An ecostylistic analysis of selected extracts from Michael Punke’s novel The Revenant

Abstract

This article presents an ecostylistic analysis of selected extracts from Michael Punke’s novel The Revenant (2002). The aims of the study are achieved in terms of an eclectic methodological framework. The study aims at revealing the power hierarchy created in the selected texts between human and non-human participants. Also, it aims to show how the elements of nature affect the survival of humans in the fictional context by identifying the ecostylistic features in the literary text.  A close ecostylistic reading of six selected extracts from the novel using Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) tools (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014[1985]) and Zurru’s (2017) approach is followed. Moreover, the study presents a qualitative investigation of stylistic elements such as foregrounded features and deviated language patterns. Thus, conducting an ecostylistic analysis of the chosen passages, and, demonstrating how the author portrays the environment with all its elements as an effective participant helps to appreciate nature. The findings show that nature acts as the main character’s savior and a threat to his life; it also demonstrates how nature works as a powerful active participant in portraying the events of the novel.

Keywords:

• ecostylistics
• fiction
• foregrounding
• SFG
• stylistics analysis
• transitivity processes

1. Introduction

The word “ecostylistics” is coined by the combination of two keywords “eco” and “stylistics”. It refers to as “Green stylistics” (cf. Poetics And Linguistics Association PALA, 2023). Ecostylistics is “an emerging field” and the term itself was first used by Goatly (2010) at the PALA conference (Virdis, 2022, p. 63). Its main concern is to investigate connections between style and the natural environment in discourse. Broadly conceived as the air, water, and land inhabited by people, animals, and plants. Ecostylistics is defined as a fashionable approach that overlaps with ecolinguistics, ecocriticism, and stylistics (Zurru, 2017). Ecostylistics analysis can complement the ecocritical explanation of a literary text. Stylistic analysis is a way of associating linguistic forms with interpretation in a detailed way via reader inference and presenting explicit evidence against a specific explanation of text (Leech & Short, 2007; Short, 1996; Jaafar, 2020).

Furthermore, ecostylistic concentrates on two perspectives: First, the relation between the style of a literary text, physical environment, and linguistic representation. Second, the evaluation and investigation of ecological linguistic patterns in text, thereby contributing to increasing global environmental awareness. Ecostylistics has two main theoretical objectives. The first is environmental which deals with how landscapes and surroundings are portrayed in texts, whether they are literal or metaphorical. The second is ecological which is the study of the relationship between human and non-human participants as well as between humans and the physical environment (Zurru, 2017). The interconnectedness between human existence and the physical environment is becoming more apparent with the emergence of “Eco-words” or “environment words” in the English language as Myerson and Rydin (1996, pp. 6–37) described. Environment represents the place of plants, animals, nature elements and organisms.

The significance of this study is to focus on the ecostylistic language patterns in a selected literary text. The analysis highlights language aspects such as speech, thoughts, and mind style a term that is defined by Fowler (1977, p. 103) as “any distinctive linguistic presentation of an individual mental self”. This study shows the ecological linguistic patterns in selected extracts from Michael Punke’s The Revenant (Punke, 2002) as well as the link between the style with the linguistic representation of the physical environment. Mainly, the current research focuses on answering three questions 1. What are the ecostylistic features in the selected novel? Secondly, What are the main language patterns that reveal authorial style in portraying the role of eco elements in the events? And, what are the main non-human environmental participants that affect the main character in the literary context? In this study, a systemic functional grammar approach will be used along with stylistic techniques in an attempt to address these fundamental questions.

2. Ecostylistics and fiction

In English language, eco words have recently appeared to show the interdependence of human life and the physical environment. The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford English Dictionary [OED] Online, 2022) shows that the prefix eco- has two meanings; environment and ecology (Zurru, 2017). The significance of five marker words falls under the scope of ecostylistics as noted by (Virdis, 2022). These include; nature, environment, ecosystem, ecology and sustainability. These five terms challenge researchers to make an accurate assessment of the significance of marker words in ecological texts and discourse. The first eco marker, “nature” in ecocriticism and ecological discourse is presented as a woman or a female participant. It possesses both physical and biological power since it comprises both vital and non-vital components (Virdis, 2022, p. 88).

Secondly, environment refers to the area around a place or thing, surroundings, or physical context. It is the physical area in which a human or other organism lives, develops, and so on (OED, 2022). Thirdly, “ecosystem” designates to a structured and connected network of living things that are seen as a whole and function as a complicated system. Ecosystem also refers to the state of balance and harmony between the many biological and physical forces at play in the system; this state needs to be maintained and conserved to ensure the survival and well-being of the entire system (Allaby, 2015). Fourthly and lastly, “ecology”’ is defined as the link between organismsʹ life and their environment. Through checking those associations in natural ecosystems, ecologists can reveal aspects that enable humankind to realize its unique function in plants (Editors of Salim Press, 2004). Finally, “sustainability” means the ability to continue or be sustained at a particular pace or level (OED, 2022). It creates forms of people activity, especially of an economic nature. Environmental deterioration is lessened by stopping the use of natural resources. Utilizing a natural resource in a way that avoids depletion is another meaning of this term (Virdis, 2022).

The current study advocates for the use of analytical approaches used in mainstream stylistics to critically investigate the stylistic choices made in the literary text centered on the representation of landscape. Stylistics “is often regarded as a linguistic approach to literature and understandably so, since the majority of stylistic attention so far has been devoted to literary texts” (Nørgaard et al., 2010, p. 2). Stylistics as an interdisciplinary field enables ecostylistics to follow the linguistic realizations of ecological terms of discourse in both literary and non-literary texts (Jaafar, 2014, 2019, 2022; Jaafar & Jasim, 2022). Therefore, ecostylistics has the same interest as ecolinguistics in the linguistic built of ecology, linked discursive practices, and text. Meanwhile, it differs from ecolinguistics in that it is concerned with analyzing those patterns in literary text (Zurru, 2017).

