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When God Looked the Other Way An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption. By Wesley Adamczyk, Foreword by Norman Davies. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2004. 288 pages. Hardcover. $16.50 on Amazon.com.
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By Cyprian Kamil Norwid. Translated by Adam Czerniawski (Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation). Introduction by Bogdan Czaykowski. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 2004. 95 pages. ISBN 0-85646-369-8. Paper. $13.95.
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Zygmunt Kubiak (April 20, 1929 – March 19, 2004) a distinguished Polish writer, essayist, and translator.
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The relationship between photography and sculpture, unlike the dialogue between the latter and painting, was long treated as a peripheral issue. Yet as early as the mid-20th century photography began to show potential that sculpture seemed to be lack. Aware of a large degree of overlap between the two forms of artistic expression, (e.g. with respect to materiality, spatiality, or accentuating frozen gestures) sculptors did not leave sculpture for photography, but attempted to create works that were interdisciplinary in structure. The rise of interest in photography displayed by Polish sculptors was closely connected with the evolution of the concept of sculpture. In the mid-20th century artists creating traditional sculptures (understood as a solid or as a visually rendered spatial form) began to experiment and cross the boundaries of well-established artistic tradition. The changes introduced enabled sculptors to interweave their field with other artistic disciplines, especially photography, even more closely. More and more frequently, sculpture started to establish multi-faceted relations with the new medium. At the beginning the potential of photography as a documentation tool was exploited. Then sculptors began to appreciate photography’s core values, using it to capture and preserve a given moment in time. Finally, they applied it in works that can be classified as close to hyperrealism. The employment of still newer materials and tools made the link between sculpture and photography inextricable, as can be shown through works of Polish artists.
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Securitization means the change of non-liquid assets into securities. This topic has become more popular, mainly due to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. In this article, an analysis is given of the current situation in financial markets and the changes, which were implemented from the first days of subprime crisis. Also mentioned is the impact the crisis has had on securitization development. Part of the article is devoted to the situation on the Polish financial market. It is quite a new market and it is susceptible to such crises. The Article presents the part played by securitization in the Polish financial market and the circumstances for its growth in the near future. It also covers the latest information related to financial market regulations, which could have direct or indirect impact on the quantity and value of securitization transactions.
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There are a number of scent classification systems that typically take into account the similarities and differences in human olfactory perception, regardless of what chemical compounds cause a particular sensation. Also there is no objective, physical or chemical basis for the classification of odours, unlike eyesight or hearing. In fact, until now, scientists cannot explain, how it happens, that we can detect different scents. The present paper compares theories and classifications of human scent.
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In The Vampire Reymont presents London as the imperial city falling into decline, where Polish immigrants, who lack identity, wander timelessly. It is also a place where a mercantile society is immersed in a reality dominated by technological development. Reymont's novel allows us to analyse the space of London at the end of the 19th century, and the human fate which is determined by this space. In my paper I would like to focus on the analysis of the city space,including the division into centre and suburbs of London, and losing the way in a maze (a maze of streets and a maze of subconsciousness of the main characters), the consequences of abandoning sacrum, entropy, and the crisis of family and art. The interesting vision of London created by Reymont gives us answers to a few important questions. Do the Polish immigrants find themselves in a new reality? How does the experience of a modern city affect people's lives? Why cannot contemporary man find his place in the surrounding world?
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World War II and its political consequences resulted in a demographic shift in Lower Silesia. It took place to an extent never before seen in any part of Europe. Due to international decisions concerning the changes of its borders, Lower Silesia was once again integrated with Poland. At the same time the German inhabitants living in the region were obliged to leave. Polish people replaced them coming from other parts of Poland as well as from former Polish territories which had been incorporated by the Soviet Union. The immigrants were influenced by the cultures of the places of their origin. They differed in almost every field of everyday life, so in their new towns they met people with various integrating capabilities, contrasting points of view, political preferences and attitudes. That phenomenon was understood as a coexistence of the representatives of at least two different cultures whose members perceive the differences between them. Prevalence of so many distinct cultures in one area and the influences they had on each other led to the creation of specific cultural and social relations among the groups and their members. The situation obliged the settlers to overcome their particular attitudes and competences to live and communicate with new neighbours. Significant historical processes had influenced in a noticeable way the lives of people from every single town and village in Lower Silesia. One example of the place chosen by the immigrants to Lower Silesia is Dobroszyce. The incoming people created from the very beginning a society which was supposed to live in multicultural reality.
