Verbal Extensions and Valency in Limbum

The objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which verbal extensions in Limbum affect valency. Limbum is a Grassfield Bantu language of the Northern group, spoken by the population who occupy a greater part of the Nkambe plateau in Donga-Mantung Division of the North West Region of Cameroon Binan Bikoi (ed) (2012). To attain my set objective, I carry out an analysis of those affixes (in the case of Limbum, they are suffixes), which are usually attached to verbs and the effect the addition of these suffixes has on the number of arguments in the sentence. Some of these suffixes have a valency decreasing effect, while some have a valency increasing effect on the verbs. The orientation of the discussions here centres on the description of the morpho-syntactic structure of the Limbum verb. In this regard, the analysis herein draws inspiration from the theory of Valency as proposed by Tesnière in 1959 and his followers and the Structuralist Framework as propounded by De Saussure and his disciples who hold that linguistic unit: words, phrases and sentences are perceived as a concatenation of smaller units which hold a close relationship between them. The structure of the Limbum sentence containing verbal extensions that express aspectual meanings have three consequences on the number of arguments that the verb takes: the discussions here show that, while the morphemes -ri, -Si, and -se marking the attenuative, the pluractional, and the distributive aspects respectively have no effect on the number of arguments taken by the verb to which they are suffixed, the causative morpheme -si, has a valency increasing effect on the verb to which it is affixed. In the same light, the reciprocative -ni, the separative -ti and the iterative -Nger, when suffixed to a verb, have the tendency of increasing the number of arguments that the verb takes. In a bid to clarify the structural cartography of verbal extensions in Limbum, the last part of this paper is dedicated to a presentation of some suffixes like -ri and -si, which has, with the evolution of the language, fossilized with the verb root to the extent that they have become an integral part of the verb in a way that they cannot be detached from each other. Conclusively, the paper shows that verbal extensions in Limbum are, for the most part, suffixal morphemes. While some of these suffixes have no effect on the number of arguments the verb subcategorizes for, some have a valency decreasing effect on the verb while others, on the other hand, have a valency increasing effect. Others have outrightly merged with the verb root.

Christian Metz

The film theory of Christian Metz (b. 1931–d. 1993) forms part of the structuralist revolution of ideas that challenged the phenomenology prevalent in France in the 1950s. Metz developed a structuralist (or its derivative, semiological) theory of film in the 1960s and inaugurated a groundbreaking theory and method of analysis that transformed film into a semiological object, in which film’s specificity was no longer perceived in terms of surface sensory properties or a conscious aesthetic experience. Instead, Metz reconceived filmic specificity, this most sensory of objects, as a type of signification—as the manifestation of a more fundamental, nonobservable, underlying finite abstract system of codes. To conceive film as signification involves a shift in perspective, from the study of film as a consciously experienced, continuous sensory object to the study of the abstract underlying system of discrete (or discontinuous) codes that generates and organizes those experiences. In terms of the history of ideas, semiology parallels the epistemology of philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, who argued that an underlying transcendental system of conceptual categories in the mind structures and makes possible human experience. Semiology’s innovation was to replace this underlying transcendental system with a historically and culturally contingent system of underlying codes. In the 1970s Metz addressed the limitations of structuralism and semiology by adopting a post-structuralist framework premised on theories of enunciation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and phenomenology. For Metz, enunciation (which emphasizes signs of the speaker and receiver in a text) and psychoanalysis (which emphasizes traces of the unconscious in a text) enabled him to rethink his study of codes as secondary systems of signification, which are underpinned and driven by more-fundamental primary processes of signification (unconscious drives, fantasy, and dream logic). In his final work in the early 1990s, Metz developed a theory of filmic enunciation focused on the impersonal traces of a film’s production; that is, enunciative markers that are reflexive, that refer back only to the film itself.

