Каузалне конструкције С + генитив у руском у поређењу са српским у контексту језичке слике света

Author(s): Biljana Marić,Dragana M. Kerkez / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 23/2021

In this paper, we examine causal nominal constructions with the preposition S and the genitive in the Russian language in comparison with Serbian from the syntactic and semantic aspect. Comparing the given construction with a similar OT + genitive, we come to conclusions regarding the specific meaning of the examined construction. The given meaning can be called specific from the aspect of the Serbian causal system. The paper also points to other syntactic studies on the Russian language that draw attention to the specificity of the so-called „small syntax“ constructions.

Przekład i (bez)krytyczna analiza dyskursu

Author(s): Elżbieta Tabakowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Celem artykułu jest potwierdzenie tezy, że postulat transdyscyplinarności, wysuwany w rozważaniach dotyczących współczesnego przekładoznawstwa, znajduje uzasadnienie w zbieżności podstawowych założeń językoznawstwa kognitywnego, krytycznej analizy dyskursu i wiedzy o przekładzie. „Zwrot kulturowy” w przekładoznawstwie, odnotowany w tym samym czasie, co „zwrot kognitywny” w nauce o języku, oznacza możliwość wkroczenia obu dyscyplin na teren praktycznie zarezerwowany dla badań nad krytyczną analizą dyskursu. Przełamanie niechęci lub braku zainteresowania dla sąsiednich dyscyplin prowadzi do rozszerzenia wspólnej płaszczyzny działania. Tezę ilustruje studium przypadku: przykład tłumaczenia tekstu, o którego językowym kształcie decyduje szeroki kontekst społeczny i kulturowy. // The paper argues that the postulate of transdisciplinarity, put forward by today’s TS scholars, is justified by the convergence of basic principles and assumptions which underlie Cognitive Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Translation Studies. The “cultural turn” in TS occurred at the same time as the “cognitive turn” in linguistics; both make it possible for CL and TS to cross the boundary and enter the area traditionally occupied by CAD. Overcoming the feeling of mutual reluctance or lack of interest in the research carried out within neighbouring disciplines would make it possible to broaden the plane shared by the scholars. As an illustration, a case study is discussed, providing a text whose linguistic shape in translation is influenced by a broad social and cultural context.

Labour-law Basic Terminology Based on the Polish Labour Code

Author(s): Agnieszka Rzepkowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The paper discusses two approaches to compiling lists of labour-law basic terminology (BT): a frequency-based approach and a concept-based one. The purpose of the paper is to compare each of the methods based on two sets of basic terminology selected in accordance with them. Using the first method, terms are selected via an automatic search of keywords and terms and organised according to frequency with the use of Sketch Engine. The second means of term extraction is a concept-based approach in which terms are selected based on the table of contents of the Polish Labour Code, which, for the purposes of the study, is assumed to outline the terminological system of Polish labour law. The results of this research are reviewed from the viewpoint of terms’ frequency, the number of words they consist of, systemic relations between terms in the labour-law terminological system, and potential users and their needs. This has allowed the author to draw a few conclusions as to the characteristics of the approaches taken, and the applicability and usefulness of lists of BT compiled on their bases.

O najnowszej monografii Aleksego Awdiejewa i Grażyny Habrajskiej

Author(s): Krzysztof Ozga / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

ШТА СПАЈА А ШТА РАЗДВАЈА КОГНИТИВНОЛИНГВИСТИЧКИ И КОГНИТИВНОПРАГМАТИЧКИ ПРИСТУП МЕТАФОРИ?

Author(s): Katarina Rasulić,Marija Mišković-Luković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 72/2020

This paper provides a comprehensive comparative reassessment of the state-of-art in the theory and practice of the two prominent contemporary approaches to metaphor – cognitive-linguistic conceptual metaphor theory and cognitive-pragmatic relevance theory – given their professed aim at formulating an explanatorily adequate cognitive theory of metaphor. So far, to our knowledge, there are but a handful of publications that have seriously dealt with this comparative issue (Tendahl and Gibbs 2008, Tendahl 2009, Stöver 2010, Gibbs and Tendahl 2011, Wilson 2011); illuminating as they are, they are, nonetheless, biased in that they remain deeply rooted in their respective theoretical backgrounds. Working within the two observed theoretic approaches to metaphor, our primary aim was to show that the differences may be more apparent than real. To this purpose, we present a synthetic and critical overview of both approaches, alongside with a comparative analysis of illustrative data from the contemporary Serbian language. Our combined approach, cognitively induced, relies on the elaborate conceptual apparatus of cognitive linguistics teamed with an interpretive understanding of metaphor within the cognitive-pragmatic framework, highlighting the lines of interface and the converging evidence towards a better understanding of metaphor as a cognitive–communicative mechanism.

КОМУНІКАТИВНО-ПРАГМАТИЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ДРАМАТИЧНОГО ТЕКСТУ ЯК РІЗНОВИДУ ХУДОЖНЬОГО МОВЛЕННЯ

Author(s): Ivanna Struk / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 1/2021

The article formulates the theoretical foundations of the study of dramatic text, distinguishes between the concepts of “dramatic text” (affects the reader) and “dramatic work” (verbalizes the theatrical action for the viewer), because these linguistic realities are in the relationship of inclusion. A dramatic text is a unity organized according to certain laws, which has a clear structure: a certain number of lines, designed with the help of the author's remark, forms a dialogical unity; the combination of dialogic units forms a scene; the set of scenes constitute an act; several acts create a complete work. Obligatory factors of expressiveness of the dramatic text that influence the development of dialogic parts of the characters are pragmatic components of speech which are considered as certain rules of successful communication. In the communicative-pragmatic paradigm dramatic text is defined as a specific type of artistic text that has its own structural and speech features due to a combination of informational, pragmatic, stylistic and cognitive aspects, where the pragmatic aspect is found in speech acts, syntactic organization of cues. The scientific novelty of the research is DT of Bukovinian’s writers of the late nineteenth – early twentieth century that have not yet been the subject of analysis. The relevance of scientific research requires a holistic analysis of the dramatic text and difference between the concepts of “dramatic text” and “dramatic composition”, the study of mandatory factors of expressiveness of dramatic text, influencing the development of dialogic parts. The following methods and techniques of linguistic analysis are used in the article: system-functional analysis, method of discussion analysis, contextual-interpretive method. Conclusions. Dramatic text is a complex phenomenon with its own peculiarities of functioning. It is possible to penetrate into the structure of a dramatic text, to reveal the meaning of the author's intentions due to the volume-pragmatic division of the text. The communicative-pragmatic organization of DT influences the processes of active aesthetic influence of a work of art on the consciousness of the addressee. We see the prospect of the represented research in the further deepening of knowledge about the categorical features of the text in the communicative-pragmatic aspect.

Contingent dynamics of political humour

Author(s): Sammy Basu,Massih Zekavat / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

This article introduces the themes of the special issue. It offers a provisional working conception of “political humour.” It then notes some of the tendencies and challenges for scholarship on political humour, namely, that political humour interacts contingently and conditionally with intentions, contexts, and audiences. The individual articles of the special issue are briefly summarized, and some concluding lessons drawn.

De-contextualisation fuels controversy:

Author(s): Sara Ödmark / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

Humour has a unique way of delineating social boundaries, and comedy can function as a double-edged sword; it can strengthen bonds and bring people together, or divide through provocation and violation of social norms. As a consequence, humour controversies are telling events that contain the possibility of highlighting cultural and political sensibilities – even more in the current political landscape, with increasing media fragmentation. This study analysed four humour functions through the theoretical lens of media framing, via three cases of humorous content that caused controversies in the Swedish news media. These cases were one divisive radio roast of a politician, one TV satire segment that was received as racist, and one audio podcast with young women who challenged a Swedish political consensus climate. Framing is the power of media to select and highlight certain aspects of issues, and by extension, shape public opinion. By subjecting the media coverage of these three controversies to a qualitative content analysis, the framing was examined and discussed in the light of four humour functions: identification, clarification, enforcement, and differentiation (Meyer 2000). Furthermore, the study examined the media context and the role it played in the framing of the controversies. One main finding was that the most uniting humour function of identification could be transformed into the most dividing humour function of differentiation through a shift in media context.

Power and satire in the front-page images of Mariano Rajoy:

Author(s): Manuel Garin,Daniel Pérez-Pamies / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

This article explores the use of photography and visual motifs as forms of political humour in contemporary media. By studying the representation of former Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy in the front pages of three Spanish newspapers (El Mundo, El País and La Vanguardia) between 2011 and 2017, the paper identifies and questions the liaisons between power and satire present in the so-called “serious” press, focusing on how different photographic traits concerning layout, composition and gestures reflect ideological choices. This photographic satire developed by printed media is then framed within a figurative tradition that goes back to Spanish royal portraiture, from Velázquez to Goya, which employs common strategies for the visual depiction of power, including satirical and humorous attributes to push specific political agendas. This examination, based on the quantified study and the visual analysis of more than 7,500 front pages, is part of the national research project Visual Motifs in the Public Sphere: Production and Circulation of Images of Power in Spain, 2011-2017. In order to determine a useful procedural approach to satirical expressions in photographs, defining which front pages invoke a remarkable satirical content, this article also presents a comparative study and a categorisation based on formal (im)balances related to the concepts of visual motif and humour.

The Danish Cartoons, Charlie Hebdo and the culture wars:

Author(s): Mark John Rolfe / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

A considerable body of academic literature has lauded political satirists as rebellious defenders of democracy and free speech against an establishment. Although satire is not always rebellious, this reputation of satirists and of satire may itself be the object of partisan capture. In this article, it is the object of capture by right-wing populists. In that respect, satire and the meta-discourse about satire can be used like any political rhetoric in gathering like-minded allies, claiming standards, and fighting opponents. With the Danish cartoons crisis of 2005-2006 and the Charlie Hebdo massacre of 2015, proponents of culture wars rhetoric added satire to their list of Western cultural legacies that needed defence against Islamic terrorism as well as left authoritarian elites who suppressed free speech through political correctness. They constructed simplistic global political dichotomies about satire, free speech, and civilisation and lifted events out of local contexts in a process of global framing. The culture war rhetoric was absolutist in support of free speech and satire on the international level. But the national level reveals the hortatory and partisan side to this rhetoric and the complexities that belie the absolutist stand. Nations are the arenas where struggles over free speech and political humour are played out.

Fandom versus citizenship:

Author(s): Delia Chiaro,Nikita LOBANOV / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

This paper examines occurrences of humour in Twitter-fed celebrity-follower communities. Using a small, one-month sample of the Twitter feeds of 12 British celebrities, we examined political and humorous content of celebrity tweets and the first five responses from their followers. From this preliminary study, we found that the notion of “weirdisation” strongly emerges, together with the new conceptual tool of “shards of humour”.

Образ вора в восточнославянской несказочной прозе

Author(s): Tatiana Vladimirovna Bauer / Language(s): Russian Issue: 4/2021

This article discusses the status of thievery in the East Slavic tradition. The prime objective of the publication was to determine the place of the thief in the system of characters with supernatural abilities who also belong to the “knower” category. This category usually includes masters, magic experts, and semi-demonic beings. The work is based on the materials of the peasant culture of the mid-19th — early 20th centuries. A systematic description of the image of the thief as a character with supernatural abilities comprised the first stage of research. The research study reveals the reasons for the inclination to theft and typical characteristics and motifs that confirm the demonological status of the thief. The set of supernatural qualities placed this status higher than that of magic experts, but lower than that of semi-demonic beings. Thus, on the conventional scale ‘man — semi-demonic creature’ thieves are above sorcerers and witches. The characters acquired common motifs and characteristics; a lexicological rapprochement between them is revealed in the research. Additionally, the ideas of the thieves’ special social status, which associates them with sorcerers and witches, in the rural community were revealed.

Медицинский дискурс в романе Ю. О. Домбровского «Обезьяна приходит за своим черепом»

Author(s): Igor A. Kravchuk / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2021

The article explores the poetics of Yu. O. Dombrovsky’s novel The Monkey Comes for its Skull (1943–1959) through the prism of medical discourse, which occupies a prominent place in the structure of the work. Every appeal of the novel’s characters to medical discourse indicates a situation of communicative shift, the breakdown of connections between words and things. Thus, “medicalization” becomes one of the symptoms of the new paradoxical reality of occupied and post-war Europe. Contrary to the Enlightenment paradigm, a medical view of the motifs of human actions does not reveal the truth, but on the contrary, leads away from it. For Dombrovsky’s work, ancient Stoic philosophy with its understanding of wisdom as therapy of the soul, the completeness of self-control and absolute spiritual freedom is also important. Sooner or later, each of the characters has to remain one-on-one with his own conscience and moral dilemmas, while auxiliary discursive practices cease to be an effective means of social camouflage. The ideological composition of the work corresponds to a specific narrative technique and motif structure, which is characterized by the use of genre techniques of detective and spy novels. In general, the novel The Monkey Comes for Its Skull offers the reader an alternative to “new prose,” with its demonstrative rejection of fictionality, its accent on documentary, factography. Dombrovsky prefers to overcome the “literariness” of literature from within the prevailing genre and aesthetic conventions, synthesizing and transforming various types of discourses, including medical ones.

