Some Lexicographic and Etymological Notes on 'A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary'

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-324
Author(s):  
Hezy Mutzafi
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Comparative Data ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Lexical Items

Abstract The present article refers to several selected lexical oddities which appear in Yona Sabar's A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary. The article seeks to clarify the etymologies of these lexical items, to refine their definitions whenever necessary, and to offer extensive comparative data related to cognates and missing links in various other Neo-Aramaic varieties, in particular North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects. All lexical items in question are proven to be inherited from pre-modern Aramaic, and five of them appear to be part of the inventory of Akkadian loanwords in NENA and other Aramaic languages. Mere recourse to Classical Aramaic is inadequate for uncovering the origins of most of these lexical items due to far-reaching semantic, phonological and morphological changes that have distanced them from their precursors. In most cases, therefore, a comparative inter-dialectal study is crucial for securing well-founded etyma for these puzzling words. Each etymological discussion specifies the diachronic processes involved in the development of the lexical item under consideration.

Folk Etymology in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-233
Author(s):  
Hezy Mutzafi
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Linguistic Phenomenon ◽  
Aramaic Dialects

Abstract Although folk etymology is a common linguistic phenomenon, it has hitherto hardly been touched upon in lexicological and other works related to varieties of Neo-Aramaic. The present article concerns twelve cases of folk etymology selected from some of the dialects of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA), the largest and most variegated division of modern Aramaic. Among these are three folk-etymological interpretations that did not induce structural or other changes, as well as nine cases of folk-etymological processes that reshaped NENA lexical items.

Through the Lens of the Adam Narrative: A Re-consideration of Sūrat al-Baqara

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.O. Klar
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Dominant Theme ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
A Chain

The thesis of a single pillar or axis around which the longer Medinan suras are structured has been highly influential in the field of sura unity, and scholarship on the structure and coherence of Sūrat al-Baqara has tended to work towards charting the progress of a dominant theme throughout the textual blocks that make up the sura. In order to achieve this, scholars have divided the sura into discrete blocks; many have posited a chain of lexical and thematic links from one block to the next; some have concentrated solely on the hinges and borders between these suggested textual blocks. The present article argues that such methods, while often in themselves illuminating, are by their very nature reductive. As such they can result in the oversight of important elements of the sura. From a starting point of the Adam pericope provided in Q. 2:30–9, this study will focus on the recurrence of a number of its lexical items throughout Sūrat al-Baqara. By methodically tracing the passage of repeated, loosely Fall-related, vocabulary, it will attempt to widen the contextual lens through which the sura's textual blocks are viewed, and establish a broader perspective on its coherence. Via a discussion of the themes of ‘gardens’, ‘parable’, ‘prostration’, ‘covenant’, ‘wrongdoing’ and finally ‘blindness’, this article will posit ‘garments’, not as a structural pillar, but as a pivot around which many of the repeated lexical items of the sura rotate.

scholarly journals Inclusion, Contrast and Polysemy in Dictionaries: The Relationship between Theory, Language Use and Lexicographic Practice

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Anu Koskela
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Corpus

This paper explores the lexicographic representation of a type of polysemy that arises when the meaning of one lexical item can either include or contrast with the meaning of another, as in the case of dog/bitch, shoe/boot, finger/thumb and animal/bird. A survey of how such pairs are represented in monolingual English dictionaries showed that dictionaries mostly represent as explicitly polysemous those lexical items whose broader and narrower readings are more distinctive and clearly separable in definitional terms. They commonly only represented the broader readings for terms that are in fact frequently used in the narrower reading, as shown by data from the British National Corpus.  

The Image of Jews as Constructed by Lexical Items

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-212
Author(s):  
Xiu Gao
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western World ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Original Figure ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Target Culture ◽  
Social Backgrounds

In the Western world, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is controversial due to its stereotypical description of Jews as evil and greedy. In China, the work was not widely known until its translations came out. This article deals with two Chinese renderings of Shakespeare’s classic, by Laura White (1914–1915) and Shiqiu Liang (2001/1936) respectively, which reconstruct the image of Shylock and Jews on the basis of the translators’ perceptions of the original figure, combining their identities and social backgrounds. In imagology, based on the ideas of Pageaux (1989/1994), the image of the ‘other’ can be analysed on three levels: lexical items, larger textual units, and plot. On the face of it, the image of the ‘other’ in translation can originate in either the source or target culture. However, the present article, which focuses on the lexical level, shows that there is a third possibility – a lexicon that blends two or more cultures.

scholarly journals Buszel, Kombajner, and Rels: Fisiak’s 1961 Corpus of English Borrowings in Polish Fifty Five Years Later

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-94
Author(s):  
Radosław Dylewski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
To Come ◽  
Lexical Transfer ◽  
Google Search ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract The onset of Professor Jacek Fisiak’s scholarly career is marked by his 1961 Ph.D. dissertation devoted to the lexical influence of English upon Polish. This study, conducted 55 years ago, offers a multilayered analysis and sets the standards of studies on lexical transfer from English to Polish for the years to come. The present article is a tribute to Fisiak’s first scholarly endeavor; it examines the fate of lexical items comprising Fisiak’s corpus in the second decade of the 21st century. More specifically, by conducting searches in the National Corpus of Polish as well as a Google search, the paper checks which borrowings to the Polish language listed and scrutinized by Fisiak gained popularity, which fell out of use, and which underwent semantic changes.

