Environmental Degradation 1s Degradation in Language and Culture
Keywords:
Environmental, Lămnso’, Idioms, Extra-linguistic, Signifying, Denotative, ConnotativeAbstract
This paper investigates the impact of environmental degradation on the communicative capacity of language. Basing its analysis on L?mnso’ idioms, the paper establishes with a lot of scientific rigour, that the extra-linguistic and sociological variables found in the data under consideration, contribute to the process of signifying or generating meaning in language. It principally reveals that degradation in geographical environment reduces the communicative potential of language both at the denotative and connotative levels. In addition, adducing very fresh and dependable evidence, it establishes that language is intrinsically linked to environment and culture. It very exciting contributions lie in its stress on this hither to neglected aspect of linguistic studies – that is, the relevance of geographical environment to the generation of meaning and effective communication in language and, in its revelation that game reserves and forest reserves should not only be used as touristic sites, but also as language, and cultural laboratories.
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