Родният диалект – познат и непознат. Съвместен проект на млади изследователи и Ученическия институт на БАН

Author(s): Marina Petrova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2019

This report presents the activities of a small research community under the project of the School Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (SchI-BAS), Small Research Communities programme. The project’s authors won first place from the humanities in SchI-BAS’s 2018 session. Their project (Presentday states of some Bulgarian dialects) presents dialect features in the villages of Tsalapitsa and Lyaskovo, district of Smolyan. In the course of the research process, the young researchers got to know their birth places, mother dialect features and the specifics of Dialectology. Thus their activity turned from a challenge into an opportunity to discover – through research – knowledge about mother dialects and skills related to processing language material.

Пандемията: три студентски фокуса

Author(s): Vyara Iskrova,Deyana Nedeva,Zora Todorova,Iliyana Semerdzhieva,Maya Silyamova,Stanislava Ivanova,Stafani Nikolova,Hristina Georgieva,Tsvetoslava Radovenska,Tsvyatko Yashev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 9/2021

The text presents three media studies of students from the specialties "European Studies" and "Journalism" at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski", held at three time points from the battle of the world with Kovid-19. Each of the studies has its own purpose, methodological specifics and specific results, as well as its own name: Kovid in "Good News", Between "Second" and "Third Wave" and "For" and "Against" Vaccination. Collecting them together and in temporal sequence expands the information about the behavior of the media and, at the same time, outlines specific excitements and tendencies in different phases of the development of the disease until today.

Синтаксисът като езикова онтология

Author(s): Mariana Georgieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 6/2021

n our opinion, * `logical basis` and *` syntactic basis` are incorrect from a cognitive point of view. The subjunctive is a syntactic category and the qualification `logical` is an oxymoron, or at least a dissonance. In logic, the category is the subject. And since the subjunctive is the syntactic category, even more disturbing is the tautological * `syntactic subjunctive`. The article substantiates the cognitive reading of the substratum. What is new is the derivation of linguistic ontology as a category of the cognitive method in syntax, of cognitive syntax.

Corectitudinea Politică în Traducere

Author(s): Emanuel-Daniel Sărmășan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

Through this work, we do not intend to convey the idea that prejudices or any other kind of judgement will disappear completely, as long as freedom plays an essential role in the age in which we live. Even this sort of broad-mindedness about judging certain groups should be pointed out in an intelligent manner. And without any further doubt, translators and interpreters alike should not be allowed to leave room for interpretation concerning the proper choice of a term. The selection of appropriate terms is also dependent on the translator’s cultural knowledge, which is an advanced level of culture in relation to the language from which it is translated, and in order to achieve this, every translator should be well rooted in society’s contemporary times, because they are, in fact, the brains that adapt most quickly to the new trends.

Being Politically Incorrect: Stereotyping And Prejudice in English Idioms

Author(s): Andreea Vlădușel / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

As a repository of culture, language preserves relics of past accounts, animosities and biases formed throughout history. The English language has many examples of offensive, stereotypical or even racist idioms, which have stood the test of time and are still being used today, often with little regard to their original meaning or their defamatory connotations. The purpose of this article is not to offer solutions for racism and discrimination, but to shed some light on the origins of these problematic expressions, which would hopefully, in turn, increase awareness of such sensitive topics.

Trailblazer or a One-off?

Author(s): Małgorzata NICIEJA / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

The paper attempts to analyse the international success of the Danish televisual series Rita (TV2 Denmark - Netflix, 2012–2020). It places the production in a wider cultural and historical context and treats it as an exemplification of, what the author deems, a recent shift in representations of teachers in visual media narratives. The author’s argumentation is premised on three principal assumptions. First, Rita demonstrates that after the genre’s decline at the turn of the twentieth century, the school-centred audio-visual narratives are back in favour. The trend is connected to the growth of the post-network television and the so-called over-the-top services (OTT). Second, the substantial part of Rita’s wide appeal is related to the show’s innovative application of the conventions known from the earlier Scandinavian productions and themes from serials about “difficult women”. This particularly concerns the show’s adept exploration of the resilient and anti-heroic female lead character. Third, Rita is regarded as an early indication of the shift in the ways school life and teachers are represented in the media today. The author stipulates that the show may augur the emergence of many similar complex televisual images of teachers in the near future.

