The erasure of nature becoming the new normal: An ecolinguistic analysis of Food products’ commercial discourse of multinational companies

Abstract

The present study deals with erasure in commercial advertisements of multinational companies. For this purpose, commercial advertisements for food products were selected. The data were collected from the official websites of the relevant companies. The study applied Stibbe’s (2015) theoretical framework to analyze the element of erasure. The study focused primarily on erasure. However, other aspects such as conviction and metaphor, have also been analyzed to erasure. The study results reveal that nature has been partially or entirely erased from commercial advertisements. Nature and its resources (cows and fruits) are presented in more abstract form, or there is no mention. The study also found that the advertisements underpin the stories of conviction, metaphor, and erasure. The study is significant because language does ideological work in how one thinks, writes, and talks about the ecosystem.

Keywords:

• ecolinguistics
• erasure
• conviction
• metaphor
• trace
• food products

1. Introduction

Ecolinguistics has received terminological complexity because it has borrowed the concept of ecology from the natural sciences and applied it to the study of language (Li et al., 2020). Stibbe (2014) views ecolinguistics as a field that deals with the impact of discourses on the system, supporting life and analyzing discourses of consumerism, advertising, or economic growth. Even if they do not explicitly talk about the ecosystem or environment, their discourses affect it. Zhou (2022) asserts that ecolinguistics can be seen as a discipline, a sub-discipline, a trans-discipline, an inter-discipline, a meta-discipline, or even a multi-discipline that studies language in a social and ecological environment.

Stibbe (2014) describes ecolinguistics as a discipline that originated from an erasure made by mainstream linguistics, namely the realisation that humans are part of larger systems that sustain life. It analyses consumerist discourses, which are destructive to nature and encourage people to consume unnecessarily, exploit resources and produce trash. Martin (2021) argued that the discourses present nature and human action from a capitalist perspective, giving more significance and value to economic growth and technological advancement while coercively erasing the non-human world. Ecolinguistics also finds alternative methods of speaking about the world which are beneficial for dealing with the problems human beings face in the ecosystem when there is damage to it (Stibbe, 2014). The human being is the dominant species on Earth, changing and degrading the ecosystem and living structures, as well as human cultures, in unprecedented ways (Chu & Karr, 2016). Stibbe (2020) claims that ecolinguistics is the concept that some stories of industrial civilization are not working. It is because society has unequal hierarchies and is becoming destructive to the ecosystem. He further explains the stories as cognitive models in the minds of individuals that impact how an individual thinks, talks, and acts. When these stories become prevalent in a culture, they are called “stories-we-live-by”. Stibbe (2020) highlighted that these stories have the power to channelize actions, fix the attention and intention of individuals, assign roles, and define which issues have more salience and what is real.

The advertisements of food manufacturing companies present their products as a substitute for natural products which resultantly increase unnecessary consumerism and take human beings away from nature. In order to achieve this goal, the language is used in advertisements as a tool to shape people’s perceptions. This research aims to analyze the advertisements of five food manufacturing companies and find out how nature has been treated in these advertisements through language. These advertisements underpin stories which can be harmful to the ecosystem. For this purpose, five food manufacturing companies are selected, and their advertisements are analyzed using Stibbe’s (2015) framework of ecolinguistics. The research deals with the following questions:

1. How is language used as a tool to erase nature in the commercial discourse of food products?

2. What types of stories are underpinned by the advertisements to erase nature?

2. Literature review

Environmental justice that has become a primary concern in various disciplines, and its concept and coverage have been expanded substantially in all folds. Schlosberg (2013) discusses three areas, primarily how the initial work on environmental justice has broadened beyond its territories. It has challenged the concept of the environment, assessed the improvisation of injustice beyond inequality, and provided multifaceted explanations for social justice. He further claims that the term environmental justice has expanded its horizon covering many issues and examining the global nature of environmental injustices and the relationship of human beings with the non-human world. The third area covered by the researcher is the expansion of the frame of ecological justice. This has given the discourses a new scope, in which the environment and nature are considered to create provision for social justice(Schlosberg, 2013).

