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Fikce, skutečnost a radikalni vypraveni

Author(s): Petr Koťátko / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2013

The article focuses on the nature of the worlds of narrative fiction, ways of their representation, the status and identity conditions of fictional entities and correlatively on the role of singular terms in literary texts. According to the author, the basic question providing a proper framework for addressing such topics is: what does the reader have to do (to presuppose, to accept, to imagine) in order to allow the text of narrative fiction to fulfill its literary functions? The alternative is to start with the “text itself’, i.e. sentences with their linguistic meanings (in abstraction from their literary functions), and ask what kind of material does the text provide to the interpreter, what does it enable him/her to identify and determine and what does it leave principially unidentifiable and underdetermined. According to the author, such an approach blocks the access (or makes impossible the return) to the text’s literary functions. The author defends certain specification of the interpretative attitude required by the literary functions of a text of narrative fiction from its reader. Among other things, he attempts to demonstrate its general applicability by analyzing a highly non-standard type of narration (labelled “radical”).

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Intuition and the End of All –Isms

Author(s): Vojtěch Kolman / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2018

In my paper, some of the most influential -isms in the philosophy of mathematics are discussed with respect to their attitude to intuition. By the end of the all -isms, at first, their tendency to arrive eventually at just the opposite of their previously proclaimed principle is meant. The positive significance to the given tag line is connected with as a simple observation (due to both William James and Wittgenstein) that most of the -isms are justifiable if treated as practical attitudes rather than theoretical systems. Accordingly, intuition’s role will be twofold: first, as a reference point with respect to which the given -isms were portrayed as turning into their very opposites; and, second, as the focal point to which all of them might be seen as contributing to intuition’s pragmatic reading. Along these lines, the path of intuition might be transformed from an epistemological Calvary—or the path of despair, to use Hegel’s words from the beginning of his Phenomenology in which one particular theory is replaced by another which is itself later replaced, etc.—into the path of progress in which some traditional dilemmas such as that between mathematical realism and nominalism are solved.

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Extremele alterității: înțelepciunea (senecană) și nebunia (neroniană)

Author(s): Ilona-Manuela Duță / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2024

Master and student, philosopher and emperor, Seneca and Nero bring face to face the extremes of alterity faced by the decadent Roman world, both psychologically and politically, mirroring the agony of the disintegration of ancient moral rigours in contact with the carnivalesque hybridization specific to imperial expansion . The collision of the Stoic reason represented by the philosopher with the irrationality, histrionics, and with the delirium through which the power of the emperor transvestite in the actor is literally staged reveals the tragic agony (agon) of the sacrifice of virtue (virtus) on the altar of the palace erected in the temple of the new political rituals (intrigues, manipulations, crimes). The Reason is the center of Roman axiology to which Cicero devotes all his rhetorical force. In the new axiological order, virtue is replaced by the mask, signalling the weakening of the foundation (ontological, ethical, and symbolic) of a world in profound change. Not by chance, this era is the matrix of the creation of tragedy in the authentic Senecan expression, the tragedian operating a vivisection of the pathos in his tragedies, as the philosopher builds the walls of morality and of the logos by means of the Stoic doctrine. The internal cleavage of Seneca's work, since the philosophical doctrine is the space for the preservation of logos, while tragedy becomes the laboratory of pathos, is proportional to the dislocation of the Roman mentality between order and disorder. If the mental structures of the imperial world are persona (social role) and dignitas (good compliance with duty), then, the protagonists of the tragic scene, Seneca and Nero, embody these structures and confront them, the emperor dissolving the idea of role (political, social, civic) in a carnival mask, the philosopher defending the dignity given by reason and logos with his own life.