The deadly couch: physical (in)activity in middle-aged women in Australia

Global awareness about an increase of chronic diseases and premature mortality due to ‘unhealthy eating’ and ‘sedentary lifestyles’ is embedded in various discourses shaped by relationships and power. In this article, I investigate the role of physical activity in the lives of middle-aged women in Australia and how their experiences with exercise influence the way they position themselves within the context of inter-discursivity regarding fitness and ‘healthy ageing’. Results reveal how ‘knowledge’ about ‘healthy lifestyles’ is created and accessed, and how women make sense of the healthism discourse, the obesity crisis, and discourses around menopause and ageing. The participants for this study are nine women in their forties to sixties who volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews after completing an online survey about physical activity that was part of a larger project. Their accounts of health and fitness, healthy eating, weight management, mental wellbeing and ageing are categorised and interpreted in a post-structuralist framework through the lens of feminist relational discourse analysis. Results show that all women are influenced by healthism discourses as well as being affected by assumptions and recommendations for ageing, menopausal women. They shape female identity by adopting, but also by resisting, discourses around their bodies and minds.

Taming conceptual wanderings: Wilson-Structuralism

Mark Wilson presents a highly original account of conceptual behavior that challenges many received views about concepts in analytic philosophy. Few attempts have been made to rationally reconstruct Wilson’s framework of patches and facades within a precise semantic framework. I will show how a modified version of the structuralist framework offers a semantic reconstruction of scientific theories capable of modeling Wilson’s ideas about conceptual behavior. Specifically, I will argue that Theory-Elements and a modified version of Theory-Nets explicate respectively Wilson’s patches and facades. I will also demonstrate how several wandering phenomena described by Wilson can be adequately reconstructed within my framework.

Writing intellectual disability: glimpses into precarious processes or re/making a cultural phenomenon

We make each other mean through precarious processes of engagement. This dissertation posits intellectual disability as a modernist subject category characterized by un-belonging and a presumed lack of normative expression. The author takes a hesitant, interpretive, and phenomenological approach to confronting the question of what it means to re/make intellectual disability as presence and process rather than as problem. The researcher engages with intellectual disability by introducing expressive writing as method under a feminist post structuralist framework of exploratory, relational ethics. In doing so, this project introduces the concepts of wonderment and triple-labelling to the fields of cultural studies and critical disability studies. This work advocates for a reorientation toward meaning-making and research-based engagement with intellectual disability as cultural, contextual, and relational phenomenon that remains unsettled as it situates researchers at a perceived limit of knowledge. This dissertation privileges process over resolution. The writing launches from an affect-laden epistemology of wonderment, and thus struggles to resolve its own ethical and methodological uncertainty as it attempts to center intellectual disability without (completely)privileging normative ways of un/knowing. This approach allows that the body is implicated in uncertain discursive processes that re-construct and circulate meanings about the body, the self,and the Other. Then, relying on Foucault’s conceptions of power and knowledge and Snyder and Mitchell's cultural location of disability framework, the study describes Western cultural memory: processes of mind/body splitting and subject-category building traceable through esoteric pre-modernity, eugenic modernity, and the post-identity politics of Davis’s dismodernity. A discussion of research ethics follows, which challenges rational methodological conceptions of intellectual disability that rely on preconceived notions of vulnerability. Before describing expressive writing as a primary research method, the author also makes a case for engaging with triple-labeled people (those labeled disabled, vulnerable, and incompetent) by writing in-relation-to, privileging silence and absence over “giving voice,” engaging in unfamiliarity and untranslatability, and attending to “the space between” the self and the Other.This writing uses reflexive vignettes and critical analysis to lead readers toward the researcher’s final phenomenological reflections on experiences with triple-labeled people writing in a Toronto day program.

Writing intellectual disability: glimpses into precarious processes or re/making a cultural phenomenon

