Language Myth Research Articles

Cold Sun • Hot Planet

This article considers how Georges Bataille’s account of solarity informs a planetary perspective. Bataille is credited with formulating a critical analysis of “solar societies” whose economies are shaped by the exchange of solar energy. However, a sometimes understated facet of Bataille’s reading of solarity is the way he positions living beings at the axis of the sun and the earth, and in the midst of elemental forces such as cold, heat, light, and darkness. Bataille deploys these elemental forces in his writing in order to disfigure the restricted economy of capitalism and its bourgeois subjects. Rather than considering it as a social or subjective predilection, this article emphasizes solarity as a critical form and disorganizing force. This article addresses Bataille’s elemental aesthetics and his positioning of the subject as both a capitalist predator that accumulates solar energy, and a speculative subject, a being who is preyed upon by its own accumulation of energy and that is ultimately disfigured and expended by it. I argue that solarity arises in Bataille’s writing as an aesthetic operation per se. He invokes a mythological language to dismantle the scientific and philosophical tradition of the Enlightenment. Solarity is therefore the antithesis of Enlightenment thinking and values: it entails the invocation of mythic force in order to dramatize earthly elements and their anarchical energy exchange. I connect Bataille’s mythic language to recent theorizations of planetarity and political ecology, from Gayatri Spivak, to Isabel Stengers, Bruno Latour, and Donna Haraway. I emphasize how his aesthetic maneuvers disfigure the restricted economy of concepts that accompanies the resourcing of the earth.

The significance of scientific results in efficient native language education

According to a repeated questionnaire (2008 – 2018) research the language dialect attitude of native Hungarian teachers in Transcarpathia changed in a positive direction since the native language education reform as the result of scientific educational writings, further training. An assumed similar change can be observed concerning the language dialect attitude of their students as well, since the textbook they use conveys scientific knowledge concerning language dialects. Based on the above we assume that native Hungarian students in Transcarpathia, just like their teachers, have a more positive opinion about language dialects and we can discover similarities between the answers of the two groups, although the regional character of their language use is still not perceived by the majority of them. They consider the Hungarian speech of their motherland to be the most beautiful. Our hypothesis is that there is inconsistency in the received answers since their knowledge concerning language variants is still deficient, superficial, so many times the effect of language myths, language ideologies can be discovered in the answers.To verify/refute the above, two questionnaire surveys were conducted in 2018 with the participation of 100 teachers and 280 school students, to repeat the earlier wide scale study. Based on the results presented above it can be said that the majority of our hypotheses were verified: as the result of the additive approach a positive change can be observed in native Hungarian schools in Transcarpathia concerning the judgement of language dialects, dialect speakers. Both teachers and students consider themselves language dialect speakers in a greater proportion. The opinion of the teachers (despite my hypothesis) is although reflected in the opinions of their students, still, the professional have a harder time distancing themselves from myths related to the native language many of them got used to in the course of their studies, career. The younger generation, who learnt scientifically soundly based knowledge from the textbooks prepared for the official curriculum form class 5 of elementary school, proved to be more perceptive for the multi-normative, more open approach. Teachers try to comply with the expectations they consider exist towards them. However, due to their deficient metalinguistic knowledge, in many times it leads to discrepancies, inconsistencies between the above reports and the statistical data.

Linguistique intégrationniste et histoire sémiotique des mathématiques

Cet article propose une présentation et une discussion de la linguistique intégrationniste de Roy Harris. On y rappelle la caractérisation du « mythe du langage », les critiques qui lui ont été adressées et les principes intégrationnistes proposés pour y répondre. Les thèses et les arguments intégrationnistes sont ensuite confrontés aux résultats de plusieurs études d'histoire sémiotique des mathématiques. Un examen du ressort de l'efficacité des critiques intégrationnistes permet de reconsidérer les conséquences qui en ont été tirées.

Hablar para decir, no para mentir: la lengua del mito

El mito es un discurso narrativo, una «historia» y, en tal sentido, un logos. Se trata de un lenguaje práctico y dialógico, un acto de habla. Un lenguaje que comunica y sirve para pensar. El lenguaje mítico, oral y simbólico, es maleable, hecho que favorece multiplicidad de reinterpretaciones. Este carácter simbólico refiere un pensamiento indirecto de fuerte carga pragmática y pedagógica. Considerado lenguaje original, y catalogado como pensamiento lingüístico metafórico, a la par que lenguaje popular-materno, es un habla elegida por la historia, no definida por su letra sino por la manera en que se dice, por su intención. En este particular, el mito funciona como un metalenguaje con sentido de valor propio. Es también el mito un lenguaje emocional, que evoluciona con la naturaleza y el propio ser humano. En definitiva, es la voz colectiva, en lenguaje figurativo y metafórico, de la comunidad, a la que proporciona cohesión, identidad y un valor socio-político.

The human-animal divide in communication: anthropocentric, posthuman and integrationist answers

The human-animal relation has mainly been negotiated one way or another – a humanist/anthropocentric approach which centralizes the human condition and a posthuman perspective which sees the human perspective as a hindrance to fully comprehending the nonhuman world. By exploring the humanist and posthuman discourse on the human-animal divide in communication, this paper contends that both approaches are subject to the “language myth”. At the end, an integrationist-humanist answer to the human-animal divide will be proffered, which constitutes a form of humanism that neither relies on decontextualized conceptions of human communication nor inhibits personal sign-making creativity, thereby marking a point of departure from said humanist and posthuman models.

Postcolonial translation theories and the language myth: an integrationist perspective

These few decades have witnessed a surge of postcolonial translation movements which put the Western transference ideal, one that sees translation as transference of meaning between two languages, to the test. Two of such movements are postcolonial literalism and Antropofagia, which both redirect significance from the meaning to the form and unsettle the colonial notion of ‘originality’ in translation.This paper introduces a semiological viewpoint on these two movements, evaluating the similarities and incongruities between a postcolonial re-theorization of translation and an integrationist theoretical account of translation. It is argued that while postcolonial translation theories show some tendencies to break away from ‘the language myth’ inherent in colonial translation i.e. a supposition of pre-given language codes for translation to take place between (Harris, 2011a), demythologization is never the postcolonialists' primary concern nor achievement, who still ultimately rely on the language myth and its entailments to serve political ends.

THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SULUK WUJIL: SEMIOTICS ANALYSIS

Cultural heritage is a legacy of the past reflect the identity of a group ethnic or nation. Cultural heritage contains not only traditional values but also belief systems. One of intangible cultural heritage is Suluk Wujil. Suluk Wujil begins with the journey of a young man named Wujil who tries to find information about the chosen religion to the deepest secret. During the ten years of his journey, Wujil has not found the true truth about the nature of divinity and the meaning of his existence in the universe even though he has studied various kinds of science and knowledge. This research is in the form of qualitative descriptive with Roland Barthes's semiotics as the main instrument for analyzing data. The identified sign system is interpreted in two stages of significance (language level and myth level). Oriented to the core myths of Sufism, the illustrated rules of Makrifatullah are divided into four categories; the introduction stage (a human being must escape in understanding one's own authenticity in order to reach the highest epistemology in the universe,, search plan (the depth of the heart of a human being is a sacred place where divine nature is buried as the greatest secret (sirru sirr), the practice of reaching Makrifatullah must be totality and continuity through words (qouli), deeds (fi'li), mind (aqli), and heart (qolbu), and reflection of application (awareness of tolerance among fellow creatures (habluminannas) as the result of perfect understanding of the reality of divinity (habluminallah).

Translating the ‘Other’ for the Western World for more than a decade: Incredible India! campaigns

When we analyse and translate tourist texts promoting or dealing with nonWestern destinations we certainly have to take into account the weight of postcolonial discourses in the representation of these places in the tourist field. Many ex-colonies have become popular tourist destinations, while the detritus of post-colonialism have been transformed into tourist sights, including exotic peoples and customs; artefacts; indigenous lifestyles and cultural heritage (Craik). Therefore, if tourism reinforces postcolonial relationships, tourist texts are deeply embedded in colonial discourses. Some scholars have argued that tourism is a form of “leisure imperialism” and represents “the hedonistic face of neocolonialism” (Crick 322). Hall and Tucker have dedicated a volume to the relation between postcolonial thought and tourism referring back to Edward Said’s seminal work on Orientalism (1978) and to Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin’s The Empire Writes Back (1989), both works which outline the ontological and epistemological distinction that has been made between the Western world and the ‘Other’. Encounters with the non-Western have always provided fuel for myths and mythical language and tourism has developed its own promotional lexicon and repertoire of myths (Selwyn), and as a matter of fact, otherness can be an element that makes a destination worth a visit. Studies have demonstrated how the representation of the ‘Other’ is closely linked to the popularization of accounts of travels and explorations in imperial lands (Pratt; Spurr), and sadly this representation is still part of tourist place promotion (Hall and Page). It is a fact that tourism plays a central role in transforming collective and individual values through ideas of commoditization (Cohen), which implies that what were once cultural displays of living traditions or cultural texts of lived authenticity become cultural products that meet the needs of commercial tourism, as well as the construction of a supposed heritage. Such a situation leads to the invention of traditions and heritage for external consumption that meet visitors’ conceptions of the other (Helu-Thaman; Cronin et al.). A good example of representing a non-Western destination at an international level is the Indian campaign Incredible India launched in 2002 for the European, Asian Saggi/Ensayos/Essais/Essays N. 21 – 05/2019 125 and Middle East markets (Kant). Undertaken by the Government of India to promote India Tourism all over the world, the campaign was released by Ogilvy and Mather India in media print, internet and television. My analysis wants to outline how the main themes of the campaign (yoga, Ayurveda and other spirituality-related concepts, Indian cultures and culinary traditions and festivals all around the country, the cultural heritage and the natural resources) have been developed through time in order to ‘translate’ the uniqueness of India for the Western tourist in the last 15 years. The campaign Incredible India has been developed and renewed over the past few years and is still ongoing. My analysis will follow two stages: in the first I will deal with linguistic and visual techniques that create a determinate idea of India as a tourist destination, in the second I will compare texts in English with their translation into Italian, and specifically the creation of a campaign aimed at Italian tourists.

