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Adamantios Korais as language reformer

Peter Mackridge

in Language and National Identity in Greece, 1766-1976

This chapter discusses the linguistic theory and practice of the chief proponent of language reform at the time, Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). The origins of Korais' linguistic theory are traced to ... More

This chapter discusses the linguistic theory and practice of the chief proponent of language reform at the time, Adamantios Korais (1748-1833). The origins of Korais' linguistic theory are traced to the work of 18th-century theorists, particularly Condillac. His proposals for the reform of the Modern Greek language are analysed in terms of the following: his worship of ancient Greek perfection; his defence of Modern Greek against the aspersions cast on it by the archaists; and his ‘correction’ of Modern Greek according to the morphological rules of Ancient Greek. The chapter ends with an assessment of Korais' contribution to the language question and an account of the impact of Korais' ideas on later developments. The assessment is broadly negative, because Korais lent his enormous prestige to the already existing habit of mixing the modern language with grammatical features of the ancient, thereby encouraging later Greeks to use yet more ancient features in their writing.Less

Intralingual Translation: Genuine and False Dilemmas

Dimitris N. Maronitis

in Translation and the Classic: Identity as Change in the History of Culture

This chapter scrutinises intralingual translation in the wider context of interlingual translation, while focusing specifically on the translation of ancient Greek texts into modern Greek. In the ... More

This chapter scrutinises intralingual translation in the wider context of interlingual translation, while focusing specifically on the translation of ancient Greek texts into modern Greek. In the process, it sheds light on certain problems and dilemmas that interlingual translation has bequeathed to intralingual translation, both on a theoretical and a practical level, such as: a) the degree of translatability of classical texts; b) the conventional distinctions between scholarly, word-for-word translations and freer, literary ones; and c) the dilemma between a ‘retrospectively’ linguistic and stylistic translation, and a synchronic translation. The chapter also attempts to sketch, classify, and comment upon the long history of intralingual translation from Greek antiquity to the present day, and to discuss in detail the ideologically motivated comparisons of and conflicts between ancient and modern Greek with particular reference to intralinguistic translations. It draws attention to and exemplifies certain positive and certain negative or problematic aspects of intralingual translation, as the latter has been and is still practised in the educational, academic, and public space of modern Greece.Less

Modern Languages and Linguistics

Rebecca Posner

in The History of the University of Oxford: Volume VII: Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2

The establishment of the honour school of Modern Languages at Oxford University, in 1903, took place in a period which witnessed innovations in language study all over Europe. These were related in ... More

The establishment of the honour school of Modern Languages at Oxford University, in 1903, took place in a period which witnessed innovations in language study all over Europe. These were related in large part to the spread of popular education and greater international scholarly interchange, led by the outstandingly successful German educational establishments. In Britain, interest in Oriental languages had been nurtured particularly by colonial contacts, though theologians were of course interested in the Semitic languages. Those who advocated the study of modern European languages, in universities as well as in schools, had to contend against upholders of the pre-eminence of classical studies, a conflict which reflected differing political and cultural predilections. The powerful conservative opposition to modern linguistic studies in Oxford, and among Oxford MAs, is a recurrent theme of this volume. They were seen as smacking of opportunism and dilettantism, and, more important, as a potential threat to the hallowed dominance of Greek and Latin.Less

Ian Dalrymple McFarlane, 1915–2002

Terence Cave

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 124. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, III

Ian Mcfarlane belonged to the generation of scholars whose early careers were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Drawing on the sense of a new start and a radical break with past ... More

Ian Mcfarlane belonged to the generation of scholars whose early careers were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Drawing on the sense of a new start and a radical break with past habits and prejudices that characterised the post-1945 era, that generation brought about a major renewal of modern languages as a university discipline, ensuring that it would henceforth be regarded as equal in status to other arts subjects. The importance of this task in post-war Europe can hardly be over-estimated, and Ian was certainly conscious of its magnitude. He spent the thirty-eight years of his academic career training the modern linguists of the next generation, many of whom are now themselves leaders in the subject, and he set an example of meticulously thorough yet enlightened scholarship in each of the several distinct areas in which he worked.Less

Higher Education, 1793–1908

SUSAN M. PARKES

in A New History of Ireland, Volume VI: Ireland Under the Union, II: 1870-1921

This chapter discusses key developments in higher education in Ireland during the period from 1793 to 1908. It suggests that the development of Irish higher education in the nineteenth century was ... More

This chapter discusses key developments in higher education in Ireland during the period from 1793 to 1908. It suggests that the development of Irish higher education in the nineteenth century was marked by three major movements: the gradual secularisation of university education; the democratisation of higher education; and the broadening of university curriculum to include modern languages, the social sciences, and the pure and applied sciences.Less

Modern Languages

Rebecca Beasley

in Russomania: Russian culture and the creation of British modernism, 1881-1922

The third interchapter chapter looks at how Russian language and literature was taught and learned in Britain. While the main chapters show that the British canon of Russian literature was largely ... More

