Ecolinguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics - Two Case Studies: The Hit Chaurasi Pad and Norfolk Island, South Pacific

Ecolinguistics or the scientific study of language ecologies and the interaction between language and the environment began as a subdiscipline of applied linguistics in Western universities in the late 1970s. It is primarily concerned with:

• How the contours of the natural environment match linguistic contours in respective milieus and vice versa - the ecology of language, and
• Environmental discourse analysis - the language of ecology.

Despite several seminal works and although much has been written in various volumes covering the theory and epistemology of ecolinguistics, the field still awaits further theoretical expansion and synthesis within itself and together with other fields of enquiry. The multidisciplinary focus of ecolinguistics requires that ecolinguists take a holistic approach embracing a multitude of perspectives both Eastern and Western. It is proposed here that the discipline should strive ahead utilising modern linguistic and environmental theories and technologies while maintaining the validity of ancient basics and practical measures that are the foundation of the area of enquiry.

This paper proposes a synthesis of ecolinguistics with:

1. An Indian approach to the treatment of language and environment, i.e. the semantic aspect, and
2. The case study of language evolution and change on Norfolk Island, South Pacific, i.e. an example of communicative adaptation - the pragmatic aspect.

It employs two facets for analysis:

1. The Hit Caurasi Pad (Eighty-four Stanzas) of medieval Indian poet Hit Hari Vansh Goswami for its linguistic descriptive power and artistic depiction of humans interacting with Nature in a divine way, and
2. Place names on Norfolk Island in the Norf'k language for their practical, historical and environmental implications and significance.

These two case studies aim at finding some suggestions to advancing current thought and theory in ecolinguistics through:

1. Considering the importance of Indian/Eastern aspects of human-environment interaction; and
2. Suggesting the advantage of doing ecolinguistics and placename study on small island environments to hint at various universals and commonalities in linguistic and ecological contact.