diversité et identité culturelle en europe tome 11/1

Transcription

DIVERSITÉ ET IDENTITÉ
CULTURELLE
EN EUROPE
TOME 11/1
Editura Muzeul Literaturii Române
Bucureşti, 2014
Publicaţie semestrială editată de:
Muzeul Naţional al Literaturii Române
Director fondator:
Prof. univ. dr. Petre Gheorghe Bârlea, U.O.C.
Colegiul de redacţie:
Acad. Marius Sala, Vicepreşedinte al Academiei Române
Prof. univ. dr. Libuše Valentová, Universitatea „Carol al IV-lea”
Praga, Republica Cehă
Prof. univ. dr. Lucian Chişu, Institutul „George Călinescu” al
Academiei Române; Muzeul Naţional al Literaturii
Române, Bucureşti
Conf. univ. dr. Roxana-Magdalena Bârlea, Academia de Studii
Economice, Bucureşti
Prof. univ. dr. Cécile Vilvandre de Sousa, Universidad „CastillaLa Mancha”, Ciudad Real, Spania
Prof. univ. dr. Emmanuelle Danblon, Université Libre de
Bruxelles – Université d’Europe
Secretariat de redacţie:
Constantin-Georgel Stoica
Angela Stănescu
Ioana Raicu
Tehnoredactare şi design:
Constantin-Georgel Stoica
Mihai Cuciureanu
Adresa redacţiei:
Bulevardul Dacia, nr. 12, Bucureşti, CP 010402, Romania
http://www.mnlr.ro/ro-dice.html
Scientific Board:
ANGELESCU, Silviu, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Departamentul de Studii Culturale, Prof. univ.dr.
BUNACIU, Otniel Ioan, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Decan, Prof. univ. dr.
BUSUIOC, Monica, Institutul de Lingvistică Bucureşti, Cercetător st. pr.
CHIRCU,Adrian,UniversitateaBabeş-BolyaiCluj-Napoca,DepartamentuldeLimbaRomânăşiLingvisticăGenerală,Lectoruniv.dr.
CHIVU, Gheorghe, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Academia Română, Prof. univ. dr., Membru al Academiei Română
CODLEANU, Mioara, Universitatea „Ovidius” Constanţa, Conf. univ. dr.
CONSTANTINESCU,Mihaela,UniversitateadinBucureşti,DepartamentuldeStudiiCulturale-Director,Prof.univ.dr.
COSTA,Ioana,UniversitateadinBucureşti,FacultateadeLimbiStrăine,DepartamentuldeLimbiClasice,Prof.univ.,Cercetătorst.pr.
COŞEREANU, Valentin, Centrul Naţional de Studii „Mihai Eminescu” Ipoteşti, Dr. Cercetător st. pr.
CRISTESCU, Ioan, Muzeul Naţional al Literaturii Române, Bucureşti, Cercetător st. pr.
DANCĂ, Wilhelm, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Facultatea de Teologie Catolică, Prof. univ.dr., Decan.
DASCĂLU, Crişu, Academia Română, Filiala „Titu Maiorescu” Timişoara, Prof. univ.dr., Director.
DINU, Mihai, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Facultatea de Litere, Prof. univ. dr.
DULCIU, Dan, Societatea „Mihai Eminescu” Bucureşti, Traducător, Curator.
FLOREA, Silvia, Universitatea „Lucian Blaga” Sibiu, Departamentul de Limbi Moderne, Conf. univ. dr.
INKOVA, Olga, Université de Genève,Département de Langues Méditerranéennes, Slaves et Orientales, Prof. univ. dr., Directeur.
IOANA, Nicolae, Universitatea Dunărea de Jos Galaţ, Decan, Prof. univ. dr.
ISPAS, Sabina, Institutul de Etnografie şi Folclor Bucureşti, Academia Română, Director, Membru al Academiei Române.
LOÏC, Nicolas, Université Libre de Bruxelles, GRAL-Dr., Cercetător.
MANZOTTI, Emilio, Université de Genève, Département de Langues Romanes, Prof. univ. dr., Directeur.
MITU, Mihaela, Universitatea din Piteşti, Conf. univ. dr.
MOROIANU, Cristian, Universiatatea din Bucureşti, Facultatea de Litere, Conf. univ. dr., Prodecan.
NAŠINEC, Jiri, Universitatea „Carol IV” Praga, Departamentul Antropologie şi Studii Culturale, Prof. univ. dr.
NĂDRAG, Lavinia, Universitatea „Ovidius” Constanţa, Departamentul de Limbi Moderne, Prof. univ. dr., Director.
NICOLAE, Florentina, Universitatea „Ovidius” Constanţa, Conf. univ. dr.
PANEA, Nicolae, Universitatea din Craiova, Decan, Prof., univ. dr.
PETRESCU, Victor, Redactor revista „Litere”, Dr.
RESTOUEIX, Jean-Philippe, Consiliul Europei, Bruxelles, Şef scţie,TODI, Aida-Universitatea „Ovidius” Constanţa, Conf. univ. dr.
TOMESCU, Emilia Domniţa, Institutulde LingvisticăBucureşti,Universitatea „PetrolşiGaze”dinPloieşti,Cercetătorst.pr.,Prof. univ.dr.
VASILOIU, Ioana, Muzeul Naţional al Literaturii Române, Bucureşti, Cercetător.
WALD,Lucia,UniversitateadinBucureşti,FacultateadeLimbiStrăine,DepartamentuldeLimbiClasice,Prof.univ.dr.
Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a României
Diversité et identité culturelle en Europe/Diversitate şi
identitate culturală în Europa / Editor: Petre Gheorghe Bârlea
ISSN: 2067 - 0931
An XI, nr. 1 – Bucureşti: Editura Muzeul Literaturii Române - 2014.
151 p.
008(4+498)(063)
Diversité et Identité Culturelle en Europe
SOMMAIRE
FONDEMENTS DU DIALOGUE CULTUREL
Fee-Alexandra HAASE
‘Cosmos’, the ‘order of the Universe’, and the ‘Spheres of
the World’: the tradition of the conceptualization of
‘globalization’ in the discourse of philosophy/7
Fabiola KADI
Poésie et religion, leurs rapports et leurs particularités dans
la vie de l’homme/33
Silvia FLOREA; Peter J. WELLS; Diana FLOREA
The web is the limit: language, culture and MOOCs/53
Angela STĂNESCU
Collocation-centred approaches to teaching and learning
English vocabulary/67
Edlira XEGA
The implementation of syllabi for the study of English in
conformity with the Common European Framework of
Reference /73
CONFLUENCES
Adrian CHIRCU
La relation entre les adverbes et les vocabulaires
fondamental et représentatif de la langue roumaine/95
5
Petre Gheorghe BÂRLEA; Ana Maria PANŢU
The etymologic structure of Romanian mythonyms (I) /105
Eva ÇËRAVA (KANE); Anyla SARAÇI
The phraseology of “head” in relation with Balkan mentality
(contrastive analysis of the phraseology of Albanian,
Bulgarian and Greek languages)/125
CONVERGENCES ET DIVERGENCES IDENTITAIRES
Gjergji PENDAVINJI; Robert STRATOBERDHA
La communication interculturelle et la négociation de
l’identité des Albanais/ 133
Ramona Elena STANCIU
The modern evolution of Tîrgovişte Town’s cultural life
(1878-1914)/ 147
6
FONDEMENTS DU DIALOGUE CULTUREL
„‘COSMOS’, THE ‘ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE’,
AND THE ‘SPHERES OF THE WORLD’: THE
TRADITION OF THE CONCEPTUALIZATION
OF ‘GLOBALIZATION’ IN THE DISCOURSE OF
PHILOSOPHY”
Fee-Alexandra HAASE
University of Nizwa
f.haase1@gmx.de
Abstract:
Philosophy has until present time a stable usage of the term and concept of the
‘sphere’ as a part of the representation of the world around us. We trace this path of the
‘sphere’ in the Western philosophy and the status the concepts of ‘world’, ‘universe’, and
‘sphere’ had for the worldview of philosophers in the history of the Western culture. We
will show that recently European philosophers have joint this concept of the ‘sphere’ with
the idea of ‘globalization’. But before the emergence of ‘globalization’ the previous
conceptualizations of the ‘world’ in philosophy have had a different function than in
contemporary political and economic thinking of the discourse of ‘globalization’. For the
philosopher it established the reality, which surrounds the human, while the economic and
political proponents of ‘globalization’ describe and use ‘globalization’ as a process they are
performing. Even the contemporary philosophers using ‘globalization’ refer to this
complex discourse.
Keywords:
History of Globalization - History of European Philosophy - Discourse Studies 'Public Sphere' - Conceptualization - Global Discourse - Cultural History of Globalization.
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1. Introduction: The Discourse of Philosophy of the ‘World’:
A Distinction of the Concepts ‘World’, ‘Universe’, and ‘Cosmos’
vs. the Human Being
Many aspects of philosophy concern the world around us; so
philosophy is interested in the origin and order of the world in the sense of
the surrounding reality, asks about the conditions of this reality and the
perception of it, and the separation of the human ‘I’ or ‘Ego’ and the
surrounding world . But also the evolutionary and social development of the
world around us from a historical perspective as described by Marx
concerns philosophers. The question of the representation of the world in
our language and the interaction of mind, language, and the reality around
us are also topics of philosophy inquiring the world around us. ‘World’,
‘universe’, and ‘sphere’ are used in philosophical writings as the concepts,
which refer to the reality the human is located in; this reality is often the
counterpoint to the human experienced by the person as the otherness of the
world, which we perceive through our senses and arrange in our mind. The
relationship between both, ‘human’ and ‘world’, and the conditions of the
reception of the ‘world’ in the mind of the human are discussed in
philosophical discourses. On other words expressed: The philosophers’
‘world’ is a conceptual term and in some regard a metaphorical placeholder
for the representation of the surrounding environment. As such, it is only
distinguishable from the human as the area the human operates in and
experiences as different from himself or herself. It seems like the
philosophers used since antiquity used the concepts of ‘word’, ‘universe’,
and ‘cosmos’ as the framing markers of their thinking mind, which aimed at
the most abstract and commonly acceptable concepts humans are able to
think about. So the early Greek philosophers have used the term ‘cosmos’
for the universe in an ordered way as a whole; the ‘spheres’ were
considered even still in Christian thinking as the separated parts of the
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world, which surrounded the earth, until the scholars in Renaissance started
with their inquiry of the world using the natural sciences and distancing
themselves from the religious answers. But the idea of the areas of the
world around us was still formulated after the paradigm change of the
sciences gave up the ideas of the layers or spheres of the world. In logic the
‘universe of discourse’ is a class, which brings a virtually endless number
of arguments, which can be derives from it. ‘Cosmos’ means according to
the The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000) the
universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole, an ordered, harmonious
whole, and harmony and order as distinct from chaos. Cosmos in Collins
English Dictionary (2003) means the world or universe considered as an
ordered system, any ordered system, harmony, and order. The word
‘cosmos’ is known since 1150–1200 and derived from Middle English and
Greek kósmos for ‘order’, ‘form’, ‘arrangement’, ‘the world’, and
‘universe’. According to Random House Kernerman Webster's College
Dictionary (2010) ‘cosmos’ means the world or universe regarded as an
orderly, harmonious system, a complete, orderly, harmonious system, an
order and harmony, and any of a genus, Cosmos, of New World composite
plants having open clusters of flowers with red or yellow disks and wide
rays of white, pink, or purple. In contemporary research literature regarding
philosophy the concept ‘sphere’ is used, which can be traced back to the
earliest Greek philosophy and cosmological writings. Habermas as social
philosopher of pragmatism made the ‘public sphere’ as the place of
structural transformation in social theory and epistemology famous. The
‘universe of discourse’ or ‘domain of discourse’ is in logic a class
containing all the entities referred to in a discourse or an argument. In
formal logic the argument is defined by this ‘universe of discourse’. Every
argument or statement made in that universe applies to all entities of the
universe. Volkmer uses the term ‘global public sphere’: “The strategy of
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international communication theory, should be to develop a methodology
for the understanding of 'particular' interpretations, meanings, relevances of
the global public sphere, to detect the specifics of this communication space
for different world regions - in times of peace and times of crisis.” Fiss and
Hirsch (2005: 30) stated that “how major events are constructed in public
discourse continues to be a topic of interest across disciplines. Particularly
large-scale transformations such as industrialization, the emergence of
capitalism, democratization, or globalization are marked by discursive
struggles over their social and cultural impacts, and the outcome of these
struggles may facilitate or impede the transformations’ widespread
acceptance.” Brendel (1997) in Symbolism of the Sphere. A Contribution to
the History of Earlier Greek Philosophy described the concept of the
‘sphere’ of ancient scholars. Robertson (2009) published under the title
Spheres of Reason his New Essays in the Philosophy of Normativity. Inglis
(1998) published Spheres of Philosophical Inquiry and the Historiography
of Medieval Philosophy. Volkmer (2013) wrote that “it can be argued, that
fantasies and ‘ideas’ of the ‘world’ as a somehow common place have
existed since Plato described in his dialogue Timaeus the history of the
world by the affiliation of the four elements to each other, since Aristotle
defined the 'world state', since Francis Bacon distinguished between
different world concepts ‘globus terrestris’, and ‘globus intellectualis’. It
was idea of a 'world society' as a universe of nature and reasoning, a global
arena for public debate during the Enlightenment which has inaugurated
modernity. Postmodern thinkers replaced 'reasoning' by 'simulation' and
Hegel's term of ‘World Spirit’ (‘Weltgeist’) by an idea of 'instant' truth,
created by the media and conveying the image of a shrinking world.” A
sphere is a three-dimensional geometrical perfectly round form. The
English word ‘sphere’ derived from Greek σφαίρα and Latin sphaera for
‘ball’ and ‘globe’. The Greek word σφαίρα for ‘ball’ occurred in the Odysee
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(6.100) in the expression σφαίρε παίζειν ‘play at ball’. As the hollow sphere
or globe it was used in the ancient physics since the time of Anaximander.
It was believed that the spheres revolve around the earth carrying the
heavenly bodies. According to the Pythagoreans the spheres were arranged
after the intervals of the musical scale. Aristotle used the word in his
Metaphysics (1073b18). (Liddell; Scott) In philosophy the concept of the
‘public sphere’ was introduced by Habermas. Sloterdijk makes the
extension as the ‘globe’ in connection with the concept of ‘globalization’.
The ‘world’ was since oldest Greek philosophers practiced philosophy a
philosophical concept. Since antiquity in logic the ‘universe of discourse’ or
‘domain of discourse is a class containing all the entities referred to in a
discourse or an argument. In other words expressed: the argument is
defined by this ‘universe of discourse’. Every argument or statement, which
is made in that universe, applies to all entities of the universe. How much
this concept touched the natural sciences and the humanities at the same
time can be seen in the writing A Letter to a Friend Wherein is Plainly
Shewn that it is Impossible to Understand the Classick Authors, or the
Modern Philosophy, without Knowing the Globe, Sphere, and Geography.
Whereto is Annexed a Refutation of this Proposition, Cartesius est
Materialiter Atheus was published in Dublin on the 6th of December 1711.
Actually, ‘globalization’ has in the field of philosophy less place to be an
important field of studies. It can be treated by philosophers like any other
subject within the methodology of philosophy. From the perspective of
philosophy, the term ‘globalization’ was subject to critical commentaries
since it raised in the 70s of the last century. Schneewind (2002: 169-178)
discussed globalization in the history of philosophy. Scheuerman (2013)
wrote on ‘globalization’ in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: “The
term globalization has only become commonplace in the last two decades,
and academic commentators who employed the term as late as the 1970s
11
accurately recognized the novelty of doing so. At least since the advent of
industrial capitalism, however, intellectual discourse has been replete with
allusions to phenomena strikingly akin to those that have garnered the
attention of recent theorists of globalization.” The raising interest in
‘globalization’ from the perspective of the philosophy of the 20th and 21st
century cannot be seen in another way than the co-incidence of this
buzzword of the economic and trade organizations, which promote
‘globalization’, and the long history of the conceptual usage of terminology
of the semantic field of the ‘cosmos’, the ‘universe’ and the ‘spheres’
within them. The earliest philosophers used this terminology, since they
were in the position of being universal scholars, which did not separate the
different fields of their studies.
2. The World in German Philosophy of the 19th Century
Plato’s Politics can be considered the first philosopher who used for
politics the term ‘sphere of action’. Aristotle in his Politics (book 4, section
1300b) writes that a ‘difference among judicial courts’ rests upon ‘three
determinants’, which are ‘constituents’, ‘sphere of action’, and ‘mode of
appointment’. The usage of globalization for the area of culture can be
traced back to Hegel’s work The Phenomenology of Mind. The in Free
Concrete Mind: Spirit in the section The Spirit in Self-Estrangement (I. b.
Belief and Pure Insight (1); 1. Belief and Pure Insight) Hegel states that
“the spiritual condition of self-estrangement exists in the sphere of culture
as a fact.” Hegel in Science of Logic also speaks about the ‘spiritual sphere’
with an ‘infinitely manifold content that is communicable’. Hegel in his
Aesthetics (Lectures on Aesthetics. Volume 2. Part III. The System of the
Individual Arts) wrote as introduction to this part about art, which resides in
‘the sphere of the universal world-views’:
12
“This realization of the Ideal amounted only to the still purely
inner production of art within the sphere of the universal world-views
into which it was elaborated. But it is implicit in the very conception
of beauty that it shall make itself objective externally as a work of art
presented to immediate vision, to sense and sensuous imagination.
Consequently it is only through this existent, which is appropriate to
itself, that beauty really explicitly becomes beauty and the Ideal.
Therefore, thirdly, we still have to survey this sphere in which the
work of art is actualized in the element of the sensuous. For only in
virtue of this final configuration is the work of art genuinely concrete,
an individual at once real, singular, and perfect.”
Hegel used for the traditional separations of areas the concept
‘sphere’. Hegel also employed the terms in order to distinguish between
the private and public area; at this time, this was the mental framework
for the rise of the democracy in Europe during the 19th century. Kant
used the expression ‘sphere of a concept’ as a metaphoric term for the
extension of a concept. Kant (1787) in Critique of Pure Reason in II.
Transcendental Doctrine of Method (§ II. The Discipline of Pure Reason
in Respect of its Polemical Employment) described the earth:
“If I represent the earth, as it appears to my senses, as a flat surface
with a circular horizon, I cannot know how far it extends. But
experience teaches me that, how far soever I go, I always see before
me a space in which I can proceed farther; and thus I know the limits
of my actual knowledge of the earth at any given time, but not the
limits of all possible geography. But if I have got so far as to know
that the earth is a sphere, and that its surface is spherical, I am able
even from a small part of it, for instance, from the magnitude of a
degree, to know determinately, in accordance with principles a priori,
13
the diameter and through it the total superficial area of the earth; and
although I am ignorant of the objects which this surface may contain,
I yet have knowledge of its limits and extent.”
The archetypical usage of the spherical concept of financial
globalization we find in the work of Marx. Marx used in his economic
manuscripts of the Capital (Vol. I. Chapter Six) the expression ‘sphere of
circulation’. In the Capital (Volume II; Chapter 1) The Circuit of Money
Capital Marx deals with the changes in form (or metamorphoses) of capital
in the ‘sphere of circulation’. Scheuermann (2013) in the article
Globalization of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy wrote on Marx’
contribution to ‘globalization’: “Another German émigré, the socialist
theorist Karl Marx, in 1848 formulated the first theoretical explanation of
the sense of territorial compression that so fascinated his contemporaries. In
Marx's account, the imperatives of capitalist production inevitably drove the
bourgeoisie to “nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, and establish
connections everywhere.” Marx described that new technologies “provided
the necessary infrastructure for a cosmopolitan future socialist civilization,
while simultaneously functioning in the present as indispensable
organizational tools for a working class destined to undertake a revolution
no less oblivious to traditional territorial divisions than the system of
capitalist exploitation it hoped to dismantle.” Prior the Marx’ historical
materialism, concepts like ‘Weltgeist’ (‘world spirit’) and ‘Weltseele’
(‘world soul’) emerged in the second half of the 19 th century in the German
philosophy. Hegel and Schopenhauer use the concept ‘world’ in this
context. The world as an idea and the will of the human was the opus
magnum of Schopenhauer and is an important work for the relationship
between the mind and the reality of the human. Schopenhauer in The World
As Will And Idea in First Book. The World As Idea. First Aspect. The Idea
Subordinated To The Principle Of Sufficient Reason: The Object Of
14
Experience And Science formulated that the world is the idea of the mind,
when saying:
“§ 1. “The world is my idea:”—this is a truth which holds good
for everything that lives and knows, though man alone can bring it
into reflective and abstract consciousness. If he really does this, he
has attained to philosophical wisdom. It then becomes clear and
certain to him that what he knows is not a sun and an earth, but only
an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels an earth; that the world
which surrounds him is there only as idea, i.e., only in relation to
something else, the consciousness, which is himself.”
The statement ‘The world is idea’ Schopenhauer traces back as a
‘truth’ involved in the skeptical reflections from which Descartes started,
which Berkeley distinctly enunciated, and Kant's missed to respect as a
‘principle’. This ‘truth’ Schopenhauer traced back to the wise men of India
as “appearing indeed as the fundamental tenet of the Vedânta philosophy
ascribed to Vyasa”. Schopenhauer wrote:
“For as the world is in one aspect entirely idea, so in another it is
entirely will. A reality which is neither of these two, but an object in
itself (into which the thing in itself has unfortunately dwindled in the
hands of Kant), is the phantom of a dream, and its acceptance is an
ignis fatuus in philosophy.”
Schopenhauer wrote about concepts:
“§ 9. Concepts form a distinct class of ideas, existing only in the
mind of man, and entirely different from the ideas of perception which
15
we have considered up till now. We can therefore never attain to a
sensuous and, properly speaking, evident knowledge of their nature,
but only to a knowledge which is abstract and discursive. It would,
therefore, be absurd to demand that they should be verified in
experience, if by experience is meant the real external world, which
consists of ideas of perception, or that they should be brought before
the eyes or the imagination like objects of perception. They can only
be thought, not perceived, and only the effects which men accomplish
through them are properly objects of experience. Such effects are
language, preconceived and planned action and science, and all that
results from these. Speech, as an object of outer experience, is
obviously nothing more than a very complete telegraph, which
communicates arbitrary signs with the greatest rapidity and the finest
distinctions of difference.”
In the third book Schopenhauer describes the states of the world as
‘idea’ and as ‘will’:
“When the Platonic Idea appears, in it subject and object are no
longer to be distinguished, for the Platonic Idea, the adequate
objectivity of will, the true world as idea, arises only when the subject
and object reciprocally fill and penetrate each other completely; and
in the same way the knowing and the known individuals, as things in
themselves, are not to be distinguished. For if we look entirely away
from the true world as idea, there remains nothing but the world as
will. The will is the “in-itself” of the Platonic Idea, which fully
objectifies it; it is also the “in-itself” of the particular thing and of the
individual that knows it, which objectify it incompletely. As will,
outside the idea and all its forms, it is one and the same in the object
16
contemplated and in the individual, who soars aloft in this
contemplation, and becomes conscious of himself as pure subject.”
The mental place for the production of ideas is the genius:
“§ 37. Genius, then, consists, according to our explanation, in the
capacity for knowing, independently of the principle of sufficient
reason, not individual things, which have their existence only in their
relations, but the Ideas of such things, and of being oneself the
correlative of the Idea, and thus no longer an individual, but the pure
subject of knowledge.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1921, 2013) writes in his Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus:
1.
The world is everything that is the case.
1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by these being all
the facts.
1.12 For the totality of facts determines both what is the case, and
also all that is not the case.
1.13 The facts in logical space are the world.
1.2 The world divides into facts.
1.21 Any one can either be the case or not be the case, and
everything else remain the same.
Wittgenstein defines the ‘total reality’ as ‘world’:
2.063 The total reality is the world.
17
For Wittgenstein the representation through depiction of the world is
possible via the ‘logical picture’:
2.182 Every picture is also a logical picture.
(On the other hand, for example, not every picture is spatial.)
2.19 The logical picture can depict the world.
Wittgenstein’s statement that the proposition can produce a ‘world’
indicates that the mind is also able to produce a ‘world’ of its concepts:
4.023 The proposition determines reality to this extent, that one only
needs to say “Yes” or “No” to it to make it agree with reality. It must
therefore be completely described by the proposition. A proposition is
the description of a fact. As the description of an object describes it
by its external properties so propositions describe reality by its
internal properties. The proposition constructs a world with the help
of a logical scaffolding, and therefore one can actually see in the
proposition all the logical features possessed by reality if it is true.
One can draw conclusions from a false proposition.
1. The ‘Universe of Discourse’ in the U.S. American Philosophy
of Peirce and Marcuse
The discourse is the philosophical form of a dissertation both orally or in a
written form. As such, the discourse is a functional format of thinking and
not a literary genre. Of course we can distinguish the discourse of the
philosophers as a unit and a distinct literary feature. But the main functions
of the discourse are the communication of mental contents in a formal way.
18
The Greek word διάλεξις means ‘discourse’ and ‘argument’. More as a
communicative linguistic form the word διάλεκτος for ‘discourse’ and
‘conversation’ and διαλάλησις for ‘talking’ and ‘discourse’ were used. The
action of having a discourse was described by the verb λογέω. In the formal
language of rhetoric λογία and λαλιά were formats of discourse. The usage
of the expression ‘universe of discourse’ is a relative new concept of the
early 20th century logic of the U.S. American logician Pierce. Pierce (2013)
gives the following definition of the ‘universe of discourse’: "The universe
of discourse is the aggregate of the individual objects which "exist," that is
are independently side by side in the collection of experiences to which the
deliverer and interpreter of a set of symbols have agreed to refer and to
consider." ('The Principles of Logical Graphics, MS 493, n.d.) Pierce
(1906; 2013) wrote: in 'The Bedrock beneath Pragmaticism'
"...the Phemic Sheet iconizes the Universe of Discourse, since it
more immediately represents a field of Thought, or Mental Experience,
which is itself directed to the Universe of Discourse, and considered as a
sign, denotes that Universe. Moreover, it [is because it must be understood]
as being directed to that Universe, that it is iconized by the Phemic Sheet.
So, on the principle that logicians call "the Nota notae" that the sign of
anything, X, is itself a sign of the very same X, the Phemic Sheet, in
representing the field of attention, represents the general object of that
attention, the Universe of Discourse." ('The Bedrock beneath
Pragmaticism', CP 4.561n1, c. 1906).
Pierce (Universe 1902; 2013) also describes the origin of the term
‘university of discourse’:
“... Universe (in logic) of discourse, of a proposition, &c. In every
proposition the circumstances of its enunciation show that it refers to some
collection of individuals or of possibilities, which cannot be adequately
described, but can only be indicated as something familiar to both speaker
19
and auditor. At one time it may be the physical universe of sense (1) [Note
(Commens): This refers to the previous item in the DPP], at another it may
be the imaginary "world" of some play or novel, at another a range of
possibilities. The term was introduced by De Morgan in 1846 (Cambridge
Philosophical Transactions, viii, 380) but De Morgan never showed that he
fully comprehended it. It does not seem to be absolutely necessary in all
cases that there should be an index proper outside the symbolic terms of the
proposition to show what it is that is referred to; but in general there is such
an index in the environment common to speaker and auditor. This De
Morgan has not remarked; but what he has remarked has likewise its
importance, namely, that for the purposes of logic it makes no difference
whether the universe be wide or narrow. The idea of a limited logical
universe was adopted by Boole and has been employed by all subsequent
exact logicians. There is besides a universe of marks or characters,
whenever marks are considered substantively, that is, as abstractions, as
they commonly are in ordinary speech, even though the forms of language
do not show it. Thus only, there comes to be a material difference between
an affirmative and a negative proposition. For it will then alone be one
thing to say that an object wants some character common to all men and
another to say that it possesses every character common to all non-men.
