My Words + Your Words = Our [email protected]

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
GRACIELA BORUSZKO
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Use Of Self ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Stranger

ABSTRACT Contemporary urban communities are the likely scenarios where the constructions of personal identities are achieved within a bilingual or multilingual sociolinguistic environment. Tradition acts as a negotiator between the forces that chisel a modified shape to an individual that seeks to immerse the self into a new collectivity. Between the fear to lose the already acquired identity and the forging of a new identity, there are words and worlds that need to be expressed within a discussion on the use of self-translation as a linguistic bridge to reach the other. The decision to embrace bilingualism is based on the desire to explore beyond their “village” and engage in broader conversations. Independently of the reasons of the individual to decide to be immersed in another culture, the decision implies the acceptance of modifications of a somewhat monolithic vision of the “self” and “the other”. To get immersed in bilingualism is the first step to penetrate a biculturalism that is bound to leave marks on the chore of the self as another referent is taken alongside the self, even in a competing way or at least following a comparative approach. That cumulus of life transcends to others through words that reveal a personal mysterious world that is in constant formation and transformation. In this article, I explore the experience of the self and the stranger in relation to linguistic and artistic exile in literature. The multicultural and multilingual author, Nancy Huston, chose literature, the land of words, as a place to establish her inner personal worlds. Words and worlds create a fascinating synergy as they interact with the illusion of a certain identity. “Self” and “the other” engage in conversations that lead to reinventing the self through the use of languages. The situational “exile” of the author is then expressed at multiple levels as the concept of national and foreign, original and translation, individual and collective, fidelity and infidelity, identity and otherness, and mother tongue and foreign language all play interchangeable roles in the hope of constituting a “unique monolithic identity".

Translating ambiguous and nonambiguous Words in a foreign Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 129-152
Author(s):  
Paul Bogaards ◽  
Elisabeth Van Der Linden ◽  
Lydius Nienhuis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
The Individual

The research to be reported on in this paper was originally motivated by the finding that about 70% of the mistakes made by university students when translating from their mother tongue (Dutch) into their foreign language (French) were lexical in nature (NIENHUIS et al. 1989). This was partially confinned in the investigation described in NIENHUIS et al. (1993). A closer look at the individual errors suggested that many problems were caused by words with more than one meaning which each require different translations in the target language. In the research reported on in this paper, we checked our fmdings in the light of what is known about the structure of the bilingual lexicon and about the ways bilinguals have access to the elements of their two languages. On the basis of the model of the bilingual lexicon presented by KROLL & Sholl (1992) an adapted model is proposed for the processing of lexical ambiguity. This leads to a tentative schema of the mental activities that language learners have to perfonn when they are translating from their mother tongue into a foreign language, The second part of the paper describes two experiments we have carried out in order to find empirical support for such a schema. The last section of the paper contains a discussion of the results obtained as well as the conclusions that can be drawn.

Self, Indian theories of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.S. Rukmani
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Spiritual Energy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Ultimate Principle ◽  
Ultimate Nature

Hindu thought traces its different conceptions of the self to the earliest extant Vedic sources composed in the Sanskrit language. The words commonly used in Hindu thought and religion for the self are jīva (life), ātman (breath), jīvātman (life-breath), puruṣa (the essence that lies in the body), and kṣetrajña (one who knows the body). Each of these words was the culmination of a process of inquiry with the purpose of discovering the ultimate nature of the self. By the end of the ancient period, the personal self was regarded as something eternal which becomes connected to a body in order to exhaust the good and bad karma it has accumulated in its many lives. This self was supposed to be able to regain its purity by following different spiritual paths by means of which it can escape from the circle of births and deaths forever. There is one more important development in the ancient and classical period. The conception of Brahman as both immanent and transcendent led to Brahman being identified with the personal self. The habit of thought that tried to relate every aspect of the individual with its counterpart in the universe (Ṛg Veda X. 16) had already prepared the background for this identification process. When the ultimate principle in the subjective and objective spheres had arrived at their respective ends in the discovery of the ātman and Brahman, it was easy to equate the two as being the same spiritual ‘energy’ that informs both the outer world and the inner self. This equation had important implications for later philosophical growth. The above conceptions of the self-identity question find expression in the six systems of Hindu thought. These are known as āstikadarśanas or ways of seeing the self without rejecting the authority of the Vedas. Often, one system or the other may not explicitly state their allegiance to the Vedas, but unlike Buddhism or Jainism, they did not openly repudiate Vedic authority. Thus they were āstikadarśanas as opposed to the others who were nāstikadarśanas. The word darśana for philosophy is also significant if one realizes that philosophy does not end with only an intellectual knowing of one’s self-identity but also culminates in realizing it and truly becoming it.

scholarly journals Outobiografie as hermeneutiek van die self: Van Rousseau tot Le Clézio

Literator ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Snyman
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ken Bugul ◽  
Marguerite Yourcenar ◽  
Autobiographical Texts ◽  
Intercultural Encounters ◽  
Individual Existence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Historical Model

