"Where Is the Glory of Troy?" "Kleos" in Euripides' "Helen"

1994 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary S. Meltzer
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Competitive System ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
The Status ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Point Of Departure

Near the end of Euripides' "Helen", Helen reportedly exhorts the Greek troops to rescue her Egyptian foes: "Where is the glory of Troy (to Troikon kleos)? Show it to these barbarians" (1603-1604). Helen's rallying cry serves as a point of departure for investigating the nature and status of kleos in a play which invites reframing her question: Where, indeed, is the glory of Troy if the report of Helen's abduction by Paris is untrue? The drama deconstructs the notion of a unitary, transcendent meaning of "kleos" by demonstrating the slippage between its two root-meanings in Homer as "immortal fame," legitimated by the gods, and as mere "report" or "rumor." A diminution of the status of the proper name runs in parallel with this slippage between the two senses of "kleos": the heroic name loses its privileged status as a stable, transparent sign of character and becomes instead a signifier vulnerable to dissemination (cf. Jacques Derrida, La dissémination [Paris, 1972]). As a vehicle of deception, Helen's phantom-twin becomes a figure for the polysemy of the signifier, both visual and linguistic. The phantom's substitution for Helen also highlights her symbolic role as a marker of men's (and gods') status in a competitive system of exchange. If the play presents Helen as a continual object of men's attempts to capture her in song as well as in war, it presents heroic kleos as an equally insecure possession, insofar as it is always contingent on the "report" of others. Indeed, Helen becomes a metaphor for the duplicity inherent in the mimetic process by which fame is transmitted. That "kleos" turns out to have been a dangerously deceptive signifier is a lesson of more than literary interest for the Athenians watching Euripides' "Helen" (412)-the forces of the Sicilian expedition had been annihilated only a year earlier.

Extinction and Thalassal Regression

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126
Author(s):  
Philippe Lynes
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Death Drive ◽  
Organic Life ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Zero Degree

This essay examines certain intersections between writing and extinction through an eco-deconstructive account of the psychoanalysis of water. Jacques Derrida has often drawn attention to the interplay between the sound ‘O,’ and ‘eau,’ in Maurice Blanchot's own proper name, as well as in his novels, récits and theoretical works; both the zero-degree of organic excitation towards which the death drive aims and the question of water. Sandor Ferenczi's notion of thalassal regression suggests that the desire to return to the tranquility of the maternal womb parallels a response to a traumatic prehistoric extinction event undergone by organic life once forced to abandon its aquatic existence. Through Gaston Bachelard's Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter, however, one can double the imaginary of water along the axes of a personal death organic life defers and delays, and an impersonal extinction it cannot. Derrida's unpublished 1977 seminar on Blanchot's 1941 novel Thomas the Obscure, however, allows us to imagine an exteriority to extinction, the possibility

scholarly journals DET ZOOFILE ÅRHUNDREDE

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Knudsen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Logical Consequence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

Anne Knudsen: The Century of Zoophilia Taking as her point of departure the protests against a dying child having his last wish fulfilled because his wish was to kill a bear, the author argues that animals have achieved a higher moral status than that of humans during the 20th century. The status of animals (and of “nature”) is seen as a consequence of their muteness which on the one hånd makes it impossible for animals to lie, and which on the other hånd allows humans to imagine what animals would say, if they spoke. The development toward zoophilia is explained as a a logical consequence of the cultural naturalisation of humans, and the author draws the conclusion that we may end up entirely without animals as a category. This hypothetical situation will lead to juridical as well as philosophical complications.

scholarly journals TERMS, NOMENS AND PRAGMATONYMS IN THE SPECIAL LANGUAGE OF SPORT (Based on Eponymous Terms)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Natalia N. Bobyreva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sports Facilities ◽  
Semantic Meaning ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Status ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
International Character ◽  
Suggested Classification ◽  
Special Language

The article deals with the problem of distinguishing between terminology and nomenclature in the eponymous lexis of sports. It starts with a review of research works concerned with the differences between terms, nomens, and pragmatonyms. As the extralinguistic factors influence research into peculiarities of a particular special language, including the status of its units, there is also provided a review of works covering the problems of special sports lexis classification. Eponymous lexis is considered as a special and significant inventory of special language units, from the historical, cultural, and professional points of view. The proper name as a constituent of eponymous terms, nomens, and pragmatonyms predetermines the similarities between these types of lexis. The functional features common for eponymous terms, nomens, and pragmatonyms are their international character and stylistic neutrality, i. e. the ability to function in all the registers of communication. Distinguishing between eponymous terminology and nomenclature is based on the semantic criteria, namely the idea of the referent’s oneness. The semantic meaning and thematic relatedness of the unit, as well as the nomination principles, are taken into account. Eponymous terms are the units formed on the basis of proper names and denoting actions, systems of exercises, equipment, rules, formulae for coun­ting the results. Eponymous nomens are the units naming sports facilities, competitions, prizes, teams, and clubs. The names of products manufactured in lots are considered to be pragmatonyms. The methodology upon which the suggested classification is based may be used in research on special languages of other spheres, eponymous units related to different themes, and while analyzing the linguistic features of units belonging to the special language of sports.

