Omani English Language Learners’ Proficiency with Idioms

The purpose of this pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study was to explore the strategies English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students use on understanding the meanings of idioms both in oral and written submissions. The study also investigated the strategies on comprehending the meaning of idioms and improving idiomatic vocabularies in the language learning processes to both English teachers and students. Further, the study began to identify the criteria of idiom and idiom-understanding aspects so that the identified EFL students will be able to guess and become familiar with frequently used idioms and their desired contexts. Omani university students in English 101 comprised the experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. Both groups were exposed to the same curriculum and set of idioms. The experimental group received direct instructions: (pictures, videos and discussions) while learning idioms and the control group received traditional methods in learning idioms: lecturing. Students completed the Inference Task Al-­‐hassan, Haidar (2007)as pretest and posttest. Results indicated that Direct Instruction of idioms provided significant improvement of student performance on the Interference Task. Given the study outcomes, teachers of English as a foreign language would benefit from incorporating visual aids and active discussions which will automatically support specific common idioms. Direct instructions such as designing a daily plan to have the idiom of the day posted in the students’ walls may significantly increase students\u27 comprehension

Arabic rhetoric discourse: an analysis of opinion newspaper articles

This study is a descriptive quantitative study which examines text superstructure patterns of opinion articles written in Arabic by native Arabic-speakers. It addresses three questions: 1) What is/are the rhetorical superstructure pattern(s) of Arabic argumentative texts represented in newspaper political/social opinion articles? And what are the frequencies of these patterns? 2) Where, in these opinion articles, do Arab writers prefer to introduce their general thesis ? And 3) What are the argument constructions and forms used by Arab writers within opinion articles? By utilizing an adapted Problem-Solution analysis pattern to answer the study’s questions, the text superstructure of 26 opinion newspaper articles on political/social topics selected from the national Egyptian daily newspaper “Al-Ahram” were analyzed. The results of the analysis show that there are two common superstructure patterns frequently used by Arab writers (namely; (situation)-problem-solution-conclusion and (situation)-problem-conclusion). Furthermore, the analysis shows that there is a preference to introduce the general thesis of the article in the initial position. The results also show various argument constructions and forms used within the articles. The research identifies more precisely the argumentative text superstructure choices that are distinctive and seem natural to Arabic speakers. The research results indicate some general as well as classroom pedagogical implications for teaching Arabic reading and writing to AFL students. The discussion of the limitations of the study brings about some dimensions for further research studies

Philology, anthropology and poetry in Arthur Waley\u27s translation of the Shijing

The topic of my thesis is Arthur Waley and his translation of the Shijing, or The Book of Songs (1937), as Waley entitled it. The Book of Songs is especially noted for its philological ingenuity, anthropological insight and poetic appeal; during my preliminary research I discovered that there exists an interesting interplay between these three aspects of this translation. In this thesis, I hope to examine the textual and thematic hermeneutics of The Book of Songs. Waley did not read the Shijing as a scriptural text inscribed with sagely intention and authority; rather, he returned it to its folkloric origin, presenting the Shijing as an anthropological document of the lives of ancient Chinese people, an imaginative expression of the desires, beliefs and values of a primitive society, and a vivid mimesis of ancient life. Waley’s philological decisions were underpinned by this general interpretive orientation, informed by his understanding of the anthropological significance of the Shijing and guided by an attentive concern for poetic cohesion. The anthropological and poetic aspects were mutually implicated. The Book of Songs displays a keen interest in the common people, and Waley’s knowledge and insight in comparative anthropology enabled the Western reader to hear in this exotic text distant echoes from their own traditions. These anthropological underpinnings help to articulate and enrich the poetics of The Book of Songs. Waley’s overall design and the poetic language he employed bring forth these anthropological aspects in a poetic manner. The “folk” elements in the Shijing were foregrounded in The Book of Songs and deemed to be aesthetically interesting. The style and voice that Waley developed in his translation communicate the naive appeal of a folk aesthetic, and convey the compositional features and modes of experience of the “primitive” imagination. In Waley’s translation, the remote, difficult text of the Shijing is transformed into natural, evocative English poetry, and the philological, anthropological and poetic aspects of The Book of Songs coalesce into a Chinese aesthetic that is fresh and spontaneous, enjoying a pristine intimacy with Nature

