Forum for Contemporary Issues in Language and Literature

WHY I BELIEVE IN MONSTERS (AND YOU SHOULD TOO)

Juan Colomina-Alminana — 2023-01-03

According to Kaplan’s bidimensional theory of demonstratives, the descriptive content of any indexical term (and the sentences they appear in) is only employed to determine its reference in any possible world rigidly but cannot be expressed by the sentence’s truth conditions. Kaplan then argues that an indexical sentence’s informativeness depends on what he calls its character, a property of the context that relates a particular context to a concrete content, but it cannot be a part of the proposition the sentence entertains (its content), primarily given the logical inconsistencies the opposite would show in the theory of conditionals and counterfactuals. I agree with Kaplan that indexicals should not be considered disguised descriptions. Nevertheless, I believe that their content is informative and, therefore, part of the proposition these sentences express, even though that implies accepting the existence of content shifting operators within the same context --what Kaplan dubbed monsters.

This paper, therefore, presents an alternative account to indexical terms and sentences employing the Interactive Theory introduced in Colomina-Alminana (2022). This approach considers that the meaning of any sentence, the proposition it expresses, depends upon three interrelated factors: the speaker’s intentions when uttering, the audience’s potential uptakes of such statement, and the conventions established by the speech community both speaker and audience belong, or the linguistic interaction takes place. The critical element is the so-called speaker's point of view, an objective perspectival networking background that allows lexical and syntactic mechanisms to trigger and update potential conceptual presuppositional content shared by both speaker and audience and whose existence is prior to any context and circumstances.

PRELIMINARY DIRECTIONS IN COMPILING A RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS TRANSLATING BETWEEN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE FOCUSING ON WORDPLAY

Rosemary Reader — 2023-01-03

This article considers the issues that arise in translating between different languages and cultures with a focus on wordplay. Finding appropriate equivalences can be a complicated process that goes beyond linguistic limitations to cultural interpretations of meaning. Wordplay can serve as an aspect that exist as additional elements of information and a means to create a specific atmosphere within the narrative. This can often be reliant on cultural cues, especially in the case of children’s fantasy series wherein culturally specific references to folktales may be subtly interwoven into the tale using wordplay. This can then lead to complications when being translated. As such, this is a venture into how the wordplay in Harry Potter has been translated into Japanese with the intent to use this data to create a resource for students studying translation between the two languages by acknowledging the conflicting needs of clarity and amusement.

CRITIQUE OF THE EMOTIONAL LYING

Pablo Vera Vega — 2023-01-03

One of the most relevant facets of our time is the supposed rise of post–truth. Without committing ourselves to its existence, we can, from Philosophy, think, at least, about some of its facets. And the facet that we will reflect on here is that of post–truth as an emotional lie. However, given that "emotional lying" meaning is not clear, I will justify that what emotional lying privilegedly means can be deduced from the philosophical theory of bullshit. That deduction comes from the development of (1) the emotion which bullshit can imply, (2) the clarification of the requirements of the institution of the assertion, and (3) the coherent transition from bullshitter to bullshitee.

BLENDING OF LITERARY GENRES IN CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN LITERATURE: THE CASE STUDY OF AUŠRA MATULEVIČIŪTĖ (1978), LAURA SINTIJA ČERNIAUSKAITĖ (1976), RENATA ŠERELYTĖ (1970) AND RASA AŠKINYTĖ (1973)

Indrė Žakevičienė — 2023-01-03

The main aim of the article is to survey the situation in the field of Lithuanian literature of the first two decades of the 21st century discussing the phenomenon of the diffusion of genres. The main questions to be answered: how a genre could be related to the forms of writing and in what way can particular blends of literary genres justify expectations of a reader and give additional impulses to the emotional response of the addressee of the text. Those questions will be answered analysing prose texts by contemporary Lithuanian writers Aušra Matulevičiūtė (1978), Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė (1976), Renata Šerelytė (1970) and Rasa Aškinytė (1973). It is possible to conclude that particular blends of literary genres may realize the intentions of a writer and give additional impulses to the emotional response of an addressee of fictional text, but those blends should be constructed paying attention to the particular forms of writing.

LIMINALITY AND HYBRIDITY: CONSEQUENCES OF LIVING BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Sergio Illán Nevado — 2023-01-10

In this paper, I analyze the concept of liminality and the negative collateral consequences it might bring to the liminal and hybrid character. The definition of liminality is goingto be analyzed as the most characteristic trait of Pauline Puyat’s personality, a mixed- blood character in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks. As a half-breed female, Pauline belongs to both and to none of the two traits that make up her identity. This duality causes in her many contradictory sentiments of isolation, loneliness and jealousy that will gradually disturb her mind and, eventually, she will act in an incoherent manner. By having two identities, Pauline is expected to enjoy her multicultural frame. Contrarily, Pauline Puyat’s liminality and hybridity affects her own self and, at some points, others’.

PERSPECTIVISM AS AN APPROACH TO BOTH LITERARY ANALYSIS AND PHILOSOPHY: A STUDY OF THE LITERARY WORKS OF HERVÉ GUIBERT IN RELATION TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS OF JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET

Natividad Garrido Rodríguez — 2023-01-10

In order to better understand the relationship between literature and philosophy, the paper takes as its starting point a number of reflections by José Ortega y Gasset; indeed, his ideas help demonstrate the value of literature for philosophical thought. The structure of a literary narrative is an interesting working space for perspectivism, and the literary works of Hervé Guibert serve as a useful case study to exemplify this idea. It will be argued that philosophy and literature are two perspectives that coincide and favour a more complex study of the plurality of differing viewpoints, which applies to both their content and dissimilarities.

COULD WE LIVE IN NELSON GOODMAN’S WORLDS? THOUGHTS ON GOODMAN’S PLURALISM AND ITS RECONCEPTION OF PHILOSOPHY

Enrico Brugnami — 2023-01-03

The idea of living in a world seems to be obvious. Only a skeptical person would deny that we live in one, or that we are able to say it. And it is precisely because of skepticism that the existence and knowledge about the external world has been a recurring topic in the history of philosophy. Nelson Goodman has confronted this problem and has offered a constructivist and pluralist solution. This article explains these key points of Goodman's epistemology, as well as his ontological pluralism. Subsequently, I explain how, according to the author, these philosophical positions would imply a reconception of classical concepts of philosophy. Finally, I criticize the Goodmanian thesis that we can live in different worlds simultaneously and reconsider the problem from the perspectivist approach of the authors Manuel Liz, Margarita Vázquez and Antti Hautamäki.