Peeling the onion top-down: Language policy in Serbia between power and myth

This paper considers the issue of language policy and planning in Serbia, as managed by the main competent institution, the Serbian Language Standardization Committee, a trans-state, national institution dealing with vital issues of language policy and planning. Specifically, assuming a Bourdieusian perspective, it investigates the ideology behind the Committee’s policies, grounded in a series of language myths, and the way these policies influence professionals and everyday language users. The effects of a rigid, strict educational system and a standard language culture by educators are shown in detail focusing on the Torlak dialect in Southern Serbia. The Serbian case reveals a constant promotion of censorship and a heightened understanding of the benefits of self-censorship in the language market. This can be seen in the pressure exerted on certain speakers and the threat their mother tongue represents for their status in the labor market.

Assistierter Suizid und der Geist des Katholizismus

The Christian churches speak out against the legalization of assisted suicide in a variety of documents by using religiously distant and profane arguments that, however, do not stand up to critical scrutiny. This is all the more astounding as the churches have the tradition of Dolorism and thus a body of belief that makes their position on assisted suicide plausible for explicitly religious reasons. It can be surmised that the attempt to veil the actual religious motivation with the help of bad profane arguments is due to the insight that in the secular world it is not promising to use the language of myth.

Россия–Грузия после империи: сборник статей by М. Лекке, Е. Чхаидзе

Reviewed by: Россия–Грузия после империи: сборник статей by М. Лекке, Е. Чхаидзе Daniele Artoni (bio) Россия–Грузия после империи: сборник статей / Сост. М. Лекке, Е. Чхаидзе. Москва: Новое литературное обозрение, 2018. 416 с. ISBN: 978-5-4448-0787-3. The volume Russia–Georgia After Empire is a collection of essays representing a variety of academic fields that aims at providing a clearer representation of the problematic transformations in the relationship between Russia and Georgia, with a particular focus on literary and cultural products and the history of ideas. Despite the composite nature of the publication, the volume is heterogeneous but consistent. The contributions are divided into four sections. Section 1 "Literature, Language, Knowledge" addresses the Georgian-Russian literary relations and the shift in their knowledge system during the Soviet and post-Soviet era (Mirja Lecke), and the role played by non-Russian accents and their cultural connotations in the Russian discourse of the same period (Gasan Gusejnov). One of the volume's editors, Lecke analyzes the Russo-Georgian relationship from the point of view of the relation between knowledge and power, by concentrating on the dichotomy center–periphery, the cult of classics, translations, and literary criticism, and how those vectors of knowledge have changed in the post-Soviet era. A final part of Lecke's essay on the status of Russian studies in independent Georgia sheds light on the political reasons beyond the success of postcolonial studies in national discourses. It would be interesting to analyze to what extent changes in language policies and the status of Russian studies have affected the use of the Russian language in contemporary Georgia.1 Gusejnov's sociolinguistic research challenges the myth of the standard Russian language and the ideological burden carried by non-Russian accent. In particular, he analyzes the socio-political connotations performed by the Georgian accent in jokes. Section 2 "Instead of Friendship" focusses on how literature has dealt with the post-Soviet wars, in particular by analysing new trends in both Russian and Georgian literatures (Elena Chkhaidze), reflecting upon the historical value of literature in war contexts (Zaza Abzianidze), [End Page 330] and examining the perception of Zaza Burchuladze's writings among Moscow's dissident intelligentsia (Dirk Uffelmann). The article by the second editor, Chkhaidze, serves as introduction to the whole section. The author adapts Said's model of orientalism to the case of Transcaucasia and Russia, rendering it as the dichotomy between North and South.2 Although the status of Russia as a Western-like entity in this classification is debatable, Chkhaidze claims that the stereotypes about Russia and the Southern Caucasus are in line with those regarding a global North and a global South, respectively.3 She reconstructs the mutual perception in the literary production, and how the continuum between the poles friends–enemies is affected by the geopolitical situation in different epochs. In particular, with reference to Georgia, during the Soviet time the idea of Russia as a colonizer was disguised in allegories, whereas