Autobiography as hermeneutics of the self, from Rousseau to Le Clézio. This article investigates the hypothesis that autobiography can be regarded as a type of hermeneutics of the self. In order to achieve this, a selection of French autobiographical texts was analysed. As this study is a reworked version of an inaugural lecture, it presents an overview rather than a detailed analysis of the theories or the texts it refers to. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, generally regarded as a cornerstone of modern autobiography, was used as a point of departure for the interpretation of operations of understanding at work in autobiographical texts. The article demonstrates how the writers of the rest of the corpus of texts question Rousseau’s historical model in different ways according to more recent concepts of the self. Thus it is argued that George Perec replaces the historical model of understanding with an approach based on deciphering signs from the past; that Nathalie Sarraute combines the New Novel’s concept of the divided subject with that of tropismes in order to give a truthful representation of her childhood; and that Roland Barthes problematises the notion of language as a medium of expression of subjectivity in his ‘anti-outobiography’. This study furthermore demonstrates how Marguerite Yourcenar breaks with the anthropomorphism associated with humanism to pave the way for the realisation that the presence of the Other profoundly determines the understanding of the self. Finally, the ethics of dealing with the Other in intercultural encounters, as recorded in Ken Bugul and Jean-Marie Le Clézio’s autobiographies, is examined. The article shows how, from the 18th century onwards, literary and philosophical trends influenced the act of understanding and interpreting the individual existence and hence the nature of autobiography.

scholarly journals Kierkegaard and the modern search for self

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Relational Understanding ◽  
Search For Self ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

In this article, I argue that Kierkegaard’s analysis of the self and the concept of despair introduces another approach to the self that is different from the one found in humanistic psychology. Rather than seeing the self as something organic, something universally and privately given to the individual to develop, Kierkegaard presented a dialectical and a relational understanding of the self, wherein the notion of “the other” is central. Central in Kierkegaard’s analysis in Sickness Unto Death are two modalities when it comes to despair: the despair of not willing to be oneself and the despair of willing to be oneself. Kierkegaard’s analysis of the despair of willing to be oneself can be read as a strong critique of the notion of self being constituted by itself, as argued by humanistic psychology.

Homogeneity, “glocalism” or somewhere in between?

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 288-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helene Cecilia de Burgh-Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Marketing Theory ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pierre Loti ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – This paper aims to expand current theories of globalisation to a consideration of its impact on the individual. Much work has been done on the impact of globalisation on social, political and economic structures. In this paper, globalisation, for the individual, reflects a re-conceptualisation of the Self/Other encounter. In order to explore this Self/Other dimension, the paper analyses the literary work of nineteenth-century writer Pierre Loti since his work begins to problematise this important motif. His work also provides insight into the effect on the individual when encountering the Other in a globalised context. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from literary criticism, the paper adopts an interpretive approach. Using the fiction and non-fiction work of Pierre Loti, an integrated psychoanalytical, postcolonial analysis is conducted to draw out possible insights into how Loti conceptualises the Other and is thus transformed himself. Findings – The paper finds that the Self/Other encounter shifts in the era of globalisation. The blurring of the Self/Other is part of the impact of globalisation on the individual. Further, the paper argues that Loti was the first to problematise Self/Other at a point in history where the distinction seemed clear. Loti's work is instructive for tracing the dissolution of the Self/Other encounter since the themes and issues raised in his early work foreshadow our contemporary experience of globalisation. Research limitations/implications – This paper takes a specific view of globalisation through an interpretive lens. It also uses one specific body of work to answer the research question of what impact globalisation has on the individual. A broader sampling and application of theoretical strains out of the literary criticism canon would expand the parameters of this study. Originality/value – This paper makes an original contribution to current theorisations of globalisation in that it re-conceptualises classical understandings of the Self/Other divide. The finding that the Self/Other divide is altered in the current era of globalisation has impact for cultural and marketing theory since it re-focuses attention on the shifting nature of identity and how we encounter the Other in our daily existence.

The linguistic marking of agentivity and control in child language

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Budwig
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Use Of Self ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Reference Form ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Self Reference

ABSTRACTThe present study examines the relationship between linguistic forms and the functions they serve in children's early talk about agentivity and control. The spontaneous linguistic productions of six children ranging between 1;8 and 2;8 served as the data base. Preliminary analyses of who the children referred to and what forms were used in subject position suggest that the children could be divided into two groups. Three children primarily referred to Self and relied on multiple Self reference forms in subject position, while the other children referred to both Self and Other and primarily used the Self reference form, I. A functional analysis was carried out to examine whether the seemingly interchangeable use of Self reference forms could be related to semantic and pragmatic patterns. The findings indicate that at a time before they regularly refer to others, the children systematically employed different Self reference forms to mark distinct perspectives on agency.

scholarly journals Ali Smith’s There But For The: Identity, Hospitality and Transcendence in the Age of Surveillance

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Andrei-Bogdan Popa
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Stranger ◽  
Subjective Identity

