Welcome to the Field

Videogames offer vast potential for critical reflection by humanities scholars, but the tendency of existing game studies scholarship to treat the rules of a game separately from the game’s social meaning suggests that videogames have no place in humanistic disciplines. This article challenges that notion by contrasting a cultural view of videogames with the dominant mere-technology view. Ecocriticism functions as a prestige language for videogames that permits entrance into what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu calls the field of cultural production. Ecology simultaneously provides metaphors for explaining videogame technology while allowing games to enter ongoing critical and cultural conversations. Humanists interested in but unfamiliar with videogames should therefore start with those with environmentalist themes. This article presents Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) as a case study. Horizon Zero Dawn presents a stylized pastoral pseudo-utopia that embraces ecofeminist calls to reconstruct rationality while challenging existing sexism in computing fields.

Extracurricular Economy

This chapter looks at the vibrant economy of language teaching and learning in early modern England. The period witnessed a boom in both autodidacticism and private educational provision. Language teaching was central to a vibrant urban ‘extracurricular economy’. New spaces, schools, and teachers reshaped the educational landscape. Working within an economy of reputation, skill, and prestige, language teachers advertised their services and attracted students through a mixture of their presence in print, networks of contacts, and claims of pedagogical skill and linguistic prestige. In doing so, these teachers—particularly teachers of French—contributed to new ways of thinking about the English language itself. New perspectives on the places, people, and practices of this extracurricular economy ultimately demand that we rethink the concept of an early modern ‘educational revolution’.

Some Remarks on the Use of Garšūnī and Other Allographic Writing Systems by the Melkites

The aim of this paper is to address the question to what extent and for what reasons the Melkites, especially of Southern Syria and Egypt, resorted to allographic writing systems, of which garšūnī, the writing of Arabic with Syriac letters, was only one mode. Indeed, various languages such as Greek, Arabic, Syriac and Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) coexisted in the Melkite community, which is characterized by its linguistic diversity. Melkite garšūnī texts can be dated to between the 11th and the late 13th centuries. While the Melkites were not the first to use garšūnī, this mode of writing was in this period far more widespread among them than in the other oriental Christian communities and not limited to notes and colophons, also including liturgical texts and probably a poem on the Mamluk conquest of Tripoli. Other allographic writing systems were also used by the Melkites, such as writing Arabic in Greek characters, Greek in CPA script or Greek in Syriac script. Consequently a rich, very versatile corpus of allographic writing modes was employed by the Melkites between the 9th and 13th centuries for different kinds of texts. Thus the idea that the use of a specific allographic mode can be attributed to the desire to express a sense of group identity or to the reverence for a specific sacred language seems not generally applicable for the Melkites. At different times and places various Melkite groups had different preferences, because there was no single Melkite prestige language. Therefore it is necessary to establish for each case the respective reasons for the application of a certain allographic writing system.

PERMASALAHAN DALAM PERENCANAAN BAHASA PADA MASYARAKAT MULTIKULTURAL

One of problems in Indonesia as multicultural society is teaching and learning Indonesia language as national language, local language as a mother language, and English as an international language. There is a kind of tension between the three languages ra nging from language prestige, language policy, reservation of local language, national examination, etc. In multicultural society various interests of language user are accommodated in the three languages, which are in their development influence and sometimes conflict to each other. In this paper disscussess some issues relating language planning and teaching and learning published in Kompas and Seputar Indonesia newspaper from 2011.AbstrakSalah satu permasalahan di Indonesia sebagai masyarakat multikultural adalah pembelajaran dan pengajaran bahasa Indoensia sebagai bahasa nasional, bahasa daerah sebagai bahasa ibu serta bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa internasional. Ada semacam tekanan antara ketiga bahasa seputar permasalahan prestise bahasa, kebijakan bahasa, pelestarian bahasa daerah, ujian nasional, dan lain-lain. Dalam masyarakat multikultural berbagai kepentingan pengguna bahasa diakomodasi oleh ketiga bahasa yang dalam perkembangannya saling mempengaruhi kadangkala saling berbenturan satu dengan lainnya. Dalam makalah ini dibahas beberapa isu -isu yang muncul berkaitan dengan perencanaan bahasa dan proses pembelajaran dan pengajaran yang dimuat di surat kabar nasional Kompas dan Seputar Indonesia pada tahun 2011.

Об одной функции адвербиаля -я в удмуртском языке (как пример языковой стандартизации)

This paper deals with the contemporary Udmurt language which demonstrates extensive influence from Russian. It is misleading, however, to think that a strong influenceof a prestige language in a minority language would indicate a poorer version of the language in question. Despite Udmurt being a living, rich language, the ways in which people use it depends on their sociolinguistic background. Here, empirical data gathered by means of a translation test is used to demonstrate the way in which the informants use the new adnominal function of the Udmurt adverbial case. It is concluded that this use depends on the linguistic background of the individual speaker. In particular, it reflects speakers’ knowledge of different language varieties, such as the standard language, the vernacular and various dialects. It also reflects how speakers have acquired and continue to use these varieties.

Doing without the Fez: Greek Language Questions

This definitive history of the Greek Language Controversy shows how Greek's status as a prestige language galvanized a national movement attracting various ethnicities of the Millet-i rum. The status of classical Greek resonant in Adamantios Korais's katharévousa helped consolidate the Greek state. An alternate demoticist programme, anticipated by Katartzis, developed in the Ionian Islands, and formulated by Psycharis, took hold through the efforts of the Educational Demoticists. Standard Modern Greek is a synthesis of the two programmes—neither the phonologically puristic Romaika of Psycharis nor an archaizing Schriftsprache, it retains elements of both.