3. Relevant work

In this section of the study, previous studies that tackled the language of fiction or genres of literary texts stylistically are presented. For example, M. A. K. Halliday (1971) applies his SFG methodology and analyzes some excerpts from Golding (1962) imaginative prose The Inheritors, in his seminal article. Halliday provides one of the earliest SFG evaluations of literary impact by utilizing functional categories to analyze the mind style of the main character Lok in the novel. Halliday relies on the linguistic (syntactic) and describes the ideational representations proffered by the grammatical forms in a text. He focuses on language in general, the system of language, and its link to the meanings of the literary work. The Inheritors is an example of an epochal book that explores the “Neanderthal-Homo sapiens transition”. Intransitive verbs, animism, and personification are all examples of how the Neanderthals’ primitive way of thinking and living is represented in their language adroitly by Halliday’s study (Goatly, 2022, p. 3). Years following this study, systemic functional grammar has been further developed and updated. Similarilarly, Zurru attempts to reveal ecological attributes to compare the roles of both human and non-human participants.

Thus, by following Halliday’s steps, Zurru (2017) combines grammatical with stylistic tools to analyse The Hungry Tide (THT) novel by Gosh (2005). Grammatical analysis indicates the use of SFG for the analysis of texts. The main focus of stylistics is based on qualitative analysis of different style aspects such as foregrounding, mind style, and thought presentation. Zurruʹs analysis aims to expand the main issues and methodological practices of ecostylistics. She combines ecostylistic investigations of linguistic choices and systemic functional analysis of the relations that exist between participants in the analysis of the texts. Therefore, the analysis of ecostylistics of the extracts aims to identify the link built between the physical landscape (e.g. rivers, tides and the linguistic choices in the study) and humans existing in the texts. Various linguistic choices are highlighted to analyze the texts at linguistic, stylistic, and narratological levels (mind style). At the linguistic level, she uses SFG, reference, metaphor, ellipses, and comparison. She uses foregrounding and personification in the stylistic analysis. While in the narratological level, she focuses on either internal focalization or external focalization (Douthwaite, 2000; Zurru, 2017). Dealing with the same novel but different extracts, Mohamed and Jaafar (2023) show other stylistic textual features that are employed by the author and confirm the dominant agentive role of nature. Another study by Douthwaite et al. (2017) in which she provides a close reading of a brief passage from the opening of Edith Wharton’s short story “The Day of the Funeral.” Her analysis is based on metaphor and cognitive features to interpret the social “repressive nature of patriarchality”(p.188). However, Douthwaite’s analysis did not highlight ecological concerns. Recent studies on fiction include; Chrzanowska-Kluczewska (2022) examines the English translation of the autobiographical novel The Issa Valley. She uses Geoffrey Leech and Mick Short’s taxonomy of context, lexicon, syntax, and figuration to analyze fiction. This ecostylistic analysis also emphasizes figuration and its Issa landscape imagery. She studies simile, metaphor, synecdoche, irony, and antithesis.

Within the scope of ecostylistics but this time with a focus on poetry, Goatly (2017) uses Edward Thomas’ poetry collection (E. Thomas, 1936) as the data for his case study in ecostylistics since it reproduces a special relationship between war and nature. He employs M. A. K. Halliday’s (1985) method to analyze the nature-indicating noun phrases. The categories of weather, seasons, months, trees, water, dark/light, and birds present significant sayers and actors participants. He explicates how the poet intentionally obliterated the nature of humanity through the interaction of personification, coordination, and token of a human and non-human. Goatly asserts that the poet displays the differences between simile, literal comparison, imagism, and metaphor. These aspects of style are related to romantic ecology, focusing on the blurring between humans and nature. After reviewing past studies, the current study focuses on the roles played by environmental entities (e.g. non-humans) such as (plants, animals, and others) in the events of the novel and these non-human participants have active roles in comparison to the main character. Essentially, the key methodological steps center on conducting an ecostylistic study of the literary text while using a functional approach to examine different process types in the transitivity system, concentrating on ecological elements further by analysing and assessing the relationship envisioned between human and non-human participants. After presenting the past studies in ecostylistics, these studies did not specifically address how non-human participants have agentive powerful roles in narrative fiction. Thus, this study aims to fill this gap by presenting a systemic objective analysis.

4. Data and methodology

The data of this study is The Revenant a historical novel written by Michael Punke in 2002. The events took place on the Missouri River in 1823. It is a story of obsessive revenge and survival. On the frontier, the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a hard lifestyle. Hugh Glass, one of the men in this company, is an expert tracker. When he agrees to participate in an exploratory mission, Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear and is left seriously injured later abandoned by his companions to confront his pain with deadly wounds against hunger, and the environment. This terrible event sets the narrative in motion. The novel is based on the real-life historical incidents that happened to Hugh Glass with some fictional elements (Punke, 2002). The selected extracts are examined in terms of Halliday’s transitivity system to identify the roles of participants that affect events. Furthermore, ecostylistics investigation is conducted by identifying eco keywords.

This paper presents a practical analysis of selected six extracts from The Revenant by Punke, 2002 based on the eclectic model (see Figure 1). The choice of the extracts is not random, they are carefully selected to conduct the ecostylistic analysis. The criterion for selecting the extracts is based on the critical events that reveal the powerful roles of non-human participants over human beings in the novel. In particular, the conflict or relationship between humans and nature, and how humans confront nature, animals, and the environment. The main focus is on the incidents in terms of transitivity that offer a witty interpretation related to the role of the environment. Finally, there are three levels in the current analysis, syntactic level by using SFG, ecostylistic level, and narratological level.