It is important to consider how features of ecologically destructive discourses, merged with ambivalent and innovative discourses, would attract the public to uphold sustainable development in the ecosystem (Chen et al., 2021). The research puts forward an enhanced Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA), which identifies loopholes in the hegemonic discourse. It also seeks to identify the junction points in ambivalent or counter-hegemonic discourses, which give space to endorse and disrupt the prevalent discourses in which loopholes have been identified. The first part of the research studies the theoretical embedding for an enhanced Positive Discourse Analysis, the suitable research method, and also makes an eco-discourse analysis of discourses by Shell Oil Company, with an emphasis on semantic patterns in the discourses, highlighting how powerful groups use strategies for designing discourses that serve their interests, without taking into account the ecological impact the discourses may have. In the second part of the study, a comparative analysis has been done on the discourses of Shell Oil Company and Greenpeace discourses. The emphasis is on the point of conflict between the two types of discourses, which attempts to identify the overlapping areas in the progressive points of the selected discourses. This part also reveals the possible loopholes in the hegemonic order and throws light on designing other forms of discourse, focusing more on solutions and collaboration instead of problems and resistance. This enhanced form of Positive Discourse Analysis allows for positive and intervening orientations in discourses, seeking social stability. (Chen et al., 2021)

Erasure, from the perspective ecolinguistics, has central role in observing how nature is omitted or overlooked. Cook (2015), in his article, has argued that in modern culture, animals are erased from many people’s lives. They are mostly treated like meat, pets, and pests, or vicariously in fiction and documentaries. Still, the relationship of human beings with animals is of paramount interest in environmental, social, economic, and philosophical studies. Also, there is an increase in human and non-human species interaction in social and natural sciences. The scenario has given space to many types of discussions about animals and humans’ interactions with animals, which are polarized and advocate conflicting views about animals’ rights and human exceptionalism (Penz & Fill, 2022). The study analyzes two interviews that are quintessential examples of two radically opposed views. The first view is that of a spokesperson for the Vegan Society, and the other one is that of a spokesperson for the Countryside Alliance, a pro-hunting pressure group. The opinions are viewed on the spectrum of other interviews, collected for a larger research project on animals’ discursive representation. Both views use language about animals in such a manner, which does not conform to the mainstream discourse. It implies that they represent two mirror-image reactions to the erasure of animals in modern urban culture, which, regardless of their differences, reflect a more intimate encounter with actual animals. One actively seeks to promote traditional discourses, while the other one advocates an innovative and non-speciesist discourse. Hence, they manifest different possible reactions to significant social and environmental changes through the use of language(Cook, 2015).

Preserving the relation with nature is prime focus in ecolinguistics. Alkon (2012) argues that the notion of socio-nature upholds the idea that social relations are intrinsically ecological while ecological concerns are inherently social. The article studies how discourse and practices assert their support for local and organic food and its consequences. It talks that the exponents of local organic agriculture consider the food they promote as social and a product of human labor. On the other hand, it also claims that the concept’s understanding is partial and limited by social privilege. The idea is not applied to industrial agriculture or paid farm labor. The literature on socio-nature adheres to the fact that what is believed to be natural is also considered social.

On the contrary, this article considers a new paradigm of studying socio-nature as a practice-shaping discourse already embedded in social life. Analyzing the ideological work done on the concept gives way to examining the political repercussions of the idea(Alkon, 2012). In their work, Zhdanava et al. (2020), have talked about Vegan campaigns, which are becoming common these days due to the rise of veganism. The campaigns ultimately become stories, which are cognitive models and affect how people think, speak and perform actions. The impact is made both through language and pictures. For this purpose, a multimodal analysis of two vegan campaigns, Be Fair Be Vegan and Go Vegan World, has been conducted. The visuals used in the campaigns are analyzed through the lens of Kress and Leeuwen’s (2006) Grammar of Visual Design. However, the language analysis has been conducted through van Leeuwen’s (2008) Social Actor and Action. The stories identified are analyzed using Stibbe’s (2015) framework. The findings of the language analysis reveal that the features of specification, personalization, anthropomorphism, mental and material processes are used for animals in the campaigns’ language. The visual analysis shows that the narrative and conceptual representation highlight demand, featuring straight-on angles and close distances. The visual and language analysis shows that they develop the stories of salience, ideology, and conviction. In these stories, animals are represented as sentient beings who have the same characteristics as humans. (Zhdanava et al., 2020)

