Looking at Words

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Brent Plate
Keyword(s):  
Print Culture ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

Regardless of their semantic meaning, words exist in and through their material, mediated forms. By extension, sacred texts themselves are material forms and engaged in two primary ways: through the ears and eyes. This article focuses on the visible forms of words that can stir emotional and even sacred responses in the eyes of their beholders. Thus words can be said to function iconically, affecting a mutually engaging form of "religious seeing." The way words appear to their readers will change the reader's interaction, devotion, and interpretation. Examples range from modern popular typography to European Christian print culture to Islamic calligraphy. Weaving through the argument are two key dialectics: the relation of words and images, and the relation of the seen and the unseen.

Alessandro Grandi: A Case Study in the Choice of Texts for Motets

1988 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-305
Author(s):  
Jerome Roche
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way ◽  
Musical Styles

It is perhaps still true that research into sacred types of music in early seventeenth-century Italy lags behind that into madrigal, monody and opera; it is certainly the case that the textual aspects of sacred music, themselves closely bound up with liturgical questions, have not so far received the kind of study that has been taken for granted with regard to the literary texts of opera and of secular vocal music. This is hardly to be wondered at: unlike great madrigal poetry or the work of the best librettists, sacred texts do not include much that can be valued as art in its own right. Nevertheless, if we are to understand better the context of the motet – as distinct from the musical setting of liturgical entities such as Mass, Vespers or Compline – we need a clearer view of the types of text that were set, the way in which composers exercised their choice, and the way such taste was itself changing in relation to the development of musical styles. For the motet was the one form of sacred music in which an Italian composer of the early decades of the seventeenth century could combine a certain freedom of textual choice with an adventurousness of musical idiom.

All in the space of a poem: Spatial logics in poetry

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-258
Author(s):  
K. Arunlal ◽  
C. Sunitha Srinivas
Keyword(s):  
Print Culture ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Contemporary Poetry ◽  
Living History ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
Art Forms ◽  
Human Sense ◽  
Spatial Logics ◽  
The Way

One of the oldest cultural practices of human societies, poetry, simultaneously responded and contributed to the evolution of human sense of spaces. Before print culture became ubiquitous, poetry was a time-art: all classic poetic techniques and devices were meant to hold a piece of verse permanently in a person’s memory, and by extension, in a community’s living history. However, contemporary poetry has little use for the chronologic dimension of poetry. The correlation of spatialized poetry with the new proliferation of ideas regarding space can be explored in multiple angles. The way space is looked at has changed in all art forms due to certain contingencies of modern history. This paper is a mapping of these alterations in the spatial turn of poetry, and a further application of ideas of space in understanding contemporary poetry.

Symbols Without Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Smith
Keyword(s):  
Data Base ◽  
Machine Translation ◽  
Real World ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Digital Data ◽  
Meaningful Difference ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

Humans have invaluable real-world knowledge because we have accumulated a lifetime of experiences that help us recognize, understand, and anticipate. Computers do not have real-world experiences to guide them, so they must rely on statistical patterns in their digital data base—which may be helpful, but is certainly fallible. We use emotions as well as logic to construct concepts that help us understand what we see and hear. When we see a dog, we may visualize other dogs, think about the similarities and differences between dogs and cats, or expect the dog to chase after a cat we see nearby. We may remember a childhood pet or recall past encounters with dogs. Remembering that dogs are friendly and loyal, we might smile and want to pet the dog or throw a stick for the dog to fetch. Remembering once being scared by an aggressive dog, we might pull back to a safe distance. A computer does none of this. For a computer, there is no meaningful difference between dog, tiger, and XyB3c, other than the fact that they use different symbols. A computer can count the number of times the word dog is used in a story and retrieve facts about dogs (such as how many legs they have), but computers do not understand words the way humans do, and will not respond to the word dog the way humans do. The lack of real world knowledge is often revealed in software that attempts to interpret words and images. Language translation software programs are designed to convert sentences written or spoken in one language into equivalent sentences in another language. In the 1950s, a Georgetown–IBM team demonstrated the machine translation of 60 sentences from Russian to English using a 250-word vocabulary and six grammatical rules. The lead scientist predicted that, with a larger vocabulary and more rules, translation programs would be perfected in three to five years. Little did he know! He had far too much faith in computers. It has now been more than 60 years and, while translation software is impressive, it is far from perfect. The stumbling blocks are instructive. Humans translate passages by thinking about the content—what the author means—and then expressing that content in another language.

