scholarly journals The essentialness of diachrony

Diacronia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisc Gafton

Natural entities—plants and animals, on the one hand, society, language, and culture, on the other—emerge through an assiduous diachronic effort, respond to diachronically developed needs, exist and function diachronically. However, through the instruments at his disposal, man can only perceive and grasp the “fragment”, seizing it for a prolonged instant, which explains his objective tendency to segment the spatiotemporal reality according to his own proportions and abilities. Reality itself, however, cannot be subjected to the unnatural segregation of one of its own products and elements, and cannot be fully comprehended in any other way than how it exists: as a whole. At the end of the synchronic road, what offers comprehension and understanding of the ontologically-becoming whole is the path of the diachronic method.

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dunstan Brown ◽  
Carole Tiberius ◽  
Greville G. Corbett

This paper analyses constraints on inflectional syncretism and inflectional allomorphy using frequency information. Syncretism arises where one form is associated with more than one function, whereas inflectional allomorphy occurs where there is more than one inflectional class, and a single function is associated with two or more forms. If high frequency is associated with more differentiation on both sides, we expect, on the one hand, that a frequent function will have a high number of forms and, on the other, that a frequent form will have a high number of functions. Our study focuses on Russian nominals, in particular nouns, which exhibit both syncretism and inflectional allomorphy. We find that there is a relationship between frequency and differentiation, but that it is not exceptionless, and that the exceptions can be understood in terms of the use of referrals as default rules.


Literator ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Spies

Lack of insight into Greek antiquity, more specifically the nature of classical tragedy and mythology, could be one reason for the negative reception of Benjamin Britten’s last opera Death in Venice. In the first place, this article considers Britten’s opera based on Thomas Mann’s novella as a manifestation of classical tragedy. Secondly, it is shown how mythological characters in Mann’s novella represent abstract ideas2 in Britten’s opera, thereby enhancing the dramatic impact of the opera considerably. On the one hand it is shown how the artist’s inner conflict manifests itself in a dialectic relationship between discipline and inspirat ion in Plato’s Phaedrus dialogue that forms the basis of Aschenbach’s monologue at the end of the opera. The conflict between Aschenbach’s rational consciousness and his irrational subconscious, on the other hand, is depicted by means of mythological figures, Apollo and Dionysus. Two focal points in the opera, namely the Games of Apollo at the end of Act 1 and the nightmare scene which forms the climax of the opera in Act 2, are used to illustrate the musical manifestation of this conflict.


2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 197-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Bilby

Reconstructs the life story and activities of the Aluku Maroon Captain Apatu in French Guiana. Author describes how Apatu aligned with and aided French explorer Jules Cerveaux in exploring the Amazon region in the late 1870s, and maintained contacts with other French colonial figures. Partly because his role and achievements in colonial expansion were valued by the French, Apatu became an important intermediary between the French and the Aluku Maroons. Author further outlines how Apatu due to these French contacts, and also a journey to Paris, adapted to and assimilated French culture, although he maintained his sense of Aluku identity. He sketches the context of the French-Aluku contacts through Apatu, discussing how Apatu's political position and ambitions sometimes met with distrust and tensions with fellow-Aluku. He further indicates that Aluku alliance with the French probably was intended as a protection against intrusions of the rivaling Ndyuka Maroons. Apatu maintained his important position and function as intermediary between French and other whites on the one hand, and the Aluku on the other up to his death in 1908. Author pays particular attention to how Apatu, and after him other Aluku, absorbed "Frenchness" while maintaining an Aluku identity. This, he argues, has remained relevant up to the present, in light of assimilation policies by the French in French Guiana, increasingly affecting the Aluku since the 1970s and threatening their Maroon culture.


Author(s):  
Joseph Burger ◽  
Chen Hou ◽  
Charles Hall ◽  
James Brown

Here we review and extend the equal fitness paradigm (EFP) as an important step in developing and testing a synthetic theory of ecology and evolution based on energy and metabolism. The EFP states that all organisms are equally fit at steady state, because they allocate the same quantity of energy, ~22.4 kJ/g/generation to production of offspring. On the one hand, the EFP may seem tautological, because equal fitness is necessary for the origin and persistence of biodiversity. On the other hand, the EFP reflects universal laws of life: how biological metabolism – the uptake, transformation and allocation of energy – links ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes across levels of organization from: i) structure and function of individual organisms, ii) life history and dynamics of populations, iii) interactions and coevolution of species in ecosystems. The physics and biology of metabolism have facilitated the evolution of millions of species with idiosyncratic anatomy, physiology, behavior and ecology but also with many shared traits and tradeoffs that reflect the single origin and universal rules of life.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-82
Author(s):  
K.S.S. Seshan

When the states’ reorganisation took place in 1956, Andhra Pradesh, enlarged by inclusion of Telangana, faced two contrary pulls. On the one hand, there was widespread pride in the Telugu language and culture, prevailing over the whole state, and, on the other, there was the legacy of the different histories of its two major parts, namely, coastal Andhra, long held under direct British administration, and Telangana, which had been a part for over two centuries of the largest princely state of India, Hyderabad. The paper examines how owing to this divergent legacy of the past, a union lasting for over half a century (1956–2014) proved unworkable, and separation became inevitable.