The third interchapter chapter looks at how Russian language and literature was taught and learned in Britain. While the main chapters show that the British canon of Russian literature was largely the creation of a small number of amateur translators and critics, at the turn of the century the study of Russian was becoming professionalized, with increasing numbers of schools and universities offering courses in Russian. Political imperatives shaped styles of teaching, and in particular the role of literature on Russian courses. The narrow association of Russian literature with realism, deployed by the populists of the nineteenth century, also served the purposes of those who promoted the teaching of Russian as a means of understanding a political and, it was hoped, commercial ally.Less

Why French Studies Matters: Disciplinary Identity and Public Understanding

Charles Forsdick

in French Studies in and for the Twenty-first Century

This chapter considers the reasons why modern languages continue to be seen as more of an undergraduate subject than many other humanities disciplines. It considers the associated risks faced by ... More

This chapter considers the reasons why modern languages continue to be seen as more of an undergraduate subject than many other humanities disciplines. It considers the associated risks faced by modern languages, specifically by French Studies, as a result of various practicalities: as with other humanities subjects, the potential for grant capture among modern linguists can never compete with STEM areas; unlike many other humanities disciplines, modern languages have declined at GCSE and A Level; and practitioners in the field are challenged, moreover, to be particularly innovative when it comes to attracting overseas students who are more inclined to study in countries where target languages are spoken and where fees are often a fraction of those charged in the English-speaking world.Less

“Adventurers in Print”: Modern Classics

in Translation, Subjectivity, and Culture in France and England, 1600-1800

In the sixteenth century, the term “naturalization” became prominent as the passage from “foreign” to “native” took on special significance. In both French and English, translation has long been ... More

In the sixteenth century, the term “naturalization” became prominent as the passage from “foreign” to “native” took on special significance. In both French and English, translation has long been viewed as a form of, or an activity similar to, naturalization, the legal process for conferring a particular citizenship to foreigners. Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, one of the most thoroughly “naturalized” texts of all time, has many versions that show why translations do not entirely fade into their surroundings. During the first 150 years of translations of Don Quixote, a new phenomenon, the “modern classic,” emerged at the same time as the modern use of the word “literature” in both French and English over the course of the eighteenth century. This chapter examines translation from the modern languages, focusing on the practice of conferring formal critical prefaces and notes on modern works. It looks at the French treatment of English writers such as Alexander Pope, William Shakespeare, Samuel Richardson, and Edward Young. In particular, it examines Pierre-Antoine de La Place's translation of Shakespeare, including his eight-volume anthology Le Théâtre anglois.Less

The exception anglo-saxonne? Diversity and Viability of French Studies in the UK

Adrian Armstrong

in French Studies in and for the Twenty-first Century

This chapter evaluates the capacity of French Studies to evolve in the near future. It considers the challenges for student and staff recruitment and curriculum development, as French loses its ... More

This chapter evaluates the capacity of French Studies to evolve in the near future. It considers the challenges for student and staff recruitment and curriculum development, as French loses its traditional preponderance within modern foreign languages in British education. It asks whether the discipline's diversity is threatened by larger processes of change, or enables UK departments to deal with those processes more effectively. It calls on university departments to take the French-speaking world and defamiliarise it, designing and delivering curricula that can inspire through the unexpected.Less

ASL: The Little Language That Could

Brenda Jo Brueggemann

in Worlds Apart?: Disability and Foreign Language Learning

This chapter argues that it is time to move on and away from the defensive outsider and approval-seeking positions that ASL has typically occupied in the academy, especially in relation to other ... More

This chapter argues that it is time to move on and away from the defensive outsider and approval-seeking positions that ASL has typically occupied in the academy, especially in relation to other foreign/modern languages. It is time to move discussions, perspectives, and placements of ASL into a position of potential, promise, and linguistic-cultural power. In the spirit of that move, the author grounds all the points made in this chapter by invoking ASL as the little language that could: the little language that could, in fact, turn out to be anything but little for those students who get the chance to learn it during their college years; the little language that could make people think hard about what language is and can do, challenging and yet also affirming their ideas and beliefs about languages and culture; and the little language that could rumble and steam right through the established stations of language and literature programs in the academy, potentially overtaking some of the bigger trains.Less

Conclusion: Taking On Leftovers

Ruth Cruickshank

in Leftovers: Eating, Drinking and Re-thinking with Case Studies from Post-war French Fiction

Leftovers concludes as it begins: by identifying the untapped interpretative potential in representations of eating and drinking. It recalls how the critical approaches re-thought in terms of ... More

Leftovers concludes as it begins: by identifying the untapped interpretative potential in representations of eating and drinking. It recalls how the critical approaches re-thought in terms of leftovers in Chapter 1 are used in new ways and combinations to explore representations of food and drink in the literary case studies. Writing, reading and feeding emerge as simultaneously ambivalent and transformative processes, which always exceed intentions, spanning the symbolic and the material and evoking leftovers of psychology, ideology and identity. As well as insights into the sample of critical and literary texts (and into post-war France), there are new understandings of the effects of gender, race and class power relations, of unregulated excess and of the impossibility of escaping leftovers of language, desire and repressed traumas. Necessarily only a taste of re-thinking with leftovers, the book offers a springboard for interdisciplinary developments across and beyond comparative, cultural, ecocritical, film, food, gender, modern languages and literary studies. Leftovers offers creative, critical inspiration to explore other theoretical and aesthetic projects which use or are legible through food and drink, enabling a re-thinking of the roles that eating and drinking may play in any kind of representational practice, historical or contemporary, from across the world.Less