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Paradoxical Hope: Fr. Aleksander Schmemann’s Sermons on Radio Liberty

Author(s): Milutin Janjić / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

This article explores Father Aleksander Schmemann’s radio broadcasts that began in 1953 on Radio Liberty, coinciding with Joseph Stalin’s death. The article argues that his broadcasts represent a unique form of hope, particularly from an Orthodox Christian perspective. A core aspect of his theological thought emphasizes personal religious experiences, both internal and external, expressed effectively through literature and poetry. The article examines one of Fr Schmemann’s sermons, which discusses Russian poet Joseph Brodsky’s poem “The Meeting of the Lord” (“Sretenie”). Through this sermon, the article demonstrates Fr Schmemann’s view of literature’s role in conveying spiritual insights. It underscores Fr Schmemann’s belief of the significance of personal religious experiences in one’s relationship with God, conveyed primarily through words, whether in liturgical settings or creative expressions like poetry. This profound connection between language, faith, and personal experience forms the foundation of Fr Schmemann’s paradoxical hope, inspiring him to reach out to a distant and suppressed audience.

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Kollokabilität ausgewählter astronomischer Termini: Zur semantischen Differenzierung der Begriffe Universum, All, Weltall, Weltraum und Kosmos

Author(s): Simona Tomášková / Language(s): German Issue: 55/2023

In this paper, we aim to conduct a semantic analysis of the synonyms Universum, All, Weltall, Weltraum, and Kosmos. The examination of the collocational potential of synonyms can unveil specific restrictions in the usage of collocations and contribute to the semantic delineation of words with similar meanings. The analysed nouns and their collocations are primarily used in the field of astronomy and astrophysics to depict physical processes and properties. All the analysed terms appear to combine with collocators indicating the expansion of the universe. In the examined material, verbal collocators frequently convey aspects of movement or mobility. Collocators associated with the noun Weltraum appear to refer to the space near the Earth rather than the entire universe. This restrictive behaviour was also observed with the collocator erdnah. Additionally, the noun Weltraum is used to denote the actual space between objects in the universe. The noun Kosmos is used as a synonym of Universum or Weltall but can also be found in the domain of philosophy. In summary, we can conclude that the terms are not always strictly synonymous in meaning. The differences in their usage can be attributed to their semantic ambiguity as well as their contextual dependency.

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“System” and “structure” as terms and concepts in formalist and structuralist parlance

Author(s): Igor Pilshchikov / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

This paper explores the evolution of the terms “system” and “structure” as applied to literature and art by Russian formalists (Yuri Tynianov) and (para)formalist phenomenologists (Gustav Shpet), and subsequent structuralist theorists in Prague (Roman Jakobson, Jan Mukařovský) and Tartu (Juri Lotman) from the 1920s to the 1980s. Initially favoured by Petrograd formalists, the term “system” gradually shared space with “structure”, introduced by Shpet in 1923 and embraced by his followers at the Moscow Linguistic Circle and the State Academy of Artistic Sciences. In 1928, Jakobson, collaborating with Tynianov in Prague, adopted both terms as synonyms but eschewed “system” in his post-1929 works. For Mukařovský, the relations between the elements in a structure create dialectic contradictions. These shifts paved the way for Lotman’s “metaleptic conversion” of system and structure. On the one hand, according to Lotman, each structure (= text) is a realization of more than one system (= language); on the other hand, a structure (= text) birthed from a system (= language) transmutes into a system in itself, consequently giving rise to new structures (= texts).

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Gesture, ostension, and relevance: pragmatics of semantic gesture

Author(s): Vít Gvoždiak / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

Semantic gesture is considered one of Jan Mukařovský’s key conceptual contributions to the theory of (artistic) communication. It is also a contribution that is still commented on and further expanded upon today. As a semantic-synthetic principle of dynamic unification of a work of art, the mechanism of semantic gesture defies reduction to pure intention, content or simply coded meaning. This paper develops the view that semantic gesture represents a pragmatic mechanism with potential for elaboration within the framework of a pragmatic theory of relevance. In the first part, it attempts to substantiate the view that semantic gesture exhibits a distinctly pragmatic character, as it is both (i) dependent on the under-determination of linguistic input and (ii) applicable outside the domain of artistic texts. The second part attempts to define the context of relevance theory as a suitable field for further exploration of semantic gesture beyond traditional semiological boundaries, especially by pointing out two types of dynamism and by relating the notion of semantic gesture to the pragmatic mechanisms of poetic effects.