Abstract The aim of this essay is to prove that, throughout Ali Smith’s There But For The (2011), the “narrative” subjective identity (Alphen 83) accessed via the face-to-face relation (Levinas and Hand 42), as well as through storytelling itself, is liable to be turned into archivable information under the pressures of a surveillance state in which its citizens are complicit. I will use this archival/narrative identity dyad as articulated by theorist Ernst van Alphen in order to investigate at length the novel’s staging of hospitality as corrupted by surveillance. I will oppose the notion of identity as information against Emmanuel Levinas’s conception of the face-to-face relation (Levinas and Hand 42), whereby true hospitality depends upon the mutual respect one person has for the absolute singularity of the other, which involves personal information and the right to privacy. As it will become apparent, these identities lose or gain agency according to the engagement of the self with a newly arrived foreign alterity. Thus, the arrival of strangers throughout Smith’s novel thematizes the scenario of hospitality in tension with the stranger as surveyor or as surveyed. The doubling of language, the self-editing of one’s discourse and the risky openness towards the Other are modes of resistance that eschew the artificial categorizations upon which the archival identity is contingent. However, the bridge from interiority to exteriority is mediation. Smith therefore develops a conception of secularized Grace that works by exploring the revolutionary potential of this very mediation and can disrupt the logic of tyrannical surveillance. Part of this approach to history and language is informed by the witnessing of the traces left on the bodies of martyrized dissidents by unjust systems at their apex. There But For The is narrated by four characters in the mediatic aftermath of a bourgeois dinner party in an affluent suburb of London that witnessed the sudden and unexplainable reclusion of Miles Garth into the spare room of his stunned hosts. The event, as well as those leading up to and following it, is recounted by a grieving nature photographer in his sixties named Mark; May, a rebellious old woman suffering from dementia; an unemployed, middle-aged Anna; and Brooke, a ten-year old girl and voracious reader. The essay will approach these characters’ meditations upon the nature of identity as split between its narrative and archival forms.

scholarly journals Vom Fremdverständnis zum Eigenverständnis: Kontrastive Linguisitik und Glottodidaktik

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Hans-Jörg Schwenk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Correct Knowledge ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics ◽  
The One ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Relationship

The present paper deals with the relationship between contrastive linguistics on the one hand and foreign language teaching on the other hand, more precisely, with the influence exerted by the first on the latter. It goes without saying that a teacher who teaches his mother tongue is expected to teach it as completely and correctly as possible. Yet the complete and correct teaching of any language depends on the teacher’s complete and correct knowledge of the given language and, comes to that, his awareness of this knowledge. It could be shown and proven on various examples that this aim can only be reached by the way of analyzing an other / a foreign language and comparing it with the language / the mother tongue to be teached, that, as much as paradoxical this may sound, self-understanding quite often needs the understanding of the other.

scholarly journals The History, Landscapes, Metaphors and Ghosts Around the Concept of Specificity

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Romo-González ◽  
Carlos Larralde ◽  
Abraham Puga-Olguín ◽  
Enrique Vargas-Madrazo
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Species Specificity ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Epistemological Problem ◽  
Theoretical Entity ◽  
Perceived Reality ◽  
The Individual

The confusion between objects/processes and the language which describes them, leads to theories of doubtful verisimilitude about reality, inappropriate in time and even false, which distance us from the knowledge of perceived reality. In biology there are many examples of this kind of epistemological problem. Here we examine those related with specificity: a theoretical entity of enormous importance for biology and science in general.  It sinks its roots beneath the evolutionary duality species-specificity, associated with the Linnean-Darwinist tradition that explains organized life in a discrete and hierarchical way.  It conceptualizes the individual as an isolated agent fighting for survival as the foundation of a warrior vision of the immune system.  Microorganisms are understood as inferior beings which should be eliminated in accordance with the self/not-self distinction. The use of these metaphors outside of historical context traces a map that guides the recognition of the Self and of the other according to the dialectic of Western biopolitics.

scholarly journals The Implementation of Contrastive Analysis-Based Arabic Learning

ALSINATUNA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Raswan Raswan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Learning Difficulties ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Library Research ◽  
The One ◽  
Main Factor

As well as other learning process, the successful Arabic learning can be achieved through several steps. This study aims to explain those steps, and it uses library research. Method of this study covers finding data and sources related to the contrastive analysis in Arabic learning; analyzing the data as well as the sources; and drawing conclusion. The approach used in the learning process can be categorized as a learning difficult foreign language, if it is considered as the perspective in understanding the material. The difficult language is particularly the one that has different systems/subsystems with mother tongue. On the other hand, if the approach is considered as a belief, the successful key to achieve is the use of contrastive analysis. We have to work hard to overcome students' learning difficulties by doing contrastive approach and analysis firstly. However, the most significant part is the goal using contrastive analysis. As the result of this study, hopefully learning Arabic occurs progressively, and absolutely the teaching materials and learning steps need teachers’ ability in mastering the contrasted languages. That is the main factor in achieving the learning to be developed further in using this approach.

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