Peut-on sauver un sens de dénomination pour les noms propres ?

2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Kleiber
Keyword(s):  
Proper Names ◽  
The Other ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Semantic Description ◽  
Procedural Approach ◽  
Classic Problem ◽  
The Status ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Procedural Instruction

This study revisits the classic problem posed by the meaning of proper names, and proposes a procedural approach to this problem, by analysing the meaning of proper names as an instruction to find in long-term memory the referent that carries the proper name in question. This is a revision of my earlier theory of ‘naming predicates’ (Kleiber 1981), which captures the meaning of proper names like Louis in terms of paraphrases of the form “the x who is called Louis”. The concept of ‘naming predicate’ was meant to provide an alternative to the inadequacies of the two classic approaches to the meaning of proper names, viz. theories that analyse proper names as semantically empty (e.g. Mills, Kripke 1972) and theories that analyse proper names in terms of uniquely identifying descriptions (Frege, Russell 1956). An analysis in terms of naming predicates (‘the X called Louis’) gives proper names an abstract type of meaning, thus avoiding the disembodied sign that results from analysing them as semantically empty, and at the same time does not go to the other extreme of incoporating aspects of the referent in the proper name’s meaning, thus avoiding the well-known problems with referential identity (e.g. Tullius = Cicero) and the related puzzles of transparence and opacity. In spite of these descriptive advantages, further research has shown that there are a number of problems with the notion of ‘naming predicate’. One of these problems concerns the status of proper names in ‘naming constructions’ like I am called Louis. Applying a naming predicate analysis to such constructions either leads to infinite regression (Wilmet 1995), or — if Louis in the naming predicate ‘the x called Louis’ is regarded as a phonetic form rather than a proper name — to a denial of proper name status in the very construction that expresses the naming link between proper name and referent (Jonasson 1982). Another problem concerns the cognitive naturalness of an analysis in terms of ‘naming predicates’. While this analysis is quite natural in contexts like There is no Louis in this office, it works less well in contexts like This painting is a real Picasso and, most importantly, in prototypical uses like Louis is a painter and a sculpturer, where a naming predicate analysis solely identifies the referent as the carrier of the proper name. These problems have led me to propose a revision to the theory of naming predicates. The descriptive advantages of using the naming relation between proper name and referent as the basis of the semantic description are obvious, which means that this aspect of the theory needs to be maintained. What causes most of the problems, however, is associating this naming relation with a predicate. As an alternative, I propose to reanalyse it in a procedural sense, not as a predicate describing the referent but as a procedural instruction to look for the referent that carries the proper name. This puts proper names in the domain of indexical signs like deictic elements. Common nouns, on the other hand, are not indexical in this sense but stand for concepts, which means that indexicality only comes into the picture when deictic elements are added.

The status of ‘canonical SVO sentences’ in French: a developmental study of the on-line processing of dislocated sentences

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnès Charvillat ◽  
Michèle Kail
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Order Processing ◽  
Monitoring Task ◽  
French Word ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
The Status ◽  
On Line ◽  
Per Se

ABSTRACTThis on-line study investigates the processing of word order by 30 French children (6;6, 8;6, 10;6) and 10 adults. Its main objective is to show that the privileged status granted to ‘canonical SVO sentences’ is inadequate to account for the on-line processing of pronominal utterances in spoken French. Using a word monitoring task, we showed that word order (NVN vs NNV): (1) is a significant factor in sentences containing no clitic pronoun; (2) stops being significant when sentences contain either one or two clitic pronouns. These results suggest that processing complexity depends upon co-reference (‘linear’, ‘crossed’ or ‘embedding’) assignment constraints rather than upon word order per se. We conclude that, in French, word-order processing always interacts with acceptability considerations provided by cliticization.

The Primal Scattering of Languages

1998 ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Karin Littau
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tower Of Babel ◽  
Accidental Release ◽  
Creation Myth ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Positive Light

In After Babel, George Steiner recounts ‘two main conjectures’ in mythology which explain ‘the mystery of many tongues on which a view of translation hinges.’ One such mythic tale is the tower of Babel, which not only Steiner, but also Jacques Derrida after him, take as their starting point to approach the question of translation; the other conjecture tells of 'some awful error [which] was committed, an accidental release of linguistic chaos, in the mode of Pandora’s Box' (Steiner). This paper will take this other conjecture, the myth of Pandora, first woman of the Greek creation myth, as its point of departure, not only to offer a feminized version of the primal scattering of languages, but to rewrite in a positive light and therefore also toreverse the negative and misogynist association of Pandora with "man’s" fall. But, rather than exposing the entrenched patriarchal bias in mythographers’ interpretations of Pandora, my foremost aim is to pose, through her figure, questions about language and woman, and, by extension, the mother tongue and female sexuality.