In his work, Fouad (2019), has analyzed Egyptian articles from selected newspapers covering the swine flu epidemic. The study used Stibbe’s (2015) model for ecolinguistic analysis to find out the methods of erasure and salience and how they reveal the prevalent ecological ideologies present in coverage of the swine flu epidemic. The research attempts to identify whether the selected articles are beneficial or destructive to the ecosystem. The analysis shows that the selected articles mostly erase animals from the discourses through various techniques: backgrounding, objectification, suppression, and the discursive masking of their suffering(Fouad, 2019).

The discourse in linguistics has been studied from multiple perspectives, which vary from politics and economy to social issues (Ahmed & Khan, 2022; Ahmed, Mubeen et al., 2022; Ahmed, Nawaz et al., 2022; Khan et al., 2022). The present study fills the gap as it strives to identify how commercial advertisements erase nature through language. It also aims to identify the type of stories embedded in the advertisements, which emphasize the salience of their products over natural ones. The natural products and their resources are either partially or completely erased from the advertisements in order to give more value to their products.

3. Methodology

Being researchers in ecolinguistics, it evoked the interest of the authors to identify the role of language in ecology and its relationships with each other. In doing so, the researchers have determined that natural food products are quickly replaced by processed food items, and language plays a role in it. Language can benefit or harm nature, and it can also completely erase reality . Spearheading the same notion, the language of food manufacturing companies’ advertisements have been analyzed to identify the role of language in the treatment of nature.

The study underpins Stibbe’s (2015) framework to analyze the language of the commercial advertisements of multinational companies. The selected framework seeks to reveal and resist the stories present around us. The stories are cognitive models embedded in human minds through their daily usage. Stibbe (2015) called them “stories-we-live-by”. The stories are hidden in discourses unleashed through the close examination of language that people use because language provides clues to the existence and structure of the stories we live by. It attempts to identify stories that may be beneficial or destructive to the environment. The text presents the stories in eight forms: ideology, framing, metaphor, evaluation, identity, conviction, erasure, and salience. The present study mainly focuses on erasure and considers other stories related to it, such as conviction and metaphor. It is essential to consider the point that each story explained by Stibbe is in connection with other stories.

According to Stibbe (2015), metaphor is a distinct kind of framing, which is defined as “Metaphors use a frame from a specific, concrete and imaginable area of life to structure how a distinct area of life is conceptualized” (p. 64). The linguistic categories which help to develop metaphors include the choice of lexis, entailment, hyponymy, and metonymy.

The following story is that of convictions, or “stories in people’s minds about whether a particular description is true, certain, uncertain, or false” (Stibbe, 2015, p. 129). The facticity patterns help construct convictions through linguistic features, including using a repertoire of empiricism, modality, calls to expert authority and the authority of consensus, quantifiers, hedges, presuppositions, appositions, and vocabulary choices (use of positive and negative terms).

The leading form of the story, selected for the current research, is that of erasure, which is defined as a “story in people’s minds that an area of life is unimportant or unworthy of consideration” (Stibbe, 2015, p. 146). According to him, there are three types of erasure. The first one is void, “where ‘something important’ is completely excluded from a text.” The second one is the mask, “where it is erased but replaced by a distorted version of itself”. The last one is trace, “where something is partially erased but still present”(Stibbe, 2015, p. 149). The erasure pattern takes the help of linguistic items to erase or distort an area of life. These linguistic devices include nominalization, metonymy, passive voice, hyponymy, co-hyponymy, transitivity, pronoun use, and massification.

3.1. Sample and setting

The data has been collected from the official websites of five food manufacturing companies. Following the research ethics, the companies are named A, B, C, and D, respectively. There are 17 advertisements, which are analyzed in the present research. These advertisements are targeted at the Pakistani audience. The language of the selected advertisements is English.

