HABITUS AND ARRANGES IN THE THEORETICAL MODELLING OF THE FORMATIONS OF THE NATIONS IN EUROPE

HABITUS ET AGENCE DANS LE MODELAGE THEORIQUE DES FORMATIONS DES NATIONS EN EUROPE 

Author(s): Sergiu Mișcoiu / Language(s): French / Issue: 2/2008

Keywords: nation; habitus; agency; constructivism; identity

This article aims at presenting the significance of two key-concepts – ‘habitus’ and ‘agency’ – in elaborating a constructivist theoretical model of nation formation in the early modern Western Europe. It is constructed in two parts: while in the first one I present the general constructivist approach and model that I have proposed, in the second part I stress the explanatory role of ‘habitus’ and ‘agency’ in modeling the nation formation process or, in the words of the definition I propose, in the process of fusion between the communities of identity and the political communities, so as the nation became a ‘politically autonomous community of identity’.

On the Foreign European

DER FREMDE EUROPÄER 

Author(s): Cristian Schuster / Language(s): German / Issue: 2/2008

Keywords: European identity; stranger; globalization; systems theory; Europe; urbanity

Hannah Arendt once stated, with regret, that with the founding of the state of Israel the Jewish people lost their identity based on millennia of being “the stranger”. In a similar way, I think that, after centuries of being strangers – but not foreigners! – to each other, our European special identity is endangered by the European construction. Far from being an opponent of the unification process, I believe that this endeavor should not be understood as an attempt to create (or recreate) a European cultural identity in change of the old national identities. Following the example of the urban way of life, we have to estrange each other further, as social groups and nations, to provide the cultural, ideological, political diversity needed by the functional mechanisms of the Union.  

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AS ACTORS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.CASE STUDY: THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS 

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AS ACTORS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.CASE STUDY: THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS 

Author(s): Simona Varga / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2008

Keywords: non-governmental organizations; actors; Red Cross; liberalism; constructivism;

This paper attempts to analyse the status on non-governmental organizations in today’s system of international relations, by examining the legal status, activities and the influence exercised by such an entity – the International Committee of the Red Cross – through the lenses of the four main theories of international relations: Realism, Liberalism, Social Constructivism and Neo-Marxist theories.   

BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Author(s): Lucie  Ackermann / Language(s): French / Issue: 2/2008

Les questions identitaires connaissent une résurgence dans les débats publics des différentes actualités européennes. Les évènements actuels - mouvements séparatistes, débat que pose la question de la citoyenneté en Allemagne, basée sur le « Droit du sang » au détriment du « Droit du sol », montée des droites xénophobes européennes pour qui la question de l’identité nationale se rattache à des critères raciaux et clturels plus que politiques...-témoignent d’une volonté des nations européennes de définir la nation comme un ensemble ethniquement cohérent et homogène. Les revendications de particularismes régionaux, les contestations autonomistes tout comme les mouvements nationalistes tendent à utiliser l’argument historique pour démontrerle bien fondé de leur position.  

SPECTRE, HURRICANE OR NEITHER OF THEM.DOES HUGO CHÁVEZ REALLY POSE A DIRECT THREAT TO THE U.S.?

SPECTRE, HURRICANE OR NEITHER OF THEM.DOES HUGO CHÁVEZ REALLY POSE A DIRECT THREAT TO THE U.S.?

Author(s): Lucian Bogdan / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2008

Keywords: Latin America; oil; threats; conflicts; anti-americanism 

The late years have marked a swift ascension of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the international arena. This was largely determined by his volcanic personality, able to draw the world’s eyes upon him on almost every occasion, but also by the new geopolitical context determined by the war against terror. We shall analyze President Chávez through the prism of the caudillo (Latin American strongman) archetype, and see reasons for which he can, or can not – hence trying to dismantle this myth - , be deemed as posing a direct threat to the U.S. on the world arena.

Izydor Kopernicki’s 1887–1891 letters to Seweryn Udziela

Listy Izydora Kopernickiego do Seweryna Udzieli z lat 1887–1891

Author(s): Maciej Rak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: history of ethnography; Lemkos; „Zbiór Wiadomości do Antropologii Krajowej”

The paper is an edition of 11 letters and 6 postcards sent by Izydor Kopernicki to Seweryn Udziela in years 1887–1891, stored in S. Udziela Etnographic Museum in Cracow.

Determination of meanings in an ethnolinguistic dictionary

Ustalanie znaczeń symbolicznych w słowniku etnolingwistycznym

Author(s): Stanisława Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: symbolic meaning; ethnolinguistic dictionary; stereotype; cognitive ethnolinguistics

The notion of symbol, though popular and commonly used, has not so far received a satisfactory operational definition, i.e. a methodology of description that would allow to assign specific symbolic meanings to images in a foreseeable, “controllable” way. This is revealed by the different symbolic meanings which dictionaries assign to the same images. The paper uses examples from the Lublin Słownik stereotypów i symboli ludowych ‘Dictionary of stereotypes and folk symbols’ to question the rules for determining symbolic meanings and the “linguistic and cultural proofs” connected with the assignment of those senses – the rules that link the sun with life, truth and perfection, fire with love and passion, light with the God and heaven, dew with life-giving force and male sperm, wind with life-giving spirit, rainbow with the sign of peace, &c. The article reveals that the symbolic sense is sometimes prompted by the etymology, metaphorical meanings, parallel constructions, equivalence, or may also result from the genre convention of the text (an erotic, a dream book, a wishing carol), or finally from the beliefs and practices of bearers of folk culture. Regardless of all those attempts at determining symbolic meanings, the formulation of such meanings remains a hypothesis of a kind. Texts, especially artistic ones (where also folk texts belong), contain an unclosed semantic potential and remain unsaid, open and susceptible to new symbolic readings.

Professor Halina Satkiewicz 1928–2012

Profesor Halina Satkiewicz 1928–2012

Author(s): Hanna Jadacka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Językoznawstwo polonistyczne poniosło kolejną, bolesną stratę – 22 listopada 2012 r. zmarła w Warszawie Profesor Halina Satkiewicz – wybitny znawca współczesnej polszczyzny ogólnej w jej warstwie morfologicznej, niekwestionowany autorytet w dziedzinie kultury języka, wieloletni kierownik Zakładu Języka Środków Masowego Komunikowania na Wydziale Dziennikarstwa i Nauk Politycznych, redaktor naczelny „Poradnika Językowego” w latach 1991–2008, przez całe życie zawodowe związana z Uniwersytetem Warszawskim.

Ethnic stereotypes in different languages: national? international? universal?

Stereotypy etniczne w różnych językach – narodowe? Międzynarodowe? Uniwersalne?

Author(s): Anna Tyrpa / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: ethnic stereotype; comparative phraseology; xenonym; ethnonym

The paper discusses ethnic stereotypes petrified in different languages and referring to other nations. According to some researchers, in the lexis and phraseology of a given language, certain units can be distinguished which are only limited to this language. The article collects several examples from which it comes to light that when wider material is considered (including the history of a language, dialects and jargons), some lexemes and phrasemes are found to be present not in one, but in many languages. Analysis of numerous ethnic stereotypes in different languages reveals that transnational semantic patterns exist which are realized independently of linguistic affinity, e.g. in Indo-European as well as in Finno-Ugric languages. These patterns (models) contain slots for specific ethnonyms; how they are filled depends on extra-linguistic factors: historical experience, geographical neighbourhood, mutual friendly or hostile relations. The existence of petrified references to other nations in each language appears to be a universal feature. Specific realization of general semantic models is only partially studied.

On the Etymology of Polish jarmułka

On the Etymology of Polish jarmułka

Author(s): Bohdan A. Struminsky / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Polish jarmułka is from Latin and not from Turkic or Turkish. This Polish word appears as early as the fifteenth century: a deed of purchase of 1443 mentions ‘two dozen little headdresses’ (jalmurky); a document issued in Warsaw in 1458 mentions a red yelmvncha (Słownik staropolski, vol. III, Wrocław, 1960–1962, s.v. (jarmułka)).

