Images of Anti-Temporality: An Essay in the Anthropology of Experience

1982 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Turner
Keyword(s):  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Lecture Series ◽  
Definition Of

Let me explain the jagged, cacophonous title of this talk, which must jar on ears expectant of a disquisition on immortality, the leitmotiv of the Ingersoll lecture series. By “anti-temporality” I denote that which is opposite in kind to being temporal, that is, pertaining to, concerned with, or limited by time. By “time” I provisionally accept the first definition offered by the Oxford English Dictionary: “A limited stretch or space of continued existence, as the interval between two successive events or acts or the period through which an action, condition or state continues: a finite portion of ‘time’.” Here, however, I would detect a certain ambiguity in the phrase, “interval between two successive events or acts,” for such intervals may, in many societies, be culturally detached from natural or logical sequentiality and formed into a domain governed by anti-temporality. Here the very definition of time implies its opposite.

Echohistoricism: Aristotle, Dryden, Montgomery, Conrad

Romanticism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-293
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
John Dryden ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Critical Dialogue ◽  
Lecture Series ◽  
Narrative Frame ◽  
Definition Of

The contingencies of military decisions and their outcomes have always shaped the course of literary history, determining even the languages in which it has been conducted. But modern literature takes a new bearing on its determinant military contingencies. This paper describes a modern literary scene that self-reflexively attributes to literature the potential to suspend these determining military events, and so to communicate the unactualised possibilities contained in past contingencies, even those that have been violently foreclosed. It is a scene of interested observers, adrift in a boat, who listen for the sounds of a distant naval battle. Having first located this scene's classical antecedents in Aristotle, I then track it through three pivotal and distinctively modern moments of literary self-periodization. In each instance, the scene is differently configured, articulating a specific conjuncture of war, textuality and literary self-definition. It appears in John Dryden as the setting of a modern critical dialogue on theatre, with James Montgomery as a Romantic definition of the poetry of sound in a lecture series on literature, and with Joseph Conrad as the narrative frame of a modernist tale within a tale. But the same scene re-echoes in all three – the scene of literary inscription as one in which, contingently, a war neither did nor did not take place, a battle was and was not fought.

scholarly journals Authentic Montessori: The Dottoressa’s View at the End of Her Life Part I

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeline S Lillard ◽  
Virginia McHugh
Keyword(s):  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Educational Methods ◽  
Maria Montessori ◽  
Social Features ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
Definition Of

Maria Montessori developed a form of education in the first half of the last century that came to be called by her surname, and research indicates it often has positive outcomes. In the years since its development, tens of thousands of schools worldwide have called their programs Montessori, yet implementations vary widely, leading to confusion about what Montessori edu­cation is. Although there are varied opinions, here we use Dr. Montessori’s books and transcribed lectures to describe the conclusions of her work at her life’s end. We term this final conclusion authentic in the sense of “done in the traditional or original way,” (the primary definition of the adjective in Oxford English Dictionary, 2019). We do not claim that the original is superior to variants; this is an issue for empirical science. Our overarching goal is to provide researchers, policy makers, administrators, teachers, and parents with a benchmark from which to measure and evaluate variations from the education method Dr. Montessori bequeathed at the end of her life. In the ongoing search for alternative educational methods, the time-honored and burgeoning Mon­tessori system is of considerable interest. Dr. Montessori conceptualized the system as a triangle for which the environment, the teacher, and the child formed the legs. Part I of this two-part article examines Dr. Montessori’s view of what constitutes the environment, in terms of its material, tem­poral, and social features. An appendix to Part II summarizes the features. In the ongoing search for alternative educational methods, the time-honored and burgeoning Montessori system is of considerable interest. Dr. Montessori conceptualized the system as a triangle for which the environment, the teacher, and the child formed the legs. Part I of this two-part article examines Dr. Montessori’s view of what constitutes the environment, in terms of its material, temporal, and social features. An appendix to Part II summarizes the features.

Epiphany

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Hu
Keyword(s):  
James Joyce ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Definition Of

The standard Oxford English Dictionary definition of ‘epiphany’ refers to ‘an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity’ — and in particular the divine ‘manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi’. James Joyce (1882–1941), however, popularized the term to describe not just religious manifestations, but secular, everyday and even banal revelations.