4. Analysis

4.1. Company A

4.1.1. Product 1(A)

The first story in the Product 1(A) advertisement is a metaphor. The product is tetrapack milk, which is presented as a living being by the company. The company claims that its processed milk gives wholesome nourishment to its consumers. The milk pack is portrayed as the doer of the action and human beings as objects. It is a sensor and an actor of the mental and material processes, respectively, while human beings are presented as a phenomenon or a goal. It involves metonymy, where products substitute for the company’s owner or directors. As stated in the advertisement, company A “has perfected the process”. The word “perfected” denotes that not the workers working in the factory but the company itself has perfected the process, preserving it the way nature meant it to be. According to Stibbe (2015), when corporations are presented as acting like people, they can have good intentions and goals. The danger of treating a corporation as a person is that it becomes difficult to locate responsibility for the behavior that damages people’s wellbeing and the environment (p. 77).

Also, the word used like “provides” entails that product 1(A) is an active entity like human beings which “provides wholesome nourishment through Proteins, Calcium, Minerals, and Vitamins.” It is not nature that provides nourishment to human beings rather the company.

Another example of a metaphor used is that the product “makes you fall in love”. Here again, a human attribute is given to the product; the word “makes” is used for a product that makes human beings fall in love. The role of the product is active, i.e., an actor, and the role of human beings is passive, i.e., goal or phenomenon, e.g., the product “delights” customers. It is also propagating the ideology that the product has the potential to tame its consumers’ actions and feelings.

The second story embedded in the advertisement is about erasure. There is an example of the void because there is no “mentioning” of the animals, how they are kept, what they eat and how milk is obtained from them. The source of animals is completely erased. There is a trace through the use of hyponymy, where the superordinate term, “nature” is used in “Nature’s gift of dairy”, which is comparatively an abstract concept to that of mentioning directly the animals from which milk is obtained. The direct reference makes the idea more concrete and imaginable. In addition, “dairy goodness” is used twice in the description. According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word “dairy” refers to where milk and cream are kept and cheese and butter are manufactured. The term also refers to the cows that are used for producing milk. According to the first definition, the term “dairy” is an example of a trace. Instead of mentioning the cows, the place is mentioned where the product from cows is obtained and kept. The place is owned by humans and does not acknowledge the animals, existing in their own right. According to the second definition of dairy, the term is used metonymically in the product context, where cows are referred by the function they serve in the ecosystem. This is also an example of a trace.

4.1.2. Product 2(A)

The second product by Company A is its yogurt. In the advertisement, positive appraisal words are used for product 2(A), which develop a strong conviction in the readers’ minds. It claims that Company A provides “your family with the yogurt they need for all purposes”. There is no use of modal verbs, which increases the facticity of the description. As Stibbe (2015) states, “If no modals had been used at all then it would have had even higher facticity” (p. 127–128) Also, no modal verb has been used throughout the text, which gives the description its highest facticity.

The story of erasure is present in the advertisement as there is an example of void. There is no reference given to cows, the milk obtained from them and the process through which milk is converted into yogurt. Natural beings, particularly cows, are missing in the text as they are entirely erased both in the image and the written text of the advertisement, making it an example of the void.

4.1.3. Product 3(A)

The third product made by Company A is raita. The description has low facticity in the beginning of product 3(A) advertisement because the quantifier “sometimes” has been used. The facticity increases in the same line as stated, “ordinary raita doesn’t do the job”, which presents the claim with the highest facticity that at times you need to add more spices to your food. It can be on a dining table or any outdoor grill, common raita does not serve the purpose. The facticity is built by using the strong modal verb “doesn’t do”. In addition, alluring words have been used, such as “unique”, “mouth-watering”, “guaranteed hygiene”, “simple convenience”, “culinary delight”, “Hassle-free”, “ready-to-eat”, “delicious taste”, “enhances”, “great source”, “aids” and “irresistible flavors” that amplify the facticity of the description and develop a firm conviction in the readers’ mind that company A’s Raita is better than all other ordinary raitas because of its taste; also, it is ready to eat and hassle free, so it is a better choice for use.

The advertisement also has the story of erasure as there is an example of the void. There is no reference to the cows, how they are kept on farms, the primary product, viz milk, which is directly obtained from them, and how milk is converted into yogurt and other herbs and plants to make raita.

