This photo essay introduces readers to the two brothers Ramesh and Gopal Baraily. They live isolated, almost invisible lives, separated from their families, confined to the comfort and safety of their small home in the Darjeeling Hills, making ends meet by taking up odd, menial jobs to sustain themselves. This photo essay seeks to capture a day in the ordinary, everyday, mundane life lives of two brothers, marked by their defined physical disabilities and caste identities. Living as outcasts, shunned by family and regarded as a burden on society, these silenced realities begs us to probe deeper into how we imagine ideas of oneness, belonging and home.
The article analyses the history of a Festschrift dedicated in 1987 to Ymär Daher (1910–1999), a well-known activist in the Tatar community of Finland. Two aspects of the volume are discussed in detail: why there was an astonishingly high number of Tatar authors from the Soviet Union and why one of the Tatar-language articles in the volume was published not in Cyrillic, the official script for the language in the Soviet Union, but in Arabic script. The article tries to find answers to these questions by following the life and the networking activities of the jubilee of the Festschrift and the life of Enže Säġidova (1921–1997), the author of the Arabic-script article in the volume.
In recent years, a great number of studies have convincingly shown that diffusion influences states’ probability to democratise. The primary interest of most of these studies has been on how diffusion influences democracy at the national level. The effect of democratic diffusion on the local level has largely been neglected. This paper thus investigates how and to what extent diffusion influences the density and conflict orientation of non-governmental labour organisations (LNGOs), comprising a typical case of civil society groups channelling democratic freedoms, in China’s Guangdong province. Since the province is close to the relatively liberal city of Hong Kong, there is reason to believe that support from international civil society groups based in Hong Kong may be critical for the survival and growth of conflict-oriented LNGOs in Guangdong. In the article, the research question is studied by both comparative analysis of cross-regional data and qualitative analysis of interview data. Both methods confirm that diffusion – or, more precisely, diffusion through international civil society networks – is a prominent factor for explaining the density and conflict orientation of LNGOs in Guangdong. The study demonstrates that democratic diffusion not only has an impact at the state level but also on the regional, intrastate level.
Translation, considered as a product of linguistic diversity or the confusion following the fall of the Tower of Babel, represents an act of communication. In a multilingual society, such as Burkina Faso, translation is an indispensable tool for socioeconomic, political and cultural development. In this paper I propose to examine how multilingualism, which is at the origin of translation, is reflected in Burkinabè literature. Since literature is a fictional representation of reality, I shall examine the way literary communication mirrors this reality, i.e., the linguistic and cultural diversity of Burkina Faso. In addition, this paper goes beyond the classical and linguistic definitions of translation in terms of equivalence between target text and source text and claims that, to some extent, African writers qualify as translators. This is examplified by Fidèle P. Rouamba‘s novel Le Carnaval de la mort (“The carnival of death”, 1995).
This essay investigates the relationship between memory, or rather amnesia, in the South African context and soap opera. South Africa has only recently celebrated ten years of democracy and the past still affects the lives of its inhabitants. The country has undergone far-reaching shifts in its political, economic and cultural paradigms. These also manifest in the production of meaning in popular visual culture, and more particularly, in soap opera. South Africans remember in different ways - processes that are reflected in the narratives of local soap opera. The genre is popular and its viewers invariably identify with the extended story plots. Amnesia often comprises a large part of soap opera narrative. This essay suggests that archetypes and myths of amnesia may shed some light on these recurring themes of memory and amnesia. Initially, archetypes and myths pertaining to memory and amnesia are discussed, followed by the exploration of its manifestation in local soap opera.
