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24th March 10:00-16:30 at Senate House, University of Bristol
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Full abstracts can be found under the programme below.
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Languages Past, Present and Future.pdfTheme: Language as a tool and medium for research
10.45 | What do slurs mean?
Pyro Suarez, SWWDTP
Slurs are derogatory devices targeting social groups based on ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. The nature of the transmission of the content expressed by these pejorative predicates has been of philosophical study. On the one hand, semanticist approaches (Hom, May: 2013, 2014, 2018) have proposed that there is something encoded in these linguistic terms such that their literal meaning entails whatever component is responsible for their offensiveness. On the other hand, pragmaticist approaches (Cepollaro & Thommen 2019, Richard 2008, Nunberg 2018, Jeshion 2013) explain their pejorative content appealing to features surrounding the offensive speech—i.e. group affiliation of speakers, presuppositions—that escapes to semantic analysis. In this presentation, I show (1) that pragmaticist approaches are leaving behind major desiderata that theories of slurs should take into account; and (2) that minor shifting in how we think about slurs—and pejoratives in general—might give room to semanticist accounts for giving us clarity about the meaning and metaphysics of slurs. In a nutshell: slurs shouldn’t be understood as predicates referring to monadic properties, but as relations between the agents involved.
11:10 | William Palmer’s translation of the Life of the Russian Patriarch Nikon
Anna Maslenova, University of Exeter
Through a case study on the work of the Anglican deacon, William Palmer (1803–1885), I will explore how translation becomes a way for self-exploration, self-expression, and even self-consolation. Palmer dedicated his life efforts to the ecumenical aspirations: he was a follower of the Oxford Movement that celebrated a religious revival in the Church of England in the 1830s and promulgated the unification of the Christian Churches. Palmer started with the promotion of closer relations between the Anglican and the Russian Churches. The translation of Russian scriptural texts into English was a chief part of his work. However, he soon became disappointed first with the Anglican doctrine and then with the structure of the Russian Church. In my paper, I will focus on his six-volume treatise, The Patriarch and the Tsar, dedicated to the life of the Russian Patriarch Nikon (1605–1681). The Patriarch and the Tsar is an English translation of raw primary sources in Slavic and Greek languages which Palmer carefully collected from various archives. I want to show how Palmer’s work on translating and writing comments to Nikon’s life reflected his crisis of faith and his dealing with it through self-identification with Nikon.
11:35 | Approaching Multilingual Research: Languages, Culture and Understanding
Martina Biavati, SWWDTP
It is widely accepted that language, other than being at the base of how we express and identify ourselves (Joseph, J. 2004), is also often the discriminating indicator of what is ‘other’ from us: this is especially true in contexts of war, when language often becomes an immediate discerning factor between factions. When undertaking comparative research in the history or World War II one expects that there will be some questions regarding languages: these can be regarding the relationships and contacts between the different cultures, but they can also be about the very process of researching across different languages. This paper will look specifically at some of the issues revolving the use of multiple languages in research. Through an analysis of my own experiences with French and Italian, I will discuss how I approach working across a multitude of languages. What are the issues that emerge from translating our work from one language to another? What kind of mediation happens when we work across two or more languages that allows us to extrapolate meaning from the text in front of us? Through examining language specific words that relate to the experience of the Resistance in Italy and in France, I will explore the ways in which those words speak culturally about the experience itself and how they are indicative of a very different way of living and remembering that historical moment, and how it carried on to this day.