4.1.4. Product 4(A)

Company A’s next product is juice. In its advertisement, there is high facticity in the opening of the text of product 4(A) because the superlative degree of adjective i.e., “finest” is used to indicate that this juice is the best selection of fruit juices. The facticity lowers in “helps to create”, in which “helps” shows less certainty and makes the probability a bit lower that it creates colorful and authentic smoothies. Further in the text, there is high facticity as there is a strong modal verb “will” used in collocation with the adverb “surely” that amplifies the facticity of the discourse such that it brings the client back to have more of the drink. Through the high facticity in the advertisement, a strong conviction has been developed that the product is the best fruit juice, and that is why the consumers always want more.

The second story in the advertisement is about erasure. There is an example of a trace in the advertisement for the word “fruit” as it is used as a modifier with juices as “fruit juices”. It asserts that the natural ingredient is pushed to the periphery and the noun for discussion is juice. The modifier “fruit” can be replaced with any other modifier, such as chemicals and artificial flavors used in juices, which shows that the modifier “fruit” is optional and any other substance can take its place.

4.2. Company B

4.2.1. Product 1(B)

The first product selected by Company B is processed butter. There is a strong conviction developed in the advertisement. The claims by the manufacturers, “Known for the best butter in Pakistan”, company B “has fast become favourite” are presented with high facticity because no modal verb has been used. However, it lacks any concrete evidence that company B has been known for its best butter. The use of positive terms like “natural freshness”, “purity”, “favourite” and “varied range” also amplifies the facticity and strengthens the claim. It ultimately develops a firm conviction in readers’ minds that company B’s dairy products are the best among all others because of their freshness, purity, and the exclusive identity it bestows on its consumers.

There is also an example of erasure in the advertisement as there is both void and trace in the description. There are no details of how milk is collected or obtained from animals, how they are kept, their species, and the kind of food they eat. The examples of the void are “collect fresh farm milk” and company B’s “homegrown”. In the first example, the name of the place, viz “farm”, where cows are kept, has been used to refer to them. In the second example, metonymy has been used, where the specification of the animals is “homegrown”, with no consideration of them as living beings with feelings and mental lives, and with their names and specifications.

4.2.2. Product 2(B)

The second product by Company B is its processed cheese. There is the story of conviction. The use of the high modal verb “will” gives the description the high facticity that product 2(B) does not disappoint when it comes to taste, stated as “our cheese will never disappoint”. The use of positive words like “creamy”, “natural” and “delicious” also amplifies the facticity of the description. Further, the use of another modal verb, “will” presents the description with a higher level of facticity such that it always makes you want more and more. Moreover, the description of the quality of the product is presented with high facticity through the use of positive words like “freshness” and “original taste”, which is augmented through the use of the verb, “ensures.” The verb “ensures” gives it the highest facticity that its packaging ensures original taste and freshness.

The second story underpinned by the product is that of erasure. The advertisement is an example of trace because of the use of hyponymy. The superordinate term “natural” has been used to refer to cheese as a product of nature but the exact source has been omitted, which makes it less imaginable for the readers to imagine about nature since the term encompasses all the living beings in the ecosystem, which makes the concept abstract as compared to the explicit reference to cows from which milk is obtained and then the process of conversion of milk into cheese.

4.2.3. Product 3(B)

The next product by the company is its processed milk. The advertisement embeds the story of metonymy, which is an example of metaphor. SKU stands for stock keeping unit, and it is used metonymically to mean that the SKU offers its consumers the traditional goodness of milk, mentioned as “our SKU’s offer you traditional trademark goodness.” Through metonymy, the stock keeping unit is positioned as an actor in the material process, a slot usually reserved by human beings to “offer”. Here, the role of the unit is active i.e., of an actor, while human beings are presented as passive and receivers. The stock keeping unit is given an authoritative position to offer the traditional goodness of Company B’s milk to human beings.

The story of conviction can also be seen in the advertisement. The absence of modal verbs in “impeccably fit for the entire household” and “daily dose of freshness and purity helps you enjoy the unique taste of farm- fresh dairy” make the level of facticity high. The fictitious pattern is further amplified through the use of positive words such as “freshness,” “purity,” “unique taste” and “farm fresh dairy”. It is deciphered that this preserved milk has the same purity and tastes like fresh milk.