Frequency of Adjectives in Male and Female Speech in the Contemporary Television Drama Series “Homeland”:

Author(s): Marian Żmigrodzki / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The paper addresses issues related to language and gender, and discusses research on the frequency of adjectives in language of male and female characters in a TV drama series “Homeland”. The empirical part of the study uses as its theoretical background the classic works in the field (Lakoff 1975; Butler 1990; Meyerhoff 2006), which identify gender specific language features and define factors that determine male-female language differences. The research was conducted manually, with a limited support of electronic tools, on a personally created language corpus consisting of dialogue lines from the TV show. The results clearly show that the frequency of adjectives in female speech in the context of the TV series is higher than in male speech in the analyzed corpus.

Ephemeral mimetics:

Author(s): Sara Martínez-Cardama,Fátima García-López / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a crisis with consequences for public health, but also with economic, social and cultural implications that have affected all layers of society to a greater or lesser extent. Communication has been impacted by the immediacy and virality of messages and misinformation has galloped across social platforms. Against this backdrop, memes have emerged as a powerful means to channel citizen sentiment. During the Covid-19 crisis, social sciences and, in particular, the study of social interaction through digital platforms has played a significant role. A study of these digital objects is essential to understanding social network-based communication during the pandemic. The qualitative research reported here analyses the role of memes in communication on Covid-19, studies their development and defends their status as one of this generation’s cultural artefacts that, as such, merits preservation. Meme evolution is studied using Kübler-Ross’ (1969) stages of grief, which has been applied in a number of contexts involving psychological change. A corpus of 980 memes was analysed according to iconographic and sociological criteria. Studying memes in those terms both brings information on the evolution of citizens’ concerns to light and proves useful to identify the trends present in social media communication around the pandemic. The challenges to be faced in meme preservation are defined, along with the ways in which heritage institutions should ensure the conservation of these cultural objects, which mirror early twentyfirst century communication and world views and, in this case, provide specific insight into one of the most significant historical circumstances of recent decades.

Commentary piece

Author(s): Villy Tsakona / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This commentary piece offers some preliminary thoughts concerning Greek memes produced since COVID-19 disease arrived at Greece at the end of February 2020 through identifying an analogy between the sociopolitical conditions in Greece-under-lockdown and Orwell’s Oceania in his 1984 novel. It is specifically argued that such texts constitute political humour commenting on the abrupt, yet pervasive changes attested due to state measures against the spread of COVID-19 disease. To this end, memes collected from social media are discussed and interpreted in comparison with extracts from Orwell’s novel to point to striking similarities between the 1984 sociopolitical context and the Greek one. It is, however, suggested that there is a significant difference between the two contexts: in Orwell’s dystopia, humour seems to have no place at all; on the contrary, humour thrived in Greece-under-lockdown, especially among participants in the social media, in the form of rapidly created and disseminated memes. Memory (a central notion in Orwell’s novel) emerges as a crucial factor for the production of such humour in contemporary Greece and for its absence from Orwell’s Oceania.

‘She is like a Yakshini':

Author(s): Ying Cao,Chong Han,Xiangdong Liu,Adrian Hale / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This paper looks at the importance of aggressive humour in the discursive construction of a ‘Yakshini’ character in a popular Chinese sitcom, Ipartment. The exaggerated, aggressive nature of such a stereotypical character undermines traditional cultural norms of Chinese femininity. Such characterisation of a heroine through aggressive humour in a popular sitcom reflects the fact that empowering women has become (or is becoming) more acceptable in contemporary China.

Book review

Author(s): Xuan Li / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Book review

Author(s): Villy Tsakona / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Book review

Author(s): Mark Weeks / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021