Plurality Of Interpretations Research Articles

The Pluralist Interpretation of Chinese Marxist Aesthetics in Contemporary European Scholarship

In Europe there have appeared several important collections on Marxist literary theory, such as Francis Mulhern’s Contemporary Marxist Literary Criticism (1992) and Terry Eagleton and Drew Milne’s Marxist Literary Theory: A Reader (1996). However, Chinese voices are not included at all in these volumes. Maybe this lacuna results from a lack of awareness of Chinese Marxist aesthetics on the part of most European literary historians and critics. In this article, we seek to discuss the circumstances of European scholars’ contacts with Chinese Marxist aesthetics, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Starting from the variation theory perspective proposed by Shunqing Cao we will discuss how European scholars read and misread what they perceived as the meaning and universal applicability of what was happening in China at the time. The discussion is divided into three parts: the utopian interpretation of the Chinese theory of revolution in France, the critical reception by Eastern European Marxists, and the sympathetic interpretation by sinologists such as the Dutch diplomat and literary scholar Douwe Fokkema.

Arkeologi Pengetahuan Ṭayyib Tīzīnī Tentang Pluralitas Interpretasi Alquran

This paper analyzes the thought of Tayyib Tizini, a Syrian nationalist philosopher, on archeology of knowledge of the plurality of the Qur’anic interpretations. Tizini is very keen to voice the plurality of Qur’anic interpretations along with the strong apparent of the coercion movement and the domination of a particular interpretation of religious texts. By using descriptive-analytic method with a philosophical-rationalistic approach, this paper concludes that the text of the Qur’an and the empirical reality of an internalized society (al-wad‘iyah al-mujtama‘ al-mushakhkhas}) have an open structure that allows plurality of interpretations in accordance with the needs of humanity. Through Ti>zi>ni>’s archeological analysis, it is found two occurred channels in the activity of understanding the Qur’an. The first channel is limited by cognitive aspects which are also limited by the level of knowledge of the person who perceives it. The second channel presents itself in ideology which is related to material interests, political streams and ambitions, social conflicts, groups, classes, countries, nations and so on. These two channels are the two things that impose, both clandestinely and openly the process of, the emergence of a plurality of the Qur’anic interpretations.

Semiotics of the Image: Addressing the Different Types of Mental Operation and Their Sematic Interpretation

Our era is dominated by the prevailing presence of images. The spectator often identifies with the characters and aims to interpret the signs evoked by the objects, since every image is governed by codes. If we look at the history of image semiotics, we observe a cognitive and pragmatic approach. According to Kant, the images we receive from the environment are not simply reproductions but often creative productions based on patterns generated by the imagination. According to recent research in semiotics, we observe that the pragmatic approach is extended by a study of stimuli collected by the environment. On the other hand, Köhler’s theory of Gestalt considers perception as a pre-conscious activity, linking visual semiology with the functional interpretation of perception. In addition, Tardy brings into focus strategies of visual communication by highlighting the semiotic status of represented objects. For this reason, it is essential to deepen the versatility of the field of semantic interpretation of a visual support from different types of mental operations. Finally, the semiological approach to the image with different types of mental operation will be able to generate a plural and original semantic interpretation through the creative exploitation of visual elements.

Dependent Plurality and the Theory of Scalar Implicatures: Remarks on Zweig 2009

AbstractFollowing a recent discussion in Fox & Spector 2018, this paper provides an argument for a particular view of the theory of scalar implicatures and exhaustification where exhaustification is only allowed if it alters the overall sentence meaning without weakening it.I show that this idea is helpful to make sense of the so-called dependent plural interpretations, addressed within the theory of scalar implicatures in Zweig 2009 (see also Zweig 2008). Even though Zweig’s account is based on insightful and plausible assumptions (most crucially, the idea that the multiplicity component of the meaning of plurals is a scalar implicature), it ultimately fails to derive dependent plural readings. The main reason for this is the use of the Strongest Candidate Principle of Chierchia 2006 that happens to filter out the needed interpretation. Replacing the Strongest Candidate Principle with a weaker constraint on exhaustification along the lines of Fox & Spector 2018 resolves the issue, while keeping most of Zweig’s insights intact.