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This article examines the issues of soundscape construction and reception and states that a city is a construction built from private sonic narrations that both shape and are shaped by spatial structures. The analysis of three audio-visual practices: Playtime, a film by Jacques Tati; Infrasonic Soundscape, an interactive online artwork by Hidekazu Minami; and Dialtones (A Telesymphony) by Golan Levin, a concert performance whose sounds were produced by the audience’s mobile phones reveals the polyphonic character of space. These examples necessitate verifying the way one perceives the understanding of the concepts of sound and space as well as their interactions. The phenomenon of soundscapes requires transgressing the dichotomies of space/place, seeing/listening (sound/image), and listener (recipient)/creative subject (sender of a specific message), in favour of the intermediate categories. The core of the interspace which arises on this ground constitutes a dialog anyone might enter if they afford a gesture addressed to the other (various forms of space embodiment).
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My paper proposes a new approach to the famous novel by Laurence Sterne Tristram Shandy. In my reading of this work I use the category of contingency which I define by referring to the German philosopher Odo Marquard and literary theories of a monographer of the contigency in literature and film Rafa Koschany. These are the basic inspirations for reflections on Tristram as a character, and simultaneously, narrator in the novel. In my view contingency manifests itself in Sterne's work in a two-fold manner it affects Tristram's life and narration. I will try to focus on the different ways in which these manifestations relate to each other.
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The paper will attempt to provide an ethical reflection upon abuses by a thesis supervisor that may occur in interpersonal relationships between a student and his or her supervisor. The abuses will be considered from the perspective of the academic ethos. In this the author will focus upon the actual notion of ethos and values which are considered as constituent for the ethos of scholars. In the second part of the paper the author will reflect on which of the thesis supervisor’s attitudes constitute a betrayal of these values.
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Der Gegenstand des vorliegenden Beitrags sind litauische modale Ausdrücke (MA) und ihre Skalierung dem Wahrscheinlichkeitsgrad nach. Das Litauische verfügt über eine Reihe modaler Ausdrücke, die funktionsidentisch sind, sich aber durch graduelle Nuancen unterscheiden. Häufig werden modale Ausdrücke in litauischen Wörterbüchern in einem geschlossenen Kreis mit Hilfe anderer ähnlicher Ausdrücke erklärt, ohne Rücksicht auf den jeweiligen Wahrscheinlichkeitsgrad zu nehmen. Das Hauptziel des Beitrags besteht darin, die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage zur Skalierung zehn ausgewählter litauischer MA (tikrai ‘bestimmt’, galbūt ‘vielleicht’, be abejo ‘zweifellos’, gal ‘vielleicht’, tikriausiai ‘wahrscheinlich’, vargu ‘kaum’, turbūt ‘möglicherweise’, matyt ‘augenscheinlich, greičiausiai ‘höchstwahrscheinlich’, atrodo ‘offensichtlich’) sowie ihrer Rangordnung auf der Wahrscheinlichkeitsskala von 0 bis 100 % zu präsentieren. Die Probanden wurden gebeten, den Wahrscheinlichkeitsgrad eines jeden Modalausdrucks in vorgegebenen zehn Sätzen einzuschätzen. Die Untersuchung zeigte, dass sich der Wahrscheinlichkeitsgrad bei einem Teil (sechs) der aufgezählten MA relativ eindeutig feststellen ließ. Zu vier MA waren die Angaben der Befragten zu differenziert, um eine eindeutige Tendenz herausarbeiten zu können.
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A few decades ago, when the development of the information society started, the need has arisen to apply a modern language technology in the second language pedagogy. It should be noted that the digital language resources and language analysis tools have not entered yet into the process of the Lithuanian as the second language learning and teaching, however, other European countries can boast of a better integration of language technology (corpora, corpus tools and corpus-based materials) into language learning programmes. This article discusses the pedagogical application features of corpus and accentuator (http://donelaitis.vdu.lt) for Lithuanian as the second language learning and teaching. The first case study focuses on the use of the accentuator. The second case study focuses on a good practice in development, use and promotion of the corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian Language for language learning and teaching, with a focus on both technological and pedagogical innovation and on the direct use of this corpus in the classroom. Analysis of basic Lithuanian units showed that the corpora could effectively complement the traditional foreign language learning and teaching. However, attention is drawn to the fact that the contemporary Lithuanian technology still does not provide accurate data, so in some cases, the language tools should be used with caution.