Only instead of giving three qualities it gives four, for the assertion may be
that an object wants some character common to all non-men; a point made
by ancient writers. In 1882 O. C. Mitchell extended the theory of the logical
universe by the introduction of the idea of 'dimension'." ('Universe (2)',
DPP 2 / CP 2.536, 1902) In Minute Logic (1902; 2013) Pierce explains with
the example of the class of people introduced to the Eleusian mysteries that
every one of them, but no people of another class, experienced the feeling
of awe and participates in this ‘universe of discourse’:
20
"... I wish my description of what is true or false, to apply to what is
not only true or false generally, but also to what is true or false under
conditions already assumed. Whatever may be the limitations previously
imposed, that to which the truth or falsity is limited may be called the
universe of discourse. For example, at the mention of a certain name, every
person initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries invariably experiences a
feeling of awe. This is true. It is therefore true that every person initiated
into the Eleusinian mysteries always experiences a sentiment of awe; not
universally, but only under the limitations already understood before this is
said." ('Minute Logic', CP 6.351, c. 1902).
The next statement of Pierce is interesting, since it concerns the
aspect of the imagination as a field of experience, a situation, which we can
use to describe the state of ‘globalization’: "When the universe of discourse
relates to a common experience, but this experience is of something
imaginary, as when we discuss the world of Shakespeare's creation in the
play of Hamlet, we find individual distinction existing so far as the work of
imagination has carried it, while beyond that point there is vagueness and
generality. So, in the discussion of the consequences of a mathematical
hypothesis, as long as we keep to what is distinctly posited and its positive
implications, we find discrete elements, but when we pass to mere
possibilities, the individuals merge together. This remark will be fully
illustrated in the sequel." ('Multitude and Number', CP 4.172, 1897)
Marcuse in One-Dimensional Man in the chapter The Closing of the
Universe of Discourse wrote that the ‘language of total administration’
mediates between the masters and their dependents. “Its publicity agents
shape the universe of communication in which the one-dimensional
behaviour expresses itself.” Such a language produces a discourse, “which
is deprived of the mediations which are the stages of the process of
cognition and cognitive evaluation. The concepts which comprehend the
21
facts and thereby transcend the facts are losing their authentic linguistic
representation. Without these mediations, language tends to express and
promote the immediate identification of reason and fact, truth and
established truth, essence and existence, the thing and its function.”
Marcuse depicts a state of power, when ‘functionalization of language’
helps to ‘repel non-conformist elements’ from the structure and movement
of speech.
“In this behavioral universe, words and concepts tend to coincide, or
rather the concept tends to be absorbed by the word. The former has
no other content than that designated by the word in the publicized
and standardized usage, and the word is expected to have no other
response than the publicized and standardized behaviour (reaction).
The word becomes cliché and, as cliché, governs the speech or the
writing; the communication thus precludes genuine development of
meaning. To be sure, any language contains innumerable terms which
do not require development of their meaning, such as the terms
designating the objects and implements of daily life, visible nature,
vital needs and wants. These terms are generally understood so that their
mere appearance produces a response (linguistic or operational)
adequate to the pragmatic context in which they are spoken.”
Marcuse described here the impact of a functionalized language,
which as an absolute power destroys the values of the discourse. As
assemblage of cliché the language is dead and formal serving as the
framework of a totalitarian discourse. This state Marcuse marks as the end
of the ‘universe of discourse’.
22
The ‘World’ in European Philosophy of the 21 st Century:
Habermas, Sloterdijk, and Nancy
In Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 criticized that ‘What
philosophy once called life, has turned into the sphere of the private and
then merely of consumption’. Habermas published 2006 Religion in the
Public Sphere. Habermas described the communicative situation of the 20 th
and the 21st century with the distinction between the public and the private
sphere across his writings. Scheuermann (2013) in the article Globalization
of the Stanford Encyclopedy of Philosophy wrote on Heidegger’s
contribution to ‘globalization’: “But it was probably the German
philosopher Martin Heidegger who most clearly anticipated contemporary
debates about globalization. Heidegger not only described the “abolition of
distance” as a constitutive feature of our contemporary condition, but he
linked recent shifts in spatial experience to no less fundamental alterations
in the temporality of human activity: “All distances in time and space are
shrinking. Man now reaches overnight, by places, places which formerly
took weeks and months of travel” (Heidegger 1950, 165).” (Heidegger
1950, 165).”
In the encyclopedia article The Public Sphere, which appeared 1964
written by Habermas (1974: 49) in New German Critique the concept of the
‘public sphere’ is explained as follows: “We mean first of all a realm of our
social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed.
Access is guaranteed to all citizens. A portion of the public sphere comes
into being in every conversation in which private individuals assemble to
form a public body.' They then behave neither like business or professional
people transacting private affairs, nor like members of a constitutional order
subject to the legal constraints of a state bureaucracy. Citizens behave as a
public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion-that is, with the
guarantee of freedom of assembly and association and the freedom to
2.
23
express and publish their opinions-about matters of general interest.”
Habermas lets the concept of the ‘public sphere’ begin with the European
Renaissance stating that “there is no indication European society of the high
middle ages possessed a public sphere as a unique realm distinct from the
private sphere. Nevertheless, it was not coincidental that during that period
symbols of sovereignty, for instance the princely seal, were deemed
‘public’.” (1964: 54) Habermas in his article stated that the end of the ‘civil
society’ with its ‘social welfare state’ will starts with the ‘structural
transformation’ of the ‘public sphere itself’. “The idea of the public sphere,
preserved in the social welfare state mass democracy, an idea which calls
for a rationalization of power through the medium of public discussion
among private individuals, threatens to disintegrate with the structural
transformation of the public sphere itself. It could only be realized today, on
an altered basis, as a rational reorganization of social and political power
under the mutual control of rival organizations committed to the public
sphere in their internal structure as well as in their relations with the state
and each other.” (1964: 55) The ‘transformation’ is the usual term in the
discourse of the proponents of the ‘globalization’ for the changes that
‘globalization’ brings in several parts of the world. But while Habermans
sees this process of transformation as a problematic state, the organizations,
which promote ‘globalization’ consider it a positive process. Nearly 50
years later, in 2013, in his lecture Democracy, Solidarity and the European
Crisis Habermas on the 26th of April 2013 at the Catholic University of
Leuven said that “the European Central Bank, the Commission, and the
European Court of Justice have intervened most profoundly in the everyday
lives of European citizens over the decades, even though these institutions
are the least subject to democratic controls.” The lack of relations and
representation of the ‘formation of the will and opinion’ of citizens of the
democracy of Europe and the policies made by European institutions is the
24
critical point Habermas mentioned: “Thus, to the present day there remains
a gulf at the European level between the citizens’ opinion- and willformation, on the one hand, and the policies actually adopted to solve the
pressing problems, on the other.” According to Habermas ironically that
“what unite the European citizens today are the Eurosceptical mindsets that
have become more pronounced in all of the member countries during the
crisis, albeit in each country for different and rather polarizing reasons.” As
solution Habermas presents here the concepts of ‘Sittlichkeit’ (‘morality’)
and ‘solidarity’.
Sloterdijk developed an account of globalization with the historical
and philosophical consequences of the earth considered to be as a globe and
‘globalization’ as the last phase in a process staring first with the
circumnavigation of the earth. In the last phase of globalization the world
system as a capitalist system determines the conditions of life. The original
book in German was published in 2005 with the title Im Weltinnenraum des
Kapitals (2005) as ‘a philosophical theory of globalization’. Sloterdijk
presents a philosophy of space in the Sphären-trilogy of ‘terrestrial
globalization’. (2005: 14) The globe is a philosophical concept (Globus,
Kugel, sphaira) resulting from ‘terrestrial globalization’ (2005: 37)
Terrestrial globalization is the process of material expansion, which
Sloterdijk calls ‘world history in a philosophical sense’ (2005: 28). After
the ‘terrestrial globalization’ a ‘cosmic-Uranian’ or ‘morphological
globalization’ followed, which began with the Greek culture and after this
stage a ‘electronic globalization’. The Weltinnenraum (‘world interior’) of
this sphere and age is the result from the contraction of the world by money
(‘capital’). Sloterdijk wrote the trilogy Spheres, which was published
1998, 1999, and 2004. ‘Spheres’ are for Sloterdijk ‘spaces of
coexistence’. Sloterdijk argued that the current concept of globalization
lacks a historical perspective.
25
In the work of the philosopher Nancy the philosophical concept
‘world’ is a main theme besides Le Sens du Monde the book La Creation du
Monde ou la Mondalisation focuses of this topic. Nancy’s La Creation du
Monde ou la Mondalisation was translated as The Creation of the World or
‘Globalization’. The expression of the process of ‘world-becoming’
(‘mondanisation’) was used by Nancy (2007: 44) In the author’s Prefatory
Note to the English Language Edition. Note on the Untranslatable
Mondialisation (2007: 23) Nancy writes that “it is not without paradox that
in many languages the French term mondialisation is quite difficult to
translate, and that perhaps this difficulty makes it almost ‘untranslatable’.”
Nancy (2007: 23) writes that “the French language has used the word
mondialisation since the middle of the twentieth century, which seems to
me slightly before the term globalization appeared in English.” In the
author's Prefatory Note to the French Language Edition Nancy (2007: 29)
writes that ‘the creation of the world or globalization’ as a conjunction must
be “understood simultaneously and alternatively in its disjunctive,
substitutive, or conjunctive senses. According to the first sense: between the
creation of the world or globalization, one must choose, since one implies
the exclusion of the other. According to the second sense: the creation of
the world, in other words globalization, the former must be understood as
the latter. According to the third sense: the creation of the world or
globalization, one or the other indifferently, leads us to a similar result
(which remains to be determined).” Nancy also describes related concepts.
In Urbi et Orbi Rome is presented as the paradigm for the concept of
‘urbanization’. Nancy (2007: 31) writes here regarding ‘urbi et orbi’ that
“this formulation drawn from papal benediction has come to mean
‘everywhere and anywhere’ in ordinary language.” Nancy (2007: 32) writes
that the ‘urbalization’ is the process, when “the city spreads and extends all
the way to the point where, while it tends to cover the entire orb of the
26
planet, it loses its properties as a city, and, of course with them, those
properties that would allow it to be distinguished from a ‘country’.” Nancy
(2007: 33) writes that “the West has come to encompass the word, and in
this movement it disappears as what was supposed to orient the course of
this world. For all that, up until now, one cannot say that any other
configuration of the world or any other philosophy of the universal and of
reason have challenged that course.” Nancy (2007: 33) writes that “the
world has lost its capacity to ‘form a world’ (‘faire monde): it seems only to
have gained that capacity of proliferating, to the extent of its means, the
‘un-world’ (immonde), which, until now, and whatever one may think of
retrospective illusions, has never in history impacted the totality of the orb
to such an extent. In the end, everything takes place as if the world affected
and permeated itself with a death drive that soon would have nothing else to
destroy than the world itself.” Nancy distinguishes ‘globalisation’
(‘globalization’) and ‘mondialisation’ (‘world-forming’). Nancy provides a
philosophical reflection of the phenomenon of globalization. Nancy takes
the linguistic sophistical approach, which attaches to the word specific
meanings. On the contrary, the approach of Sloterdijk is a historical
analysis and interpretation of the history of humanity under the aspect of
‘globalization’. While Sloterdijk extends the concept ‘globalization’ in the
historical dimension as a process and thus contributed to historical
understanding of this concept, Nancy analyses this concept. Sloterdik sets
up a discourse, where he interprets things as items of ‘globalization’. The
criticism of this procedure would be the accusation of historical
revisionism. But what Sloterdijk here does, it the setting of absolute terms,
which derive like the terms of ‘globalization’ from a constructed and
inorganic background. These terms are a framework set up to imitate the
discourse; these terms are conceptual and not historical. In the case of
Sloterdijks’s terms, the terms are bound to a discourse, which is supporting
27
the idea of ‘globalization’ and actually supports the power construction of
the contemporary promoting organizations of ‘globalization’ as positive and
evolutionary developed from a historical background, which Sloterdijk depicts.
3. Conclusions:
The Results of the ‘Universe of Discourse’ of ‘Globalization’ for
the ‘World’
We can consider ‘globalization’ to be part of an argument. Here now
the discourse applies to all entities of the class that they belong to the
‘world’ as expressed in the literal meaning of ‘globalization’. As a noun for
a process this word claims that the ‘globalization’ is a permanent process.
Like all the followers of the Eleusian Mysteries as a class of humans among
all humans are the ones, which participate in the feeling of awe, in the case
of the globalization the class of people involved in it participate in the
experience of the ‘global’. This experience is not a real and physical
experience, but the experience of the world around them as ‘global’. In
order to illustrate the difference we can give the following example: While
someone without the idea of ‘globalization’ living in the U.S. does not
associate with McDonalds idea of globalization, but a traditional U.S.
American brand and a local tradition, a person from another culture who
visits McDonalds for the first time will consider the restaurant as a
contribution to the ‘globalization’ of his/her country. We have seen that
Marcuse demonstrated that the ‘functional language’ leads to the end of the
discourse, since its authoritarian form builds up structures, which set
borders. Marcuse also stated that this “functional language is a radically
anti-historical language: operational rationality has little room and little use
for historical reason.” Formal languages like the languages of computer
languages, but also the formalized language of business communication, of
administration, and of ‘globalization’ allow the consumer only to
participate in the discourse, when the concepts and terms of this language
are accepted and used. How regulative such a language operates, we can see
28
in the case of Sloterdijk’s conceptualization of the ‘globalization’ as
historical principle. The language the philosopher used becomes formal and
consists of neologisms, which extend the discourse of ‘globalization’. But
these terms lack any historical documentation. These terms are invented and
created in order to build a discourse around them. The problem is that
formal languages are logically correct, but de facto not in any case
acceptable as truth. This phenomenon is known as the problem of the
fallacies, which a language through wrong reasoning can produce. At the
point, where a term is not a historically grown term, but an invented term,
the discourse cannot be traced back to the history and the discourse of it
loses the relation to the past of traditional and cultural background. This
state we can see as pars pro toto in the conceptualization of ‘globalization’
of Sloterdijk, but the actual discourse about ‘globalization’ shows a similar
usage of absolute terminology, which destroys the organic and historical
language with words of historical of paths tracing back to democracy,
religion, and other organic social structures and with this process the
representations of political and cultural developments.
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“Universe of Discourse”. The Commens Pierce Dictionary. Peirce's
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32
POÉSIE ET RELIGION, LEURS RAPPORTS ET
LEURS PARTICULARITÉS DANS LA VIE DE
L’HOMME
Fabiola KADI
Université F.S. Noli, Korça
fabiola_muco@yahoo.fr
Abstract:
This paper aims to study the permanent connection that exists between literature
and especially poetry, and the sacred. It is a delicate issue which deserves to be treated
anyway, due to this stable coexistence even though has been objected over the centuries.
We think that this relationship should not be left in limbo, because poets of all times have
been inspired by the sacred as any other topic. It is time to leave behind the prejudices that
characterize our modern era in terms of poetry with religious themes, and to highlight its
incontestable aesthetic values.
Keywords: poetry, religious, human, creation, inspiration.
1. L’omniprésence de la poésie
La littérature est en évolution constante. Son statut change jour
après jour sous l’influence de différents facteurs. De nos jours, la littérature
et surtout la poésie, sont menacées par le cinéma, la radio, la télévision,
l’informatique etc. On constate une diminution du nombre de lecteurs de
poésie, peu sont ceux en effet qui veulent entrer dans le monde mystérieux
de la parole poétique. Dans son capharnaüm sonore, notre société rejette la
poésie comme elle quitte la spiritualité.
Peu nombreux sont ceux qui la goûtent comme si elle n’avait plus
rien à nous dire. Et pourtant, beaucoup d’œuvres poétiques sont publiées.
Dans son livre Anthologie de la poésie mystique contemporaine, Jean-Luc
Maxence cite le poète suisse, Gustave Roud: « Croyez-moi, la poésie est un
33
présent merveilleux qui nous est offert à tous, grands et petits, mais
beaucoup ne s’en rendent pas compte. Et pourtant, il importe, voyez-vous,
que chacun sente dès son plus jeune âge que ce trésor lui appartient ou
qu’il peut devenir sien. Car sans la poésie nous ne pouvons découvrir ni
connaître vraiment le monde où nous nous sommes éveillés à la vie. C’est
grâce à elle que nous allons d’émerveillement en émerveillement: elle nous
ouvre les yeux et le cœur.» 1
La poésie a toujours été présente à toutes les époques de l’humanité.
De la naissance jusqu’à la mort, l’homme des sociétés traditionnelles a
toujours été accompagné par des hymnes, des chants, des prières, la plupart
desquels sont de vrais poèmes. Ce genre fût le domaine de prédilection de
l’humanité dans les moments heureux et tristes, dans les pleurs et les jeux.
On dit souvent que la poésie est née dans ses formes orales et écrites
comme une manière de mémoriser les événements de la vie humaine.
D’après Georges Jean, elle est « la mémoire des peuples qui n’ont pas
l’écriture ».2
La poésie parle de l’expérience humaine, des individus, ou des
groupes sociaux. Et pourtant, il semble qu’aujourd’hui elle se réduit à un
simple sujet scolaire dans lequel, la rime est plus importante que le contenu
de la poésie elle-même.
Est-ce que la poésie a quelque chose à nous dire aujourd’hui qui
peut être essentiel?
L’expérience de la poésie est avant tout une aventure spirituelle, que ce soit
dans le bonheur ou le malheur, dans l’absence ou l’abondance, elle est
toujours liée à l’âme humaine.
En chaque homme, il y a un poète, et surtout chez les enfants, même
si avec le passage du temps, on oublie l’émerveillement de l’âge enfantin
1
2
J.-L. Maxence, 1999, p. 13.
http://www.flsh.unilim.fr/ditl/Fahey/POSIEPoetry_n.html .
34
qui est un des éléments essentiels dans la vie d’un homme. L’enfant
contemple avec curiosité tout ce qui l’entoure et c’est ce qui l’aide à
avancer dans la vie, à apprendre des choses nouvelles.
« En quittant le large monde de notre enfance, non seulement on
s’est égaré de la terre des féeries, mais on est entré sans vergogne pour se
balader dans un désert aride, stérile de l’étonnement et de la
compréhension, en prétendant qu’on a poussé l’horizon de nos limites et on
n’a rien vu. La recherche est compréhensible et l’éloignement est légitime;
mais le voyage a été celui d’un imprudent. »3 – déclare l’écrivain et
l’apologiste chrétien Ravi Zacharias. L’homme, et surtout le poète, a besoin
de s’exprimer ouvertement, d’avoir une perception plus claire de ce qui
l’entoure, c’est ce qui l’aide à s’épanouir.
Par la poésie, le poète touche une très grande variété de sentiments
(l’amour, l’amitié, la famille, la religion, l’amour pour la patrie). Ce genre
littéraire n’est pas une simple expression artistique; il prend la forme d’une
consolation devant les épreuves les plus dures de la vie: déception, perte,
absence, mort, deuil, etc. Liée intrinsèquement à la réalité humaine, au
lyrisme individuel et collectif, la poésie est une jouissance, comme la
musique, s’adressant à la sensibilité, à la partie ‘irréelle’ de notre vie. La
poésie élargit notre part de rêve, de liberté, d’énergie créatrice de notre
existence en tant qu’humains. D’après Yves Bonnefoy, « l’écriture devient
le matériau d’une réflexion dont l’intention est de clarifier ce que nous
sommes, de délivrer le Je profond des modes d’être du moi... »4. Bonnefoy
lance l’idée de la profondeur de la poésie en la considérant comme une
recherche. Rimbaud prétendait apporter un changement dans sa vie à
travers l’écriture poétique. Pour Mallarmé, le monde ressemble plus à un
3
Traduit à partir de la traduction albanaise, R. Zacharias, 1999, p. 89-90.
http://www.lemondedesreligions.fr/entretiens/yves-bonnefoy-la-poesie-c-est-ce-qui-reprend-a-lareligion-son-bien-30-12-2011-2157_111.php.
4
35
texte qu’à un spectacle, et la question qu’il se pose devant ce texte, est:
«Qu’est-ce que cela veut dire?».5
La poésie est une peinture du monde réel auquel elle s’approche en
mettant en évidence ses mystères, mais elle est aussi une magie, avec les
paroles et les images, elle transforme le monde à travers l’imagination.
Dans la poésie, le lecteur peut discerner le beau et quitter la laideur de la
réalité qui l’entoure.
Le poète a la capacité, même devant cette laideur, de décider de
rêver, de vivre ailleurs, indépendamment de la réalité où il vit, idée
exprimée par Hugo: « ...Les pieds ici, les yeux ailleurs »6 et Baudelaire qui
écrit « Cette vie est un hôpital où chaque malade est possédé du désir de
changer de lit. »7 Le poète peut prendre la décision de décrire la réalité dans
son éclat ou sa laideur en donnant la possibilité au lecteur de se rapprocher
de cette réalité, ou de s’éloigner à travers la transfiguration. Il invite
souvent le lecteur à se retrouver dans la poésie et l’appelle à s’unir à lui
pour transformer la réalité:
« Toi, n’es-tu pas, comme moi-même,
Flambeau dans ce monde âpre et vil,
Ame, c’est-à-dire problème,
Et femme, c’est-à-dire exil? »8
Artisan de la langue, le poète se sépare des autres mortels, étant le seul qui
puisse exprimer la réalité profonde, à travers sa création.
5
P. Claudel, « La Catastrophe d’Igitur », Œuvres en prose, Bibl. de la Pléiade, Gallimard,
1965, p. 510-511.
6
V. Hugo, Les rayons et les ombres, 1840.
7
Ch. Baudelaire, Le spleen de Paris, Les fleurs du mal, 1861.
8
V. Hugo, Les contemplations,1865.
36
2. La poésie, un genre difficile à définir
Peut-on définir la poésie et ses formes? Si on veut expliquer ce
terme, on doit mettre en face de lui ce qui n’est pas poésie. Mais définir ce
qui n’est pas poésie, ce n’est pas facile dans nos jours. La poésie prend des
formes diverses au cours des siècles, dans différents pays, et suivant les
langues, elle reçoit tous les visages possibles qui sont parfois
contradictoires. Même si aucune définition de la poésie n’est entièrement
satisfaisante, on ne cesse d’essayer de la décrire. La poésie est un art
linguistique et en même temps c’est une expérimentation de la langue.
L’homme politique et l’écrivain français Georges Pompidou, écrit:
« Qu’est-ce donc que la poésie? bien savant qui le dira. Qu’est-ce
que l’âme? On peut constater chez un homme toutes les manifestations de
la vie, les analyser et les décrire; on peut – nous l’avons tous fait au collège
– analyser un poème, étudier sa composition, vocabulaire, rythme, rime,
harmonie. Tout cela est à la poésie ce qu’un cœur qui bat est à l’âme. Une
manifestation extérieure, non une explication, encore moins une
définition.»9
Roman Jakobson comme d’autres auteurs, a défini le langage
commun comme un moyen pour échanger des informations, comme une
monnaie d’échange dans les entretiens de la vie quotidienne liée aux
besoins de la vie. D’après cette définition, la langue est avant tout utile et
nous aide à clarifier les idées et les sentiments en écrivant ou en parlant.
Mais le poète n’est pas seulement une personne qui utilise la langue
comme les autres humains, pour échanger des idées ou des informations
quotidiennes.
Premièrement, le poète sent différemment des autres personnes,
c’est à dire qu’il a d’autres choses à exprimer, qui n’ont pas de lien avec les
9
G. Pompidou, 1961, p. 9.
37
mots, ou encore avec la syntaxe de la langue quotidienne. A travers les
mêmes mots et le même schéma linguistique, il exprime ses idées. Le poète
joue avec les mots en les employant non seulement pour leur valeur
conceptuelle, mais pour leur pouvoir magique, pour leur sonorité. Dans la
poésie, la parole ne recouvre pas une seule réalité, mais toutes les réalités
possibles. D’après Mallarmé, « On n'écrit pas avec des idées, on écrit avec
des mots. »10 De cette façon, en jouant avec les mots, il crée des ‘images’ et
il renforce, nuance, il change la signification des mots en devenant créateur,
comme l’étymologie du mot en grec ‘poiesis’ l’indique, signifiant
‘produire, créer’. Deuxièmement, le poète s’approche d’Orphée et de son
pouvoir pour soumettre la nature, les animaux, les êtres humains.
L’efficacité de la parole poétique atteint son comble dans la magie des
mots. Nommer les choses et les êtres, veut dire exercer un pouvoir
considérable. Les poètes s’inspirent de différents sujets. Pendant l’époque
classique ou romantique, la liste des thèmes poétiques était vraiment
limitée. Les thèmes traditionnels étaient plutôt liés à la nature, comme les
fleurs, la lune, le lac, la mer et aux sentiments. Aujourd’hui les poètes
peuvent s’inspirer des objets aussi, c'est-à-dire, de matériaux dont on
n’aurait jamais imaginé qu’ils puissent devenir des sujets poétiques.
Pour le poète de nos jours, il n’y a aucune partie de la nature, du
paysage, des pensées ou des actes qui doivent rester en dehors du champ
poétique. Pour Novalis et Mallarmé, l’alphabet était une des plus grandes
œuvres poétiques. Même si on arrive à définir les formes poétiques
caractéristiques des poètes d’une époque, nous ne pourrons pas découvrir
les frontières de la poésie, parce qu’elle se situe, entre la vue et la pensée, il
n’y a pas de distinction. On peut conclure que définir la poésie est une
démarche impossible. Peut-être parce que, “Le rapport que l’homme
entretient à la poésie n’est pas horizontal [...], le rapport de la Parole à la
10
Dans une lettre à Degas.
38
poésie est vertical, signe de la dimension de l’intériorité qui habite l’être
humain et ne saurait le quitter un seul instant.”11 La poésie est une création
qui a sa source dans la Parole, le Logos, où la parole est avant tout poétique.
Elle n’est pas une simple technique, elle exprime la Vie, s’éprouve dans le
sentiment. Ce que la parole poétique exprime, est beaucoup plus large et
plus profond que l’intellect qui l’analyse, qui la décode en éléments
linguistiques. Cette sensation poétique nous aide à regarder la langue
poétiquement, au lieu de la considérer comme un simple moyen. « La
poésie n’est pas une ‘autre’ parole, elle est la Parole revenue à son
expression la plus intime. »12 Liée à la profondeur de l’âme, la poésie ne
peut pas s’expliquer, ressemblant toujours à l’âme humaine.
3. Le sacré, un concept difficile à définir
Le terme ‘sacré’ est une notion très difficile à définir. Dès le début
du XX-ième siècle, avec le sociologue français Emile Durkheim, ce terme
demeure au centre de la définition de la religion, même si le sacré surpasse
la sphère religieuse. Le sacré a été défini de différents points de vue, par des
méthodes et critiques avec des intentions différentes. La définition de ce
terme est plurivoque. D’un auteur à l’autre, le sacré ne se comprend pas de
la même manière. Mircea Eliade, historien des religions et philosophe
roumain, dans son essai célèbre “Le sacré et le profane”, publié en 1957,
écrit: « La première définition qu’on peut donner au sacré est le contraire
du profane ».13
Peut- on faire une démarcation finale du sacré et du profane?
Chaque religion du monde a dans son essence la distinction entre le sacré et
le profane. Les gens ont toujours été bercés entre l’idée de la dualité de
11
http://sergecar.perso.neuf.fr/cours/art6.htm.
