Phraseology and Culture in English

3. Conclusions 
The new domain of greenspeaking has led to a rapid increase in lexical 
development and multiword formations over the last three decades. While 
some are clearly transient fashion, the issue of environmental degradation is 
not going to go away. As the day-to-day lives of more and more humans 
are affected, more specialised language will develop and become part of 
everyday discourse. Whether more language will become a basis for better 
environmental practice, or whether it will be a verbal substitute for action, 
remains to be seen. 

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Melina Magdalena and Peter Mühlhäusler 
Notes
1. For example, the Oxford Dictionary of New Words (compiled by Sara Tul-
loch), divides its neologisms into discrete categories, such as “Business World”, 
“War & Weaponry”, “Music” and “Environment”. Each word appears in the 
volume with one or more icons representing the categorisation of that particu-
lar neologism (Tulloch 1992: xi). 
2. In this case, the choice also be indexical of who is speaking. “Ecosystem” seems 
to have become the norm in more recent times, replacing the older “ecological 
system” in all but very formal scientific discourse. 
3. See Ketteman and König for a comprehensive list of eco- words (2000: 320). 
4. Some tour operators prefer the expression “nature based tourism” which does 
not suggest any obligation to avoid damage to nature. 
5. Note the anthropocentrism inherent in these concepts, as the sanctity of hu-
man life dominates over that of other lifeforms. In the past few years, sea-
sonal bushfires in Australia’s eastern states have sometimes been described as 
though they occur as a result of ecological justice to redress the ecological 
balance. For additional remarks on anthropocentrism see Jung 2001: 275–
277.