Georgia was referred to as a flourishing region. The situation radically deteriorated after the wars in Abkhazia and Ossetia, as war, refugees, and troubled identities became central themes in literature. Abzianidze's contribution demonstrates how literature in the post-Soviet context of military confrontations gained credit as an alternative history, especially when addressing unconventional values in such chaotic circumstances. The last chapter in this section, written by Uffelmann, is a superb and meticulous study on the reception of Burchuladze in Russia. Using the New Economic Criticism approach, Uffelmann demonstrates how the fortune of the author is connected to the interest of Muscovite dissident intelligentsia in contemporary Georgian cultural production. Section 3, "Empire's Legacy," is dedicated to postcolonial and post-imperial readings of Georgian and Russian literary works, like the literary representation of toasting in the poetry of Grigol Orbeliani (Harsha Ram), the presence of hybridity and mimicry in Chabua Amirejibi's novel Data Tutsashkhia (Bela Tsipuria), the influence of anti-imperial Georgian historiography in the historical novels of Mikhei Javakhishvili and Otar Chiladze (Donald Rayfield), the role of Russian culture in the post-Soviet Caucasus as outlined in Andrey Bitov's and Pyotr Vail's travelogues (Joanna Kula), and the orientalist views of Georgia in Polish travelogues (Monika Bednarczuk). Ram's chapter was first published as an article in English in Ab Imperio.4 [End Page 331...

Jungian Gnosticism of the Ecclesia Gnostica

This article examines the ways in which Stephan Hoeller, head of the Ecclesia Gnostica, has transformed a very diverse set of late antique currents, with doctrines phrased in a mythic language unfamiliar to most moderns and rituals only sketchily documented in the sources, into a form of lived religiosity relevant for contemporary audiences.

Polite vocabulary in the Javanese language of Surabaya

Surabaya and its surroundings are known for their peculiar dialect, which does not only exhibit very characteristic phonological and morphological features, but also has a politeness, honorific, and deferential system that has so far remained largely understudied. It is the aim of this paper to shed further light on the sociolinguistic situation of the Javanese dialect of the city of Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia with a focus on the polite vocabulary (Krama, Krama Andhap, and Krama Inggil). Although to the Central Javanese ear, speakers of Surabayan Javanese sound discourteous, they by no means are impolite. After a general introduction about the linguistic situation in Surabaya, a brief typological summary of politeness systems throughout the world is given, which helps debunk the persistent language myth that speakers of Surabayan Javanese are rude. This paper will show that the dialect rather exhibits a binary T-V distinction in politeness similar to that in French and German, as opposed to the strict speech level system as found in Central Javanese, Korean, and Japanese.

Парадокси студентського слововживання, або У моєї бабусі дуже наглий кітПарадокси студентського слововживання, або У моєї бабусі дуже наглий кіт

Linguistic and communicative deviations in students’ utterances should be studied in conjunction with sociocultural deviations; thus, the limits of the traditional classification of lexical and semantic mistakes expand. They include the usage of lexical units without social taboos, violation of lexical distribution rules through semantic ignorance, false occasional usage of the words; violation of logical structures of associative representations; violation of the syntactic and semantic valence rules, ignorance of the words’ semantic features, pleonastic structures, tautology, inappropriate usage of paronyms, lack of knowledge of the obsolete words semantics, wrong inter-lingual homonymy, misinterpretation of semantic idioms, and the usage of local dialecticisms. Sociocultural characteristics are the oxymoron interpretation of the words in the context; resorting to criminal jargon and urban slang in academia, unnatural rural themed discourse, consumerism. Fragmentation of knowledge leads to communicative speech deviations and functional illiteracy. Students’ word usage becomes characterized by paradoxicality and occasionalism. The purposeful methodological work with each student is a way to overcome linguistic deviations. Fostering ethic values, constructing logical statements, work with dictionaries of various types, the enrichment of the individual’s active vocabulary, self-control of speech behavior, reading belles-lettres, learning poetry by heart, close attention to every new word learned by the student. A necessary condition for overcoming linguistic cultural deviations is the state status of the Ukrainian language, the destruction of the myth of the Ukrainian language being obsolete or rural.

