Internals from elaboration

Elaboration or Narration, as so-called discourse relations (or rhetorical relations), are modelled in Segmented Discourse Structure Theory (SDRT) as relations between discourse constituents (or constituents for short). These are either propositions that come into being by interpretation of sentences occurring in a text; the propositions then have the status of DRSes. Or, constituents are compounds of such DRSes, constructed from DRSes (or compounds of them) by discourse relations. Elaboration and Narration in that sense, rather than referring to text types, provide links between constituents that allow them to combine in ways that, for a recipient, a resulting text is coherent and has (some) elaborative or narrative properties

The Position of Negative Adjectives in Aelfric’s Catholic Homilies I

In Old English, negative adjectives, i.e. incorporating the negative prefix -un, are said to generally come in postposition to nouns (e.g. Fischer, 2001; Sampson, 2010). This paper investigates to what extent this general rule is followed in Aelfric’s Catholic Homilies, the texts of this author being a typical choice for the study of Old English syntax (cf. Davis 2006; Reszkiewcz, 1966; Kohonen, 1978). The data have been obtained from the York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose (YCOE). The following research questions have been formulated: Do strong negative adjectives outnumber nonnegated adjectives in postposition? Do strong negative adjectives have a tendency to appear in postposition? Do strong negated adjectives occur in preposition? The results indicated that for the sample analyzed, strong adjectives in postposition are not predominantly negated. Additionally, the postposition of most of those which are may potentially be explained by other factors, such as modification by a prepositional phrase, co-occurrence with a weak preposed adjective (both mentioned by Fischer), or indirect Latin influence in a formulaic phrase. Also, the data does not appear to support the observation that negated adjectives tend to appear in post- rather than preposition

Satztopik und Diskurstopik in Elaboration-Kontexten

The paper starts with a semantic differentiation between the notions of sentence topic and discourse topic. Sentence topic is conceived of as part of a semantic predication in the sense of Y. Kim's work. Discourse topic is defined, as in N. Asher's Segmented Discourse Representation Theory, as a discourse constituent that comprises the content of (part of) the larger discourse. The main body of the paper serves to investigate the intricate connection between the two types of topic. For restricting the context of investigation, a specific relation between discourse constituents, Elaboration, is chosen. If Elaboration holds between two discourse constituents, one of them can be identified as the explicit discourse topic with respect to the other one. Whereas an elaborating sentence - with or without a sentence topic - is used to infer a 'dimension' for extending the discourse topic, the role of the sentence topic if it occurs is to mark an 'index' for predication along that dimension. The interaction of elaborating sentences and their topics is modelled by means of channel theoretic devices.

Wstęp

Zadanie pt. Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Dakar’s Market Imaginary: Mobility, Visuality, and the Creative Economy of Second Chances

My concern in this essay is with the concepts that produce the market imaginary in the city of Dakar, Senegal. In particular, this essay centers on a cluster of questions: how might we characterize something as intangible and abstract as the market imaginary in this particular city? How do the individuals involved in its imagining situate and articulate its relevance? And, how is the everyday social and visual experience of Dakar’s markets indicative and generative of the market imaginary? To pursue these questions, I focus on the themes of mobility, visuality, and the creative economy of second chances in relation to my research about two markets in Dakar. The first is Marché Colobane, a sprawling market for second hand goods located in a neighborhood many would describe as a slum; the second is Dakar’s art market, a multi-sited entity constituted by the transactions between artists and art world figures. Inscribed by the high and low of luxury and scarcity, each market’s spaces, propositions, and participants appear unambiguously asymmetrical at first glance. Yet, the visual and social practices of each market overlap and taken together they create a scope of inquiry that allows for analysis of markets as spaces that are embedded in neighborhoods, cities, and global commodity flows as much as they are productive of the imagination. In addressing markets and mobility, I consider how markets image mobility as normative while creating the conditions of possibility for movement. Markets are sites where people, objects and desires both converge and diverge. Furthermore, I consider how networks compose and articulate in the market to provide the logistical framework for mobility across many registers. The remainder of my essay elaborates on the creative economy of second chances for people, places, and objects. Underpinned by the recognition that the practices of remaking and everyday visual experience are vital to the imagination, I offer a theorization of visuality, speculation, and reinvention in relation to the market imaginary. I foreground the market’s multiple arrangements of objects and people in imaging a modality where reinvention is regularized in everyday visuality and the market imaginary. The propositions populating Marché Colobane and the art market emblematize the possibility of many forms of reinvention. Moving between analysis of these themes in relation to Marché Colobane and Dakar’s art market, I attend to the specific topography, spatial configurations, objects, and participants constituting each to theorize the market’s visual, social, and commercial spaces as productive of its notional space – the market imaginary. This essay theorizes the market’s relevance as transcending commercial inscriptions for it also generates and consolidates a market imaginary about many potential inclusions, circulations, and reinventions