An Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Robinson Crusoe From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Linguistics

Economy,science and technology contribute to human development.Human society has been greatly improved.However,this has also brought global problems such as disasters,diseases,population explosion,environmental pollution,and resources scarcity.In this context,the topic of “ecology” has drawn attention from all walks of life,and ecological concerns and interpretations of ecological issues have emerged in various disciplines.In recent years,ecolinguistics has attracted more and more attention in China.One of the main tasks of ecolinguistics is to carry out Ecological Discourse Analysis.Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is often regarded as realistic literature,a travel adventure novel,or classified as desert island literature,marine literature,and post-colonial works.The research perspectives of this novel are diverse.The global ecological situation is unfavorable,and researchers have begun to seek explanations from classic novels.This thesis analyzes the ecological relationship between human and nature in Robinson Crusoe and reveals its ecological connotation.The ecolinguistic analysis aims to arouse people’s awareness of the ecological elements in literary works and build an environmentally-friendly ecological concept.First,transitivity system in Systemic-Functional Grammar is the analytical tool for describing the participants in each clause.The targeted natural element participants in the clause include human,physical environment and non-human organism.Second,the ecological relationship between human and nature are explored.The analysis shows that the ecological relationship between human and nature reflected in the novel is changing and is mainly antagonistic.The first half of the novel describes the sailing experience,and human beings are afraid of nature.Most part of the novel is about Crusoe’s life on an isolated island.On the island,human beings experience the growing understanding of the nature world,and begin to make use of and occupy the natural resources.In the end,Crusoe left the desert island and returned to England.The land journals at the end of the novel record the fight between human beings and animals.The transitivity analysisshows that material processes mostly express the struggle between human and nature;relational processes and existential processes mainly describe humans’ view of nature;mental processes focus on the changes of humans’ mental state.To sum up,the ecological relationship implied in the data can be revealed through transitivity system.An ecological discourse analysis of Robinson Crusoe suggests: human’s perception of nature is evolutionary.At the very start,nature is beyond the control of humans.And finally humans fight against nature.In the process,nature and human beings are always in opposition,and anthropocentrism is prominent.By revealing the anti-ecological ideology in Robinson Crusoe,the thesis aims to awaken the public.Human beings are suggested to abandon human-centered thinking,to consider themselves as a member of the natural world,and finally to establish a sustainable development concept of nature.Meanwhile,the participant system has been refined to include choices among human,non-human organism and physical environment in terms of ecological functions,enriching the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics.