The Process of Demographic Transition in Lands of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Other Areas with Polish-Speaking Populations, 1865–1912

Author(s): Józef Pociecha / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The aim of the research is to trace the process of demographic transition in the area of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, enlarged by areas with a predominantly Polish-speaking population, Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia, as well as Southern Masuria. The time frame of the work covers the years 1865–1912. Changes in the basic indicators of the vital statistics of the population were analyzed: the crude death rate (death rate per 1,000 population), the crude birth rate and the crude marriage rate. The source of the data is the work of Adam Krzyżanowski and Kazimierz Kumaniecki, Statystyka Polski [Statistics of Poland], which was in fact the first statistical yearbook of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and other predominantly Polish-speaking areas. The analysis was carried out strictly according to the requirements of the demographic transition theory. A comparative analysis of the demographic situation in these lands on the eve of the outbreak of World War I was carried out using Ward’s taxonomic method and the k-means method. The results of the analysis indicate that the process of demographic transition in these lands was varied and was conditioned by their economic development and geographical location.

Sprawozdanie z posiedzeń Zespołu Demografii Historycznej Komitetu Nauk Demograficznych PAN w 2018 roku

Author(s): Piotr Rachwał / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

Към изворите на българските думи в „Български етимологичен речник“

Author(s): Hristina Deykova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The article deals with the origin of the Bulgarian vocabulary according to the multi-volume Bulgarian etymological dictionary, one of the main nationally significant projects of the Institute for Bulgarian Language at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In summary, it presents the different chronological and genetic layers of vocabulary that build the Bulgarian language. The two main layers of vocabulary are emphasized - the original Slavic and the later Balkan layer, which characterize the language as both Slavic and Balkan. The classical (literary) Old Church Slavonic source is pointed out, as well as other older and new foreign sources and the different ways of penetration of the lexical units into the literary and colloquial language and in the Bulgarian dialects are revealed.

About the Syntactic Structure of Bulgarian Proverbs and English Proverbial Parallels to Them

Author(s): Nadezhda Ershova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The article considers the most frequent sentence structures of Bulgarian proverbial parallels to Russian proverbs included into G. L. Permyakov’s paremiological minimum. The aim of the study is to classify the syntactic structures of the Bulgarian proverbs in comparison with the structures of the English proverbial parallels. The research has been based on the findings of a paremiological sociolinguistic experiment conducted by Professor M. Yu. Kotova of St. Petersburg State University and her paremiological group that resulted into series of publications titled “Tetradi Paremiographa” (“Handbooks of a Paremiographer”). The relevance of studying sentence structures is due to the fact that the coverage of grammatical issues, i.e. the analysis and description of the logical and syntactic structures of proverbs, is not paid sufficient attention in many languages.

Приложение на съвременните технологии при оценка на степента на усвояване на междуезиковия трансфер на темпоралните форми (български и английски език)

Author(s): Georgi Dzhumayov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The present study demonstrates the application of modern methods for analysis of acquired knowledge of interlingual transfer at grammatical and semantic level of the temporal systems in indicative mood in modern Bulgarian, English and Spanish. The basic experiment, conducted for the first time in Bulgarian linguistics, consists of two parts and aims to check in a comparative way the degree of acquisition of the temporal categories in English and Spanish by native Bulgarian students. The experiment consists of contrastive examples in declarative affirmative sentences, which illustrate their use. The analysis of the results of the acquired knowledge of transfer from a native to a foreign language is a basis for refining the work of the teacher in the field of grammar.

Диалогът Гундрум – Вазов. Издателски (ре)конструкции

Author(s): Malina Dimitrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

About Ivan Vazov everything seems to have been researched, written and published. Among the many literary criticisms devoted to his life and work, as well as documentary publications, the relationships with his translators and foreign publishers, to whom I believe we have a cultural and moral duty, are very rarely mentioned. However, the correspondence between him and the Croat Fran Gundrum-Oriovac stands out among all. No one else has translated as many of Vazov's works as this Croatian writer. Unfortunately, the acquaintance with Fran Gundrum's archive is indirect, but I would venture to focus on his translation practice, the regulation of relations between the two, their long-term cooperation and the reception of Vazov's work in Croatia. The proposed interpretation of the “File” does not claim to exhaust the relationship between the two. Our task is based on the personal correspondence published in Volume 10 of the Bulletin of the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1961 between Dr. Fran Gundrum and Ivan Vazov – to try to reconstruct the translation and publishing strategies of Fran Gundrum.

