LINGUISTIC ECOLOGY – A MARGINAL DIRECTION OF LINGUISTICS: CONCEPTUAL AND CATEGORICAL APPARATUS IN THE CONTEXT OF ECOLOGY

Introduction. Today, environmental security and food are two of the most important scientific and political problems of mankind that need to be urgently solved. All other – political, social, economic, energy, demographic, and problems of modern technologies are directly or indirectly related to them. Therefore, the issues and terminology of ecology take on a special meaning in such fields as the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and information technology, in which it becomes a special terminology, a means of expressing professional and social problems in the form of marginal terms, in particular: language ecology, soul ecology, spiritual ecology, an electronic ecosystem of education management, creativity ecosystem, software ecosystem, etc. Thus, ecologists and biologists have faced «terminological entropy» – metaphorical interpretations of the conceptual apparatus of natural sciences by linguo-ecologists and uncertainty in the theoretical and practical use of new terms. Purpose. The article aims to make a critical review, summary, and classification of theoretical and methodological developments in the marginal area of linguistics – linguistic ecology, to understand the environmental discourse in linguistic descriptions and its practical implementation Methods. The following methods were used in the work: 1) analytical and descriptive (to study the developments of linguistic ecologists); 2) comparing and analyzing the main provisions (to study the perspectives of the research of terms both from the standpoint of linguistics and ecology); 3) contextual study of the terms of linguistic ecology. Results. The article provides an overview of the theoretical and methodological approaches of linguists, psychologists, and philosophers to the formation of the terminosphere of linguistic ecology – a marginal branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and the environment, which is based on how people behave with the natural world under the influence of thoughts, concepts, ideologies, and worldviews that are expressed in language.Originality. The interpenetration of the terminosphere of linguistics into ecology can be compared to the horizontal transfer of genes (information), which is used by genetic engineers; in contrast to the traditional vertical transfer of conceptual and categorical apparatus within each science separately. The result of the transfer is the creation of «GMO» – linguistic ecology as a new reality; the vehicle (vector) of horizontal transfer is a person. Linguo-ecologists metaphorically transfer the methods and terms of ecology to the language, so the expression «linguistic ecology» refers to the so-called «oxymoron» (Latin oxymoron – nonsense) – a literary and poetic technique (stylistic form) that combines opposite in content contrasting concepts and creates a semantic paradox, but together gives a new idea. Examples of oxymorons are the expressions: old New Year, ordinary miracle, dead souls, a living corpse, hot ice, optimistic tragedy, noble bandit, honest crook, end of eternity, deafening silence, and sustainable development. As a result, wish language ecology/linguistic ecology/ecological linguistics to gain wide recognition by the world scientific community by analogy with the recognition of the term «sustainable development», standardized in the documents and textbooks of all countries. Conclusion. 1. An ecological term is an element of the ecological terminology system, it names a special concept and requires a clear definition. 2. Ecolinguistics is a new interdisciplinary field of knowledge that studies the relationship between language and the environment based on the way people deal with the natural world under the influence of thoughts, concepts, ideologies, and worldviews expressed in language.