Language Worldview Research Articles

Embodied Discordance: Vernacular Idioms in Winnie: The Opera

ABSTRACTThe opera of black America and opera Indigene of settler-invaded continents initiated a trend in opera criticism that introduces new insights into the role of this classical genre in modern times. The treatment of black and indigenes operatic subjects in all of these operas signals that operas inevitably draw on historicities and other contemporary social variables in explaining the personal or national country's unfolding narratives. In both the black American tradition and opera of the indigenous people, grammars and vocabularies which share continuities with the indigenous world and further speak to complex intricacies of contemporary life, feature significantly. Profound in these registers are congealed indigenous or emerging idioms and vernaculars embodied as texts which function as signifying practices in the operas. A similar stylistic is noticeable in a South African opera by Ndodana-Breen, Vundla and Wilensky's Winnie (2011). This opera not only draws on these isiXhosa-coded oral texts but further juxtaposes them to the western world to play on the tensions and contrasting worldviews embedded in them. The plurality of consciousnesses refracted by the unstable interaction of the co-existence of these worlds brought about by these languages as well as the status of the latter in the South African linguistic terrain invites a reading that foregrounds polyphony, dialogism and dialecticism. The cultural scripts suggested by isiXhosa disrupt the autonomy of interpreting Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's political image which owing to the nature of South Africa's media politics has been the preserve of the dominant language worldview. This discussion investigates these hidden scripts and draws from tenets of Brecht's dialectical theatre by demonstrating (a) the extent to which they upset dominant iconographies of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela; and (b) how the typology of her iconisation is located and historicised within the context of the time that shaped it. This makes her iconisation to be a commentary on issues of justice both before and after 1994.

РУССКАЯ ЯЗЫКОВАЯ КАРТИНА МИРА (на материале русского островного говора Азербайджана)

РУССКАЯ ЯЗЫКОВАЯ КАРТИНА МИРА (на материале русского островного говора Азербайджана)

Sentences with the ‘State of Nature’ Meaning in the Russian Language: Cognitive and Linguocultural Aspects of the Analysis

The article deals with the sentences denoting the ‘state of nature’ which are treated as bilateral units. In view of the approach to the sentences from the specified semantics as linguistic units with a symbolic nature, the author reveals a list of structural schemes, as a means of verbalization of the concept denoting the ‘state of nature’ in the Russian language. The ‘state of nature’ concept itself is qualified as a quantum of knowledge storage about extra linguistic situations of the same type, categorized by human consciousness. The content of this concept is structured in the form of the field represented by a number of cognitive characteristics, ranked by brightness index and distributed in nuclear and peripheral zones. As the speech units sentences with the ‘state of nature’ meaning are treated as statements which do not constitute a homogeneous group either by the process of perception by an Observer or the way of the state manifestation. The collection of such statements accumulates in their semantics archaic representation of the nature of the Slavs and the key invariant ideas of that fragment of Russian language worldview, which represents the ‘nature – state of nature’ extra linguistic situation. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p235

MODERN DIDACTIC TERMS IN THE CONTENT OF LATVIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDIES

The article is devoted to a pending matter in the Latvian linguistics and methodology of language and literature – the formation of the system of terminology. The 90-ies of the 20th century when Latvia gained its national independence brought changes not only in the political and economic life but also in the terminology because new realities, which appeared in life, needed new names. Essential transformation in education brought along changes in the nomination system of the specific realities in the sphere. By establishing broader contacts with the pedagogical information field of the Western countries, translating scientific articles one comes in touch with specific concepts of the sphere for which there are no matching nominative units in Latvian and, judging by publications, in most cases equivalent terms are successfully formed. Unfortunately, this is not true of all innovatons, which, due to lack of time, amount of work or other reasons, in most cases are not submitted to language experts or the terminology commission for approval. The research provides analysis of several terms used in the methodology of the Latvian language and literature, as well as other subjects, yet are contraversial from the viewpoint of terminology and the quality of the Latvian language. The research presents the analysis of the semantic structure of active teaching methods and methodological approaches in language and literature in the context of the Latvian language world view with the aim to encourage teachers, lecturers of institutions of higher education, specialists in pedagogy and didactics and other people concerned to consider whether one or another name (which can hardly be referred to as ‘term’) fits into the education process.

Linguistic World Picture: Logoepisteme - domain - linguocultureme

The paper considers the components of language worldview (including literary worldview) in its relationship with the world model and the world image. The constructive role of a word, a domain and a logoepisteme in modeling the world image is revealed. The authors are intended to prove that an integral image of ethnic culture is the basis of the semantic space of language. Another basic idea is that literary worldview consists of two interrelated aspects: 1) the existential including sensual about times everyday and (subconscious) substantive work, and 2) reflexive (conscious), which includes language and speech meanings.