„Apropos за учителката“. Рада Киркович и фигурата на Найден Геров

Author(s): Adriana Spasova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

The focus of the research is the discovery of one of the less-known Bulgarian intellectuals of the nineteenth century – Rada Kirkovich, who lived nearly a century (1848, Koprivshtitsa – 1941, Sofia). Her public presence as a teacher, public figure and writer is an important example of the gradual displacement of a woman from the marginal sphere and the breaking of patriarchal stereotypes in Bulgarian society. The article consistently focuses on the letters, memoirs and solemn words of the Revival teacher R. Kirkovich, which testify precisely to the changes in the cultural and political situation during the Bulgarian National Revival. Some of the materials reviewed and analyzed are from the personal archive of Nayden Gerov (Fund 22 of the National Library – Bulgarian Historical Archive). In this library are kept unpublished and unexplored letters (F. 22, I, a.u. 190, l. 1 – 29) of Rada Kirkovich , as well as one of her triumphant speeches on the feast of the Annunciation. (F. 22, I, a.u. 595, 29 – 32b). These entries prove to be productive and not so timid and modest and show the entry point of the educated woman within the strictly regulated limits of the Revival publicity.

Жанрът – проблематизиране на ключа

Author(s): Tsvetelina Draganova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2021

In the context of the topic of the Competence-Based Approach in teaching Bulgarian language and Bulgarian literature, the current text is based on the understanding of the development of literary competence as a leading goal in the teacher’s work and the need to provide consistent reflection on the essence of the genre of the studied texts as a basic characteristic of the literary field. Taking into account the specifics of the theory of the genre and the ambiguity of some definitions, as well as some fundamental methodological principles, the suggested approach sees the work with the category in literature classes as an opportunity to problematize and to encourage a dialogue, to form and enrich the reading competences of contemporary students. The last part of the text defines general parameters of a possible methodological project on the topic of genre conventions and their connection with certain models of understanding and experiencing nature as a major theme in the world of fiction.

Холистичните измерения на маркетинг базираната организация

Author(s): Dimitar Trendafilov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The article concerns the relation between holistic concept in marketing and successful market performance. First, the notion of “holistic marketing” is discussed, then a wide description of the essence and features of the “agile organization” is added in providing explanation of why 21st Century marketing is not tagged to particular unit, rather refers to all units, and what internal – external environment interaction has to be achieved. By referring to the research on marketers’ opinion from all over the world and to a particular example of the principles of the culture of innovation of Google, theoretical formulations receive practical illustrations.

Дигитализация в бизнеса и контрола

Author(s): Plamen Iliev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The rapid development of the economy, business, market and competition globally, despite economic crises, requires an increasing investment in digitization and digitization of constituent processes and business as a whole. Despite the 2018 McKinsey consulting company Digital Challengers report, which explores the digitalization potential of Central and Eastern Europe shows that the region has yet to catch up in most areas of digitization, despite the growth of recent years. The business researches and implements digital innovations to increase the efficiency of business operations, increase profits, open new markets, increase productivity and develop business models. All of this has to do with controlling and auditing the business. The relentless transformational impact of IT redefines the IT audit function itself, forcing auditors to rethink established practices, processes and calibrate their functions in the digital age. Technological advances are inherent in digitalization and will undoubtedly change internal auditing in digital jobs. And this applies not only to internal audit, but also to the Court of Auditors’ audit, tax control, etc.

Африканската континентална зона за свободна търговия: защо Африка се връща към мултилатерализма?