13
M. Eliade, 1965, p. 14.
12
39
l’univers, entre un monde doublé, visible et invisible, l’un naturel, et l’autre
surnaturel, un monde connu et un autre mystérieux, l’un sacré et l’autre
profane. Les Grecs anciens avaient la croyance polythéiste. Ils craignent les
dieux parce qu’ils peuvent exercer leur puissance surnaturelle contre les
Grecs. Dans certains cas, les dieux décident de communiquer avec les gens
pour leur donner différentes informations, leur demander d’accomplir
différents devoirs. Hermès exerce le rôle de l’envoyé des dieux pour
apporter des messages aux Grecs. Tirésias interprète les messages des dieux
qu’Olympe envoie aux gens. Ils jouent le rôle d’un intermédiaire entre les
immortels et les mortels. Historiquement dans le monde, il y a eu une
séparation profonde entre ce qui est considéré comme religieux, ou sacré et
ce qui est profane. Le sacré est un objet d’étude depuis des siècles même si
aujourd’hui, il semble qu’on veuille le faire disparaître. Mais, plus on
s’oppose au sacré, plus il attire l’attention et éveille la curiosité. De l’autre
côté, il faut faire aussi la distinction entre les termes sacré et religieux: « Le
sacré ainsi défini est un ressenti, une expérience spontanée, à la fois
individuelle et collective, de notre présence au monde. La religion est une
élaboration sociale qui vient dans un second temps. On pourrait dire
qu'elle ritualise et codifie le sacré. Les religions sont là pour domestiquer
le sacré, le rendre intelligible, l'organiser. »14 Dans notre étude, nous avons
centré notre attention sur le deuxième aspect, le religieux.
4. Le poète, collaborateur de Dieu créateur
On sait que dans l’Ancien Testament, la Parole de Dieu était l’acte
créateur dès le début. Tout a été créé par la parole de Dieu, dans la Genèse.
Il a créé le monde en nommant les choses: “Dieu appela la lumière jour, et
les ténèbres nuit. Il y eut un soir et il y eut un matin. Ce fut le premier
14
http://silonrecoltecequelonseme.blogspot.com/2012/05/.
40
jour.”15 Le poète, “poiètès” est celui qui crée quelque chose. Et si on
s’appuie sur la signification de l’étymologie de la parole, il y a un seul vrai
poète qui est Dieu même, avec son œuvre réalisée en six jours. Quel rôle
jouera le poète dans cette merveilleuse œuvre de la création? Il doit
connaître cette œuvre, exprimer son harmonie, l’admirer, découvrir ses
secrets les plus profonds. Comment le poète, va-t-il écrire? Quelle sera son
inspiration? D’après Platon, le rôle de la Muse, est essentiel dans la création
poétique. “Ainsi donc, en tant que ce n’est pas que par un effet de l’art
qu’ils disent tant et de si belles choses sur les sujets dont ils parlent […],
mais par l’effet d’une grâce divine, chacun d’eux n’est capable d’une belle
création que dans la voie sur laquelle l’a poussé la Muse […] ”
On retrouve la théorie de Platon sur l’inspiration dans les textes
saints des chrétiens, dans la Bible aussi. Le prophète, dont le poète devient
l’image, est celui qui parle à la place de l’Autre, de Dieu. Il y a des poètes
qui présentent une vision chrétienne de l’être humain et de l’univers. Paul
Claudel était si lié à son créateur, qu’après sa conversion, il déclarait: “Mon
Dieu, je suis tellement occupé à vous regarder que je crains d'en oublier de
mourir.” Il y a d’autres poètes émerveillés de ce Dieu, qui est présent dans
l’histoire individuelle et collective. Dans son intimité, le poète est bercé
dans le regard du Seigneur, rêvant du Logos éternel; il devient collaborateur
du grand Créateur, dans l’acte de la création.
Le poète est un intermédiaire, inventeur d’un univers avec lequel il
communique à travers sa langue analogique, en présentant ‘l’héritage des
temps primitifs’ et en devenant ‘prophète de l’avenir’. Il atteint cela à l’aide
de la conception du symbole et de la théorie des correspondances. Le poète
est parmi ceux qui ont les pleins droits d’entrer dans un autre monde.
Gérard de Nerval écrit: « Seul le poète peut franchir le seuil qui sépare la
vie réelle d’une autre vie ». Alors que Victor Hugo fait appel aux lecteurs
15
Bible, Genèse 1:5.
41
afin d’écouter le poète comme un rêveur sacré qui parle à l’âme humaine et
lui enseigne le message de Dieu après l’avoir reçu.
Peuples! écoutez le poète !
Écoutez le rêveur sacré !
Dans votre nuit, sans lui complète,
Lui seul a le front éclairé.
Des temps futurs perçant les ombres,
[…] Homme, il est doux comme une femme.
Dieu parle à voix basse à son âme
Comme aux forêts et comme aux flots.16
Le poète est un mage, un voyant, un prophète. Il peut entrer dans un
autre monde et même s’il se trouve dans un monde matériel, il garde le
souvenir du ciel. Le poète – créateur devient l’image de Dieu – Créateur à
travers sa spiritualité et le pouvoir créateur de son âme. Il imite Dieu et
comme Dieu est source du sacré, le poète devient aussi source de poésie. Il
participe à l’œuvre de Dieu, dans le poiein (création) universel. Agrippa
d’Aubigné commence son livre Les Tragiques, par un appel solennel qu’il
fait à Dieu (comme Homère fait appel à la Muse au début d’Iliade et
d’Odyssée), avec ces mots: “Donne force à ma voix, efficace à mes vers.”17
Le rapport entre Dieu et le poète est vraiment surprenant. Le poète
imite Dieu dans sa création. Mais, Dieu est le poète des poètes qui jette un
doux regard vers sa créature. Il apparaît dans la Bible comme un Dieu
artiste, comme le créateur des êtres uniques. L’œuvre artistique la plus
originale dès le commencement est ce regard poétique de Dieu vers l’être
humain. Le poète aussi, il crée, il donne vie, il invente quelque chose à
16
17
V. Hugo, 2013, p. 8.
A. D’Aubigné, Les Tragiques, Livre VII.
42
travers son art... ce qu’il fait, il le fait comme étant choisi par Dieu pour
continuer sa création. Le poète est conscient du mal qui existe dans le
monde et même s’il ne peut pas l’expliquer, il peut créer pour ainsi donner
une réponse au mal à travers son regard créateur, il peut accomplir une
œuvre d’amour en créant du beau. Beaucoup de poètes ont découvert un
lien entre l’art et la foi, ils ont cru que créer, est un don sacré et ils ont mis
leurs plumes au service de la création du beau.
5. La poésie - un pont entre l’art et la foi
Est-ce qu’il vaut la peine d’étudier le religieux dans la poésie? Ce
n’est pas la première fois qu’on traite ce sujet, mais nous voulons mettre en
évidence l’importance de l’étude du religieux, car il nous donne la
possibilité de mieux comprendre la littérature et le monde en général. La
religion apporte une vision sur l’éternité à travers laquelle elle explique le
monde. On dit souvent que les religions donnent la forme aux civilisations,
elles colorent les sociétés. Le religieux est souvent utilisé pour mettre en
évidence une identité, il est une constante très importante de l’identité
nationale de différents pays.
Le religieux et le mythologique gréco-romain, sont une partie
essentielle du patrimoine culturel européen, une source d’inspiration
permanente. C’est un langage spécial, plus proche du langage de l’art et
surtout de la poésie – du langage symbolique. On n’est pas très audacieux si
on avoue que la plupart des littératures nationales ont leurs débuts dans les
croyances religieuses.
La foi est un élément qui accompagne l’homme pendant toute son
histoire avec une influence dans tous les domaines de sa vie.
Le rapport qui existe entre l’art et la foi a été discuté pendant toute
l’histoire humaine.18 La foi ouvre un mystère, elle influe sur l’homme et lui
18
E. Mounier, 1968, p. 8.
43
offre une liberté ‘créatrice’19, capable d’apporter un renouvellement. La foi
est présentée comme la connaissance du Créateur, ce qui crée de la liberté,
des ‘sources’ d’inspiration. L’union de la foi avec le zèle poétique n’est pas
une rareté chez les poètes de tous temps. D’après Rina Lasnier, membre de
l’Académie canadienne, la poésie a toujours été liée au sacré; l’homme a
toujours utilisé comme vecteur la poésie lorsqu’il a voulu parler de
Dieu, ou de son âme. On a donné à la Bible, une valeur de modèle
esthétique et stylistique.
La religion et les valeurs traditionnelles peuvent être une inspiration
pour les poètes comme tout autre thème. Le spirituel et la poésie marchent
côte à côte, ils ne peuvent pas se séparer. Rina Lasnier affirme: « Qui nous
demande l'infini de l'amour nous demande la présence de Dieu. » 20 Et
Victor Hugo écrit: « La poésie est de toutes les choses humaines, la plus
voisine des choses divines.” »21
Jean-Louis Joubert, dans son livre La Poésie, défend l’idée que
comme le sacré appartient à l’âme, la poésie « est l’âme qui parle à
l’âme »22. Et comme le sacré tient du mystère, la poésie aussi est un
mystère, elle ne s’explique pas, elle peut tout simplement se sentir. De la
même manière, comme le sacré émerveille les croyants, la poésie fascine
ses lecteurs.
Dans la Bible se trouve le Cantique des Cantiques, qui est un des
plus beaux chants d’amour dans la littérature universelle. Ce livre chante
l’amour du couple, de deux amoureux, qui se rencontrent et se séparent, qui
se cherchent jusqu’à ce qu’ils se retrouvent. De toutes les livres de la Bible,
c’est l’un qui a eu le plus grand nombre d’interprétations.
19
Ibidem.
R. Lasnier, 1941.
21
J.-L. Joubert, 2003, p. 8.
22
J.-L. Joubert, 2003, p. 33.
20
44
Car l'amour est fort comme la mort,
la passion est implacable comme l'abîme.
Ses flammes sont des flammes brûlantes,
c'est un feu divin !
Les torrents ne peuvent éteindre l'amour,
les fleuves ne l'emporteront pas.23
Dans ce livre biblique, le nom de Dieu n’a été cité qu’une seule fois
et on y chante l’attirance de l’homme et de la femme. Comment se peut-il
que ces vers se trouvent dans la Sainte Ecriture? La réponse de la tradition
chrétienne a toujours été positive. On a donné différentes interprétations,
l’une disant que le livre est une allégorie de l’amour de Dieu pour son
peuple, mais il y a aussi l’interprétation littérale d’après laquelle le
Cantique est un poème qui parle de deux amoureux. On ne doit pas être
surpris du fait qu’il se trouve dans la Bible, car dans aucun endroit du Livre
Saint, il n’est interdit de chanter l’amour, bien au contraire, un sentiment
accepté et béni par Dieu. Donc, on voit que le sacré n’exclut pas la poésie,
mais très souvent, il en devient la source.
D’après Francis Jammes, le poète est un pèlerin envoyé par Dieu sur
terre, pour trouver les traces du Paradis perdu et du Ciel retrouvé. Il est
l’homme qui ne possède rien à part sa plume, par laquelle il gagne tout. Le
poète ressemble à Moïse qui frappe le rocher en fait sortir de l’eau courante
pour irriguer les vallées. Il est l’homme à qui Dieu a redonné la gloire
perdue dans le jardin d’Eden. Il occupe la place de tout autre être dans le
monde et en ce qui concerne le mystique, il a le privilège, à la différence
des autres mortels, d’entendre les voix qui nous révèlent le Ciel.
Le poète accepte la rencontre de la prière dans la profondeur de son
être, il accueille l’Esprit créateur de Dieu et l’expérience mystique est ce
23
Bible, Cantique des Cantiques 8 :6,7.
45
regard qui dépasse tout autre regard, où on peut voir avec les yeux du cœur
l’influence de l’amour qui existait dès la création. Le poète continue
l’œuvre de la Création, il nous présente le divin et le mystère du Ciel. Il
ressemble ainsi aux saints qui continuent l’œuvre de la Croix.
Dans les écrits religieux, on peut souvent trouver des œuvres de
grande beauté, mais dans cette étude on ne va pas étudier les écrits
religieux, mais la poésie littéraire dans laquelle on trouve des traces du
religieux. Francis Jammes déclare: « Je conclus donc à ce qu'un mystique
religieux, un vrai mystique, n'est pas nécessairement un poète. Mais la
réciproque n'est point exacte, et j'affirmerai hardiment que, dans tout vrai
poète, dans tout poète exprimant une pensée et un sentiment purs, il y a un
mystique. »24
On ne peut agréer à l’idée que tous religieux soient poètes, par
contre on peut appuyer l’idée que la dimension divine accompagne tous
les poètes.
Pourtant, le rapport entre l’art et la foi est souvent vu comme
contradictoire. Pendant l’histoire humaine, il passe à travers différentes
étapes. Les littératures des pays chrétiens qui ont embrassé les premiers
l’Evangile, regardaient la culture païenne et son expression littéraire comme
illégales et interdites. La plupart des croyants voyaient les poètes comme
une barrière pour l’avancement spirituel de l’homme. Les chrétiens des
premiers siècles, expriment ouvertement leur opposition contre les poètes
qui sont considérés comme porteurs de paganisme, des traditions
polythéistes, de la dégradation morale, chantres des passions humaines et
même souvent des propagateurs de l’immoralité, qui se soumettent aux
rêves et à l’imagination. Des philosophes du temps de Saint Augustin, au IIième jusqu’au IV-ième siècle expriment des critiques contre les poètes.
24
F. Jammes, Le Poète Et L'Inspiration: Orné Et Gravé Par Armand Coussens, Library of
Alexandria.
46
Pourtant cela ne les a pas empêchés de connaître une partie des œuvres de
la poésie latine et d’apprécier cette poésie pour ses valeurs esthétiques. 25
Le changement positif dans le rapport des poètes et des religieux est
lié à deux facteurs principaux: d’une part, on a une tolérance du
christianisme et une ouverture envers la culture profane, d’autre part, les
poètes non-chrétiens ont un penchant pour la poésie liturgique chrétienne. Il
y a une mutuelle sympathie. Dès l’an 111, dans une lettre de Pline le Jeune,
on raconte que les chrétiens de Bitinie s’unissaient « à jour fixe pour
chanter un hymne dialogué qu’ils adressent au Christ comme à un dieu »,
pour déclarer la divinité du Christ: on voit apparaître les traits
caractéristiques de la poésie ancienne chrétienne. Les vers que le poète
Hilaire de Poitiers avait écrits comme épigraphe dans son recueil poétique
au milieu du IV-ième siècle, témoignent de cette ouverture de la poésie
chrétienne envers les poètes:
“Heureux le poète à la harpe, David, qui le premier
Annonce au monde par des hymnes le Christ tout entier.” 26
David est apprécié et honoré par Hilaire de Poitiers comme le
premier poète du Christ. Du rapprochement des formes antiques et la
louange du Christ, naît une nouvelle poésie latine dans laquelle on sent
l’influence de l’univers religieux. L’expression poétique de la foi chrétienne
n’a pas détrôné la poésie antique, mais elle a renouvelé les valeurs
religieuses et les formes anciennes à travers cette poésie. 27
25
Jacques Fontaine, Esthétique et foi d'après la poésie latine chrétienne des premiers siècles. In: Comptes
rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 137e année, N. 4, 1993, pp. 881-888.
http:/www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/crai_0065-0536_1993_num_137_4_15274.
26
Ibidem.
27
http:/www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/crai_0065-0536_1993_num_137_4_15274.
47
Ainsi, on voit la naissance d’un nouvel art poétique, qui a ses
origines dans le cœur de la foi. Dans les hymnes de Saint Ambroise de
Milan, on trouve la pensée religieuse et le zèle chrétien, la plus grande
contemplation et l’humilité des demandes quotidiennes qui apparaissent
dans son œuvre à travers une langue qui semble des fois antique et d’autres
fois biblique. Dans son œuvre il y a un mélange de l’éternel avec le
temporel, du céleste avec le terrestre, ce qui rend son œuvre acceptable par
les religieux, ainsi que par les non-religieux. Aujourd’hui, après plus de
seize siècles, son œuvre est appréciée, on en lit des parties, on les
commente, on traduit ses hymnes qui trouvent leur place dans les
environnements chrétiens et en dehors d’eux. Le rythme de l’hymne de
Saint Ambroise va servir de modèle pour la poésie liturgique médiévale.
Dans toutes ces poésies ou hymnes, on sent la présence de ce que Paul
Claudel a nommé « La Muse qui s’appelle la Grâce ». Les chrétiens du IVième siècle avaient une nouvelle attitude envers la culture antique: ils y ont
trouvé un instrument particulier d’expression et de possibilité de
transmettre leur foi.
Ainsi, la poésie chrétienne trouve son origine dans deux sources: les
traditions de la poésie latine et les nouvelles valeurs chrétiennes. La loi
divine accepte avec plaisir les ornements de la langue terrestre. Libérée des
liens religieux païens, la beauté de la parole poétique et de sa langue imagée
chante l’objet principal de la foi chrétienne: le Seigneur Christ. Les prêtres
on voulu que la liturgie soit littéraire pour donner à Dieu de beaux chants,
mais aussi pour attirer les milieux cultivés qui connaissent la valeur des
vers poétiques. Hilaire de Poitiers exprime très clairement son idée liée à
l’importance de la louange de Dieu qu’il appelle ‘l’absolu de toute beauté’.
D’après lui, on ne peut pas contempler les beautés de la nature sans penser
à la majesté et à la beauté du Créateur. La beauté des créatures nous fait
connaître Celui qui se cache derrière ce grand tableau, le Créateur même.
Peu à peu, les poètes chrétiens remplacent l’appel traditionnel de la Muse
par l’appel de l’Esprit. Souvent, leur prière « Que le Saint Esprit inspire
48
mon poème », ouvre les œuvres. Le témoignage le plus vif de cette
coexistence de la foi avec l’art, dès les premiers siècles après Jésus Christ,
est un ‘poète en prose’, un homme chez lequel, la sagesse et l’inspiration
poétique et musicale vont de pair: Saint Augustin, pour qui Dieu est la
« Beauté toujours ancienne et toujours nouvelle ». Dans l’œuvre La cité de
Dieu, il exprime son admiration pour les beautés de la parole, de la poésie
et de la musique comme des cadeaux précieux que les hommes possèdent.
La langue d’après lui possède des ornements inestimables qui sont des dons
qui représentent le pouvoir de l’esprit humain, la nature qui ont comme
auteur le vrai Dieu souverain. A travers sa méditation profondément
poétique, Augustin élève sa poésie au rang d’un art spirituel. Chez Augustin
s’unissent le poète antique inspiré et l’appel biblique chrétien. Il a écrit des
prières sous la forme de poèmes qui ont une valeur esthétique
exceptionnelle. Les Confessions parlent d’une aventure spirituelle des plus
passionnantes. Ce livre est empli de la présence de Dieu, mais en même
temps c’est un livre très humain. L’esprit, à travers une très grande
inspiration, passant d’une illusion à l’autre, d’une souffrance à l’autre,
cherche dans son angoisse la seule Bonté jusqu'à ce que, après l’avoir
trouvée, il ressente la paix. D’autres esprits tournés vers Dieu, ont raconté
leur itinéraire pour arriver jusqu'à la fin, dans la présence du plus Haut.
La poésie a toujours été liée au céleste et le poète a toujours été vu
comme un être diffèrent des autres, avec des dons spéciaux qui viennent
d’en Haut. Pour dépasser la mort, pour l’affronter, l’homme a besoin de
quelque chose qui le surpasse, qui le précède ou le succède. Il y a toujours
eu une réflexion sur les liens intrinsèques entre le sacré et le poétique.
Charles Péguy et Paul Claudel au XX-ième ont écrit des prières qui
attirent le lecteur croyant et non-croyant à travers des vers pleins de beauté
et riches en images. D’après Charles Péguy, la poésie n’existe point sans le
sacré, et Paul Claudel écrit quelques années après sa conversion: « Peu à
peu, lentement et péniblement, se faisait jour dans mon cœur cette idée que
l’art et la poésie aussi sont des choses divines »28. Après une longue
28
http://www.dieumaintenant.com/conversionclaudel.html.
49
période d’hésitation, Claudel comprend que le mur élevé entre l’art et la foi
doit s’écrouler. Il écrit:
« Les gens irréfléchis prétendent que les enseignements de la
religion, morale et dogme, sont un appauvrissement, une
contrariété pour l'artiste […]. Loin d'être un appauvrissement,
l'adjonction à la chose visible de la chose invisible fait plus que
de l'enrichir, elle lui donne un sens, elle la complète ».29
Il croit que le poète s’inspire de la divinité, d’une puissance qui
vient d’en Haut et il exprime cette conviction dans ses vers:
“Et moi, dit le poète, pour attraper les images et les idées,
Il me suffit de cet appât de papier blanc,
Les dieux n’y passeront point sans y laisser leurs traces
Comme les oiseaux sur la neige.”30
6. Conclusion:
La poésie contient du sacré. Ces deux éléments ont toujours eu des
relations très étroites, même si parfois il semble difficile d’accepter ce fait.
Les œuvres des poètes chrétiens des premiers siècles, à travers l’inspiration
et la forme sont un hommage offert à Dieu et une partie inséparable de la
source inépuisable de la poésie européenne. L’homme a toujours senti le
besoin du spirituel, de ce qui est en dessus de lui et le poète exprime les
aspirations de l’être humain. Oublier la poésie dans laquelle on traite le
religieux, serait une perte considérable pour l’histoire de la littérature en
général. Prétendre la séparation absolue de la poésie avec la religion c’est
ignorer la contribution des grands poètes appartenant au patrimoine
mondial dont une grande partie ont écrit des œuvres merveilleuses inspirées
de la foi et de leur monde spirituel très riche. Nous pensons qu’il faut
redécouvrir la beauté de ces œuvres au lieu de les laisser dans l’oubli par
29
30
Ibidem.
P. Claudel, 1925, Feuilles de saints, p. 113.
50
des jugements subjectifs et souvent fanatiques, luttant tout ce qui contient
du religieux.
Bibliographie
BAUDELAIRE Charles, 2002, Les fleurs du mal, Paris: Magnard (Éd.
orig.: 1857).
CLAUDEL Paul, 1925, Feuilles de Saints, Paris: Gallimard.
ELIADE Mircea, 1965, Le sacré et le profane, Paris: Gallimard.
FONTAINE Jacques, Esthétique et foi d'après la poésie latine chrétienne
des premiers siècles. In: Comptes rendus des séances de
l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 137e année, N. 4,
1993. pp. 881-888.
HUGO Victor, 2012, Les contemplations, « A celle qui est voilée », Paris:
Hachette Livre BNF, (Éd. 1856).
HUGO Victor, 2013, Les rayons et les ombres, Paris: Hachette Livre BNF,
(Éd.1840).
JAMMES Francis, Le Poète Et L'Inspiration: Orné Et Gravé Par Armand
Coussens, Library of Alexandria, EBook #29523.
JOUBERT Jean-Louis, 2003, La poésie, Paris: Armand Colin.
La Bible Segond, 1979, Genève: Société Biblique de Genève.
LASNIER Rina,1941, Le jeu de la voyagère, Éditions de la Société des
écrivains canadiens.
MAXENCE Jean-Luc, 1999, Anthologie de la poésie mystique
contemporaine, Paris: Presses de la Renaissance.
MOUNIER Emmanuel, 1968, L’engagement et la foi, Paris: Éditions du
Seuil.
POMPIDOU Georges, 1961, Anthologie de la poésie française, Paris:
Librairie générale française.
ZACHARIAS Ravi,1999, A mund të jetojë njeriu pa Perëndinë, Ersekë:
Shigjeta (Original, Can man live without God?, 1994)
http://silonrecoltecequelonseme.blogspot.com/2012/05/.
http://www.dieumaintenant.com/conversionclaudel.html .
51
http://www.evene.fr/citations/guillaume-du-bartas, Extrait de L'Uranie.
http://www.flsh.unilim.fr/ditl/Fahey/POSIEPoetry_n.html .
http://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Actualite/La-poesie-l-ineffable-en-queted-une-parole-_NG_-2009-02-26-531642.
http://www.lemondedesreligions.fr/entretiens/yves-bonnefoy-la-poesie-cest-ce-qui-reprend-a-la-religion-son-bien-30-12-20112157_111.php.
http:/www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/crai_00650536_1993_num_137_4_15274.
52
THE WEB IS THE LIMIT: LANGUAGE,
CULTURE AND MOOCS
Silvia FLOREA
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
silvia.florea@ulbsibiu.ro
Peter J. WELLS
Bucharest Professional Training College
peter.wells@bptc.ro
Diana FLOREA
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
diana.florea@ulbsibiu.ro
Abstract:
MOOCs remain the buzzwords of the current landscape of higher education (HE)
provision. In the context of the ever growing use of technology through e-Learning and
OpenCourseWare and of the new generation of tablet-toting, hyper-connected youth, the
university will continue to extend its reach to students around the world, unbounded by
geography and time zones, at a fast pace and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional college
education. In this context, “To Mooc or not to Mooc” remains a question that several
universities are beginning to consider against more pressing critical reflections on issues
pertaining to their language and culture. Our paper aims to examine the role of language
and culture in online learning, particularly the hegemony of English and Western cultures
against the rising “politics of marginality” that other languages are forced to adopt in a
dominant, non-negotiable, disruptive online competition space.
Keywords:
MOOCs, culture, languages, hegemonies, peripheries.
Present day education has recently been subject to several drivers,
all of whom have been impacting severely on traditional university’s
demand, diversity, offer, teaching and learning practices1. In their attempt to
1
Conole, 2013.
53
expand their online offerings and make more effective use of technologies,
universities have tackled new competitive niches and business models. In
this context, with an increasing demand for higher student numbers and
greater diversity, the issues pertaining to universities’ stated aims of
developing students’ skills in finding and using information effectively
have gradually shifted towards developing learners’ 21st century digital
literacy skills2 so as to equip them for an increasingly complex and
changing societal context. MOOCs represent, in this respect, an example of
how technologies can disrupt the status quo of education, forewarning all
stakeholders of further changes to come. They also represent a cry for
taking online education (hence MOOCs) more seriously and making more
serious, informed and pedagogically effective design decisions 3.
Looking into the relatively short history of MOOCs, one notices
their rapid emergence as a disruptive education technology, embracing
multiple denominations: educational technology, learning technology,
networked learning, technology-enhanced learning4, and more recently,
Open Educational Resources5. Siemens et al. created the first MOOC in
2008, called ‘Connectivism and Connective Knowledge’, a course that
aimed to foster the availability of social and participatory media, heavily
relying on the interaction with a distributed network of peers. There was no
‘right way’ throughout the course, the emphasis being on personalised
learning via a personal learning environment. These represented the first
generation of MOOCs and were known as cMOOCs. Soon, variants of this
course quickly started to proliferate, beginning 2011, and a second
generation of MOOCs emerged, known as xMOOCs. These were primarily
based on interactive media, such as lectures, videos and text, with the
2
Jenkins, 2009.
Conole, 2013.
4
Conole and Oliver, 2007.
5
Glennie, Harley et al. 2012.
3
54
emphasis on individual learning, rather than learning through peers. They
provide access to recorded lectures, online tests and digital documents as
alternatives to traditional classroom instructions. Instead of attending a
face-to-face course, students may attend one course online, typically free of
charge. The intense discussion around their present and future impact on
higher education has spurred many definitions. To some, MOOCs represent
fully online learning and teaching spaces involving thousands of learners
from around the world6, presenting thus an ideal medium for enquiries into
how good practice for teaching for cultural inclusion might be applied
online. To others, MOOCs respond to the challenges faced by organisations
and distributed disciplines, whereby thousands of people from around the
world confluence in one unified learning experience 7. Or, as more
pedagogically–oriented practices, MOOCs are based on principles
stemming from connectivist pedagogy, including aggregation, re-mixing,
re-purposing, and feeding forward with the purpose of creating more
connected and hence effective learning8.
Such unprecedented ‘unbundling of education delivery’ is also
posing many and significant managerial challenges, as ‘traditional’ higher
education institutions have had to rethink their governance models in order
to adapt to these changes and domestic reforms. New managerial types have
been emerging, including the ‘Amazon university’, (based on e-learning and
sharing content), the on-demand university, where students tailor their
courses and credits over a period of time, the learning hotel, which
continually changes flows of collaboration and interchanges between
academic scholars and corporate, government or professional practitioners,
the corporate university, arguably said to represent a paradigm shift in the
6
Daniel, 2012.
Cormier, 2010.
8
Downes, 2011.
7
55
development of organisational human capital, as well as the umbrella
university, which sees the university as a cooperative rather than a selfcontained entity with fragmented activities, the university becoming a
“holding structure with a conglomerate of separately managed
businesses”9.
However, irrespective of the definition, pedagogical approach or
change in the university management that these new teaching and learning
technologies are apt to either point to or determine, an ever more pressing
issue with MOOCs is closely related to the complex role of language and
culture in such type of online learning. If we accept that language, like
culture and learning, are culturally embedded phenomena and not mere
tools of communication, and since MOOCs do not take place in a glocalized
space of acculturation, then technologies themselves are not a culturally
neutral phenomenon, rather “cultural-specific ventures that are grounded
and provided in a specific cultural context” 10.
The role of language and culture in online learning has been wellresearched11. Owing to deeply rooted cultural values, attitudes and modes
of thinking that are difficult to separate from all learning processes 12,
cultural diversity remains a valuable asset for addressing many of the global
challenges that learning communities are nowadays facing. In response to
the threat of loss of cultural identity in the face of globalization, there is a
strong desire and need to preserve cultural diversity and enhance
community cohesiveness through unique cultural expression13. Since
education and instructional design are social processes, and since education
occurs within culture, culture plays a significant role in instructional
9
Squires and Husmann, 2012.
Masoumi & Lindström, 2012: 394.
11
Chen, Hsu, & Caropreso, 2006; Henderson, 1996; Parrish & Linder-VanBerschot, 2010.
12
Nisbett, 2003.
13
Mason, 2007.
10
56
planning and design. Hence, instructional providers must be aware both of
their learners’ cultures and the ways in which these cultures manifest
themselves in learning environments and preferences 14. The complication
arises when separation from the educators’ own cultures and the culture of
the training that they develop can no longer be made. In other words, a great
challenge, in our view, is represented by the educators’ cultural perspectives
represented in the design decisions they make in the MOOCs and the very
ways in which they streamline their students to the specific professional,
academic and mainstream cultures which they represent.
Now let us look more closely into the relationship between different
communities of learners and massive open online courses, harnessing
knowledge transfer and information technology for higher education. In all
enthusiasm created by their potential to be a cheap way of delivering
education to vast audiences, it is somewhat tacitly assumed by individuals
and institutions that those who participate willingly in a MOOC accept, per
se, that they will participate and work in English and, in all probability,
encounter (as well as be assessed against) the hegemony of North Atlantic
epistemologies, attitudes and ways of interpreting and seeing the world.
Indeed, if MOOCs are seen as some form of neocolonialism15 and if neocolonialism of today represents imperialism in its final and (perhaps its)
most dangerous stage, then we may as well ask ourselves: who controls
knowledge?16 And for what purposes? We don’t claim to be able to provide
answers to either question in what follows, however, the issue is worth
looking into more closely. First, a disclaimer for the use of the ‘neocolonialism’ term may point to our understanding (and acceptance) of the
term based on the following definition:
14
Nisbett, 2003.
Altbach, 2014.
16
Ibid.
15
57
The term ‘postcolonialism’, it could be argued, has arisen to
account for neocolonialism, for continuing modes of imperialist thought
and action across much of the contemporary world. It certainly does not
imply that the colonial era is over: that a stake has been driven through the
heart of Empire that it might never again return. The ‘post’ in postcolonial
remains, nonetheless, irritatingly cryptic. If it doesn't mean ‘after’
colonialism, then what exactly does it mean? Does it, like the ‘post’ in
postmodernism, risk becoming an empty signifier, a perennial open
question or merely a sign of intellectual fatigue?17
The term ‘neocolonialism’ together with its ensuing relationship
with MOOCs has also been recently used by Philip G. Altbach, Director of
the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, who holds
that since MOOCs are largely an American-led effort, with most courses
coming from universities in the United States or other Western countries,
“the online courses threaten to exacerbate the worldwide influence
of Western academe, bolstering its higher-education hegemony” 18
Indeed, since the instruction language is English (even when the
course content is translated in other languages, it still reflects the original
course and the culture embedded therein), since MOOCs’ content and
culture are American oriented and based on already existing pedagogical
ideas and practices, since the vast majority of instructors are American, it
follows that no knowledge can be neutral, quite the reverse, it reflects, at
least insofar as MOOCs are concerned, the academic traditions,
methodological approaches, and teaching strategies of the American
academic system.
If the transmission of knowledge in education is determined by
factors such as present experience, historical reproduction, negotiated
17
18
Huggan, 1997:22.
Altbach, 2014.
58
curricula and pedagogy, then meaning-making and knowledge construction
are dominant in the transmission of knowledge 19. Focusing on education
service, Bernstein argues that it is
‘a public institution central to the production and reproduction of
distributive injustices’.20
He maintains that schools are failing in a certain measure to provide
the egalitarian opportunities that underpin social democratic values and
principles (stipulated in the Education Reform Act of 1956) and holds that
schools reproduce a culture in which the society of dominant holders of
power is reproduced in its turn. In other words,
“(h)ow a society selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and
evaluates the educational knowledge it considers to be public, reflects both
the distribution of power and the principles of social control” 21.
His theoretical model for the analysis of university education based
on a classification of knowledge and focusing on three ‘message systems’ 22
curricula, pedagogy, and evaluation may be well applied to MOOCs that are
single-handedly conveying the Western canon. Altbach’s justification on
MOOCs’ organic, undeliberate influence, offers little solace:
Those responsible for creating, designing, and delivering MOOC
courses do not seek to impose their values or methodologies on others;
influence happens organically and without conspiracies. A combination of
powerful academic cultures, the location of the main creators and
disseminators of MOOCs, and the orientation of most of those creating and
teaching MOOCs ensures the domination of the largely English-speaking
academic systems23.
19
see Bernstein, 1971a; 1971b; 1996.
Bernstein, 1996:5.
21
Bernstein, 1971:202.
22
Bernstein, 1971:203.
23
Altbach, 2014.
20
59
Western academic systems, modes of inquiry, the literature and
articles in peer-reviewed influential journals dominate all delivery material
of MOOCs. Particularly within the social sciences and humanities
paradigm, most courses reflect Western traditions of knowledge,
methodologies, the Western literature canon, and Western philosophical
assumptions. According to Altbach,
“it is, under these circumstances, natural that the dominant ideas
from these centers will dominate academic discourse, and will be reflected
in the thinking and orientations of most of those planning and teaching
MOOCs. MOOC gatekeepers, such as Coursera, Udacity, and others, will
seek to maintain standards as they interpret them, and this will no doubt
strengthen the hegemony of Western methodologies”.
Moreover, English is the dominant language of scholarly
communication, hence of internationally circulated academic journals, the
language of websites. Neither terminology nor any course instructions can
be fully effective in reaching non-elite audiences except if in English. If we
consider that internet-based virtual communication typically occurs through
written rather than spoken interactions, then learners may be missing
several benefits, such as the socio-cultural cues24 and orderliness25 typically
encountered and provided by face-to-face interactions. It would be
interesting to have statistics, for example, on how much of closest
interpretation of printed text can be effectively made when participants
coming from various cultural backgrounds are engaged in learning
situations and for that matter, how much of it is based on mutual, reciprocal
understanding and how much on own cultural background. It would be
equally valuable to assess effective communication and knowledge transfer
and management with learners coming from Asian and English speaking
24
25
Roald, 1999.
Allwood & Schroeder, 2000.
60
communities, to take only these two cases for the case in point, knowing
that communication processes are different in their cultures. It is known for
example, that Asian speakers use sentences in which the main point is
postponed until enough background information is known for making
correct connections and inferences, whereas English speakers typically
open discourse with the main topic followed by supportive information.
This culturally embedded discourse disparity often results in English
speakers’ familiarity with the usage of a topic sentence to open discourse or
anticipate critical information being presented at the start of a conversation
whereas Asian speakers wait until later in discourse for important
information to be made available26. How is then course content assimilated?
How can learning behaviour be the same? Furthermore, at yet another level,
developments in linguistics (semantics in particular) have isolated
intractable phenomena, such as: presuppositions, and other contextdependent implications that require pragmatic solutions 27.
“The most often quoted example "Some ten cent pieces are rejected
by this vending machine", shows that "some" may mean either "some and
not all" or "some and perhaps all", and it further indicates that a semantic
theory can give us only a certain proportion of a general account of
language understanding. The gap that remains to be bridged between a
semantic theory and a complete theory of linguistic communication must
account for the hints, implicit purposes, assumptions, social attitudes, etc.
that are effectively communicated by the use of language,”28
including “the world experience brought to the situation of
discourse by the interlocutors”29.
26
Scollon & Scollon, 1995.
Florea, 2013:129.
28
Ibid.
29
Jaszczolt 2006:3.
27
61
Across a larger cultural spectrum, even teacher-student interaction may be
reflective of different norms and values; in the US, it generally occurs on a
position of equality, in the German culture, a confrontational,
argumentative style in a teacher–student interaction is often considered to
be necessary so as to lend more interest and spark to informal
conversations, whereas to Asian students, interactions of this type are
hardly ever acceptable. The literature indicates that Eastern language
cultures use “high-context communication”, and receivers of message (and
hence course content) are solely responsible for deducing the entire,
appropriate meaning30, whereas American culture is considered a midcontext culture, characterized by a clearly provided context of conversation
and more task-focused responses. According to Chen, Hsu and Caropreso even
“The use of emoticons by Taiwanese students, compared to
American students’ absence of such symbolic indicators, may reflect the
goal of Taiwanese to compensate for high-context communication typical of
eastern cultures.”31
However, the culture-specific determinants of online learning
environment and the performance of learning communities are far more
complex than this and often times intractable, showing a potential for
inhibiting the emergence of a local academic culture and content, and/or of
courses tailored particularly for national audiences. Likewise, cross-cultural
learning takes more processing time for effective communication,
especially given communication context-specific differences. English-as-aforeign-language challenges may often contribute to different learning
behaviours. For example,
“Efficiency is a critical criterion for judging job performance in
American society but not in Asian society. This may explain why Taiwanese
30
31
Porter & Samovar, 2003.
Chen, S. J., Hsu, C.L., & Caropreso, E. J., 2006:27.
62
students considered American students to be aggressive, whereas
Americans thought the delay of participation to be a weakness of this crosscultural activity.”32
Paradoxically, in the process, while having a rich potential to reach
non-elite audiences, MOOCs seems to strengthen in fact the currently
dominant academic culture, making it more difficult for alternative voices
to be heard. It will be interesting to see in the near future, for example, how
will MOOCs and their “foreign ideas” impact the Chinese ideology and
socialism, given the breakthrough that these online courses have made in
China in 2013, when Cousera and edX (two major MOOC platforms)
partnered up with Chinese universities to offer their courses online. The
future development of virtual ethnography would perhaps allow for better
collection and analysis of data reflecting more on richness of
communication between and across cultures, if not between and across
dominant nations. Bonding educational discourse may help explain matters
pertaining to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, new ethnicities and urban
youth culture at several macro levels of education practices and social
organization. Cultural hybridity forms have already been identified as forms
of cognitive dissonance and social marginalization, however new and
different forms of collective representation through different languages in
different learning communities may be the solution for a better functionality
and wider adoption of MOOCs within the paradigm of language, culture,
identity. Our argument here is centered on the need to think beyond the
(marginalizing) politics of marginality and to focus on education produced
solely in the articulation and legitimation of cultural differences. The
rationale is that such unifying-under-one-language spaces will allow for
elaborating communal strategies of selfhood apt to hinder new signs of
32
Ibid.
63
identity, and blur whatever becomes a complex social construct in the
production of self and other perceptions.
As the degree of diversity will proportionally increase, MOOCs may
turn out to represent a unifying voice, making all education more accessible
and less expensive, however it remains to be seen whether in the online
competition space the rising hegemony stakes of English and Western
cultures will come to be globally accepted at all costs. ”Rivers and people
become crooked by following the lines of least resistance” may be just
another way of putting it. Or MOOCing it.
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CHEN, S. J., HSU, C.L., and CAROPRESO, E. J., 2006, “Cross-Cultural
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London: Routledge Falmer.
CONOLE, G., 2013, “MOOCs as Disruptive Technologies: Strategies for
Enhancing the Learner Experience and Quality of MOOCs”, in RED,
Revista de Educación a Distancia. Número 39, 15 de diciembre de 2013.
DANIEL, J., 2012, “Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of
Myth, Paradox and Possibility”, in Journal of Interactive Media in
Education, 3.
FLOREA, S., 2013, “The Academic Setting: Aspects of Pragmatic
Competence and Transfer in Inter-Cultural Communication”, in
Transilvania, Nr. 11-12, Sibiu, p.129-132.
GLENNIE, J., K. HARLEY, et Al., 2012, Open Educational Resources and
Change in Higher Education: Reflections from Practice, Vancouver,
Commonwealth of Learning/UNESCO.
HENDERSON, L., 1996, “Instructional Design of Interactive Multimedia:
A Cultural Critique”, in Educational Technology Research and
Development, 44(4), 85-104.
HUGGAN, G., 1997, “The Neocolonialism of Postcolonialism: A
Cautionary Note”, in Links & Letters 4, 1997 19-24.
JASZCZOLT, Katarzyna M., 2006, “Defaults in Semantics and
Pragmatics”, in Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural
Language Meaning, ed. K. von Heusinger, P. Portner & C.
Maienborn. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
JENKINS, H., 2009, “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century, Mit Pr.
MASON, R., 2007, “Internationalizing Education”, in M.G. Moore
(Ed.), Handbook of Distance Education (2nd ed., pp. 583-591),
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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MASOUMI, D., LINDSTROM, B., 2012,”Quality in E-Learning: A
Framework for Promoting and Assuring Quality in Virtual
Institutions”, in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Volume
28, Issue 1, pages 27–41, February 2012.
NISBETT, R.E., 2003, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and
Westerners Think Differently...And Why, New York: Free Press.
PARRISH, Patrick, LINDER-VanBERSCHOT, Jennifer A, 2010, “Cultural
Dimensions of Learning: Addressing the Challenges of Multicultural
Instruction”, in the International Review of Research in Open and
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ROALD, H., 1999,“Intercultural Communication, the Print Medium and the
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SAMOVAR, L. A., PORTER, R. E. (Eds.), 2002, Intercultural
Communication (10th Ed.), Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
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Discourse Approach, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
66
COLLOCATION-CENTRED APPROACHES TO
TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH
VOCABULARY
Angela STĂNESCU, PhD
Valahia University of Târgovişte
angelastanescu@yahoo.com
Abstract:
The present article is based on the assumption that vocabulary acquisition and
proficiency in English – or any other language, for that matter – is largely conditioned by
acquiring a sound knowledge of collocation patterns, as well as adequate collocation
practice activities. From beginner to proficiency level, collocation should constitute the
primary focus of any vocabulary development programme. The author presents a range of
collocation-centred teaching techniques and learning strategies, meant at raising awareness
of word association or and at building sound collocation habits, which constitute the basis
of lexical proficiency and appropriacy.
Key-words:
Vocabulary, collocation, patterns, appropriacy, practice activities
Introduction
Foreign students’ ability to speak and write English both accurately
and fluently is related to a large extent to their mastery of vocabulary,
especially of collocation. Most language mistakes arise from the wrong
association between words, i.e. collocation, which is one of the most
difficult areas of language learning at all levels.
While native speakers collocate naturally and automatically, nonnative speakers have to learn and practice word association systematically
before they are able to sense what sounds right and what does not. What
they need is awareness-raising exercises, which set them thinking about
correct collocations when they do reading or listening activities or when
they look up words in the dictionary, intensive classroom practice and
67
extensive reading (outside the classroom). In other words, they need
sustained exposure to collocation.
Collocation errors are sometimes caused by interference from their
own language (first language interference), when students collocate
according to the rules of their mother tongue, e.g. make a photo, give an
exam, put a question. Knowing a word in a foreign language means
knowing how and when to use it and which words it associates with. That is
why collocation exposure and practice are at a premium, and the teacher
should give students plenty of opportunities for practice.
Collocation learning and practice activities
From the earliest stages of language learning, students of English
should be made aware that new lexical items are not to be learnt in
isolation, but at phrase level, together with the various elements they
collocate with. Of course, such learning habits can only be derived from
good teaching – contextualised presentation techniques, collocation-focused
practice activities, encouraging students to use adequate strategies for
recording or storing vocabulary. Some useful strategies and activities are
suggested below.
a)
Using dictionaries for learning, recording and checking
collocations
Good monolingual dictionaries always provide examples of word
collocations. Student should be warned to pay attention to word
combination, and never record words in isolations. They can be asked to
look up and take notes of Verb + Noun collocations with frequently used
verbs such as do, make, get, take, etc. It is useful to point out to our students
that the lists of ‘synonyms’ often given in a bilingual dictionary or language
thesaurus should not be taken at face value, since, apart from the inherent
differences in meaning, these synonyms also appear in different contexts
and collocate with particular words. Keeping record of the vocabulary they
learn is useful so long as it focuses on collocations rather than on isolated
68
items. Thus students should be trained to pay attention to the most frequent
collocation patterns:
 Subject noun + verb: The earth revolves round the sun.
 Verb + object noun: take a photo, light a fire, strike a match
 Adjective + noun: light sleeper, heavy smoker, heavy traffic,
utter disappointment
 Adjective/past participle + preposition: fond of, keen on,
interested in, delighted at, concerned about
 Adverb
+
past
participle
(used
attributively):
smartly/badly/fashionably dressed, fully understood, hard-earned, deeply hurt
 Adverb + verb: sincerely hope, honestly believe, fully
understand, absolutely love
 Verb + adverb: enjoy thoroughly, cry bitterly, eat heartily, work hard
 Verb + preposition: insist on, object to, approve of, sympathise with
Reading for collocation
As reading represents the main form of exposure to collocation,
texts used in classroom reading activities can also be exploited for
collocation learning or reinforcement, as a follow-up exercise. Students will
be asked to scan the text and take out any new collocations corresponding
to the patterns presented above. Thus, reading specifically for collocation
can be an extremely productive vocabulary development technique. In
addition, students should also be encouraged to pay attention to collocations
and even pause to write them down when reading outside the classroom.
b)
Matching items
The two halves of different collocation patterns are put in two
separate columns, in jumbled order. Students have to match the
corresponding items. E.g.:
1
1. broaden
a. a screw
2
2. soften
b. your hair
3
3. straighten
c. your mind
4
4. tighten
d. the blow
69
A variation can be used particularly for collocations with DO and
MAKE. The students are given a list of noun phrases to be put under the
right heading. The exercise can be also done as a dictation, with students
writing the nouns they hear under the DO or MAKE headings.
Odd man out
This exercise, involving crossing out the wrong items of a number
of given choices, is suggested by Gairns and Redman (1992, 39).
heavy
strong
A DISH
mild
light
weak
c)
Collocation gap-fill
The exercise consists of a set of gapped sentences focused on
different collocation patterns.
E.g.: She ............ a thick layer of jam on her toast. / I think we are
all ....... agreement.
d)
Collocation error correction
Students have to correct collocation errors in sentences where the
key element requiring a different collocation is underlined:
E.g.: The crime was done last night. / The result was an extreme
disappointment.
e)
Sentence building (from given outline and key word)
The students are required to build a sentence round a given word,
most commonly a noun, by supplying subject, verb, adjective, preposition
and object where applicable. The key words used as cues can be nouns
which are part of verb phrase collocation model cases.
E.g.:
SUBJECT VERB ADJECTIVE
NOUN
INVESTIGATION
RESEARCH
INQUIRY
70
PREPOSITION OBJECT
f)
Matching idioms and definitions
Idioms represent fixed collocation patterns formed round a key verb
or noun. Teaching and learning idioms can be organised round topic based
vocabulary – clothes idioms, parts of the body idioms, etc. The students are
given a set of sentences containing idioms and a list of definitions to be matched.
E.g.: You’re going to fail the exam if you don’t pull your socks up.
(make an effort)
g)
Matching pairs
The exercise is focused on symmetrical collocations of the type:
noun AND noun, adjective AND adjective, past participle AND past
participle. The students are given the elements to be paired up in separate
lists of jumbled items. E.g.: sick, head, bits, body, dead, bed, odds AND
breakfast, tired, soul, buried, pieces, ends, shoulders
h)
Collocation grids
This is basically another matching exercise configured as a table
containing a column of items with roughly similar meanings but different
collocations and a row of items they can collocate with. The students have
to decide on the associative possibilities of each item by marking the
intersection point between items as a positive collocation match (Rudska et
al., in Gairns and Redman 1992, 38).
woman man child dog bird flower weather view village
beautiful
+
+
+ +
+
+
+
+
lovely
+
+
+
+
+
+
pretty
+
+
+
+
+
+
charming
+
+
+
+
attractive
+
+
+
good-looking
+
+
+
handsome
+
+
71
i)
Find someone who
The activity begins with a matching exercise, with two separate lists
of items to be matched so as to obtain adjective + noun collocations, e.g.
light sleeper, heavy smoker, close friend.
After checking the correct combinations, the students move round
the class to find someone who: is a light sleeper, have a heavy smoker in
their family, has a close friend of a different nationality, has had a serious
illness, etc.
j)
Questionnaires (make vs. do)
The questionnaire should consist of an answer sheet with questions
on problematic collocations, such as make or do combinations. The main
question is ‘In your house, who does/makes things? The question prompts
in the survey chart will include items such as the shopping/the beds/the
cooking/most of the decisions/the ironing/the most money/a mess and the
answer
prompts
can
be
a
man/a
woman/either/you/your
mother/father/brother/sister/wife. Similar questionnaires can be devised in
order to revise relevant vocabulary and collocations on such topics as
personality traits, holidays and travel, leisure activities (Gairns and
Redman, 168).
Bibliography:
DIGBY and MYERS, 1991, Making Sense of Vocabulary, Cassel.
GAIRNS, Ruth; REDMAN, Stuart, 1992, Working with Words: A guide to
teaching and learning vocabulary. Cambridge University Press.
MORGAN, RINVOLUCRI, MARIO, 1986, Vocabulary. Oxford University Press.
REDMAN, Stuart. A Way with Words. Cambridge University Press, 1991
UNDERHILL, Adrian,1980, Use Your Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
WALLACE, Michael J., 1989, Teaching Vocabulary. English Language
Book Society (ELBS), Heinemann Educational Books,
WATCYN-JONES, Peter, 1979, Test Your Vocabulary (Vol. 1- 4). Penguin.
72
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SYLLABI FOR
THE STUDY OF ENGLISH IN CONFORMITY
WITH THE COMMON EUROPEAN
FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE
Edlira XEGA
University of Korça, Albania
edixega@yahoo.com
Abstract:
This article highlights the need for teacher development syllabi to strike a balance
between theory and practice, suggesting, in fact, that this is the primary goal of all teacher
development programs. There is an investigation of the teachers’ role in the syllabus, of the
ways in which it is put into practice and of the extent to which syllabi constitute a point of
reference for both teachers and learners as regards English language acquisition. The
questionnaires used in this study were meant to explore how teachers implement the syllabi
in their teaching, to find out how different teachers in the high schools of the Korca region
refer to the syllabus in their actual classroom practice and to determine the role of the
syllabi and the methodology in language teaching and their effect on learning outcomes.
Key words:
Syllabus, language acquisition, Secondary education, English teachers, questionnaire
1. Introduction
As English becomes more widely used as a language for
international communication, representations of English teaching and
learning evince a greater diversity of viewpoints. 1
In dealing with the syllabi for English, each teacher interprets and
accommodates them to their personality, experience and preconceptions,
thus creating a teaching style or plan of action which the teacher seeks to
implement in the classroom. Teachers claim that their intention is to
promote an open, responsive, learner-centered and “democratic” classroom
1
Gradol, 2006 p. 48.
73
learning environment.2 To this effect, good use should be made of the
syllabi designed by the Institute of Curricula and Training, part of the
Ministry of Education and Sciences in Albania. The teachers’ answers show
that they try to understand the context of teaching through their learners’
perspectives, offering conclusions about the extent to which the syllabi
incorporate their overall goals, about the teachers’ responsibility for using
the various components of the syllabus with a view to ensuring the
students’ better acquisition of the English language.
Syllabus design and implementation involves a process of didactic
reflection, which interprets pedagogical acts in terms of an educative aim.
In this context, the teacher is like an ingenious craftsman who
contextualizes the use of his teaching tools both to the didactic principles
pursued and to the conditions of his classroom practice. 3
2. The principles of syllabus design
Defining the syllabus
Any syllabus expresses, however indirectly, certain assumptions about
language, about the psychological process of learning, and about the
pedagogic and social processes within a classroom. 4
The syllabus is simply a framework within which activities can be
carried out. It is a teaching framework meant to facilitate learning. It only
becomes a threat to pedagogy when it is regarded as an absolute rule for
determining what is to be learnt rather than a mere point of reference
against which outcomes can be measured.5
The syllabus is the specification of the teaching program, or the
pedagogical agenda, which defines a special subject for a particular group
2
Richard and Nunan, 2002, p. 270.
Astolfi- Develay, 1989, p. 9.
4
Breen 1984, p. 49.
5
Widdowson, 1984, p.26
3
74
of learners. It also sets the pedagogical objectives. But it is crucial to be
known that a syllabus is the instrument of an educational policy.6
The teacher’s task is to follow the syllabus as a course of action by
whatever methodological means seem most appropriate for the facilitation
of learning.7 This is what the Albanian high school teachers interviewed
generally agree on.
Widowson argues that the principles upon which the syllabus has
been designed should be made quite explicit so that teachers can submit
them to appraisal and application. In this way, teachers can make use of the
syllabus as a set of bearings on the planning of their own course in a lesson
sequence (an issue understood and agreed on by Albanian teachers). This
ensures the realization of aspects of language and learning which the
syllabus of its nature cannot account for.
So a syllabus is a construct whose principles teachers can use and
adapt to the circumstances of their own classes. In this explicit way, the
syllabus becomes an important element in the continuing education of
teachers, as they experiment with this variable realization in the process of
actual teaching.8
What most syllabus designers and course-book writers try to provide
is a kind of multi- syllabus, in other words an interlocking set of parameters
for any particular level or stage of study, which includes not only
grammatical and functional syllabi, but also linguistic and communication
skills. Syllabus designers thus juggle with issues of grammar, lexis,
functions, topics and tasks when putting together a teaching sequence, such
as the course-book content.9
6
Widdowson, 2008, p. 127.
8
9
Harmer, 2007, p. 369.
7
75
3. The structure of the secondary education syllabus
Educators recognise that curricular innovation is an extremely complex
matter because of the need to take into account the perceptions of the key
stakeholders within specific socio-cultural contexts. Of these stakeholders,
teachers play the key role in the success or failure of a planned innovation,
since they are the executive decision makers in the actual setting in which
the intended innovation is to be realised – the classroom.10
Carless emphasizes that “teachers not only need to understand the
theoretical underpinnings of the innovation, but more importantly, how the
innovation is best applied in the classroom”. 11
Secondary Education
Secondary General Education provides the framework in for
expanding and deepening general knowledge gained during elementary
education. General secondary schools may design educational programs so
as to enable students to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities
necessary for their high school studies or for specific professional training.
The duration of general secondary education is three years.12
Within the high school core curriculum, foreign language study
develops in the 10th and 11th grades to three classes hours per week and in
the 12th grade to 4 classes per week.
Class
10
11
12
10
Hours per week
3 hours
3 hours
4 hours
Weeks
36
36
34
Markee, 1997.
Carless, 2001.
12
Albanian Investment, Development Agency, 2010; p. 15.
11
76
Total
108
108
136
The total for foreign language instruction in secondary Education
amounts to 352 classes.
In an analytical planning, the teacher plans the distribution of
learning objectives according to specific topics, without neglecting the 70%
of the classes planned for the acquisition of new knowledge and the 30% of
general knowledge processing. 13
In the general curriculum, the foreign language course figures as a
core subject in high school, essential for the students’ instruction. In today’s
context, where social and political relations with Europe are more and more
essential in relation to Albania’s aspiration for European integration, the
main educational trend is the creation of a pluri-linguistic, multicultural
environment, in which foreign language teaching contributes not only to the
linguistic and cultural education of the learners, but has a particular impact
on the cultural exchange between our country and other countries.
