A Sign of the Times: Semiotics in Anglo-American Musicology

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 161-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
GILES HOOPER
Keyword(s):  
Critical Account ◽  
Musical Gesture ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Significant Measure ◽  
The Times ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Topic Theory ◽  
The Way ◽  
Emotion And Affect

AbstractThis article provides a critical account of the appropriation of semiotics in Anglo-American musicology, its theoretical and discursive foundations, and its impact on the discipline in the period from the mid-1970s to the present. Starting out from the work of Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Philip Tagg in the 1970s, it traces two principal approaches in music semiotics, here termed the ‘structural–analytical’ and the ‘semantic–interpretative’, which draw in significant measure on, respectively, the Saussurean and Peircean legacies. Both differences of musicological tradition and the wider state of the discipline have a part to play in explaining why semiotics never established itself as a discrete and distinctive subfield in the English-speaking world in the way that it did in continental Europe. But with the increasing currency of, among other concerns, topic theory, theories of emotion and affect, and studies of musical gesture and metaphor, it might be argued that semiotics – or, rather, an interdisciplinary aggregation of approaches that might be termed ‘post-semiotic’ – has never had a stronger presence in anglophone musicology than at the present time.

scholarly journals Changing with the Times: The Evolution of Plain Language in the Legal Sphere

2015 ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Christopher Williams
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Times ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Way

As is well known, the Plain language movement has been influential in a number of areas of public life over the last few decades. Within the legal sphere it has raised general awareness concerning the need to make legal matters and legal documents more comprehensible and accessible to non-experts, particularly in today’s digitalized world where information is freely available to the general public. In this paper my aim is to provide an overview of the way the Plain language movement has evolved in the legal sphere since the 1970s. In particular, I will highlight the following points: (1) the reasons why the Plain language movement came into being; (2) the major successes of plain language in the legal sphere over the last 40 years; (3) the areas where legalese still predominates, and the reasons for the resistance to change; and (4) the way the Plain language movement has adapted to the digitalized world and the implications for future development. My observations will be mainly restricted to the English-speaking world, including international organizations where English is one of the official languages, but I will occasionally make reference to other plain language organizations outside the English-speaking world where this seems relevant. I also provide a list of the major organizations involved in promoting plain language in English in the legal sphere today as a reference guide.

‘Inevitable and Unacceptable?’ Methodological Rawlsianism in Anglo-American Political Philosophy

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Norman
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Parallel Tasks ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
English Speaking World

This article attempts two parallel tasks. First, it gives a sympathetic explication of the implicit working methodology (‘Methodological Rawlsianism’) of mainstream contemporary political theory in the English-speaking world. And second, principally in footnotes, it surveys the recent literature on justification to see what light these debates cast on the tenets of this methodology. It is worth examining methodological presuppositions because these can have a profound influence on substantive theories: many of the differences between philosophical traditions can be traced to their methodologies. My aim is to expose the central features of methodological Rawlsianism in order to challenge critics of this tradition to explain exactly where and why they depart from the method. While I do not defend it at length, I do suggest that methodological Rawlsianism is inevitable insofar as it is basically a form of common sense. This fact should probably lower expectations about the amount of progress consistent methodological Rawlsians are likely to make in grounding comprehensive normative political theories.

THE INFLUENCE OF GERMAN STATE-THEORY ON THE DESIGN OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION

2010 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-699
Author(s):  
Nicholas Aroney
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
German State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
American Political Scientist ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis article draws attention to an important but neglected story about the dissemination of German and Swiss state-theories among English-speaking scholars in the second half of the 19th century and the influence of these ideas on those who designed and drafted the Australian Constitution. In particular, the article focuses upon the theories of federalism developed by the Swiss-born scholar, Johann Caspar Bluntschli, and the Saxon-born Georg Jellinek, and explains their influence, via the British historian, Edward A Freeman, and the American political scientist, John W Burgess, upon the framers of the Australian Constitution. The story is important because it illustrates the way in which constitutional ideas can be transmitted from one social and political context into a very different one, undergoing significant, though often subtle, modifications and adaptations in the process. The story is also important because it sheds light on the way in which the framers of the Australian Constitution came to conceive of the kind of federal system that they wished to see created. The story seems to have been overlooked, however, not only due to a general neglect of the intellectual history of the Australian Constitution, but also due to the assumption that prevailing Australian political and legal ideas were of Anglo-American provenance. While this assumption generally holds true, a closer examination of the intellectual context of Australian federalism reveals a surprisingly significant German influence on the framers of the Australian Constitution.