Author(s): Eduard Marinov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2021

The Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area entered into force on 30 May 2019 and on 9 July all countries on the continent joined it. If the massive deal works as hoped, it will connect 1.3 Billion people, create a 3.4 Trillion USD economic bloc, and heat up commerce within thecontinent itself. The article aims at tracing the process of economic integration in Africa, discussingthe rationale behind Africa’s current efforts to achieve multilateral trade liberalization, analyzing the main features and assessing the potential benefits of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

Cartoons in Romanian humorous news

Author(s): Andreea Nicoleta Soare / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Studying cartoons in Romanian humorous news is a great way to underline the diversity of humour’s mechanisms and construction. The common topic of cartoons in Romanian media is politics, but there are also a great number of cartoons exploring subjects such as art, science, society or famous people. Unlike verbal humour, wherein incongruities are text-based, in cartoons, incongruities can emerge through the interaction of image and text, between two elements in the image, or even between the texts in the balloons (Hempelmann & Samson 2008). The present study aims at analysing how humour emerges differently, depending on their topic, in cartoons created by the Romanian humorous media websites Times New Roman and Academia Catavencu, as these have been the two of the most controversial humorous news websites for quite some time. I intend to argue that, when it comes to political cartoons, the methods of humour are quite complex, equally relying on the image and the text, using polysemy, paronymy or syllepsis to create humour, while cartoons about society or gossip are usually based on implicitness and exaggeration, mostly found in images and symbols, as the targeted topics or people do not require such a complex background in order to make readers laugh. I have also observed that cartoons that rely less on text have more powerful symbols, which are full of various significations that help the readers make all the necessary connections to correctly interpret the image.

Cultural dimensions and characteristics reflected in Hungarian TED talks

Author(s): Emese Pozdena / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

The present paper is aimed at exploring humour and cultural aspects in TED talks recorded at Hungarian independent TEDx standard events. Applying Speck’s (1991) humour taxonomy, a corpus of 30 Hungarian language talks have been classified based on Barry & Graca’s (2018) humour typology groups and further examined by descriptive statistical indicators. Results show that cultural and other national features are reflected in the talks and are appreciated by the audience. Incongruity and disparagement appeared to be a safe comic device to create laughter in highly individualist and masculine cultures; however, relief-based humour is riskier in high uncertainty avoiding countries, as the message may be interpreted differently than expected.

Post-climax analysis in toli

Author(s): Yaw Sekyi-Baidoo / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Aspects of contextual jokes include the relationship with the goal of the interaction, and the involvement of the audience in the overall manifestation of the joke and its response. Sacks' identification of the ‘response’ or the ‘reaction’ – the final of the three-phased organisation of joke narratives (Sacks, 1974: 337; Attardo, 1994: 307-311) points to an aspect of the manifestation of contextual jokes beyond the fabula or the narration of the tale ‘proper’ to include a part relating to the reaction of the audience. Such reactions may be the joke itself or to its telling. A study of the performance of humorous tales, called toli in Ghana, reveals that the final phase, which we refer to as ‘post-climax’, involves the attention of all players, not to the telling of the tale, but to the incongruity and humour which underlie the very identity of the humorous tale. The post-climax discussion is, thus, an analytical reaction to various points of the tale, which has become an integral part of the performance of the tale as a conversational act, and which contributes extensively to the total manifestation of humour and laughter. Based on incongruity and comic-climax perspectives, the paper discusses the nature and strategies of post-climax, including the association of tale audience and setting, hypothetical extension of tale, incongruity and forced congruity discussions, dramatization and evaluations of realness, through which laughter, the main tenet of the genre, extensively manifests.

Funny or distasteful?

Author(s): Anna Stwora / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Today’s infotainment clutter puts pressure on advertisers to come up with more surprising and more memorable ads. This need for novelty, creativity, and astonishment does set the expectation bar high, steering ads towards various means of eliciting surprise, including humour, shock, and taboo. In this paper, the author will try to investigate a set of multimodal advertising messages which use (debatable) humour and surprise, with a view to finding trans-cultural similarities and differences in terms of ad appreciation. The primary objective of this paper is to explore attitudinal responses of Taiwanese informants to controversial humorous advertisements in English; to this end, an online survey was conducted to ask them about their interpretations of and feelings towards a selection of ads. Its results will be compared with those obtained from Polish respondents, described in the author’s previous study (Stwora 2020).