However, there is a significant mismatch between the existing
educational norms in Albania and those implicit in the expected outcomes
of their usually strongly ‘nativespeakerist’, state-controlled system of
English curricula. In many parts of the world, such ‘communicationoriented’ curricula appear to have been introduced by national education
policy makers, with little thought to the demands made on English teachers
by these expected outcomes, or to the teacher educators’ capacity to
provide teachers with appropriate support.14
Learning a foreign language enables the integration of increasing
numbers of Albanian students in a multi-linguistic cultural reality. The
training of foreign language learners creates conditions for deepening their
knowledge of the cultural values of the rest of the world, alongside the
dissemination of our national values throughout the European nations.
13
14
Udhezues kurrikular, IZHA Kl 10- 12 , 2010, p.11.
Holliday, 2005.
77
The acquisition of a foreign language helps learners in their
preparation for lifelong learning and for using the foreign language in
decisions which affect their progress as individuals and the progress of the
community at local and national level.
Referring to the level reached in the ninth grade and the skill
descriptors according to the Common European Framework of Reference,
the foreign language curricula for the 10th and 12th grades aim to achieve
the level B2, which the learners should attain in the four competencies
attesting to the acquisition of a foreign language.
The syllabus for each grade is divided as follows: Communication
and cultural education (85 classes), linguistic education (23) for grades 10
and 11; Communication and cultural education (104classes), linguistic
education (32) for the 12th grade15. The total number of classes for
secondary school is 352.
The Common European Framework of Reference provides guidance
on the number of guided teaching hours needed to attain the aims of each
CEF level. These teaching hours are calculated for 60 minute-classes:
B1+ level - Approximately 350- 400 hours
B1-2 level - Approximately 400 -450 hours
B2+ level - Approximately 500-600 hours16
These guided teaching hours in the CEFR are the hours during
which the learner is in a formal learning context such as the classroom. In
total there are approximately 600 teaching hours of 60 minutes, or, if
converted to 45 minute teaching hours, there are 800 hours. If we examine
the concordance between this and the syllabi of the Institute of Curricula
and Training of the Ministry of Education in Albania, it results that in
Secondary Education, which includes levels B1+ and B2+, the total number
15
16
Programet e kurrikulës bërthamë të gjimnazit (klasa X- XII), Gjuhe angleze, 2010, p. 12.
Teacher’s guide to CEF, p. 7.
78
of 45 minute teaching hours is 352. If they are converted into 60 minutes
teaching hours there are 264 hours.
It is clear that the number of classes provided by secondary
education in the Albanian context is very small when compared to the
standard of hours set by CEFR. The English language program for the 12th
grade aims to achieve and implement standards for the teaching, learning
and assessment of learners at the language level B1+ in accordance with the
Common European Framework for Languages.
Based on the philosophy and guidelines of the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages and of the National Curriculum of
Modern Languages for Pre-university Public Education, the syllabus for the
12th grade outlines all the linguistic and cross-cultural skills obtained from
grade 3 to grade 9, highlighting the balance between the learners’ language
proficiency and the communicative skills and abilities of self-expression in
the English language required at the level of independent user.
The syllabus is based on the interests and characteristics of the age
group and caters for the independent intellectual and socio-cultural
development of the learners. The English language program for grade 10
aims to develop linguistic, cultural and intellectual learning able to further
sustain lifelong learning. It aims to develop the students’ critical thinking
and learner independence outside the classroom, encouraging different
forms of individual and group-work.
The educational content of the English language course for grade 10
is meant to develop language education from the A1-B1 levels attained in
elementary education to the level B1+ aimed at during the stage of upper
secondary education.17
The English language program for grade 11 is an official document
intended to achieve and implement the standards of teaching, learning and
17
Programet e kurrikulës bërthamë të gjimnazit, kl. X, Gjuhe angleze, 2008, fq 48.
79
assessment of students at the B1.2 levels, according to the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages, enabling students to go
from the breakthrough level (B1+ in class 10), to the threshold level of
independent user18
This program also supported the National Curriculum guidelines for
Modern Language study within University Public Education. The 11 th grade
program caters for all language skills, obtained from the 3rd grade to the 10th
grade. The content of the program for English language education in the
11th grade, following levels A1 to B1+ obtained during the 9-year
educational cycle, is aimed, at this stage of upper secondary education, at
level B1.2.
The new program of teaching English in the 12th grade aims to
further increase the opportunities offered to learners to develop linguistic
competences and cultural awareness.
The program also aims to expand the students’ knowledge of
linguistic and grammatical areas, to deepen their insight of the cultural and
social dimension of English-speaking countries, to improve the
communication skills in the English language, as well as linguistic literacy
and understanding of this language 19. The learning objectives of the syllabus
at this stage are aimed towards the B2+ level, so the learners are given practice
enabling them to become independent users of the English language.
4. The relation of CEFR with the syllabus of ICT
Setting the aims and objectives of language learning and teaching
should be based on an appreciation of the needs of both learners and
society, which determines the kind of tasks, activities and processes that the
18
19
Programet e kurrikulës bërthamë të gjimnazit kl.XI, Gjuhe angleze, 2009, fq. 2.
Programet e kurrikulës bërthamë të gjimnazit klasa XII, Gjuhe angleze, 2010, fq 12.
80
learners need to carry out in order to satisfy those needs, as well as the
language competences and strategies they need to develop in order to do so.20
In drawing up curricular guidelines or formulating syllabi,
authorities concentrate on the specification of the learning objectives. In
doing so, they may specify only higher-level objectives in terms of tasks,
themes, competences, etc. They are not obliged, though they may wish to
do so, to specify in detail the vocabulary, grammar and functional range
which will enable learners to perform the tasks and approach the topics
prescribed. They may also wish to lay down guidelines or make suggestions
as to the classroom methods to be employed and the stages through which
learners are expected to progress.21
Teachers are generally called upon to observe any official
guidelines, use textbooks and course materials (which they may or may not
be in a position to analyse, evaluate, select and supplement), devise and
administer tests and prepare learners for qualification examinations. They
have to make minute-to-minute decisions about classroom activities, which
they can outline beforehand, but must adjust flexibly in the light of learner
responses. They are expected to monitor the learners’ progress and find
ways of recognising, analysing and overcoming their learning problems, as
well as of developing their individual learning abilities 22
In this context the promotion of respect for the diversity of
languages in school is significant. It is also a matter of helping learners:
• to construct their linguistic and cultural identity through
integrating into it a diversified
experience of otherness;
• to develop their ability to learn through this same diversified
experience of relating
20
CEFR, 2001, p.131.
CEFR, 2001, p.141.
22
CEFR,2001, p.141.
21
81
to several languages and cultures.23
5. The study
Data collection
The responses presented through the questionnaire results reflect the
personality, experience and conceptions of the teachers and result in a
teaching style or an action plan that the teacher needs to implement in class.
Having the necessary knowledge and goals is very important, but even
more important is communicating them effectively. 24
This questionnaire was developed so as to reveal the ways in which
teachers interact with learners, transmit knowledge in the classroom and the
thoughts they share on teaching, syllabus and learning objectives.
The questionnaire was used for English language teachers working
in different public and non-public secondary schools located in urban and
rural areas. The school teachers interviewed represent different age-groups
and qualifications. The textbooks they use are written by both Albanian and
foreign authors.
The subjects in the study
This research is focused on a questionnaire survey, developed with a
significant number of 90 teachers, 60 of whom belong to urban areas and 30
to rural ones. The data derived from the checklist were analyzed by using
descriptive statistical methods. Percentages for all items were obtained.
The aims of the study
The research questions that guided the study mainly focused on
topical issues. The questionnaire was applied as the continuation of a
learners’ survey, in order to detect the teachers’ opinions on the English
syllabus and their practices concerning: organizing classes; following the
syllabus and adjusting it to the textbooks; the degree of satisfaction with the
23
24
CEFR, 2001, p. 134.
Richards, Nunan; 2002, p. 271.
82
textbooks; the application and realization of appropriate educational
policies during the English language learning process in Korca and in its
surrounding villages. This approach enables the development of an
understanding of the phenomenon from the teacher’s point of view. 25
The field of the study
The field survey was realized in the respective schools. The
questionnaires were distributed in late April and early May 2013. The
purpose of the questionnaire was explained to the teachers. As part of the
questionnaires was distributed online, not all of them were answered. So
from the 90 teachers planned, the number was reduced to 78.
The average class size for the urban area is 35-40 learners, while for
the rural area it is 25-30 learners.
Methodology
All data analyses are presented in different graphs in percentages.
The teachers were required to complete a questionnaire that examines their
actual opinions of the English syllabus.
The classroom survey data were analyzed both qualitatively and
quantitatively, by considering the assumptions, principles, and values
relating to the truth of Albanian teaching realities and the role that the
syllabi play in furthering English instruction.
The quantitative analysis was conducted with questionnaires handed
out to teachers in order to analyze the aspects of syllabus implementation in
English language teaching in different public and non-public secondary
schools in urban and rural areas, as well as the conformity of the syllabus
with the CEFR standards.
The qualitative analysis consists in a subjective analysis based on
the teachers’ data and answers. As Paille points out, qualitative research
25
Carless, 2001, p. 266.
83
deals directly with the opinion of the subjects in the study, being carried out
through the common language, without technical tools. 26
The questionnaires clearly define facts or opinions that have been
identified by qualitative methods.27 There data given come from the
Albanian teachers of English interviewed in secondary schools. Generally
the questionnaire contains closed Yes/No questions, based on percentages or
the gradual rating of the teachers’ opinions, as well as 3-4 open questions.
The questionnaire consists of questions aimed at offering
conclusions about the teachers’ opinions on: the conformity of the syllabus
with the age of the learners; the extent of cultural content; whether the
syllabus objectives are reflected in the textbooks; how the CEFR objectives
are reflected in the English syllabus compiled by the Institute of Curricula
and Training; on whether the objectives of the English class can be met in
large classes; whether the assessment is done according to the standards set
by CEFR; the extent to which these are followed in the syllabus.
7. Data interpretation
Language awareness is essential for understanding; knowing about a
language, for a teacher, is more important than knowing a language. 28
More, specifically, as seen in the percentages obtained from the
analysis of the questionnaire questions, the following is to be noted.
The questions are grouped into Yes/No, percentages, questions
assessing the language skills and objectives, the monitoring and
implementation of the syllabus. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions.
The results are presented in graphs, by comparing the replies of
teachers from different schools.
26
Paille, 2004, p.189.
http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk.
28
Jenkins, p. 2006.
27
84
The replies to the questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively and
quantitatively. For data and quantitative analysis we used descriptive
statistics, for qualitative analysis the questions are analyzed in general and
specific categories. The development of interpretive and reflective skills
offers a very practical and fruitful alternative to language teacher education.29
a. Comparing the results of teacher responses in urban and rural
Secondary Education: 25 teachers urban area and 15 in rural
area (40 total)
From the responses of the high school teachers interviewed, it
results that a high percentage of teachers from both urban and rural areas
are quite satisfied with the syllabi designed by ICT (Institute of Curricula
and Training) and MES (Ministry of Education and Science).
100% of the high school teachers in the rural area and 85.7% of
those in the urban area share the idea that the syllabus is well-adapted to the
learners’ level; only a small percentage of 14.2%, believe that the syllabi
are insufficiently adapted to the learners’ level (Graph 1).
Graph 1
29
Sauvignon 2003, p. 64.
85
Graph 2b below shows that the highest percentage of teachers in the
rural area believe that cultural content covers 80% of the syllabi, compared
to the 71.5% and 28.5% of high school teachers in the urban area, who
think that culture covers between 40% and 60% of the syllabi. 42.8% of the
urban area teachers and 66.6% of the rural area teachers are of the opinion
that the learners’ age is taken into consideration in a proportion of 80% in
designing the syllabi.
Less than the half of the urban area teachers think that the CEFR
objectives cover 80% of the syllabus, compared to 33.3% of the rural area
high school teachers. Only 28.5% of urban area teachers believe that this
syllabus is 100% in conformity with the CEFR. A high percentage of
teachers in the rural area believe that it meets 60% of the CEFR standards.
The syllabus is covered to a degree of 100% by 66.6% of the rural area
teachers and by 28.5% by urban area teachers (Graph 2).
Graph 2
The highest percentages of the teachers interviewed believe that the
learners’ age is taken into the consideration when the syllabi are compiled.
86
The highest percentage of the teachers and 85.7% of the urban area
teachers are of the opinion that the objectives are displayed in the textbooks.
There is also a high percentage of urban and rural area teachers who
admit that the objectives of the CEFR are displayed in the syllabus.
According to 100% of rural area teachers and 71.5 % of urban area
teachers, the objectives cannot be reached in the case of large classes. It
seems difficult for them to fully achieve the lesson objectives. All the rural
area high school teachers assess their students on the basis of the CEFR
criteria for assessment and follow the types of assessment set by CEFR30
whereas this is true about more than a half of urban area high school teachers.
All the teachers present the lesson objectives to the learners (Graph 3).
Graph 3
Graph 4 shows that the highest percentage of teachers in both urban
and rural areas specify the learning objectives of every class; 42.8% of
30
CEFR, 2001, p. 182.
87
urban area high school teachers set them at the beginning of each module,
compared to 33.3% of rural areas teachers. A very small number of urban
area teachers take into consideration the learners’ opinions about the lesson.
Generally the syllabus is strictly followed most of the teachers.
Graph 4b
b. Comparing the results of teachers in public and non-public
Secondary Schools in urban areas: 23 teachers from public high
schools and 15 teachers from non-public Albanian schools (38 total)
This concerns the degree of teacher satisfaction with the syllabus and
the perceptions regarding the correlation of the syllabus with the learners’
level. It is very interesting to see from the data presented in graph 5 that the
teachers in public high schools are quite satisfied with the syllabus, in a
slightly higher percentage than the teachers in non public high schools.
85.7% of high school teachers believe that the syllabus is well-suited to the
learners’ level, while 14.2% think otherwise. By contrast, only 33.3 % of
non-public high school teachers are of the opinion that the syllabus is highly
suited to the learners’ level in the classes where they teach (Graph 5).
88
Graph 5
Graph 6 shows that 71.5% of public high school teachers consider
that the cultural content covers 40% of the syllabus, whereas 66.6% of nonpublic high school teachers think it covers 80% of the syllabus, even if they
work with the same textbook. 80% of public high school teachers believe
that the learners’ age is taken into consideration.
As for the CEFR objectives, 28.5% of public high school teachers
think they are reflected in the textbooks in a proportion of 40%, while
42.8% of them consider this to be of 80%. A high percentage of non-public
high school teachers express this view.
A relatively high percentage of these teachers support the view that
the syllabi of ICT are in agreement with CEFR in a proportion of 80%,
while 28.5% of non-public high school teachers believe this conformity to
be 100%. Regarding the syllabus implementation by the teachers, the
highest percentage, of 80%, is achieved in public high schools, compared to
the 42. 8% realised by non public high school teachers (Graph 6).
89
Graph 6
As it is shown above, a considerable percentage of high school
teachers in both groups believe that the learners’ age is taken into
consideration in designing the syllabi. A high percentage of teachers in
both high schools are of the opinion that the CEFR objectives are
reflected in the textbooks.
66.6% of non-public high school teachers of large classes consider
that the objectives are achieved, in comparison with only 28.5% of public
high school teachers. Most of the teachers in public high schools find it
difficult to achieve their objectives in the context of large classes. The
teachers present the learning objectives to the learners and they generally
set them at the beginning of each class period.
In terms of evaluation, 100% of non-public high school teachers
practice assessment methods based on the CEFR, compared with 42.8% of
teachers in public high schools (Graph 7).
90
Graph 7
100% of non-public high school teachers set objectives at the
beginning of every class and of each chapter, compared with a high
percentage of public high school teachers, who set them for every
teaching class.
In both public and private high schools, the largest percentage of
teachers would prefer to follow the program but not to strictly adhere to
it (Graph 8).
Graph 8b
91
8. Conclusions
Bell (1983) claims that teachers are, in the main, consumers of other
people's syllabuses. In other words, their role is to implement the plans of
applied linguists, government agencies, and so on. However, some teachers
feel relatively free to design the syllabi on which their teaching programmes
are based.31
Most Albanian teachers, in urban and rural, or public and non-public
high schools follow to a certain extent the syllabi designed by ICT and the
Ministry of Education and Sciences, though not always very strictly.
This study has assessed the ability of Albanian teachers to make
judgements which can affect decision-making concerning syllabus design.
The main results of the statistics above are summarized below and
reflect the present situation and opinions of high school teachers on the
syllabi used in the Albanian context.
As regards teachers in urban and rural Secondary Education, the
syllabus conformity with the learners’ level is higher according to rural area
teachers. A high percentage of these teachers believe that the age level is
well-considered. The CEFR objectives in the syllabus are represented in
proportion of 80% in the opinion of a greater percentage of urban area
teachers. The syllabus is conformity with the CEFR for 100% of the urban
area teachers and for 80% of the rural area teachers. The syllabus is 80%
covered by a great percentage of urban area teachers and 100% by the
greatest percentage of rural area teachers. Age suitability is figures in the
same percentage in the views of both groups of teachers. Both groups share
the idea that the syllabus objectives are presented in the textbooks they
work with. Teachers in the rural area find it difficult to meet the objectives
with large classes, compared with a considerable percentage of urban area
31
Nunan, Widdowson, 1987, p. 10.
92
learners. Assessment is done in conformity with the CEFR, according to the
opinion of the greatest number of teachers belonging to both groups.
As for teachers in public and non-public Secondary Schools, they
are not very satisfied with the syllabus. Culture is seen to be widely
represented in the English syllabus for the greatest percentage of non-public
high school teachers. The learners’ age is duly taken into consideration in
syllabus design for a high number of non-public high school teachers. The
CEFR objectives are represented in the syllabus in the view of both groups
of teachers, albeit in a greater percentage for non-public high school
teachers. The syllabus conformity to the CEFR and its implementation is
considered to be of 80% by non-public high school teachers. In the opinion
of the greatest percentage of public high school teachers, the objectives are
represented in textbooks. The objectives are found difficult to achieve with
large classes by public high school teachers, whereas non-public high
school teachers consider them achievable. Non-public high school teachers
follow the CEFR to a greater extent than public high school teachers in their
assessment activity. Finally, non-public high school teachers seem to regard
the syllabi more positively than public high school teachers.
Highlighting the role of Albanian teachers in improving the syllabus
quality and use in foreign language education at secondary level in the
Korca region, this study has managed to evaluate their views on the English
syllabus, thus constituting a guide for assessing the decision- making
capacities of its users.32
References:
***, Programet e kurrikulës bërthamë të gjimnazit (klasa 10-12), Tirane
prill 2010, Fusha: gjuhë e huaj lënda: gjuhë angleze – Instituti i
Zhvillimit te Arsimit (IZHA).
***, Teacher’s guide to the common European framework. Pearson Longman.
32
Nunan, Widdowson, 1987, p. 58.
93
***, The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
(CEFR), 2001.
***, Udhezues kurrikular, Instituti I Zhvillimit te Arsimit Klasa 10-12,
Tirane 2010.
Albanian Investment Development Agency, (AIDA), July 2010.
ASTOLFI, Jean Pierre, DEVELAY Michel, 1989, «La didactique des
sciences» Paris: PUF.
BREEN, M.P. “Process syllabuses for the language classroom”, 1984 a, in
C.J. Brumfit (Ed.). General English syllabus design. ELT documents
No.118. London: Pergamon Press & British Council.
CARLESS, David, 2001, A case study of curriculum implementation in
Hong Kong.
GRADDOL, David, 2006, English next, British Council.
HARMER Jeremy, 2007, The Practice of English Language Teaching, 4th
edition. Pearson Education Limited.
HOLLIDAY, A, 2005, The Struggle to Teach English as an International
Language. Oxford University Press.
http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk
JENKINS Jennifer, 2006. “Current perspectives on teaching world Englishes
and English as a lingua franca”, in TESOL quarterly 40 (1) 157- 181).
MARKEE, N., 1997, Managing curricular innovation. Cambridge
University Press.
NUNAN D., CALLAN C.N. and WIDDOWSON, H. G., 1987, Syllabus
Design, Oxford University Press.
PAILLÉ Pierre, 2004b. «Pertinence de la recherche qualitative », in Alex
Mucchielli (Dir.), Dictionnaire des méthodes qualitatives en sciences
humaines, Armand Colin, Paris.
RICHARDS, Jack C. and NUNAN, D., 2002, Second Language Teacher
Education. Cambridge University Press.
SAUVIGNON, S., 2003, Teaching English as communication: A Global
Perspective on World Englishes.
WIDDOWSON H.G., 1990, Aspects of Language Teaching. Oxford
University Press.
WIDDOWSON, H.G., 1984, Explorations in Applied Linguistics 2. Oxford
University Press.
94
CONFLUENCES
LA RELATION ENTRE LES ADVERBES ET LES
VOCABULAIRES FONDAMENTAL ET
REPRÉSENTATIF DE LA LANGUE ROUMAINE
Adrian CHIRCU
Universitatea „Babeş-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca
adichircu@hotmail.com
Abstract:
The Relationship between Adverbs and the Representative and fundamental
Romanian Language Vocabulary
In his study, the author intends to present the position occupied by adverbs, within
the Romanian fundamental and representative vocabulary framework, as parts of speech
that offer, at the utterance level, important information that makes reference, among others,
to time, place and space.
As often observed, adverbs not only facilitate communication, but also carry a
deictic function. To a great extent, this approach is synchronic and uses data offered by two
research papers that present a statistical analysis (Al. Graur, 1954 and M. Sala, 1988) of the
current Romanian language vocabulary, based on well-determined criteria.
Key words:
Adverb, vocabulary, current Romanian language, frequency, use, synchrony, utterance.
„[Le vocabulaire représentatif] contient les mots les plus importants
de chaque langue romane.” (Sala, 1988, p. 11).
0. Dans cet article, nous nous proposons de poursuivre les
discussions autour de la classe adverbiale roumaine, qui s’avère être très
hétérogène et très complexe, à la fois. Ainsi, nous reprenons et nous
développons certaines idées disséminées tout au long de notre ample
95
monographie consacrée à l’adverbe roman1, publiée depuis peu, dans
laquelle nous avons illustré les particularités de l’adverbe roman, y compris
de l’adverbe roumain qui offre, assez souvent, d’insoupçonnables voies
d’interprétation. Cela nous permettra certainement de revoir l’inventaire
adverbial et de (re)formuler certaines conclusions.
0.1. Cette fois-ci, nous nous attardons sur les adverbes répertoriés
dans deux des ouvrages traitant sur plusieurs perspectives le vocabulaire de
la langue roumaine si varié et très hétéroclite, surtout des points de vue
étymologique et structurel. Il s’agit de celui d’Al. Graur, Încercare asupra
fondului principal lexical al limbii române 2 et de celui qui a été coordonné
par Marius Sala, Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice3 qui
constituent, jusqu’à nos jours, malgré la dynamique lexicale des dernières
années, des points de repère pour toute analyse qualitative et/ou quantitative
du vocabulaire roumain, lui aussi très composite.
0.2. Il faut mentionner que la dernière investigation a concerné
seulement les vocabulaires des langues romanes « în plan strict sincronic, şi
anume în faza lor actuală »4 et ne rend pas compte du critère basé sur
l’ancienneté du mot dans la langue, car il existe un grand nombre de mots
anciens qui n’ont plus de relevance de nos jours, à cause des réalités
sociales survenues au cours des siècles.5
1. Les inventaires des mots usuels vs. représentatifs réalisés par les
deux linguistes mentionnés supra nous aident à relever le rôle et la place de
l’adverbe dans la langue de tous les jours. Pour leur élaboration, ces
linguistes ont fait appel à des critères bien délimités: l’ancienneté des mots,
1
A. Chircu, 2008.
Al. Graur, 1954.
3
M. Sala, 1988.
4
Idem, ibidem, p. 12.
5
À ce sujet, voir Al. Graur, 1965, pp. 31-48.
2
96
l’usage, la fréquence, la richesse sémantique, le pouvoir dérivatif ou la
capacité des formes de riches familles phraséologiques6, la richesse
sémantique, le pouvoir de dérivation ainsi que l’usage 7, afin de mieux
circonscrire les faits de langue concernés.
1.1. Malgré leur apparent manque d’actualité, les deux listes
réalisées il y a quelques décennies déjà sont illustratives en ce qui concerne
l’adverbe car la classe adverbiale n’est pas ouverte à des changements
importants, ce qui lui assure une certaine stabilité. À l’aide de leurs
investigations, les auteurs des ouvrages mentionnés ont tenté de rendre
compte de l’usage des mots roumains à travers le temps et de leur emploi
dans la langue parlée, ce qui est utile à l’élaboration d’autres types
d’analyse.
2. En ce qui concerne l’ouvrage d’Al. Graur, celui-ci nous fournit
des renseignements précieux sur le nombre d’adverbes qui fait partie du
vocabulaire fondamental du roumain. En appliquant les critères rappelés
supra, le linguiste roumain identifie 50 unités, pour la plupart d’origine
latine. Certaines d’entre elles ont reçu une valeur adverbiale lors du passage
du latin vers les langues romanes ou en roumain.
2.1. La plupart – 36 – est probablement déjà formée en latin, vu le
fait qu’ils sont enregistrés dans d’autre langues néolatines: abia ‘à peine’,
acolo ‘là-bas’, acum ‘maintenant’, adins ‘exprès’, afară ‘dehors’, aici ‘ici’,
aiurea ‘ailleurs’, apoi ‘ensuite’, aproape ‘près, presque’, aşa ‘ainsi’, atunci
‘alors’, azi ‘aujourd’hui’, ca ‘que, comme’, bine ‘bien’, chiar ‘aussi’, cum
‘comment’, doar ‘seulement’, fie- ‘soit’, foarte ‘très’, ieri ‘hier’, înainte
6
7
Al. Graur, 1954, pp. 21-25.
M. Sala et, 1988, p.19.
97
‘avant’, înăuntru ‘dedans’, încă ‘encore’, încoace ‘de ce côté-ci’, încotro
‘où, par où’, îndărăt ‘en arrière’, jos ‘en bas’, mai ‘plus’, mâine ‘demain’,
nicăieri ‘nulle part’, nu ‘non’, oare ‘est-ce que’, odinioară ‘jadis,
autrefois’, sus ‘en haut’, unde ‘où’, vre ‘certain’); d’autres sont créés en
roumain (cam ‘presque’, împreună ‘ensemble’, îndată ‘tout de suite’,
parcă ‘on dirait que’, totuşi ‘cependant’).
2.1.1. À ces adverbes, s’ajoutent d’autres dont l’origine est très
diverse (5- origine slave: ba ‘non’, da ‘oui’, măcar ‘au moins’, prea ‘trop’,
zadar ‘(en) vain’; 1- origine hongroise: mereu ‘tout le temps, doucement’;
2 - origine inconnue: adică ‘c’est-à-dire’, iar ‘à nouveau/ de nouveau’).
3.
Les
auteurs
de
l’ouvrage
représentatifs des langues romanes
8
décrivant
les
vocabulaires
se sont servis spécialement de
9
Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române , auquel ils ont appliqué les critères
antérieurement mentionnés, mais que nous détaillons infra:
- pour le critère de la richesse sémantique, ont été retenus les mots
qui connaissent au moins cinq sens propres ou figurés (S), en respectant les
informations fournies par ce dictionnaire;
- pour le critère du pouvoir de dérivation, ont été retenus les mots
qui possèdent au moins trois formes dérivées, obtenues par suffixation ou
par dérivation régressive (D);
- quant au critère de l’usage, celui-ci tient compte de l’indice
d’usage établi (13,56) en fonction de Frequency Dictionary of Rumanian
Words10 (U).
8
M. Sala, 1988.
Siglé DEX, 1975. Afin d’observer l’augmentation du nombre d’adverbes, nous avons
aussi consulté la deuxième édition, qui date de 2009.
10
Alphonse Juilland et alii, 1965.
