Translating Nonce Words (A Corpus Study Based on a Novel)

Author(s): Svetlana Nedelcheva / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Translators face different challenges in their everyday work. They have to deal with lexico-semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and cultural problems. This article focuses on John Harding’s novel Florence & Giles where the narrator is the 12-year-old Florence. She has created her own language by distorting words, e.g. nouns and adjectives are turned into verbs, nouns into adjectives, adverbs and prepositions into verbs, etc. These nonce words constitute Florence’s fairly unusual style. Based on a parallel corpus of the original English novel and its Bulgarian translation, this research uses the contrastive method to analyze the intensely concentrated nonce words in the text and their equivalents in Bulgarian

Опыт преподавания устного перевода магистрантам-лингвистам в режиме дистанционного обучения

Author(s): Irina Tivyaeva,Albina Vodyanitskaya / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2021

The goal of the paper is an attempt to offer a systematic description of the authors’ experience in distance teaching of a consecutive and simultaneous interpreting course to graduate students of linguistics within the concept of transitioning to online instruction. The paper provides a review of distance interpreting programs available online and focuses on a particular case of adjusting an on-campus course in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting to online instruction. Preliminary results highlight technical and didactic specifics of teaching an online course in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting and make prominent pros and cons of online student teamwork. Drawing from the case study, the authors discuss possible solutions for online interpreter training.

Mетодът „Глобални симулации” при преподаване на испански в сферата на ихтиологията

Author(s): Mihal Pavlov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The purpose of this article is to present the contemporary application of global simulations in the teaching of specialized Spanish in the field of ichthyology. The methods of linguodidactic archeology and linguodidactological analysis are used. The perspectives and concrete results of the application of the “Global Simulations” method in teaching ichthyological terminology to Bulgarian students studying Spanish are studied. The different phases of the application of this method are presented and conclusions are made about its effectiveness in the conditions of the Bulgarian educational system.

Comedy and humour:

Author(s): Mehrdad Bidgoli / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

In this essay, I aim to study comedy and humour from an ethical perspective. My main proposal is that comedy and humour can be understood alternatively in the light of ethics, and in one sense, they actually begin, more effectively, with an ethical sensibility. Effective comedy and humour initiate through an ethical sensibility called “hospitality”; ideally, they are preceded by this ethical openness. I will argue that it is this pre-original ethical hospitality and openness that can give rise to more effective moments of comedy, humour, carnival, festivity and also laughter, opening the Self to the Other in order to be able to enter into a disinterested humorous (dialogic) experience. Hospitality is of prime importance here because it turns out to be part and parcel of comedy as it also underlies the ethics of alterity. I therefore suggest that the thoughts of both Emmanuel Levinas and Mikhail Bakhtin can give rise to a fruitful study of ethics, comedy and humour. I will “reduce” socio-political complexities of our daily life-world to comic moments through Bakhtin, and then expose the reader to a Levinasian simplicity and ethical openness that actually takes place before effective comedy and humour can begin. In this essay, I mainly have literary/critical aims, and to fulfil that aim, I will briefly discuss two Shakespearean works and contextualize my thesis. The matter of studying comedy, humour and ethics in a broader cultural, social and/or philosophical context is open for other thinkers.

Humour and ex-Yugoslav nations:

Author(s): Željko Pavić,Nataša Krivokapić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This study explores the issue of humour stereotyping between ex-Yugoslav nations, its veridicality and possible explanations. Three research questions were put forward related to humour stereotyping and the differences in humour production, use and appreciation between the countries, with Hofstede’s model of culture as a possible explanatory framework. The survey data were collected on a sample of university students from four ex-Yugoslav countries (N = 611). The results revealed strong negative humour stereotyping toward Croats and Slovenians and positive stereotyping toward Bosnians. However, only about 0–4 per cent of the variance in humour production, use and appreciation, depending on the sub-scales of the Multidimensional Sense of Humour Scale, could be attributed to group (country) membership, thus indicating low correspondence between the stereotypes and reality. The study results concerning the stereotypes were interpreted by evoking the discourse of Balkanism, as well as humour-style differences in popular culture between the countries.