The Playful Lexicon in the Romance Languages: Prosodic Templates, Onomatopoeia, Reduplication, Clipping, Blending

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pharies
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Repeated Sequences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
Separate Category ◽  
Semantic Effect ◽  
Full Form ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Lexical Items

A lexical item is described as “playful” or “ludic” when it shows evidence of manipulation of the relation that inheres between its form (signifier) and its meaning (signified). The playful lexicon of any given language, therefore, is the sum total of its lexical items that show signs of such manipulation. Linguists have long recognized that the only necessary link between a word’s form and its meaning is the arbitrary social convention that binds them. However, nothing prevents speakers from creating additional, unnecessary and therefore essentially “playful” links, associating forms with meanings in a symbolic, hence non-arbitrary way. This semantic effect is most evident in the case of onomatopoeia, through which the phonetic form of words that designate sounds is designed to be conventionally imitative of the sound. A second group of playful words combines repeated sequences of sounds with meanings that are themselves suggestive of repetition or related concepts such as collectivity, continuity, or actions in sequence, as well as repeated, back-and-forth, or uncontrolled movements, or even, more abstractly, intensity and hesitation. The playfulness of truncated forms such as clips and blends is based on a still more abstract connection between forms and meanings. In the case of clipping, the truncation of the full form of a word triggers a corresponding connotative truncation or diminution of the meaning, that is, a suggestion that the referent is small—either endearingly, humorously, or contemptuously so. In blending, truncation is often accompanied by overlapping, which symbolically highlights the interrelatedness or juxtaposition of the constituents’ individual meanings. Prosodic templates do not constitute a separate category per se; instead, they may play a part in the formation or alteration of words in any of the other categories discussed here.

scholarly journals Paronomastic Infinitives in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic: A Typological Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-299
Author(s):  
Alessandro Mengozzi ◽  
Emanuele Miola
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Functional Variation ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Typological Approach

Abstract In the present article we aim to describe the distribution and functions of preposed and postposed paronomastic infinitives in literary and spoken varieties of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA). In the first part, the syntax and the function(s) of constructions involving a paronomastic infinitive will be described from a typological point of view. Syntactic and functional variation of NENA paronomastic infinitives largely corresponds to what is found in other Semitic languages, as well as in many languages belonging to other families. In the second part of the article we will address the rendering of Biblical Hebrew and Classical Syriac paronomastic infinitives in NENA Bible translations and offer a survey of various constructions found in spoken varieties and in the language of early Christian Neo-Aramaic poetry.

La Présentation des Néologismes

Babel ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Serrano Cabezas ◽  
Pablo Jesús Sanz Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Direct Influence ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Functional Value ◽  
Lexical Items

Although the presentation of neologisms is the last step to be taken in the translation of new lexical items in scientific and technical texts, it has a significance which should not be overlooked. In the same way as the neologism itself, typography (quotation marks, italics, etc.), explanatory notes and commentaries, can play an important role in giving account of the functional value of the new term in the micro-context in which it is inserted. The translator's function is to weigh up what he considers to be more important and what less important in each particular occurrence of a neologism in a text. Thus, if the neologism is bound to occupy a crucial role in its conceptual area that will affect any future research, it should be treated in a special way. It is clear that, in other cases, the functional value of the term can be perfectly rendered by means of a periphrasis. One way or another, the presence of a new lexical item in the source language should always be pointed out in a target text in which the value of a neologism has a direct influence on its translation and presentation. This article provides some general reflections from a terminological perspective, about the translation strategies to be considered for a variety of cases by means of a series of examples taken from scientific literature.

Akkadian substrate words and meanings surfacing in Neo-Aramaic

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-51
Author(s):  
Hezy Mutzafi
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
History Of

Abstract The present article concerns twelve cases of Akkadian lexical influences on Aramaic that are not manifest until the modern period. These are added to several cases already discussed in scholarly works, and include ten substrate words and two loan translations, all in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA), and in one case of loan translation apparently also in Western Neo-Aramaic (assuming a westward diffusion of the innovation involved). As most Akkadian lexical influences which surface in Neo-Aramaic are confined to NENA, it seems that the main reasons for the lack of their attestation in pre-modern Aramaic is the strictly vernacular nature of the remote progenitor of NENA, and the fact that the history of this dialect group is not attested.

Inconsistency in Technical Terminology

Babel ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Saraireh
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Item ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Stylistic Variation ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Technical Translation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Language Text

Standardization is one of the basic elements of technical translation for proper communication among the users of the target language text. Consistency in signifier-signified correspondence is vital to maintain proper tandardization. However, there are many instances (in translation) in which stylistic variation and inconsistency in using lexical items are confused. The problem arises and becomes serious when inconsistency is mistakenly considered as stylistic variation. Stylistic variation is a very well known literary device to avoid repetition in texts by employing synonyms. Inconsistency arises when a signifier which has been employed in the target language to signify a new borrowed concept is alternately used with any of its synonyms. The translator may create a kind of confusion when he uses a synonym to signify the same concept rather than the assigned lexical item. Therefore, the reader may not be able to follow the progress of the text assuming that there is a different meaning for each synonym. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different types of this phenomenon in English-Arabic translation.

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