Tuan Guru – the first official imam at the Cape – used Malayu as the medium of instruction in the Dorp Street madrasah (Muslim religious school) which he established at the end of the 18th century. This changed in the middle of the 19th century when Cape Dutch was adopted as the language of instruction. While the children were familiar with this language they could not read the Latin script since they were barred from attending the public schools. Cape Muslims could, however, read the Arabic script which they had to learn for liturgical purposes - though they could not speak Arabic. To overcome this conundrum, numerous scholars and teachers began to translate Arabic texts into Cape Dutch and then transcribing these in the Latin script. These “readers” came to serve as official textbooks in the madrasahs at the Cape. This article traces the development of this genre of literature which came to be known as Arabic-Afrikaans, comments on manuscripts that were identified by Adrianus van Selms, Achmat Davids and Hans Kähler and highlights the daunting challenge of transcribing Afrikaans phonetically in the Arabic script.
<p><em>Sakura is the pride flower of Japanese from the past. Many person can enjoy the beauty of Sakura. </em><em>Sakura usually blossoms in the spring season, begins from south Japan region in the middle of March and continue to the norh Japan ( in the middle of April up to end of April). During spring season, mass media reports about Zensen Sakura, that is prediction the growth of Sakura in many places in Japan, along with climate prediction. By that information, Japanese people are ready to welcome warmer air in the spring ( after winter) and holding Hanami feast. Based on that situation, writer interest to write this research by the title “ The Attraction of Sakura Flower for Japanese people”. The problem that will be analized is how is the attraction and the effect of Sakura flower for Japanese people. </em><em>In this research, writer uses literary review from internet, article, and many other sources. The attraction of Sakura flower is Japanese people can enjoy Hanami with family, friends, and close person in the office and organization. The effect of Sakura in Japanese life is very important, like to raise the affection in the family, make closer the friendship,and make better communication with partner or relation. </em></p>
The creation of reality image in a novel. This article discusses aspects of the process of creative writing and specifically endeavours to give a heuristic view on the creation of image of reality, or Zeitgeist, as a spatial element in a novel. Therefore it discusses space as a specific aspect of creative writing. The core of this article is, in other words, a summarised study of the realisation of the various aspects of Zeitgeist in a novel or other genres of fiction as, for instance, short stories or novellas. The conclusion is that Zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times, can indeed be realised in a novel. Apart from a discussion on the application of the narrative elements, attention is also paid to the various aspects of Zeitgeist, or a particular image of reality. The aim is to emphasise and accentuate that Zeitgeist, or image of reality is, in fact, an inseparable part of space and the spatial dynamics in a novel. By taking a closer look at the different facets of Zeitgeist – for instance identity, cultural space, the socio-economy, as well as politics – it is stressed that an image of reality can be created in a novel by bringing into play creative elements like character, space, time and plot. This is done in order to unveil the above mentioned facets. All these aspects or facets not only have a deep-seated influence on Zeitgeist, but occur at the very core of it.
<p>ABSTRACT: Members of linguistic communities often have opposing beliefs about the existence of beings denoted by lexical items or about the truth of the attributes ascribed to entities. As very little research has been forthcoming in this regard, this article focuses on how people's beliefs about existence and truth are encoded in explanatory dictionaries, and on the kind of semantics that is needed to account for these beliefs. The way in which dictionaries define issues of existence and truth against a default world view is outlined in Section 2. Section 3 indicates what happens if the default world view of lexicographic descriptions changes and how cultural biases operate in the treatment of the meaning of lexical items that denote "imaginary" beings or "imaginary" attributes. Section 4 summarizes the main findings of the article and delimits topics for further research.