We make each other mean through precarious processes of engagement. This dissertation posits intellectual disability as a modernist subject category characterized by un-belonging and a presumed lack of normative expression. The author takes a hesitant, interpretive, and phenomenological approach to confronting the question of what it means to re/make intellectual disability as presence and process rather than as problem. The researcher engages with intellectual disability by introducing expressive writing as method under a feminist post structuralist framework of exploratory, relational ethics. In doing so, this project introduces the concepts of wonderment and triple-labelling to the fields of cultural studies and critical disability studies. This work advocates for a reorientation toward meaning-making and research-based engagement with intellectual disability as cultural, contextual, and relational phenomenon that remains unsettled as it situates researchers at a perceived limit of knowledge. This dissertation privileges process over resolution. The writing launches from an affect-laden epistemology of wonderment, and thus struggles to resolve its own ethical and methodological uncertainty as it attempts to center intellectual disability without (completely)privileging normative ways of un/knowing. This approach allows that the body is implicated in uncertain discursive processes that re-construct and circulate meanings about the body, the self,and the Other. Then, relying on Foucault’s conceptions of power and knowledge and Snyder and Mitchell's cultural location of disability framework, the study describes Western cultural memory: processes of mind/body splitting and subject-category building traceable through esoteric pre-modernity, eugenic modernity, and the post-identity politics of Davis’s dismodernity. A discussion of research ethics follows, which challenges rational methodological conceptions of intellectual disability that rely on preconceived notions of vulnerability. Before describing expressive writing as a primary research method, the author also makes a case for engaging with triple-labeled people (those labeled disabled, vulnerable, and incompetent) by writing in-relation-to, privileging silence and absence over “giving voice,” engaging in unfamiliarity and untranslatability, and attending to “the space between” the self and the Other.This writing uses reflexive vignettes and critical analysis to lead readers toward the researcher’s final phenomenological reflections on experiences with triple-labeled people writing in a Toronto day program.

From Structuralism to Points of Rupture

This paper considers the ontological and political implications of the concept of the subject within structuralism. I turn first to Balibar in order to articulate structuralism as a tendency or movement rather than fixed set of positions, using some indications he has provided in order to demonstrate how thoroughly embedded the subject is as a problem within this tendency. I argue that Laclau and Mouffe’s work on hegemony deepens the political stakes of this problem while also introducing the grammar of strategy in an ambivalent and underdefined manner. Considering some possible options for understanding strategy within a structuralist framework, I contend that a stronger theoretical account of strategy is necessary. In order to provide some outlines for such a project, I conclude the analysis by emphasizing the contribution that George Jackson’s writings can provide to this framework, suggesting that the role of the subject should be assigned to tactics.Cet article analyse les implications ontologiques et politiques du concept structuraliste de sujet. En me tournant dans un premier temps vers les indications de Balibar concernant l’intrication profonde du problème du sujet au sein du structuralisme, je montre que ce dernier devrait être compris comme une tendance ou un mouvement plutôt que comme une position philosophique définitive. Je montre ensuite que le travail de Laclau et Mouffe sur l’hégémonie permet d’approfondir les enjeux politiques de ce problème, tout en introduisant de manière ambivalente et prédéfinie la grammaire de la stratégie. En considérant quelques options possibles pour comprendre la stratégie dans une perspective structuraliste, je soutiens la nécessité de l’approcher théoriquement de manière plus puissante. En guise d’esquisse d’un tel projet, je conclus mon analyse avec la contribution qu’y apportent les écrits de George Jackson, en suggérant que le rôle du sujet devrait revenir à la tactique.

Securitization of the Arctic

The geopolitical importance of the Arctic is intensifying with the economic and strategic opportunities being unraveled in the wake of the impact of climate change. The chapter analyses the actors and the factors affecting the current security relations in the region and recommends the creation of a regional security architecture (RSA) to deal with the emerging conflict potential of the Arctic. Through the establishment of an effective RSA for the Arctic, the prime objective of building a security environment that protects the region and promotes sustainable economic growth will be achieved. The chapter has been conceptualized under the broad theme of security studies while drawing specifically from the constructivist-structuralist framework of the regional security complex theory (RSCT).

The Making of Pupils: Institutionalized Education in Romanian High Schools

This article aims to explore the ways in which power structures the learning experience in high school, detailing what kind of cultures it creates and what practices it fosters. By interviewing students (currently enrolled in the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Cluj-Napoca) recalling their high school years, I can tap into their reflexivity regarding the experiences of being taught to and of learning, focusing especially on how these have become legitimated and have formed the subject. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s theory of the banking model and using a post-structuralist framework, the research intends to make visible a current account of institutionalization of learning. Finally, the research shows how pupils become subjects to be categorized according to their compliance to the programme’s requirements and how they might internalize legitimized forms of learning (such as memorizing for further testing) in detriment of others.