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Article published In: Language, Context and Text
Vol. 7:1 (2025) ► pp.119–146

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Measurement of lexical ecology

An ecolinguistic approach

ORCiD logo with link | Dongguan University of Technology, China
Published online: 5 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.24004.mo
Abstract
From an ecolinguistic approach, this paper applies the framework of lexical ecology to analyse the vitality, evolution, and competition of six Chinese eating verbs—Shí (食), Fàn (饭), Cān (餐), Dàn (啖), Rú (茹), and Chī (吃)—across different historical and linguistic contexts. By integrating the concepts of lexical niche breadth and overlap, the study quantitatively examines how these verbs have survived, evolved and competed from Old Chinese (Stage 1 texts) to Modern Chinese (Stage 4 texts). The results show that Shí and Chī, with wide lexical niches (1.6238 and 1.4560, respectively), exhibit the highest vitality and sustainable trends; Cān and Dàn fall into the medium niche category (1.4434 and 1.3026), displaying moderate vitality and sustainability; in contrast, Rú and Fàn, with narrower niches (1.2765 and 1.2379), demonstrate lower vitality and reduced sustainability. Temporal, spatial and functional niche analysis reveals that the primary competition exists between Shí and Chī, with Shí dominating earlier periods (Stages 1 and 2) and Chī dominating later periods (Stages 3 and 4). The lexical overlap index between these two verbs is notably low (0.0478), indicating minimal synchronic competition in their earlier stages, while Cān and Rú have the highest overlap (0.9821), suggesting both stronger synchronic and diachronic competition. The study highlights the impact of social, historical and regional environments on lexical evolution. By providing a novel framework for measuring the dynamics of lexical evolution, which entails a thorough investigation into how words adapt, compete and survive, this study provides valuable insights into the fields of ecolinguistics and language change.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Language ecology and lexical niche
    • 2.2Ecolinguistics: A systematic and holistic approach
  • 3.Data and methodology
    • 3.1Research object
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Statistical instruments
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Vitality and competitiveness of the six eating verbs
    • 4.2Temporal niche breadth and overlap
    • 4.3Spatial niche breadth and overlap
    • 4.4Functional niche breadth and overlap
    • 4.5Lexical acknowledgement and its driving factors of the six eating verbs
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
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