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DEMONSTRATIVES, GESTURES, AND LOGICAL FORM

Author(s): GEOFF GEORGI / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

In Context and Coherence(2021), Una Stojnićdefends two theses about demonstrative reference: that the deictic gestures accompanying uses of demonstratives are syntactically encoded in multi-modal syntactic constructions, and that deictic gestures so encoded are syntactically individuated by objects and individuals. Critical scrutiny of both theses reveals surprising lessons about the relationship between demonstratives and logic, but such scrutiny also reveals weaknesses in Stojnić’s arguments for the theses.

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Návrhy na spresnenieteologickej terminológie v slovenčine: Piaty diel

Author(s): Jozef Krupa / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 3/2024

The “Suggestions for Refining Theological Terminology in Slovak. Part V.” project deals with the incorrect wording of the term ‘spouses’ in relation to the ministers and recipients of the sacrament of Matrimony. Several magisterial, liturgical and theological works contain expressions such as “the spouses receive the sacrament of Matrimony”. The author of the study argues that the ministers and recipients of the sacrament of Matrimony should be called “the engaged couple”. They should be referred to as ‘spouses’ only after the matrimonial consent, as indicated in some works.

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Podoby vyjadřování osobních postojů při popularizaci češtiny

Author(s): Hana Dufková / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4-5/2024

This article explores the expression of personal attitudes in the popularization of linguistic topics, particularly in Czech. It focuses on how linguists, who also also speakers of the language, communicate their knowledge to the public while inevitably presenting personal stances on language use. By analyzing examples of both professional linguists and non-experts engaged in language popularization, the article demonstrates the difficulty of maintaining a clear boundary between objective linguistic description and subjective evaluation. It shows that popularization often involves choices influenced by personal and professional judgments, particularly in relation to the standardization of language. The article also examines the ways in which non-linguists may prioritize their personal views. Finally, the study discusses how different approaches to evaluating linguistic phenomena are reflected in publicly available materials, illustrating the variability in the expression of both positive and negative attitudes towards the language.

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Alteritatea ființei prin limbaj și semnul lingvistic în concepția Sfântului Augustin

Author(s): Cristian Pașcalău / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2024

The current essay is meant to revisit a core theme in the philosophy of language, namely the role of the subjectivity and alterity in shaping human consciousness through language and linguistic signs, associated with the understanding of reality as inner construct in the fabric of human mind. A loose critic against some paradigms that reduce language to a means of communication, or an abstract, logical device is provided. We also briefly examine Saint Augustine's semiotic project, as it unfolds from some of his most seminal works.

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Les écrits de Maximilian Lamberg à la frontière des genres et des styles

Author(s): Jaroslav Stanovský / Language(s): French Issue: Special/2024

The article deals with the work of Maximilián Lamberg (1729–1792), a Moravian nobleman and scholar of the Age of Enlightenment. Lamberg is the author of about twelve books written in French, which, however, are difficult to classify in terms of genre and style and can therefore be understood as literary “indeterminate” or unclear. In the first part, the article presents Lamberg as a man of his time, a worldly man and a traveler, whose life, however, from today’s point of view is also “indeterminate” due to the lack of sources. In the second part, the article deals with the indeterminacy of Lamberg’s works from several points of view: genre (difficult classification of his books and blurring of boundaries between individual texts), linguistic and stylistic (Lamberg’s French is sometimes unclear, difficult to understand) and narrative and referential (the boundary between Lamberg-narrator and Lamberg-author is sometimes hard to find). In the end, the text states the contribution of Lamberg’s texts as a testimony of the phenomenon of “French Europe” and of the atmosphere of his time, conveniently called the “sociable century”.