Figure 1. The framework of this study.

To analyze the data selected for this study, a qualitative descriptive elective methodology was employed. Firstly, Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) by M. Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014 [M. A. K. Halliday, 1985] was applied. It is a functional approach that is constructed to investigate the way the language is used. In addition to that, Zurru’s (2017) model consisting of traditional stylistic tools (such as foregrounding) to pay attention to the narratological levels (mind style) and thought presentation was applied.

SFG model suggests that human language is developed for making three kinds of meaning. These include:

1. Experimental meaning (i.e. ideational) illustrates how experience is represented through language. It is concerned with transitivity processes for instance, verbs, participants, and circumstances (where, when, and how the process occurs). It explains people’s experiences.

2. Interpersonal meaning refers to the interaction between speakers and listeners. The main systems of this meaning are grammatical mood, modality, and polarity.

3. Textual meaning is concerned with the creation of the text. Theme and Rheme are the main types of textual meaning (. Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014).

Grammatically speaking, a verb phrase is used to convey a process. Noun phrases are used to define participants (including pronouns). Adverbials, such as adverbs, adverbial phrases, and prepositional phrases, are used to describe circumstances of time, place, or manner. This method helps to identify participants whether human or non-human. Transitivity analysis in this study enables to recognize participants with dominant roles. For example, the non-human participants (here, animals) are active, powerful, and have agentive roles. In contrast, the role of the main character if it appears to be less active and usually assigned with intransitive verbs, then it is an inactive and less powerful role.

Since the data of the analysis of this paper is a novel thus, it is necessary to refer to the salient stylistic features of the language of fiction in general and the novel in particular. Fiction is defined as the art or craft of creating human life representations through narrative writing that inspires, amuses, and educates. Fiction includes novels and short writings such as short stories. Since the novel is a genre of fiction, it can also comprise many types for example; historical, romantic, picaresque, epistolary, and other types that can vary in their style of writing. The word novel is a shortening of the Italian word novella, which comes from the Latin word “novellus”, which means “new”. There are basic elements that distinguish novels as a genre of fiction. The length of narration is unique in comparison to tales or short stories which form the plot of the novel. The descriptive narrative style plays a role in adding detailed narration. Moreover, point of view is another authorial strategy that is evident through the use of pronouns whether a first, second, or third person. The creation of the plot and character of the fictional work. An advert author creates a character that reflects the human experience. The capacity to make a character as real to the reader is a key measure of the author’s literary brilliance.

Thus, this study focuses on the transitive processes with eco-stylistics to investigate what relation is built between human and non-human participants in these extracts.

To achieve the aims of the study, systemic methodological steps are followed:

1. Reviewing the relevant literature about the field of ecostylistics, stylistics, and some other related topics in the field such as figurative language including metaphor, metonymy, meronymy, personification, analogy, synecdoche, and onomatopoeia;

2. Surveying the previous studies that are related to the current study and presenting a critical review;

3. applying an eclectic model to analyze the selected extracts that are related to the data of the study;

4. Selecting the data of analysis through close reading and identifying textual evidence containing eco-words;

5. Analyzing the extracts qualitatively by means of textual objective observation;

6. Finally, discussing the results, drawing conclusions based on the findings of the analysis, and putting forward recommendations and suggestions for further research.

5. Data analysis, results, and discussion

Based on what is mentioned in the data and methods section of this paper, The analysis is shown below. The lines of the chosen extracts are numbered for easiness of reference. The novel is narrated by a third-person narrator and thus, the description of the events enables readers to connect with the protagonist, Hugh Glass’s mindset.

Extract 1: (1) Glass stepped from the willows into a clearing, scanning for the deer (2) he knew must be just ahead (3) He saw the cubs before he saw the sow. (4) There was a pair, and (5) they tumbled toward him, bawling like playful dogs. (6) The cubs had been dropped in the spring, [… .]. (7) They nipped at each other as (8) they bore down on Glass [… .] (9) Glass had not raised his glance to the far end of the clearing, fifty yards away. (10) Nor had he yet to calculate the certain implication of their presence (Punke, 2002, p. 17).

During Glass’s work as a huntsman with the fur company, as illustrated in extract (1). Glass looks for animals to hunt. As a tracker, he follows a deer but he is surprised to see two playful cubs. When he notices the small cubs, he does not put in his mind that the existence of the cubs might be a high risk and there might be a big bear behind them. This extract contains many eco-words such as deer, sow, dogs, cubs, the spring, and a clearing that prepares the reader’s mind to imagine the context that reflects the author’s writing style to portray the context for readers.

The intransitive verb stepped in sentence (1) is the material process of the actor Glass in the transitivity system. The rest of the sentence from [… .] the deer is the goal of this process. In sentence (2) “he knew must be just ahead”, the verb knew is a mental process (cognition) of the senser he in transitivity system; he is an anaphoric reference to Glass. The main character is a focaliser since the writer shows the way Glass thinks, and what he looks for. Moreover, the pronoun He in the independent clause (3) “He saw the cubs” and the pronoun he in the dependent clause (3) “before he saw the sow” is the senser of the mental processes saw in the transitivity system. The nominal groups (3) the cubs and the sow are the phenomena of this process. Repetition occurs in clause (3) He saw[… …]the sow; in the syntactic structures. This idea denotes a distorted style and divergence from the usual rules as it reflects irregularity in these parallel structures. The novelist catches readers’ attention to this event.

