Pub Date : 2020-11-05DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.2.27-45
Sándor Czeglédi
The present paper examines the shifting orientations towards languages and linguistic diversity in the United States by analysing relevant Congressional and presidential documents from the beginning of the American nation-building experience until the outbreak of the Civil War. The investigation focuses on the legislative activities of the Continental Congress and those of the first thirty-six federal Congresses as recorded primarily in the Journals of the respective legislative bodies. Additionally, the presidential documents of the first fifteen Chief Executives, from George Washington to James Buchanan, are examined from the same perspective. The preliminary results indicate that the most salient language policy development of the post-1789 period was the overall shift from the symbolic, general language-related remarks towards the formulation of substantive, general policies, frequently conceived in an assimilation-oriented spirit in the broader context of territorial expansion. Although presidents were considerably more reluctant to address language-related matters than the federal legislature, the need to revise the statutes of the United States was recognised as a presidential priority as early as the 1850s.
{"title":"Nine Decades of Dealing with Diversity: Language-Related Attitudes, Ideologies and Policies in Federal-Level US Legislative and Executive Documents from 1774 to 1861","authors":"Sándor Czeglédi","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.2.27-45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.2.27-45","url":null,"abstract":"The present paper examines the shifting orientations towards languages and linguistic diversity in the United States by analysing relevant Congressional and presidential documents from the beginning of the American nation-building experience until the outbreak of the Civil War. The investigation focuses on the legislative activities of the Continental Congress and those of the first thirty-six federal Congresses as recorded primarily in the Journals of the respective legislative bodies. Additionally, the presidential documents of the first fifteen Chief Executives, from George Washington to James Buchanan, are examined from the same perspective. The preliminary results indicate that the most salient language policy development of the post-1789 period was the overall shift from the symbolic, general language-related remarks towards the formulation of substantive, general policies, frequently conceived in an assimilation-oriented spirit in the broader context of territorial expansion. Although presidents were considerably more reluctant to address language-related matters than the federal legislature, the need to revise the statutes of the United States was recognised as a presidential priority as early as the 1850s.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"27-45"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45249655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-05DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.2.165-176
Yana Manova-Georgieva
Nominative symbolism in fantasy is a tool to attribute certain traits to literary characters and thus to convey meaning which enriches the readers’ comprehension of the fictitious personality. Proper names in the English naming tradition are not generally seen as means of alluding to the character of a person, yet they have sometimes been chosen purposefully by writers so as to reveal the idea that a symbolic name tries to convey. The paper therefore aims at investigating the origin and author’s intended meaning behind the names of some recurrent literary characters in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series from the viewpoint of their structure and the allusions they evoke in the reader’s imagination. The analysis includes five names presenting three different structures: neologisms based on syntactic composition, imitations of borrowed structures that are foreign to the English model of naming, and typical English naming models where name symbolism is due to the lexical choice of the components in the name.
{"title":"What’s Behind a Name? Origins and Meaning of Some of the Recurrent Characters in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld","authors":"Yana Manova-Georgieva","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.2.165-176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.2.165-176","url":null,"abstract":"Nominative symbolism in fantasy is a tool to attribute certain traits to literary characters and thus to convey meaning which enriches the readers’ comprehension of the fictitious personality. Proper names in the English naming tradition are not generally seen as means of alluding to the character of a person, yet they have sometimes been chosen purposefully by writers so as to reveal the idea that a symbolic name tries to convey. The paper therefore aims at investigating the origin and author’s intended meaning behind the names of some recurrent literary characters in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series from the viewpoint of their structure and the allusions they evoke in the reader’s imagination. The analysis includes five names presenting three different structures: neologisms based on syntactic composition, imitations of borrowed structures that are foreign to the English model of naming, and typical English naming models where name symbolism is due to the lexical choice of the components in the name.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"165-176"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46767997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-05DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.2.117-136
Parisa Changizi
This article aims to analyse Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia from an ecological perspective. In her ecologically conscious story, Le Guin explores the (ironic) manifestation and repercussions of humanity’s environmental fear, the virtues and ills of an ever-evasive ecological utopian society that is paradoxically informed by eco-friendly and ecophobic propensities in its pursuit of freedom through the vigorous practice of the art of dispossession, and the possibility of transcending the hyper-separated categories of difference that include the human/non-human dichotomy. What Le Guin seeks in her fictional effort above all is a permanent revolution advocating a never-ending diligent and earnest endeavour to effect an improved, preferable society with a revised awareness of its relations to its human and non-human Others, free from the ethic of exploitation rather than a promotion of an already achieved perfect state.