Проблемы теоретической и исторической поэтики в трудах И. А. Есаулова: методология, концепция, новые категории русской филологии

<p>The article analyzes the contribution of Russian literary critic, doctor of Philology, Professor Ivan Andreevich Esaulov to the study of theoretical and historical poetics revealing his central scientific ideas and principles of building a new concept of the history of Russian literature. The researcher introduced several concepts as philological categories that had never been used in Philology before. These are <em>sobornost </em>(conciliarism), <em>paskhalnost</em> (Easter character), <em>Zakon i Blagodat </em>(Law and Grace), Christocentrism. Esaulov proposed a new definition of the content of Russian literature thanks to these categories. The researcher proved the fruitfulness of his approach for understanding Russian literature. The material for analysis is rather extensive: from Metropolitan Hilarion's <em>Word about Law and Grace</em> to the works of writers of the late 20th century. Esaulov's most important methodological position is the need to distinguish between analysis, understanding and interpretation. These are different approaches to studying a work of art. The scholar also introduces and justifies the concept of “spectrum of adequacy”, which implies a plurality of interpretations of a literary work.</p>

Cosmogonic or creation myths A mythical, philosophical and theological interpretation of the diverse cosmogonic myths: In conversation with Charles Long

Cosmogonic myths, also referred to as creation myths, are theological and philosophical explanations of ancient myths of creation within a religious Homo sapien hamlet. In the context of this article, the word myth is attributed to the extravagant quixotic interpretation in anecdote (in both visionary and narrative sense) of what is accomplished or ceased as a key or essential phenomenon. The terms or language concepts of cosmogonic or creation invoke the start of things, whether by the desire and action of a surpass Actuality, by emergence from some eventful Actuality or by an additional alternative process. Mystics, scientists, philosophers and theologians of today set forward a method, to my mind, of pluralistic interpretation of the whole understanding and interpretation of a cosmogonic and creation myth that includes a variety of Actualities (deities or gods), in the world, according to basic Western and Eastern religious and rational classifications. These rational classifications have a phenomenological epistemic impact and even a certain righteousness of whoever wants to believe whatever of creation. Let it be …, as it should be ontological (showing the relations between the concepts [myths] and categories [criterion of these myths] in a subject area [a variety of philosophies or religions] or domain [places where these myths are experienced]) and epistemological (relating to the theory of knowledge [how these myths evolved in the thought processes of sapiens], especially with regard to its methods [e.g. sacramental], validity [the genuineness and lawfulness of these myth’s], scope [the extend thereof] and the distinction between justified belief and opinion) and be positive for theologians as objects and religious sapiens as subjects.

Межъязыковые преобразования речевых актов в переводческом пространстве

The article examines models of speech acts transformation when translating from English into Russian. The paper analyses motives for pluralistic interpretation of speech acts that leads to variability in translation. The suggested models of speech acts transformation in the process of translation are considered as an interlingual reconstruction of meaning within translation space. The authors conclude that the features of the speech act itself determine its pluralistic interpretation but cognitive and pragmatic filters of translation space restrict the choice of translation variants.

