scholarly journals Problematising Tribality: A Critical Engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories

Author(s):  
Francis Ekka ◽  
◽  
Rosy Chamling

Tribality simply means the characteristic features of various tribal communities and the qualities of being tribal. In the 1940s leading anthropologists like Verrier Elwin and G.S.Ghurye tried to theorize and categorize tribal identities. However, they were often accused of representing either a ‘protective’ or ‘romantic’ notions of tribality. One cannot determine the tribality of a person based on their features, dialects, food habits or geographical location. Tribality is said to bind the pan-Indian Tribal literature which is again problematic considering language which is considered as the useful indicator of any identity. Tribal Literature is a distinct form of writing to represent people, things and ideas in their cultural authenticities. The tribals essentially have an oral culture and thus when a tribal writer like Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, a Government Doctor by profession, writes in the canonical English language, we will be tempted to probe if he seeks to ‘write in’ or ‘write back’ to the mainstream literary culture; or if his works can fit into the mould of minor literature, thereby making the seemingly personal an intensely political statement. This paper also aims to interrogate issues of tribal identity and their representation through a critical engagement with Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories (2017).

Author(s):  
Е.М. Григорьева

Постановка задачи. Статья посвящена детальному анализу фразеологизмов английского языка различных тематических групп и особенностям их регистрации в англо-английских и англо-русском словарях и справочных пособиях. Рассматривается ряд характеристик, которые отличают фразеологические единицы от свободных словосочетаний. Кроме того, исследуется вопрос включения пословиц в состав фразеологического фонда того или иного языка. Впоследствии отобранные методом сплошной выборки фразеологические единицы классифицируются по различным основаниям, а также проводится детальный анализ особенностей их отражения в представленных изданиях. Результаты. Осуществляется классификация фразеологизмов по следующим категориям: функция в коммуникации, определяемая их структурно-семантическими особенностями, а также тематическое деление. Отдельно рассматриваются фразеологизмы-эвфемизмы, относящиеся к нескольким тематическим группам, среди которых смерть, ругательства и беременность. Выделяются и описываются характерные особенности организации микроструктуры (словарной статьи) каждого отдельно взятого издания. Выводы. На основании проведенного анализа регистрации английских фразеологизмов сделаны выводы о том, что данная лексика получает подробное и точное отражение в справочниках. Проведенный анализ теоретической литературы показал правомерность включения пословиц во фразеологический фонд, поскольку они принадлежат к культурному наследию того или иного народа и воспроизводятся в речи в исходной форме. Тип и адресат справочника определяют особенности организации словарной статьи, а также компоненты, которые входят в нее (дефиниция, переводной эквивалент, иллюстративный пример, грамматическая, стилистическая, региональная и этимологическая пометы, графическая иллюстрация). Statement of the problem. The article is devoted to a detailed analysis of the phraseological units of the English language of various thematic groups and the features of their registration in the English-English and English-Russian dictionaries and reference books. Features that distinguish phraseological units from free phrases are studied. More than that, the question of belonging proverbs to phraseological stock is studied. Then phraseological units selected by the continuous sampling method are classified according to different grounds, and a detailed analysis of the features of their reflection in the analyzed sources is carried out. Results. Phraseological units are classified into some categories according to the following criteria: function in communication, determined by their structural and semantic features and thematic division. Phraseological units-euphemisms related to several thematic groups, including death, curse words and pregnancy are studied. The characteristic features of microstructure organization of each individual source are described. Conclusion. The analysis of English phraseological units registration showed that this lexis is reflected in dictionaries in a proper way. Theoretical literature analysis shows justification of proverbs inclusion into phraseological stock as they are a part of national cultural heritage and are reproduced in speech in the basic form. Further, the author comes to a conclusion that dictionary type and addressee of the reference book determine features of microstructure organization and their components (definition, translation equivalent, illustrative example, grammar, stylistic, regional and etymological labels, graphic illustration).


