scholarly journals Hysteron-proteron: A Polyfunctional Rhetorical Device – with Reference to Arabic-English Translation

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-411
Author(s):  
Salah Salim Ali

Abstract Hysteron-proteron is one of the rhetorical devices present in all literary works and in almost all literate cultures. Linguistically, it is considered a kind of inversion, topicalization or permutation that occurs on the sentence level and involves deviation in the syntagmatic progression of sentences as well as a semantic shift encompassing scope, focus and emphasis (Jakobson 1972: 78-80) besides fulfilling certain grammatical processes such as interrogation and passivization (Jack et al. 1989). Literarily, hysteron-proteron has a great aesthetic and poetic relevance as it is one of the rhetorical devices that can structurally modify both the texture and sense of the text according to the writer’s taste and intention. In other words, it offers one of the stylistic options that will consequently exercise certain pragmatic impact on the reader. It goes without saying, however, that by virtue of its strong affinity to syntax, semantics and style, hysteron-proteron usually involves translation problems which acquire more salience when the languages hold two diametrically opposing standpoints as is the case with Arabic and English. After expounding hysteron-proteron and, diagrammatically, illustrating its polyfunctionality, an account is provided on its occurrence in prose, poetry and in Arabic sacred literature i.e., the Qur’an, tackling its deeper sedimented layers in the Arab mind. The paper also legislates for the unmistakable impact of Western style of literary expression on some Arabic narrative texts. This just projects one more benefit of translation when used as a probing device in detecting literary borrowing through awkward or blind literal rendering of purposefully-disrupted word-order in English into Arabic or vice versa.

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Suppes

In his published work and even more in conversations, Tarski emphasized what he thought were important philosophical aspects of his work. The English translation of his more philosophical papers [56m] was dedicated to his teacher Tadeusz Kotarbiński, and in informal discussions of philosophy he often referred to the influence of Kotarbiński. Also, the influence of Leśniewski, his dissertation adviser, is evident in his early papers. Moreover, some of his important papers of the 1930s were initially given to philosophical audiences. For example, the famous monograph on the concept of truth ([33m], [35b]) was first given as two lectures to the Logic Section of the Philosophical Society in Warsaw in 1930. Second, his paper [33], which introduced the concepts of ω-consistency and ω-completeness as well as the rule of infinite induction, was first given at the Second Conference of the Polish Philosophical Society in Warsaw in 1927. Also [35c] was based upon an address given in 1934 to the conference for the Unity of Science in Prague; [36] and [36a] summarize an address given at the International Congress of Scientific Philosophy in Paris in 1935. The article [44a] was published in a philosophical journal and widely reprinted in philosophical texts. This list is of course not exhaustive but only representative of Tarski's philosophical interactions as reflected in lectures given to philosophical audiences, which were later embodied in substantial papers. After 1945 almost all of Tarski's publications and presentations are mathematical in character with one or two minor exceptions. This division, occurring about 1945, does not, however, indicate a loss of interest in philosophical questions but is a result of Tarski's moving to the Department of Mathematics at Berkeley. There he assumed an important role in the development of logic within mathematics in the United States.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Kalt ◽  
Jonathan A. Geary

We compare speech production and find morphosyntactic change among children and adolescents speaking two closely related varieties of Quechua in Cuzco, Peru, and Chuquisaca, Bolivia. Quechua languages traditionally employ Object-Verb (OV) word order in main clauses, but robust case marking permits other orders, especially to focalize new information through constituent fronting. In Chuquisaca, but not Cuzco, we find that schoolchildren often omit the accusative suffix -ta from direct objects while retaining a prosodic trace of -ta. In other varieties, loss of accusative marking is associated with a shift towards Verb-Object (VO) word order, as in Spanish. However, we find that Chuquisaqueños use more canonical OV and possessor-possessed order in declarative sentences than do Cuzqueños, who employ a wide range of word orders at the sentence level and deviate from the possessor-possessed norm for Quechua noun phrases. Our finding of more rigid word order in Chuquisaca highlights the complex factors contributing to typological shift in word order and morphology: Omission of case morphology places a greater burden on word order to identify grammatical roles. Further, we find that Chuquisaqueño schoolchildren alone have begun to use huk, “one,” to mark indefiniteness, perhaps to replace determiner-like functions ascribed to -ta and to obsolescent markers such as evidentials.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilibeth A. Calonge ◽  
Ismael N. Talili

The art of public speaking has been one of the commonly feared tasks for some people because they are not prepared and equipped with knowledge in rhetoric. The study was conducted to analyze the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by the three presidents of the Philippines. Speech videos and speech manuscripts were analyzed using validated rubrics. A survey was also conducted to gather information on students’ perception on the study of rhetoric. Frequency, standard deviation, and weighted mean were used to analyze the rhetorical devices and canons of rhetoric employed in the speeches. It was found out that metaphor is a common rhetorical device used by the Presidents. The results show that the canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery were utilized in the speeches. Majority of the students of Rhetoric and Public Discourse, self-reported (or agreed) that the rhetorical discourse analysis of the SONA is beneficial to them as Rhetoric and Public Discourse students. The study concludes that the Presidents used the rhetorical elements and techniques to convince and influence the audience. It is recommended that the presidents (or their speech writers) should consider optimum use of the rhetorical elements and techniques to evoke the desired response from the audience.


