From the bridal letter to online flirting

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-254
Author(s):  
Eva L. Wyss

Over the past two centuries concepts of love, as well as the nature of intimate relations, have undergone modifications. Along with these modifications, the language of desire, the text type of the love letter and love-letter writing practice have changed as well. It is therefore surprising that certain elements of the correspondence between prospective brides and grooms of the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie seem today to be enjoying a comeback on the Internet. Some of the parameters, however, have changed. This essay will explore the similarities and differences of intimate literacy from a historical and pragmatic point of view. On the one hand it will discuss the text type in its pragmatic, textual, stylistic and medial aspects, and on the other hand it will focus on a number of distinct writing practices. The essay arises from a larger book project that investigates the interrelations among literary, social and technological change and persistence. In the context of this larger project, I have assembled a corpus of more than 7,500 love letters (letters, postcards, telegrams, e-mails and text messages) in the Zurich Love Letter Archive (ZLA). The empirical materials discussed here are drawn from this archive.

2021 ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Alexandra Kurakina-Damir

Despite well-founded doubts about the viability of the coalition (which had insufficient support of the deputies for the adoption of important laws), a well-built strategy of political communication during the pandemic allowed the cabinet of ministers not only to withstand, but also to strengthen its positions. Over the past year, a number of strategically important decisions, both from a political and image point of view, have been adopted. The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the legislative process. The solution to the Catalan problem faded into the background. In part, this was due to the need for early parliamentary elections in the region and the alleged regrouping of political forces. The revealed facts of possible financial abuse of the honorary king hurt the image of the Crown, but the measures taken today to restore prestige are bearing fruit. Among the electoral trends noted, it is worth highlighting the strengthening of positions of socialists and rightwing populists (especially following the results of early regional elections in Catalonia), as well as a decline in support for left-wing populism. Ciudadanos' position remains unstable: on the one hand, it managed to slightly regain its position in early 2020, but further growth in support stalled, and poor results in the Catalan elections once again raised the question of whether the party has a future. Conservatives, by contrast, have established themselves as the leader of the bloc. Having lost a share of supporters at the beginning of the study period, they tried with all their might to restore the balance, periodically changing the strategy of actions.


Author(s):  
Juan J. Araujo ◽  
Dawn L. Araujo

The writing practices of adolescent learners are far different from those of their parents and teachers. In 2020, adolescents engage in writing bursts through text messages and chats as they play games or share stories throughout the day with friends and family. It has been challenging for high school teachers to take advantage of these literacy activities in a meaningful way to improve writing skills. In this chapter, the authors focus on two adolescents who are in different grades and hold different views of what counts as writing practice. Still, it is clear that both believe in the importance of engaging in the work of writing to learn. The findings of our case studies suggest that one adolescent, a twelfth grader, sees writing practice as integral to his life. The other, a ninth grader, reports that he only engages in writing at school through formulaic assignments that are often boring and unchallenging. The authors found in their study that storytelling and digital technologies are tools for developing flow, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, engagement, and motivation.


2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilmos Benczik

Language emerges and changes primarily through communication; therefore communication technologies play a key role in the history of language change. The most powerful communication technology from this point of view is phonetic writing, which has a double effect on language: on the one hand it impoverishes suprasegmental linguistic resources; on the other hand it evokes in language a profound and sophisticated semantic precision, and also syntactic complexity. The huge progress in abstract human thought that has taken place over the past three or four centuries has come about on the basis of these linguistic changes. Today, when writing seems to be losing its earlier hegemony over communication, the question arises as to whether this will lead to the erosion of human language, and also of human thought.