The nominal group a pair in clause (4) “There was a pair” is the existence of the existential process There was in transitivity system. The verb tumbled is a material process of the actor they in a transitivity system; they is an anaphoric reference to the cubs. The nominal group toward him is the place circumstance of this process; him is an anaphoric reference to Glass. In sentence (5) the writer compares the (cubs) “like playful dogs” which people have not encountered before and are unknown, with what people know (dogs) to bring the image closer to the reader and to visualize the story more clearly.

The verb dropped in (6) The cubs had been dropped in the spring is the material process in the transitivity system. The noun phrase the cubs is the non-human actor of this process. In the spring is the circumstance of the material process dropped in the ideational meta-function. In the textual meta-function, the nominal group in sentence (6) the cubs is the theme since the writer makes the animal at the point of departure. Thus, he wants to make the cubs more prominent than other narrative events and the rest of the sentence is a rheme. The verbal groups in sentences (7) and (8) nipped, bore down are the material process of the actor they (non-human) in the ideational meta-function. The goal of these processes is on Glass in the transitivity system. The polarity system can be found in this sentence Glass had not raised[… .] of the clearing wherein the negative clause is regarded as a polarity in the interpersonal metafunction. Meronymic reference is employed in sentence (9) his glance refers to the Glass’s eyes. The writer mentions minute details such as fifty yards away (equals 45. 72 meters) to make the readers able to imagine the exact details to catch their attention and make them aware of the imminent danger that is approaching. The infinitive verb (non-finite) to calculate in sentence (10) Nor had he yet to calculate is a mental process of the senser he in the transitivity system and the nominal group in sentence (10) “the certain implication of their presence” is the phenomena of this process; their presence is an anaphoric reference to the cubs. After seeing the cubs, Glass does not think of the consequence of their appearance.

Extract 2: (1) He heard her size before he saw it. (2) Not just the crack of the thick underbrush that the sow moved aside like short grass, but the growl itself, a sound deep like thunder or a falling tree, a bass that could emanate only through connection with some great mass (Punke, 2002, p. 17).

The appearance of the grizzly bear is preceded by the bangs of her steps. Glass hears the sound of the bear’s steps. In this extract, there are many eco-words such as the crack of the thick underbrush, the sow, grass, thunder, and tree. The verb in sentence (1) heard is a mental process of the senser he; her size is the phenomena in this process. The verb saw is also a mental process of the senser he and the anaphoric it is the phenomena of this process. The noun group her size in sentence (1) “He heard her size before he saw it” refers to the grizzly bear. This is a semantic deviation; the size is audible and magnified. The writer defamiliarizes the meaning to catch the reader’s attention to the entrance of the bear in this scene. In addition, parallelism can be found in (1) since the writer uses a repetitive syntactic structure (subject + verb + object). Thus, there is a repetition in the structure of the clause. Besides, an analogy is found in clause (2); a technique is employed to capture readers’ attention and enable them to imagine how the bear is huge and wild.

Onomatopoeia is used by the author in sentence (2) the crack to make the addressee feels the situation that the character lives in and to hear the same sound that the main character hears. The verb in sentence (2) moved is a material process of the actor (non-human) the sow in the transitivity system. The noun aside is the goal of this process. In addition, like is the analogy in clause (2) the sow moved aside like short grass; the writer uses a plant short grass and falling tree to make the picture clearer to the reader and to visualize. The writer gives details about the steps of the bear by making a comparison and embodying the steps of the bear in (2) the crack of the thick underbrush. The deictic elements used in (2)) that is regarded as proximal rather than distal deixis. The modal auxiliary in could is the modelization of mood type in the interpersonal meta-function.

The growl is compared to thunder, a falling tree, and a bass. The author creates this comparison to draw an image in the reader’s mind’s eye to imagine the power, size, and brutality of the bear. Furthermore, the theme in the transitivity system can be found in the point of the departure of a bass. The sound of the bear’s gait has been exaggerated and highlighted to introduce the grizzly bear deliberately because it represents a turning point or an active participant in changing Glass’s life and destination.

Extract 3: (1) The growl crescendoed as she stepped into the clearing, black eyes staring at Glass, head low to the ground as she processed the foreign scent, a scent now mingling with that of her cubs. (2) She faced him head-on, her body coiled and taut like the heavy spring on a buckboard. (3) Glass marveled at the animal’s utter muscularity, the thick stumps of her forelegs folding into massive shoulders, and above all the silvery hump that identified her as a grizzly (Punke, 2002, p. 18).

In this extract, the author depicts the bear before it attacks Glass to convey to the reader the bear’s size, strength, and lethal muscles and to help the reader visualize in the mind’s eye how the huge size of the bear. Glass attacked by the grizzly bear since he was close to the small cubs thus, the bear’s motherly instinct call to protect her cubs. This extract contains eco-words such as clearing, spring, grizzly, and cubs.

The sound of growling as made by animals makes a continuous deep reverberating sound like a grumble, roll, or rumble. It is a low-pitched and guttural singing style that is called death growl or death grunt. Glass heard the bear approaching. The noun phrase the growl is in the subject position and acts as a theme in the textual meta-function to give prominence to the bear voice.

The verb in (1) crescendoed belongs to the behavioural processes; so the noun the growl is the behaver in the ergative (intransitivity) system. The verb (2) stepped is a material process of the actor she; the circumstances into a clearing is the goal of this process in the transitivity system. The sound of the growl refers to onomatopoeia in figurative language. The writer uses this sound for three reasons. First, to make the picture vivid. Second, to make the addressee immersed within the texts. Third, to help the addressee feels as if s/he hears what the character witnesses in the situation. The writer treats the bear like a human being, he gives her the pronouns she and her to give her strength in the text and to take an active role as the interactive participant.