The Chinese Lexicon: A Comprehensive Survey. By Yip Po-Ching. [London and New York: Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-15174-0.]

2002 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 477-502
Author(s):  
Hugh D. R. Baker
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Alphabetical Index ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Simple Definition

The simple definition of “lexicon” in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary is “dictionary.” Unlike a dictionary, though, the words in this work cannot be consulted through an alphabetical index, the only access being afforded by the chapter headings and subheadings of the three-page Contents list at the front. It does not pretend to be nor is it a dictionary, it is a systematic attempt to classify and in part to explain the typology and functions of the word stock of Chinese. The Index is a guide to the descriptors rather than to the material described.

Irritability as a Symptom in Manic-Depressives

1937 ◽  
Vol 83 (342) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Mayer-Gross
Keyword(s):  
Affective State ◽  
Time Factor ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
External Stimulus ◽  
Slow Time ◽  
Emotional Quality ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Open Question

Irritability is used in this paper in its popular sense as “the quality or state of being easily annoyed or excited to anger”, according to the definition of the Oxford English Dictionary. I leave it an open question how far other meanings of the word—especially “the condition of being excessively or morbidly excitable by or sensitive to the application of an external stimulus”—have anything to do with the definition of irritability as an affective state. A detailed description of the specific emotional quality of irritability would be of little help to someone who had never experienced it. Irritability might be characterized by its accelerated time factor (in contrast, e.g., to sadness, with its slow time factor), by its tension and proneness to release in outward expressions, and by its unrest. But all such characteristics are only descriptions of the same happening looked at from different angles.

Romantic Love in Classical Times?

Ramus ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Rudd
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Love Poetry ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
Definition Of

I start with four quotations: (1) ‘That all European poetry has come out of the Provençal poetry written in the twelfth century by the troubadours of Languedoc is now accepted on every side.’ [The writer is talking of love poetry.] (2) The passion and sorrow of love were an emotional discovery of the French troubadours and their successors.’ (3) ‘French poets in the eleventh century discovered or invented, or were the first to express, that romantic species of passion which English poets were still writing about in the nineteenth.’ (4) ‘The conception of romantic love which has dominated the literature, art, music, and to some extent the morality of modern Europe and America for many centuries is a medieval creation.’ Those words come from a Frenchman, a German, and Englishman and a Scot — namely Denis de Rougemont, E. R. Curtius, C. S. Lewis, and Gilbert Highet — a distinguished quartet, not lacking in knowledge or influence. The view they represent has met with little opposition and is, in fact, so widely held that it may be regarded as orthodox. The layman finds it all the easier to accept in that ‘romantic love’ is readily connected with the first definition of ‘romance’ given by the Oxford English Dictionary, namely The vernacular language of France as opposed to Latin’.

(3) a desire to compromise, or a need to compromise, to ensure that major aspects of the draft statute get through the legislative process, and are not blocked by the opposition within, or external to, the government. In the Court of Appeal in Mandla v Dowell Lee, Lord Denning looked at the history of the word ‘ethnic’, charting its meaning and usage through three editions of the Oxford English Dictionary (1890, 1934, 1972). However, he always argued that words do not and cannot have a literal meaning and yet, here, in a highly contentious case, he traced the history of words. He noted that, in its original Greek form, ‘ethnic’ meant ‘heathen’ and was used by the translators of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek to mean nonIsraelite, or gentile. Earlier in this text, in Chapter 2, we considered the issue of the use of the phrase ‘the original Greek’. He identified the first use of ‘ethnic’ in English as describing people who were not Christian or Jewish. Lord Denning referred to the 1890 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary to confirm this etymology. He then referred to the 1934 edition, stating that its meaning had, by then, changed to denote ‘race, ethnological’. This is hardly surprising as the great anthropological expeditions of the 1920s and 1930s introduced the idea of ethnography as the descriptions of unknown groupings of people. His Lordship stated that the 1934 version indicated that ‘ethnic’ meant ‘divisions of races’ and, as far as he was concerned, this was right. This is, of course, a highly dubious and subjective viewpoint. But a judge has the power, via language analysis, to make a choice between what is, and what is not, right. Indeed, this is the judge’s task. The court has to decide. Finally, he referred to the 1972 version of the dictionary, which gave a wider definition of ‘ethnic’. It was this definition that was relied upon by the plaintiff’s counsel. Here, ‘ethnic’ was defined as relating to: …common racial, cultural, religious, or linguistic characteristics, especially designating a racial or other group within a larger system. Lord Denning then turned to discuss ‘origins’ for, as used in s 3 of the Race Relations Act, ‘ethnic’ appears in a small phrase including the word ‘origins’ (‘or ethnic or national origins’). Turning again to the dictionary, noting its usage with parentage he decides that it meant, as in previous case law, ‘a connection arising at birth’. ‘Origin’, he said, therefore meant a group with a common racial characteristic. His Lordship reconsidered the entire phrase as used in s 3: …a group of persons defined…by reference to…ethnic…origins. He concluded that the group must be distinguishable from another by a definable characteristic. Re-reading his judgment in the Court of Appeal, it is noticeable that he constantly used the words he is supposed to be defining in the definitions. Yet, Lord Denning’s normally preferred technique was the teleological, the mischief or the purposive rule. He may have reasoned in a manner more in keeping with the Race Relations Act if he had used his favourite technique of the purposive approach.