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Usage du flou dans les romans du romantisme noir

Author(s): Katia Hayek / Language(s): French Issue: Special/2024

In 2018, François Soulages published his third opus on vagueness: Le flou et la littérature, showing that vagueness in textual space opens up a way of interpreting “philosophical problems of the real, of subject/object relationships, of relationships to the world”. The novel of Gothic posterity in the nineteenth century, or dark romanticism, necessarily hybrid, seems to attest to this. From the generic vagueness to the ambiguity of the protagonist, the mise en abyme of the uncertain forces the reader to keep a proper distance from the text in order to better perceive the thinking of the time. Drawing on works from the 19th century such as Charles Nodier’s Jean Sbogar, we will consider how vagueness, from the imaginary construction to the ambiguity of the character, becomes a means of expressing and questioning reality.

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Le flou — la septième fonction du langage ?

Author(s): Petr Kyloušek / Language(s): French Issue: Special/2024

Laurent Binet’s novel La Septième fonction du langage features a bizarre character who holds the secret of overcoming all obstacles and succeeding where ordinary communication fails. Does the power of language consist in exploiting the space of uncertain, imperfectly determined semantics to increase its effect? What linguistic mechanisms allow us to point beyond what is said? By limiting our reflections to the noetic aspect of language in literature, we will attempt to exemplify the processes that, beyond the blurring, expand the field of knowledge. Literature — the realm of language par excellence — can be a noetic laboratory. We will attempt to demonstrate some of the elements available to the “language” factory to suggest broadening perception and understanding. As for exemplification, we opt for the concise language of poetry.

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Is there any logic at all?

Author(s): Pavel Arazim / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

Though to this point not as popular as logical pluralism or logical monism, logical nihilism has become a serious position in the philosophy of logic and a new alternative in the disputes about the notion of a logical system being right. We will review some basic moments of the discussions that have occurred so far and try to propose a viable version of logical nihilism. Some of the aspects of the doctrine as it has been proposed, mainly by Gillian Russell need revision but overall it proves plausible and well suited in particular to incorporation into inferentialist and expressivist accounts of meaning and logic. From a more general point of view, logical nihilism shows how essential it is to appreciate the pragmatic significance of logic and acknowledge that logical practice bestows its legitimacy on logical theory and not the other way round. Appreciating this, together with lessons about the open-ended nature of meaning of even logical vocabulary, leads to a more dynamic conception of logic.

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“The spouting rant of high-toned exclamation”: The Art of Oral/Aural Caricature in Paine’s Rights Of Man

Author(s): Pierre Lurbe / Language(s): English Issue: 68/2024

Taking as its starting point Steven Blakemore’s contention that Thomas Paine’s purpose, in writing Rights of Man, was to “linguistically suppress” Edmund Burke, this article explores a comparatively neglected aspect of this attempt at linguistic suppression, namely the deliberate use of punctuation by Paine to undermine his opponent’s authority. Paine’s memorable phrase to characterize Burke’s style, “The spouting rant of high-toned exclamation,” is not simply an instance of the author’s verbal inventiveness. It is deeply rooted in the rich soil of mid- to late eighteenth century Britain, when grammar, punctuation and elocution became the topic of a growing number of books, in a cultural context in which “reading” was widely understood to mean “reading aloud.” Even so-called “silent reading” could not go without a certain amount of subvocalization, thanks to which the reader could be said to “hear,” even internally, the words on the page. All reading therefore involving a degree of performance, this allowed Paine to make devastating use of the exclamation mark to distort significant quotations from Burke and alter the nature of the emotions the original text was supposed to convey. This reminds us that political caricature can be no less oral/aural than visual.

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“Inspiration’s darling child”: The Romantic Ode