The syntax of number marking: the view from bare nouns in Wolof

Several languages allow for their nominals to occur without any functional morphology; they are dubbed ‘bare nominals’. BNs are often number-neutral, i.e.,there is no commitment to a singular or plural interpretation. In Wolof, however, BNs are singular when unmodified. A plural interpretation becomes available only when a nominal-internal plural feature is exponed in the form of complementizer or possessum agreement. I propose an extension of Béjar & Rezac’s (2009) Person Licensing Condition to number: a marked number feature (i.e. plural) must be licensed by Agree. BNs in Wolof can in principle be singular or plural. In the absence of a nominal-internal probe that Agrees with the plural feature of the BN, the Number Licensing Condition is violated, causing the derivation to crash. Unmarked number, i.e., singular, does not obey the NLC, so the derivation converges, yielding a singular BN. However, if there is a nominal-internal number probe, which is realized as complementizer or possessum agreement, the NLC is satisfied, allowing a derivation to converge where the BN is plural. If correct, this analysis accounts for the unusual behavior of BNs in Wolof and provides further empirical support for the view that valued features are responsible for nominal licensing (Kalin, 2017, 2019).

Imaginal dialogue as a method of narrative inquiry

Abstract This paper joins the discussions on imaginal dialogue with references to the relational turn in psychoanalysis. It explores imaginal dialogue as a creative, relational endeavour in evoking the unconscious materials. By describing my own imaginal dialogue with Virginia Woolf, it exemplifies the potentiality of reading as an embodied, co-constructed interplay between the reader and the text. The deepening of relational and dialogical engagement with the text not only stirs the affective depth in the reader, but also brings the reader to conjure the presence of the author as an object for relatedness in the process of narrative inquiry. Imaginal dialogue transgresses beyond the poststructuralist allowance of interpretive pluralism to relational processes of working with the encounters with the presence of the author as their imaginary co-inquirer. Imaginal dialogue, I argue, not only provides an alternative kind of narrative framing, but the imaginal relationship becomes the very locus of knowledge creation.

How to tell the story of change and transition of the energy, ecological and societal systems

After overusing the expression Sustainable Development, some action plan was needed to switch from rhetorical to transformational change. One of the answers was to propose the word Transition as a roadmap leading to the necessary level of change. A Transition is a passage from one stable regime to another, with a step that is neither instantaneous nor dangerous, like a Revolution, but is fast enough, anyway. The first Transition in the 2010s was the Energy Transition, i.e. a move towards less fossil fuels and more renewables. It started everywhere more or less at the same time, but Germany and its Energiewende was among the first contenders. The implicit objective was as much to control excessive anthropogenic GHG emissions as it was to possibly start a new period of growth based on green technologies. Very soon, however, the Fukushima disaster convinced Mrs. Merkel to change tack and veer towards “zero nuclear power”, thus aligning with the program of the Green movements. At that point, the Energiewende had become a complex, multi-objectives program for change, not a simple Transition as described at the onset of the paper. The rest of the world turned to Globish and spoke of the Energy Transition (EnT). Each country added a layer of complexity to its own version of the EnT and told a series of narratives, quite different from each other. This is analyzed in the present article on the basis of the documents prepared by the “energy-community”, which assembles hard scientists and economists, a group that the soft scientists of SSH call STEM. EnT, in its most recent and mature version, hardly speaks of energy any more but of GHG emissions. Therefore, EnT drifted towards the expression Ecological Transition (EcT). Both expressions are almost synonymous today. From then on, myriads similar expressions sprang up: Environmental Transition, Demographic, Epidemiological and Environmental Risk Transition, Societal Transitions, Global Transitions, Economic Transition, Sustainability Transition, Socio-Ecological Transitions, Technology Transitions, Nutrition Transition, Agro-Ecological Transition, Digital Transition, Sanitary Transition as well as various practices like Energy Democracy or Theory of Transition. Focusing only on EnT and EcT, a first step consists in comparing energy technologies from the standpoint of their impact on public health: thus, coal is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude worse than renewable energy, not to speak of nuclear. A second step looks at the materials requirement of Renewables, what has been called the materials paradox. They are more materials-intensive and also call on much larger TMRs (Total Materials Requirement). On the other hand, the matter of critical materials has been blown out of proportion and is probably less out of control than initially depicted. A third step is accomplished by Historians, who show that History is full of energy transitions, which did not always go in one direction and did not always match the storytelling of progress that the present EnT is heavily relying on. Moreover, they flatly reject the long-term storytelling of History depicted as a continuous string of energy transitions, from biomass, to coal, oil, gas, nuclear and nowadays renewables. Just as interesting is the opinion of the Energy-SSH community. They complain that the organizations that control research funds and decision makers listen mainly to the STEM-energy community rather than to them. And they go on to explain, sometimes demonstrate, that this restricts the perspective, over-focuses on certain technologies and confines SSH to an ancillary role in support of projects, the strategy of which is decided without their input: the keyword is asymmetry of information, which therefore leads to distortion of decision-making. They also stress the need for a plurality of views and interpretations, a possible solution to the societal deadlocks often encountered in Europe. As important and strategic as energy issues are in our present world, the hubris of both STEM and SSH communities may be excessive. Some level of success in making them work together may be a way to resolve this situation!