2012 ◽  
pp. 120-120
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Draft Statute ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Court Of Appeal

scholarly journals Urban catalysts in theory and practice

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 295-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Davis
Keyword(s):  
Urban Renewal ◽  
Chemical Reaction ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Definition Of

This paper involves an analysis of the role of architectural projects which can be defined as ‘catalysts’ to urban renewal. The aims of this paper are twofold and the paper is divided accordingly into two main parts. The first aim is to discuss, with reference to the work of a number of urban and architectural thinkers, a range of ways in which the term ‘urban catalyst’ has been both conceptualised and applied. Discussion is structured in relation to the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of a ‘catalyst’ in the field of chemistry as,[a] substance that when present in small amounts increases the rate of a chemical reaction or process but which is chemically unchanged by the reaction; a catalytic agent. (A substance which similarly slows down a reaction is occas. called a negative catalyst.)

“Everyone Is Just Waiting”

Hold On ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 3-28
Author(s):  
Peter Toohey
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter focuses on the experience of waiting rather than on the situation. Here is the author’s definition of waiting (with a little thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary online): “waiting entails the emotional experience of a situation that involves staying where you are until a particular time or event or until the arrival of a particular person—or both.” This definition places as much stress on the emotional situation of waiting as it does on the situation. The chapter focuses on three ways of representing this experience: through pairing, pausing, and fear.

scholarly journals Metonymy

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus-Uwe Panther
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Oxford English Dictionary ◽  
The World ◽  
Figure Of Speech ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Eu Commission ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Associative Link

Metonymy (Greek μετωνυμία, Latin denominatio) has been known as a rhetorical trope since Greek antiquity. The online Oxford English Dictionary defines this trope as “[a] figure of speech characterized by the action of substituting for a word or phrase denoting an object, action, institution, etc., a word or phrase denoting a property or something associated with it [ . . . ].” In modern linguistics, especially cognitive linguistics, metonymy (like metaphor) is considered as not just a rhetorical trope used for various stylistic purposes, but as a figure of thought (referred to as “conceptual metonymy”). Metonymies are usually notated as source for target (i.e., the conventional meaning of a word or expression functions as the source vehicle for accessing a target meaning) as in the newspaper headline Brussels Proposes EU Antideforestation Fund, where the city of Brussels stands for the target meaning “the EU commission (located in Brussels)”. The relationship between the source and the target meaning of a metonymy is usually characterized as one of association or contiguity. In contrast, metaphor is normally represented as target is source, a notation indicating that the target meaning of a metaphor is conceptually organized like the source (e.g., in Shakespeare’s famous metaphor the world is a stage—see separate Oxford Bibliographies article “Cognitive Linguistics” by Vyvyan Evans). There is no unified conception of metonymy, but most scholars agree that metonymy involves an associative link between two meaning components within one conceptual domain or frame, whereas metaphor is constituted by usually multiple mappings across two domains or frames. It has, however, to be noted that no completely satisfactory definition of what constitutes one domain or frame in contrast to distinct domains or frames has been provided thus far. Given these definitional problems, the categories “metonymy” and “metaphor” should not be regarded as “classical” Aristotelian categories in the sense of being definable by a set of necessary and jointly sufficient properties, but as prototypes with central and more peripheral members and fuzzy boundaries.

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