Humour as political aesthetics in street protests during the political Ice Age

Author(s): Tijen Tunali / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

This article analyses humour as a part of carnival aesthetics in urban social movements. It regards humour’s place in street protests as an aesthetic experience that brings forth an interplay of joy, imagination and freedom. Drawing from social movement theory regarding collective identity and collectivism, aesthetic theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalesque, this paper examines the link between humour and carnival aesthetics in recent social movements. It argues that carnival laughter initiates a process of symbiosis that opens relationships with others and allows recognition of democratic diversity, aesthetic sensibility and political dignity—essential for the reconstruction of a new space that is resistant to the politically imposed world crisis. It asks: could humour be one of the social catalysts we need during the authoritarian turn in a political Ice Age instigated by conservative populism? Drawing on examples from the Gezi Movement in Turkey in 2013, the article demonstrates how humour is not just a tool to consolidate solidarities but a definitive aesthetic experience that, in the context of the street protests, becomes the antidote to hegemonic-sense-making mechanisms and the greyness of our collective thinking.

Using intentional humour in a higher education classroom:

Author(s): Jannie Pretorius,Mariëtte Koen,Robert Schall / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Positive humour can facilitate learning. From an educational perspective, it is important to examine how, when and why humour elicits a positive feeling in students, which, in its turn, creates an environment conducive to learning. Previous studies in humour research have focused on the generally perceived impact of humour in educational settings. Reflection on this idea gives rise to two questions. Will the use of intentional humour as a pedagogical tool indeed be perceived as such by students? Also, will a lecture containing positive humour affirm the impact of humour reported in academic literature? The researchers therefore decided that a lecture containing intentional humoristic elements would be presented to two groups of students with a view to determining their responses. To accomplish this, a mixed-methods approach was used, one employing a concurrent embedded nested design to explore the role and impact of intentional humour in two higher-education classrooms. A Likert-scale survey exploring six themes was developed regarding the impact of humour, as identified by Lovorn and Holaway (2015). Open spaces were provided to allow participants to expand quantitative responses. While the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test statistic was used to analyse the quantitative data, content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The theoretical framework for this paper was drawn from the instructional humour process theory (IHPT). Trustworthiness was gauged by applying Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) model of trustworthiness. The findings of the paper are in line with Lovorn and Holaway’s (2015) research, which suggests that when lecturers take advantage of the positive attributes of humour, it has the power to fuel both students’ engagement and their learning.

Book review

Author(s): KSENIA M. SHILIKHINA / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

Between Specifics, Stereotype and ‘Adoption’ of the Other’s Garment

Author(s): Miglena Ivanova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

This article deals with a corpus of little known archival documents dating from 1888-1889, stored in the deposits of the Scientific Archives at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and concerning the population in the territory of present-day Bulgaria as well as the prevailing way of dressing of different groups towards the end of the 19th century. A number of photographs are included as illustrations in support of the textual descriptions. The author’s attention is focused on such archival units containing descriptions of women’s garb, attesting to the fact that during the period under review, part of the Gagauz women wore shalwar. The evidence presented shows that towards the late 19th century, this type of garment established a solid presence among the Gagauz community inhabiting the Black Sea coastal areas of Bulgaria. The styling, cut and manner of wearing of that garment comes as evidence that while originally the shalwar was worn exclusively by Muslim women, during the period of modernization of the Ottoman empire, they were ‘adopted’ by the Christian Orthodox Gagauz women.

Movement Games as a Means of Overcoming Aggression in Preschool Age

Author(s): Krasimira Petrova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

Physical education influences the development of moral, volitional, and personal qualities in individuals. The formation of behavioral culture is an essential component of the personal characteristics of preschool children. It is the result of the impact of educational and social relations and the activities related to them. Emphasis is placed on movement games as a factor in overcoming aggressive behavior in childhood.