Theme: Translation in the contemporary world
12:00 | Multimodality and Translation: Beyond the Buzzword
Katy Humberstone, SWWDTP
How do we translate in a world increasingly dominated by the use of images, sounds, gestures, colours and other modes beyond the purely linguistic? In this visual presentation, I discuss such recent moves towards a multimodal conception of Translation. Premising that our communication is increasingly diverse, “translators more than ever find that texts are communicated by more than just ‘words’” (Dicerto 2018, p.1). Semioticians and scholars working in multimodality, however, have long premised on the fact multimodality being the norm of communication, rather than the exception (Kress 2010, p.1). I first sketch the fields of Multimodality and Translation Studies in the context of increased but still limited interdisciplinary ‘blending’ between the two (Kaindl 2020). Then, drawing on a range of multimodal texts, I explain the practical implications for Translation Studies of this multimodal approach - whereby ‘language’, at the very least, is but one meaning-making resource among many (Kress 2011, p.38). I thereafter argue that ‘Intersemiotic Translation’ (Jakobson 1959), offers a fruitful concept on which to develop a multimodal conception of Translation. Following a discussion, I conclude by challenging the Translator’s role in the current multimodal era, arguing that translator training should diversify its offering towards a full integration of multimodality. For, after all, in our superdiverse age, ‘the meaning of source texts is no longer confined to linguistic units’ (Yuan 2021). Within a rapidly changing, superdiverse kaleidoscope of communications, this Multimodal ‘turn’ within Translation will remain high on the research agenda for the foreseeable future.
13:30 | The Dilemma of Domestication and Foreignization of Cultural Features in Arabic Subtitling of English Films: A Comparative-Applied Study
Abeer Alkahtani, University of Exeter
Subtitling cultural references poses problems for Arabic subtitlers who are constantly caught in the dilemma of neutralizing Western cultural aspects or rendering them faithfully. Building upon Venuti’s distinction between domestication and foreignization methods of translation, this study aims to describe and compare the subtitling strategies used by two contemporary subtitlers to render cultural features in English films into Arabic, and reach findings regarding whether domesticating or foreignizing strategies eject more successful responses among target audience (TA). This comparative applied study will first classify and describe the collected data, and then reach findings related to TA response towards the domesticating and foreignizing subtitles. The study initially collects samples of different strategies used in the Arabic subtitles of two film adaptations of Jane Eyre, released in 1943 and 2011, and classifies them equally based on their types, i.e., domestication or foreignization. 40 samples will be selected from the opening minutes of the two films and collected in two separate tables, each including 20 strategies, that are either domesticating or foreignizing. Strategies Classification is derived from Gottlieb's (1992) and Diaz-Cintas & Remael's (2007/2021). The study will then investigate TAs’ response through a Likert-scale questionnaire that measures their level of agreement with the equivalent effect achieved in rendering the cultural features, and hence indicates whether the TAs’ positive responses are higher in relation to domesticating or foreignizing strategies. The selective sample will consist of 12 participants whose native language is Arabic, but who are instructors of English language to ensure reliability of results.
16:00 | IBBY, the IYL, and the Real Story of Jella Lepman’s Legacy
Emma Page, SWWDTP
In the relatively young academic field of Comparative or International Children’s Literature, the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and its founder, Jella Lepman, loom large. In 1946, Lepman, a German Jewish journalist and editor living in the UK, was recruited by the US military to oversee women’s and children’s affairs during the cultural reconstruction of post-War Germany. Convinced that connecting German children with quality literature from around the globe was the best way to ensure a peaceful future for Europe and the world, she proceeded to found the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich and later the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). To this day, the IYL and IBBY continue to be global centres of gravity for educators, activists and academics with an interest in children’s literature across linguistic, cultural and national borders. The historical and academic circumstances that aligned to put IBBY and its activities at the centre of the field have largely exempted the organisation and those who espouse its values from the kind of philosophical scrutiny that surrounds most discussions of World Literature (for adults). By looking carefully at IBBY’s origins and the many stakeholders beyond Lepman who shaped and continue to shape its activities to the present day, we can consider what exactly is at stake in taking for granted the IBBY model of “international children’s literature” and global literacy activism. What politics and assumptions about international relations drive IBBY’s work? What understandings of children and childhood do they promote and reinforce through their initiatives? How do they define high-quality children’s literature? Ultimately, what are the consequences of taking a post-war European understanding of “international children’s literature” for granted in the twenty-first century?