Author(s):  
Vladimir I. Koval

The article describes in comparative aspect the main symbolic meanings of the zoononym mouse in Slavic and Chinese linguocultures. The study of animal symbolism in Russian (wider - Slavic) and Chinese cultural traditions is one of the current trends in modern linguistics, which, on the one hand, has a pronounced anthropocentric orientation, and on the other, is characterized by a noticeable increase in interest in the Chinese language and culture of China in different countries of the world. Turning to the study of complex and ambiguous symbolism of the mouse is quite timely and taking into account the confinement of 2020 to the year of the White Rat / Mouse. The purpose of the study is to identify similar and specific for each culture features of perception and characteristics of the mouse as an animal, which has a significant impact on everyday life. The tasks of the work include identifying the sources of the appearance of a negatively connotated mouse image in culture, determining the ambivalent nature of rituals, customs and ritual actions, the object of which are mice, as well as revealing the contents of the “Mouse Wedding” custom in Chinese and South Slavic traditions. The analysis of the actual material (stable phrases, folklore texts, ethnocultural records, traditional drawings) showed, on the one hand, the mostly negative symbolism of the mouse in the Slavic spiritual culture, and on the other, the perception of the mouse as an animal, bringing material wealth and prosperity, in the traditional picture of the world the Chinese. At the same time, it was established that both the Slavs and the Chinese use a number of magic tricks aimed at fighting mice that cause considerable damage to the peasant economy. Significant for the linguoculturological analysis of the mouse image is the appeal to oriental folklore texts, as well as to traditional popular prints of Chinese and Russians, reflecting differently the symbolism of mice and their relation to the main enemy - the cat.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (s1) ◽  
pp. s213-s228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Krogh Hansen

AbstractThis article explores the nexus between narrative and metaphor by examining a specific and widespread metaphor in the discourse on cancer, namely “the war against cancer”, and paying attention to the function it has in the narratives we tell about cancer – personally as well as culturally and politically. Of special interest is how this dominant metaphor has a negative consequence in relation to the seriously and incurably ill, who are necessarily positioned as ‘losers’. The concepts of master and counter-narrative are applied to describe this and show how the war metaphor can be generatively turned against itself and function as the basis for counter-narratives of being ill. In the final part of the article, attention is paid to Danish author Maria Gerhardt’s autofictional novel Transfervindue. Fortællinger om de raskes fejl (2017) [Transfer Window: Narratives about the flaws of the healthy] as an example of a productive extension of the war metaphor. The general aim is to argue that the ‘war against cancer’ metaphor is complex and simultaneously plays a positive and negative role in health discourse. On the one hand, it structures the general effort for treatment of and research on cancer. On the other hand, it positions the incurable as losers. It is, however, argued that we cannot eradicate this metaphor from language, and that we should instead find examples of extensions of the metaphor where e. g. ‘protection’, ‘peace-keeping’ and ‘exile’ are active.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Nick Brown

As a modern, designed, self-consciously experimental national capital, Canberra poses distinct questions, and problems, for public history. Famously derided as lacking community – ‘a city without a soul’; ‘a good sheep station spoiled’ – it has also been shaped by a succession of planning practices, phases of immigration, and service provision, which have fostered their own models and experiences of community. On the one hand, as Ruth Atkins observed in 1978, the concept and function of ‘the public’ in Canberra has been defined essentially by those of ‘the public servant’; on the other, a population characterised by relatively high levels of education and affluence has proved remarkably innovative in working with and around the structures of centralised government with which they are so often closely associated. This paper explores these inter-relationships, assessing the ways in which the history of Canberra – in its official, community and experiential dimensions – reflects processes of actively creating such narratives and identities rather than seeing them in opposition to each other.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047
Author(s):  
Sonja Žakula

The paper offers a semiotic analysis of the narrative of Gabi the dog and the jaguar in the form in which the story appears on the website of the Belgrade zoo. I believe that it is valid to assume that an analysis of this narrative can provide a window into the ways in which meanings of concepts such as ‘wildness’, ‘domesticity’, ‘freedom’, ‘captivity’ and ultimately, ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ are articulated within the context of this institution. On the one hand, I will base the paper on ideas articulated in the field of human-animal relations, and on the other on the methodological postulates of semiotic analysis introduced by Algirdas Julien Greimas and further developed by Dragana Antonijević. The aim of the paper is to, by applying semiotic analysis to the way in which an unusual event at the zoo was narrativized, uncover the deeper structure of thought which underlies the story and reflects and shapes not just the discourse of the Belgrade zoo, but the implicit understanding of the role and function of zoos in Serbia up until the present day.


Мова ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 242-243
Author(s):  
Maria L. KOVSHOVA

In modern world philology, focused on the study of the interpenetration of language and culture, it is important to develop interdisciplinary methods and conceptual apparatus, not required for the analysis of linguistic material. This is of particular relevance for research. regional phraseology - an object that itself is complex in terms of its fixation, a system matization and descriptions. The relevance of the study is obvious; it is due, on the one hand, a trend towards interdisciplinary research, in particular an increasing interest in linguistic cultural analysis; on the other hand, the lack of a clear understanding of how to build this analysis, how to conduct interdisciplinary research and not “lose” language, which remains the main object in linguistics. The course taken by modern science on the development of the anthropological paradigm, requires the development of skillful "navigation", and in this wearing the monograph by N. G. Arefieva is timely and relevant.


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