Although food passed through a microwave has harmful effects on health as it has harmful rays, the scientific fact has been transformed without the lack of any concrete counter-fact as stated, “Microwave-safe packaging ensures hassle-free and safe daily use”. This scientific fact has been transformed by consumerism to increase the purchase of the product.

The next story in the advertisement is about erasure. The text has an example of trace, as the place where animals (cows) are kept is mentioned without giving details of the cows, their kinds, and how they are kept and treated on dairy farms, as in the text, “enjoy the unique taste of farm fresh dairy.” Stibbe (2015) writes, “There are also representations which contain traces of animals and plants by mentioning the places where they live, but not the dwellers themselves” (p. 157). There is partial erasure of the natural beings from which milk is obtained. From the existence of cows, which are not acknowledged as an important part of the ecosystem and living in their own right, humans take benefits.

4.2.4. Product 4(B)

The next product by company B is its flavored milk. The story of conviction is evident here. The claim that product 4(B) “is not only a personal favourite for the kids but popular amongst consumers of all other age groups as well” is without any evidence or repertoire of empiricism, but it still presents it with high facticity because of positive terminologies like “healthy wholesomeness”, “unique blend of flavours”, “personal favourite”, “fun twist” and “exciting flavours.” These positive terms give high facticity to the claim that their drink is popular not only among kids but people of all ages, despite lacking any concrete evidence.

The second story is about erasure. There is an example of void in the text because there is no mention of the sources of nature from which milk has been obtained and also the plants from which “Strawberry” and “Badaam & Zafran” have been obtained.

4.2.5. Product 5(B)

Product 5(B) is the fruit drink. The story of the conviction is embedded in its advertisement. The high modal verb “MUST” has been used as the drink’s name, which strengthens the claims made in the description. There is the highest facticity, also because of the apposition used. “MUST” is used immediately before a fruit drink, which supplements the facticity that it is mandatory for the consumers to consume this particular drink. Moreover, the facticity has been raised as it is proclaimed that it is “unlike any other”. Further, another claim has been made, it “comes in all your favorite flavors, making it popular with everyone throughout the year.” It is enunciated without any concrete evidence that the flavors this drink comes with are the favorites of clients, whether or not it is popular with everyone. The lack of concrete evidence or facts is concealed by the lack of modal verbs that gives the description its highest level of facticity. In the end, it is stated, “Try karna MUST hai!”, MUST is nominalized when used in apposition and is used as a modal verb to reiterate the idea that having this drink is obligatory for everyone. The high facticity pattern (linguistic pattern) affects the consumers’ conviction and makes them buy the product for the sake of an increase in consumerism.

The story of erasure is also underpinned in the advertisement. In the noun phrase “fruit drinks”, used repeatedly, fruit is used as a modifier of drink, where the emphasis is more on the head i.e., drinks. The modifier is optional, and can be replaced or removed. The drink is not necessarily made of natural ingredients, but chemicals and artificial flavors too. Here, fruit is used as an example of a mask, with a distorted version of reality i.e., fruit is used as a co-hyponym of chemicals and artificial flavors, with ingredients as the superordinate term. Natural products are made equivalent to man-made or toxic effects.

4.3. Company C

4.3.1. Product 1(C)

The first product selected by company C is powder milk, where metaphorical entailment is present in the discourse. The source frame of “love” is mapped onto milk. First, the powdered milk is called “pure”, “ideal” and “natural source” and then it is made equivalent to love as stated, “Enjoy the Pure Love of Pure Milk!”. This is a destructive metaphor because, firstly, the milk is not pure; secondly, it is associated with pure love to increase the product’s sale.

The next story is of conviction. The description has a high facticity pattern in the claim that the milk powder is multipurpose and ideal for use. Although, no evidence proves it to be the right choice of milk, the facticity is developed through the use of no modal verb and words with positive connotations such as “Pure”, “multipurpose”, “ideal”, “excellent natural source”, “Wholesome”, “Nutritious”, “100% pure milk”, “fresh” and “Pure Love.” It is pure milk and nutritious. Although powder milk does not have the same nutritional effect as natural milk, the above-mentioned positive words develop a strong conviction in the readers’ minds. It is implicitly substituting natural milk, as it does not clearly state, but the use of positive words amplifies facticity, which ultimately promotes consumerism.