Zarys mechanizmów językowych w niemieckich kawałach

Author(s): Dorota Biadala / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

Obiektem bliższej obserwacji w niniejszym artykule jest językowa analiza niemieckich kawałów (dowcipów) jako krótkich form humorystycznych, w szczególności analiza zawartych w nich „nieporozumień” językowych, które są strategicznym wyróżnikiem gatunkowym tych tekstów. Ich głównym zadaniem jest zażartowanie z kogoś i rozśmieszenie innych. Przeprowadzona analiza lingwistyczna „nieporozumień” językowych porusza różne aspekty komunikacyjne osadzone w perspektywie społecznej: zarówno pragmatykę komunikacji międzykulturowej, kreatywność w komunikacji wewnątrzkulturowej, jak i humor w kulturze i komunikacji. Materiał badawczy wykorzystany do niniejszej analizy tworzy korpus utworzony z ponad 400 niemieckich kawałów pochodzących z różnych źródeł, w większości zaczerpniętych ze zbiorów internetowych. Celem niniejszego opracowania jest zaprezentowanie różnych perspektyw badawczych i analiza językowych mechanizmów służących tworzeniu „nieporozumień” językowych na podstawie wprowadzonych 13-tu kategorii opisujących bliżej gatunek tekstu ‘kawał’ z uwzględnieniem niemieckiej specyfiki kulturowej. // The main subject of this article is the linguistic analysis of German jokes as the short humorous formats, emphasis is placed on the analysis of various language-related “misunderstandings” found in these jokes, whose are strategic genre differentiator of these texts. Their main function is to make fun of someone and to make others laugh. The analysis of these language-related “misunderstandings” raises various communicative issues that are rooted in the social perspective, such as: pragmatics of intercultural communication, creativity in intracultural communication, or humour in culture and in communication. The research material used for this analysis is composed of over four hundred German jokes coming from various sources, with the largest number of texts from internet sources. The aim of this publication is to present various research perspectives and to analyse linguistic mechanisms used in the creation of language-related “misunderstandings” on the basis of thirteen categories that describe the genre ‘joke’ considering the German cultural specificity.

O nienaukowym umiłowaniu języka:

Author(s): Krzysztof Ozga / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

Celem artykułu jest analiza treści (postów, memów) publikowanych przez administratora społeczności wirtualnej „The Language Nerds” w serwisie społecznościowym Instagram, a także wybranych, powiązanych z nimi komentarzy zamieszczanych przez członków społeczności zarówno na Instagramie jak i Facebooku. Badanie jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, jakiego typu treści stanowią zasadnicze spoiwo grupy. W tym celu dokonana została klasyfikacja postów w oparciu o wyróżnione w procesie ich kreowania dominanty funkcjonalne. Wyodrębniono sześć zasadniczych klas: 1. memy o dominującej funkcji humorystycznej, 2. zagadki logicznojęzykowe, 3. posty kreowane w oparciu o specyfikę obrazowania pojęć w danym języku (językowy obraz świata), 4. posty o dominującej funkcji metajęzykowej, 5. posty o dominującej funkcji prezentatywnej (charakteryzujące prototypowego członka grupy własnej), 6. posty o charakterze wypowiedzi argumentacyjnych. Następnie każda z klas została szczegółowo opisana i zilustrowana wybranymi przykładami spośród 220 przebadanych postów. Zawartość treściowa wszystkich wyróżnionych klas wskazuje, że zasadniczym czynnikiem integrującym społeczność jest język, przy czym istotna jest wykazana w badaniu różnorodność perspektyw jego wykorzystania jako narzędzia konstruowania tożsamości członków społeczności. W świetle przeprowadzonej analizy statystycznej największą rolę w generowaniu homogeniczności grupy odgrywa humor językowy. // The aim of the article is to analyse the content (posts, memes) published by the administrator of the virtual community „The Language Nerds” on the social networking service Instagram and also selected related comments posted by the members of the community on both Instagram and Facebook. The study addresses the issue of what kind of content serves to build up the integrity of the group. For this purpose a classification of posts was made with regard to the functions dominating in the process of their creation. Six major classes were identified: 1. memes with humour as the dominant feature, 2. logico-linguistic puzzles, 3. posts created on the basis of how notions are conceptualized in a particular language (Linguistic Worldview), 4. posts with a dominant metalinguistic function, 5. posts in which the function characterizing a prototypical member of the ingroup prevails, 6. posts fashioned as argumentative statements. Subsequently, each class was described in detail and illustrated with examples selected from the set of all of the 220 analysed posts. The content of all the classes distinguished in the research indicates that language is the central factor integrating the community, but – as shown in the study – no less significant is the diversity of focus on the particular aspects of language and its use that serves as a tool for constructing the social identity of the community members. The statistics obtained indicate that it is linguistic humour that plays the most important role in generating group homogeneity.

