THE ECOLINGUISTIC APPROACHES OF HAUGEN, COUTO, AND STIBBE FROM THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Abstract

The present study contrasts the epistemological foundations of environmental sciences and the ecolinguistic approaches of E. Haugen (1966, 1969, 1971), H.H. do Couto (2015, 2018a, 2018b) and A. Stibbe (2015, 2021a, 2021b), based on the following categories: object of study, research objectives, ethical framework, working modality, and researcher’s perspective. The results reveal that all three ecolinguistic approaches share a holistic perspective with environmental sciences. However, while Haugen and Stibbe align more closely with environmental sciences in their conceptualization of objects of study and research objectives, Couto diverges by adopting a conceptual basis inspired by biology. The most significant discrepancy lies in the working modality: whereas environmental sciences promote the creation of interdisciplinary projects, ecolinguistic approaches prioritize multidisciplinarity, which limits active collaboration between the social and natural sciences.