Theme: Minority Languages
12:55 | Cornish: can a minority language become a fixture in the local primary curriculum?
Kensa Broadhurst, University of Exeter
The Cornish language has been informally taught at early years and primary level; however, it continues to occupy a limited space within compulsory educational settings. The principal studies regarding Cornish within education are MacKinnon (2000) and Sayers et al (2018). Recently, new programmes have been developed which aim to increase the presence of Cornish within early years and primary schools in Cornwall. In this paper I, an academic firmly rooted within the Cornish language community, intend to offer a current overview of the present teaching of Cornish within these settings: initiatives created by early years providers, and the new primary school programme developed by the company Golden Tree, ‘Go Cornish Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards,’ which offer language and cultural support for schools to implement their own teaching sessions and place the Cornish language at the heart of whole school policies. I will also examine issues which are being, and remain to be, addressed. Early indications show the growing interest of primary schools in including Cornish within their provision and there is a growing hope that any success of the ‘Go Cornish’ primary school initiative could be used in future discussions with Cornwall Council with regards to the greater inclusion of Cornish with their overall educational policies.
14:50 | “May I kill the native speaker?”: Operationalizing nativeness in minority language learning contexts.
Jack Pulman-Slater, SWWDTP
The notion of a native speaker is an intuitively simple concept for most: a first or mother-tongue speaker of a language. However, the linguistic reality is far from simple. A speaker's native capabilities may attrite over time as they switch to using another language in their day-to-day life, or they may speak multiple languages regularly which mutually influence each other. Within the context of second language teaching, there is often controversy regarding who counts as a native speaker teacher. Issues regarding nativelike proficiency and prestige Western anglophone varieties of English being perceived as 'more native' and giving rise to strong debate. To this uncertainty I will introduce a new category of nativeness by operationalising this term in the context of second language learners themselves. Using initial findings from my research on the pronunciation of adult second language learners of Welsh from two sociolinguistically contrasting areas of South Wales, I will introduce a distinction between 'native and non-native learners'. I will consider how they can best be compared against 'native speakers' and what this native baseline means within the particular sociolinguistic context of Wales, where all Welsh native speakers are bilinguals and where Welsh and English have been in situations of long-term language contact for generations.
Theme: Italic languages
15:00 | The South Picene (and Sabine?) inscriptions from Loro Piceno and Capestrano
Matteo Calabrese, SWWDTP
The two inscriptions I would like to present, those from Loro Piceno (Sp MC 1) and Capestrano (Sp AQ 2), are part of the corpus I am studying for my PhD project. Datable between the VI and V century B.C., they are written in a language conventionally known as South Picene, spoken in Central Italy and akin to Umbrian. The aim of my research on the topic is twofold. The first goal is to propose a novel linguistic analysis of these two texts based, among other things, on a new interpretation of the words attested there. Specifically, I believe that the inscription from Loro Piceno is a celebratory text that, together with the sandstone stele bearing it, was intended to honour a man of noble extraction, probably a leader in his community, who was deified after his passing and buried along a road. As for the Capestrano text, I adduce a new argument in favour of Eleanor Bett’s suggestion that it may mention the goddess Cupra, worshipped among the Picenes. Furthermore, I set out to demonstrate that, contrary to what some scholars think, the document itself does not represent a speaking inscription. The second goal of my research on the aforementioned texts consists in an in-depth discussion, based on my analysis of them, of the well known intimate connection between South Picene and Sabine, so intimate that I think they can be regarded as one and the same language.
15:25 | Two Case Studies in Individual Factors Affecting Italian Learners in SLA
Elettra Boniolo
The aim of this research is to investigate the different cognitive and affective individual factors that affect two Italian learners of the same age, nationality, gender, background education and profession in the attempt to understand the reasons why their achievement of proficiency in second language significantly differ from one another, despite them sharing the same acquisitional environment and equal time spent learning the L2.
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