Three Chaucers: The Man, the Teller, the Anthropologist

Based on a research study that connects anthropology with literature our approach should be considered an interdisciplinary one that aims at provoking the modern readers to a multiple-choice response when re-reading medieval authors and their texts. Such postmodern ideas as cultural and social anthropology, the anthropology of craft and the anthropological gift theory of what is called commercial culture, applying to Chaucer and his literary works may lead to a plurality of interpretations that make us better understand his world and our own. They are to be framed as prolegomena to re-reading Chaucer and his works through anthropological lenses

New Forms of Artistic Synthesis in Modern Musical Theatre

The article is devoted to the development processes of modern musical theatre, rendered activate due to the influence of new technologies, which significantly expand the possibilities of synthesizing the arts that are originally characteristic of musical and theatrical genres. Tested in the framework of various cultural practices (performances, installations, shows, etc.), computer capabilities for sound synthesis and new technical tools and 3D technologies unlimitedly expand the possibilities of working with sound, light, color, word and plastic, involving not only a composer in the process of creating a musical and theatrical work, but also designers and engineers as well. The problem authorship arises, which is no longer the exclusive right of a composer, but of the whole creative team. The consequence of these processes is a number of significant changes in the ratio of the artistic components of the performance: the rejection of the primacy of music, the equal semantic significance of all the expressive components of the whole, forming a polyphonic multichannel semantic field that allows us to talk about the “theatre of mixed means”. The mismatch between the logical movement and the semantic content of the verbal, visual, and auditory principles leads to a limitation of narrative and an increase in suggestion, forcing the viewer, starting from the author’s message and personal life experience, to seek his understanding, which implies a plurality of interpretations. The search for new aesthetics results in a design approach when creating a musical theatrical composition, which in each case has a number of deeply individual spatiotemporal features, as well as to a significant transformation of the overall communicative situation in which the spectator becomes a participant in what is happening. The article contains the analytical observations on the works by contemporary authors: H. Hebbels, M. Squillante, as well as works by the creative team “LemieuxPilon 4Dart”.

Mass-Media Specificity of Building an Effective Narrative as a Strategic Communication Tool

Objective. This research aims at defining the principles of constructing effective narratives with the use of the strategic communication capabilities and the media.
 Materials and Methods. Publications in modern English and Ukrainian mass-media have been analyzed using methods and techniques of discourse analysis, content- and intent-analysis with elements of pragmatic and narrative analysis. The author’s methodology included the following: to identify the author’s intention and motives, the main topoi and points of the narrative focalization, to define hidden beliefs, social and psychological basis for the recipient’s perception of the narrative, to outline effective strategies for the narrative construction and dissemination in the media.
 Results. In general, modern media have the capacity of constructing the desired frames in the audience’s consciousness by creating a mental model of the situation, on which the consumer of the information starts to rely. Decision-making now is reliant on the media consciousness, a virtual world imposed by the media and constructed with the help of relevant narratives. Modern strategic narratives usually have the external focalization which gets more credibility when supported and presented by the focalization points of celebrities and experts. Competing narratives, as well as the plurality of possible interpretations of events, are destroyed with the help of the media, which begin to broadcast one interpretation of the event that matches the narrative, by this making it the truth. Simultaneous use of several different media intensifies the influence and support the narrative. Repeating information changes its status and makes it not just a fact, but general knowledge. Any narrative is not only a sequential story of the selected events, but also persuasion in its nature. Persuasion is enhanced when narratives resonate with the audience's value system.
 Conclusions. As a strategic communication tool, an effective narrative is constructed with regard to all the aspects of communication, psycholinguistic and social aspects being especially important. Further insights into the problem of shaping narratives will allow outlining best practices and their elements to develop image-forming narratives.