Author(s):  
Robert Brody

Sa'adyah Gaon was an outstanding tenth-century Jewish thinker — a prominent rabbi, philosopher, and exegete. He was a pioneer in the fields in which he toiled, and was an inspiration and basis for later Jewish writing in all these areas. The last major English-language study of his work was published in 1921, long before Genizah research changed the understanding of the time in which he lived. This work, covering Sa'adyah's biography and his main areas of creativity in an accessible way, is a reassessment of an outstanding figure. The opening chapter, on the geonic period that formed the background to Sa'adyah's life, is followed by an overview that brings out the revolutionary aspects of his work and the characteristic features of his writings. Subsequent chapters consider his philosophical works; his Bible commentaries; his pioneering linguistic work; his poetry; his halakhic activity; and his activity as a polemicist, notably against the Karaites. An epilogue sums up his importance in medieval Jewish culture. Particularly valuable features of the book are the copious quotations from Sa'adyah's works, which facilitate familiarity with his style as well as his ideas; the clarity in presenting complex and difficult concepts; the constant assessment of his relationship to his predecessors in his various fields of study and his own unique contributions to each field; and the contextualization of his contribution within the political, cultural, and religious climate of his times so that both revolutionary and conservative elements in his thought can be identified and evaluated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (87) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryna Hederym ◽  
◽  
Nataliya Hlinka ◽  
◽  

The article is devoted to the study of one of the most important issues in modern linguistics – the problem of elliptical sentences, namely their definition, classification, different approaches to the study of this phenomenon and functioning in English-language scientific and technical texts. One of the tasks of scientific text is the ability to convey a large amount of new information in a sufficiently limited amount of text. It is this that leads to syntactic compression (the use of an ellipse) in such texts. Syntactic compression, as we have mentioned, is one of the characteristics of the modern scientific style. Authors of scientific texts seek to reduce the amount of text by compression, while increasing its content. Ellipse is a multidimensional phenomenon in language that allows authors to make the communication process more productive by using language savings. The ellipse has an extremely large pragmatic potential in achieving an extralinguistic effect. The use of the ellipse as a means of linguistic economy in scientific and technical texts is especially appropriate because the characteristic features of scientific and technical style are its informativeness (content), logic (strict sequence, clear connection between the main idea and details), accuracy and objectivity. It is an effective way of unloading sentence matter and exempting it from meaningfully redundant or structurally redundant components that carry repetitive information, it is based on the principle of compactification of predicative units. From a stylistic point of view, the desire to save language means leads to the emergence of new constructions that enrich the language, make speech dynamic, expressive. The article considers pragmatic and linguistic features of the ellipse, its structural and functional features. The article traces an attempt to review and structure the main theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "ellipse", the study of functions that perform elliptical structures in sentence structure and analysis of functional features of elliptical structures in English scientific and technical texts.


Author(s):  
Yu. V. Losieva

In the article essence of the concept “sociocultural competense”, certain theoretical principles of its forming and development are analysed and described; the developing system of sociocultural competense is studied; also the complex of tasks for students of pre-higher education is worked out. The linguistic, unlinguistic and country-specific components of sociocultural competence are characterized. It is proved that students should know about the geographical location and economic condition, historical development and features of cultural values of the country, the language they are studying in order to have a foreign socio-cultural competence. In our research we conclude that the structure of socio-cultural competence consists of communicative (balancing existing language forms, which are determined based on the linguistic competence of the communicant on the background of certain social functions), country-specific (set of knowledge about the country whose language is studied), linguistics (to carry out intercultural communication based on knowledge of lexical units with the national-cultural component of semantics and skills of their adequate application in situations of intercultural communication) and sociolinguistic competence (ability to use the rules of delicate speech in communication). Thus, students expand their outlook and work on adequate perception of cultural features of native speakers, their habits, traditions, norms of behavior, etiquette and the ability to understand and use them in intercultural communication. It is proved that for the formation of socio-cultural competence in English classes in pre-higher education institutions students must learn about the achievements of national culture in the development of universal culture and thus enter into a dialogue of cultures, teachers should use certain exercises to develop such skills.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Flair Donglai Shi

The untranslatability of this particular novel does not come from the ‘resistant singularity’ claimed by world literature scholars like Emily Apter, but has to do instead with its inherently translational nature as a novel about intercultural (mis-)communication. Comparative close readings of the three versions published in Britain, Taiwan, and mainland China focus on paratexts, intra-textual visual design, and specific translational strategies. Caught between the established traditions of diasporic Chinese literature and liuxuesheng wenxue (‘overseas Chinese student writing’), A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers and its Chinese-language translations offer insights into the dialectic between ‘minor’ literature and ‘world’ literature, discussed here with a particular focus on the global hegemony of the English language.