Author(s): Paul Hamilton / Language(s): English Issue: 68/2024

The ode is usually an explicitly public utterance, but one which revises public expectations of its subject-matter, thus drawing attention to the individual originality of its author. It is simultaneously a highly formalised genre and one fundamentally aspirational in its ambitions. Pindaric, Horatian and Anacreontic models help shape many odes written in the Romantic period, but the aspirational idiom tends to predominate, making the poems frequently about their own license, typically Romantic exercises in poetic reflexivity. My discussion looks at poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Hölderlin and Leopardi to compare rhetorical tactics by which Romantic odes visibly take on the conflicted task of formally exploring a response to their subject exceeding received expectations. Their pursuit of the exorbitant is here argued to be another example of post-Kantian exploitation of the philosophic legitimacy Kant granted the aesthetic to express what we might feel about things beyond our power to conceptualise them. Poets considered here use odes to envisage freedoms they desire – national, political and personal. In Romantic poetry, though, the realization of these visions becomes conspicuously literary, involving a shift from the subject described to the medium claiming to treat it with such originality. While the ode’s all-encompassing writing furnishes political encouragement, it can also, as in Hölderlin’s case, worryingly produce aesthetic excellence at the expense of personal coherence.

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The Normativity of Language Games in the Context of Psychoanalysis and Mental Health

Author(s): Ines Skelac / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

Language profoundly shapes human perception and social interactions. Sigmund Freud emphasized the role of language in uncovering and addressing unconscious conflicts, particularly in the treatment of mental illness. Ludwig Wittgenstein examined the everyday use of language through his concept of “language games,” thereby revealing its normative function in shaping meaning, behavior, and societal norms. This paper compares Freud’s and Wittgenstein’s approaches to language, highlighting their shared emphasis on its normativity and therapeutic potential. While their perspectives differ — Freud focusing on the unconscious structures underlying speech and Wittgenstein on the rule–governed nature of language use — they both illustrate that language is an active force that shapes human experience rather than a passive medium. Finally, the paper argues that Freud’s insights into the symbolic dimensions of language and Wittgenstein’s emphasis on linguistic practice together suggest the need for a culturally sensitive and holistic approach to therapy.

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Greek Philosophical and Logical Terms in the 10th c. Preslav Translations

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Greek Philosophical and Logical Terms in the 10th c. Preslav Translations

Author(s): Ivan Christov / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2024

The article examines the translation of Byzantine texts with logical content in the Preslav School in the 9th and 10th centuries. The way in which 90 Greek terms are rendered, referring to the ontological foundations of logic and above all those with a specific logical meaning, is studied. Slavonic equivalents related to terms in proposition and their hierarchy, propositions themselves as bearers of truth and falsity, logical operations, syllogism and definition are put to examination. There was no norm at that time and the Preslav translators put immense effort to render these most complex and unusual texts. Completely understandable under these circumstances they were not always consistent in word usage. That is why the Preslav translators used 204 Slavonic words and word combinations thus more than doubling (226%) the terminology of translation. A comparison is made of the practice of translation within the school and sceptical remarks are made about the existence of a unified, preconceived and agreed upon register of terms in it. The grounds for this are that out of 42 logical terms in John the Exarch, only 16 match those in the Miscellany of Tzar Simeon and out of 57 terms in the Constantine of Preslav’s translation of the orations against the arians by Athanasius of Alexandria, also only 16 match those in the Miscellany of Tzar Simeon and in the translations by John the Exarch. The article also studies the question of the persistence of the tradition and compares the first translations of the 9th and 10th centuries with those of the “Dialectic” by John Damascene and the “Areopagitics” in the 14th c. It is concluded that the Serbian translators of the 14th c. were quite independent from their Preslav predecessors using only 59 of their terms (29%) and have introduced 138 new ways of rendering the Greek originals. This testifies to the limited uniformity of Slavonic philosophical tradition through the centuries. Therefore, the applicability of Preslav translation forms today needs a conscious appreciation and balanced approach. In this way it can be recognized and properly appreciated.

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A székely viccek pragmatikája

Author(s): Sára Mátéffy / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2024

Various pragmatic misunderstandings can be observed in Szekler's jokes. These misunderstandings are typical of the Szekler way of thinking. They are constructed by creating anti-maxims in contradiction with Grice's maxims. Szeklers do not want to lose their authority, try to hide their narrow-mindedness, or even emphasize their cunning nature. Knowledge of language misunderstandings and the worldview of the Szeklers helps to find the source of humor and to gain comprehensive knowledge about the world of the Szeklers.

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