A comparative analysis of film subtitle translation from English to Chinese : a case study of 15 popular animation films

As film-making has evolved, subtitling has become “a translation practice that consists of presenting a written text, generally on the lower part of the screen”, which seeks to deliver “the original dialogue of the speakers” (Diaz-Cintas and Remael 2007: 8). Subtitle translation in the field of Audiovisual Translation has attracted increasing interest from scholars, who believe that the quality of subtitling is an important criterion when evaluating the quality of a film. Inspired by Even-Zohar’s (1978) polysystem theory and Gottlieb’s (1992) typology, this comparative study focuses on the subtitling of English-language animation films, which represent one of the main foreign film genres introduced to Chinese audiences, in order to identify effective strategies to improve the quality of translated subtitles from the perspective of cultural awareness. I propose three main hypotheses in this research: 1) that the length of a film subtitle translated into Chinese is generally greater than the corresponding original English text; 2) that effective translation is contingent on the use of Chinese idioms and traditional expressions within translated subtitles; 3) that effective translation is contingent on the use of popular expressions within contemporary Chinese culture. The methodologies employed to address these hypotheses are: a self-built parallel corpus (as the main research tool) comprising 15 sets of animation film subtitles; a questionnaire survey; and interviews with relevant AVT practitioners and scholars. The research findings are: 1) the length of a film subtitle translated into Chinese is generally greater than the corresponding original English text; 2) the two discussed types of expression are effectively employed in the data; 3) unnecessary, erroneous or inappropriate uses, among others, were highlighted by the data; 4) the frequency of using popular expressions is higher than for traditional expressions; 5) there is frequent use of the typology strategies of paraphrase, transfer, condensation and transcription, as well as newer strategies of globalization and localization. Keywords: audiovisual translation (AVT), subtitle translation, animation films, traditional expressions, popular expression

Music and communication in Enlightenment Rome: doctrine, instruction, socialization, and style in the vocal works of the Collegio Nazareno (1704-1784)

This is a cultural and stylistic study of the main corpus of unpublished musical works currently preserved in the Archivio Generale Storico delle Scuole Pie (AGSP), in Rome. This corpus is primarily made up of forty-nine Italian-texted, religious cantatas, oratorios (or componimenti sacri), and pastorales, commissioned by and performed at the Collegio Nazareno, in Rome, as part of the accademie literarie that took place annually there, at least, between 1681 and 1784. The Collegio Nazareno, a Piarist educational institution founded in 1622, became a prestigious school during the eighteenth century. A leading school, as far as the practice of letters and empirical sciences is concerned, it also hosted important Jansenist-influenced theologians. This cultural environment is commensurate with the intellectual, religious, and political aims of the so-called Catholic Enlightenment. The highly elaborated librettos, musical compositions, and performances produced in this institution were an essential part of a series of specific practices and rituals embodying that cultural atmosphere. They were thus important communicational vehicles for doctrine, instruction, and socialization. In this regard, and with heavy reliance on rhetoric, semiotics, and social theory, special attention is paid to how theological, literary, and scientific elements were combined and presented in the musical compositions. Particularly, Niccolò Jommelli’s oratorio Giuseppe glorificato in Egitto (1749) and Rinaldo di Capua’s L’angelo di Tobia (1768) are analyzed as musical portrayals of St. Joseph Calasanz, in correspondence with Catholic-Enlightenment ideals of holiness. References to music-style features, based on period theory, principally Joseph Riepel’s theory of musical phrase, run across this study also in connection with broader cultural aspects