Cross-Cultural Blunders in Professional Communication from a Semantic Perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Pinfan Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Inappropriate Use ◽  
Business Failures ◽  
Animal Names ◽  
The Way

Cross-cultural blunders caused by inappropriate use of language are a common problem in international professional communication. They cause misunderstanding, lead to business failures, and tend to be offensive at times. Such blunders may occur in business ads, slogans, products names, and instructions. Understanding their causes and finding solutions to them are of importance in international professional communication. By examining specific cases, the article analyzes the causes that lead to such blunders from a semantic perspective and concludes that indiscriminate use of the semantic meaning of a word, a lexical form, lexical sound, numbers, color words, and animal names of the target language is the major cause of causing cultural blunders in international professional communication. Along the way, the article also offers solutions to the problems identified.

scholarly journals Phaeton’s Flight, Adonis’s Trial, and Minerva in the House of Envy: 
Lodovico Dolce between Ovid and Ariosto

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-60
Author(s):  
Andrea Torre
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Word And Image ◽  
History Of ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

Introducing Thyeste: Tragedia da Seneca (1547), the Venetian writer Lodovico Dolce (1508–68) defines the art of translating a book as an experience that lives in the “perspective of the becoming [...] because in order to translate, it is necessary for us to take another language or (if possible) another human nature.” This article presents three case studies where the nexus between Ludovico Ariosto’s Ovidianism and Dolce’s Ariostism becomes an example of the stylistic and editorial relationship between word and image, as well as a paradigmatic explanation of the dynamics and strategies of reception in the early age of print. The aims of this exercise are the following: (1) to investigate the important mediation of Ariosto’s epic-chivalric model for the translation of the classics into vernacular and for the “canonization” of texts through their publication; (2) to study the man-to-man combat between Dolce’s writing, Ariosto’s pattern, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the way it develops from the Stanze nella favola di Venere e Adone (1545) to the thirty cantos of the poem Le Trasformazioni (1553); (3) to analyze the history of the illustrations in Ariosto’s Cinque canti from the perspective of the interaction between words and images, modes of writing and reading, and modes of invention and reception. En présentant Thyeste. A tragedy from Seneca (1547), l’écrivain vénitien Lodovico Dolce (1508– 1568) définit l’art de traduire un ouvrage comme une expérience de transformation puisque traduire implique d’adopter une autre langue, voire (si possible) une autre nature humaine. Cet article présente trois études de cas dans lesquelles la juxtaposition de l’ovidisme de L’Arioste et de l’ariostisme de Dolce devient l’exemple d’une relation stylistique et éditoriale entre le mot et l’image, ainsi qu’un cadre paradigmatique pour comprendre les dynamiques et les stratégies de la réception durant les débuts de l’imprimerie. Cette étude a trois objectifs : 1) explorer l’importance du modèle épique et chevaleresque de L’Arioste pour la traduction des classiques en langue vernaculaire et pour la « canonisation » de ces œuvres par leur publication ; 2) examiner le combat au corps entre l’écriture de Dolce, le modèle de L’Arioste et les Métamorphoses d’Ovide, ainsi que le développement menant des Stanze nella favola di Venere e Adone (1545) aux trente chants du poème Le Trasformazioni (1553) ; 3) analyser l’histoire des illustrations des Cinquecantide L’Arioste du point de vue de l’interaction entre mots et images, des modes d’écriture et lecture, ainsi que des modes d’invention et de réception.

scholarly journals Building Leafs Nation: rhetorical devices in the online imagined community of the Toronto Maple Leafs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Iantorno
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
Sports Organization ◽  
Rhetorical Tropes ◽  
E Mail ◽  
The Way

Established almost 100 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team is known for their large, dedicated fan base called Leafs Nation. I am a devoted member of this nation and, as such, the team’s communication practices speak both to me, and about me. This major research paper (MRP) is an analysis of e-mails sent to a subscriber-only list in the context of marketing. Researching the e-mail communication from the Toronto Maple Leafs to their fan base lends itself to an understanding of the communication that occurs in a professional setting. Not only do the Toronto Maple Leafs communicate directly with their proactive fan base but I argue that the way in which they do this instills a sense of community within Leafs Nation through the use of themes, metaphors and rhetorical tropes. Communicating effectively with a fan base is an essential component in running a sports organization. Texts in the form of words and images do not only assist in getting an organization’s message to the supporters, but their connotative meanings can also contribute to the senses of community and belonging. This paper will examine how the Toronto Maple Leafs employ rhetorical devices in the e-mail newsletters sent out to Leafs Nation, as well as analyzing the rhetorical connotations in these devices. Also, I will be examining the way in which the use of rhetorical devices contributes to the creation of an online ‘imagined community,’ a concept first introduced by Benedict Anderson in 1936 in the context of nations and nationalism. Anderson stated that an imagined community does not conform to traditional ideals of a community and is constructed by those that see themselves as being a part of this community, and I see the Leafs Nation as conforming to the ideals detailed by Anderson. As such, I will be completing a qualitative textual analysis of 43 e-mails that have gone out to the subscriber-only fan list since 2012. By examining these e-mails I will attempt to identify the presence of the rhetorical devices of pathopoeia, scesis onomaton and principle of scarcity and the overall frequency with which they appear. Based on the data that emerges from my research, I will then attempt to draw correlations between the findings and attempt to link the presence of rhetorical devices as a contributing factor to the creation of Leafs Nation as an online imagined community through a qualitative textual analysis.