CORRELATION BETWEEN LANGUAGE WORLDVIEW AND MENTAITY IN MODERN LINGUISTICS

The article is devoted to the correlation between concepts of mentality and language worldview in modern linguistics. Considering mentality within modern linguistics reflects the principle expansionism which consists in the fact that no science can remain within the borders of itself, it needs access to the adjacent areas of knowledge to produce the most comprehensive research. That is why linguistics is to use the data provided by such sciences as cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, etc. The paper highlights the main approaches to the issue of language worldview. The most relevant modern theory concerning the topic is the hypothesis of linguistic relativity in its weak form, which consists in the fact that language is only one of the factors that influence the way in which we conceptualize reality. Further in the article we put definitions of language worldview and give our own definition of the term. The part of the article dedicated to the mentality also provides definitions of the concept, indicates the relative novelty of studying the mentality of a nation within language sciences, it also provides a comparison of the given concepts. The author finds both similarities and differences and comes to the conclusion that, despite the apparent synonymy of the discussed concepts, there are important differences: they deal with different sides of world perception, they put emphasis on peculiar features of reality. Mentality is associated with the cultural aspect and the language worldview – with the liguocultural aspect. What is important is that both concepts are relevant to modern linguistics.

The Role of the Metaoperator In the Good Sense of the Word in an Idealised Worldview

This article investigates the functioning of the metaoperator in the good sense of the word, which characterising words, abstracted characteristics of the subject (both animate and inanimate), and appearance. The second type includes utterances where the role of the metaoperator in the good sense of the word neutralises both common and individual negative connotations not included in the conceptual nexus of the word. This type lets the operator, on the one hand, release the individual negative connotations that have appeared in contemporary speech while, on the other hand, it de-ideologizes the lexeme. The article also demonstrates the results of an experiment made, first, to examine the potential possibility of axiological re-coding of any negative word, and second, to estimate a non-estimating word. The experiment gave positive results for both tasks, allowing the author to state that the naive axiology includes the entire world in its estimative perception. The idealised model of the world practically overlaps with the language worldview.

Towards a Theological Metaphysics of Death

Death is an inescapable event. It defines our existence as mortal. It is both a marker of our finitude and a portal to a deeper mystery: what awaits us in, through, and beyond this moment of ending? In thinking about death in the context of a theological dialogue, I identify two key questions: the phenomenological ‘What is death?’ and the philosophical ‘What is the meaning of death?’ as the beginning points of reflection. In general, it is the function of religion to provide some sort of answer to these questions, to give death both coherent definition and adequate understanding. The primary religious response is to articulate appropriate beliefs. But in their intellectual formation and construction, beliefs draw on metaphysics—the structures of logic, language, conceptuality and general worldview presuppositions by which we render all things intelligible and communicable. In this article I shall undertake an exploration of Christian viewpoints on death, which will require noting antecedents and corollaries in Judaism, then discuss possible metaphysical readings of death, that is, philosophical understandings of death that lie within and under, as it were, the otherwise stated religious beliefs about death. The aim of this article is not to present a fully developed ‘theological metaphysics of death’ as such; rather, in the context of an inter-religious dialogical engagement, to raise issues and perspectives from a Christian point of view that might contribute to a wider, more encompassing, theistically oriented understanding of death.

Cultural Meaning in German Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior and the Teaching of German: A Progress Report

Scholars have always been interested in meaning. Yet today we have a crisis in the definitions and uses of meaning and communication. Whatever discipline or subdiscipline one observes, meaning and communication are core issues in contemporary scholarship. From postmodernism to psychology (from theories of failure to communicate to client-centered therapy and crisis counseling), from semiotics to the new physics and quantum mechanics, from psycho-, text-, and sociolinguistics to cultural anthropology, scholars and researchers are attempting to discover what consititutes communication, meaning, and understanding between individual human beings. Indeed, as foreign language teachers and scholars, our primary goal is and has always been to help students glean meaning in spoken and written form from, and convey it to, members of another language community, culture, and world view. What we have come to realize is the important fact that there are many more complexities involved in the creation and negotiation of meaning than we had heretofore suspected. One of the significant discussions occurring today addresses the concern that vocabulary and grammar are not the only crucial aspects of learning a foreign language and are insufficient to understanding and being understood in another language. It is being recognized by many scholars that what we have taught in the past is not enough, although, as Arum says, it is unfortunately still assumed by some that

Language planning, identity planning and world view

Language planning, identity planning and world view