A Poetics of Society: Thinking Language with Henri Meschonnic

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-310
Author(s):  
Marko Pajević
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Model ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Semantic Value ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Social Importance

Throughout his oeuvre, Henri Meschonnic pursued language and literary studies as a means to better understand meaning-making processes and the functioning of society. By systematically establishing what Meschonnic called a poetics of society, this article explores the connection between a theory of language and a theory of society. Meschonnic makes use of the old debate between realism and nominalism to criticize realism as totalitarian, and situates this on the side of a language theory exclusively based on the sign, to which he opposes his theory of rhythm, which emphasizes the semantic value of the continuous dimension of language. The language of the Hebrew Bible, with its particular accent system, represents for Meschonnic an alternative model for thinking language, changing our ideas about poetics and subjectivity, with ethical and political consequences. This article sheds light on this political dimension of Meschonnic's poetics, making the case for the cultivation of language awareness, for poetic thinking as a socially and politically formative activity. It contends that a different approach to language is a different approach to society, which entails that literature is of general social importance and poetics concerns much more than a narrow conception of literature.

Meschonnic’s Poetics of Society

2019 ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
Marko Pajević
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Social Importance

By systematically establishing what Meschonnic called a poetics of society, this chapter explores the connection between a theory of language and a theory of society. Meschonnic makes use of the old debate between realism and nominalism to criticize a language theory exclusively based on the sign. The particular accent system of the Hebrew Bible represents for Meschonnic an alternative model for thinking language, changing our ideas about poetics and subjectivity, with ethical and political consequences. This article sheds light on this political dimension of Meschonnic’s poetics, making the case for the cultivation of language awareness, for poetic thinking as a socially and politically formative activity. It contends that a different approach to language is a different approach to society, which entails that literature is of general social importance and poetics concerns much more than a narrow conception of literature.

Text denken

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 274-291
Author(s):  
Andrea Polaschegg
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
The Media ◽  
New Space ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Tracing the transformations phenomenological thought underwent in the sphere of literary studies after the 1930s, the paper outlines the epistemological potential of this tradition in regards to a proper understanding of the phenomenon ›text‹. Proceeding from reflections on the agonal relation between structuralistic and phenomenological traditions within contemporary literary theory, the article focuses on Husserl’s apprehension of texts as being »objects in procedure« by exploring the impact of this idea on the literary theories of Ingarden, Wellek, and Iser. In light of the - largely forgotten - fact that Karl Bühler’s pioneering Language Theory (1934) is mainly based on phenomenological thinking, the paper finally discusses to what extend Bühler’s idea of verbal expressions figuring as effective events could open a new space for the development of a literary theory of texts within recent debates on the »media of literature«.

Translating

2019 ◽  
pp. 225-278
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Section Deal ◽  
Theory Of Language

The three texts of this section deal with translation, a field where Meschonnic is of particular influence and importance. Meschonnic’s own experience of translating the Bible, and a very particular understanding of meaning-making procedures in biblical Hebrew, establishes in fact the basis for his theory. The exposure to the semantic accent system of biblical Hebrew allowed Meschonnic to develop a theory of language which saw meaning as residing not only in linguistic reference but in what he called a ‘serial semantics’: motivated forms of verbal patterning, chains of signifiers, prosodic contours, distributions of and connections between speech sounds and motifs across a longer text. He posits that, more than what a text says, it is what a text does that is to be translated: its force. The third text on translation then offers a demonstration of how Meschonnic applies the continuous of his theory of language to a text.

scholarly journals Translation and the Application of Linguistics

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-386
Author(s):  
Probal Dasgupta
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
General Level ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
The One

Abstract This article explores some topics at the boundary between linguistics theory and the applied linguistic foundations of the practice of translation. Section 1, The irrelevance of the avant-garde , considers the relation between such academic adventures as semiotics and poststructuralism on the one hand and the theory of language and the practice of translation on the other, and argues that radical antiscientism does not bear on the foundations of translation. Section 2, The irrelevance of the technical , looks at formal syntax and semantics in relation to the concepts of applied linguistics and shows that careful contemporary linguistics cannot underpin an applied enterprise that includes translation studies. Section 3, The substantive hase of translation , indicates (in some detail for translation and at a general level for other applied linguistic activities) the direction that the contemporary integration of various lines of linguistic research is taking vis-à-vis the needs of such applied enterprises as translation, literary studies, language planning, lexicography, and language teaching. Section 3 invokes a concept of substance as opposed to form and thus sets the scene for the concluding section 4, Pragmatics, applied studies, and scientific progress , which argues that it is necessary to take help from linguistics in order to construct the field of translation studies in such a way that practitioners can truly benefit freely from all relevant branches of knowledge, in view of the fact that chaos is an obstacle to genuine freedom.

scholarly journals Muro em queda: Projeto para uma teoria da linguagem em Walter Benjamin/ Wall falling: Project for a theory of language in Walter Benjamin

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Estevan Negreiros Ketzer
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
Theory Of Language

Resumo: O presente artigo propõe pensar os elementos iniciais no pensamento de Walter Benjamin acerca de uma teoria da linguagem. A questão a partir da qual o centro de sua indagação passa a ser a superficialidade e a falta de vinculação do ser humano com o ato nominativo, vulgarizando-se no decorrer do tempo, obtendo seu ápice na era moderna. A ideia na qual o ser humano se afastou de sua essência está relacionada a uma indistinção da realidade a partir da tradição grega do logos. Como crítica ao fundamento grego, Benjamin recorre à tradição da ciência cabalística hebraica ao realizar uma leitura do capítulo primeiro do pentateuco.Palavras chave: Walter Benjamin; Teoria da Linguagem; Cabala; Pentateuco.Abstract: The present article proposes to think the initial elements in Walter Benjamin’s thought on a theory of the language. The question from which the center of his inquiry becomes the superficiality and lack of attachment of the human being to the nominative act, becoming without value through the time, getting its apex in the modern age. The idea in which the human being departed from its essence is related to an indistinction of reality from the Greek tradition of logos. As a criticism of the Greek foundation, Benjamin resorts to the Hebrew Kabbalistic tradition to read the first chapter of the Pentateuch.Keywords: Walter Benjamin; Language Theory; Kabbala; Pentateuch.

Chapter II: Two Old-world Theories of Language

1980 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
Richard Albert Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Language Theory ◽  
Western World ◽  
Old World ◽  
Language Origin ◽  
Divine Origin ◽  
Theory Of Language

Adam’s first task was giving names to natural Appearances: what is ours still but a continuation of the same?—CARLYLE, Sartor Resartus, 1830.What is now usually known as the ‘external divine-origin theory’ of language—a misnomer which arose from erroneous theological expositions of the narrative given in the early chapters of Genesis—has still an interest for the modern student; first, because of the prolonged influence which it has had upon language theory in the Western world; and second, because of certain significant facts regarding language which an understanding reader still finds in that old story of language origin, to say nothing of the poetic attractiveness of the story itself.

The Power of Grammar and the Grammar of Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 349-391
Author(s):  
Evgeny Dobrenko
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Revolutionary Romanticism ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
And Linguistics

This chapter looks into the political dimension of the “discussion about language.” It mentions Nikolai Marr's predominant theory in linguistics. It also compares the two major ideological campaigns in the late-Stalinism era in biology and linguistics, which indicates that realism and revolutionary romanticism remained a principal balancing element in the politico-ideological project of Stalinism. The chapter highlights Joseph Stalin's urgent political signals that speak out against the Marrist concept of “linguistic revolution.” It analyzes the arguments surrounding Marr in both the early 1930s and the early 1950s that revolved around Stalin's “Marxism.” It also discusses Stalin's “new theory of language” that was proclaimed at the cusp of the 1930s as a true embodiment of Marxism in linguistics.

Decision-making as performative struggle

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sander Merkus ◽  
Jaap De Heer ◽  
Marcel Veenswijk
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Strategic Decision Making ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of performative struggle through the use of an interpretative case story focussed on a strategic decision-making process concerning infrastructural development. Performativity is about “world-making” (Carter et al., 2010), based on the assumption that conceptual schemes are not only prescriptions of the world, for the practices flowing from these abstract ideas bring into being the world they are describing. The focus on agency and multiplicity in the academic debate on performativity in organizational settings are combined, resulting in the conceptualization of a multitude of performative agents struggling to make the world. Design/methodology/approach – The methodological approach of this paper is based on an interpretative analysis of contrasting narratives that are told by political-executives in a strategic decision-making process. These narratives are based on in-depth interviews and participant observation. The interpretative case story, exhibiting the strategic decision-making practices of Aldermen, Delegates and Ministers – focusses on the moments of performative struggle based on strategic narrative practices. Findings – The interpretative case story will exhibit the way in which a multiplicity of agents reflects on the performative dimension of the decision-making process, anticipates on its performative effects and attempts to manipulate the strategic vision that is actualized into reality. Moreover, the agents are not primarily concerned with the actualization of a specific infrastructural project; they are more concerned with the consequences of decision making for their more comprehensive strategic visions on reality. Research limitations/implications – The notion of performative struggle has not yet been explicitly studied by scholars focussing on performativity. However, the concept can be used as an appropriate lens for studying meaning making within ethnographic studies on organizational processes such as for instance culture change intervention and strategy formation. The concept of performative struggle is especially useful for understanding the political dimension of meaning making when studying an organizational life-world through the use of ethnographic research. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in the innovative conceptualization of struggle between a multiplicity of reflexive agents in the debate on performative world-making. Moreover, the incorporation of the perspective of performative struggle within organizational ethnographic research is valuable for the development of organizational ethnographic methodology.

scholarly journals Fostering Employee Trust via Effective Supervisory Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Through the Lens of Motivating Language Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 232948842110204
Author(s):  
Linjuan Rita Men ◽  
Yufan Sunny Qin ◽  
Jie Jin
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Need Satisfaction ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Leadership Communication ◽  
Psychological Need ◽  
Employee Trust ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Motivating Language ◽  
Motivating Language Theory

This study examines how supervisory leadership communication during the COVID-19 pandemic fostered employee trust through the lens of motivating language theory. Drawing insight from self-determination theory, this study also reveals the mediating effects of employees’ psychological need satisfaction for competence and relatedness in this process, which help explain how supervisory leadership communication influences employee trust. Through an online survey of 393 full-time employees from various organizations in the U.S., results showed that supervisory use of meaning-making (0.15), empathetic (0.60), and direction-giving language (0.27) during the pandemic all showed significant positive effects on employee trust toward leadership and the organization directly, and indirectly through satisfying employees’ psychological need for competence and relatedness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

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