Lethal lullabies

2021 ◽  
pp. 279-288
Author(s):  
Michael Obladen
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Human Infant ◽  
Grocery Stores ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Excessive Crying ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Hague ◽  
Willingness To Use

Poppy extract accompanied the human infant for more than three millennia. Motives for its use included excessive crying, suspected pain, and diarrhoea. In antiquity, infantile sleeplessness was regarded as a disease. Dabbing maternal nipples with bitter substances and drugging the infant with opium were used to hasten weaning. Opiates joined the treatment of difficult teething in the 17th century. Foundling hospitals and wet nurses used them extensively. With industrialization, private use was rampant among the working class. In German-speaking countries, poppy extracts were administered in soups and pacifiers. In English-speaking countries, proprietary drugs containing opium were sold at the doorstep or in grocery stores. Opium’s toxicity for infants was common knowledge, but the willingness to use it in infants persisted and physicians continued to prescribe it for babies. Intoxication became a significant factor in infant mortality. As late as 1912, the International Opium Convention signed at The Hague forced governments to implement legislation which effectively curtailed the access to opium and broke the dangerous habit of sedating infants.

Lethal Lullabies

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Obladen
Keyword(s):  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Hague Convention ◽  
Human Infant ◽  
Grocery Stores ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Excessive Crying ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Willingness To Use ◽  
Medical Treatises ◽  
The 19Th Century

Poppy extract accompanied the human infant for more than 3 millenia. Motives for its use included excessive crying, suspected pain, and diarrhea. In antiquity, infantile sleeplessness was regarded as a disease. When treatment with opium was recommended by Galen, Rhazes, and Avicenna, baby sedation made its way into early medical treatises and pediatric instructions. Dabbing maternal nipples with bitter substances and drugging the infant with opium were used to hasten weaning. A freerider of gum lancing, opiates joined the treatment of difficult teething in the 17th century. Foundling hospitals and wet-nurses used them extensively. With industrialization, private use was rampant among the working class. In German-speaking countries, poppy extracts were administered in soups and pacifiers. In English-speaking countries, proprietary drugs containing opium were marketed under names such as soothers, nostrums, anodynes, cordials, preservatives, and specifics and sold at the doorstep or in grocery stores. Opium’s toxicity for infants was common knowledge; thousands of cases of lethal intoxication had been reported from antiquity. What is remarkable is that the willingness to use it in infants persisted and that physicians continued to prescribe it for babies. Unregulated trade, and even that protected by governments, led to greatly increased private use of opiates during the 19th century. Intoxication became a significant factor in infant mortality. As late as 1912, the International Hague Convention forced governments to implement legislation that effectively curtailed access to opium and broke the dangerous habit of sedating infants.

The Predictive Validity of Assessment Centers in German-Speaking Regions

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Becker ◽  
Stefan Höft ◽  
Marcus Holzenkamp ◽  
Frank M. Spinath
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Assessment Centers ◽  
Credibility Interval ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Intelligence Measures ◽  
Meta Analyses

As previous meta-analyses have focused almost solely on English-speaking regions, this study presents the first systematic meta-analytical examination of the predictive validity of assessment centers (ACs) conducted in German-speaking regions. It summarizes 24 validity coefficients taken from 19 studies (N = 3,556), yielding a mean corrected validity of ρ = .396 (80% credibility interval .235 ≤ ρ ≤ .558). ACs with different purposes and different kinds of criterion measures were analyzed separately. Furthermore, target group (internal vs. external candidates), average age of the assessees, inclusion of intelligence measures, number of instruments used, AC duration, as well as time elapsed between AC and criterion assessment were found to moderate the validity.

From Nowhere to “Partyslava”

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-320
Author(s):  
Peter Barrer
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Past ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
English Speaking

Over the past two decades, Prague has cemented itself as a tourist hotspot in the popular imagination. But what of Bratislava, long considered a “poor cousin” to Prague? What images of Bratislava have foreign publics been presented with since the fall of communism in East-Central Europe and the establishment of the Slovak Republic? Building on previous research which has examined visitors’ historical perceptions of Bratislava primarily from a German-speaking perspective, this paper seeks to map the development of Bratislava’s image in media texts from English-speaking countries since 1989 by focusing on two central motifs: Bratislava as a post-communist space and Bratislava as a locus of touristic pleasures (“Partyslava”). The images presented herein will be evaluated and contrasted with local descriptions of Bratislava, thus offering a cross-cultural perspective which will contribute to the wider discussion of popular perceptions of post-communist urban spaces in East-Central Europe.

