Generative Semantics 4: The Collapse

This chapter traces the collapse of Generative Semantics, which ultimately became a movement away from Noam Chomsky’s view of linguistics, more than a movement toward a unifying vision of language or linguistics. The leaders all went in various directions. Paul Postal and Jim McCawley retained their commitments to formal modeling, but Postal developed a new, non-Transformational framework with David Perlmutter, Relational Grammar, while McCawley continued to ply an increasingly idiosyncratic Transformational model he eventually called Unsyntax. Robin Lakoff led the expansion of linguistic pragmatics and founded feminist linguistics. George Lakoff and Haj Ross took overlapping but distinct forays into non-discrete linguistics. Meanwhile, the Generative Semantics ethos was losing whatever appeal it may have had. Linguists outside the movement, and some within, found the style irritating. Meanwhile, too, Chomsky’s innovations were proving very fruitful and attracting adherents under the label, the Extended Standard Theory. Chomsky’s framework emerged from the brief Generative Semantics eclipse and now seemed the clear winner of the Linguistics Wars.

A Model of Transformational Leadership in the Organisational Culture of Preschool Institution

The culture of an organisation refers to the common and dominant values and norms, as well as the beliefs and perceptions of its employees. Organisational culture influences employee behaviour and attitudes. The culture of the institution predetermines the tone of the environment, which can affect employee satisfaction. The basic premise of this paper is established in the connection between the characteristics of the leader and the transformational model of leadership in the organisational culture of the preschool institution. This research aims to determine whether the assessments and self-assessments of leaders and preschool teachers differ in the frequency of using the transformational leadership style and to determine the relationship between the transformational leadership style and the leader’s personality traits. The research was conducted in a private Croatian preschool institution, which consists of 10 kindergartens. A total of 51 participants in 9 kindergartens participated in the research. The study used a quantitative research approach. The research results show that preschool teachers and leaders do not differ significantly in estimates of the frequency of application of the transformational leadership style and that there is a significant correlation between some characteristics of the leader and the transformational model of preschool leadership.

A New Approach for Paraphrasing and Rewording a Challenging Text

This article aims to propose a practical model for intra-lingual translation or paraphrase in another term. Paraphrase is a restatement of a text, rewording something written or spoken, especially to achieve greater clarity. This approach could help a troubled translator who is having issues translating a complex text into a receptor language by assessing the source text and reconstructing the contents in a simpler semantic structure. (Larson, 2012) Noam Chomsky’s generative–transformational model (1957, 1965) and Larson’s (2012) methodology have been followed to analyze sentences into a series of related levels governed by the help of several other techniques. To achieve this, firstly, the concepts; Intralingual translation, rewording, paraphrasing, and restatement are identified and explained. Secondly, methods of rewording are unpacked, then other elements that play an essential role in paraphrasing are presented. Thirdly, steps of paraphrasing are applied to the text Taj Mahal where skewings between semantic structure and grammatical features are studied and unskewed. Lastly, a conclusion is drawn from the findings to verify the hypothesis of the paraphrase. The findings and results of rewording are also briefly discussed.

A New Approach for Paraphrasing and Rewording a Challenging Text

This article aims to propose a practical model for intra-lingual translation or paraphrase in another term. Paraphrase is a restatement of a text, rewording something written or spoken, especially to achieve greater clarity. This approach could help a troubled translator who is having issues translating a complex text into a receptor language by assessing the source text and reconstructing the contents in a simpler semantic structure. (Larson, 2012) Noam Chomsky’s generative–transformational model (1957, 1965) and Larson’s (2012) methodology have been followed to analyze sentences into a series of related levels governed by the help of several other techniques. To achieve this, firstly, the concepts; Intralingual translation, rewording, paraphrasing, and restatement are identified and explained. Secondly, methods of rewording are unpacked, then other elements that play an essential role in paraphrasing are presented. Thirdly, steps of paraphrasing are applied to the text Taj Mahal where skewings between semantic structure and grammatical features are studied and unskewed. Lastly, a conclusion is drawn from the findings to verify the hypothesis of the paraphrase. The findings and results of rewording are also briefly discussed.

Left-wing spectrum of the Czechoslovak political opposition in search of new solutions. The late 1980s to early 1990s

The chapter is devoted to the history of the formation and activity of left-wing organizations in the Czechoslovak political opposition from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Those organizations were made up of diverse ideological currents from both inside and outside the ranks of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (СPCz). Attempts to develop alternative scenarios of social, political, and socio-economic changes in the country are examined. The left-wing had difficulties adaptating to the changing conditions provided by the leader of the revolution - the Civil Forum - towards the liberal transformational model. In general, during the period examined in the chapter, the forces of the left, for various reasons, failed to realize their vision for future development.