The following form of story is erasure, in the advertisement. Trace is found in the text, through the use of hyponymy. The superordinate term “natural” has been used which does not bring to mind the exact source of nature or its hyponym cow, from which milk has been obtained. The reality is presented partially and half of the information has been erased.

4.3.2. Product 2(C)

The second product of Company C is its yogurt. A strong conviction has been developed through the text’s higher facticity. The claim of being “perfect” is used for the yogurt, that is the only choice for eating in any form. The use of positive terms like “traditional”, “perfect”, “naturally enriched”, “minerals”, “vitamins”, “essential”, “growth” and “development” has also given high facticity to the text that it is a substitute for the yogurt that is made at home or through an organic process.

The second story is about erasure. There is an example of trace because it has only mentioned, “naturally enriched”. It does not talk about the milk that has been obtained from cows, sheep or goats and the process of converting milk into yogurt. The use of the hypernym “naturally” has made the existence of dairy animals less imaginable as compared to the direct reference to animals.

4.3.3. Product 3(C)

The third product by Company C is its sweet yogurt. The story of conviction is developed through positive words such as “creamy”, “sweetened”, “naturally enriched with calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and protein”, “nutrients”, “essential”, “healthy bone growth”, “development”, “Smoother” and “Richer taste!”, which present the description with high facticity that this yogurt has the best flavor and contain all the essential nutrients that are required for growth.

The story of erasure is also present. The example of trace is present in the description as “naturally enriched” and “a natural source of Calcium and Protein”. The superordinate term, nature, has been used instead of mentioning the exact source or hyponym of nature viz cow, from which milk is obtained and converted into yogurt.

4.3.4. Product 4(C)

The company’s fourth product is powdered milk, which has a story of conviction and erasure. Using a superlative degree of the adjective “closest”, develops the conviction that the powder milk is the substitute for fresh milk because it tastes like fresh milk. The facticity has been further developed by using the simile “like”, which makes this product equivalent to fresh milk. As Stibbe (2015) mentioned, for sensationalism, the facticity patterns are transformed by the media to adhere to the dominant ideology. The same example can be observed here as powder milk is not as wholesome as fresh milk, but for the sake of consumerism, the language tools make it equivalent to fresh milk and compel the readers to believe it too.

There is an instance of void in the text as there is no discussion about how the milk obtained from animals, has been converted into dried or powder form.

4.3.5. Product 5(C)

The next product by company C is a fruit drink. It also embeds the story of conviction and erasure. The high modal verb “will” is used in collocation with the adjective “absolutely.” This gives the highest facticity to the claim that this drink is a fruit blend, which the consumers will enjoy to its last drop.

There is an example of a trace in the text because of the relation of hyponymy. The word “fruit” is a superordinate term with many fruit types as its hyponyms. Here, the details of specific fruits are not given, which are used in the drink as stated in the text, “a wild combination of our favorite fruits.”

4.4. Company D

4.4.1. Product 1(D)

The first product by Company D is a fruit drink. The advertisement for product 1(D) contains the story of conviction and erasure. No modal verb has been used, placing it on the high facticity spectrum. The choice of vocabulary like “promises to leave you energized and refreshed!” shows that it achieves its results, what it promises. By giving a higher level of facticity to the description, a firm conviction is developed in the minds of the readers.

Only a trace is present in the text because the relationship of hyponymy has been used. The superordinate term “natural” has been used instead of the description of the gardens, the trees from which mangoes are obtained, which are erased from the text. It makes it less imaginable for the readers to think about nature.

4.4.2. Product 2(D)

The second product of Company D is a fruit squash. The story of conviction is embedded in the advertisement for the product. No modal verb has been used throughout the description, placing it on the high facticity spectrum. Moreover, the choice of positive words like “real fruits,” “goodness of mangoes, oranges, and lemons,” “quench your thirst,” and “leave you feeling refreshed!” gives high facticity to the description. By giving a higher level of facticity to the description, a strong conviction is developed in the minds of the readers.