The verb staring in (3) black eyes staring at Glass is a behavioural process of the behaver black eyes in the transitivity system. The noun head in (4) head low to the ground is a meronymic reference indicate to the head of the bear. The writer mentions black eyes staring instead of saying the bear staring to give the main role to meronymic reference of the bear. For this reason, there is a movement from external to internal focalization; black eyes (the bear) are the focaliser at the narratological level (the narration is in the third person). The writer gives the power to inanimate to make the text stand out; this is defamiliarization and irregularity. The verb processed is a mental process of the senser she and the phenomena is the foreign scent. The nominal group in sentence (21) a scent now is the theme in textual meta-function and the rest of the sentence is a rheme since it occurs after the theme. The writer depicts the strength and anger of a bear when the mother knew that danger was approaching her cubs since the scent of man mixed with the scent of her cubs. The writer uses the pronoun she and her cubs in sentence (4) she processed […] that of her cubs as a cataphoric reference to the grizzly The use of deictic elements in sentence (4) now and that represents a proximal reference; now denotes what is going to happen next. The verb faced in sentence (5) she faced him head on is intermediate between behavioural and material process of the behaver and actor she in the transitivity system; Punke highlights the position of the subject, and gives it the pronoun of the human while the rest of the sentence is a rheme. We conclude that the writer gives authority to the animal. The analogy in sentence (6) her body coiled and taut like the heavy spring alludes to a suspension spring employed in times ago on horse-drawn carriages and carts (a small carriage is a buckboard). The verb marveled in sentence (7) Glass marveled at the animal’s is a behavioural process of the behaver Glass in the transitivity system. The rest of the sentence at the animal’s utter muscularity is a circumstance of the behavioural process.

The clause the slivery hump is a token and her as a grizzly is a value in identifying a relational intensive process. The two nominal groups her forelegs and the silvery hump are meronymic references. The author describes the in this extract how strong and big the bear is. Drawing in the readers’ mind the outset of what Glass sees by a detailed description. Punke depends on meronymic references as a stylistic feature in the narration such as foreleg, shoulder, black eyes, head, hump, and other bodily parts.

Extract 4: Chapter 7 (1) Glass wanted to roll away, (2) but there was something inevitable about the way the snake moved. (3) Some part of Glass remembered an admonishment to hold still in the presence of a snake. (4) He froze, as much from hypnosis as from choice. (5) The snake moved within a few feet of his face and stopped. (6) Glass stared, trying to mimic the serpent’s unblinking stare. (7) He was no match. (8) The snake’s black eyes were as unforgiving as the plague. (9) He watched, (10) mesmerized, [… . … … .] (11) He stared down in horror (12) as the rattler’s head shot forward, (13) jaws distended to reveal fangs dripping with poison. (14) The fangs sunk into Glass’s forearm. (15) He screamed in pain … .(16) Finally the snake dropped, its long body perpendicular to Glassʹs torso. (17) Before Glass could roll away, the snake rewound itself and struck again. (18) Glass couldnʹt scream this time. (19) The serpent had buried its fangs in his throat (Punke, 2002, pp. 53-54) [… .] (20) “Having killed the rattlesnake, Glass’s next challenge was to gut it out (p. 68).

The writer depicts the conflict between humans and animals in extract (4). The scene of wilderness survival starts with the movement of the rattlesnake toward Glass. After being brutally attacked by the large bear, Glass’s body suffered many injuries, and his friends abandoned him in the freezing wilderness. Glass’s deep wounds cause an overlap between consciousness and unconsciousness. He begins hallucinating. He has a nightmare (of the imaginative attack of the snake which bites him several times and represents a life-threatening actor) when he loses consciousness at other times from both pain and hunger. The author focuses on the attack of a snake against a wounded person. The wounds are very deep on Glass’s body and face, so his movement is very slow. The author shows the panic and fear that Glass experiences. However, because of his strong determination, Glass resists the pain and overcomes real and imagined danger.

In the ideational meta-function, the verb wanted in sentence (1) “Glass wanted to roll away” is a mental process of the senser Glass and the phenomena of this process is to roll away; while the infinitive verb to roll is a material process of the senser Glass and the goal of this process is away in transitivity system. Glass wants to escape from the snake. The main verb was in “but there was something inevitable” is the existential process of the existent something inevitable in the transitivity system. In sentence (2), the writer depicts the presence of the rattle’s snake in a detailed way to make the readers imagine the terrifying situation. The verb moved in sentence (2) “the way the snake moved” is the material process of the actor snake which is described here as the attacker participant. The verb remembered in sentence (3) “Some part of Glass remembered an admonishment” is a mental process of the senser some part of Glass in transitivity system. The noun phrase an admonishment is the phenomena of the mental process. Personification is embodied in sentence (3), the writer gives the role of the actor to non-human. Instead of saying Glass remembered, the author says some part of Glass remembered to make a defamiliarization in a text and to make this line stand out for the readers. This sign of his weakness refers to his state of being half-conscious of his pain and hunger. The writer defamiliarizes the meaning to catch the reader’s attention to the inactiveness of the character. Defamiliarisation (foregrounding) increases the consciousness of the addressee and this is evidence that the perception process occurs in their minds. Moreover, the verb froze in sentence (4) “He froze, as much from hypnosis as from choice” is a behavioural process of the behaver He again reflects his ability to reflect the appearance of a dangerous snake.