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In the last ten years, Critical Metaphor Analysis has been specifically applied to different varieties of political discourse. Its efficacy has also been determined by the ideological potential of metaphor, especially in the language of politics. In this article, Critical Metaphors Analysis is applied to the New Year greetings of the presidents of the Baltic States with the purpose of discerning the ideological value of the established metaphors. The qualitative data analysis has been carried out in the analytical framework of Cognitive Linguistic Approach to Metaphor Analysis, and the Pragglejaz Group’s MIP has been applied for detecting metaphorical linguistic expressions and subsequently restoring conceptual metaphors. In this article, it is proposed that the evoked metaphorical frames in the New Year Greetings of the presidents of the Baltic States are not gender-specific but rather conventional metaphors evoking the political worldview of conservative morality. This might imply that, by using conventional metaphors related to the male-dominated conservative worldview, a female president of Lithuania wants to sound right thus more convincing and authoritative.
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Translation as a facilitator of dialogue amongst cultures and nations has been an inseparable part of international communication, tracing far back to the very beginning of diplomacy. The recent and increasing changes in the ways and styles in international communication are significantly marked by the growing number and variety of participants and the intensification of the communication process in itself. Inevitably, these changes have made a visible impact on translation, notably interpreting. With the aim of going deeper into the manifestations of such effect, the present article analizes translation (more specifically, interpretation) in the ever-changing context of international communication, though the chosen approach is not the traditional linguistic one, but a communicative perspective. The paper discusses the role and function of the interpreter and his/her place within the communication process, following the framework suggested by S. Bolaños Cuellar. Based on the gradual transformations of diplomatic protocol as a set of rules applicable to international communication, the article briefly reviews the new challenges that translation faces due to changes in international communication, often caused by the participants' use of rhethorics. The paper then continues with a semiotic approach to the study of diplomatic communication messages distinguishing spontaneous ambiguity, which emerges as a complimentary element to widely known purposeful ambiguity, so typical of diplomatic mannerism. In-depth interviews with interpreters have been held in order to reach a deeper understanding of the problems they face as international communication agents seem increasingly prone to resort to spontaneous ambiguity. Based on the findings of the research, the authors have drawn insights regarding the difficulties interpreters may have to overcome, bearing in mind that, apart from their traditional functions as international communication mediators, more than ever before, interpreters are often expected to play the additional role of content editors.
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This article reports on a mixed methods study investigating the effectiveness of pushed and non-pushed speaking tasks in a UK university setting with upper-intermediate students. Specifically, the study addressed a) if a pushed speaking task produced more language related episodes (LREs) than a non-pushed speaking task, b) the differences in the types of LREs produced by each task and c) whether a pushed speaking task resulted in more accurate usage of past narrative forms. Results showed that the pushed storytelling task produced significantly more LREs than the non-pushed task and it also identified that the most common LRE type for both pushed and non-pushed learners related to some form of output correction. The pushed group achieved greater accuracy gains from pretest and posttest scores but these gain scores were not found to be statistically significant. The study concludes that creating a push during spoken output activities can increase the occurrence of opportunities for linguistic processing, and subsequently interlanguage development, to occur.
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Vocabulary knowledge is an essential skill for language users to understand and use a language correctly. For teachers, it is useful to be able to test this knowledge from various aspects: meaning, word forms, collocations and the ability of students to surmise the meanings of unknown words from the context. The type of test is provided depends on the purpose of testing. Perhaps the most important reason of testing is to find out how well students have mastered the language skills which they were taught and help them solve occurring problems. The article aims to analyze different methods of vocabulary testing as well as two vocabulary types, academic and technical. In addition, the study tries to determine how these testing and vocabulary types are related to the number of mistakes students make in a test and to find out students’ opinion about difficulties they experience in relation to different testing types and factors influencing tests results. The theoretical background of the article is largely based on theoretical material on vocabulary testing, its methods, vocabulary types, passive and active vocabulary knowledge while the practical part includes the questionnaire data. The analysis of the data has revealed that academic vocabulary and its usage cause more problems to learners than the technical one, and that the most difficult task types are word building, definition making and collocation tasks.
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Surprisingly, translator training in distance learning is under-researched in Translation Studies and the scholars in the field have simply ignored the fundamental differences between distance and traditional modes of translator training. This study is a preliminary attempt to draw attention to this neglected area of research. Firstly, the study made an attempt to determine a set of criteria for educating functional and autonomous translation trainees in distance learning through a contrastive and critical review of the related literature. Taking a functionalist-communicative stance, ideas were borrowed from distance learning, second language teaching and translation theories for this purpose. The most important criteria must be learner-orientedness, process-orientedness and use of authentic real-life translation tasks. Later, the criteria were employed to evaluate a self-instructional translation textbook. The evaluation showed that these criteria could serve as a roadmap for assessing and/or designing self-instructional textbooks for distance learning mode. Finally, it was suggested to add translation training in distance mode to the applied branch of the so-called map of Translation Studies to promote further research in this area.
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