9
98
3.1. Ces critères de sélection envisagés pour le choix des mots qui
font partie de ce vocabulaire ont été différemment utilisés en fonction du
degré de la standardisation (langues normalisés ou non normalisées):
« română, italiană, franceză, spaniolă (uzaj, bogăţie semantică şi putere de
derivare)[…], adaptate la limbile catalană, portugheză (frecvenţă, bogăţie
semantică şi putere de derivare). Pentru celelalte trei limbi (sardă,
retoromană, occitană) […], am putut aplica numai două criterii (bogăţia
semantică şi puterea de derivare). »11
3.1.1. L’inventaire réalisé a permis de constater que les adverbes
qui font partie du vocabulaire représentatif de la langue roumaine (qui
compte 2581 mots) sont au nombre de 149. Néanmoins, quelques-uns
d’entre eux (69) peuvent avoir d’autres valeurs morphologiques
(préposition, conjonction, adjectif, nom, interjection, etc.), ce qui peut
augmenter ou diminuer leur nombre, en fonction de la démarche d’analyse
envisagée.
3.1.2. Une fois la liste établie, celle-ci nous a amené à constater
que, du point de vue USD, les adverbes qui font partie de ce groupe sont au
nombre de 12 (bun ‘bon’, curat ‘vraiment, effectivement, justement’, drept
‘droitement, directement, sincèrement’, greu ‘difficilement’, gros ‘gros, en
grande quantité’, lung ‘longuement’, puţin ‘peu’, repede ‘rapidement, vite’,
scurt ‘bref, brièvement’, tare ‘fort, fortement’, urât ‘mauvais’, uşor
‘facilement, légèrement’).12 Aucun d’entre eux n’a une valeur absolument
11
M. Sala, 1988, p. 13.
En ce qui concerne les adjectifs-adverbes, M. Sala, 1999, p. 146, observe « [qu’]en
roumain, par exemple, l’adverbe revêt, le plus souvent, la forme de l’adjectif au masculin
singulier-neutre». Voir, à ce propos, la remarque que fait Al. Graur, 1963, p. 112: «on a
toujours employé un autre moyen, notamment la forme neutre de l’adjectif singulier peut
acquérir valeur d’adverbe (bun ‘bon’, frumos ‘beau’, limpede ‘clair’) ».
12
99
adverbiale. Ils appartiennent aussi à d’autres classes morphologiques et
représentent ainsi 5,79% de la totalité des mots inclus dans le vocabulaire
représentatif et qui remplissent le critère USD (207 mots).
3.1.3. Quant au point de vue US, les adverbes sont au nombre de
513 (aşa ‘ainsi’, gata ‘assez, ça suffit’, mai ‘encore, plus’, nu ‘non’, sus ‘en
haut’), auxquels s’ajoutent ceux qui n’ont pas seulement une valeur
adverbiale 5 + [23] = 28: adânc ‘profondément’, aşa ‘ainsi, comme ça’, atât
‘tant, si autant, tellement’, bine ‘bien’, când ‘quand, car’, cât ‘combien’,
cum ‘comme, comment’, des ‘souvent’, direct ‘directement’, frumos
‘joliment, convenablement, comme il faut’, iute ‘rapidement’, încet
‘doucement’, jos ‘en bas’, limpede ‘clairement’, natural ‘naturellement’,
nou ‘nouveau’, precum ‘comme’, rău ‘mal’, serios ‘sérieusement’, strâns
‘solidement, serré’, şi ‘aussi, même, déjà’, târziu ‘tard’, tot ‘tout’, unde ‘où,
comme’. Ceux-ci représentent 5,98% des mots faisant partie du vocabulaire
représentatif qui tient compte du critère US (468).
3.1.4. Pour ce qui est du critère UD, la situation se présente de la
manière suivante: les adverbes qui correspondent à ces critères sont presque
absents 1 (înainte ‘avant, devant’) + [3] (nimic ‘rien’, noapte ‘nuit’, seară
‘soir’) = 4. Ils représentent 2,46% des mots faisant partie du vocabulaire
représentatif qui tiennent compte du critère UD (162).
3.1.5. Concernant l’application de SD, la situation ressemble
beaucoup à celle qui a été antérieurement exposée: [1] adverbe (sigur
‘certainement, assurément’), un pourcentage de 0,89% des mots faisant partie
du vocabulaire représentatif qui tient compte du critère SD (112 mots).
13
Dans l’ouvrage, 4 éléments figurent pour ce type d’adverbes, p. 63.
100
3.1.6. Du point de vue U, les adverbes inclus dans ce groupe (qui
compte 1070 mots) sont assez nombreux 74 + [26] = 100 (abia ‘à peine’,
absolut ‘absolument’, acolo ‘là-bas’, acum ‘maintenant’, adesea ‘souvent’,
adeseori ‘souvent’, adică ‘c’est-à-dire’, afară ‘dehors’, aici ‘ici’, alături ‘à
côté’, altădată ‘la fois prochaine’, altfel ‘autrement, sinon’, aminte ‘dans
l’esprit’, anume ‘exprès’, apoi ‘ensuite, puis’, aproape ‘presque’, aseară
‘hier-soir’, asemenea ‘pareillement, également’, astăzi ‘aujourd’hui’, astfel
‘ainsi’, atunci ‘alors’, azi ‘aujourd’hui’, ba ‘non’, ca ‘comme’, etc.). Ils
représentent 9,34% des mots inclus dans cette catégorie.
3.1.7. La richesse sémantique (S) a permis de remarquer que la
classe adverbiale compte [3] adverbes (nesigur ‘sans aucune certitude’,
relativ ‘relativement’, strâmb ‘malhonnêtement, incliné’). Ils représentent
1,19% des mots intégrés dans ce groupe (252).
3.1.8. Quant à la dérivation (D), celle-ci renferme 1 adverbe + [0]
= 1 (călare ‘en chevauchant, à califourchon’) qui représente 0,32% des
mots intégrés dans ce groupe (310).
3.1.9. Étymologiquement, l’adverbe roumain doit beaucoup au
latin, qu’il s’agit des mots hérités ou empruntés au latin savant et aux
langues romanes (le français et l’italien).
3.1.9.1. Mis à part quelques adverbes d’origine non-latine (6 slaves: ba ‘non’, da ‘oui’, iute ‘rapidement’, gata ‘assez, terminé’, prea
‘trop’, tocmai; 2- néo-grecs: măcar ‘au moins’, sigur ‘sûr, certainement’ et
5 – origine inconnue: adică ‘c’est-à-dire’, iar ‘à nouveau/de nouveau’,
înăuntru ‘dedans’, puţin ‘peu’, mereu ‘tout le temps, incessamment’; 2 –
latins, mais empruntés à l’allemand relativ ‘relativement’, natural
101
‘naturellement’), tous les autres ont une origine latine ou sont formés, dans
la plupart des cas, d’éléments d’origine latine.
3.1.10. Parfois, il est difficile de trouver une étymologie exacte.
C’est pour cela que les dictionnaires nous fournissent deux ou même trois
langues pour expliquer la provenance du mot: probabil < fr. probable, lat.
sav. probabilis; contra < fr. contre, lat. sav., it. contra; relativ < fr. relatif,
lat. sav. relativus, it. relativo (voir supra all. relativ), aspect relevé par les
multiples étymons avancés dans les articles des dictionnaires.
Il s’agit parfois de ce que les linguistes appellent « emprunt par
14
filière » , c’est-à-dire un mot qui est entré dans une langue donnée par
l’intermédiaire d’une autre langue, et non par emprunt direct. En même
temps, cette situation atteste la provenance multiple des adverbes, due
généralement aux diverses influences des langues modernes occidentales
(français, italien allemand) que le roumain a subies, auxquelles s’ajoute le
latin savant.
4. Cette analyse ponctuelle a permis de relever la place des
adverbes dans le cadre de deux types de vocabulaires envisagés. Nous
avons constaté que les différences d’inventaire sont significatives, ce qui
s’explique par les critères choisis. L’identité des unités adverbiales héritées,
développées ou empruntées, présentes dans les deux listes dressées,
témoigne de la spécificité de la classe adverbiale roumaine qui, par rapport
aux autres langues romanes, est plus ouverte aux emprunts, situation qui
s’explique par les influences supportées par le roumain. 15
14
15
Pour le roumain, se reporter utilement à I. Pătruţ, 1974, pp. 246 – 259.
Voir à ce propos, A. Rosetti, 2002, p. 184.
102
4.1. À travers cette recherche ponctuelle, nous avons pu remarquer
l’importance des adverbes dans la langue ainsi que la place des adverbes
latins hérités au sein de la langue roumaine, conservatrice et diversifiée à la
fois. Notre brève étude confirme, sans doute, l’observation d’ordre général
qu’a faite Marius Sala, il y a quelques années, selon lequel « le
système adverbial dans les langues romanes diffère considérablement de
celui du latin. Manifestement, les langues romanes se sont forgé un
nouveau système, ce qui n’empêche pas chaque langue d’avoir ses
particularités. »16
Bibliographie:
***,1975, Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române, Bucureşti, Academia
Română (DEX) [ediţia a II-a, 2009].
CHIRCU, Adrian, 2008, L’adverbe dans les langues romanes. Études
étymologique, lexicale et morphologique (français, roumain, italien,
espagnol, portugais, catalan, provençal), Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii
de Ştiinţă.
GRAUR, A., 1963, La langue roumaine. Esquisse historique, Bucarest:
Éditions Meridiane.
GRAUR, Al., 1954, Încercare asupra fondului principal lexical al limbii
române, Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Române.
GRAUR, Alexandru, 1965, La romanité du roumain, Bucarest: Éditions de
l’Académie Roumaine.
JUILLAND, Alphonse et alii, 1965, Frequency Dictionary of Rumanian
Words, London – Hague – Paris: Editions Mouton.
16
M. Sala, 1999, p.146.
103
PĂTRUŢ, I., 1974, „Împrumuturi prin filieră”, in: Studii de limba română,
Cluj-Napoca: Editura Dacia, p. 246-259.
ROSETTI, A., 2002, Histoire de la langue roumaine, des origines au XVIIe
siècle. Édition de Dana-Mihaela Zamfir, Cluj-Napoca: Éditions Clusium.
SALA, Marius (coord.), 1988, Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor
romanice, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
SALA, Marius, 1999, Du latin au roumain. Traduction de Claude Dignoire,
Paris-Bucarest: L’Harmattan & Univers Enciclopedic.
104
THE ETYMOLOGIC STRUCTURE OF
ROMANIAN MYTHONYMS (I)
Petre Gheorghe BÂRLEA
gbarlea@yahoo.fr
Ana Maria PANŢU
apantu@hotmail.com
Abstract:
A monographic study of Romanian mythonyms cannot ignore the problem of the
etymological strata from which the corpus of these terms originates. Such an analysis is
necessary primarily in order to establish, from this point of view as well, the place of this
special area of Romanian onomastics within the Romanian lexical system. From such a
perspective we can estimate the extent to which mythonyms confirm the general
etymologic structure of Romanian vocabulary and to what extent the terms designating
mythical characters in our fairytales are specifically Romanian.
Keywords:
Mythonyms, etymological analysis, etymological strata, substratum elements, the
Latin stock.
1. Between description and etymological analysis
The internal structure of the lexical area of mythonyms can change,
to a certain extent, the distribution of the thematic groups and subgroups
from the onomasiological make-up of the inventory of mythonymic terms.
This is possible because in the semantic core of some apparently “neutral”
proper names, seemingly non-analysable at the level of their significance,
one can discover common names originally designating, plants, animals,
social relations, etc., namely entities which have not been integrated in the
respective subgroups, but solely in the subgroup of anthroponyms, pure and
simple. The revelation is so much more interesting as the corrupted forms
of names circulating in the literary folklore of other nations, before they
became fixed in Romanian written versions, hinder the immediate
105
deciphering of their profound significations. For example, Alimon Voinicul
(Alimon the Sturdy) is a personage we can ascribe to the category of semiheroes, meaning the group of “human beings endowed with exceptional
qualities”, though only on the basis of the appositional epithet and,
alternatively, of the information contained in the respective text. By means
of etymological analysis, we first notice that a phonetic change occurred at
the end of the word Alimon (probably by analogy with Gedeon, Ion,
Machidon a. s. o.), since the initial form was Aliman. This means, in several
languages where the word occurs as a surname anthroponym 1, “the
German”, belonging to the affluent series of surnames of this type (cf. Rom.
Rusu – the Russsian, Neamţu – the German, Tătaru – the Tartar, Turcu –
the Turk, Sârbu – the Serb a. s. o.). From the etymological studies of
Bogdan Petricescu-Hasdeu we learn that in Turkish the term was also used
in a special sense, of “horse thief” or “outlaw”. 2 In the same way, Cotoşman
means “big tomcat”, “castrated tomcat”, a symbol of evil, of mischief
(sometimes also in the role of a helpful companion), as the Slavic kot means
“cat”. In this way, the list of characters from the sphere of wondrous
animals must be completed, as in the case of Gasperiţa, a species of
arachnid (though also with the meaning of “gypsy-woman”), with Hărău,
which means a species of predatory bird (“sparrow hawk, hen hawk”) a. s.
o. However, our research does not probe into the deep layers of a proper
etymological analysis, as a single sub-series of mythonymic terms would
take hundreds of pages, without necessarily leading to the elucidation of the
origins and significations of some terms. In fact, some of the words in our
inventory have been quite amply written about in the course of time, though
the conclusions advanced by reputable linguists have not been unanimously
1
Cf. Gr. Alamanas, It. Alamano, Bg. Alamanoi a. s. o., I. Iordan, 1983, s.v.
B. P. Hasdeu, EMR, s.v. Aliman. This is also a relatively frequent procedure attested in
studies of historical semantics. Even in Romanian mythology or only in the more recent
epic folklore, “negative” characters are called Jidovi, Lifte (“Poles”), Muscali (“Moscow
people”). The character Tartacot, of the series of deformities seems to be realted to
Tartacan ‘Tartar”.
2
106
accepted.3 What we propose to do is a description of the etymologic sources
of Romanian mythonyms, with a view to achieving a clarification according
to the criterion of the diachronic linguistic strata which contributed to the
configuration of the lexical system of the Romanian language, with a
special focus on this onomastic nominal segment. To this effect, we
consider as valid solutions, at least from a strictly methodological point of
view, the information provided by etymological or mixed dictionaries.4 It is
only in certain, more debatable situations that we have proceeded to
confront the sources and to broaden the area of documentation, resorting,
for etymological aspects, to specialist monographic studies. 5
Therefore our approach is aimed at creating a panoramic view of
the diatopic, diastratic and diachronic configuration of the inventory of
Romanian mythonyms, according to the following descriptive scheme:
1. The selection of terms from each etymological stratum in the
whole list compiled for our working corpus, without going into details
regarding the options of the authors of lexicographic instruments
concerning the ascertaining of word origins. This only happens for the cases
in which the same term is recorded with different etymologies in different
lexicographic sources or when the term under discussion does not seem to
fit, semantically and formally, the classification proposed by authors.
2. The analysis of the semantic content of the terms fit for
completing the onomasiological groups established in the previous chapter
and the dissembling of the phono-morphological mechanisms which
3
It is the case of the term Babe, cf. EMR, s.v., or the case of the word copil, for which see
the book by Ion Coteanu and Marius Sala, 1987, Etimologia şi limba română. ProblemePrincipii, Bucureşti: Editura Academiei.
4
We have used the etymological indications offered by DLR, MDE, EMR and DEX.
5
Cf. Iorgu Iordan, op. cit.; George Giuglea, 1983, Cuvinte româneşti şi romanice...,
Edition by Florenţa Sădeanu, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică; Ion Pătruţ,
1984, Nume de persoane şi nume de locuri româneşti, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi
Enciclopedică ş.a.
107
directed the evolution of the word towards its secondary, figurative
meaning placing it in a clear-cut series of mythonyms.
3. Finally, we shall make the customary statistic calculations, so as
to make it possible to obtain, as well, a quantitative confirmation of the
qualitative importance which a subgroup of terms has in the general
structure of Romanian mythonyms.
Before applying this analytical scheme, two more specifications
should be made.
As any etymological analysis, deciphering the meanings and
dissembling the phonetic, lexical and morphological structure of
mythonyms presupposes not only the chronological incursions into the
ancient stages of their evolution, but also their correct placing into the
ethno-cultural space. In other words, the principles and methods of
linguistic geography and of dialectology prove to be extremely useful, as in
any study referring to language history. For example, to decipher such a
name as Istian Viteazul (Istian the Brave) we need not probe into very deep
strata, such as Sanskrit or Greek and Roman sources, although the term is
also related to some of these. It suffices for us to know that the respective
name circulates in Transylvania as a Hungarian variant of the anthroponym
Ştefan, turned into Istian, in standard literary language, and into Istian,
Istina, in dialectal forms (after the model Ştefania/Ştefana). Otherwise, thus
we can also explain its original Greek source (Stephanos “the crowned one,
the king”) as well as the one dialectally attested. 6 The same thing happens
with dialectal terms from Walachia, Banat, Moldavia, phonetically and
morphologically adapted to the specificity of the Romanian language, but
also filtered through the influence of the neighbouring languages, by direct
contact, from the ancient to the recent strata of Romanian lexis, with
Bulgarian, Turkish, Serbian, Croatian, Ukrainian a. s. o. We would not
6
To explain a certain etymon by arguments of a dialectal order, I have used, among others,
Matilda Caragiu-Marioţeanu, 1975, Compendiu de dialectologie română (nord- şi suddunăreană), Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
108
know, for example, that the ornithological series needs to be completed
with names such as Boghez/Boghelţ or with Socol, if we did not learn that
in Slavic languages there are forms such as Boheš/Bogusz, i.e. “owl”, and
sokol, “hen hawk, sparrow hawk”, etc.
Finally, we should specify that that the etymological analysis must
be confined to the general linguistic frameworks, insofar as the relations
with the mythological plane are indirectly derived from these, through the
evolvement of the meaning of the common names underlying proper names,
and, as in any study of ethno-linguistics, through deciphering their
significations and mythological symbolism. If we referred only to the last
two examples given above, it is clear that we must establish the following
relations:
Boghelţ – owl – the symbol of wisdom, etc.
Sokol – hawk – the symbol of courage, the aspiration for heights, etc.
A tighter or, so to say, a more mechanical relation, is not possible.
In the initial stage of our research, we attempted to establish a parallel
between the etymologic strata of Romanian vocabulary and the
mythological strata proper, despite our awareness that, in the lack of old
documentary sources which might attest the first stages in the evolution of
the respective areas for both domains, the terms under discussion can only
be “fixed” through reconstitution. Or, precisely because the origin of
mythological linguistics was comparative-historical grammar, by means of
which old, common forms of different languages are reconstituted on the
basis of the new material existing in modern languages, and precisely
because its principles and methods have been transferred to comparative
mythology, we considered that the approach can be applied to the material
available in Romanian mythology. This approach has proved inefficient, or,
in any case, deficient in terms of the concrete evidence which would have
needed to be analysed. On the one hand, the oldest Romanian myths have
been conserved only through ritual reminiscences, through superstitions,
beliefs and narrative nuclei tardily attested: some of them at the beginning
109
of the 17th century, in the writings of D. Cantemir, very few later than that
and most of them in the collections realised in the second half of the 19 th
century, albeit on the basis of somewhat earlier documentary fragments. On
the other hand, the linguistic covering in which the ancient mythological
nuclei was passed on to us was adapted to the forms of the epoch in which
they were collected and archived in written/recorded versions, in
conformity with the laws of diachronic linguistics. Thus, for ancient deities
from the solar series, Gebeleizis, Zalmoxis or the goddess Bendis, only the
names were conserved in ancient historical documents, while the narrative
structure of the Romanian fairytales which took over the characters adapted
them to modern times, as Soare (Sun), Lună (Moon), Sfântul Soare (Holy
Sun), Sfânta Lună (Holy Moon). The totemism in the lycanthropic series is
rendered by Lupul (The Wolf) – symbol of courage; the symbolism of the
circular sanctuary of Sarmizegetusa has been preserved in its old state
solely as archaeological evidence, while the mythical characters become De
cu Seară (Nightfall Man), Zorilă (Dawn-Man), etc., and the lesser deities,
such as the naiads or the later civilizing heroes are Zânele (Fairies), FeţiFrumoşii (Princes Charming), etc.
In the oldest Romanian fairytale preserved, Povestea lumii de
demult (The Tale of the World of Yore), the foundational characters of
Romanian cosmogony are Muntele (the Mountain), Vânturile (the Winds)
Vârful cel mai de Sus (the Highest Peak) and others. But these are terms of
Latin origin, even more, in their evolved, Romanian-adapted variant, which
means that we cannot establish a direct relation between the ancientness of
the Geto-Dacian cosmogonic myth, i.e. pre-Latin, and the Romanian
mythonyms of Latin origin. The chronological difference between them is
of at least a millennium, but the disparate attestations even indicate a
chronological distance of one thousand five hundred – two thousand years.
As for the methodological aspects, with special regard to this
perspective on the analysis of mythonyms, I have used, for general
110
problems of etymology, the studies of Th. Hristea, Ion Coteanu, Marius
Sala and others.7
One of the most difficult problems in the analysis of the
appurtenance of mythonyms to a certain mythological stratum has been
their multiple structure, which is the fact that, as I was showing in a
previous chapter, more than a half of the inventory of mythonyms is made
up of compound names, consisting of two, three or even more terms. Of
course, it is by no means obligatory for all the component elements to
belong to the same etymological stratum. On the contrary, it is almost
paradigmatic of the appositive additions or the supplementary
characterising epithets to derive from a lexical stratum situated in a later
stage of the name’s evolution, according to the principle of the permanent
sedimentations and transformations specific to the genesis of myths. More
often than not, as it has been illustrated, the epithet expresses the same thing
as the determiner, but the storytellers of later epochs lost the original
meaning of the key-word, which they therefore explain by a new term, in
current use at that time, even if, without knowing it, they actually say the
same thing. In the subgroups established in this chapter we have graphically
marked these situations, by bracketing the element belonging to an
etymological stratum other than the one in which I have classified the
key element.
2. Etymological strata of Romanian mythonyms
The valid operation remains the etymological reconstitution of the
lexical strata valid for shorter time spans – a few hundreds of years – and
for more restricted ethno-linguistic and mythic-folkloric areas, i.e. the
territory of ancient Dacia, by referring to the customary influences from the
neighbouring regions, respectively South-East Europe, the Balkans,
reaching as far as Western Europe and the Middle East, and by highlighting
7
Th. Hristea, 1972, Probleme de etimologie. Studii. Articole. Note, Bucureşti: Editura
Ştiinţifică. For the study by I. Coteanu and M. Sala, cf. supra, note 3.
111
some reminiscences and evolutions from the mythology of classical
Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The working procedure, for all these cases,
remains the one validated by comparative historical grammar and
comparative historical mythology. Etymological reconstitutions – for whole
strata and for individual terms, when the situation requires – are made by
proceeding from the current attestations to the ancient forms, by recourse to
an interdisciplinary analysis, meant to fill in the “blanks” in the structure of
some mythonyms.
2.1. Substratum elements
The difficulties attending the reconstitution of the stock of
substratum elements, because of their antiquity and of the total lack of
documents of the time, should also characterize the sphere of mythonyms in
Romanian vocabulary. It is most fortunate for us that the criteria for
delimitating the words in this stock8 are efficient enough for the terms we
are directly concerned with. Considering that the mythonyms represent, in
principle, personifications of plants, trees, animals, mountains, waters, etc.,
the old forms were better attested because toponyms, hydronyms and
phytonyms are among the most conservative elements in the lexical
structure of a language:
Argeşul, Brad (Fir), Bucur, Ciută (Hind, cf. Albanian shut),
Curpăn (Tendril, cf. Albanian Kurpen), Ciocârlie, Ciocârlan (Lark),
Dunăre (Voinicul) [Danube (the Sturdy)], Fărâmă (Piatră), [Break (Stone)]
Gheonoaie (cf. Albanian Gjon “owl”, “woodpecker”), Măzărel (Împărat)
[Little Pea (Emperor)], Moaşa (Eva), Gammer Moaşa (Iana), Moş (Adam),
Moş (Ene), Moş (Gligor), Moş (Lăcustă), Moşii, Moşul, Moşul Codrilor,
Mugurul (cf. Albanian mugull), Mureşul, Murg (cf. Albanian murg),
Murgilă, Muşa, Oltul, Someşul.
8
The most convincing criteria were established by Cicerone Poghirc, in the chapter
„Influenţa autohtonă” (The autochthonous influence) in Istoria limbii române (ILR), vol.
II, Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, 1969, pp. 313-365.
112
As it can be seen, the autochthonous inventory of mythonyms 9 is
relatively scarce, but is quite well defined thematically, insofar as it
illustrates some stable onomasiological areas: names of plants 10 and
animals, names of mountains and rivers, names of human relations, etc. The
term mal, “the Romanian substratum word with the most certain
attestation”,11 only occurs as a toponym proper or as a common name,
whereas others, widely studied by specialists, do occur. Noteworthy, in this
sense, is the mythonym Dunăre (Voinicul) [Danube (the Sturdy)], to which
Gh. Ivănescu devoted a very pertinent study several years ago. 12 Numerous
research studies have been devoted to moş (old father), with its cu
mythonymic concretisations, Moş (Adam), Moş (Lăcustă, i.e. Locust), Moş
(Gligore), Moşii, Moşul (Pădurii, i.e. of the Wood), etc., so much more as it
also has gender derivatives (moaşă, i.e. gammer), cf. Moaşa Eva (also Baba
Eva) or locative-abstract derivatives, moşie “country, land, region, farming
land, etc.”, cf. also the Albanian motschë and moschë “age”, but also “old
9
Among the numerous difficulties in reconstituting the substratum of the Romanian
language there are the very terminological inconsistencies of the specialists. Al. Rosetti, in
the 1969 edition, but also in the definitive one of 1978, of Istoria limbii române, uses the
term “autochthonous” as a subdivision of the substratum, but then refers to the whole
substratum, cf. „Acţiunea subtratului”, at page 204; „Elementul autohton”, at page 607,
but „Traca şi ilira”, at pages 219-230. In the lexicographic works in current use, such as
MDE, the qualifier “autochthonous” is attributed both to the words inherited from the
Thracian-Dacian substratum and to those formed subsequently from older roots, of diverse
origins, that is to the ones commonly designated as “words formed on Romanian territory”.
Also, C. Poghirc observes that the correct term for this phase in the history of our language
is that of “Geto-Dacian”, more restricted to the fairly certain proto-Romanian corpus.
10
The advantage consists especially in the fact that the famous glossaries recording Dacian
words (from the 3rd – 4th centuries A.D., unfortunately) are, in fact, some fragments of
writings about medicinal plants, etc. Hydronyms, oronyms and toponyms are recorded in
treatises of history and geography.
11
Cf. Cicerone Poghirc, 1969, p. 331.
12
Cf. Gh. Ivănescu, 1958, „Origine pré-indo-européenne des noms du Danube”, in:
Constributions onomastiques, Bucureşti: Editura Academiei, I, pp. 125-139. Other studies
have also treated the respective toponym from a mythological point of view; cf. Alina
Jercan-Preda, 2010, p. 68.
113
woman”. This last attestation explains why in Meglenoromanian there is
only the feminine form, moaşă.13
In the category of words that can be interpreted as contributions
revealed exclusively by etymological reconstruction there is ghiuj (decrepit
old man) which, in the above-mentioned specialist treatises, is considered to
belong most certainly to the Geto-Dacian stock. It is not to be found as such
in our inventory of mythonyms, but it was proposed as a solution for the
semantic interpretation of some anthroponyms of the type Vâj and Vâje.14
But these are found in our mythonym Vâjbaba (the Old Hag). It is the
correspondent from the Transylvanian variant (col. I. Pop-Reteganul, III, p.
59) of the fairytale Ileana Cosânzeana and it corresponds to Mama Ciuma
(Mother Plague) of the stock fairytale (col. M. Pompiliu) or to Baba Relea
(Evil Hag) of the Bukovina variant (col. G. Sbierea, p. 56). It is Baba din
fundul Iadului, the “Hag of Hell’s Bottom” (or Marginea Lumei, “the
World’s Edge”, in other variants), the mistress of the nine-hearted horse.