The Square Circle of Margaret Cavendish: the 17th-century conceptualization of mind by means of mathematics

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Bertuol
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Margaret Cavendish ◽  
Mathematical Concepts ◽  
Knowledge And Beliefs ◽  
Cognitive Metaphor ◽  
Cultural Choice

The cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff and Turner, 1989) is the basis in this article for investigating the significance of the use of mathematical language, and in particular of the metaphor to square the circle in Margaret Cavendish's poem The Circle of the Brain Cannot be Squared. In the article I begin by introducing Margaret Cavendish as the first 17th-century female poet writing on scientific topics. I then explain how mathematics in the 17th century influenced people's view of reality and the extent to which this is mirrored in poetic language. The theory of cognitive metaphor provides the framework for the elucidation of mathematical concepts used to explain 'unknown' realities like mind and emotions and, in particular, of the central metaphor to square the circle in Cavendish's poem. A brief overview of the criteria of Lakoff and colleagues for analysing metaphors shows that the apparently extravagant metaphor to square the circle was simply a novel poetic extension of the conceptual metaphor UNIVERSE IS MATHEMATICS that, like other types of metaphors considered by cognitive linguists, is grounded in everyday experience. Further, Werth's (1994) remarks about the reasons behind the poet's use of particular concepts to explain others help highlight another important aspect at the basis of the production of novel metaphors, namely that of 'poetic choice'. Finally, I elaborate on Werth's remarks by drawing attention to what I term cultural choice, that is, to the influence that common knowledge and beliefs shared by the members of a linguistic community exert on the poet's choice of metaphors. The analysis of the poem shows that the topic and language of the poem, as well as the subtext, that is, the length of lines and the stanza form, depend on metaphoric projections from the domain MATHEMATICS. Through the conceptual metaphor NATURE IS MATHEMATICS, Cavendish explains man's attempt to take control over irrationalia such as fancy and female nature. The impossibility of squaring the circle is used as a proof to demonstrate that nature and fancy cannot be restricted and, at the same time, to give Cavendish a hope of acceptance in the male-dominated world.

scholarly journals Der nordische Fremde: Historische Untersuchung des medialen Schwedenbildes im Heiligen Römischen Reich (1500–1721)

Nordlit ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias E. Hämmerle
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Modern Mass ◽  
Great Northern War

Until to the beginning of the 17th century the North was rather an unknown and abstract space for the average German-speaking recipient of early modern mass media (for example illustrated broadsheets, newspapers, pamphlets). In the course of the 17th century due to Denmark’s and Sweden’s participation in the Thirty Years War, the northern regions became a central topic in the early modern mass media and therefore forced the recipient to be more aware of it. In the course of the second half of the 17th century the northern kingdoms became less important for the publicists in the Holy Roman Empire and instead they laid their focus on the politics of French and the Ottoman Empire. Thus, the image of the northerners and their stereotypes, which had been introduced to the German speaking readers in the course of the Thirty Years War, lived on until the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, the Great Northern War (1700–1721) brought the people from the northern regions back to the media landscape of the Holy Roman Empire and about the same time the illustrated broadsheet – an almost antiquated genre of mass media that had struggled with the upcoming of the new modern genre ‘newspaper’ – experienced a kind of a renaissance. The aim of this article is to describe how the northern region, with a focus on Sweden, was depicted in early modern mass media between the 15th and the 18th centuries. I will show continuities and changes of the visual and textual representation of ‘northerners’ and ‘Sweden’ in early modern mass media, which were published in the Holy Roman Empire between around 1500 until the end of the Great Northern War in 1721.

Grammatical morphology in language–impaired children acquiring English or German as their first language: A functional perspective

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Lidner ◽  
Judith R. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Grammatical Morphology ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Impaired Children

ABSTRACTFourteen matched pairs of German-speaking and English-speaking language-impaired children, aged 4;5–6;11, were tested for their knowledge of grammatical morphology and expressive vocabulary, using the Grammatical Closure subtest of the ITPA or its German adaptation, Grammatik in the PET, and the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test or the Aktiver Wortschatztest. Children were matched pairwise on the basis of their chronological age, nonverbal IQ, and scores in a sentence imitation and a sentence production task. As predicted, the German-speaking language-impaired children earned higher scores in grammatical morphology and vocabulary than did the English-speaking children. These findings add to a growing body of literature that documents language-specific sensitivity to particular sorts of syntactic devices. They also suggest that the morphological difficulties seen in English-speaking language-impaired children stem in part from the minor functional role played by these forms during the early language learning years.

