The place of animal subjects in vegan activist discourses. A Systemic-Functional Analysis

Abstract

The Systemic-Functional theory proposed by Halliday and Matthiessen (1999; 2004) is a fundamental tool for the analysis of discursive phenomena circulating in society. In the context of a global environmental, ecological and health crisis, we consider that it is also central to identify, analyze, deconstruct and rethink statements that constitute the ideological positions of those who contribute to the degradation of the planet and the extinction of the species that inhabit it, as well as those who fight to prevent this from happening.
In this context, following the guidelines of (Ghío and Fernández, 2008) and the contributions of the current of ecolinguistics, our work will focus on analyzing the phrases and protest posters of Voicot, a collective of vegan activists. Thus, we will try to account for the role they give to animals in their discourse and within their environmental activism, in relation to the centrality they occupy in the vegan movement as sentient beings and individuals with rights.