Language, Signs and Nature: Ecolinguistic Dimensions of Environmental Discourse is both a Festschrift for Alwin Fill and at the same time an up-to-date survey of recent trends in research in Ecolinguistics – a relatively new and interdisciplinary field of research in linguistics. The volume brings together theoretical work and applied analyses on the interaction between language and its cultural and natural environment by prominent researchers. It covers a wide range of topics including cultural evolution, natural signs and sign-world-systems, the ecology of grammar, the discourse of biodiversity, the construction of the world through discourse by the anti-green movement and intelligent design creationism, the metaphorical framing of epidemics, etc. The book will thus be of interest not only to the ecolinguistic community, but also to the neighbouring fields of environmental studies, human geography, discourse analysis, semiotics, public policy, and linguistics in general.

Contents Martin Döring/Hermine Penz/Wilhelm Trampe: Re-Revisiting Alwin Fill and the Ecolinguistics Project Language, Signs and Nature: Theoretical and Methodological Basics for Language Ecology Winfried Nöth: Natural Signs and the Natural Ingredients of Cultural Signs Wilhelm Trampe: Sign-World-Systems. FUL-FILLING ECOLOGY. For Alwin on his Retirement Peter Finke: The Memory of Language. New Research in the Beginnings of Cultural Evolution Sune Vork Steffensen: The Ecology of Grammar. Dialectical, Holistic and Autopoietic Principles in Ecolinguistics Jørgen Chr. Bang/Anna Vibeke Lindø/Jørgen Døør/Dorte Bay Madsen: The Nature of Language & the Language of Nature Language, Signs and Nature: Applied Language Ecology Richard Alexander: How the Anti-green Movement and its ‘Friends’ Use Language to Construct the World Martin Döring: “Just Think how Little Children are Affected …!” Metaphors of Distress, Shock and Coping in Children’s Poems During the 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis in the UK Arran Stibbe/Francesca Zunino: Boyd’s Forest Dragon or the Survival of Humanity: Discourse and the Social Construction of Biodiversity Reinhard Heuberger: Anthropocentrism in English and German: A Comparative Lexical Study Christian Blinzer/Bernhard Kettemann/Georg Marko: Naturally or Intelligently. The Construction of an Ecological World View in the Discourse of Intelligent Design Creationism Peter Mühlhäusler: Diachronic Approaches to Ecolinguistics: The Changing Language Ecology of Norfolk Island.