We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Review of: Jurica Polančec - Arbanaški na raskrižju. Vitalitet i održivost jednog manjinskog jezika, Lucija Šimičić i Klara Bilić Meštrić. Srednja Europa, Zagreb, 2018.
More...
Review of: Martina Grčević - Prva slovačka kontrastivna sintaksa (u usporedbi s hrvatskom). Dubravka Sesar, Pregled slovačke sintakse, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, FF press, 2018., 158 str.
More...
Review of: Marina Grubišić - Ida Raffaelli, Daniela Katunar, Barbara Kerovec (eds.) (2019), Lexicalization patterns in color naming. A cross–linguistic perspective. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia. 429 pages.
More...
The paper deals with the Russian and Finnish learners’ use of written Estonian on the proficiency levels A2 and B1. Russian learners acquired Estonian as a second language in Estonia, Finnish learners learned Estonian as a foreign language in Finland. The aim of the study is to find out the main characteristics of learner language development from A2 to B1 level of both of the learner groups and also shed light on the first language influence and on the impact of language environment. The study is based on the analysis of the most frequent morpho-syntactical patterns in the texts of Estonian Interlanguage Corpus. Target language use of the two learners’ groups is compared with each other and with the use of native Estonians. The data consists of the actively used trigrams: 203 trigrams of Russian and 227 of Finnish learners on the A2-level, and 4363 of Russian and 1132 of Finnish learners on the B1-level. The results of the study show that the language use of the two learner groups develops from A2 to B1 level similarly in many ways. However, in the texts of Russian learners the total amount of patterns, as well as the amount of statistically relevant patterns, grow rapidly on the level B1. At the same time the variety of the pattern groups and vocabulary exhibit less expansion. In the texts of Finnish learners the percentage of statistically relevant patterns grows steadily, but at the same time the extensive development of vocabulary on the basis of smaller amount of patterns can be detected. Thus, from the A2 to B1 level, the acquisition of closely related target language outside language environment is characterized mainly by the development of vocabulary while in the acquisition of different target language in language environment the main characteristic is extensive development of morphosyntax.
More...
The first part of the paper provides basic information on the genesis, distribution, and division of the Kajkavian dialect. The most typical linguistic features of Kajkavian speech are then presented at the phonological, morphological, and syntactic level. The second part deals with the Kajkavian lexicon, its origin, and the current state of interference from the Croatian standard language (pseudo-analogy and the latest semantic adaptations) and the latest trends in research (Kajkavian dialectal lexicology and the development of different dictionaries). The author concludes that the Kajkavian dialect will survive, but the specificities of certain groups and local speeches with permanently preserved ‘solid parts’ will disappear.
More...
“Wysiłek autora został skupiony na połączeniu zgłębiania języka ze zgłębianiem innych gałęziantropologii, bowiem język jest najlepiej rozumiany gdy nawyki, obyczaje, instytucje, filozofia– esencja myśli urzeczywistnionej w języku – są najlepiej poznane. Badacz języka powinienzajmować się ludźmi, którzy mówią tym językiem; to właśnie było celem napisania tej książki[pracy – P.C.], zawierającej wiele odniesień do innych gałęzi antropologii”. Powell ([1877]1880: vi) // “It has been the effort of the author to connect the study of language with the study of other branches of anthropology, for a language is best understood when the habits, customs,institutions, philosophy – the subject-matter of thought embodied in the language – are best known. The student of language should be a student of the people who speak the language; and to this end the book [paper – P.C.] has been prepared, with many hints and suggestions relating to other branches of anthropology.” Powell ([1877] 1880: vi)
More...
Autorka stawia pytanie o nieprzekładalność „absolutną”, czyli o to, co nie dociera do obcojęzycznego odbiorcy translacji. Na podstawie albumu o zabytkach kultury polskiej przechowywanych w Bibliotece Narodowej w Warszawie, w wersji angielskiej tłumaczonej z polskiego oryginału i mogącej służyć za wzór znakomitego przekładu, ukazuje, jak teksty odnoszące się do sztuki narodowej mogą zawierać takie pułapki dla tłumacza. Mimo doskonałego wykonania przekładu, u docelowego odbiorcy z innego kręgu kulturowego tłumaczenie nie wywołuje tych samych reakcji na specyficzne, inherentne wartości tekstu pierwotnego, doznawanych przez czytelników należących do społeczności kulturowej tekstu wyjściowego. // The author asks whether there is such a thing as “absolute” untranslatability. In other words, do situations occur in which the full translatability of a text is prevented no matter how good the translation and how skilful the translator? She examines the English translation of a volume on national heirlooms, items of Polish heritage preserved in the National Library in Warsaw. This translation may be regarded as a benchmark for quality, yet it turns out that recipients not belonging to the Polish cultural milieu will not be able to respond emotionally in the same way as natives to the cultural values inherent in the original text.
More...