In sentence (5) The snake moved to within a few feet of his face, on the one hand, the verb moved is a material process of the actor the snake and the rest of the sentence is a goal of this process in the ideational meta-function. On the other hand, the snake is a theme and the rest of the sentence is rheme in the textual meta-function. The writer gives prominence to an animal (snake) than a human (Glass). Personification can be found in this sentence since non-human takes the role of actor participant (inanimate object takes animate characteristics). The snake attacks the main character, Glass. The writer, instead of putting Glass as an active participant, on the contrary, puts the snake as an active participant which practices a fierce attack on Glass. The writer depicts the movements of the snake, how it looks, and how it attacks. The snake takes the biggest and strongest role in this text in comparison to Glass’s role. Instead of focusing on Glass and his condition, the author focuses on the snake and its entire movements. The verb stopped in sentence (5) is a material process of the actor snake. The writer gives the readers details about the animal’s movements to convey the image to the readerʹs mind is clear and understandable.

The verb stare in (6) Glass stared is a behavioural process of the behaver Glass in the ergative model. In this sentence “trying to mimic the serpent’s unblinking stare”, Glass tries to imitate the snake’s gaze to instill fear in it and it runs away. The verb was in sentence (7) “He was no match” is identifying the intensive process of token He and value no match in the relational process. There is no point in Glass imitating the snake’s eyes since he could not represent the evil look present in her eyes. The writer turns from the external to internal focalization in sentence (8) “The snake’s black eyes were as unforgiving as the plague”. The snake’s black eyes are the focaliser. Typically, a part of something stands for a whole thus, The snake’s black eyes are part of the snake a “synecdoche”. The verb were is identifying the intensive process of token snake and value as unforgiving in the relational process of the transitivity system. The simile as the plague is used to illustrate the image, the writer attempts to compare the new with what the readers know. Deviation occurs in this sentence; the snake has the biggest role. It is supposed to portray Glass’s case in more detail, but the writer focuses on the frightening details of the snake to make the reader understand the situation in the best way and to make the reader enjoy reading the text. In sentence (9) He watched is considered an effective clause since the verb is active, watched is a behavioural process of the behaver He in the ergative model. The verb (10) mesmerized is a mental process of the senser He in the ideational meta-function.

The subject He in sentence (11) “He stared down in horror” is the behaver of the behavioural process stared in the transitivity system. The meronymic reference the rattler’s head in sentence (12) “as the rattler’s head shot forward” is the actor of the material process shot and the noun forward is the goal of this process in the transitivity system. The writer focuses on what is going around her in internal focalization, the transformation from external to internal. In sentence (13) “jaws distended to reveal fangs dripping with poison”, again the meronymic reference jaws is a theme, and “distended to reveal fangs dripping with poison” is a rheme in the textual meta-function since the theme is identified through an initial place, and rheme is identified by a non-initial place. In the transitivity system, the infinitive verb to reveal is a material process of the actor jaws and fangs is the goal of this process. There is a personification in sentence (13) since the writer refers to the parts of a whole as the actor and gives them human characteristics. The verb sunk in sentence (14) “The fangs sunk into Glass’s forearm” is a material process of the actor the fangs and the nominal group into Glass’s forearm is the goal of this process in the ideational meta-function.

The verb in (15) “He screamed in pain” is a behavioural process of the behaver He and in pain. The verb dropped is a material process of the actor the snake in sentence (16) “Finally the snake dropped, its long body perpendicular to Glass’s torso”; the anaphoric reference its and meronymic reference his body are the theme and the rest of the sentence is a rheme in the textual meta-function. Defamiliarization occurs in this text since non-human takes the role of the powerful participant. The verb rewound in sentence (17) “the snake rewound itself” is a behavioural process of the behaver the snake in transitivity system. Foregrounding occurs in this sentence since the writer presents the non-human participants as an actor to display the same mind style as the participant human and gives real value to the snake to know its effect on a human. The snake is a theme and the rest of the sentence is a rheme in the textual meta-function. The subject Glass in sentence (18) “Glass couldn’t scream this time” is the behaver of the behavioural process in transitivity system (ideational meta-function). In the interpersonal meta-function, couldn’t is the modal auxiliary of modalization. In the polarity system, sentence (18) is negative. The serpent in sentence (19) “The serpent had buried its fangs in his throat” is the actor of the material process had buried and in his throat is the goal of the ideational meta-function. Deviations are used frequently in this extract where the animal takes the role of the actor so that it can do anything just like humans to catch the addressee’s attention and to immerse within the text. Personification occurs in this sentence since non-humans take active participants.

At the end of this scene, the novelist shifts the roles. Instead of being an aggressive attacker in Glass’s Nightmare, the snake becomes the reason for his survival in reality. The main clause in sentence (20) “The Glass’s next challenge” is a token of identifying the relational process and the value of this process is to gut it out. Thus, the author gives prominence to the role of nature as a motherly figure for humans.

Extract 5: Chapter 8 (1) Glass crawled cautiously toward the snake, the imagery of his horrific dream still vivid. (2) He moved to within six feet, stopping to pick up a walnut-size rock. (3)With his left hand, he rolled the rock, which skipped toward the snake, bumping its body. (4) The snake didn’t move. (5) Glass picked up a fist-size rock and (10) crawled within reach. (6) Too late, the snake made a sluggish move toward cover. (7) Glass smashed the rock on its head, beating the serpent repeatedly until he was certain it was dead (Punke, 2002, p. 68).

After killing the snake, Glass reaches the starvation point and has only one solution, which was only to eat raw meat. There is no food in front of him other than the rattlesnake. Glass wanted to survive and overcome death despite his deep wounds. In the beginning, the snake acts as an enemy and must be defeated, then, the snake becomes prey that stops his hunger and saves him from starvation. Glass, at the height of his pain, was wrestling with the snake to benefit from its flesh. In this text, eco-words: The snake, the rock, the serpent.

