From Adaptation to Survival: Metaphoric Ecology in Translation and Language Systems

This study investigates how ecological ideas can be translated into language and translation depending on the interrelation between linguistic and cultural systems. The aim is to investigate how metaphoric eco-translation and ecolinguistics help in comprehending the complexity of translation and language sustainability. The study concerns the metaphorical extension of ecological principles such as adaptation, selection, and survival to translation and Haugenian ecolinguistics that theorizes languages as dynamic beings crafted by social, cultural, and political environments. By adopting the narrative review approach, the current research incorporates theory and literature from authors including Michael Cronin, Gengshen Hu, and Einar Haugen to analyze how translation contributes to linguistic diversity, language-environment relations, and parallelism between linguistic and ecological systems. The results indicate that metaphoric ecology provides understanding on minority language maintenance, linguistic diversity, and intercultural communication by means of translation. While metaphorical in essence, these approaches also have implications for ecological challenges. As an initial intersection between natural science and humanities, metaphoric ecology emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary approaches in tackling contemporary issues of language and cultural sustainability.