Roots and Rootlessness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Weitzman
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Basic Semantic ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the use of etymology, the study of the origin of words, as a way to elucidate the prehistory of the Jews and thus their origins. Roots are particularly easy to recognize in Hebrew and other Semitic languages because they usually take the form of three consonants that carry the basic semantic meaning of the word. The chapter first provides an overview of the connection between etymology and genealogy before discussing the prehistory of the Hebrews. It then considers how the concept of prehistory reshaped the way scholars approached the question of Jewish origins by focusing on a group of proto-people known as the Habiru. It also explores Ferdinand de Saussure's critique of paleolinguistics and the implications of the turn from paleolinguistics as a means to investigate the prehistory of the Hebrews.

Post-Book Paratext

2014 ◽  
pp. 334-349
Author(s):  
Corey Pressman
Keyword(s):  
Social Isolation ◽  
Print Culture ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Fundamental Difference ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Electronic Reading ◽  
Culture Centered ◽  
The Web ◽  
Cave Art ◽  
The Way

The earliest artifacts of expression, represented by cave art and carved statuettes, had a paratext of their own that surrounded and supported their significance. However, there is a fundamental difference between the way these artifacts operated in society and the way writing and print operate. Writing and print are associated with a “print culture” centered on fixity, social isolation, and authority. This opposes a preceding emphasis on orality, fluidity, and social communication. However, the hegemony of print culture has been challenged by the binary revolution. The widespread success of e-readers, apps, the Web, and electronic reading in general indicates a nascent post-book era. The essential difference between a paper book and its electronic analog is the stripping of the former's paratextual elements. This chapter suggests that we should be deliberate about designing the paratext of our digital post-book experiences. We have the opportunity to reintroduce elements of pre-print orality, continuing what scholars have noted as the development of a “secondary orality” instigated by radio and television. An entire profession already exists whose mission is to design and implement platform-specific elements that attend to the delivery of content: interaction designers. These professionals can help us design the future of reading.

Apophasis

Border Blurs ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 159-202
Author(s):  
Greg Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Visual Effects ◽  
Linguistic Practice ◽  
Concrete Poetry ◽  
Counter Culture ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Tantric Ritual ◽  
Awareness Of God ◽  
The Way

For poets such as Finlay and Morgan, concrete poetry remained a fundamentally linguistic practice, with visual effects used to enhance or methodically alter a central semantic message. For the Guernsey-born, Gloucestershire-based poet Dom Sylvester Houedárd, concrete poetry came to entail a grammar of abstract visual forms, constructed from letters and diacritical marks, in which semantic meaning was largely subsumed. This quality is most virtuosically expressed in the so-called ‘typestracts’ which he created on his Olivetti typewriter. Houédard’s wordless poetics partly exemplifies the re-conceptualisation of concrete poetry as an intermedia, neo-dada artform across the 1950s-70s, which often manifested itself through a movement away from language, and in attachments to the sixties counter-culture. But the unique distinction of Houédard’s work is its attempt to express a wordless or apophatic awareness of God, in which sense his concrete poetry is connected to his vocation as a Benedictine monk, priest, and theologian. This chapter traces the development of these entwined impulses, moving from his beat-influenced verse of the 1940s-50s to his ‘kinetic’ concrete poetry of the mid-1960s, and finally to the typestracts of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Influences touched on along the way include Wittgenstein, auto-destructive art, and Tantric ritual.

scholarly journals „Zwięźle spleciony warkocz kontrapunktu”. Poezja Stanisława Barańczaka a doświadczanie granicy „

1970 ◽  
pp. 149-165
Author(s):  
Magdalena Piotrowska-Grot
Keyword(s):  
Human Existence ◽  
Metaphysical Poetry ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
The Way

The article attempts to familiarise the reader with Stanisław Barańczak’s poetic presentations of experiencing border and limit. It synthesises the set of various sorts of limits faced by the human from Barańczak’s poems. Moreover, the analyses and interpretations in the article aim to make evident the characteristic way in which the author of Surgical Precision (Chirurgiczna precyzja) presents the border between existence and eschatology and, more specifically, the way how Barańczak nullifies this border between dimensions in his poetry. His poems are not devoid of metaphors inspired by eschatological considerations and the functions these references serve are worth a closer look. Firstly, there are the most obvious sociopolitical connotations also used by the language of communist propaganda. The most important in the quoted poems, though, are the deliberate references to eschatology that expose the association mechanism and deconstruct the linguistic habits of a Christianity-based cultural circle. Using the ambiguity of specific words and images and creating metaphors based on eschatology-related phenomena, Barańczak familiarises the reader with death and negates the artificial duality of worlds. This is not, however, metaphysical poetry in a classic sense; it is poetry close to human existence and, above all, to all of the numerous fears accompanying people.

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