This study examines how South Africans construct and negotiate racial identities in written commentaries via a forum of the Mail@Guardian website Thought Leader in response to a blog by Ndumiso Ngcobo entitled “I’m a coconut and I am proud of it – say it with me.” Ngcobo’s ironic opinion piece, written in 2008, which plays with the label “coconut” (frequently employed in South Africa among “black” people in reference to another “black” person who seemingly behaves “white”), triggered 163 responses from individual readers. An essential point made by Ngcobo is that perceptions and attitudes around “whiteness” and “blackness,” or what can be considered “white” or “black” in racial terms, vary greatly, depending on circumstances and perspective. However, the author’s irreverent and ironic style is misunderstood and misinterpreted by many of the comment writers. Relying partially on the methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, I analyze the commentary texts and interpret the categories people use in their discursive constructions of race and identity by examining their stylistic choices and content markers and focusing on sociolinguistic and cultural issues. It is argued that the analyzed comments are representative not only of the pervasiveness of “rigid” race thinking but also of how intra-racial boundaries are constructed in the post-apartheid state.
The Ongota language, recently (1981) rediscovered idiom from southwest Ethiopia, paradoxically belongs to the best described languages of the region, although today the number of its speakers oscillate around 10 old persons, while most of the members of the tribe speak Tsamay. The recent descriptions were realized thanks to three scientific expeditions to Ongota: (1) Fleming et al. (including Pavel Mikeš, a former member of the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) - 1990; (2) Kusia & Siebert - 1994; (3) Sáva & Tosco - 2000-01. On the basis of these three sources the present article analyzes the lexical data of Ongota common with Cushitic and Omotic.
This paper discusses the etymological nest of Dravidian and Altaic lexemes with the meaning “to bow, bend” and the terms for the “elbow,” “knee,” “ankle” as a dynamic etymological model. The lexemes have the general formal structure of the CVC- root with an initial dental (stop or nasal) and medial velars or labials. In the first section of the paper the verbs and some of their derivatives are listed and discussed also with regards to several overlapping etyma with different meanings. The second section sums up the terms for the body parts related etymologically to the respective verbs. In the conclusion select Altaic reconstructions are listed for comparison.
In recent years, Prof. Vacek has dealt systematically with various lexical classes as represented by the comparison of Dravidian and Altaic, be it verbs (Vcek 2003, 2004b), designations of various animals (Vacek 2002c, 2004a), or other lexemes with concrete (Vacek 2002a) or abstract (Vacek 2002b) referents. The comparison of Dravidian and Altaic done by other scholars is also discussed and the author refers readers to papers on the subject by K. H. Menges (1994, 1977) and K. V. Zvelebil (1991).
The article reflects on influential views of the mind that come from cognitive science and seem to undermine the traditional philosophical view that the mind is simply unified and transparent to itself. Specifical y, the modularity thesis is presented, along with its important modifications and criticisms, suggesting that the apparent unity can be ascribed only to higher cognition, if at all. Various theories of why the mind seems to be unified while being composed of autonomous modules are discussed. The overview results in the conclusion that our linguistic capacity plays a prominent role in the unity of the mind., Článek reflektuje vlivné pohledy na mysl, které pocházejí z kognitivní vědy a zdánlivě podkopávají tradiční filosofický názor, že mysl je jednoduše sjednocená a transparentní. Specifická y, modulační práce je představena, spolu s jeho důležitými modifikacemi a kritiky, navrhnout, že zdánlivá jednota může být připisována jen k vyššímu poznání, jestliže vůbec. Diskutovány jsou různé teorie, proč se mysl zdá být sjednocená, zatímco jsou složeny z autonomních modulů. Výsledkem je závěr, že naše jazykové schopnosti hrají v jednotě mysli významnou roli., and Martin Vraný
The article provides a language analysis of the idea of progress. It briefly outlines the method of search for mimimal vocabulary as has been proposed by Bertrand Russell in Human Knowledge, Its Scope and Limits. Then it coniders the application of this method to a social theory, namely to the language used in a theory of progress. As and expample theory it uses the well known essay L´anciene regime et la revolution (1856) by Alexis de Tocqueville. The language of the theory is analyzed, abstracted expressions are pointed out and the minimal vocabulary is presented: it consists of verb-expressions "to see", "to be wrong", "to dobut", "to think", "to feel", "to be surprised", " to choose", "to express" and To rely"; of noun-expressions "demise", "cause", "change", "nature" and "banality" together with pronouns and logical expressions. The rules for construction of composed expressions and propositions are set up and a reconstruction of the object language is suggested. The abstract character of the method is reflected., Tomáš Holeček., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