</p><p>Keywords: IMAGINARY BEINGS, FABULOUS CREATURES, DEFINING ATTRIBUTES, LEXICOGRAPHIC DEFINITIONS, EXISTENCE, TRUTH, SENSE, REFERENCE, DENOTATION, IDEALIZED COGNITIVE MODELS, COGNITIVE SEMANTICS, CULTURAL BIAS, CULTURAL SENSITIVITY</p><p>*****</p><p>OPSOMMING: Oor die definiëring van "denkbeeldige" wesens en eienskap-pe: Hoe hanteer leksikograwe kultureel bepaalde verskille in beskouings oor die kosmologie, ontologie en epistemologie? Lede van taalgemeenskappe het dikwels opponerende beskouings oor die bestaan van wesens waarna leksikale items verwys of oor die waarheid van die eienskappe wat aan entiteite toegeskryf word. Omdat baie min navorsing in dié verband beskikbaar is, fokus hierdie artikel op hoe mense se beskouings oor die bestaan en waarheid ten opsigte hiervan in verklarende woordeboeke gekodeer word, en op die soort seman-tiek wat benodig word om hierdie opvattings te verantwoord. Die manier waarop woordeboeke kwessies van bestaan en waarheid teen 'n verstekwêreldbeskouing omskryf, word in Afdeling 2 geskets. Afdeling 3 dui aan wat gebeur indien die verstekwêreldbeskouing van leksikografiese omskrywings verander en hoe kulturele vooroordele 'n uitwerking het op die behandeling van die betekenis van leksikale items wat verwys na "denkbeeldige" wesens of "denkbeeldige" eienskappe. Afdeling 4 som die hoofbevindinge van die artikel op en baken onderwerpe vir verdere navorsing af.</p><p>Sleutelwoorde: DENKBEELDIGE WESENS, FABELAGTIGE WESENS, DEFINIEEREIEN-SKAPPE, LEKSIKOGRAFIESE DEFINISIES, BESTAAN, WAARHEID, BETEKENIS, VERWYSINGS, DENOTASIE, GEÏDEALISEERDE KOGNITIEWE MODELLE, KOGNITIEWE SEMANTIEK, KUL-TURELE VOOROORDEEL, KULTURELE SENSITIWITEIT</p>
Philology. Linguistics, Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Japan has often been portrayed by orientalist stereotypes, as famously framed by Edward Said, that were mainly constituted within Europe and North America. There are two distinct streams of orientalist discourse around Japan: traditional Orientalism and techno-Orientalism. Here the West speaks of the Other/the non-West rather than allowing it to speak for itself. In regards to the discourse of ‘Otherness’, another interesting phenomenon is Japan’s self-Orientalising: through the internalisation of the Western Orientalist discourse, Japan identifies itself and constructs its own subjectivity.
In his literary works, the author David Mitchell attempts to subvert the conventional orientalist approach to describe Japan while concurrently maintaining his position as a British observer. He makes use of Western perspectives to cater to his Western readers’ preference for Japan’s traditional and cultural elements, and yet at the same time attempts to subvert stereotypes. Mitchell’s approach is reminiscent of Japanese author Murakami Haruki’s use of both ‘Japaneseness’ and ‘un-Japaneseness’ in his works. Mitchell also learnt the importance of the use of the subjective narrative voice from Murakami. In this article, I examine how David Mitchell, as a western author, attempts to go beyond orientalist stereotypes, and how his writing is influenced by Murakami Haruki.
Van Staden, Annalene , Badenhorst, Gerhard , Ridge, Elaine
This article argues the importance of allowing deaf children to acquire sign language from an early age. It demonstrates firstly that the critical/sensitive period hypothesis for language acquisition can be applied to specific language aspects of spoken language as well as sign languages (i.e. phonology, grammatical processing and syntax). This makes early diagnosis and early intervention of crucial importance. Moreover, research findings presented in this article demonstrate the advantage that sign language offers in the early years of a deaf child’s life by comparing the language development milestones of deaf learners exposed to sign language from birth to those of late-signers, orally trained deaf learners and hearing learners exposed to spoken language. The controversy over the best medium of instruction for deaf learners is briefly discussed, with emphasis placed on the possible value of bilingual-bicultural programmes to facilitate the development of deaf learners’ literacy skills. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of the implications/recommendations of sign language teaching and Deaf education in South Africa.
Language and Literature, African languages and literature
On the African continent, the ICRC's most complex operation continued to be in Angola, where an ICRC office was opened in Bie at the start of May, supplementing the delegation already established in Luanda and the sub-delegation in Huambo. However, as previously mentioned, ICRC operations for the displaced population in the country's highlands had to be suspended on May 2 because of the high security risks involved.