Theories of Imperialism

1952 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Knorr
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Striking Difference ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Social ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
English Speaking World

Although the term “imperialism” is gaining currency at present, social scientists in the English-speaking world continue to treat with slight interest the phenomena which the term seeks to identify. The authors of the two books under review are of continental European origin. This is hardly an unusual coincidence; the paucity of Anglo-American literature on imperialism contrasts oddly with the prolific stream of writings which has appeared in continental Europe during the last seventy years. One reason for this striking difference lies no doubt in the traditional reluctance of Anglo-American social scientists to generalize about the causation of historical events—and, without such generalization, no theory of imperialism is possible. There is a good deal to be said both for this unwillingness to generalize readily, and against the irrepressible enthusiasm with which European savants construct their sweeping theories. Yet neither can it be denied that the European tradition has produced theories of outstanding and abiding value for the understanding of social and political events. Both Marx and Freud, and many lesser lights, were of this tradition and one need not be Marxist or Freudian to appreciate how immensely their brilliant theories have enriched the social sciences in the Englishspeaking countries.

scholarly journals Teaching the Nation: Literature and History in Teaching English

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-53
Author(s):  
Onoriu Colăcel
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Teaching English as a foreign language is rooted in the national interest of English-speaking countries that promote their own culture throughout the world. To some extent, ‘culture’ is a byword for what has come to be known as the modern nation. Mainly the UK and the US are in the spotlight of EFL teaching and learning. At the expense of other, less ‘sought-after’ varieties of English, British and American English make the case for British and American cultures. Essentially, this is all about Britishness and Americanness, as the very name of the English variety testifies to the British or the American standard. Of course, the other choice, i.e. not to make a choice, is a statement on its own. One way or another, the attempt to pick and choose shapes teaching and learning EFL. However, English is associated with teaching cultural diversity more than other prestige languages. Despite the fact that its status has everything to do with the colonial empire of Great Britain, English highlights the conflict between the use made of the mother tongue to stereotype the non-native speaker of English and current Anglo- American multiculturalism. Effectively, language-use is supposed to shed light on the self-identification patterns that run deep in the literary culture of the nation. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) encompasses the above-mentioned and, if possible, everything else from the popular culture of the English-speaking world. It feels safe to say that the intractable issue of “language teaching as political action” (Cook, 2016: 228) has yet to be resolved in the classrooms of the Romanian public schools too.

The Blumhardts in America

Pneuma ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-273
Author(s):  
Christian T. Collins Winn
Keyword(s):  
American Literature ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Healing Ministry ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Phase ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
English Speaking World

This essay, the first reception history of proto-Pentecostals Johann Christoph Blumhardt and Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt in Anglo-American literature, charts three phases of reception of the Blumhardts in English-speaking circles. The first phase focused on the healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt, which took place primarily in the nineteenth century. The second phase began in the mid-twentieth century and was devoted especially to introducing the Blumhardts to English-speaking readers. It included attempts by theologians and ethicists to appropriate the Blumhardts for constructive theological purposes. The third phase, currently underway, is marked by scholarly assessment of the Blumhardts in their historical setting and by an effort to translate more of the Blumhardt corpus into English. The conclusion offers unsystematic interpretive observations culled from the reception history itself, with an eye to the future appropriation of the Blumhardts in the English-speaking world.