Book review

Author(s): Vaso Psilaki,Matoula Papadimitriou / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

Book review

Author(s): Şenay Yavuz Görkem / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2019

Book review

Author(s): Christian F. Hempelmann / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

Satire, humour, and parody in 21st century Nigerian women’s poetry

Author(s): Bartholomew Chizoba Akpah / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

21st century Nigerian women poets have continued to utilise the aesthetics of literary devices as linguistic and literary strategies to project feminist privations and values in their creative oeuvres. There has been marginal interest towards 21st century Nigerian women’s poetry and their deployment of artistic devices such as satire, humour, and parody. Unequivocally, such linguistic and literary devices in imaginative works are deployed as centripetal force to criticise, amidst laughter, the ills of female devaluation in the society. The major thrust of the study, therefore, is to examine how satire, humour and parody are deployed in selected Nigerian women’s poetry to reproach and etch the collective ethos of women’s experience in contemporary Nigerian society. The study utilises qualitative analytical approach in the close reading and textual analysis of the selected texts focusing mainly on the aesthetics of humour, satire, and parody in challenging male chauvinism in contemporary Nigerian women’s poetry. Three long poems: “Nuptial Counsel”, “Sadiku’s Song”, and “The Sweet, Sweet Mistress’ Tale” by Mabel Evweirhoma and Maria Ajima respectively were purposively selected. The choice of the selected poems hinges on the artistic vigour, especially the evoking of laughter, mockery and condemnation of hegemonic structures through the use of satire, humour, and parody. The paper employs Molara Ogundipe’s Stiwanism, an aspect of Feminist theory in the analysis of the selected poems. The poets have shown the interventions of humour, satire, and parody as linguistic devices in condemning and highlighting peculiarities of women peonage in Nigeria.

Book review

Author(s): Alyona Ivanova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2018

Typowy Janusz and Bad Luck Brian:

Author(s): Joanna Szerszunowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2018

The Poles’ observations regarding the reality of the last decades motivated the creation of certain meme characters deeply set in the Polish culture and reflecting the new social phenomena which have come into existence recently. The examples of such persons include the characters named Janusz, Grażyna, Seba and Karyna. Previously, the names had no connotative potential and they were not used as components of idiomatic expressions. In the modern Polish, the names function as labels evoking many features (personality, given intellectual potential, appearance, stereotypical behaviour etc.). For instance, Janusz is a man in his fifties, with a beer belly and reddish face, unattractive, with very limited knowledge in a field in which he himself considers to be an expert, complaining and stressing that life was much better in communist times, wearing unfashionable clothes, putting on sandals and white socks. It is worth adding that because of the connotations, the name is used in the expression typowy Janusz/janusz and in the construction Janusze/janusze + a discipline/area of activity, e.g. janusze biznesu. Both in informal communication and in the journalese discourse, their belonging to labels is of importance – the names evoke complex pictures. As culture-bound items, such units are interesting from a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. They will be analyzed and compared with the character of the English-language Bad Luck Brian memes.

Differences in Research Abstracts written in Arabic, French, and English

Author(s): Abdelmajid Bouziane,Fatima Ezzahra Metkal / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The proliferation of publications, mainly the digital ones, makes it necessary to write well-structured abstracts which help readers gauge the relevance of articles and thus attract a wider readership. This article investigates whether abstracts written in three languages, namely Arabic, French and English, follow the same patterns within or across languages. It compares 112 abstracts in the areas of (applied) linguistics. The English abstracts include 36 research article (RA) abstracts from an Arab journal mostly written by non-natives and 10 by native speakers from British universities. Those produced in French are 36 divided into two sets, 23 from North African journals and the remaining 13 from French journals. The Arabic abstracts consist of 30 abstracts, 15 from North African journals mainly from Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco and the other 15 from the Middle East with a focus on Qatari and Saudi texts. Results emanating from the frequency of moves show that the abstracts written in English by natives and non-natives and those produced in Arabic by Middle Eastern writers show conformity with the existing conventions of abstract writing in English. However, those from North Africa, be they Arabic or French, do not share any specific patterns which can be attributed to the language in which they are written. Further research is needed to check whether abstract writing is part of the academic writing curriculum in these two latter languages.

За слона в хладилника, за друдлите, за емоджитата и още нещо

Author(s): Elena Savova–Tsolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2020

This paper offers a discussion on the specifics of various contemporary forms of riddles on examples including both linguistic and visual representations. The author traces the ways in which these riddles have spread and evolved from the 1980s until the present day. Attention is also given to the varying levels of formal similarity between modern riddles and traditional riddles and to the tendency of the new forms to get close to the genre of the modern joke.