Interpretations of anti-global social movements from the perspective of ethics economy reflection

The main interests of the article are the social movements and oppositions, which have emerged during and after the financial crisis of 2008. The social events like Wall Street Occupy, Fight for $15, or Make Poverty History can be perceived as a very interesting form of resistance to the capitalistic system of economy. The major objective is to recognize the plurality of interpretations of the cultural context and the role of these grassroots movements. That plurality is a consequence of axiological assumptions related to the concept of society. The other goal of such considerations is to expose that grassroots movements may cause some social changes within the sphere of economy according to current social expectations. The article attempts at presenting a culture-oriented approach that implies the constructivist vision of society. The methodology of constructivism includes the method of qualitative research such as humanistic interpretation of social beliefs developed by Jerzy Kmita.

Changing Labour Law. Study on Plurality and Conflicts of Interpretation

Le droit du travail a connu de nombreuses réformes depuis le milieu des années 1980, son architecture ayant en particulier été profondément remodelée au cours de cette dernière décennie. Signe d’un basculement dans la compréhension de leur portée, un questionnement se fait jour au-delà du seul constat de la mise en cause des protections offertes par le droit du travail : ces transformations ne correspondraient-elles pas à l’émergence d’un nouveau « modèle », voire d’un nouveau « paradigme » ? Pourtant la définition de cette nouvelle idée du droit du travail ne fait pas consensus. Au contraire, ses évolutions sont désormais sujettes à conflits d’interprétations. L’émergence de ce questionnement n’en mérite que plus d’être pris au sérieux. En effet, annoncer l’émergence d’un nouveau « modèle » ou « paradigme », ce n’est pas seulement tenter de décrire l’ampleur des changements de la réglementation du travail. Cette affirmation est surtout révélatrice de la fragilisation des cadres d’interprétation qui structurent la discipline du droit du travail. C’est à l’étude de ces « interprétations » et des conflits nés de leur pluralité qu’est consacré cet article.

Strong Pluralism, Coincident Objects and Haecceitism

According to strong pluralism, objects distinct by virtue of their modal properties can coincide. The most common objection towards such view invokes the so-called Grounding Problem according to which the strong pluralist needs to explain what the grounds are for supposed modal differences between the coincidents. As recognized in the literature, the failure to provide an answer to the Grounding Problem critically undermines the plausibility of strong pluralism. Moreover, there are strong reasons to believe that strong pluralists cannot provide an explanation of the Grounding Problem. In this paper, we argue that strong pluralism can be motivated independently of the successful answer to the Grounding Problem. In order to achieve that aim, we provide a haecceitistic interpretation of strong pluralism according to which strong pluralism should be read as a position committed to the existence of primitive individuals, i.e., the individuals that have their criteria of individuation independently of their qualitative profiles. That said, we do not aim at defending haecceitism. Instead, our aim is rather modest: we want to provide a new way for the strong pluralist to supplement his view to make it more watertight.