Nordlit ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toril Swan

The paper analyzes Rushdie's rhetorical use of adverbials and metaphors, in particular his rhetorical use of adverbials.  The adverbs in question function rhetorically in three, partly overlapping ways. They are frequently metaphorical, and even if strictly literal (i.e. concrete), convey images and sense forms. Secondly, the linking and focusing function of the adverbs is an effective rhetorical device, as prototypical adverb use - focus on or specification of verbal actions and activities - is transformed into a focus on or specification of the subject, while the adverb form (the -ly suffix) ensures a simultaneous link to the verbal action. Finally, Rushdie's adverbs function rhetorically as abbreviated propositions. This use of adverbs is in particular a property of English, and Rushdie exploits it elegantly. 


Author(s):  
Xiaomian Kang ◽  
Yang Zhao ◽  
Jiajun Zhang ◽  
Chengqing Zong

Document-level neural machine translation (DocNMT) has yielded attractive improvements. In this article, we systematically analyze the discourse phenomena in Chinese-to-English translation, and focus on the most obvious ones, namely lexical translation consistency. To alleviate the lexical inconsistency, we propose an effective approach that is aware of the words which need to be translated consistently and constrains the model to produce more consistent translations. Specifically, we first introduce a global context extractor to extract the document context and consistency context, respectively. Then, the two types of global context are integrated into a encoder enhancer and a decoder enhancer to improve the lexical translation consistency. We create a test set to evaluate the lexical consistency automatically. Experiments demonstrate that our approach can significantly alleviate the lexical translation inconsistency. In addition, our approach can also substantially improve the translation quality compared to sentence-level Transformer.


Author(s):  
Nick Henry

Abstract Previous research has suggested that L2 learners often use non-target processing strategies to understand sentences, but that these strategies can be changed through targeted instruction that directs their attention to different linguistic forms or structures. The present study explores the effects of pretraining ‘blocking’ practice—a novel type of training designed to help learners inhibit the application of a strict word-order based processing strategy—prior to receiving a traditional Structured Input (SI) training focused on OVS word order and accusative case markers in German. The study compares three groups of third-semester German learners who completed three different activities in one training session: (1) SI with blocking practice (+BP), (2) SI preceded by explicit information (+EI), and (3) SI without EI or blocking practice (−EI). The effects of training were measured by sentence-level interpretation and production tasks administered as a pretest, posttest, and four-week delayed posttest. Learner performance was also assessed during training. Results in all assessment measures indicated that EI was most effective, but that blocking practice lent a slight advantage over −EI groups during and after training. These results are discussed in the context of studies on processing instruction and learned attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Suzan Alamin

Abstract This study provides a detailed description of word order types, agreement patterns and alternations found in Tagoi, a Kordofanian language traditionally spoken in South Kordofan. After a brief presentation of the language (section 1), the noun class system is introduced (section 2) and the word order and agreement patterns are examined at the noun phrase level (section 3). Section 4 gives information about the constituent order at clause and sentence level, while Section 5 summarizes the findings and conclusion of the paper. All in all, the paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of the grammar, structure and typological features of Tagoi.


1997 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-177
Author(s):  
DAVID C. CONRAD

The Waalo Kingdom's tradition of origin, also identified by the name of its principal hero Njaajan Njaay (N'Diadiane N'Diaye), is not one of the better-known narrative texts of the Western Sudan, simply because there is not much of it and few variants have circulated in print; among the latter is one collected by Brasseur in 1778 and published in Jean Boulégue, Le Grand Jolof (XIII–XVI siècle), in 1987 (absent from this volume's bibliography) and another by Bérenger-Fèraud in Recueil de Contes Populaires de la Sénégambie, 1885. The 975-line variant presented here is therefore a welcome addition to that modest but interesting body of oral literature. This one includes the original Wolof-language text and an annotated English translation by the author. Appendices include two genealogies of Njaajan Njaay, one translated from the Arabic, and another from Wolof.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD BANK ◽  
ONNO CRASBORN ◽  
ROELAND VAN HOUT

Mouthings, the spoken language elements in sign language discourse, are typically analysed as having a redundant, one-on-one relationship with manual signs, both semantically and temporally. We explore exceptions to this presupposed semantic and temporal congruency in a corpus of spontaneous signed conversation by deaf users of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We identify specifying mouthings (words with a different meaning than the co-occurring sign), solo mouthings (uttered while the hands are inactive) and added mouthings (words added to a signing stream without their corresponding sign), and make a sentence-level analysis of their occurrences. These non-redundant mouthings occurred in 12% of all utterances, and were made by almost all signers. We argue for the presence of a code-blending continuum for NGT, where NGT is the matrix language and spoken Dutch is blended in, in various degrees. We suggest expansion of existing code-mixing models, to allow for description of bimodal mixing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Al-Shaer

It is well documented that there is a one-to-many relationship between Arabic and English genitival constructions. However, it is unclear whether, given this syntactic variation, such constructions show equivalence in semantic function. For this purpose, a corpus-based contrastive analysis of these genitive constructions in a bilingual novel is carried out. As a prelude to a quantitative and qualitative inspection of the data, the (non)interchangeability of the alternative English genitives is determined by eliciting intuitive judgments from 10 linguistically naïve native speakers of British English. Quantitatively, the study shows that the Arabic genitive almost covers the semantic functions expressed by the various English genitives found in the corpus. Qualitatively, the study reveals that the flexibility derived from the English genitive variation, as opposed to the fixed word order of the Arabic genitive, allows the speaker to convey additional meaning. However, the Arabic genitive which employs various formal devices such as overt markers of case, gender, number, definiteness and person can express the same semantic functions. These features render Arabic functional with one genitive and require English to vary its genitive relative to certain phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic conditions.


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