Senior Citizens as an Underresearched Age Group of Audiovisual Translation Users

Author(s): Sonia Szkriba / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2021

In recent years, approaches to audiovisual translation and media accessibility services have shifted from serving one group of viewers only towards a more universal design that takes into account a wider range of users. In line with that approach, some scholars point out, for example, that subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) or accessibility applications created with the blind and partially-sighted in mind could prove beneficial to senior citizens. This group of viewers is likely to experience age-related sensori-motor and cognitive decline, which may significantly influence their film-watching experience as well as their preference for an AVT method. As populations in many countries are aging, senior citizens might be considered an important part of potential cinema clientele. Unfortunately, since studies in AVT have concentrated on younger audiences, little is known about senior citizens’ specific preferences concerning audiovisual translation. The objective of this article is to briefly characterise senior citizens as recipients of audiovisual translation and discuss the possibilities for future studies on the subject.

Before the political cartoonist, there was the Vidusaka:

Author(s): Snehal P. Sanathanan,Vinod Balakrishnan / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Political cartooning was one of many cultural products that colonial rule introduced to India. This British legacy has been used to produce narratives about the nature and history of Indian cartooning. However, these narratives have, invariably, overlooked the distinctly Indian cultural ethos as well as the Indian satirical tradition. This paper proposes an alternative model by positing that in the Indian satirical tradition, the Vidusaka – the comic figure in Sanskrit drama - has been an antecedent to the political cartoonist in terms of social and political roles, as well as in the nature and the purpose of the humour. The paper also locates the principles of caricaturing in precolonial Indian visual arts, and presents the early vernacular cartoons as the point of convergence between the local satirical tradition and the Western format of the political cartoon which laid the foundation for a modern yet specifically Indian sensibility.

Overcoming awkwardness:

Author(s): Jocelyn Chey / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

As Chinese people engaged with the Australian cultural scene in recent years, two posts about its humour attracted considerable attention from netizens in the People’s Republic of China. The post authors believed that their firsthand accounts of events demonstrated how Australians used humour to overcome awkward situations and regarded this as an essential national characteristic. In each case, other interpretations were possible if cultural factors had been taken into account, including the contemporary culture of China, Putonghua language usage and the Anglo-centrism that is common to cross-cultural studies. This exploratory generalist textual study concludes that the authors’ interpretations were largely determined by their cultural bias and by traditional regard for ‘face’ and politeness, and reflect the fact that, ultimately, the extent of cross-cultural communication is governed by international politics.

Dame Edna and ‘the help’:

Author(s): Adrian Hale / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

‘Dame Edna Everage’, a persona originally created by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries in 1955, is a character designed to simultaneously shock and amuse. Dame Edna voices (and satirizes) the discourse of ‘average’, older, politically conservative Anglo- Australians who feel compelled to ‘tell it like it is’ – no matter how offensive their opinions might be. In the Anglosphere, Edna’s humour is well understood and sustained international success has followed Edna for more than 60 years in Britain, Canada, the US and Australia. However, Edna occasionally misfires. In 2003, for instance, Edna’s satire outraged Latinos across the USA, in fulfilment of Poe’s Law (Aikin, 2009). Simply put, Latinos assumed that Edna’s comments satirising negative mainstream attitudes towards them were expressive of Edna’s authentic racism. This paper investigates the Edna joke in the overall context of failed humour and then specifically for the offensiveness it generated amongst the Latino minority in the United States. It then tests whether this reaction was the result of a discursive frame specific to the US context, by conducting an exploratory study amongst a small sample of highly educated Australian bilingual Latin American immigrants and their adult children, to see whether they thought Edna’s joke was funny. These Australian individuals of Latin American heritage responded via an online questionnaire, and an analysis of their responses is presented here. The study’s main finding is that while these individuals generally demonstrated a high comedic literacy across both English and Spanish, including a prior awareness of Edna’s and Australian humour, they overall rejected the intention and humour of Edna’s joke. This paper asserts that, when it comes to humour, some transnational migrant speech community loyalties transcend other notions of identity and language competence.

Origins of Bosnian humour and its role during the siege of Sarajevo

Author(s): David Orlov / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This article presents an ethnographic study of Bosnian humour during the siege of Sarajevo. The siege of Sarajevo, which followed the collapse of Yugoslavia, lasted four years. Despite the atrocities and war crimes committed against the residents of Sarajevo during this period, they are known for the spirit they demonstrated, and humour was a crucial element of this spirit. On the basis of two-month fieldwork in Sarajevo, I demonstrate how Bosnians employed humour to comment on this traumatic event, made sense of it, and coped with the experience. Although humour under extreme conditions is mainly viewed as a coping mechanism, by exploring the origins of Bosnian humour and stereotypes about Bosnians, I demonstrate that a notable humorous response to the traumatic events of the 1990s was more than a coping mechanism or just a response to this particular war. As I argue, a humorous attitude toward life in Bosnia belongs to people’s identity; it has developed historically as a response to the sufferings of a peripheral group in the region and, as a result, has become a cultural artifact belonging to Bosnians’ ethnic consciousness. In their attempt to preserve a sense of normalcy and restore dignity during the siege, Sarajevans continued to engage in their traditional humour, as doing otherwise would mean they had lost control over who they were.

Multilingual humour in audiovisual translation.

Author(s): Noelia Marqués Cobeta / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This commentary aims to take up the gauntlet thrown down by Dore (2019) with her article about multilingual humour in the Italian dubbed version of the series Modern Family. She suggested that the scenes included in the article could be analysed in other languages, so it was an interesting proposal to carry out the analysis of the Spanish dubbed version, since the L2 in the source text coincides with the target text language. Thus, this fact makes the translation process an arduous activity in these language combinations. Multilingualism is therefore considered the central element in this study. It is a reflection of the current social movement and the increase of multi-ethnic communities worldwide. This fact leads to citizens who use their knowledge to assert their own identity; as a consequence, audiovisual producers are also aware of this situation and exploit this phenomenon. Modern Family is an example of this reality and introduces characters, like Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, as a role model to show an increasingly common tendency, the use of multilingual and multi-ethnic characters that reflect this new social situation. Thanks to the selected examples, we will see whether the use of multilingualism as a source of humour is also transmitted to the Spanish dubbed version, as it did in the Italian dubbed version studied by the abovementioned scholar.

Book review

Author(s): Joanna Szerszunowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Book review

Author(s): Salvatore Attardo / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Editorial Foreword

Author(s): Silviu-Marian Miloiu / Language(s): English,Romanian Issue: 1/2021

The 13th volume of The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies reflects some of the research presented at the 12th International conference on Baltic and Nordic studies titled “Rethinking multiculturalism, multilingualism, and cultural diplomacy in Scandinavia and The Baltic Sea Region,” which will be held on May 27-28, 2021, under the auspices of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies. RethinkMulti-Kulti2021 was called to reflect on multiculturalism, multilingualism, and cultural diplomacy in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region 10 years after German Chancellor Angela Merkel predicted the end of German multicultural society. Many politicians with Conservative leanings praised the confirmation that the half-century-cherished multi-kulti “utterly failed,” and far-right gurus interpreted it as an omen. Furthermore, Merkel’s track record as a committed democratic-minded politician, EU leader, and proponent of migrant integration has garnered near-universal support for this argument. Furthermore, in academia, Merkel’s assertion has never been adequately questioned, but rather taken for granted. Meanwhile, policies governing multiculturalism and multilingualism in the EU and EEA have been stuck in a rut, particularly in what Fareed Zakaria properly refers to as illiberal democracies.