{"title":"“Permanent Revolution” to Effect an Ever-Evasive (Ecological) Utopia in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia","authors":"Parisa Changizi","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.2.117-136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.2.117-136","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to analyse Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia from an ecological perspective. In her ecologically conscious story, Le Guin explores the (ironic) manifestation and repercussions of humanity’s environmental fear, the virtues and ills of an ever-evasive ecological utopian society that is paradoxically informed by eco-friendly and ecophobic propensities in its pursuit of freedom through the vigorous practice of the art of dispossession, and the possibility of transcending the hyper-separated categories of difference that include the human/non-human dichotomy. What Le Guin seeks in her fictional effort above all is a permanent revolution advocating a never-ending diligent and earnest endeavour to effect an improved, preferable society with a revised awareness of its relations to its human and non-human Others, free from the ethic of exploitation rather than a promotion of an already achieved perfect state.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"117-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45301512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-30DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.2.47-59
Dušan Gabrovšek
The paper highlights the dictionary of English usage as a type of specialized language dictionary. Such dictionaries have been created in either the time-honored prescriptivist tradition or the more recent descriptivist one. Virtually all dictionaries of English usage are monolingual, i.e. all-English. While most dictionaries of English usage have been designed for native speakers of English, there are also a few notable works made particularly for non-native speakers of the language. The main part of the paper is devoted to the suggestion and formulation of guidelines for creating a bilingual, specifically English/Slovene encoding-oriented usage dictionary as a useful, reliable, varied, and user-friendly work of reference intended primarily for advanced-level Slovene speakers of English. The dictionary offers some features that are uncommon in today’s dictionaries, especially the use of both languages in many entries, and some entries challenging the user to find the solution to the language problem listed for themselves. The final section presents 20 selected entries from the envisioned usage dictionary.
{"title":"The Bilingual Usage Dictionary","authors":"Dušan Gabrovšek","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.2.47-59","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.2.47-59","url":null,"abstract":"The paper highlights the dictionary of English usage as a type of specialized language dictionary. Such dictionaries have been created in either the time-honored prescriptivist tradition or the more recent descriptivist one. Virtually all dictionaries of English usage are monolingual, i.e. all-English. While most dictionaries of English usage have been designed for native speakers of English, there are also a few notable works made particularly for non-native speakers of the language. The main part of the paper is devoted to the suggestion and formulation of guidelines for creating a bilingual, specifically English/Slovene encoding-oriented usage dictionary as a useful, reliable, varied, and user-friendly work of reference intended primarily for advanced-level Slovene speakers of English. The dictionary offers some features that are uncommon in today’s dictionaries, especially the use of both languages in many entries, and some entries challenging the user to find the solution to the language problem listed for themselves. The final section presents 20 selected entries from the envisioned usage dictionary.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"47-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41464054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The short answer to the question in the title is: not exactly, no. This paper examines the confusion between phonetics on the one hand and pronunciation on the other. It looks at what phonetics actually is (its acoustic, articulatory and auditory components), and attempts to dispel the popular myth that studying or teaching ‘(English) phonetics’ and studying or teaching ‘(English) pronunciation’ are one and the same thing – in fact, the former is general phonetics, the latter applied phonetics. Reviewing 100 years of thoughts about English pronunciation teaching (from Daniel Jones to Geoff Lindsey) it examines the contribution phonetics is considered to make in this field, looking at the roles of both phonetic theory and ear-training in pronunciation acquisition from teachers’ and learners’ perspectives. It concludes by summarizing what phonetics today can offer the language learner.