Zur Autonomie indirekter Redewiedergabe – Eine diachrone Perspektive

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-101
Author(s):  
Ulrike Demske
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Verbal Mood

Abstract Regarding verbal mood and complementation patterns of reporting verbs, the distinction between direct and indirect reported speech is well established in present-day German. This paper looks into the history of German: Common knowledge has it that both the use of verbal mood as well as the quality of clause linkage undergo considerable changes giving rise to the question how these changes affect the manifestations of indirect reported speech in earlier stages of German. The historical record of the 16th century (with an outlook on the 17th century) shows that the distinction between direct and indirect reported speech is not yet grammaticalized in historical sources at the time. In particular with respect to dependent (in)direct reported speech, both types prefer V2-complements with only verbal mood differentiating between the types. Although present and past subjunctive have a much wider distribution in earlier stages of German, the occurrence of free indirect speech likewise testifies to its increasing use as a marker of indirect reported speech. The growing conventionalization of patterns of indirect reported speech in the course of Early Modern German may be considered as an example for an increase of subjectification in its development.

scholarly journals When “one” can be “two”: Cross-linguistic differences affect children’s interpretation of the numeral one

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-313
Author(s):  
Sarah Dolscheid ◽  
Franziska Schleussinger ◽  
Martina Penke
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Linguistic Difference ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

In English, a lexical distinction is drawn between the indefinite determiner “a” and the numeral “one”. English-speaking children also interpret the two terms differently, with an exact, upper bounded interpretation of the numeral “one”, but no upper bounded interpretation of the indefinite determiner “a”. Unlike English, however, German does not draw a distinction between the indefinite determiner and the numeral one but instead uses the same term “ein/e” to express both functions. To find out whether this cross-linguistic difference affects children’s upper bounded interpretation of “ein/e”, we tested German-speaking children and adults in a truth-value-judgment task and compared their performance to English-speaking children. Our results revealed that German-speaking children differed from both English children and German adults. Whereas the majority of German adults interpreted “ein/e” in an upper bounded way (i.e. as exactly one, not two), the majority of German-speaking children favored a non-upper bounded interpretation (thus accepting two as a valid response to “ein/e”). German-speaking children’s proportion of upper bounded responses to “ein/e” was also significantly lower than English children’s upper bounded responses to “one”. However, German children’s rate of upper bounded responses increased once a number-biasing context was provided. These findings suggest that German-speaking children can interpret “ein/e” in an upper bounded way but that they need additional cues in order to do so. When no such cues are present, German-speaking children differ from both German-speaking adults and from their English-speaking peers, demonstrating that cross-linguistic differences can affect the way speakers interpret numbers.

scholarly journals Babel

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 52-76
Author(s):  
Nina Gładziuk ◽  
Paweł Janowski
Keyword(s):  
17Th Century ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Self ◽  
Public Order ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World

What interests us here is the fact that Babel as a figure of confusion became almost the self-named epithet of 17th-century England. All the participants of the debate that took place during the revolution or the postbellum associated Babel with the conceptual chaos of the civil war. The lively “pamphlet war” then brought a pluralistic forum for public opinion in which all the confused languages of politics were equal. When all could read the Bible, everyone could read the story of Babel in their own way. But nothing could reconcile those who read the divine right of kings in it with those who read the divine right of the people in it. In the 17th century, Babel was seen as a figure of discursive confusion, as the confusion was experienced in the form of fanatical languages of arguing sects. Liberalism, if the English-speaking world is acknowledged to be its cradle, constitutes an attempt to escape the impasse of the discursive Babel via the legalistic means of the state of law. According to Hobbes, the irreversible multitude of languages makes one ask what public order can reconcile nominalism in the sphere of political opinion with the social Diaspora of individuals released from the bonds of status or corporation. How to build a state while one Christian faith is disintegrating into many sects fighting each other? How to build a state in the chronic pluralism of the social world and multifaceted dissociation of the traditional community? This is why Babel as a figure of confusion provides the primary conceptual capacity for the liberal organization of the world.

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