Lazăr Şăineanu, who records these hypostases, considers that in the
Transylvanian dialect Vâja means “witch, ghost-woman”,15 whereas Iorgu
Iordan puts forward other solutions. It may simply be a name of
onomatopoeic origin, from the interjection vâj!, from which vijelie might
have been derived, but it may also be a corrupted form of the adjectival
noun ghiuj, of Thracian-Dacian origin, meaning “decrepit old man”, with an
î, pseudo-etymologically equated with i. There are attested forms such as
Vâjoi1 for “ghiuj” (decrepit old man), but also Vâjoi2 as “swirling brook”.
On the other hand, there is also the Bulgarian Važo.16 The fact that VâjBaba (Old Hag) would express in a pleonastic manner the same concept by
two different words does not represent a counterargument for this
13
Cf. Al. Rosetti, 1969, p. 272. For the history of the word, cf. also S. Puşcariu, Limba
română, I, p. 172; Gr. Brâncuş, SCL, XVII, 1966, p. 213; M. Sala, SCL, VI, 1955, p. 140;
C. Poghirc, 1969, p. 345.
14
Cf. I. Iordan, 1983, s.v.
15
L. Şăineanu, op. cit., p. 640.
16
Apud I. Irodan, loc. cit.
114
etymological interpretation, since in mythonymy, just as in toponymy,
etc., aloglotic pleonasms represent a common phenomenon, as it was
shown above.
In whole, the mythonyms in the substratum of the Romanian
language constitute a quite well-established segment, by reference to the
integral inventory of Romanian mythonyms and, on the other hand a
segment which is convincing in terms of mythological symbolism, through
the personification of plants, trees, animals, birds, of some oronyms and
hydronyms and of some concepts regarding people’s age17, etc.
2.2. The Latin stock of Romanian mythonyms
From a quantitative point of view, the mythonymic segment of
Latin origin is the most consistent, directly proportional with the general
structure of Romanian lexis, from an ethnologic perspective. Qualitatively
as well, this is the most fertile, because it facilitates the most phrases,
periphrases, metaphorical formulations, based on a very wide range of
onomasiological references. From this last point of view, we cannot even
try to delimitate any thematic subareas, as we proceeded in the case of
mythonyms derived from substratum elements, because the names of Latin
origin cover practically all the big groups and all the subgroups and
subseries from the onomasiological classification of the respective terms,
without any existing tendency for the selection of a certain semantic type of
words. We could conceivably observe that chromatic terms and several
determinant semantic fields (celestial bodies, moments of the day, etc.)
derive almost exclusively from Latin. This lexical affluence has its
inconveniences, of a diachronic order. Not all the mythonymic terms of
Latin origin come from Vulgar Latin and, on the other hand, the latter is, in
17
In fact, not even in the case of mythonyms from the Geto-Dacian substratum, it is not
these that selected a certain domain, but, quite the opposite, the fact that from the
substratum words we only know those designating names of plants (thanks to the glosses
of late Greek Antiquity) animals, hydronyms, oronyms etc., makes us identify a few
mythonyms among them. Incidentally, the respective thematic areas are prone to
mythological personification, but this mechanism affects the lexis of any other language.
115
its turn, divided according to certain periods. 18 Some terms belong to
classical literary Latin, such as malus and pirus, which became Măr
(Apple-tree) and Păr (Pear-tree) or homo and bruma, which became Omul
(Pământului), “Man (of the Earth)” and Brumă (hoar-frost). Others belong
to late Vulgar Latin, such as alapa (for Latin ala, -ae), formosus, -a, -um
(for literary Latin bellus, -a, -um), which became Aripă Frumoasă
(Beautiful Wing). Some terms belong to even later periods, to the so-called
“Danube Latin”,19 such as frondia (< frons, -tis), for Frunză (de Măgheran),
“Leaf (of Marjoram)”. Finally, there are also two other important Latin
sources – that of elevated Latin, that is of the terms borrowed much later, in
scholarly ways, as well as the one of Romance languages, which serve as
“connection”, as an intermediary of the transition from Latin to Romanian.
Both are part of the phenomenon of “re-Latinising” of the Romanian
language.
Most terms were preserved as such throughout all of these stages.
This refers to common names (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) turned
into metaphoric proper names, symbolic of mythical characters. For
example, Apă Bună (Good Water), Aude Bine (Hear Well), Vede Bine, (See
Well), Luna (Moon), Soarele (Sun) Steaua (Star), etc. have been preserved
as such since the Dacian-Roman period (cca. 105-271 A.D.), throughout the
phase of Danube area Latin (the 4th – 5th centuries A.D.), the phase of
common Romanian vernacular (the 5th – 8th centuries, that is prior to the
separation of Aromanian from Daco-Romanian), the phase of medieval
Romanian (the 9th – 17th centuries), up to that of modern and contemporary
Romanian. Some terms still keep the characteristics of a certain phase,
18
In the staging of the history of the Romanian language, I used as a point of reference the
proposals of the collective of ILR, 1969, vol. I-II, cf. I, pp. 9-10, and II, pp. 15-18. Cf. also
Al. Rosetti, 1979, I, and Fl. Dimitrescu (coord.), 1978, Istoria limbii române, Bucureşti:
Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică.
19
Cf. I. Fischer, 1975, Latina dunăreană. Introducere în istoria limbii române, Bucureşti:
Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică. It treats of the Latin element of the 4th – 5th centuries
North and South of the Danube.
116
which are not always easy to identify. In our classification, we have ignored
these diachronic subdivisions, because we have not intended a study on the
history of language.
We have adopted, as stated above, the etymological solutions
offered by the lexicographic instruments in current use and have extended
our area of research only in the case of some words, considered
semantically unusual and hard to decipher:
Agerul Pământului* (The Agile/Sprite of the Earth), Aflatul, Alb
Împărat (Emperor White), Alba Împărăteasa (Empress White) Apa Rea,
(Bad Water), Argintar Galbeni Buni (Silversmith Good Ducats), Aripă
Frumoasă (Fair Wing), Aude Bine, (Hear Well), Aude Rău (Hear Badly),
Auraş Împărat (Emperor), Austru (Southern Wind), Barbu, Barbă Cot (Elllong Beard), Bou (Bălanel) (Ox, White Ox), Bourean (Young Ox), Brumă
(Hoar-frost), Bucăţica (Tiny Tot), Căldură (Heat), Chipăruş, Ciperi,
Constantin, De către Ziuă (Break of Day), De către Seară, De cu Seară
(Falling Night), Doamna (Chiralina*) (Lady), Doamna Florilor (Lady of
the Flowers), Dumnezeu (God), Fata (din Dafin*) (The Maid [of the
Laurel]), Fata Nevăzută, Neauzită, din Cer Căzută (The
Unseen/Unheard/Sky-fallen Maid), Fata Rumpe Haine* (Tatter-Clothes
Maid), Fata Nenăscută de Om Nevăzută (Unborn Maid Unseen by Man),
Faurul Pământului (The Blacksmith of the Earth), Făt Frumos cu Părul de
Aur (Golden-Haired Fair Youth/Prince Charming), Făt Frumos din Lacrimă
(Tear-Born Fair Youth/Prince Charming), Fătul (Babei) ([The Hag’s] Lad),
Fiul Iepei (The Mare’s Son), Fiul Oii (The Sheep’s Son), Fiul Vacii (The
Cow’s Son), Floarea (Codrilor) (Flower [of the Woods]), Floarea Florilor
(Flower of the Flowers/Flower Queen), Floarea (Flower), Florea Înfloritul
(Blossomy Florea), Florian, Florica, Floriţa, Foametea (Famine), Frântul
(The Crooked), Freacă Pietre (Rub Stones), Frigul (Cold), Frigurosul
(Chilly), Frumoasa Lumii (Fairest of the World), Frumoasele (Fair Maids),
Frunză de Măghiran (Leaf of Marjoram), Galben de Soare (Sunny
Golden), Gerul (Frost), Grâuşor de Aur (Golden Little Wheat), Greuceanu,
117
Inimă Putredă (Rotten Heart), Împăratul Alb (White Emperor), Împăratul
Galben (Yellow Emperor), Împăratul Negru (Black Emperor), Împăratul
Roşu (Red Emperor), Împăratul Verde (Green Emperor), Lăcustă Ler*
Împărat (Locust Ler Emperor), Lungilă (Long Legs), Lupul (Woolf),
(Mama*) Pădurii, (Mama) Soarelui, Mama Vânturilor (Mother of the
Forest/Sun/Winds), Măiastra*(Wondrous), Mângiferu, Măr (Împărat)
(Apple [Emperor]), Mezilă, Miez de Noapte (Midnight), Miazănoapte
(North), Mintă (Creaţă) (Peppermint/Curled Mint), Mintea (Mind), Mucea
făr’ de Păr (Baldy Snotty), Mustaţă de Aur (Golden Moustache), Barbă de
Mătase (Beard of Silk), Mutu (Dumb), Nămiaza Nopţii (Dead of Night),
Necuratul (Evil One), Negru Împărat (Emperor Black), Nour Împărat
(Emperor Cloud), Ochi Râde-Ochi Plânge (Laughing Eye-Weeping Eye),
Omul Pământului (Man of the Earth), Omul cât Şchiopul (Tiny Man),
Barba cât Cotul (Elbow/Ell-long Beard), Omul din Lună (Man in the
Moon), Papură Împărat (Reed Emperor), Pasăre Măiastră (Wondrous
Bird), Păr (Împărat) – Pear (Emperor), Pătru Făt Frumos (Peter Prince
Charming), Peneş Împărat (Emperor), Pescăruş (Seagull), Petre Cel
Frumos (Fair Peter), Petrea Căţelei (Peter of the Bitch-dog), Petrea Făt
Frumos, Petrea Piperiul (Peter Pepper), Petrea Şchiopul (Lame Peter),
Petrea (Tâlhariul) (Highwayman), Petrea (Voinicul) (the Sturdy), Petru
Firicel (Leaflet), Picioare de Cal (Horse Legs), Pier de Căldură (Die of
Heat), Pier de Frig (Die of Cold), Pipăruş (Little Pepper), Pipăruş Petru,
Pipăruş (Viteazul) (the Brave), Por Împărat (Emperor Por), Regina Florilor
(Flower Queen), Roşu Împărat (Emperor Red), Sân Georz (Saint George),
Sân Petru (Saint Peter), Sântana (Saint Ann), Sântilie (Saint Elijah),
Sumedru (Saint Demeter), Sânta Duminică (Saint Sunday), Serilă
(Nightfall), Scutură Munţii (Shake Mountains), Setosul (Thirsty), Soarele
(Sun), Sorin, Sora Crivăţului (The North Wind’s Sister), Sora Soarelui
(The Sun’s Sister), Spată Lată (Broad Back), Spic de Grâu (Wheat Spike),
Spic de Aur (Golden Wheat Spike), Statu Palmă Barbă Cot (Palm Tall Ell
Beard), Strâmbă Lemne (Bend Wood), Şchiopul cu Barba cât Cotul (Ell118
Beard Lame Dwarf), Urmă Galbină (Yellow Trace), Uşor ca Vântul-Greu
ca Pământul (Light as the Wind, Heavy as the Earth), Vânt Împărat (Wind
Emperor), Vântul cel mai de Sus (Highest Wind), Vântoasele (the
Whirlwinds), Vârful cel mai de Sus (The Highest Peak), Vede Bine (See
Well), Verde Împărat (Green Emperor), Vulturul (Eagle), Zâna Florilor
(Flower Fairy), Zâna Munţilor (Mountain Fairy), Zâna Soarelui (the Sun
Fairy), Zâna Stelină (Starry Fairy), Zâna Verbină (Verbena Fairy), Zâna
Zânelor (Fairy/Queen of the Fairies/Fairy-Godmother).
Even from a general survey of the above sub-inventory we can
notice that the problems of interpretation are much more numerous than the
ones mentioned in the preamble to this subchapter. There we discussed the
problems in selecting and including the terms in the “Latin” class of
mythonyms, problems which we have simplified as much as possible, by
renouncing the sub-classifications according to the chronologic and
dialectal criterion. Unfortunately, these recur, under different forms, in the
analysis of the significations of some mythical character names, without
whose clarification we could not even convincingly complete the
etymological under discussion.
A first problem is that of the usual “corrupted” forms, more
precisely those which evolved according to later dialectical and historical
laws, at phonetic, morphologic, lexical and semantic levels, until the
complete loss of the connection with their initial Latin etymon.
A second problem is linked to the lexical-morphologic evolutions
even in the standard literary language, by suffix derivation, so active in
Latin and Romanian.20 Though not very productive here, it becomes
complicated by association with other phenomena.
From the Latin Accusative florem, we have inherited the Romanian
floare (flower), respectively the mythonyms Florea and Floarea (with the
20
Fortunately for us, in the case of mythonyms, suffix derivation proved less productive,
so the disassembling of the basis of a form complicated by derivational mechanisms (often
also combined with compounding and conversion) was less fastidious here.
119
respective vocalic alternation), but also the derivatives /diminutives
Florica, Floriţa, Florian, as well as the compound forms (pleonastic)
Florea Înfloritul (Blossomy Florea), with a para-synthetic derivation in the
second term. However, these are infinitely more easily analysable than the
ones which evince the very first problem enounced here, that concerning the
dialectal phonetic and morphologic evolutions. When we say Petrea
Piperiul (Peter Pepper), we understand that, originally, they were the
Romanian terms Petre and piper, respectively the Latin ones petra/Petrus21
and piper. The problem is that, in some Transylvanian and Moldavian
dialects, the labial consonants become palatalised, so that Piper becomes
Chiper, then, by diminutive derivation, Chipăruş, which would be more
suggestive of “chiparosul” (cypress) (more mythologizing) rather than of
“pepper”. But from the context we understand that it refers to the condiment
granule. What is not understood is the form Ciperi, an enigma solved later
(though not definitively, we should believe,), by the philological analysis
carried out by Iorgu Iordan.22
But then compounding complicates almost permanently these
etymological interpretations. If we say Negru Împărat, (Emperor Black)
things are all right, as both terms belong to the same language, and, even
more, to the same period in the evolution of Latin, which is a rare case in
mythonymy. But for Pipăruş Viteazul (Little Pepper the Brave) or Petrea
Voinicul, (Peter the Sturdy), the first term is Latin, while the other is of
Slavic-Magyar and Slavic origin, respectively. It is the same with Frunză de
Măghiran (Leaf of Marjoram), where the second term is the German
Mageran (a certain oregano species), with Sora Crivăţului (The North
Wind’s Sister) (Latin + Slavic), etc. In Agerul Pământului, (The
Agile/Sprite of the Earth), the first term comes from the valid universal
21
Cf. also Greek πέτρος/Πέτρος, Macedonean bedros/Bedros, French pierre/Pierre etc. On
this antanaclasis is based the assertion attributed to Jesus Christ: „Tu es Petrus et super
hanc petram aedificabo meam ecclessiam” “You are Peter and on this stone I will build my
church”.
22
I. Iordan, 1983, s.v. Ciperi.
120
classical Latin stock, since agilis (Acc. agilem) normally evolved towards
ager (with the predictable modifications – the loss of the Latin termination,
the rhotacization of intervocalic -l-, etc.), while the second belongs to the
late vulgar stock, as pavimentum has a special significance in Latin (“earth
layer”, alternatively “beaten earth”), while in Romanian it acquired the
meaning of terra, a word it replaced for the most part.23
Some terms, even from the very common mythonymic stock, such
as Făt Frumos (Fair Youth/Prince Charming), or Zâna/Zânele (the FairyGodmother/the Fairies) are always controversially discussed, as it is not
very certain, for example, that Zâna derives from Diana, although all the
phonetic, morphological-lexical and semantic-symbolic evidence would
confirm this evolution.
There are terms formed on Romanian soil, such as Mama, a word
of infantile origin, created autonomously in different languages, even
genealogically unrelated,24 so that the popular and archaic Latin mamma,
used in familiar register, bears no relations, despite all appearances, with the
corresponding Romanian term, and the standard literary doublet mater was
not at all adopted from Latin. In the combination Mama Pădurii/Muma
Pădurii (Mother of the Forest), etc., which was classified with the terms of
Latin origin, we can have the form with u (Muma), but also with Maica, a
Slavic form. What is more, the problem regarding the evolution of the Latin
paludem “marsh” to the Romanian pădure, through metathesis,
rhotacization, and especially through the spectacular change of meaning,
makes the classification in a certain group even more difficult.
Finally, if there can be an end to etymological problems, some
mythonyms are totally encoded. The first term from Ler Împărat (Ler
Emperor) was intensely studied, due to its frequency in the incantatory
formulae of carols and spells, texts which accompanying ritual acts. We
23
There remain, however, in Romanian, terra>ţeară>ţară “country”, respectively,
terranus “peasant”.
24
Cf. P. Gh. Bârlea, 2013, p.192.
121
have accepted the most widespread explanation among specialists: it might
well be a form which was reduced, syncopated (because of its usage in
incantatory, rhythmical and rhymed contexts) to this enigmatic syllable,
deriving from the Hebrew Alleluiiah > Latin ler > Romanian ler/Ler. 25
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1. Surces
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Ioan Şerb, Bucureşti: Editura „Grai şi Suflet- Cultura Naţională”.
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Editura
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antice, clasice şi în legătură cu basmele popoarelor învecinate şi ale
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române, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
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Florenţa Sădeanu, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.
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124
THE PHRASEOLOGY OF “HEAD” IN RELATION
WITH BALKAN MENTALITY
(CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE
PHRASEOLOGY OF ALBANIAN, BULGARIAN
AND GREEK LANGUAGES)
Eva ÇËRAVA (KANE), MSc
Anyla SARAÇI (MAXHE), PhD
“Fan S. Noli” University, Korçë, Albania
kaneeva@ymail.com
animaxhe@yahoo.com
Abstract:
The common points in the phraseology of Balkan languages are often attributed to
some “Balkan cultural heritage”, a term which is usually not defined any further. So, this
term can allow us to see how this heritage is represented in phraseology. First of all, the
use of a systematic empirical research to describe these phraseological units serves to
determine which idioms actually share a relatively identical lexical and semantic structure
across the three languages and could therefore be called “widespread”. This article presents
a contrastive study of the structures and semantics of phraseology units containing the
word “head” in Albanian, Bulgarian and Greek languages. This approach can describe
similarities and differences of mentality as reflected in phraseology.
Key words:
Head, phraseology, contrastive insight, Balkan languages, semantics.
Introduction
Glaser (1996) defines PhUs as “Glaser nominations” because they
designate a phenomenon, an object, a process or a state, a property or a
relationship outside the world. Every language forms them according to its
particular nature, often according to existing patterns. As a result, they are
widespread not only in the written language but also in the spoken
language. (Thomaj, Lloshi II, 1972: 231).
125
The common points in the phraseology of European languages are
often attributed to some “European cultural heritage”. Menac (1987)
presented an inventory of several dozens of (supposedly) common
European idioms, drawn from six languages of diverse genetic
relationships, namely two Slavonic (Croatian, Russian), two Germanic
(German, English) and two Romance (French and Italian) languages. Her
analysis reveals quite a large number of near-equivalent idioms in these
languages (Pirrenei, 2005:49). From this point of view, by analogy, in what
is described as Balkan Sprachbund, many scholars have found
concordances between languages in folkloric forms, proverbs etc.
Meanwhile, based on the concept of Glaser, phraseology is described not
only as a nomenclature of designations, but as a linguistic angle of a
common mentality, that in this case is the Balkan mentality. Balkan cultures
are so similar: the long coexistence close to each other, the movement of the
population, the common historical, economic and social circumstances, all
these have determined common linguistics realities.
Language itself is an implicit “thought scheme”, so through
comparative and contrastive cross-linguistic description it becomes possible
to find out the inner linguistic connections underlying a common Balkan
mentality. One of the main reasons for the similarities in folklore is bound
up with the common elements in the spiritual realm of Balkan nations, seen
as the “Balkan cultural heritage”, a term which requires defining further.
These similarities are seen by Sanfeld as one of the factors defining the
Balkan community (Thomaj; Lloshi, II 1972:225). Based on this common
Balkan element, the lexical concordances between Balkan languages are
present and more distinctive because “…it is the nature of linguistic
cognation that the analogies are created from the first contacts mainly in the
field of lexis” (Thomaj; Lloshi, II 1972:223).
126
Several other “cross-cultural” studies start from the traditional
grouping of idioms into “thematic groups” (e.g. idioms with body parts,
animal or garment constituents), mistakenly referred to as the
“onomasiological” approach as well. They come to the conclusion that there
are “similar idioms” in some languages (Piirainen 2005: 47).
Methods
One type of cultural fundament is represented by idioms whose
underlying cultural knowledge chiefly goes back to knowledge folk social
mentality. This type can be divided into smaller subgroups and the
phraseology containing parts of the body is one of them. The analysis
features 108 phraseological units that contain the word head, taken from the
“Balkan phraseological dictionary”. These phrase units are examined in
parallel in three Balkanic languages: Albanian, Greek and Bulgarian,
starting from the Albanian language. Such parallels include items with
slight lexical differences, which means when the words in both languages
belong to the same semantic field and it is difficult to find any other extralinguistic explanation for the usage of one word or another in the noun
phrases (Hristova Bejleri, 1996).
Results and discussion
According to the meanings given in the “Dictionary of the Albanian
language” (2002: 587-588), the phraseological units containing the word
head have four main meanings: 1) upper part of the body which is the
location of the brain, the eyes, the ears, the nose etc.; 2) part of the human
body as the unit of thinking, the human being as holder of ideas and of
certain mental capacities; 3) part of the human body as representative of
human life, ego; 4) the beginning of some beings or objects, top.
127
Christians have usually understood the word “head” to mean
“authority over.” Thus, Christ is the authority over the church and a
husband is the authority over his wife (1985: 38). In a contrastive analysis
of the phraseological units containing “head” in Albanian and Bulgarian,
we shall identify will three groups:
The first group includes the phraseological units evincing the same
lexical structure. This means that, in both languages, the phraseological
units contain the same verbs or synonymous verbs followed by the word
head (in Albanian kokë-a, in Bulgarian глава-та, in Greek το κεφάλι).
These examples of structural correspondences containing the same verb or
synonymous verbs show lexical-semantic phraseological parallels. The
phraseological units show parallelisms not only in their lexemes but even in
their meanings. There are many instances of phraseological units where
both the form and the structure are the same in both languages, for example
such expressions as: më ra prapa kokës – удря ме в главата- Με χτύπησε
πίσω από το κεφάλι; i bie kokës me grushte – бия си главата (с два
камъка)- Χτυπώ (βαρώ) το κεφάλι μου με γροθιές, m’u ça koka – цепи ме
главата- Μου σκίστηκε (έσπασε)το κεφάλι., më dhemb koka - боли ме
главата- Με πονά το κεφάλι, heq(fshij) nga koka – махам (изтривам) от
главата си (от акъла си, от ума си)- Βγάζω (σβήνω) από το κεφάλι
μου(κάτι); s’më hiqet nga koka – не ми излиза от главата-, kokë e këmbë
– от главата до петите- Δεν μου βγαίνει(φεύγει) από το κεφάλι(από την
γνώμη,το μυαλό); nga koka në këmbët - от главата до петите- Από το
κεφάλι μέχρι τα πόδια; kokë më kokë – глава до глава- Κεφάλι με κεφάλι.,
me kokë poshtë – с наведена глава- Με το κεφάλι κάτω, kokë qepë – лукова
глава - Κρεμμυδοκέφαλος; me kokë ulur – с наведена глава- Με το κεφάλι
κρεμασμένο; kruaj kokën – почесвам се по главата- Ξύνει το κεφάλι, e
kthej me kokë poshtë – обръщам надолу с главата - Το γυρίζω με το
κεφάλι κάτω; kthej kokën prapa - обръщам назад- Γυρίζω το κεφάλι πίσω;
128
ia lau kokën – насапунисвам главата - Του το’πλυνε το κεφάλι;, s’e ngre
kokën – глава не повдигам- Δε σηκώνω κεφάλι (από κάτι), e pres kokën –
главата си режа- Κόβω το κεφάλι μου (για κάτι).
As already mentioned, in the three languages, these phraseological
units contain verbs with a wide semantic structure. These verbs have more
than one meaning, but in the most cases the verb is used in its literal
meaning. Generally, these units are a result of a transformation of free
noun-phrases to phraseological noun-phrases.
The second group includes phraseological units with a different
structure, having in common the noun “head”. In these cases, the word
head occurs in its usage as “part of the body where the brain is located” or
as “mind, the process of thinking itself”, as in the following groups of
examples: Ia bëri koka – от главата си патя - Του το΄κανε το κεφάλι;
s’di ku kam kokën – пламнала ми е в главата - Δεν ξέρει που να χώσει
(βάλει) το κεφάλι του; s’i dhemb koka (për asgjë) – ништо не ми тежи на
главата - Δεν το πονάει το κεφάλι; i hipi (i kërceu) në kokë – наумявам си
нещо; влиза ми някаква муха в главата - Του ανέβηκε (ήρθε) στο κεφάλι
κάτι; e ka mendjen prapa kokës – нямам ум, имам бръмбари в главата Έχει τη γνώμη (το μυαλό) πίσω από το κεφάλι.(δεν έχει λογική); lë kokën
(për dikë a diçka) – главата си залагам (за нещо,за някого) - Αφήνω το
κεφάλι μου (για κάτι), e lodh kokën kot – бъхтя си главата - Κουράζω το
κεφάλι (μάταια); më zien (mizëron) koka – пламва ми главата - Μου
βράζει (βουίζει) το κεφάλι.
This group is semantically based on the figurative meaning of the
components in the phraseological unit. The verbs occurring in these
phraseological units have different meanings but the meaning of the whole
phraseological unit is the same in all three languages. These phraseological
units demonstrate the process of constructing the “we” in opposition to “the
others”. This requires archaic operations which utilize rudimentary
129
generalizations, functioning as crude means of detachment which will later
provide the basis for opposition (Frangoudaki & Thalia, 1997:14-16)
The third group includes phraseological expressions containing the
word head in Albanian but not in Bulgarian. In Bulgarian these examples
are linked to lexemes that in most cases express meanings similar to the
meaning of “head” as brain, mind or connected to the meaning “head” as
representative of life. Therefore, in Albanian and Greek phraseological
units the word head is present, whereas in Bulgarian phraseological units
other lexemes are used. From a detailed analysis it results that, in the case
of phraseological units containing the word head as the upper part of the
human body, in Bulgarian the word head is replaced with other parts of the
body linked to the head, such as: e nxori kokën - Το’βγαλε το κεφάλι του показвам си рогата (head-horns).
In Albanian and Greek phraseological units, the word head is used
in its meaning as life, while in Bulgarian phraseological units another word
is used with the same meaning: i ka bërë kokën – Του έχει κάνει το κεφάλι давам живот - (head-life); përpjek kokën (pas murit) - Χτυπώ το κεφάλι
μου στο τοίχο - сам се боря с живота, изнемогвам (head-life); ku më ka
rënë koka - Που μου έχει πέσει το κεφάλι - кьдето ми е вьрзан пьпа
(head-navel); s’ka kokë dimri – Δεν έχει κεφάλι (γνώμη, μυαλό) - няма сила
(зимната) (head-force); ia hëngri kokën me të mirë – Του το’φαγε το
κεφάλι με το καλό - вадя душата с памук (head-spirit).
There are some phraseological units in which the word head is used
as “process of thinking” in Albanian and in Greek, while in Bulgarian
“head” is replaced with the words “mind, brain”, in such cases as: s’ia pret
koka – Δεν του κόβει το κεφάλι - не ми стига акьла; ia shpëlau kokën- Του
το ξεκαθάρισε το κεφάλι - избистрям мозька, s’ka kokë – Δεν έχει κεφάλι
(γνώμη, μυαλό) - не ми работи акьла; ум море глава кофа.
130
In this group, even national features of both nations are referred to,
because the phraselogical units carry not only the original structure but even
the meaning of the phraseological unit.
Based on the analysis of these phraseological units, it can be noticed
that most of them are linked to the meaning “unit of thinking” and
“representative of life, ego”. In the first case, some phraseological units are
introduced as synonymous versions, where the word “head” is replaced
with the synonyms “mind, brain”.