Neurolinguistic and syntactic evidence for basic level meaning in proper names

1999 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Van Langendonck
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Common Noun ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Lexical Meaning ◽  
The Status ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Basic Level

This paper is intended to be an interdisciplinary investigation of the status of proper names, although it takes linguistics as its point of departure. In this study I will define proper names in terms of the currently developing Radical Construction Grammar, as promoted by Croft (to appear). Starting from the referential and semantic functions of proper names, I discuss the opposing theses of the language philosophers John Searle and Saul Kripke, and then formulate my position that proper names are assigned an ad hoc referent in an ad hoc name-giving act, i.e. not on the basis of a concept or predication as with common nouns. This ad hoc assignment can be repeated several times, so numerous people can be called John. Proper names do not have asserted lexical meaning but do display presuppositional meanings of several kinds: categorical (basic level), associative senses (introduced either via the name-bearer or via the name-form) and grammatical meanings. Language specifically, this referential and semantic status is reflected in the occurrence of proper names in certain constructions. I thus claim that close (or 'restrictive') appositional patterns of the form [definite article + noun + noun], e.g. the poet Burns, are relevant to the definition of proper names in English and also to the categorical (often basic level) meaning of the name. From proper names we can also derive nouns that appear as a special kind of common noun, e.g. another John. From a methodological viewpoint it is imperative to distinguish here between (proprial) lexemes or lemmas in isolation (dictionary entries) and proprial lemmas in their different functions (prototypically: proper name, nonprototypically: common noun or other). To corroborate the above theses, I will adduce recent psycholinguistic and especially neurolinguistic evidence. The overall argument will be based mainly on material from Germanic languages, especially English, Dutch and German.

Representations of Self and the Other in Two Iraqi Travelogues of the Ottoman Period

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hala Fattah
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
The Status ◽  
Common Destiny ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Different Levels

Over the years, a number of important studies have been written on aspects of premodern travel in the Islamic world. Most of the literature examining the travel circuits of Ottoman/Arab bureaucrats, scholars, and merchants inevitably gives rise to the question of communal self-awareness and identity. How did pre-modern travelers envisage themselves and the “other”? What allowed some of them to create “imagined communities” of like-minded sojourners, incorporating space, ideology, and shared origin into a notion of exclusive commonality? How did travel contribute to the emergence of theories of “national” exceptionalism from among the fluid traditions of de-centralized imperial control? Why was it that the most favored classes in the empire's provinces were usually the first to register their unease with the status quo and to experiment with different levels of self-perception and identity? Benedict Anderson's thesis on pre-modern travel is instructive on all of these issues. His point of departure is that the frequent journeys of provincial functionaries, bureaucrats, and scholars, whether to perform the obligations of religious pilgrimage or to oversee the administrative needs of empire, paradoxically provided indigenous elites aspiring for representation and recognition in the mother country (or empire) with the catalyst for the development of a wider sense of identification with their home regions. Finding their desires for increased mobility thwarted by the central power, provincial elites in 18th-century Spanish America eventually chose the way of armed resistance to regain control of what was now perceived to be a “common” destiny.

scholarly journals (Tomme) NPer i moderne generativ syntaktisk teori (2. del)

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bent Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Separate Section ◽  
Empty Category ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
The Status ◽  
Abstract Case ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Category Principle

The present paper takes its point of departure in the concept of empty NP-categories, as this is embodied in a more comprehensive theory of NPs. The theoretical framework adopted is mainly that expouned in Chomsky: Lextures on Government and Binding (1981) and subsequent works (though no attempt has been made to incorporate the revised model presented in Chomsky: Barriers (1986)). The paper gives a brief introduction to the main modules of a modern generative grammar (X-bar syntax;0-theory; government (including proper government and the Extended Empty Category Principle); the theory of abstract Case; the theory of Binding; and the theory of Bouding). The paper falls into two parts. In the first part the basic modules and principles are introduced. In the second part, to be published in the next issue of Hermes, it will be shown how these modules interact in the derivation of sentences. Particular attention will be paid to NP-Movement and Wh-Movement. A separate section will deal with the status of PRO. The full bibliography appears after both parts.

scholarly journals THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT’S TWO FRIENDS AND ARTURO ARIAS’ TOWARD PATZUN

Lire Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-59
Author(s):  
Kristiawan Indriyanto
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
The Other ◽  
Thematic Structure ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
Arturo Arias ◽  
The Status ◽  
Guatemalan Civil War

This paper compares and contrasts two short stories, Guy De Maupassant’s Two Friends and Arturo Arias’ Toward Patzun. Both stories have the same thematic structure as the harshness and brutality during wartime situation is a similar concern to the aforementioned writers. Although both writers foreground the savagery of war, the different cultural background, nationality, literary tradition cause differences in the way both writer narrate their short stories. While De Maupassant depicts the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Arias squares his narration in the Guatemalan civil war (1960-1996). The differences of canonical status between De Maupassant and Arias is also scrutinized in this paper. While De Maupassant is a household name in Western literary tradition, the popularity of Arias remains obscure. This paper argues that the differences in canonization is linked also with the status of Two Friends in the hypercanon, on the other hand Toward Patzun is located in the countercanon. It is hoped that this paper can contribute toward questioning the privileged status of Western literary works compared to the non-Western author.

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