La didactique du FLE à la croisée des sciences cognitives et discursives

Author(s): Elena G. Tareva,Elena Porshneva,Indira Abdulmianova / Language(s): French Issue: 3/2021

The interdisciplinary aspect of Language teaching allows it to always remain in the active phase of its development. This communication aims to analyze the variants of coexistence of the acquired knowledge of several sciences in the organization of the teaching of modern languages. The authors study the epistemological origins of the current processes guiding the functioning of the teaching of French as a foreign language, analyze key concepts, which emergence is due to the combination of ideas from different fields, and share experiences of teaching French based on the interaction of avant-garde approaches. The recourse to the theory of language activity, cognitive and discursive sciences, emerged in this new anthropocentric paradigm where the learner is placed at the center of the educational process, reshapes the methodological pillars of the didactics of FFL, namely its object, its objectives. , its content and methods. At the same time, these areas offer tools for building a language teaching system best suited to current axiological values.

Совершенствование иностранного (русского) языка в школе посредством пословиц и поговорок

Author(s): Marzanna Karolczuk / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2021

The results of research on proverbs and sayings in such areas as linguistics, psychology, didactics and teaching methodology show that paremia has cognitive, educational and pedagogical functions in almost all areas of science and life. Understanding proverbs and sayings contributes to a better understanding of other cultures in the context of their interaction. Introduction proverbs and sayings to educational process develops students’ intercultural skills and a positive attitude to other people, as well as constitutes creative atmosphere in the classroom. The use of paremia in the learning process also enables the development of language knowledge and abilities, as well as speaking skills. The purpose of the article is to discuss the use of paremia in language education and propose kinds and types of exercises that can be used in the process of teaching a foreign language.

Editorial Humour research:

Author(s): Diana Elena Popa,Władysław Chłopicki,Dorota Brzozowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2013

Students’ Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Online Distance Language Teaching in Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author(s): Elena Somova,Denitza Charkova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The present study examined the relation between students’ preferred mode of learning (online, face-to-face, and hybrid) and their opinions about the effectiveness of an online distance learning English language course under the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students favoring online distance learning constituted a significantly smaller proportion of the group versus those in favor of face-to-face instruction (p = 0.004). A significant relation was established between the students’ preferred mode of education and their opinions about the course effectiveness (p < 0.001). The students whose preferred form of education was compatible with online distance learning rated the course effectiveness at 93%, those favoring face-to-face education at 58%, and the supporters of hybrid education at 81%. Students’ comments and suggestions for the teaching practice in the post epidemic time are discussed.

Минало и настояще на българистиката в Белградския университет

Author(s): Ivana Davitkov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5/2021

This article aims to outline the main stages in the development of Bulgarian studies at the University of Belgrade, as well as to describe its current state, without claiming to be exhaustive. The first stage of the development of the specialty could rather be considered a preparatory stage in the development of Bulgarian studies as we know it today. The second stage is marked by the scientific work of Marin Mladenov and the development of mainly literary Bulgarian studies. In the third stage, the emphasis is placed on the linguistic Bulgarian studies by Mariana Aleksic, as the teaching staff expands. Today, the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade is the only place in Serbia where Bulgarian studies exist as a separate specialty within the Department of Serbian with South Slavic Languages. The Bulgarian language is also studied as an elective discipline (two-semester and four-semester), and almost all Bulgarian disciplines can be studied as electives by students from other specialties. It could be said that Belgrade Bulgarian studies today strive to soon achieve the much-needed balance in the presence of specialists in the field of literature and language.

Trevor Noah and the contingent politics of racial joking

Author(s): Jennalee Donian,Nicholas Holm / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

This article takes up the transnational comedy career of Trevor Noah as a way to explore how the political work of racial comedy can manifest, circulate and indeed communicate differently across different racial-political contexts. Through the close textual analysis of two key comic performances –“The Daywalker” (2009) and “Son of Patricia” (2018), produced and (initially) circulated in South Africa and the USA, respectively – this article explores the extent to which Noah’s comic treatment of race has shifted between the two contexts. In particular, attention is paid to how Noah incites, navigates and mitigates potential sources of offence surrounding racial anxieties in the two contexts, and how he evokes his own “mixed-race” status in order to open up spaces of permission that allow him to joke about otherwise taboo subjects. Rejecting the claim that the politics of Noah’s comedy is emancipatory or progressive in any straightforward way, by means of formal analyses we argue that his comic treatment of race does not enact any singular politics, but rather that the political work of his racial humour shifts relative to its wider political contexts. Thus, rather than drawing a clear line between light entertainment and politically meaningful humour, this article argues that the political valence of racial joking can be understood as contingent upon wider discourses of race that circulate in national-cultural contexts.

Book review

Author(s): Dorota Brzozowska / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021