Notes on Polish jarmułka ‘Jewish skullcap’

Uwagi o jarmułce

Author(s): Marek Stachowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: etymology; cultural history; Jews; skullcap; yarmulke

Polish jarmułka ‘Jewish skullcap’ is generally considered to be an old Turkish loanword. In Bohdan A. Struminsky’s 1987 article this etymology is contested and replaced with a Latin one. However, Struminsky failed to present convincing arguments against the Turkish origin of the Polish word and his Latin explanation does not seem absolutely perfect either. This article critically examines Struminsky’s study and provides specific arguments against the Turkish trail. The etymology and the evolution of both the guise and the meanings of Polish jarmułka appear to be more complicated than previously thought; thus, the present article should be looked on as picking up an interrupted discussion and, in addition, an invitation to reexamination of the Latin etymology and the semantic aspects of all explanations suggested so far.

‘I am born a man and become a person’. Semantic relations between the lexemes osoba ‘person’ and człowiek ‘man’ in modern Polish

„Człowiekiem się rodzę, osobą się staję”. Relacje semantyczne między leksemami osoba i człowiek we współczesnej polszczyźnie

Author(s): Dorota Kostrzewa / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: modern Polish; semantics; the relation person – man

The paper attempts to determine the scope of realization of two synonymous words in modern Polish: człowiek/ludzie ‘man/people’, and osoba/osoby ‘person/persons’. A semantic analysis of the two has been conducted based on lexicographic sources and corpus texts, and led to the conclusion that no hierarchy exists in the semantic relation between them. Due to its stylistic neutrality, accommodation requirements, and deviation of reference towards the feminine gender, the understanding of the lexeme osoba ‘person’ complements the semantic field of the word człowiek ‘man’, which is marked for all aspects and directed towards description of representatives of the masculine gender. Moreover, having no stylistic connotations, the lexeme osoba ‘person’ is very frequent in journalistic texts, much more so than the noun człowiek ‘man’.

On the need of a monograph on (the use of) IPA

O potrzebie monografii (użycia) IPA

Author(s): Piotr Rybka / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: IPA; phonetics; phonology; phonetic symbols; phonetic transcription

The article provides the rationale for a forthcoming monograph on the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The study presents the arguments in the form of questions, and answers them at length. The questions fall into three groups: phonetic, graphical and practical issues. From the last category, the problem of selecting an appropriate font and a way to conveniently use it can be mentioned. The phonetic issues that need to be explained in the context of an international transcription include: transcription of Polish sounds normally described as prepalatal, dental, and alveolar, as well as the value of phonation, and alaryngeal speech symbols. Graphic problems include such issues as: means of transcribing archiphonemes, asynchronous and polysegmental articulations, lowered variants of Polish phonemes /m/ and /n/, and others. The paper also mentions typographical matters, such as italic variants of phonetic symbols and small capitals. The article concludes with an overview of the possible audience of the planned monograph, and an enumeration of reasons for a compilation of a study containing answers to the above-mentioned questions.

Introduction to the debate about the origin of Polish jarmułka and its etymological equivalent in other Slavic languages

Wprowadzenie do dyskusji o pochodzeniu polskiego jarmułka i jego etymologicznych odpowiedników w innych językach słowiańskich

Author(s): David L. Gold / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Niejednokrotnie spotykamy się w różnych językach świata z przykładami zmian semantycznych, które na osobach nieświadomych kryjącej się za nimi historii sprawiają wrażenie niezwykłych, tajemniczych czy niejasnych (np. pol. modny > wsch.-jid. modne ‘dziwny, osobliwy, niezwykły’). Gdy jednak pozna się historię takiej zmiany, znika cała jej tajemniczość (w XIX w. część Żydów posługujących się jidysz, a mieszkających na terenach polskojęzycznych porzuciła tradycyjne stroje żydowskie na rzecz ubiorów podówczas modnych wśród nie-Żydów, tak że to, co w ich oczach było modne – stąd starsze wsch.-jid. modne ‘modny’ – w oczach Żydów ściślej trzymających się tradycji wydawało się raczej dziwne, a sam wyraz nabrał przez to w ich ustach wydźwięku ironicznego, aż zaczął sugerować nie modę, lecz osobliwość czy dziwność, i to to właśnie znaczenie rozpowszechniło się szeroko, skazując znaczenie etymologiczne na zapomnienie, a sam wyraz utracił wydźwięk ironiczny i rozszerzył swój zakres użycia do wszystkich i wszystkiego, co postrzegano jako dziwne, osobliwe czy niezwykłe, np. a modne mentsh ~ a modner mentsh ‘dziwny człowiek’, a modne gesheenish ‘niezwykłe zdarzenie’ itd.