Jezikoslovlje ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-146
Author(s):  
Emilija Mustapić

The study of linguistic landscape (LL) encompasses the language of public signs, commercial billboards, and other forms of written texts displayed in public (mostly urban) spaces of a particular geographical location. Its dual function, informational and symbolic, provides fertile ground for research into multilingualism, a phenomenon prevalent in today’s society. LL is made up of both large-scale entities such as billboards, and smaller everyday items such as leaflets, posters, and food labels. The aim of this paper is to explore the multilingual discourse on Croatian food labels with a special focus on the advent of words and expressions from the English language. Our quantitative examination of chocolate labels from the 1960s until 2010, presented in the first part of the paper, suggests that the Croatian LL has indeed embraced English (and other languages to some extent) and shifted from primarily monolingual to multilingual practice. Our qualitative analysis of contemporary Croatian chocolate labels in terms of language content relationship and visual arrangement, presented in the second part, indicates a strong English influence on shaping the Croatian LL in the realm of food labelling. It, therefore, confirms the widely held idea that English has become a key component of product marketing.


2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Smith-Morris

Ethnographic and biological research among tribal communities demands that a researcher successfully navigate not only the social environment but also the political, legal, and biomedical perspectives that compete in today's ethics battleground. Health researchers are, therefore, increasingly drawn into the complex arenas of tribal identity, self-determination, and governance. This brief discussion reflects upon almost a decade of research among indigenous groups in the American Southwest, spanning some of the region's most hostile and unwelcoming years toward outsiders since the Pueblo Revolt. I focus upon the concept in biomedical ethics of individual autonomy, a powerful but inadequate concept for treatment of tribal decision-making and community self-determination. Incompatible with culture mores of strong family, community, and group decision-making, the principle of autonomy serves as an acculturative agent within medical research and treatment. Alternative approaches to consent, and to ethics more broadly, are called for.


Author(s):  
Sevil M. Radjabova ◽  

Article deals with the changes of the meanings of the post nominal adjectives in the process of transformation in the modern English language. On the basis of the linguoculturological approach and the method of linguistic analysis, the characteristic features of the change in the meanings of post-nominative adjectives in the English language have been revealed. In the English language the adjectives can perform the function of predicative. For the semantics of the adjectives which have the predicative function, these adjectives are characterized by inner qualitative diversity. Mainly, qualitative adjectives refer to classical predication and denote the feature of the object directly. Such adjectives have more features of predication. The predicative sign of the adjective, the presence of a connotation of subjective assessment determines its semantics and use. There are differences between the constructions used in the predicate function in phrases that perform the function of the subject and in the altered form of word phrases related attributively and predicatively. The predicative relation is the immunest form of syntactic connection and in predicative connectives the structural restriction in comparison with attributive constructions is extremely limited. Adjectives as predicative words do not have denotation and reference, they have no denoter, there is a signification. Basing on their indicative characteristics, it is possible to present all the possible semantic features. For the English language it is characteristic the use of the attribute before the defined word. The development from a special sign of thought to a general concept is characteristic for the whole structure of the English language; it is even possible to observe it in word formation. In most cases, taking into account the use of the adjective in the function of an attribute, the terms like postpositional (post nominal) and prepositional (prenominal) adjectives are used. The reasons for the change in the position of adjectives should be sought not always in the nature of the adjective, but in the degree to which it determines its referent. The semes that make up the meaning of the word are at different levels and are more or less stable. In adjectives, the nuclear seme, or subseme, is always found next to the differential seme. In other words, the adjective cannot be combined with nouns in all semantic groups. When an adjective is combined with a noun, a background is formed that allows or prevents the actualization of a particular seme. This causes the activation of a specific seme associated with the semantics of the given name in combination with the given name. Such semes are reflected in the join semantics. The opposite can also be said. The adjective itself chooses the noun for word formation. After all, the same adjective behaves differently in relation to transformation into different attributive complexes. In our opinion, adjectives act as an important restrictive informative element at the content level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (40) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Joanna Warmuzińska-Rogóż

From Translation to the Writing: On the Quebec Feminists, Anglo-Canadian Women Translators and the Translation ContinuumThe article presents the unique relationship between French- and English- -speaking translators in Canada, which has resulted in a great number of interesting translation phenomena. The author makes reference to the distinction between feminist translation and translation in the feminine, derived from literature in the feminine, both widely practiced in Quebec. One of the representatives of this trend was Suzanne de Lotbiniere-Harwood, mostly French-English translator, known for her translations of Nicole Brossard’s works. Her activity, as well as that of other translators, contributed to the spread of the idea of translation in the feminine among Canadian writers and theoreticians. What is more, their cooperation has resulted in the creation of the magazine Tessera and in the emergence of a range of phenomena on the borderline between translation and literature. This relationship is also a rare example of the impact of “minor literature”, which is the literature of Quebec, on the English-language Canadian literature.


Author(s):  
Boichuk M.I.

