer” and directly connecting their actions,reflecting how bad the living environment is and how hopeless the survivors are.Through the study of "salience" and "erasure" in The Road,this thesis reveals the ecological significance of this kind of fiction,explains the ecological value orientation of McCarthy,wakes up the ecological consciousness of human society,and points out the interaction between language and ecological environment,including the natural ecological environment and social ecological environment,this thesis also emphasizes the impact of language on the development and change of ecological environment,and all kinds of non-ecological factors,so as to promote the language to become a positive factor to improve and solve ecological problems and creates conditions for the harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature.