Sa'adyah Gaon

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.

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Inggs

This article investigates the perceived image of English-language children's literature in Soviet Russia. Framed by Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and Bourdieu's philosophy of action, the discussion takes into account the ideological constraints of the practice of translation and the manipulation of texts. Several factors involved in creating the perceived character of a body of literature are identified, such as the requirements of socialist realism, publishing practices in the Soviet Union, the tradition of free translation and accessibility in the translation of children's literature. This study explores these factors and, with reference to selected examples, illustrates how the political and sociological climate of translation in the Soviet Union influenced the translation practices and the field of translated children's literature, creating a particular image of English-language children's literature in (Soviet) Russia.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Schrank

This essay examines the political uses to which Behan puts language in his autobiographical fiction, Borstal Boy, both as an instrument of domination and a means of liberation. Identifying Standard English language and literature as important components of the British imperial project, Behan creates, as a linguistic alternative, ‘englishes’, a composite language in which differences of geography, class, age, education, and occupation create a demotic speech of great variability and expressive force. In so doing, Behan sabotages the cultural assumptions and justifications for colonial exploitation embedded and validated in Standard English literature and language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-207
Author(s):  
Juliette Barbera

For decades, both incarceration and research on the topic have proliferated. Disciplines within the Western sciences have studied the topic of incarceration through their respective lenses. Decades of data reflect trends and consequences of the carceral state, and based on that data the various disciplines have put forth arguments as to how the trends and consequences are of relevance to their respective fields of study. The research trajectory of incarceration research, however, overlooks the assumptions behind punishment and control and their institutionalization that produce and maintain the carceral state and its study. This omission of assumptions facilitates a focus on outcomes that serve to reinforce Western perspectives, and it contributes to the overall stagnation in the incarceration research produced in Western disciplines. An assessment of the study of the carceral state within the mainstream of American Political Development in the political science discipline provides an example of how the research framework contributes to the overall stagnation, even though the framework of the subfield allows for an historical institutionalization perspective. The theoretical perspectives of Cedric J. Robinson reveal the limits of Western lenses to critically assess the state. The alternative framework he provides to challenge the limits imposed on research production by Western perspectives applies to the argument presented here concerning the limitations that hamper the study of the carceral state.


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):  
John G. Rodden

This is the first English-language study of GDR education and the first book, in any language, to trace the history of Eastern German education from 1945 through the 1990s. Rodden fully relates the GDR's attempt to create a new Marxist nation by means of educational reform, and looks not only at the changing institution of education but at something the Germans call Bildung--the formation of character and the cultivation of body and spirit. The sociology of nation-building is also addressed.


Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari

This chapter examines the lack of continuous tradition of the art of the theatre in the history of Jewish culture. Theatre as art and institution was forbidden for Jews during most of their history, and although there were plays written in different times and places during the past centuries, no tradition of theatre evolved in Jewish culture until the middle of the nineteenth century. In view of this absence, the author discusses the genesis of Jewish theatre in Eastern Europe and in Eretz-Yisrael (The Land of Israel) since the late nineteenth century, encouraged by the Jewish Enlightenment movement, the emergence of Jewish nationalism, and the rebirth of Hebrew as a language of everyday life. Finally, the chapter traces the development of parallel strands of theatre that preceded the Israeli theatre and shadowed the emergence of the political infrastructure of the future State of Israel.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-76
Author(s):  
Katarina Damjanić

The main goal of this paper is to indicate the importance of the issues of vagueness and dissociation in discourse interpretation. The discourse that is taken into consideration is the discourse of political news written in the English language. This particular discourse is widely available to readers and deals with important political issues, which is why the choice of words and phrases should ideally be unbiased and accurate. If not, the readers may misinterpret the discourse and have a wrong impression of the political issue. In this research, newspaper articles are taken as an example of political news discourse. All articles analyzed were written in online British and American broadsheet and tabloid newspapers and they all dealt with the migrant crisis and 2019 Hong Kong protests. By taking into consideration the political context and the theoretical framework used in this research, 44 instances considered to be examples of vagueness and dissociation were identified, which were found in 14 newspaper articles.


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.


2019 ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
Оksana Slipushko ◽  
Anastasiya Katyuzhynska

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the artistic interpretation of historical events and figures in the novel “Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky” by I. Nechuy-Levytsky. Particular attention is paid to the implementation of the specifics of Baroque historiography in the novel. The characteristic features of the author’s historical conception and influence of the cossack chronicles on its formation are determined. The historical fiction of I. Nechuy-Levytsky is represented by author’s historiosophical and ideological-aesthetic views, based on personal understanding of the Ukrainian history. I. Nechuy-Levytsky presents his own historical conception of the period of I. Vyhovsky’s activity, which is connected with certain features and characteristics of the provisions of Baroque historiography. An artistic rethinking of the role and place of personality in history and history in the life of humanity in the worldview of I. Nechuy-Levytsky is analyzed. The peculiarities of the interpretation of hetman Ivan Vyhovsky’s character in the cossack chronicles and the novel by I. Nechuy-Levytsky in the comparative aspect are substantiated. It is determined, that the estimation of hetman’s activity differs from that set out in the cossack chronicles. Therefore, unlike the chroniclers, who negatively characterize the political activity of I. Vyhovsky, the writer represents the human personality as a state creator, active subject in history. In addition, much attention is paid to the individualization of the image of the ruler, in particular the disclosure of the psychology of his actions. In conclusion, in the artistic interpretation of I. Nechuy-Levytsky hetman I. Vyhovsky is represented as the bearer of political views and ideological positions, that played a significant role in the formation and development of the idea of Ukrainian statehood and became a continuation of the historical conception and ideological dominants of the cossack chronicles.


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