Saussure's équivalence sémiologique in the case study of Czech sonants

Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (204) ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Haładewicz-Grzelak
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Acoustic Cues ◽  
Visual Data ◽  
Slavic Languages ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
Roman Jakobson ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Interesting Equation

AbstractIn “Réflections inédites de Saussure sur les phonèmes” (1973: 287–295), Roman Jakobson mentions an untitled manuscript, described as “étude phonetique.” In it, Saussure provides an interesting equation: phonème = valeur sémiologique. The equation stresses the purely semiological aspect of the phoneme and will serve as a focal point for the analysis carried out in this paper. The discussion will also explore two other related concepts introduced in the manuscript and in the only book Saussure ever published,This study attempts to draw implications for a semiotic theory of phonology based on acoustic cues found in a case study of consonant / liquid / consonant (CLC/#) clusters that occur as congeners in two cognate Slavic languages: Polish and Czech. Apart from the semiological insights of Saussure, the study's analytical perspective also builds on the semiotic oeuvre of Roman Jakobson and Boris Uspiensky (Tartu semiotics). The Tartu notion of cultural text is a sort of time center, or a groove for the discussion. The empirical section analyzes a corpus of recordings of CLC clusters in various languages collected by the author, treating particular spectrograms as cultural texts in the Tartu understanding of the term: as visual data generated by a particular speech community.

scholarly journals Gender Essentialism in Chinese Reality TV: A Case Study of You Are So Beautiful

2021 ◽  
pp. 152747642110272
Author(s):  
Altman Yuzhu Peng
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Reality Tv ◽  
Feminist Analysis ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Gender Power ◽  
Tv Production

This article provides a feminist analysis of Chinese reality TV, using the recent makeover show— You Are So Beautiful (你怎么这么好看) as a case study. I argue that the notion of gender essentialism is highlighted in the production of You Are So Beautiful, which distances the Chinese show from its original American format— Queer Eye. This phenomenon is indicative of how existing gender power relations influence the production of popular cultural texts in post-reform China, where capitalism and authoritarianism weave a tangled web. The outcomes of the research articulate the interplay between post-socialist gender politics and reality TV production in the Chinese context.

scholarly journals Towards Zero Emissions Noosa

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4679
Author(s):  
Carina Anderson ◽  
Robert Passey ◽  
Jeremy De Valck ◽  
Rakibuzzaman Shah
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Community Group ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Engagement Process ◽  
Set Up ◽  
External Consultant

This paper reports on a case study of the community group Zero Emissions Noosa, whose goal is for 100% renewable electricity in the Noosa Shire (Queensland, Australia) by 2026. Described within this paper are the processes used by Zero Emissions Noosa to set up their zero emissions plan, involving community engagement and the use of an external consultant. The external consultant was employed to produce a detailed report outlining how to successfully achieve zero emissions from electricity in the Noosa Shire by 2026. This paper explains how and why the community engagement process used to produce the report was just as important as the outcomes of the report itself. Modeling was undertaken, and both detailed and contextual information was provided. Inclusion of the community in developing the scenario parameters for the modeling had a number of benefits including establishing the context within which their actions would occur and focusing their efforts on options that were technically feasible, financially viable and within their capabilities to implement. This provided a focal point for the community in calling meetings and contacting stakeholders. Rather than prescribing a particular course of action, it also resulted in a toolbox of options, a range of possible solutions that is flexible enough to fit into whatever actions are preferred by the community. The approach and outcomes discussed in this paper should, therefore, be useful to other communities with similar carbon emission reduction goals.

scholarly journals Replicating Elite Dominance in Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding: The Role of Local Government–Scholar Networks in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Maags ◽  
Heike Holbig
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
National Level ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Heritage Discourse

Abstract:Since “intangible cultural heritage” (ICH) became the new focal point in the global heritage discourse, governments and scholars in many countries have begun to promote this new form of “immaterial” culture. The People’s Republic of China has been one of the most active state parties implementing the new scheme and adapting it to domestic discourses and practices. Policies formulated at the national level have become increasingly malleable to the interests of local government-scholar networks. By conducting a comparative case study of two provinces, this article aims to identify the role of local elite networks in the domestic implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, focusing on the incentives of scholars and officials to participate in ICH policy networks. It finds that the implementation of the Convention has not removed the power asymmetry between elite and popular actors but, instead, has fostered an elite-driven policy approach shaped by symbiotic, mutually legitimizing government–scholar networks.