Semites and Semitism: From Philology to the Language of Myth

This contribution analyses the transition from the “Semites”, which were derived, in early Semitic philology, from linguistic classification, to “Semitism,” a category combining linguistics, psychology, and cultural history. Goldziher’s critique of Renan’s understanding of Semitism not only led to a new logic of peoples in an economy of invention, transformation, and circulation but also, through the analysis of the names of the gods, to the reconstruction of a language of myth characterized by an inherent duality. With Carl Abel’s work on contradiction in primeval words, this question of duality in the language of myth is linked to Freud’s research on the language of dreams, conceived as remnant of an old primitive stratus of language. Karl Abraham’s Myths and Dreams (1909) and Otto Rank’s The Birth of the Hero (1909) also reveal the inspiration early psychoanalysis found in some reflections on Semitism: both combined insights from Semitic philology and the science of mythology with those of dream interpretation. When Freud finally offered his own interpretation of Moses in Moses and Monotheism (1939), his psychoanalytical reading revealed the potential of the philological and psychological reconstruction of the language of myth: he also read the names as traces of circulation and the canonical text as an archive of conflicts, but transformed traces into symptoms.

SETTING OF DEVELOPED COUNTRY IN DRAMA SCRIPT “NYAYIAN RIMBAYANA” (A Study of Roland Barthes’ Semiotics with Myth of Liberal Capitalism)

The analysis of this research basically concerns issue of setting of developed country which is depicted through the sign systems found in the drama script “Nyayian Rimbayana”. Principally, the research is a descriptive qualitative research with Roland Barthes’s semiotics as the main tool to examine the data. The sign systems detected are interpreted in two orders of significations (language level and myth level). Observed based on the myth of liberal capitalism, the setting of developed country illustrated through the sign systems are specifically in principles of modernity of infrastructure (infrastructure appearance); diversity of social class, capital force (social class); mercantilism, non-intervention of government, policies of encouragement, the disregard of domestic policies, and non-inward-looking development policies (leader role); and market force, free market system, openness of country’s economies, profit motive, private ownership property, and no legal limit on the accumulation of property (industrial prototype).
 Key words: Drama, semiotics, developed country, liberal capitalism.

The many errors of Vyvyan Evans’ The Language Myth

AbstractVyvyan Evans’

Linguists, Romglish and “Verbal Hygiene”

Abstract Emphasising the importance of language ideological research into the attitudes of linguists (Milroy 2012) and taking as points of reference concepts such as “verbal hygiene” (Cameron 1995), “standard language ideology” (Milroy and Milroy 1999) and “language myths” (Watts 2011), the present paper focuses on two recent interviews given by prominent linguists, where the emphasis falls on “Romglish”, a much-discussed label in the contemporary Romanian media. The paper identifies (as central to these linguists’ attitudes) myths such as those relating to homogeneity and legitimacy, discussing the pertinence of such myths in the present context of globalisation.

Philosophical Reflections on the Shaping of Identity in Fundamentalist Religious Communities

This paper employs Ricoeur’s hermeneutic approach to examine how fundamentalist religious communities shape personal and social identity. His biblical hermeneutics is used to analyze how narrative texts of various genres open a ‘fundamentalist’ world, while also challenging his monolithic emphasis on written texts (and his exclusive focus on the biblical texts). I argue that a wider variety of texts as well as rituals and other media must be examined, which all inform and display the fundamentalist world in important ways. Second, I employ his analysis of the formation of identity and action to understand how identity is framed and prescribed by fundamentalist communities for their members. Finally, I draw on Ricoeur’s account of symbolism and move from first to second naïveté to provide an account of how fundamentalist communities respond to modernity and the threat of Enlightenment rationality. I argue that, contra what Ricoeur proposes, earlier mythic language was highly polyphonic and not understood literally. Fundamentalist communities move to more literalist understandings in response to modernity. Thus, while Ricoeur’s hermeneutic approach is richly useful for a philosophical approach to religious fundamentalism, the close examination of this phenomenon enables a broadening of Ricoeur’s work on religion, symbolism and identity.

Language myths and publishing mysteries: A response to Politzer-Ahles et al.

Language myths and publishing mysteries: A response to Politzer-Ahles et al.