The verb crawled in sentence (1) “Glass crawled cautiously toward the snake” is the material process of the actor Glass and the nominal group toward the snake is a circumstance of place in the ideational meta-function. The dependent clause in sentence (1) “the imagery of his horrific dream still vivid” is a theme and the rest of the sentence is a rheme in the textual meta-function. still vivid. The subject He in sentence (2) He moved … . is the actor of the material process moved in the ergative model. The non-finite verb stopping in sentence (2) “stopping to pick up a walnut-size rock” is a behavioural process of the behaver He in the ideational meta-function. An infinitive verb to pick up is a material process of the actor He and a walnut-size rock is the goal of this process in transitivity system. Deviation can be found in sentence (3) “With his left hand, he rolled the rock”. There is a deviation in grammatical structure since the writer does not put the subject at the beginning of the sentence. The noun his left hand is a meronymic reference to Glass since it is a part of the whole (Glass); the sentence begins without the subject to make deviation and out of the norm that the readers know. The verb rolled is the material process of the actor he and the rock is the goal of this process in the ideational meta-function. The verb skipped in the subordinate relative clause “which skipped toward the snake” is the material process of the actor the rock. Moreover, the ing participle non-finite verb bumping in sentence (3) “bumping its body” is the material process of the actor the rock and the meronymic reference its body is the goal in the transitivity system.

In the interpersonal meta-function, the sentence (4) “The snake didn’t move” is considered a negative sentence in the polarity system. In the ideational meta-function, the verb move is the material process of the actor the snake in the ergative model. The subject Glass in sentence (5) “Glass picked up a fist-size rock” is the actor of the material process picked up; a fist-size rock is the goal of this process in the transitivity system. The verb crawled in sentence (5) crawled … . is the material process of the actor Glass in transitivity system. The point of the departure Too late is the theme in sentence (6) “Too late, the snake made a sluggish move toward cover” and the rest of sentence is rheme in the textual meta-function.

The subject Glass in (7) “Glass smashed the rock on its head” is the actor of the material process; and meronymic reference its head is the goal of this process in transitivity system. Its is an anaphoric reference to the snake. In the ideational meta-function, the verb beating is the material process of the actor Glass in sentence (7) “beating the serpent repeatedly until”; the goal of this process is the serpent in transitivity system. The subject he is carrier of the attributive intensive process was in sentence (7) “he was certain”; certain is the attribute in the relational process of transitivity system. In sentence (7) “it was dead”, the lexical reference it (refers to the snake) is the carrier of the intensive attributive relational process was; dead is the attribute of this process. Accurate details about the scene of the conflict between Glass and the snake are provided by the author to make the readers imagine the terrifying scene and live the situation and focusing more on the role of the snake than the role of the main character (Glass) with the pain and wounds he suffers.

Extract 6: Chapter 10 (1) He thrust the torch toward the wolf with one ear. (2) Flames singed the animal’s face and it jumped backward with a yelp. (3) The white wolf leapt at Glass’s flank, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. (4) Glass pivoted, craning his neck to keep the wolf off his throat. (5) Only a few inches separated Glass’s face from the wolf’s, and he could smell the animal’s bloody breath. (6) Glass struggled again to keep his balance. (7) He swung his arms around to bring the flames in contact with the wolf, burning the animal’s belly and groin. (8) The wolf released its grip on his shoulder, retreating a step (Punke, 2002, p. 88).

Glass reaches the Grand River crawling, despite the wounds, pain, and hunger, he keeps fighting. Surprisingly, a large number of animals appear behind the river. He sees many wolves, a large bull, and a calf. The animals seem to congregate in front of him. Glass observes the wolf devouring his prey, the calf. He needs food to gain enough energy to crawl over to Kiowa. Out of despair, he makes up his mind to challenge the wolves to get food to complete his journey. He decides to attack the wolves with a flame of fire because he is left with no weapons. The battle between Glass and the White Wolf begins and ends with Glass winning. The author builds a scenario of a battle between a man and animals into the narrative to portray a scene of survival in the natural world.

In sentence (1) “He thrust the torch toward the wolf with one ear” the verb thrust is a material process of the actor He and the goal of this process is the torch. The verb signed in sentence (2) “Flames singed the animal’s face and it jumped backward with a yelp” is intermediate between material and relational processes of the actor and token Flames in the transitivity system. The goal of the material process and value of the relational process is a meronymic reference the animal’s face in the ideational meta-function. The intransitive verb jumped is a material process of the actor it and backward is the circumstance of this process.

In sentence (3) “The white wolf leapt at Glass’s flank, sinking its teeth into his shoulder” the verb leapt is a material process of the actor The white wolf and at Glass’s flank is the goal of this process in transitivity system. In the textual meta-function, The white wolf is a theme and the rest of the sentence is a rheme since the writer puts the animal in the point of the departure to make it more prominent than others. The nouns Glass’s flank, its teeth, his shoulder are meronymic references.

At the narratological level, the narrator explains the struggle between man and animals by using the parts of the body such as the animal’s face or Glass’s flank and so on. Events and thoughts are explained from the point of view of the focalizer. Therefore, in this extract, Glass is considered a focalizer since the narrator uses the third person to provide the scene. Internal focalization refers to the character who embodies the scene. This means that the author accesses the thoughts, emotions, desires, and feelings of the characters. In sentence (4) “Glass pivoted, craning his neck to keep the wolf off his throat”, theme is Glass pivoted and the rest of the sentence is rheme in the textual meta-function. The verb Pivoted is a material process of the actor Glass in the ergative model. The infinitive verb keep off is a behavioural process of the behaver Glass in the ideational meta-function. The noun his neck and his throat are meronymic references to Glass. In sentence (5) “Only a few inches separated Glass’s face from the wolf’s, and he could smell the animal’s bloody breath”, in the textual meta-function, the theme is “Only a few inches separated Glass’s face from the wolf’s” and the rheme is the rest of the sentence. The theme always takes the initial position thus, the narrator sets forth this information at the beginning of the sentence to make it more effective for the addressee. Glass’s face is synecdoche since the part of the body (face) refers to the whole (Glass). In sentence (6) “Glass struggled again to keep his balance”, the verb struggled is the mental process of the senser Glass and “again to keep his balance” is the phenomena of this process in the transitivity system of the ideational meat-function. The infinitive verb to keep is the behavioural process of the behaver Glass in the transitivity system.