{"title":"Does Phonetics = Pronunciation? 100 Years of Phonetics in Pronunciation Teaching","authors":"P. Ashby","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.2.9-26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.2.9-26","url":null,"abstract":"The short answer to the question in the title is: not exactly, no. This paper examines the confusion between phonetics on the one hand and pronunciation on the other. It looks at what phonetics actually is (its acoustic, articulatory and auditory components), and attempts to dispel the popular myth that studying or teaching ‘(English) phonetics’ and studying or teaching ‘(English) pronunciation’ are one and the same thing – in fact, the former is general phonetics, the latter applied phonetics. Reviewing 100 years of thoughts about English pronunciation teaching (from Daniel Jones to Geoff Lindsey) it examines the contribution phonetics is considered to make in this field, looking at the roles of both phonetic theory and ear-training in pronunciation acquisition from teachers’ and learners’ perspectives. It concludes by summarizing what phonetics today can offer the language learner.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"9-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46835428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
When Margaret Atwood celebrated her 80th birthday in November 2019, there was a feeling that the occasion called for a burst of applause – figuratively speaking. Around Europe, many Canadian scholars and Canadian Studies Associations responded with a range of activities. Slovenia contributed handsomely: first, with an event at the Univerzitetna knjižnica Maribor – Fourscore and More: Margaret Atwood at Eighty – and second, with this special issue dedicated to Atwood’s recent work.
{"title":"Introduction: Atwood at 80","authors":"M. Gadpaille, Jason A. Blake","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.1.9-11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.1.9-11","url":null,"abstract":"When Margaret Atwood celebrated her 80th birthday in November 2019, there was a feeling that the occasion called for a burst of applause – figuratively speaking. Around Europe, many Canadian scholars and Canadian Studies Associations responded with a range of activities. Slovenia contributed handsomely: first, with an event at the Univerzitetna knjižnica Maribor – Fourscore and More: Margaret Atwood at Eighty – and second, with this special issue dedicated to Atwood’s recent work.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81935378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.257-278
Susanne Ramadan Shunnaq, Adel Abu Radwan, Hassan Shuqair
This study examines Sultan Qaboos University senior translation students’ renditions of metaphors taken from speeches delivered as part of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. An explanatory mixed-methods approach is used to determine, firstly, students’ recognition of the metaphor as a construct; secondly, their translation of identified metaphors and the ensuing difficulties they encountered owing to linguistic, rhetorical, and/or cultural considerations; and finally the strategies they adopted to overcome these difficulties. The findings reveal that the students encountered difficulties recognising certain metaphors in the English texts (STs) and faced considerable challenges in translating them appropriately into the target language (TL), which is Arabic. The study concludes with recommendations for translation teachers and translator trainers.
{"title":"Problems in Translating Metaphors in Political Campaign Speeches: A Descriptive-Analytical Study","authors":"Susanne Ramadan Shunnaq, Adel Abu Radwan, Hassan Shuqair","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.257-278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.257-278","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines Sultan Qaboos University senior translation students’ renditions of metaphors taken from speeches delivered as part of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. An explanatory mixed-methods approach is used to determine, firstly, students’ recognition of the metaphor as a construct; secondly, their translation of identified metaphors and the ensuing difficulties they encountered owing to linguistic, rhetorical, and/or cultural considerations; and finally the strategies they adopted to overcome these difficulties. The findings reveal that the students encountered difficulties recognising certain metaphors in the English texts (STs) and faced considerable challenges in translating them appropriately into the target language (TL), which is Arabic. The study concludes with recommendations for translation teachers and translator trainers.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74438818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-19DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.1.111-124
Rano Ringo, Jasmine Sharma
This paper proposes an epistemological interpretation of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam (2013). Set in a post-anthropocene world, Atwood’s biopunk work indicates the rise of posthumanism after the “Waterless Flood” that proves apocalyptic. This interpretation is attempted through emphasis on the protagonist Toby’s practice of epistemic writing and her art of storytelling. Divided into two major sections, the article illustrates a revival of an epistemological feminist subculture. The first section discusses the significance of a feminist standpoint in unravelling posthuman reality. It describes Toby’s epistemological endeavor to enlighten the Crakers and enrich their bioengineered minds with the story of their creation. The second section builds upon the idea of bisexual writing and Toby as its prime progenerator and practitioner. The conclusion remarks on the relevance of feminist epistemology in integrating the two communities in the post-anthropocene.