1966 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. R. Allchin

To the outside observer the history of Hindu sectarianism often appears as a disorganized tangle, lacking clarity and precision. The whole process is made if anything more complex by the ill-defined relationship of sect and non-sect. As Renou remarks: Though no statistics are available, even for the present day, we have grounds for supposing that the most active sects were themselves only isolated groups within the great body of believers. From another point of view, however, the history is more understandable. A considerable part of sectarian activity during the past 1,500 years has been concerned with the spread and regional development of a single great devotional movement. Seen from this position, the uniformity and theological coherence of the sects, whether they be called Vaiṣṇavite, Śaivite, or by some other name, is remarkable and often overrides the no less real disparities of doctrine or detail at another level. Again, in this process regional variations have arisen in no small measure as a result of the popular character of the writings of particular saints. Thus, for example, Basava or Purandara Dāsa hold pride of place in the Karnāṭka, the one Vīra Śaiva, the other Vaiṣṇava; in Mahārāṣṇra devotion has in no small part been moulded by the thought of Jāân Dev or Tukā Rām; in the Pañjāb by Nānak; and in the Hindī region by Kabīr Dās, Tulsī Dās, and Sūr Dās. Throughout north India the influences which lay behind the movement were largely, but by no means exclusively, Vaiṣṇavite; yet other streams contributed, Śaivite, Buddhist, Tāntrika, Yogī, etc.


2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ciro De Florio ◽  
Aldo Frigerio

The concept of soft facts is crucial for the Ockhamistic analysis of the divine knowledge of future contingents; moreover, this notion is important in itself because it concerns the structure of the facts that depend—in some sense—on other future facts. However, the debate on soft facts is often flawed by the unaware use of two different notions of soft facts. The facts of the first kind are supervenient on temporal facts: By bringing about a temporal fact, the agent can bring about these facts. However, on the one hand, the determination of the existence of these facts does not affect the past; on the other hand, assimilating divine knowledge into this kind of facts does not help the Ockhamist. The authors will argue that, to vindicate Ockhamism, another definition of “soft fact” is necessary, which turns out to be much more demanding from a metaphysical point of view.


Author(s):  
Hanafi bin Dolah ◽  
Rajab Ali Rajab Dowmah

ملخص البحث: كثير ممن كتب في موضوع المصادر قديماً وحديثاً ينسب كلمة للفراء يروونها بروايات متفاوتة ومختلفة، وبها يجعلون من الفراء صاحب مذهب ثان في مسألة القياس والسماع لمصادر الفعل الثلاثي المجرد،  ولقد رصد البحث بعض المؤلفين ممن يستشهد برأي الفراء دون تمحيص أو استقصاء لصدقية نسبة ذلك الرأي للفراء في عبارة فحواها إن الفراء يُجيز القياس مطلقا في مصادر الفعل الثلاثي المجرد، فآثر البحث التفتيش والبحث عن أصل ذلك الرأي المنسوب للفراء من خلال تتبعه في  كتب اللغويين الذين أوردوا رأي الفراء وعبارته في كتبهم، فيسعى البحث إلى استقصاء كلمة الفراء في وزن المصادر الثلاثية من خلال مؤلفات العلماء وما نقلوه عن الفراء في هذا الباب، والتثبت منها، وتلمس الاختلافات بين العلماء في نص عبارة الفراء. ويتخذ البحث من المنهج الوصفي التحليلي منهجاً يدعمه في بحثه هذا. ومن أهم نتائج هذا البحث أن الفراء لم يُطلق القياس في جميع أبواب مصادر الفعل الثلاثي، بل قيّد القياس في مصادر الفعل الثلاثي بعدم السماع، وبذلك يكون الفراء موافقاً لجمهور العلماء، وليس صاحب مذهب مستقل فيها. الكلمات المفتاحية: اللغويون المتأخرون-اللغوين المتقدمون-عبارات الفراء-العلماء القدامى-المصدر في الصرف.   Abstract Many of those who wrote on the topic of derived nouns in the past and present attributes an expression to Al-Farra’ that the narrated with different narrations. They also argued that he was the one who initiated a second school of thought in the problem of analogy and hearing for the derived nouns of trilateral verb form. The study reveals that some writers made his statement as evidence without any effort to verify its authenticity to attribute such statement to him. The alleged statement of Al-Farra’ was that he allows analogy absolutely in derived nouns of trilateral verb form. The study intends to trace and examine the origin of this opinion that was attributed to Al-Farra’ in the books of the linguists who did mention it in their works. The study will look into the similarities and differences of between these works in quoting the view. The study takes on the descriptive and analytical method. Among the most important conclusions of this is that Al-Farra’ was found not to have used analogy on all the chapters of trilateral verb form as claimed but he restricted analogy to be void of hearing, making his view similar with the majority of the scholars, thus he was not initiating his own school of thought as claimed by many. Keywords: Recent linguists, Past linguists, the statement of Al-Farra’, traditional scholars, source in morphology   Abstrak  Ramai yang menulis berkenaan topik kata nama terbitan pada masa dahulu dan sekarang menisbahkan satu petikan ungkapan kepada Al-Farra’ yang diriwayatkan dengan pelbagai riwayat. Mereka juga berhujah bahawa beliaulah yang memulakan satu sekolah pemikiran baharu dalam permasalahan qiyas dan dengar untuk kata nama terbitan daripada bentuk kata kerja tiga serangkai. Kajian ini menunjukkan tentang sebahagian penulis menjadikan pernyataan beliau sebagai bukti tanpa ada usaha untuk mengesahkan kesahihannya untuk mengatakan ia sebenarnya adalah kata-kata beliau. Kenyataan yang didakwa dikeluarkan oelh Al-Farra’ mengatakan bahawa dia membenarkan qiyas secara mutlaknya digunakan dalam kata nama terbitan untuk bentuk kata kerja tiga serangkai. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengesan dan mengkaji asal pendapat ini yang didakwa dikeluarkan Al-Farra’ dalam karangan-karangan para pengkaji bahasa yang menyebutnya di dalam kerja-kerja mereka. Kajian ini akan membongkar persamaan dan perbezaan di antara karangan-karangan ini dalam memetic pendapat tersebut. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif dan analitikal. Di antara kesimpulan terpenting kajian ialah Al-Farra’ didapati telah tidak langusng menggunakan qiyas dalam semua bahagian kata kerja perbuatan tiga serangkai sebagaimana yang di dakwa tetapi sebenarnya membataskan qiyas tanpa mendengar; ini menjadikan pendapat beliau sama dengan pendapat majoriti para sarjana. Oleh itu beliau tidak lah mengasas satu lagi sekolah pemikiran yang baharu sebagaimana yang di dakwa ramai. Kata kunci: Sarjana bahasa terdahulu dan sekarang, kenyataan Al-Farra’, sarjana tradisional, sumber dalam Morfologi.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10671
Author(s):  
Philippa M. Steele

