May 31, 2020 “To be able to read is to be able to decode writing. The reader has to have an interpretation of the text or parts of it. For traditionalists, interpretation is a matter of what goes on in the mind. If readers know the language, can decode writing, and have the requisite background ‘facts’ to draw the inevitable inferences any writing requires, they can construct the ‘right’ interpretation in their heads. And this ‘right’ interpretation is the same for all competent readers. There are ‘fancy’ interpretations of texts like poems, riddles, novels and sacred texts. But to read is to have in one’s head a ‘basic’ interpretation” [Gee, 2012: 38 - 39].

May 27, 2020 Children develop a sense of their own identities at the same time as they develop language. Language is thus tied to identity from the first words uttered. This mutual development learning how to speak and learning how to be – is called language socialization.  [Andresen, 2016: 78] Language socialization may get in dire straits when a child learns that his mother-tongue is not welcome in the society and he is expected to switch to the “official language”.

May 23, 2020 Some most famous discoveries in philology and translation belongs to people who are professionally divorced from these disciplines. Such is the case with William Jones whose fluent Persian took him to the position of a Supreme Court judge in India in 1778. His curiosity made him learn Sanskrit and establish a strong affinity of that ancient language to Greek and Latin: divergent forms of some single prehistoric language. Deplorably, William Jones died in Kolkata at the age of 48.

Still, he made an epoch.

May 21, 2020  Michel Fucault: in "The Discourse on Language" (1970):

“Speech is no mere verbalization of conflicts and systems of domination, it is the very object of man’s conflicts”

May 17, 2020 Karl Vossler in "Language Communities" (1925):

"Once a people has had its sense of nationality awakened and stands guard over its nattional language, all trade routes, needs and necessities, and all compulsory measures of police, state, or church must fail. That was seen in Poland. When their civic freedom and unity had been taken from the Poles and shattered, they sang Polish songs. Ty clung to their language as the llast sign, security, and symbol of their national -character and unity. The more rigidly they were prohibited from using their language in public, the prouder, deeper, more war-like, and religious became their love for it... Since every ord ccould now lea to pprison or banishment, every Polish sound became part of the national fame; to the brother a greeting from the soul, a gesture of defiance to the enemy".

May 11, 2020 In modern linguistics you will hardly make a move without bumping into a term which has many meanings – DISCOURSE. One of numerous definitions of “discourse” says:

“Discourses are characteristic ways of talking about and understanding certain ideas, attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs, all of which affect behaviours” [Andresen and Carter, 2016: 32].

May 7, 2020 There are many linguists who will dismiss this definition of language:

“Language is an orienting behavior that orients the orientee within his or her cognitive social domain andthat arises in phylogeny (history of the species) and ontogeny (individual development) through recurrent interactions with conspecifics [Andresen and Carter, 2016: 5].

Still, it is worthwhile consideration, because it reveals loopholes in the classical definition:

“Language is a means by which humans communicate their thoughts and feelings” [Andresen and Carter, 2016: 4]

May 1, 2020  If you recall the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s or are taking preparations against COVID-19 right now, then you’ve definitely heard the words epidemic and pandemic. With every biological outbreak, we encounter these words being used more and more frequently—and often, inaccurately.

Why is it so easy for people to confuse these words? Well, both words contain –demic and are used for disease outbreaks, but they’re not exactly the same. These similarities lead many people to use the two words interchangeably or incorrectly altogether. The key difference, however, is about scale.

https://www.dictionary.com/e/epidemic-vs-pandemic/