Is legal English “going European”? The case of the simple present

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Williams
Keyword(s):  
Legal Systems ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
World Today ◽  
Legal Writing ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Way ◽  
English I

AbstractIn many countries in continental Europe the simple present is extensively used in main clauses in legislative texts to express obligation. Several English-speaking legal systems have witnessed an increased usage of the simple present in legal English over the last few decades, largely at the expense of shall. I examine the continuing debate among law scholars and writers of legal drafting manuals over the adoption of the simple present in prescriptive texts in English. I conclude by observing that the decision in some countries to do away with shall would appear to be linked principally to socio-pragmatic factors relating to the way this modal auxiliary is perceived in many parts of the English-speaking world today, that is, as being outdated and smacking of “legalese”, a style of legal writing that plain language exponents have been trying to eliminate.

scholarly journals Anglo-American ‘Traditional Islam’ and Its Discourse of Orthodoxy

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 191-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasper Mathiesen
Keyword(s):  
Historical Narratives ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Sunni Islam ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Traditional Islam ◽  
A Current ◽  
Contemporary Islam

Since the late 1980’s a current or denomination that is often referred to as Traditional Islam has crystallised within the broader landscape of Sunni Islam in the English-speaking world. This analysis sheds light on Traditional Islam’s discourses of orthodoxy and orthopraxis, its historical narratives, rhetoric regarding contemporary Islam and how it construes the metastructure of Islam and the Islamic sciences. It is mainly based on essays by Nuh Ha Mim KELLER and Abdul Hakim MURAD and carves out an overview of contemporary Traditional Islam and its central fields of discourse and scholarly contention. Contemporary Traditional Islam’s understanding of Islam is established by reference to the famous ḥadīṯ Jibrīl that speaks of a tripartite structure of the religion consisting of islām, īmān and iḥsān. Through the specification of each of these subfields of revealed knowledge Traditional Islamic discourse instructs its adherents regarding the nature of orthodoxy and its understanding of the Islamic past, present and future. Traditional Islam’s discursive bid for orthodoxy challenges other strands and conceptualisations of normative Islam, not least those predominant within groups and currents associated within salafism, revivalism and reformism.

T. S. Eliot, anti-Semitism, and Hebrew translation

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-267
Author(s):  
Rachel Weissbrod
Keyword(s):  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Foreign Author ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Target Culture ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Way

T. S. Eliot’s early poems, as well as his letters and prose, contain expressions of anti-Semitism. This article deals with the way in which Hebrew translators and others involved in the production of translations, such as scholars contributing introductions, have treated this issue. Based on the premise that the image of a foreign author can be manipulated by the very selection of the texts to be translated, as well as by paratexts such as introductions and footnotes, it examines how Eliot has been presented to the Hebrew readership. Three approaches of presenting Eliot are described. The examination of these approaches leads to the conclusion that Eliot’s expressions of anti-Semitism did not significantly interfere with the construction of his image in the target culture despite the antagonism expressed by some translators and critics. Finally, the paper attempts to explain this indifference, which is particularly striking when compared to the ongoing debate about Eliot’s anti-Semitism in the English-speaking world.

scholarly journals Dr. Schaff and the Episcopal Church

1894 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 20-25
Author(s):  
C. C. Tiffany
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
National Conference ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
The Way ◽  
Public Worship

Concerning the Episcopal Church Dr. Schaff writes as follows, in his “Paper on the Reunion of Christendom,” prepared for the Parliament of Religions and the National Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, held in Chicago September and October, 1893:“The Episcopal Church of England, the most churchly of the Reformed family, is a glorious Church, for she gave to the English-speaking world the best version of the Holy Scriptures and the best Prayer Book; she preserved the order and dignity of the ministry and public worship; she nursed the knowledge and love of antiquity, and enriched the treasury of Christian literature; and by the Anglo-Catholic Revival under the moral, intellectual, and poetic leadership of these shining lights of Oxford, Pusey, Newman, and Keble, she infused new life into her institutions and customs, and prepared the way for a better understanding between Anglicanism and Romanism.”

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