In sentence (7) “He swung his arms around to bring the flames in contact with the wolf, burning the animal’s belly and groin”, the verb swung is the material process of the actor He and his arm is the goal of this process in the ideational meta-function. The subject He is the actor of the material process to bring (infinitive verb) and the goal of this process is the flames in the transitivity system. The nouns the animal’s belly and groin represent a meronymic reference to the wolf. In sentence (8) “The wolf released its grip on his shoulder, retreating a step”, the subject the wolf is the actor, and the theme of the material process released and the goal is its grip of the place circumstance on his shoulder. The narrator conveys what the wolf sees, feels, acts, and behaves in the situation.

To summarize what is discussed in the analysis, the writer gives the power to non-humans (animals for instance here in this study, bear, snake, and wolf (part of nature) to catch the readerʹs attention and to make defamiliarization in a text. The novelist presents the grizzly bear, the snake, and the wolves as active agents. He gives them the pronouns of human participants such as her and she. Hence, an impression of how animals have power over humans is portrayed. Finally, the six extracts depict that non-humans have power over human participants. These findings are in line with Goatly’s (2017) and Zurru’s (2017).

Syntactically speaking, language patterns are investigated by referring to the syntactic level wherein different types of the verbs such as material, relational, existential, and behavioral processes are identified. In addition to the theme and rheme, modality and polarity are exploited. Moreover, foregrounded features such as meronymic references, internal focalization, foregrounding (parallelism), deictic elements, personification, analogy, and cataphoric reference are deployed.

As a result, the writer conveys an important idea that the agency (the activity) is not limited to human beings. The writer shifts the readers’ attention and perception from individual actors and entities to the relationships between them. This is illustrated by the high frequency of the material process in comparison to other process types. The agentive roles are interchangeable between human and non-human participants. Punke’s narrative technique allows readers to explore how non-human participants play a fundamental, active, and purposeful role in the making of the human world. The transitivity system identifies the many process kinds that are understood in the language as well as the grammatical constructions that represent them. Finally, the narrator focuses on the role of a non-human participant and how a non-human participant moves, runs, walks, etc. Secondly, mental process; the protagonist takes the entire role of this process. In contrast, the narrator focuses on the mentality of Glass and how he thinks, sees, hears, feels, etc. This depicts Glass’s mind style and how he is affected by the narrative world to make the interaction between the text and the reader.

6. Conclusion

The analysis of the six selected extracts from The Revenant is presented by providing linguistic evidence from the text. The study tried to focus on answering three questions. As for the first research question “What are the ecostylistic features in the selected novel?” findings show that nature and its elements play a role as a powerful participant in depicting the events of the novel since it is the savior and life-threatening actor for the main character. These ecostylistic elements are represented by the use of eco or marker works (for example, names of animals, setting of the events, … etc) throughout the narrative events. Other features in nature are given prominence through the use of figurative devices such as onomatopoeia (sounds of animals such as growl, rattler, yelp, and bawling) in addition to personification.

Moreover, findings pertaining to the second research question “What are the main language patterns that reveal authorial style in portraying the role of eco elements in the events?” the analysis reveals the excessive use of meronymic references, parts of the body to describe the conflict between participants. Concerning the last question “what are the main non-human environmental participants that affect the main character in the literary context?” the analysis reveals that non-human participants in the novel are given active and agentive roles. This study is concerned with the roles performed by non-human/environmental entities. Additionally, a close reading of texts continues to be the foundation of stylistic analysis. The methodological and theoretical research produced by (eco)stylistics and related fields (like SFG), is capable of offering valuable information on how the meaning of that text is understood. However, taking context and co-text into account comes after the linguistic analysis rather than before it. In other words, rather than the other way around, co-text and context complement the linguistic analysis. Furthermore, mind style as can be seen in extracts where the language choices used in relation to process type and agency create a contrast between non-human active participants and human non-active participants. The conflict between human and non-human are linguistically constructed as a major force of nature hostile. Finally, as the investigation has demonstrated, various language decisions by the narrator to show non-human power as a major force that humans encounter. The above-mentioned concluding points or insights make readers, and researchers understand the ways how the author creates a fictional world out of word choices in addition to language features based on foregrounded elements. The use of verb categories enables readers to know the power of participants whether human or non-human. To sum up, this paper presented an attempt to investigate ecological thematic issues revealed through the language of fiction as exemplified in the analysis of the selected novel. Thus, more attempts are encouraged to discover more about textual stylistic choices to demonstrate the agency and powerful role of nature in various types of texts. Nature is not a mere inactive non-human participant. It has a huge effect on the existence of human beings thus, it should be protected and its resources must be appreciated.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zahraa Adnan Mohamed

Zahraa Adnan a researcher graduated from the Department of English/ College of Education for Women/University of Baghdad. Her research interests include Stylistics, and Linguistics.

Eman Adil Jaafar

Eman Adil Jaafar is Assistant Professor of linguistics at the Department of English/ College of Education for Women/University of Baghdad. Her research interests include but are not restricted to stylistics, corpus and cognitive stylistics and applied linguistics.