Formal grammar methodology for digital visualization of Islamic geometric patterns

In the oriental practice of art and architecture, and among the regions under their influence, Islamic geometric patterns (IGPs) have been widely used, not only due to aesthetics and decoration but also to make it possible to cover wide flat surfaces, curved surface of domes, and perforated surfaces of window and partitions, with perfectly tessellated shapes. However, with advances in time and technology, these techniques could not connect to the new technologies and benefit from the capacities of digitalization. Recent progress in science and technology tends to open new doors to study geometrical patterns by digitalizing the old ones and developing new variations. This study looks at formal grammar and computer science to introduce a new approach to digital visualization of available IGPs, particularly, star patterns. We investigate the potentials of developing a re-writing system for simulation of IGPs to provide a flexible platform, which allows introducing IGP to CAD/CAM software without previous knowledge on their design or drawing techniques. This methodology allows designers to directly develop various scenarios of IGP applications and implement them on related CAD/CAM tools. Formal language and grammar theories, based on applied mathematics are contributing to the advancements of computer science and digital modeling. They can provide an opportunity to express relational definition and written equivalents of the geometries by using strings and symbols. It is supposed that by using the formal grammar frameworks, certain languages could be developed to visualize IGPs in a machine-friendly way, and consequently, this computational interpretation of IGPs facilitates their application and further developments, for example, regards to digital fabrication. The presented method of IGP visualization is developed as a C#-based add-on for Grasshopper in Rhino3D, one of the main modeling tools used by architects and product designers.

Phanariot Tongues: The Mavrocordatos Family and the Power of the Turkish Language in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire

The Phanariots — Grecophone Christian elites who ruled the Danubian principalities in the eighteenth century — were the only non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire who claimed power by virtue of their command of the Turkish language. Why were they the rare exception and what does their story reveal about the ways in which power and language were intertwined in the early modern Ottoman Empire? The implicit power relations embedded in the Turkish language are rendered visible in a unique text written in 1731 in which Constantine Mavrocordatos, a Phanariot prince, attempted to school his younger brother in Turkish through a series of twelve, play-like dialogues. The dialogues did not aim to teach the formal grammar of Turkish but to demonstrate the power of speech by familiarizing the reader with the eloquent and witty repartee of Ottoman bureaucrats. Through an analysis of the text — which includes reestablishing its authorship and date of composition — the article examines the Phanariots’ liminal position in Ottoman governance, especially in the newly ascendant imperial bureaucracy, through the prism of language. In doing so, it also rewrites the place of the Mavrocordatos family in the story of the Enlightenment in the Ottoman Empire.

From Graphematics to Phrasal, Sentential, and Textual Semantics Through Morphosyntax by Means of Corpus-Driven Grammar and Ontology: A Case Study on One Tibetan Text

This article presents the current results of an ongoing study of the possibilities of fine-tuning automatic morphosyntactic and semantic annotation by means of improving the underlying formal grammar and ontology on the example of one Tibetan text. The ultimate purpose of work at this stage was to improve linguistic software developed for natural-language processing and understanding in order to achieve complete annotation of a specific text and such state of the formal model, in which all linguistic phenomena observed in the text would be explained. This purpose includes the following tasks: analysis of error cases in annotation of the text from the corpus; eliminating these errors in automatic annotation; development of formal grammar and updating of dictionaries. Along with the morpho-syntactic analysis, the current approach involves simultaneous semantic analysis as well. The article describes semantic annotation of the corpus, required by grammar revision and development, which was made with the use of computer ontology. The work is carried out with one of the corpus texts – a grammatical poetic treatise Sum-cu-pa (VII c.).

The Libidinal Dwellings of Bhojpuri Media

This chapter provides an account of Bhojpuri popular culture, highlighting its standout features and tendencies. Historicizing the libidinal solidarity of assertive masculinities, the chapter recounts the history of Bhojpuri cinema from the origins to the contemporary period, in which it has emerged as a public scandal. Engaging at length with three particularly iconic Bhojpuri films – Sasura Bada Paisawala (2004), Nirahua Rickshawala (2007) and Jaan Tere Naam (2013) – the chapter navigates a formal grammar shifting from rural melodramas towards action cinema, celebrating the eruption of masculine energy and the increasingly scandalous portrayal of the female body. The chapter also highlights recurrent exchanges between Hindi and Bhojpuri film industries, and their interdependence on infrastructure, personnel and locales, with particular stress on gender politics and male stardom. In summary, the chapter argues that the libidinal economy of Bhojpuri cinema is anchored within a twin-logic which toggles between moralizing and scandalizing imperatives.

Introduction: Where is Medieval Pragmatics?

This book recovers pragmatics within the history of medieval linguistics. The introduction outlines the study of pragmatics from a critical history of linguistics perspective, situating language study in a complex social field and comparing medieval pragmatic ideas and metapragmatics with assumptions in contemporary pragmatic theory. Pragmatics embraces communication, expression, and understanding; it prioritizes meaning, context, affect, and speaking position over formal grammar. Relevant texts for late medieval pragmatics include grammatical and logical texts, especially those by Roger Bacon, Robert Kilwardby, and anonymous grammarians, and Peter (of) John Olivi. Other sources for medieval pragmatics include life narrative (Margery Kempe), poetry (Chaucer), and heresy records. Theoretical and everyday texts reveal provocative intersections of Latin and vernacular intellectual and religious cultures and different assumptions and ideologies concerning meaning, speech, and speakers. Across these heterogenous, sometimes antagonistic discursive fields, medieval intellectual history crosses paths with social history.

Interjections: Does Affect have Grammar?

This chapter first explores early grammarians’ accounts of the interjection and then elaborates on thirteenth-century grammarians’ analysis of interjections, communication rather than formal grammar, and the role of affectus, feeling, and emotion within grammar and semantics. The grammarians stretched the idea of verbal meaning to include both cognitive and affective signification as understood in specific contexts. Priscian (Institutiones, 2.15) provided grammarians with a framework for contrasting assertive sentences referring to substances with nonassertive sentences or interjections signifying mental dispositions or affects. These grammarians situated grammar and usage within interpersonal speech contexts.

REALIZATIONS OF PROJECTION IN NEWS STORY AND EDITORIAL TEXTS

ABSTRACTThis research deals with projection that is used in news story and editorial texts. Projection is well defined as representation of a linguistic experience in another linguistic experience. Projection is equivalent to direct and indirect or reported speech in traditional or formal grammar. As projection is an element of the logical function, it is realized as a clause complex, where there are at least two clauses. With reference to some theories, projection is also potentially realized in the form of single clause and phrase. The aim of this research is to describe similarities and differences with reference to the realizations of projection used in the news story and editorial texts. This research is conducted by using descriptive qualitative design. The data of this research are clause complexes containing projection in news story and editorial texts of Indonesian newspapers. The sources of data are taken from news story and editorial texts of four newspaper publications, namely the daily Kompas, Republika, Waspada and Sinar Indonesia Baru (SIB). The four daily newspapers are assumed to represent national and provincial or local newspapers. Each of the newspapers is represented by seven headlines for news story texts and seven leading articles for editorial texts. The data are analyzed by using interactive model in which the clause complexes are analyzed with reference to systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory about projection. The findings indicate that there are similarities and diffrences with reference to the realizations of projetion in the news story and editorial texts of Indonesian newspapers. Keywords: Projection, News Story, Editorial, Newspaper, Systemic Functional Linguistic