ELIS, volume 2 (2014)
Meaning between language and discourse: studies in semantics and discourse analysis
Dear readers,
ELIS, the journal of Paris-Sorbonne University young researchers in linguistics, is pleased to present its new 2014 issue. This issue is thematic and focuses on semantics and discourse analysis across various languages (German, French, Italian and Russian), reflecting the diversity of research conducted by young researchers at Paris-Sorbonne, both doctoral and post-doctoral students. Moreover, this issue, like the previous ones, devotes a large part to contrastive approaches (G. Nardozza and T. Vavula) or both diachronic and contrastive approaches (M. Conforti), confronting genetically related languages (French/Italian) or more distant ones (German/French, Russian/French), and even to translatology through the study of interlinguistic subtitling (L. Dumans).
The seven articles brought together here can be divided into three main categories. The first one is lexical semantics in discourse with two articles in corpus linguistics: one submitted by Grégory Nardozza (†) on the values of German derived adjectives in -bar and their French equivalents in -able/-ible, and one by Rémy Victor who explores what happens in discourse when there is an alleged case of synonymy in German with the adjectives endrucksvoll and beeindruckend, which both mean impressive. Enunciation constitutes the second category in this collection with articles by Marielle Conforti on the use of the subjunctive in French and Italian from a diachronic perspective; by Pierre-Yves Modicom on modal particles in German; and by Tatsiana Vavula on possessives in Russian and French. Finally, the third category deals with the analysis of specialised discourses such as advertising slogans, with Tatiana Smirnova-Cotet’s study on Russian, or interlinguistic subtitles confronted with the fundamental concepts of traductology by Louis Dumas.
All the members of ELIS wish to honor the memory of our peer, Grégory Nardozza, who passed away prematurely, by dedicating this 2014 issue – to which he contributed as an author – to him. Having left us before the second rereading of his article, we are publishing it in this state of completion. Grégory had joined the journal’s reading committee this year and was actively participating in the preparation of the next issue to be published in the summer of 2015. All the members of ELIS offer their most sincere condolences to Gregory’s family and friends. We still consider him to be a part of the editorial team and are thinking of him.
Ach, wir verstehen den Tod nicht, nie verstehen wir ihn ; und jedes Wesen ist in Wahrheit erst dann tot, wenn auch alle die gestorben sind, die es gekannt haben … Ich habe die Blumen heute auch anders in die Hand genommen als sonst, zarter, als könnte man ihnen ein Leids antun, wenn man sie zu hart anfaßte… als könnten ihre stillen Seelen leise zu wimmern anfangen. (ArthurSchnitzler, Blumen, 1894)
Hélas ! Nous ne comprenons pas la mort, jamais nous ne la comprendrons ; à la vérité, un être n’est pas mort tant que tous ceux qui l’ont connu ne se sont pas éteints à leur tour. Aujourd’hui, j’ai cueilli les fleurs autrement qu’à l’ordinaire, avec plus de délicatesse, comme si l’on pouvait les blesser, à le faire trop brutalement… comme si leur âme muette pouvait se mettre à gémir doucement. (ArthurSchnitzler, Les fleurs, 1894)
Oh, we do not understand death; we will never understand it. Living beings are only truly dead when those who knew them have also passed away. Today, I gathered the flowers differently than I would normally, with greater tenderness, as if I could hurt them if I held them too tightly … as if their gentle souls might start to whimper softly.” (Arthur Schnitzler, Flowers, 1894).
Content of the 2014 issue
- Lexical semantics in the discourse
Grégory Nardozza: Derivatives in -able/-ible and -bar from a Comparative Perspective: in Search of Common Analytical Tools (Les dérivés en -able / -ible et -bar dans une perspective comparative : A la recherche d’outils d’analyse communs. ), p.5.
Rémy Victor: A Case of True Synonymy? The Appreciative Adjectives endrucksvoll and beeindruckend (Un cas de vraie synonymie ? Les adjectifs appréciatifs eindrucksvoll et beeindruckend), p.29.
- Enunciation
Marielle Conforti: Subjunctive and Mental Figuration: a Diachronic Study of the Uses of the Subjunctive in French and Italian (Subjonctif et figuration mentale : une étude diachronique des emplois du subjonctif en français et en italien.), p.43.
Pierre-Yves Modicom: The Theories of Commitment through the Prism of Modal Particles in German (Les théories de la prise en charge au prisme des particules modales de l’allemand), p.61.
Tatsiana Vavula: Possessives in Russian and French: the Distinction between the « Personal Sphere » and the « External Sphere » (Les possessifs en russe et en français : distinction entre la « sphère personnelle » et la « sphère extérieure »), p.81.
- Discourse analysis
Tatiana Smirnova-Cotet: Wordplay in Russian Advertising Slogans: If you Carry Them, They’ll Carry you (Jeux de mots dans les slogans publicitaires russes : If you carry them, they’ll carry you), p.107.
Louise A. Dumas: Subtitling: a Practice on the Margins of Translation (Le sous-titrage : une pratique à la marge de la traduction), p.129.
The 2014 issue also available here: http://elis.hypotheses.org/184