The article outlines the concept of “conversion”, which is defined as an affixless, derivational way of word formation, in which a new word formed from another part of the language does not acquire an external word-forming rearrangement. The concept of “word formation” has also been analyzed and the phonetic component of compounds of religious vocabulary characterized. The structural classification has been distinguished taking into account the structure of compoundings. It has been found that among the layer of religious vocabulary derivational connections of conversion occur between two, three or more words, and the main ways of direction of this process have been identified. Five main models of conversion of lexical units of the religious sphere have been determined, such as: Noun – Verb, which further is divided into three categories, Verb – Noun, Adjective – Noun, Noun – Adjective, Adjective – Verb. The process of substantivization of religious vocabulary as a variant of conversion has also been analyzed. Under substantivization we understand the process of changing the paradigm of the basic word and a part of speech. Analysis of religious vocabulary shows that the transition is from adjectives to nouns, the first acquires the characteristic features of the latter.The article presents an analysis of religious vocabulary based on the dictionary of O. O. Azarov “Comprehensive English-Russian dictionary of religious terminology” which allows to identify such productive models of word formation of religious vocabulary in English: Noun + Noun, Noun + Participle, Adjective + Noun, Noun + Preposition + Noun, Participle + Noun, Pronoun + Noun, Adjective + Participle. These models are most actively involved in the creation of religious vocabulary in English, as they have the largest number of words in their structure. Compounds of religious lexis are divided into root compounds and compound derivatives, the structural integrity of which allows to distinguish them from phrases. Considering the components of compound words, the main element can be both the first and second part. According to the relationship between the components, compounds are divided into endocentric and exocentric types. The first is expressed by a compound word, the meaning of which is derived from the sum of the meanings of the compound’s components, the latter includes complex words, the meaning of which is not determined by any of its constituent elements. Among the layer of religious vocabulary of the English language we distinguish the following endocentric models: Adj + N = N, V + N = N, Part I + N = N, Ger + N = N, N + N = N and exocentric models: Participle + N = Adj, N+Pro.=Adj, V+Prep.=N, Adv+Participle=Adj.Key words:compounding, endocentric and exocentric compound words, substantivization, conversion. У статті обґрунтовано поняття «конверсія», яке визначається як безафіксальний, дериваційний спосіб словотвору, за якого нове слово, що утворюється з іншої частини мови, не набуває зовнішньої словотвірної перебудови. Також у роботі проаналізовано поняття «словоскладання», охарактеризовано фонетичний складник композитів релігійної лексики та виділено структурну класифікацію з урахуванням структури композитів складених слів. З’ясовано, що серед пласту релігійної лексики конверсивні дериваційні зв’язки відбуваються між двома, трьома та більшою кількістю слів, та визначено основні способи спрямованості цього процесу. Виділяємо п’ять основних моделей конверсії лексичних одиниць релігійної сфери: Noun – Verb, яка своєю чергою поділяється на три категорії, Verb – Noun, Adjective – Noun, Noun – Adjective, Adjective – Verb. Також проаналізовано процес субстантивації релігійної лексики як варіант конверсії. Під субстантивацією розуміємо процес зміни парадигми твірного слова й частини мови. Аналіз релігійної лексики показує, що перехід відбувається від прикметників у іменники, прикметник набуває характерних ознак іменника. У статті представлено аналіз релігійної лексики на основі словника О.О. Азарова «Большой англо-русский словарь религиозной лексики», який дає змогу виокремити такі продуктивні моделі словоскладання релігійної лексики в англійській мові: Noun + Noun, Noun + Participle, Adjective + Noun, Noun + Preposition + Noun, Participle + Noun, Pronoun + Noun, Adjective + Participle.Ці моделі беруть найактивнішу участь у творенні релігійної лексики в англійській мові, оскільки налічують найбільшу кількість слів у своїй структурі. Композити релігійної лексики поділяються на власне складні та склад-нопохідні, структурна цілісність яких дозволяє відмежувати їх від словосполучень. Щодо компонентів складних слів, то головним елементом може бути як перша, так і друга частина. Відповідно до відносин між компонентами складні слова поділяються на ендоцентричний та екзоцентричний типи. Перший виражається складним словом, значення якого виводиться із суми значень компонентів композита, до останнього відносяться складні слова, значення яких не визначається жодним із його складових елементів. Серед пласту релігійної лексики англійської мови виокремлюємо такі ендоцентричні моделі: Adj + N = N, V + N = N, Part I + N = N, Ger + N = N, N + N = N та екзоцентричні моделі: Participle + N = Adj, N+Pro.=Adj, V+Prep.=N, Adv+Participle=Adj.Ключові слова:словоскладання, ендоцентричні та екзоцентричні складні слова, субстантивація, конверсія.


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