{"title":"Reading a Feminist Epistemology in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam","authors":"Rano Ringo, Jasmine Sharma","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.1.111-124","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.1.111-124","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes an epistemological interpretation of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam (2013). Set in a post-anthropocene world, Atwood’s biopunk work indicates the rise of posthumanism after the “Waterless Flood” that proves apocalyptic. This interpretation is attempted through emphasis on the protagonist Toby’s practice of epistemic writing and her art of storytelling. Divided into two major sections, the article illustrates a revival of an epistemological feminist subculture. The first section discusses the significance of a feminist standpoint in unravelling posthuman reality. It describes Toby’s epistemological endeavor to enlighten the Crakers and enrich their bioengineered minds with the story of their creation. The second section builds upon the idea of bisexual writing and Toby as its prime progenerator and practitioner. The conclusion remarks on the relevance of feminist epistemology in integrating the two communities in the post-anthropocene.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"111-124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43775978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-12DOI: 10.4312/elope.17.1.143-158
Nikola Tutek
This paper offers analyses of the semantic interrelations between illustrations and written text in short stories from two flash fiction collections by Margaret Atwood: Bones and Murder (1994) and The Tent (2006). The analyses are based on the technical, generic, and thematic features of the illustrations, on the influences traceable in both illustrations and texts, and on the set of defined multimodal interrelations. The results of the analyses are expressed numerically and comparatively.
{"title":"Atwood in Numbers: A Numerical Approach Comparing the Illustrations in Bones and Murder and The Tent","authors":"Nikola Tutek","doi":"10.4312/elope.17.1.143-158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.17.1.143-158","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers analyses of the semantic interrelations between illustrations and written text in short stories from two flash fiction collections by Margaret Atwood: Bones and Murder (1994) and The Tent (2006). The analyses are based on the technical, generic, and thematic features of the illustrations, on the influences traceable in both illustrations and texts, and on the set of defined multimodal interrelations. The results of the analyses are expressed numerically and comparatively.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"17 1","pages":"143-158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47432074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-02DOI: 10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.83-100
Magda Sučková
First language attrition has been shown to affect many areas of linguistic performance in immigrants to other countries. In phonetics, there is often a shift towards the majority language phonetic features, and, in some cases, the speakers may cease to be perceived as native altogether. This article presents the results of a foreign accent rating study, showing that even Anglophone expatriates are not immune to L1 attrition despite the (relative) lack of pressure to linguistically assimilate due to the status of their mother tongue as a prestigious and desirable-to-master language. The quantitative results are augmented by personal narratives of the expatriate informants, showing that what is often dismissed as mere anecdotal evidence may in fact bear a strong correspondence to the quantitative data.
{"title":"Acquisition of a Foreign Accent by Native Speakers of English Living in the Czech Republic","authors":"Magda Sučková","doi":"10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.83-100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4312/ELOPE.17.2.83-100","url":null,"abstract":"First language attrition has been shown to affect many areas of linguistic performance in immigrants to other countries. In phonetics, there is often a shift towards the majority language phonetic features, and, in some cases, the speakers may cease to be perceived as native altogether. This article presents the results of a foreign accent rating study, showing that even Anglophone expatriates are not immune to L1 attrition despite the (relative) lack of pressure to linguistically assimilate due to the status of their mother tongue as a prestigious and desirable-to-master language. The quantitative results are augmented by personal narratives of the expatriate informants, showing that what is often dismissed as mere anecdotal evidence may in fact bear a strong correspondence to the quantitative data.","PeriodicalId":37589,"journal":{"name":"ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86493888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}