American Opera, Jazz, and Historical Consciousness, 1924-1994

From the 1970s through the early 1990s numerous critics commented on an apparent “rebirth” of American opera. Subsequent scholarship has increasingly sanctioned a consensus view holding up Philip Glass and John Adams as the central figures in this opera resurgence. Although I do not dispute the importance of (post-)minimalism in these decades, my gambit in this dissertation is to reframe the idea of a late twentieth-century operatic renaissance by tracing a long relationship between jazz and the concept of American opera. The jazz genealogy of American opera that I develop in this study is intended not only to draw attention to a body of work that has been largely ignored but also to unfold antinomies of postmodern historical consciousness that were manifest in the operatic resurgence more generally. Although my inquiry extends as far back as the 1920s, this dissertation by no means presents a continuous history of opera from 1924 to 1994, as the subtitle might imply. The weight is squarely placed on the 1970s through the early 1990s. Chapter 1 explores racial dimensions of the concept of “modernity” through a study of Harlem Renaissance composer H. Lawrence Freeman’s never-performed “jazz opera” American Romance (1924-1929). Chapter 2 chronicles the Harlem Opera Society’s abandonment of its former European repertory and subsequent reinvention as the Afro-American Singing Theater/Jazz Opera Ensemble during the late 1960s and 1970s. Chapter 3 tracks the transformation of jazz in the 1980s into an increasingly historicist—or possibly posthistoricist—music through a series of works that I call “jazz-historical operas.” Chapter 4 works through a tension between “actuality” and allegory in Robert Ashley’s television opera trilogy (1978-1994) about American history. The name of Duke Ellington winds through the four chapters as a kind of red thread. “Ellington” functions as a multivalent trope, alternatively signifying hypermodern America, the black cultural tradition, composition, and improvisational “actuality.” In a brief epilogue I identify another figure whose name has somewhat more furtively shadowed my study: Richard Wagner. I suggest that the idea of an “Ellington-Wagner matrix” in American opera both symbolizes a tradition of cultural hybridity and identifies a problematic concerning history and sonic materiality (roughly, the distinction between “event” and “representation”) expounded in the preceding chapters. In some ways, my analysis of the deeply ambiguous status of historicity and modernity in twentieth century American culture will prove consonant with many previous discussions of the topic. But I hope that in certain fundamental respects my study may also be understood as a novel, even interventionist foray into historical theory. Race has scarcely been an overlooked topic in critical inquiry and cultural theory of the last three decades, but it is hard to ignore the Eurocentric—or Euro-American—thrust of much of the canonical discourse on postmodernity and historicity, some of which was surveyed above. My attempts to interpret transformations in historical consciousness through shifting relationships between two culturally and racially supercharged signifiers—“jazz” and “opera”—might be taken as a challenge to this tendency

Towards a new Qur’ânic hermeneutics based on historico-critical and intertextual approaches : the case of the crucifixion of Jesus in the tafâsîr of eight muslim exegetes