The next story is about erasure. An example of a mask is present in the advertisement. In “Fruit Squash”, fruit is used as a modifier for the head of squash, which can be replaced. Also, it is used as a co-hyponym of chemicals and artificial flavors because squash also has chemicals and artificial flavors. The reality is distorted because fruits are always nutritious and good for human health, whereas, chemicals are hazardous for human health.

4.4.3. Product 3(D)

The third product of Company D is a mixed herb drink. The advertisement contains the story of erasure. There is an example of trace in the description because hyponomy is used. The superordinate terms “garden-fresh herb” and “rose extracts” have been used instead of the exact name of the herb and specific rose extract, which makes the concept more abstract for the readers to imagine.

5. Discussion

The current research aims to investigate how nature is being treated in mainstream discourses through language. It also tried to unleash the stories embedded in the selected discourses and their role in the ecosystem. In the light of previous research, it is found that nature is not given its due importance in different discourses. The language affects the ideology of human beings as how one thinks, writes, and talks about the ecosystem, and it directly affects the environment, which is being governed(Coffey, 2015). According to (Ahmed et al., 2021), advertisements use metaphors to enhance the value of their products, and those metaphors are harmful to the environment.

The first question of the research is to find out how language is used as a tool to erase nature in advertisements. Nature has been partially or entirely erased from the discussion in the selected advertisements. As reflected in the analysis, the companies, on the one hand, claim that their products are extracted from natural resources, and on the other hand, due salience to nature is not given. Nature is treated as a trace or void. Nature and its resources (cows and fruits) are presented in more abstract form or with no mention. For example, when referring to milk, the superordinate term “nature” has been used instead of its hyponyms, cows or calves. Moreover, the animals are referred by the place where they dwell, such as a farm. The animals are treated as milk producers only. There is no mention of how they are treated in dairy farms and how milk is extracted from them. The other gifts of dairy, such as butter, yogurt, and cheese, are presented in such a manner as if they are not gifts of nature but of the company. Besides animals, the word fruit is used as a modifier in the noun phrase while mentioning the juices, which can be easily omitted with any other co-hyponym.

The second question of the research is to find the type of stories underpinning the advertisements. In analysis, it has been found that the advertisements underpin the stories of conviction, metaphor and erasure. In the stories of conviction, positive appraisal items have been used to describe their products. Also, the description has a high level of facticity thanks to strong modal verbs or adjectives. The level of facticity develops a conviction in the reader’s mind that the product is the best of all. Through metaphor, the product is made equivalent to success, happiness, enjoyment, and other forms of bliss, which makes the readers think about the product only. The metaphors make the audience believe the product is a token for living a peaceful life. There is also a story of erasure in each advertisement, which has presented nature in two ways: trace and void. In some of the advertisements, nature is presented only partially and on an abstract level, such as “nature”, “fruit” or “garden”. There are instances in the analysis where nature or its products are not mentioned at all. The erasure of nature puts the human made products in more limelight and makes the audience believe in these stories. This kind of discourse is harmful for the ecosystem as it promotes artificially processed food (Ain et al., 2021). Also, nature and its resources are erased from these discourses, deviating the attention of humans from nature and working for sustainable development in ecology.

6. Conclusion

The present research focused on with the erasure of nature in mainstream discourses through language, as well as and the stories embedded in these advertisements through language. For this purpose, advertisements for five food manufacturing companies are analyzed, using Stibbe’s (2015) framework of ecolinguistics. The analysis has found that nature and its resources are partially or entirely erased from these discourses. Moreover, the stories of conviction, metaphor and erasure are found in these discourses, which give salience to human-made products. Also, the erasure of nature and its resources has been exacerbated by using these stories. It diverts the attention of the masses from nature to their products. This kind of treatment of nature is harmful for the environment, as it promotes unnecessary consumerism and nature is not given its due salience.

This study focused on the discourses of five food manufacturing companies, which were limited to the advertisements of juices and dairy products. These two types of products were selected because they are commonly used as an alternative to natural ones. Future researchers can adopt the same research framework to examine how nature is portrayed in advertisements from a larger number of food manufacturing companies. Also, this study can be expanded to other discourses to see how nature is being treated, and ecological preferences are set through language.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.