Proverbs have never been considered sacrosanct; on the contrary, they have frequently been used as satirical, ironic or humorous comments on a given situation. In the last few decades, they have been perverted and parodied so extensively that their variations have been sometimes heard more often than their original forms. Naturally, the most well-known Biblical proverbs are very frequently transformed and modified in various languages. “He who digs a pit for others falls into it himself” is one of such widespread proverbs originating from the Bible. This proverb exists in almost fifty European languages, including Croatian, English, German, Hungarian and Russian. Below, we would like to demonstrate the occurrence and popularity of this proverb, as well as its transformations in the five languages. The major source for this study has been the Internet and some previously constructed Internet corpora. In the course of the present study we are going to focus primarily on the visual representation of the Biblical proverb in question and its (humorous) modifications as well on the interaction between text and image.
More...
Signature analysis is a statistical technique introduced in the 1940s in order to identify groups of statistical measures to identify aircraft from radar reflections. Other applications include particle identification in nuclear physics and dark matter location in astrophysics. Humour appreciation, or funniness scores, are empirical measures of perceived humour. Two questionnaires, one in English, the other its translation into Russian, were made available online. Each had 96 humorous sentences or jokes. The sentences were classified empirically according to four age trends. Signatures of the four classes of sentences are calculated from participant scores in six age groups. The original scores will be available to researchers for verification and further investigation from either author. The use of signature analysis in this work involves the comparison of a sentence profile with the signature of its class or category; if the profile meets a strict criterion of errors then it can be described as a best predictor of its class. One notable finding from signature analysis is the existence of offsets: displacement of a sentence profile from its type signature. We suggest that offset values are direct measures of humorousness without reference to context. In this analysis, the profiles of the Russian and English sentences are compared to each other and their graphical differences are interpreted including offsets.
More...
This text presents onyms, as well as the toponyms as components in Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat and Czech phrasemes. Toponyms are not the most common onyms among phraseological units. Perhaps that is why they remain a bit on the margins of research interest (compared to anthroponyms, for example). The phraseological units with a toponymic component which we collected using the phraseological dictionaries of the above-mentioned languages of view may be classified as comparisons, syntagms (collocations) and (poly)sentences from a formal perspective. Our focus in this article was on nominal collocations and their classification. From the point of view of the syntactic structure, we divided the collected phrasemes into six groups. We collected most examples in groups with syntactic structure Adj + TOP (e.g.: Bulg. tamna Indiya) and Subst + prep + TOP (e.g.: S-Cr. ujak iz Amerike).
More...
This article introduces a new field of enquiry called revivalistics, and explores its trans-disciplinarity and various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits. Revivalistics is an emerging global, trans-disciplinary field of enquiry studying comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (Zuckermann, 2003; 2009; 2020), and particularistic peculiarities and cultural relativist idiosyncrasies on the other, apparent in linguistic reclamation, revitalization and reinvigoration across various sociological backgrounds, all over the globe (Zuckermann, 2020; Zuckermann & Walsh, 2011; 2014). The article focuses on the crucial differences between revivalistics and documentary linguistics. It provides examples from the field that demonstrate the complexity of the revivalist’s work and how the revivalist’s work is distinct from that of the documentary linguist. Too many documentary linguists mislead themselves to believe that they can easily be revivalists too. But there are two crucial differences between revivalistics and documentary linguistics, which are at war between themselves: (1) Whereas documentary linguists put the language at the centre, revivalists put the language custodians at the centre. (2) Whereas in documentary linguistics the Indigenous/minority people have the knowledge of the language, in revivalistics the revivalist is the one with that knowledge. Given that the Aboriginal/minority people are the language custodians, and given that the language custodians are at the centre of the revivalistic enterprise, the revivalist must be extremely sensitive. A revivalist is not only a linguist but also a psychologist, social worker, teacher, driver, schlepper, financial manager, cook, waiter, babysitter, donor etc. A revivalist must have a heart of gold, “balls” of steel and the patience of a saint. Language revival is similar to co-parenting. But the revivalist is only a step-father. The important biological mother is the Indigenous/minority community. If you are the step-father and your spouse, who is the biological mother, makes what you perceive to be a mediocre decision with regard to your children, you cannot just disapprove of it. After all, the children are your spouse’s more than they are yours. You must work together for the best possible outcome. Similarly, if the community supports a decision that is not linguistically viable, the revivalist can try to inspire the community members, but must accept their own verdict. That would be difficult for a documentary linguist with poor social skills.
More...
Equipping a linguist with effective analytical tools for contrastive analyses, cognitive methodologies provide access to subtle details of schematic representations in the languages compared, facilitating a deeper insight into the structures of languages at the conceptualization level. This paper presents the cognitive value of the contrastive analyses conducted in the vein of R. Langackerʼs Cognitive Grammar and with reference to the image schema theory, and their contribution to a more multifaceted description of the English preposition for and some of its Polish equivalents. Cognitive analyses allow for identifying the path image schema as the most abstract schema that structures the semantic content of for, and the transformations of which sanction the choice of particular Polish prepositions as its equivalents.
More...