The present paper explores theoretical aspects of the study of writing systems and practices. It approaches the mesh that constitutes writing practice through one type of agent: the writing instrument used to write clay documents in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the one hand, this investigation will use types of writing implements and their distribution to think through wider issues concerning the development of writing practices across the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the other, it will attempt to establish the place of writing implements within a broader conceptual framework of the people, things and actions that constitute writing practices in this area and period.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Matthias Dreyer

Taking into account the intertwining of the theory of tragedy on the one hand and theatrical work on ancient tragic texts on the other, the paper explores the way in which tragedy poses the question of history. This is especially the case in conceptions of tragedy as an interruption in a continuum. Hölderlin’s idea of caesura, its reflection in Benjamin’s understanding of tragedy as a revision of myth are in the center of a critical dramaturgy of this kind. By analysing Brecht’s work on Antigone as well as the stagings of critical theatre makers that came after Brecht (Einar Schleef, Dimiter Gotscheff), the paper shows the consequences of the concept ‘tragedy as caesura‘ on the level of the aesthetics of the theatre, unclosing in a radical way the temporality of the tragic process. From this point of view, tragedy is understood as a site of encounter with the persisting powers of the past; as reflexive rupture in the transition between times, that undermines the established order, but without, however, arriving at a new one. Although in the history of theatre and thought tragedy has been too often associated with the universal and timeless, how is it possible to think of historicity in a way negating submission under the universal without losing the genre of tragedy itself?