Interpretation of democracy, pluralism and tolerance among the young activists of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama

Anarchism and other forms of violence committed by religious groups and mass organizations are still very common in Indonesia. There have been violations of human rights, religious freedom and civil liberties, which are essential pillars of democracy. Indonesia, as a country that adheres to religious freedom regards all forms of intolerance as violations of democracy. This study described and explored the views of young cadres of Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Malang, East Java, about democracy, pluralism and tolerance. This research intended to unravel some of the issues of how young generations of Muhammadiyah and NU understand democracy, pluralism and tolerance and if their views are associated with their social construction. This study employed qualitative methods using interviews and direct observations to collect the data. The results of this study showed there were differences in the patterns between the younger generation and the older generation of Muhammadiyah. The members of Muhammadiyah recognized that the young cadres of Muhammadiyah tended to act more violently towards intolerant mass organizations compared to their senior (old cadre) generation. The senior cadres, such as the Muhammadiyah Youth, were more likely to be calm when responding to the presence of radical organizations. The senior cadres of Muhammadiyah tended to be open-minded with the community organizations that are perceived by the public to be a radical mass organization, which is fundamental in addressing the presence of radical organizations. This view indicated by the absence sense of precariousness or a situation that is considered to be very threatening to religious and national life while still in the corridor of diversity. On the other hand, the younger generation of Nahdlatul Ulama showed a different pattern, revealing that their seniors tended to be harsher in responding to radical organizations and supporting mass organizations.

The interpretation of singular nouns in the scope of an event-distributive quantifier

Abstract Singular nouns in the scope of a distributive operator have been shown to be treated as conceptually plural (Patson and Warren, 2010). The source of this conceptual plurality is not fully clear. In particular, it is not known whether the concept of plurality associated with a singular noun originates from distributing over multiple objects or multiple events. In the present experiment, iterative expressions (distribution over events) were contrasted with collective and distributive sentences using a Stroop-like interference technique (Berent, Pinker, Tzelgov, Bibi, and Goldfarb, 2005; Patson and Warren, 2010). A trend in the data suggests that event distributivity does not elicit a plural interpretation of a grammatically singular noun, however the results were not statistically significant. Possible causes of the non-significant results are discussed.

Non-uniform plural inferences as scalar implicature

Persian possesses a type of full root reduplication called m-reduplication that, when applied to a noun, results in a non-homogeneous plural interpretation; a reduplicated nominal is understood to refer to one or more objects in the denotation of the predicate denoted by the bare noun, as well as one or more objects that are similar in some respect to the bare noun. Although previous work has characterized m-reduplication as denoting a non- homogeneous plurality, evidence from non-upward-entailing environments and pragmatic contexts establishing speaker ignorance demonstrates that the non-homogeneous plural inference associated with reduplication is not entailed, but merely implicated. I provide an analysis of m-reduplication as involving higher-order scalar implicature (Spector, 2007), and further explain variation in the interpretation of m-reduplication in non-upward-entailing contexts. Finally, I unify the analysis of m-reduplication with that of the non-exhaustive expressions -toka and -tari in Japanese, providing a more satisfactory analysis of the latter than was present in previous work (Smith and Kobayashi, 2018).

School climate in international school settings: differences in teacher perceptions among international and domestic-oriented departments

ABSTRACT The study analyses teachers’ perceptions of school relations and climate in a ‘non-traditional’ international school between the Greek national education departments and the IB department. Comparing perceptions of inwards and outwards oriented departments is relatively neglected in literature which treats schools and their culture(s) as monolithic entities. Cluster sampling was employed, consisting of 300 teachers and 316 parents. The analysis of data was performed using Pearson product moment correlation and one-way ANOVA. Teacher perceptions among the international and the domestically oriented departments diverge in statistically significant ways in fundamental pedagogical dimensions including teacher cooperation and mentoring, issues of fairness and disciplinary control and cooperation and relations with parents. A pluralistic interpretation of school climate can be a more relevant predictor of teacher perceptions than the orthodox monolithic constructs. The results suggest international schools’ research can benefit from resorting to both idiographic and nomothetic research paradigms.