In his criticism of my book Člověk a pravidla [Man and rules], Michal Ivan scrutinized my notion of implicit rule, concluding that it is flawed. In this contribution, I defend my approach, explaining the notion in greater detail. I state that my talk about the existence of an implicit rule refers to the social setting in which some kinds of social (especially linguistic) actions are governed by normative attitudes of the members of the society. These normative attitudes institute the propriety which make instances of actions of the kinds either correct or incorrect; hence people can follow or violate the rule, the rule can come into being, develop, and fade away - without it being explicitly articulated., Ve své kritice své knize Člověk Pravidla [ Člověk a pravidla ], Michal Ivan prozkoumány mé pojem implicitního pravidla, k závěru, že je chybné. V tomto příspěvku obhajuji svůj přístup a podrobněji vysvětluji pojem. Prohlašuji, že můj rozhovor o existenci implicitního pravidla odkazuje na sociální prostředí, ve kterém jsou některé druhy společenských (zejména jazykových) akcí řízeny normativními postoji členů společnosti. Tyto normativní postoje zakládají vhodnost, která činí případy těchto činů správné nebo nesprávné; lidé tak mohou pravidlo dodržovat nebo porušovat, pravidlo může vzniknout, rozvinout se a zmizet - aniž by to bylo výslovně vyjádřeno., and Jaroslav Peregrin
Scientific realism is a positive epistemic attitude towards the content of our best theories/models recommending belief in both observable and unobservable aspects of the world described by the sciences. This attitude has important metaphysical dimension. It is committed to the mind-independent existence of the world investigated by the sciences (Chakravartty 2013). In his papers Mathematics and Experience (2009) and Mathematics and Reality (2011) Ladislav Kvasz holds a position of instrumental realism. Kvasz claims that reality is instrumentally constituted and realism issue should be understood as a relation between two languages instead of world-language relation. Kvasz’s instrumental realism also suggests to build up an ontology of distinctions instead of an ontology of fillings. The paper deals with Kvasz’s version of instrumental realism critically and it aims to show that Kvasz’s position is much closer to antirealism than to scientific realism because it does not meet the metaphysical dimension., Vědecký realismus je pozitivním epistemickým postojem k obsahu našich nejlepších teorií / modelů, které doporučují víru v pozorovatelné i nepozorovatelné aspekty světa popsané vědami. Tento postoj má důležitý metafyzický rozměr. To je oddané mysli-nezávislá existence světa vyšetřovaného vědami (Chakravartty 2013). V příspěvcích Matematika a zkušenosti (2009) a Matematika a realita (2011) zaujímá Ladislav Kvasz pozici instrumentálního realismu. Kvasz tvrdí, že realita je instrumentálně konstituovaná a otázka realismu by měla být chápána jako vztah mezi dvěma jazyky místo vztahu světového jazyka. Kvaszův instrumentální realismus také navrhuje vytvořit ontologii rozdílů místo ontologie výplní., and Pavol Labuda
Tento článek z pozůstalosti profesora Ladislava Tondla poukazuje na to, že hodnoty představují neodmyslitelný kontext komunikace a rozhodování. Vychází z předpokladu, že každý komunikační akt se odehrává za jistých okolností a podmínek, ve spojení se zjištěnou problémovou situací a ve vztazích s určitými potřebami a cíli a směry naší činnosti. Součástí těchto podmínek je soubor vlivů a okolností, které lze charakterizovat jako hodnotová atmosféra. Tato atmosféra a s ní spojené faktory mohou modifikovat význam dané komunikace, a to nejen v sémantickém smyslu, ale také ve smyslu relevance, důležitosti a potřebnosti daného sdělení., This posthumously published article by professor Ladislav Tondl argues that values present a necessary context of communication and decision making. Every communication act takes place under particular circumstances and conditions, in relation with an identified problematic situation and the corresponding needs and intentions or goals. A part of these conditions is made up of influences and circumstances that can be described as value environment. This environment can modify meaning of communication not only semnatically, but also in terms of relevance, importance and necessity of the message., and Ladislav Tondl.
Similar to other advanced semiotic systems, we differ three aspects in the magic fairy-tale - creation of information, its transfer and retaining in memory. The creation and retaining of an information can be based on more sources and show a different nature.
We proceed on the assumption that folklore works reflect the reality to a certain extent, but it is necessary to understand its limits. The language provides / acknowledges importance to the described world in a strange way, if formed in the environment in which the narrator and the audience live. The language, we use even today for usual communication, includes features of particular stages of development. Therefore, while taking into account the historical, social and cultural context, it is possible to approximate to the paradigm where these stories captured vivid ideas of the world. In this way, the texts fix a set of convictions, values, knowledge and ideas about the world, shared by members of a certain community, which in a specific way allowed them to explain the world to themselves and to understand it.