Le Coran et la Sunna (la tradition du prophète Muḥammad) relatée dans les aḥâdîth (les traditions orales du Prophète) représentent la source éternelle d’inspiration et de savoir à laquelle les Musulmans se réfèrent pour agir, réagir et interagir. Par le fait même, tout au long de l’histoire musulmane, ces sources sacrées ont été à la base des relations des Musulmans avec autrui, incluant les Chrétiens. Les trois éléments majeurs de différenciation entre l’islam et le christianisme sont : la nature divine de Jésus, la trinité ainsi que la crucifixion et la mort de Jésus sur la croix. La position tranchée du Coran quant aux deux premiers points ne laisse place à aucun débat académique. Cependant, l’ambiguïté du texte coranique quant à la crucifixion de Jésus et sa mort a favorisé de nombreux débats entre mufassirûn (les exégètes du Coran). Cette thèse est une analyse textuelle des deux passages coraniques qui traitent de cette troisième différence. Pour cette étude textuelle et intertextuelle, les tafâsîr (interprétations du Coran) de huit mufassirûn appartenant à différentes madhâhib (écoles d’interprétation) et périodes de l’histoire des relations musulmanes-chrétiennes sont utilisés en combinaison avec certaines approches et méthodes récentes telles que : historico-critique et critique rédactionnelle. De plus, trois nouvelles théories développées dans la thèse enrichissent les outils herméneutiques de la recherche : la « théorie des cinq couches de sens », la « théorie des messages coraniques doubles » et la « théorie de la nature humaine tripartite ». À la lumière de ces théories et méthodes, il apparaît que l’ambiguïté coranique au sujet de la crucifixion et de la mort de Jésus est une invitation claire de la part du Coran incitant les Musulmans et les Chrétiens à vivre avec cette ambiguïté insoluble. La conclusion de cette thèse contribue directement à de meilleures relations musulmanes-chrétiennes, renforçant l’appel coranique (Coran 3:64, 103) à ces deux communautés leurs demandant de se cramponner aux points communs majeurs, d’intégrer leurs différences mineures et de consacrer leurs énergies pour une vie harmonieuse entre eux et laisser le reste dans les mains du Dieu qu’ils ont en commun.The Qur’ân, together with the sunnah (tradition) of the Prophet Muḥammad recounted in aḥâdîth (oral traditions of the Prophet), form the eternal source of inspiration and knowledge upon which the Muslim communities have acted and reacted to, as well as interacted with. Externally, their relations with many others, including Christians, have followed the same dynamics, as seen in the mirror of the Qur’ân and its interpretations. The topics of the divine nature of Jesus, the trinity, and the crucifixion of Jesus and his death on the cross, have been commonly considered the three main theological points of disagreement between Muslims and Christians. The Qur’ân’s clear position vis-à-vis the first two points do not leave any space for scholarly debates. However, despite Muslims’ actual consensus on denying Jesus’ crucifixion and death, the Qur’ânic ambiguous image of Jesus’ last day on earth has caused many discussions among mufassirûn (exegetes of the Qur’ân). This thesis is a textual analysis of the two Qur’ânic passages on this debated point of difference. For this textual and intertextual study, the tafâsîr (interpretations of the Qur’ân) of eight mufassirûn belonging to different madhâhib (schools of interpretation) from various periods in the history of Muslim-Christian relations are used in combination with recent textual approaches and methods such as: historico-citical and redaction critical. In addition, three new theories developed within this dissertation complete the hermeneutical tools employed for this research: the “theory of five layers of meaning,” the “theory of double messages of the Qur’ân,” and the “theory of humans’ tripartite nature.” In the light of these theories and methods, it emerges that the Qur’ânic ambiguity on Jesus’ crucifixion and death may well be the Qur’ân’s own invitation to Muslims and Christians to live with that unresolvable ambiguity. This dissertation’s conclusion thus contributes directly to better Muslim-Christian relations, reinforcing the Qur’ânic call to both Muslims and Christians (Qur’ân 3:64, 103) to focus on major common points, to embrace minor differences, and to spend their energy on what might have a positive impact on their harmonious co-habitation, abandoning the rest in the hands of God in whom both believe

On the Good Poem According to Philodemus.

This dissertation handles the poetics of Philodemus of Gadara, a first century BCE Epicurean philosopher and poet. His views are recoverable from several of his treatises, which are primarily polemical and without positive exposition. However, his views are recoverable from careful readings of the debates, rare direct evidence, and attention to his commitments, which as a loyal member of the school, he could not contradict. The first, introductory, chapter treats Philodemus' biography, the history of scholarship on the topic, and introduces some technical matters (often editorial) and conventions. The second chapter treats the history of the Garden's engagement with poetics. Epicurus did not write an On Poems but Metrodorus did. Other early Epicureans, as well as Zeno of Sidon, Demetrius Laco, and Siro and other Epicureans are examined as well. In chapter three, “The Prolepsis of the Poem,” I discuss what counts as a poem for Epicureans. Philodemus indicates that there were prolepseis of “poetry” and “poem;” the Epicureans meant basically what we mean by the terms. In chapter four, “Poetry as Techne and the Uses of Poetry,” I argue that poetry counts as an art for the Epicureans, but not a useful one. In my fifth chapter, “The Form, Content, Judgment, and Purpose of Poems,” I examine Philodemus' views as what form and content are, and the ways in which they interact. They are interdependent: the content depends on the words used to describe it, but there cannot be language without a topic. He values form above content in judging poems. The poem has an strange effect: it produces “additional thoughts” in the audience, by which they are entertained. It seems clear that Philodemus expected good poets to arrange form and content suggestively, so that the poems could exert a lasting pull on the minds of the audience. My sixth chapter collects a miscellany of topics which Philodemus handles but which do not fit neatly into another chapter. I discuss his views on genre, mimesis, “appropriateness,” utility, and various technical terms. The seventh chapter contains a concluding summary.PHDClassical StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116753/1/mmcosker_1.pd

A comparative study of some English translations of parts of three Mu'allaqat

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