From the past of the dialects of eastern Greater Poland. Based on the acts of civil status from Golina and Kawnice of 1821

Z przeszłości gwar Wielkopolski wschodniej. Na podstawie akt stanu cywilnego Goliny i Kawnic z roku 1821

Author(s): Błażej Osowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: historical dialectology; the 19th century; eastern Greater Poland

During the period of partitions, eastern Greater Poland was in a special situation. It was doubly a linguistic periphery, both with regard to the rest of the region and to the major centres of cultural life (Cracow and Warsaw). In the 19th c., the principle “we speak as we write, and we write as we speak” was in wide use, meaning that the manuscripts from those times can be used to analyze the non-normalized language. Based on this assumption, the article discusses acts of civil status from the year 1821 from Golina and Kawnice (Konin municipality).

Opinion on draft amendments to the law on national and ethnic minorities and regional language, and on some other laws

Opinia o projekcie zmiany Ustawy o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym, a także niektórych innych ustaw

Author(s): Bożena Cząstka-Szymon / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: Silesia; subdialect; dialect; regional language; legal status

The opinion on draft amendments is negative due to lack of compliance with the Polish and EU regulations (Act on the Polish Language from 1999.10.07 and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages). Applicants want Silesian to be recognized as a national language. However, the current classification of used (living) languages of the world contrasts the general (nationwide) language with its regional/territorial varieties, i.e. subdialects. There are no rational arguments for modification of the existing arrangements, and favouring one of Polish dialects by establishing it as a regional language. Since, however, the positions of subdialects and regional Polish have been weakened for historical reasons, it will be justified to seek to raise their prestige.

Comment by D.L.G.

Comment by D.L.G.

Author(s): David L. Gold / Language(s): English / Issue: 15/2013

I do not think that B.A.S. (in his last paragraph) is justified in reading so much into Harkavy’s and Drejzin’s dictionaries. The Yiddish spelling of “educated” people at the end of the nineteenth century was notoriously etymological. The fact that Harkavy wrote a komets-alef after the mem in his 1891 dictionary does not necessarily mean that Yiddish-speakers were pronouncing /o/ here (this spelling is repeated in his 1898 dictionary, where the English gloss is ‘cap, skull-cap’). I am certain (but have no direct evidence) that there was no vowel between the /m/ and the /l/ in this word at the time (the /l/ being syllabic).

Fourth considerations on Bartłomiej Groicki’s Słowa prawne w rzeczy sobie podobne

Czwarte rozważania nad Słowami prawnymi w rzeczy sobie podobnymi Bartłomieja Groickiego

Author(s): Aleksander Zajda / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 15/2013

Keywords: history of Polish; legal terminology; Bartłomiej Groicki

Starting with B. Groicki’s Słowa prawne w rzeczy sobie podobne (1567), the paper collects and discusses lexis in the field of legal and judicial procedure. First, the history of the field procedura ‘procedure’ is briefly presented from Old Polish to modern times, and then the history of the field dilatio (‘adjorunment’) is discussed in more detail. In the Old Polish period, the most common names in the field dilatio were odwłoka, fryszt, odkład, and also several deverbal derivatives in -anie, -enie (e.g. odkładanie, odwleczenie, przewleczenie), which were however rarely written down in the sources. In the 16th c., this type becomes relatively popular, but the frequency of specific names is also very low at that time; the names odwłoka, przewłoka and zwłoka are much more common. From the second half of the 16th till the end of the 18th c., the centre of the field is dominated by dilatio, a loan word from Latin. In mid-18th c. the name odroczenie appears as an innovation, rare at first but gradually ousting the foreign dylacja and beginning to reign supreme.

Theory of Politics vs. Political Theology. Remarks on their Interrelations

Teolria polityki a teologia polityczna. Uwagi na temat ich wzajemnego stosunku

Author(s): Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2005

Keywords: politics; theology; law; schmitt; God;

John Paul II in the Country of Lilliputians

Jan Paweł II w krainie liliputów

Author(s): Marek A. Cichocki,Dariusz Karłowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2005

Keywords: John Paul II; Pope; interregnum;