Introduction

Philippe Lane and Michael Worton

in French Studies in and for the Twenty-first Century

This introductory chapter briefly sets out the book's purpose, which is to paint a picture of French Studies in the UK. It then cites the main challenge faced by modern language education, namely the ... More

This introductory chapter briefly sets out the book's purpose, which is to paint a picture of French Studies in the UK. It then cites the main challenge faced by modern language education, namely the lack of financial support from the government. It argues that the modern languages community must take a lead in advocacy, explaining and demonstrating why and how languages are vital to every higher education experience, be it in the UK or elsewhere in the world. In this work, French Studies has a particularly important leadership role to play, since French remains the most widely studied and researched language in the UK.Less

Homesign as a way-station between co-speech gesture and sign language: the evolution of segmentation and sequencing

Ann Senghas, Asli Özyürek, and Susan Goldin-Meadow

in The Evolutionary Emergence of Language: Evidence and Inference

This chapter takes segmentation and combination to be a fundamental feature of modern languages, bringing to bear on the evolution of this feature evidence derived from some newly emergent linguistic ... More

This chapter takes segmentation and combination to be a fundamental feature of modern languages, bringing to bear on the evolution of this feature evidence derived from some newly emergent linguistic systems. The systems at issue are the homesign systems used by Nicaraguan and Turkish children, and the emerging Nicaraguan Sign Language. It focuses on how these emerging systems express motion events, a domain that presents rich possibilities for both holistic and segmented representational formats. It describes an indirect relation between present-day language emergence and language evolution. This view forms a sobering corrective on accounts in which inferences to language evolution from data about restricted linguistic systems such as pidgin languages and homesign, amongst others, are drawn in too facile a manner.Less

Women as authors, audience, and authorities in the French tradition

Wendy Ayres-Bennett

in Women in the History of Linguistics

This chapter considers the role played by women in French linguistic thought from the sixteenth century to the period up to 1900. I begin by presenting grammars, dictionaries, and other ... More

This chapter considers the role played by women in French linguistic thought from the sixteenth century to the period up to 1900. I begin by presenting grammars, dictionaries, and other metalinguistic texts by women before looking at their function as dedicatees or as the intended audience of such texts. Next, I examine the role played by women as editors, philologists and, in particular, as translators, an activity closely related to metalinguistic writing and the development of a standard written language. Third, I outline the development of women’s education and their responsibilities as educators, whether as mothers or in more formal settings. Finally, I consider the role played by women as linguistic models, and examine what metalinguistic texts have to say about their language—whether positive or negative—and how this contributes to the emergence of le bon usage (‘good usage’) in the French tradition.Less

Origins of grammatical ši: Southern Arabia or the Levant?

David Wilmsen

in Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators: A Linguistic History of Western Dialects

Similarities between southern peninsular Arabic dialects and the Modern South Arabian languages support a southern pre-diaspora origin for the Arabic dialects negating and interrogating with reflexes ... More

Similarities between southern peninsular Arabic dialects and the Modern South Arabian languages support a southern pre-diaspora origin for the Arabic dialects negating and interrogating with reflexes of šī. Most share an existential particle analogous to the Arabic šī found in Yemeni, Omani, and Syrian varieties, at least, and Mehri possesses an indefinite determiner śi that functions exactly like the analogous Arabic šī. Southern Arabic speakers were probably in the Fertile Crescent as early as seven centuries before Islam and maybe twice that many, ample time for a southern Arabic feature to become established in the Levant. Current dialect distributions probably originate in the displacement of the old southern Arab Christian elite by Arabic-speaking Muslims from Central Arabia.Less

Dictionaries and Other Works of Reference

Elizabeth Knowles

in The History of Oxford University Press: Volume II: 1780 to 1896

The nineteenth century was a period in which amateur and professional alike worked ardently to categorize and structure knowledge. This resulted in the commercial publication of dictionaries, ... More

The nineteenth century was a period in which amateur and professional alike worked ardently to categorize and structure knowledge. This resulted in the commercial publication of dictionaries, encyclopedias, street directories, and catalogues of libraries and other collections. Press publications reflect these developments in an academic context and included a significant number of lexical dictionaries and major catalogues of manuscript holdings in Oxford libraries. Bilingual dictionaries ranged from the classics, Latin and Greek, through biblical and eastern tongues to modern European languages, generally compiled from precursor texts. Case studies are made of Payne Smith's Syriac dictionary, Monier-Williams' Sanskrit dictionary and The Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. The Press's acquisition, financing and publication of the New English Dictionary, edited by James Murray and later titled the Oxford English Dictionary, is examined in detail.Less