Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journalhttp://www.rjelal.com Vol.3.Issue 4.2015 (Oct-Dec) 535 VALENTINE N. UBANAKO & ERIC E. EKEMBE LANGUAGE AND ECOLOGY IN ALOBWED’EPIE’S THE LADY WITH A BEARD VALENTINE N. UBANAKO & ERIC E. EKEMBE The University of Yaounde I Cameroon ABSTRACT This paper seeks to examine the relationship between language and the social/natural environment in TheLadywithaBeard from an ecolinguistic perspective. Ecolinguists (Haugen 2001) posit an intensive relationship between language and the social/natural environment. Language exists in the minds of its users, and only functions in relating these users to one another and to their social and natural environment. In such a relationship, it is argued that linguistic systems and usage are determined by the socio-environmental experience of the users of a particular language. Paying attention to lexico-semantic usage by both characters and author in the text, data obtained is analysed on the comparative paradigms of canonical linguistic systems and the influence of socio-environmental concepts. Results show extensive innovations in the English language, determined by socio-cultural experience of characters in the text. Such innovations depict both the physiognomy and the mind of the heroine. In short, the metaphor of a bearded lady would be unclear should canonical English usage dominate the expression of social and natural environment of the Bakossi land. This explains why the ‘unconventional’ acts of the heroine, Emade, which shape the tides of events in the text, replicate the superordinate nature of environmental structure over linguistic structure in the process of expressing human thoughts and feelings. ©KY PUBLICATIONS INTRODUCTION Global concerns nowadays lay emphasis on environmental protection, climate change and global warming and many regional, sub-regional and world summits have been held to discuss these burning issues. Ecolinguists have not been silent on the issue as they posit an intricate relationship between language and the human environment. They see the natural environment as the major determiner of the linguistic systems employed by the user in communication. As Haugen (2001) notes, the true environment of a language is the society that uses it as one of its codes. Language, he explains, exists only in the minds of its users, and only functions in relating these users to one another and to their social and natural environment. The question which arises from this intricate relationship between language and the environment is whether meaning expressed by a user is the outcome of linguistic form or it is the user’s experience in a socially constructed environment that determines linguistic usage. If linguistic systems determine usage it leaves the impression that the environment or the social space is static, otherwise it has nothing to do in the construction of human experience during communication. On the other hand, if the RESEARCH ARTICLE