Отговорността пред езика и пред делото на езиковеда

Author(s): Zhaneta Andreeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2022

The article is a thematic review of the seventh volume of „Тhe Responsibility to Language“ series, published by the Department of Bulgarian Language at the University of Shumen “Bishop Konstantin Preslavski”. The included materials are dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Corresponding Member Prof. Dr. Todor Boyadzhiev, Rector and Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Shumen. Compilers and scientific editors are Dimitar Popov, Velka Popova, Kalina Yocheva, Aneta Tihova, Ani Angelova, Irina Ivanova. The publication includes scientific works of Bulgarian and foreign linguists.

TRANSLATION IN AN ES(A)P COURSE – CHOOSING AND USING TEACHING/LEARNING MATERIALS

Author(s): Nina Vlahović,Ana Lj. Popović Pecić / Language(s): English Issue: 74/2021

The paper deals with L2-L1 translation as used in different phases of an ES(A)P (English for specific academic purposes) course for different purposes – namely, as a complementary class activity carried out throughout the course, as well as one of the means of assessing students’ reading comprehension. It foregrounds the importance of selecting adequate materials, and elaborates on the different factors that this selection is dependent on. An extensive analysis of translations by students of the humanities and social sciences at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade has been carried out, the results of which have been used to substantiate the rationale behind the use of translation as a learning and assessment tool, while indicating the kind of translation materials most appropriate for the two purposes. The paper also aims to contribute to the reevaluation of the use of translation in ESP, since it has for a long time been “ostracised” from language teaching practice, while placing this activity/tool in the context of the humanities and social sciences, which have also been undeservedly neglected in EFL/ESP studies.

СИНТАКСИЧКО-СТИЛИСТИЧКЕ ОСОБЕНОСТИ ГЛАГОЛСКИХ ОБЛИКА У ПЕСМАМА „ЖЕНИДБА БЕГА ЉУБОВИЋА“ И „ЗИРКА КАЈОВИЋА“ РАДОВАНА БЕЋИРОВИЋА

Author(s): Arsenije M. Sretković / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 75/2021

This paper deals with verb forms in the poems The Marriage of Bey Ljubović and Zirka Kajovića from the stylistic and syntactic standpoint. The analysis procedure includes a syntactic indicative, a syntactic relative, qualifier, gnome form, narrative form, and absolute. In addition, referentiality and non-referentiality of verb forms are considered. Bearing in mind that verb forms are most often combined, the stylistic effects of combinations of verb forms are considered. This paper aims to determine the inventory of verb forms and describe their syntactic and stylistic features. The analysis showed that a rich inventory of verb forms could be found in Radovan Bećirović’s poems. Simple Past Tense, Truncated Perfect, imperfect, aorist, and temporally transposed Present Tense denote the past. In both poems, the future is expressed by the future one, and apart from it, in the poem The Marriage of Bey Ljubović, a futuroid is found. The present is realized in a syntactic indicative, and, additionally, it is found as a qualifying, gnomic, and narrative present, of which it is most often used as a narrative. Examples of presentations with modal meanings are not uncommon. In terms of referentiality, present forms in poems denote referential and non-referential actions. The infinitive is found as a complement to modal or phase verbs and is also used in the absolute. The past is realized in the syntactic indicative and the syntactic relative and denotes referential and non-referential actions. The aorist is a high-frequency verb form in the poem The Marriage of Bey Ljubović and is used in most cases as a narrative. The imperfect is realized in syntactic relative and suggests referential and non-referential actions. The Future Simple Tense is found in the syntactic relative, then the absolute, and with modal meanings, i.e., the meaning of intention, commandments, possibilities, etc. While the use of the Future Simple is linked to the heroes’ discourses, the futuroid appears in the narrative discourse. Except in the function of Future Simple, futuroid is found in gnome use. The pre- sent, the aorist, the imperfect, and the truncated perfect are forms whose stylistic features contribute to the topicality, experience, dynamism, and drama of the events being reported.