The article aims to present and analyse main problems of the novel of Xavier de Maistre La jeune sibérienne. Four main questions are taken under consideration: the poetics of the novel, relations between the philosophy of Joseph de Maistre – brother of Xavier – and the novel in question, problem of sentimentalism in La jeune sibérienne, and the category of simplicity in the text. The novel of Xavier de Maistre is compared to Sophie de Cottin’s fiction, presenting the same story in a more sophisticated way. The article also presents the theological and philosophical problems posed by the text, most of all the question of the providence and grace divine.
More...
In the Polish academic context, melodrama is as fascinating, as it is underrepresented a phenomenon. This is mostly because melodrama’s roots are theatrical; a reason why, within the literary drama bounds, the genre has been considered a hybrid since the Antiquity. This article aims both at demonstrating the complex process of melodrama shaping, one which involves its multigeneric inspirations, and presenting its hybrid structure as well as the direction in which it is evolving. Melodrama’s explicit emotionalism, multistylistic construction and dynamism, resulting from the genre’s both social and moralistic provenance, has determined not only its traditional reception, but also audiences’s involvement in the its creation. This text has been primarily based on the French melodrama; however, it, too, takes into consideration (to a limited degree though) the presence of the genre in the national dramaturgies: English, German, Austrian, and Polish.
More...
The article is devoted to intertextuality in the nineteenth-century dramatic texts inspired by other literary forms. The group of melodramas rewritten from texts of various literary genres includes works both secondary and literally impoverished, as well as some that are interesting, even innovative. In the practice of rewriting, the main plot of the original is retained only in its general outlines. The omissions, rearrangements, and simplifications often associated with a complete change in the sense of the prototype seem to be particularly interesting; although inspirations from sentimentalism are extremely important. The melodramas in question retain a link with the original work expressed not only by the choice of title but also by enriching them with content that did not exist before. This seems to be an effort to crystallize their own creative identity, often falling within the realm of popular culture.
More...
The article touches upon new threads as regards the Polish reception of J.J. Rousseau’s melodrama Pygmalion so as to settle a few debatable issues. For that purpose, the author ventures to study a broader array of source texts: apart from the well-known translation by T.K. Węgierski, J. Baudouin’s prose rendering and the French edition of the work published by Piotr Dufour are also discussed. This allows both for the formulation of a number of hypotheses on the influence of particular French editions on the translated versions of Rousseau’s work (e.g. making redundant a number of stage directions, planning to create a prospective bilingual edition) and ascertaining the exact sources of Węgierski’s adaptation; a difficult task, given the traditional dichotomy between the original and its translation. Approaching the translation as but a hub on the way towards the target text seems promising though, the more so that such an approach has already been tested with regard to the French culture. Considering the above, Rousseau’s Pygmalion should not be viewed merely as a source text, but rather a textual archetype evolving in course of its reception, both in France and in Europe.
More...
This paper focuses on the melodramatic features in Almayer’s Folly, the first part of The Malay Trilogy by Joseph Conrad, and their significance for the interpretation of the novel. The poetics of melodrama and opera is reflected in various aspects of Conrad’s prose, such as e.g. main plot construction, references to Verdi, characterisation of the protagonists. The melodrama and opera provide an important cultural frame of reference, which affects the narrative scope of the novel discussed.
More...
The article deals with the question of passage of time in Wim Wenders’ Der Himmel über Berlin and Tom Tykwer’s Lola rennt. Both directors show contemporary love stories in their works. Their film productions can be seen as examples of a melodrama, but they also depict the social and geopolitical situation in Berlin in two different temporal contexts. While Wenders shows the divided capital of Germany during the Cold War, Tykwer presents a rapidly developing metropolis at the end of the 20th century. The situational irony which characterizes the filmic work of Tykwer in particular highlights the creator’s distance to the melodramatic dilemmas he cinematically ponders on.
More...
Desperados III is a stealth-strategy developed by Mimimi Games in 2020. The game tells the story of five outlaws who undertake hazardous activities in the Wild West. As regards its plot, setting and types of characters, Desperados III seems to follow the principles of formulaic western fiction and films. Yet the process of the western’s adjustment to the genre of tactical stealth has serious implications for the formula. The aim of the article is to discuss the game’s rebellion against the tradition of the genre. The paper is divided into four sections. They examine the game’s mechanics, its temporality, perspective and the construction of the virtual world in the context of the western’s adaptation to the stealth-based tactical strategy.
More...
Heavy metal music is often perceived as crude and simplistic by people who are not acquainted with its complexity. In this article, I would like to explore and analyze the (meta-)genre of heavy metal music and its elaborate internal subdivision. Firstly, it is crucial to define metal music and distinguish it from other styles within the larger family of rock music. This section will be followed by a brief presentation of the history of heavy metal and the dominant dichotomy of chaotic and Dionysian themes present in the lyrics of metal songs. Ultimately, I intend to unravel the complex web of metal genres by describing the most crucial ones, demonstrating the “kinship” between particular styles, and providing examples of the representatives of each discussed subgenre.
More...