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Palavestra

Miloje M. Vasić, "the first academically educated archaeologist in Serbia", has a strange destiny in the Serbian archaeology. On the one hand, he has been elevated to the post of the "founding father" of the discipline, with almost semidivine status and iconic importance, while on the other hand, his works have been largely unread and neglected. This paradoxical split is the consequence of the fact that Vasić has been postulated as the universal benchmark of the archaeological practice in Serbia, regardless of his interpretation of the past on the grounds of the archaeological record – the essence of archaeology. Strangely, the life and work of Vasić have not been the subject of much writing, apart from several obituaries, two short appropriate texts (Srejović, Cermanović), and rare articles in catalogues and collections dedicated to the research of Vinča (Garašanin, Srejović, Tasić, Nikolić and Vuković). The critical analysis of his whole interpretive constellation, with "The Ionian colony Vinča" being its brightest star, was limited before the World War II to the rare attempts to rectify the chronology and identify the Neolithic of the Danube valley (Fewkes, Grbić, Holste). After the war, by the middle of the 20th century, the interpretation of Vasić has been put to severe criticism of his students (Garašanin, Milojčić, Benac), which led to the significant paradigm shift, the recognition of the importance of the Balkan Neolithic, and the establishment of the culture-historical approach in the Serbian archaeology. However, from this moment on, the reception of Vasić in the Serbian archaeology has taken a strange route: Vasić as a person gains in importance, but his works are neglected, though referred to, but almost in a cultic fashion, without reading or interpreting them. Rare is a paper on the Neolithic of the Central Balkans that does not call upon the name of Vasić and his four- volume "Vinča", in which Neolithic is not mentioned at all. This paradox becomes clearer if Vasić is regarded through the prism of the problematic, but not yet challenged and universally praised values in the Serbian archaeology: material, fieldwork and authority, as opposed to interpretation, which is regarded as ephemeral. From this point of view it becomes clear how the image of Vasić grows into the icon of the Serbian archaeology, while his work slides into the domain of the oral tradition, half-truths, and apocryphal anecdotes. Considering that the majority of the Serbian archaeological community shares the belief that there is an absolute archaeological method and "pure" archaeological material, both representing "the data not burdened by theory", the field journals of Vasić and his published works become the source of the "material", while his interpretation of the past is neglected. As long as these "data" are not considered in connection to the whole opus of Vasić, the research questions and strategies that directed his work, the Serbian archaeology will be inhabited by two separate images: one – forefather and founder, the researcher of the Neolithic Vinča, "the first real Serbian archaeologist", whose face gazes at us sternly from the bronze busts and enlarged photographs, and the other – vulnerable and insulted dreamer, convinced in his philhellene delusion. Only the integration of these two images will pay due homage to Miloje M. Vasić.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Cárdenas del Rey

O obxecto principal deste traballo é presentar un conxunto de feitos estilizados sobre opatrón de investimento que amosou a economía española nas derradeiras décadas. Arealización deste tipo de análise é relevante como punto de partida para posterioresestudos sobre o investimento en España, especialmente pola importancia central que teno investimento no crecemento económico. Utilízanse os datos da base BBVA-IVIE pero cunenfoque metodolóxico distinto, máis achegado ás categorías do BEA estadounidense.Grazas a isto, neste traballo apórtase nova evidencia sobre os trazos característicos dopatrón de capitalización, dos que os máis interesantes son: i) Existiu unha “aceleración” nocrecemento entre os dous ciclos expansivos; ii) A nivel de composición técnica, oinvestimento en equipamentos é o que amosou un maior dinamismo; iii) a nivel deaxentes investidores, o investimento corporativo tivo unha gran constancia no seucrecemento, véndose complementado polo “relevo” dos outros axentes, é dicir, oinvestimento das AA.PP: creceu máis no primeiro ciclo expansivo (1981-1993) e oinvestimento dos fogares no segundo (1994-2007), e iv) a nivel sectorial o investimentoconcentrouse en sectores con maior dinamismo en creación de emprego, sendoparadigmático o caso do sector da construción. The main aim of this report is to introduce a set of stylized facts about the investment patterndisplayed by the Spanish economy in the past decades. This type of analysis is relevant as astarting point for further studies on investment in Spain, especially given the importance ofinvestment in economic growth. Information from the BBVA-IVIE database has been used witha different methodological approach, closer to the categories of the American BEA. As a result,new evidence is exposed along with the characteristics of the capitalization pattern, of whichthe most interesting ones are the following: (i) There was an "acceleration" in growth betweenboth expansive cycles. (ii) As far as technical composition is concerned, investment inequipment is the one that has been more dynamic. (iii) From the agent investment point of view,business capitalization has been hugely consistent with growth, being complemented by the"relay" of the other two agents, i.e., the government investment in the first expansionary cycle(1981-1993) and household investment in the second (1994-2007). (iv) At a sectoral level,investment has been concentrated in industries with greater dynamism in terms of job creationand, in this sense, the building industry is paradigmatic.


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