Translation teams as cognitive systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-327
Author(s):  
Richard Pleijel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Cognitive Artifacts ◽  
Archival Material

Abstract This paper aims to bring research on different forms of group-level cognition into conversation with Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS), the focal point of the paper being cognitive processes in translation teams. It is argued that an analysis of cognition in translation teams, which exhibit the properties of a cognitive system, needs to be placed on group-level. A case study of a team, translating the Hebrew Bible Book of Psalms into Swedish in the 1980’s, is presented. The empirical base for the case study consists of archival material in the form of draft translations and paratexts. The methodological question is thus raised whether, and if so in what way, cognitive processes may be analyzed retrospectively, and not only from a real time perspective. By treating the archival material as cognitive artifacts which have constituted an integral part of the team’s cognitive process, the question is tentatively answered in a favourable way. This, it is finally argued, opens up interesting possibilities for joining CTS with translator archives research, Genetic Translation Studies (GTS), and cognitive archeology.

scholarly journals The General, His Fandom, and a Participatory Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Angelina Ilieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Fan Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Military Medical Academy ◽  
Medical Academy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Military

In February 2020, the Bulgarian government established the National Operational Headquarters for Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bulgaria. General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, a military doctor, professor at the Military Medical Academy in Sofia, was appointed as its chairman. This paper presents a case study on the public image of Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, its readings and interpretations by the audience, and the specific fan culture that emerged around his media persona during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria. Placed in the spotlight of the media at the very beginning of the crisis, Mutafchiyski became extremely popular as the public figure most strongly associated with the fight against the spread of the disease in the country. Around his media persona, shaped in the public imagination as a wartime leader, a fan culture has grown with all its characteristic features and dimensions: fans and anti-fans, affirmative and transformative fandom. As a fictional character, Mutafchiyski has appeared in numerous forms of vernacular creativity: poems, songs, material objects, jokes, fake news, conspiracy theories, and memes. In this way, the General has become the main character of Bulgarian pandemic folklore and the focal point of a participatory pandemic.

scholarly journals Qualitative Analysis of Visual Data in Information Behavior Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1(113)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabina Cisek ◽  
Monika Krakowska
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Information Behavior ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Visual Data ◽  
Information Spaces ◽  
Mapping Tool ◽  
Mental Mapping ◽  
Management Students

Purpose/Thesis: The paper contains a methodological reflection on qualitative analysis of visual empirical data as a research procedure in the contemporary human information behavior research. The possibility of implementing this approach has been tested on a case study of personalized information spaces in everyday life of undergraduate information management students in the academic year 2018/2019.Approach/Methods: The reported research employs the realist epistemological stance, qualitative and descriptive approaches, and four methods/techniques: critical literature review, case study, drawing as a mental mapping tool, and thematic analysis. Results and conclusions: Visual data analysis is cognitively fruitful; it enables grasping the multidimensional “information reality” as perceived by the users (the humanistic coefficient). However, it is time-consuming, it requires meticulousness and self-reflection on the part of the researcher; it must also leave a clear audit trail to assure credibility and intersubjective verifiability of investigations.Originality/Value: The article is concerned with innovative research procedures, rarely discussed in Polish information science literature. Combining visual approach with individual information spaces, it corresponds to the latest methodological and topical trends in the field of information behavior. It also links theoretical reflection with the research practice.

Assessing Spatial Equity: An Evaluation of Measures of Accessibility to Public Playgrounds

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Talen ◽  
L Anselin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Spatial Association ◽  
Spatial Data Analysis ◽  
Socioeconomic Indicators ◽  
Model Average ◽  
Urban Service ◽  
Spatial Equity ◽  
Analytical Perspective

Geographical and political research on urban service delivery—who benefits and why—has proliferated during the past two decades. Overall, this literature is not characterized by a particular attention to the importance of method in drawing conclusions about spatial equity based on empirical studies. Specifically, there has been scant interest in the effect of geographic methodology on assessing the relationship between access and socioeconomic characteristics that are spatially defined. In this paper we take a spatial analytical perspective to evaluate the importance of methodology in assessing whether or not, or to what degree the distribution of urban public services is equitable. We approach this issue by means of an empirical case study of the spatial distribution of playgrounds in Tulsa, Oklahoma, relative to that of the targeted constituencies (children) and other socioeconomic indicators. In addition to the ‘traditional’ measure (count of facilities in an areal unit), we consider a potential measure (based on the gravity model), average travel distance, and distance to the nearest playground as indicators of accessibility. We find significant differences between the spatial patterns in these measures that are suggested by local indicators of spatial association and other techniques of exploratory spatial data analysis. The choice of access measure not only implies a particular treatment of spatial externalities but also affects conclusions about the existence of spatial mismatch and inequity.

Impact of NPAs on Bank Profitability

2014 ◽  
pp. 399-409
Author(s):  
Saurabh Sen ◽  
Ruchi L. Sen
Keyword(s):  
Banking Sector ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Data Representation ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
Observation Method ◽  
Representation Techniques

NPA is a “termite” for the banking sector. It affects liquidity and profitability of the bank to a great extent; in addition, it also poses a threat to the quality of asset and survival of banks. The post-reform era has changed the whole structure of the banking sector of India. Now, the economy is not confined to the domestic boundary of the country. The core intention of economic reforms in India was to attract foreign investments and create a sound banking system. This chapter provides an empirical approach to the analysis of profitability indicators with a focal point on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) of commercial banks in the Indian context. The chapter discusses NPA, factors contributing to NPA, magnitude, and consequences. By using an analytical perspective, the chapter observes that NPAs affected significantly the performance of the banks in the present scenario. On the other hand, factors like better credit culture, managing the risk, and business conditions led to lowering of NPAs. The empirical findings using observation method and statistical tools like correlation, regression, and data representation techniques identify that there is a negative relationship between profitability measure and NPAs.

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