According to J. Thomaj and Xh. Lloshi “…the common origin of
Indo-European languages explains even the analogies in the process of
formation of the phraseological noun-phrases of this type. Therefore their
origin cannot be explained with any certainty and it is also difficult to
separate the Balkan stock of phraseological units, except in the cases
documented from written monuments” (Thomaj; Lloshi, II 1972:227).
Conclusion
As a conclusion, we should point out that these phraseological
parallels cannot be called exhaustive. The contrastive semantic-structural
analysis of phraseological units will complete the linguistic coincidences
between Balkan languages. The study of phraseological units makes it
possible to assume that Balkan languages have to be studied in connection
with each other. At the same time, they preserve the features of the IndoEuropean family, but without affinity or connection to each other.
Even so, these coincidences in phraseology present in the general
system of the Balkan community are linked to the features of every
language in the complexity of its national features, of the history of every
nation in all its aspects (Thomaj; Lloshi, II 1972:234).
Quite probably, a systematic multilingual investigation of idioms,
along lines similar to those outlined above for proverbs, would produce
promising results.
131
References
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shqipe, Toena, Tiranë, 587-589.
FRANGOUDAKI, A. & THALIA D., 1997, What is our fatherland?
Ethnocentrism in education, Alexandria publications, (in Greek).
GLÄSER, R., 1998, The Stylistic Potential of Phraseological Units. In
Cowie, A. P. ed.: 1998: Phraseology: Theory, Analysis, and
Applications. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 125-143.
GRUDEM, W., 1985, Does κεφάλι (“Head”) Mean “Source” Or “Authority
Over” in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples, Trinity
Journal no. 6.1 (Spring): 38-59:35.
HRISTOVA-BEJLERI, R., 1996, Njësi frazeologjike që përmbajnë
krahasim në shqipe e bullgarishte. Seminari i XVIII i gjuhës, letërsisë
dhe kulturës shqiptare, Tiranë.
PIIRAINEN, E., 2005, ‘Europeanism, internationalism or something else?
Proposal for a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research project on
widespread idioms in Europe and beyond’, Hermes Journal of
Linguistics no. 35.
THOMAJ, J., 2010, Fjalori frazeologjik i gjuhës shqipe, EDFA, Tiranë.
THOMAJ, J., LLOSHI, XH., 1972, Paralele frazeologjike të gjuhës shqipe
me gjuhë të tjera të Ballkanit, në Studime mbi leksikun dhe formimin
e fjalëve në gjuhën shqipe, II, botim i ASHSH, 223-234.
THOMAJ, J., LLOSHI, XH., HRISTOVA-BEJLERI, R., QIRIAZATI, K.,
MELONASHI, A., 1999, Fjalori ballkanik frazeologjik, Dituria,
Tiranë, 160-166.
БЬЛГАРСКА АКАДЕМУЯ НА НАУКИТЕ, ИНСТИТУТ ЗА
БЬЛГАПСКИ ЕЗИК, 1974, Фразеологичен речник на бьлгарски
език. София, 208.
132
CONVERGENCES ET DIVERGENCES
IDENTITAIRES
LA COMMUNICATION INTERCULTURELLE ET
LA NEGOCIATION DE L’IDENTITE DES
ALBANAIS
Prof. Dr. Gjergji PENDAVINJI
Doc. Robert STRATOBERDHA
Université “Fan S. Noli” Korçë, Albanie
gjpendavinji@yahoo.com
robert_npf@hotmail.com
Abstract:
The article presents, from a theoretical perspective, the problem of negotiating the
identity of Albanians in the framework of intercultural communication, introducing at the
same time the data analysis of this phenomenon. The study methodology is based on
ethnographic research and the concept of culture.
One of the main issues of today’s discourse, in the context of Albanian social
space, is the intercultural communication as a fundamental aspect of regional and global
integration processes. At the sociocultural level, the debate on negotiating the identity of
Albanians in the European integrated social space has aroused a great deal of interest.
Central to the discussion regarding the identity of Albanians has been the idea of
European identity. This thesis has received a number of interesting social, historical,
linguistic and cultural arguments. Great personalities of Albanian literature and culture,
like Ismail Kadare, Rexhep Qose etc., have brought their contribution to this intellectual
debate, which has sparked off new and innovative ideas with respect to negotiating the
identity of Albanians in the framework of communication within their socio-cultural space.
The review of such an issue, has naturally led us to some controversial
conclusions in terms of support, cultivation and renewal of some very important cultural
values in modern sociocultural communication.
Résumé:
Dans le cadre de la communication interculturelle, l’article expose une
perspective théorique sur le problème de la négociation de l’identité des Albanais et à la
fois présente une analyse des faits sur le phénomène en question.
La méthodologie d’étude est basée sur la recherche ethnographique ainsi que sur la culture.
133
Une des questions du discours actuel dans le cadre de l’espace social albanais est
la communication interculturelle comme un aspect principal des processus d’intégration
régionale et globale. A ce propos, le débat sur la négociation de l’identité des Albanais
dans l’espace social européen et plus large encore a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt sur le plan
socioculturel.
Le problème crucial qui a gagné du terrain dans la discussion de l’identité des
Albanais c’est l’idée de l’identité européenne. Ce débat, qui a été rendu très intéressant
suite à l’intervention des personnalités éminentes de la culture et des lettres comme Ismail
Kadare, Rexhep Qose, et d’autres a mis face à face maints arguments au niveau social,
historique, linguistique et culturel sur ce sujet.
Cette polémique intellectuelle a fourni beaucoup d’idées et d’arguments nouveaux
à propos de la négociation de l’identité des Albanais dans le cadre de la communication à
l’intérieur de leur espace socioculturel.
L’analyse de cette discussion a fait tirer de manière naturelle quelques
conclusions contestables en ce qui concerne le soutien, la sauvegarde et la rénovation de
quelques valeurs culturelles d’une très grande importance à la communication moderne
socioculturelle.
Mots clés:
Communication interculturelle; négociation de l’identité, discours sur l’identité
européenne des Albanais; argument sociolinguistique; analyse sociolinguistique et
ethnoculturelle.
Introduction:
La communication interculturelle ainsi que la négociation de
l’identité sont en général des processus sociologiques liés à la culture. Dans
le cadre des dynamiques sociales, les phénomènes de la communication à
travers les cultures et les subcultures ainsi que la négociation des identités
sociales occupent une place importante. Ces processus ont été mis en
évidence également dans la société albanaise pendant la première décennie
du nouveau siècle (21-e siècle) en tant que conséquence de quelques
développements rapides qui ont eu lieu dans tout l’espace albanais et
particulièrement la fin de la guerre au Kosovo et la création de l’état
indépendant. Au sein de la dynamique sociale albanaise au Kosovo et des
transformations politiques, économiques et sociales profondes, la question
de la négociation de l’identité des Albanais a été l’objet d’un débat
134
intellectuel et a attiré l’attention sur l’horizon culturel albanais. La
concentration de ce débat, entre autres même dans une approche
sociolinguistique où la langue fait la base de l’argumentation et de la
négociation de cette identité a été bien intéressante. Le débat a été concentré
essentiellement sur l’explication de la substance de l’identité des Albanais
sous une perspective essentialiste et constructiviste. Il consiste aussi sur le
modèle de l’analyse et de l’argumentation des questions du problème
soulevé à débattre comme: l’identité nationale, l’identité intégrale ou même
partielle, l’identité européenne etc. Ce débat a été rendu très intéressant
suite à l’intervention des personnalités éminentes de la culture comme
Ismail Kadare, Rexhep Qose, Rexhep Ismaili et d’autres personnalités
académiques, politiques et du domaine des médias etc.
Dans cet article nous allons essayer de mettre en évidence le
contenu principal du débat Kadare – Qose, analyser ensuite les arguments
apportés et réaliser une présentation aussi précise que possible de ce
phénomène socioculturel et à la fois sociolinguistique vu sous trois aspects
de son développement:
1. La langue, la base de l’identité nationale albanaise.
2. Des zones communes, des zones de divergences et la question de l’identité.
3. Le débat sur l’identité européenne des Albanais.
1. La langue albanaise, la base de l’identité nationale des Albanais.
Dans la littérature albanologique il existe un fond assez considérable
de travaux qui directement ou indirectement argumente aisément les
fondements linguistiques et culturels de l’identité des albanais. Chaque
façon de poser et de résoudre ce problème présente beaucoup d’intérêt ce
qui constitue une richesse culturelle et scientifique dans le discours sur la
négociation de l’identité. Tous les chercheurs acceptent que la langue est la
base principale de cette identité nationale albanaise.
135
Il y a assez de travaux scientifiques qui traitent définitivement la
thèse de la langue albanaise comme la fondation de l’identité nationale
albanaise et qui s’étendent depuis 1462 avec « La formule du baptême » en
dialecte du nord (dialecte geg, région de Mat), « Le Meshar » de Gjon
Buzuku en 1555, Leke Matranga en 1592, Pjeter Budi en 1622, Pjetër
Bogdani en 1685, Frank Bardhi en 1635, puis les albanologues Francesko
Maria en 1716, William Martin Leake en 1814, Françesko Rossi, August
Dozon en 1879 et ensuite Kostandin Kristoforidhi en 1882, Sami Frashëri
en 1886, Gjergj Pekmezi, et plus encore S. Riza, A. Xhuvani, E. Çabej, M.
Domi, A. Kostallari et d’autres qui arrivent jusqu'à nos jours.
De nos jours, dans cette productivité scientifique, on peut citer une
série d’arguments contemporains qui présentent de l’intérêt. On va s’arrêter
à quelques uns de ces arguments qui ont été élaborés par la figure
académique Rexhep Ismaili1.
L’auteur respectif apporte des arguments afin de soutenir l’idée que
la langue est une expression initiale de l’expérience collective, une mesure
de l’identité du groupe, une réflexion de l’être national.
Nos poètes de la Renaissance (Sami Frashëri et d’autres)
considéraient la langue comme l’élément primordial de l’identité nationale.
Mais la langue a maintenu ce rôle ultérieurement aussi: on peut citer ici les
activités linguistiques dans les années ’60 du XX-e siècle où l’on
s’intéressait à l’unification standardisée de la langue («Consultation
Linguistique de Pristina» où on a formulé le slogan «une nation- une
langue»), programme qui a entrainé plein de débats.
Dans ces discours, il a été défini même la différence entre «l’unité
linguistique» et «l’unité nationale» 2.
1
R. ISMAIL, 26. 07. 2005, Discours tenu au Séminaire pour les enseignants, Pristina,
“Gjuha dhe identiteti kulturor e kombëtar”.
2
Idem
136
Malgré la complexité ethnique, étatique, culturelle et religieuse, la
langue a été et l’est encore l’élément principal de l’identité culturelle et
nationale de la communauté albanaise.
Avec la création de l’Etat albanais (1912), la population albanaise
qui est restée en dehors de son territoire surtout celle de la Yougoslavie, a
continué à ressentir et à considérer la question de l’identité et de l’intégrité
nationale comme un objectif et un besoin permanents. Dans le contexte de
la liaison interne de l’identité, la langue albanaise standard reste le pilier de
l’identité nationale et ethnique, de l’identité historique et actuelle malgré
d’autres dissimilitudes. Pour cette raison, la langue albanaise a une valeur
particulière symbolique.
En analysant cet espace sociolinguistique albanais ainsi que la
consolidation de la communication interculturelle, nous nous rendons
compte que «la culture de la langue» demande l’attention de tous afin de
protéger la langue littéraire du phénomène de la stagnation. Mais cette
précaution et cette attention ont un prix, comme conclut l’académicien
Rexhep Ismaili, qui constitue «le coût de l’énergie nécessaire pour faire
apprendre le standard linguistique à un grand nombre d’interlocuteurs
parce que c’est la seule voie de protection des pressions extraordinaires
dans cette époque de globalisation» 3.
2. Des zones communes, des zones de divergences et la question
de l’identité
Dans l’analyse de ce problème on a élaboré et développé beaucoup
d’aspects du discours sur l’identité et son cadre interculturel, les aspects
communs et les distinctions dans ce processus.
3
Idem
137
Généralement, les individus socialisent à l’intérieur d’un groupe
principalement à travers la langue, en communiquant avec les autres ou bien
en recevant l’information qui est absorbée en tant qu’ un héritage culturel.
De plus, nos identités culturelles peuvent être si exhaustives que
nous ne pouvons pas remarquer l’importance de nos distinctions culturelles.
Théoriquement, il a été accepté que l’identité sociale et l’identité
personnelle naissent et se développent à l’intérieur des grands réseaux de
notre culture4.
Si l’on se réfère au phénomène dans notre société, la question se
pose: peut-on parler d’une identité kosovare différente de l’identité albanaise?
Dans la réalité actuelle on constate des distinctions dans l’aspect
étatique, éducatif, médiatique jusqu'à l’utilisation d’une langue officielle à
Pristina différente de celle de Tirana. Peut-être, ces différences iront-elles
graduellement et de manière artificielle vers une identité kosovare?
L’existence même des deux Etats albanais dans les Balkans peut-elle influer
sur la reformulation des identités des deux cotés de la frontière entre
l’Albanie et le Kosovo?
En même temps, on accepte la nouvelle réalité de communication
grâce à la formation du nouvel Etat du Kosovo. Les conditions actuelles
sont très favorables à l’unification de la communication interculturelle entre
les Albanais dans les Balkans. Cela veut dire que par l’intermédiaire du
système éducatif, des échanges culturels en général on peut éviter les
tendances centrifuges au Kosovo et en Albanie.
Dans ce cadre, il est indispensable de protéger et d’entretenir la
langue albanaise comme instrument principal de la communication. Cela,
parce que c’est la langue albanaise qui a le plus de puissance de transmettre
les valeurs communes des Albanais mieux que les autres instruments
culturels comme les symboles culturels, les légendes etc. Mais en tout cas,
4
M. ROSALDO, 1984, “Culture theory”, Cambridge University Press.
138
les différences sont un phénomène normal pour chaque société, donc même
pour la société albanaise. A l’intérieur de ces distinctions il n’y a rien de
très particulier, ce qui arrive avec presque toutes les nations.
Mais la question se pose si les circonstances sociales et historiques sont
telles que ces différences peuvent mener vers de nouvelles identités ou non.
Assurément, la langue reste l’élément le plus consistant de cette
identité, voire la langue avec toutes ses formes linguistiques. Ainsi, peut-on
mentionner la langue de la poésie nationale. Cette langue “est une manière
prioritaire et une réalité en soi-même qui, même dans son aspect matériel
simplement comme code de communication, contient un élément
d’identité”5.
Dans le cadre du discours sur l’identité des Albanais, il a été étudié
même un aspect historico-linguistique lié à l’influence ottomane chez les
albanais durant cinq siècles d’occupation. Donc, combien la domination
ottomane trop longue en Albanie a-t-elle influé sur la sauvegarde ou bien
sur la modification de l’identité albanaise?
Nous distinguons deux attitudes différentes dans le débat sur cet
argument: La première attitude, représentée par Ismail Kadare, argumente
que l’identité albanaise est restée “inchangée” et “non modifiée”. Selon lui,
cinq siècles de domination ottomane n’ont pas changé l’identité des albanais.
La deuxième attitude, soutenue par Rexhep Qose et d’autres,
argumente “la modification”, “la trace”, “les changements” qu’a subis
l’identité albanaise préottomane sous l’influence de la domination ottomane.
L’argument de cette attitude est lié à l’influence que la langue
albanaise a subie où un tas de mots de la langue courante a été emprunté de
la langue turque (tavan=plafond, dysheme=plancher, dyshek=matelas,
jorgan=duvet, tullë=brique, allçi=plâtre, dollap=placard, çarçaf=drap,
5
A. FUGA, 2009/1, “Komunikimi bashkëkohor midis shqiptarëve” Département de
journalistique, UT.
139
jastëk=oreiller, sëndyk=malle, penxhere=fenêtre, etc.) Quelques partisans
de cette attitude vont même jusqu'à une affirmation extrême disant que
“l’identité albanaise a été produite dans les formes actuelles en
conséquence de l’influence ottomane”6.
Ismail Kadare, dans une interview des derniers temps faisant le
commentaire des déclarations des trois premier-ministres à Pristina (Edi
Rama, Hashim Thaçi et Taip Erdogan) au journal Panorama du 25.10.2013
dit: ”Une des hontes de la pensée albanaise c’est celle qui affirme que
l’existence de l’Albanie est due à deux remparts: à l’Etat ottoman et à
l’Etat communiste” 7.
Ismail Kadare dit avoir développé et argumenté cette idée depuis
longtemps dans le livre “Mosmarrëveshja” (Le Désaccord).
3. L’identité européenne des albanais. Le débat Kadare - Qose
Dans le cadre du phénomène social de la négociation de l’identité
des Albanais, le débat des dernières années, en ce qui concerne l’identité
européenne des Albanais, débat qui dans les medias est baptisé “Le débat
Kadare-Qose” à cause des deux protagonistes qui l’ont dirigé, a été très
intéressant. Mais dans ce débat ont été engagés aussi d’autres intellectuels
d’Albanie, du Kosovo, de la Macédoine et des Albanais d’Italie.
Le premier document, qui a initié le débat, c’était celui de Rexhep
Qose “Ideologjia e shpërbërjes” (L’idéologie de désagrégation) où l’auteur
traite quelques idées sur les facteurs influents de la décomposition de
l’identité des Albanais ou bien de leur unité nationale. L’une des idées
soutenues par Qose est que les albanais n’appartiennent pas seulement à la
civilisation européenne et qu’il ne faut pas négliger le fait que la culture
6
7
A. VEHBIU, 25. 06. 2008, “Për një përkufizim të identitetit shqiptar”, Forum albanais.
Panorama, 25 Octobre 2013.
140
albanaise contient aussi des éléments de la civilisation de l’Est, où l’on
sous-entend la civilisation musulmane.
“Les Albanais, en réalité, appartiennent aux deux civilisations: à la
civilisation de l’Ouest et à celle de l’Est …ils ont ramassé de ces
civilisations tout ce qu’ils ont voulu et qu’ils n’ont pas voulu, ils ont
ramassé de bon gré ou de force: leur culture, leur civilisation c’est donc
l’union des deux cultures, des deux civilisations”8.
Ismail Kadare entre en polémique avec cette idée grâce à son essai
“Identiteti europian i shqiptarëve” (L’identité européenne des Albanais) où
il affirme que les Albanais ne sont pas moins européens que les autres
nations de l’Europe. “Les lettres des albanais sont très claires … les
Albanais sont parmi les peuples les plus anciens du continent européen, un
peuple fondateur dans sa création”9
Les arguments fournis par Kadare en faveur de la thèse de l’identité
européenne des Albanais sont: l’argument géographique, l’argument
anthropologique, l’argument historique et celui culturel. Selon lui,
“l’Albanie ne se situe pas à l’écart de l’Europe, la population albanaise,
comme celle de tout le continent européen, est de race blanche, les contrées
actuelles de l’Albanie ont été présentes en Europe depuis l’antiquité, les
éléments de la culture populaire albanaise font partie de la culture
européenne”10.
Selon cet argument, nous avons à faire avec une identité européenne
des Albanais formée depuis l’antiquité et le moyen âge pré ottomane.
Kadare contredit également l’argument de Qose, selon lequel
l’identité européenne des Albanais a changé au cours des occupations et que
dans la période ottomane elle a été divisée en deux entre l’Est et l’Ouest.
8
R. QOSE, 2006, “Ideologjia e shpërbërjes”, Tirana , p. 31
I. KADARE, 2006, “Identiteti europian i shqiptarëve”, Onufri, Tirana, p.20.
10
Idem, pp, 21-23.
9
141
Kadare accepte que dans la culture albanaise il y a eu des influences anti
européennes comme conséquence du programme de l’Empire ottoman pour
“l’occupation et la dévastation de l’Europe entière” 11
Suite à cet argument, Kadare contredit aussi l’idée de Qose selon
laquelle les Albanais ont été faits pour être un pont de liaison ou bien un
élément réconciliateur entre l’Est et l’Ouest. Selon Kadare, “les Albanais
sont clairement européens et alignés au côté de l’Occident” 12.
Sur le plan sociolinguistique, l’argument de Kadare se développe en
mettant en évidence les corrélations et les éléments communs européens
linguistiques et culturels. Selon lui, la littérature ancienne albanaise,
littérature bilingue albanaise et latine, tout comme dans la plupart des pays
européens, a été développée au même niveau pendant presque trois siècles.
Des personnalités célèbres de cette littérature comme Pjetër Budi, Frang
Bardhi, Pjetër Bogdani éditaient leurs œuvres bilingues dans les métropoles
européennes pour les apporter en cachette en Albanie où l’écriture et
l’imprimerie en Albanais n’étaient pas permises.
En outre,
“dans les conditions dramatiques de l’interdiction, en 1908, une
commission dirigée par Gjergj Fishta et Mit’hat Frasheri, depuis la
proclamation de l’alphabet latin comme alphabet officiel des Albanais, ont
donné une idée claire de l’européanisation albanaise” 13.
Cela s’avère la veille de l’indépendance après une longue période de
cinq siècles, où les esprits étaient encore troubles et l’alphabet latin dans les
Balkans était trop rare. C’est avec cet alphabet que l’Albanie est arrivée en
1912, l’année de sa liberté.
11
Idem, p. 25.
Idem, p. 55.
13
Idem, p. 58.
12
142
L’analyse critique du débat Kadare – Qose en automne 2006 était au
centre de la Revue ”Përpjekja” (L’effort). Dans quelques articles, les idées
de Kadare et de ses souteneurs sont considérées comme des inspirations
romantiques qui sont nourries d’une imagination en noir et blanc de
l’histoire albanaise et de la réalité d’aujourd’hui. Dans ces articles, les
identités albanaise et européenne sont vues de manière essentialiste et sont
considérées comme “invariables” dans leur essence. Pour le chercheur
Artan Puto, le débat Kadare – Qose au début a été déplacé au niveau de la
politique identitaire, à la protection du “caractère européen” des Albanais et
comme ça “l’occasion est perdue pour que le débat intellectuel soit
développé en tant que processus de reconnaissance et de discussion” 14.
Il pense que Qose a offert une conception plus variée de l’identité
albanaise mais même celui-ci, quand il analyse la Renaissance Nationale, il
n’arrive pas à la voir comme une construction idéologique des intellectuels
et des activistes nationalistes albanais de ce temps-là mais il la présente
comme une découverte de leur part de l’identité existante albanaise. Donc,
Qose n’a pas saisi la nature construite de l’identité nationale albanaise
comme une création de la Renaissance Nationale Albanaise.
Mais le point commun des articles de la Revue ”Përpjekja” c’est la
mise en évidence de la nature construite des identités. C’est pour cette
raison que le titre “L’identité autrement” a été utilisé: d’une part pour
accepter l’approche constructiviste et d’autre part pour se distancier du
point de vu essentialiste de beaucoup d’autres débatteurs pour lesquels “le
caractère européen” des Albanais est dans l’essence quelque chose déjà fait
préalablement et qui est inchangeable par l’histoire et la politique.
L’approche constructiviste part de l’idée du changement continu des
14
A. Puto, “Përpjekja”, 23, “Fryma romantike dhe nacionaliste në debatin për identitetin
shqiptar”, pp. 13-39.
143
identités et veut mettre en vue les cas de leur rigidité temporaire si bien
dans l’espace européen que dans celui albanais.
Conclusions:
Basés sur l’étude du discours intellectuel sur l’identité et l’argument
de négociation de l’identité des Albanais, nous pouvons tirer quelques
conclusions qui ne sont pas encore définitives pour le fait que ce débat n’est
pas encore considéré consommé.
Premièrement: La communication et la négociation de l’identité
sous un aspect sociologique sont liées essentiellement à la langue. La
négociation de l’identité albanaise demande préalablement une réflexion et
une relation avec la langue albanaise.
Nous pensons que théoriquement cette relation entre l’identité et la
langue albanaise est essentiellement acceptable et ensuite négociable. Cette
relation est argumentée aujourd’hui par les savants de la langue et les
sociolinguistes albanais. La langue albanaise comme fondement identitaire
des Albanais dispose de plusieurs codes de communication et chaque code a
ses propres valeurs identitaires et symboliques. Actuellement,
l’élargissement des espaces de communication entre les Albanais accentue
d’avantage le rôle unificateur de notre langue et impose de la soigner et de
l’entretenir. Les espaces sociaux du fonctionnement de notre langue dans le
processus de la communication renforcent les dimensions identitaires si
bien qu’ils rendent ainsi indispensable et utile l’existence d’un standard
unique de cette langue.
Deuxièmement: Comme il arrive généralement dans les sociétés
avancées, chez nous aussi, la communication et la négociation de l’identité
ne peuvent pas se faire en dehors du contexte interculturel. Donc, dans ce
processus il faut accepter comme des faits normaux les différences et les
changements liés à des facteurs historico-culturels, régionaux, dialectaux,
etc. Cela se voit même au niveau sociolinguistique.
144
L’accentuation de l’identité nationale à travers la communication à
l’intérieur de la mosaïque et la diversité des codes de pensée chez les
albanais développera ultérieurement l’approchement et la relation de la
pensée à la réalité dans un sens d’unification à travers la communication
interculturelle au moyen de la langue. C’est ce qui se passe même avec les
grandes langues en Europe. Sous cet aspect, l’identité européenne des
Albanais serait plus proche et plus liée au système conceptuel commun des
langues occidentales allant de pair avec le processus de la pensée.
Troisièmement: Le débat sur l’identité des Albanais et
particulièrement sur leur identité européenne qui est baptisé comme le débat
Kadare – Qose, a ouvert un nouvel horizon intellectuel de la pensée sur la
négociation de l’identité des Albanais. Ce débat a basculé entre deux points
de vue, celui essentialiste et celui constructiviste. Les deux approches ont
élaboré et ont affronté des arguments en enrichissant leurs modèles
d’analyses, de diagnostic et d’argumentation des idées. Ce débat a ouvert la
perspective à l’articulation de l’idée de l’Europe dans le discours actuel des
intellectuels albanais soit comme continuité diachronique soit comme
influence synchronique ou plus encore, comme de nouvelles configurations
dans le cadre du projet de l’intégration de l’Albanie à l’Union Européenne.
References bibliographiques:
FUGA, Artan, 2003, “Etiketat politike dhe integrimi europian”, Koha jonë,
Tiranë.
FUGA, Artan, 2003, “Majtas jo djathtas …” Ora, Tiranë.
HABERMAS, Jurgen, 2005, “Perëndimi i përçarë”, Asdreni, Skopje.
ISMAILI, Rexhep, 2005, “Gjuha dhe identiteti kulturor e kombëtar”,
Pristina.
KADARE, Ismail, 2006, “Biseda për Europën”, Shekulli, Tirana.
KADARE, Ismail, 2006, “Identiteti europian i shqiptarëve”, Toena, Tirana.
145
KADARE, Ismail, 2006, “Thelbi i identitetit të shqiptarëve”, Shqip, Tirana.
KADARE, Ismail, 2013, “Kosova - Turqi? E kam shkruar prej kohësh te
libri “Mosmarrëveshja” Panorama.
MEAD, G, H, 1934, “Mind self and society”, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago.
PUTO, Arben, 2009, “Shqipëria Politike, 1912- 1939”, Toena, Tirana.
PUTO, Artan, “Fryma romantike dhe nacionaliste në debatin për
“identitetin shqiptar”, Përpjekja, 23, pp. 13-39.
QOSJA, Rexhep, 2006, “Ideologjia e shpërbërjes: trajtesë mbi ideologjinë
ç’integruese në shoqërinë e sotme shqiptare”, Toena, Tiranë.
QOSJA, Rexhep, 2006, “Realiteti i shpërfillur”, Toena, Tiranë.
ROSALDO, M, 1984, “Culture theory”, Cambridge University Press.
RUMFORD, C, 2008, “Cosmopolitan Spaces: Europe, Globalization,
Theory”, London.
TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis, 2002, “Demokracia në Amerikë”, Fondacioni
Soros, Tirana.
146
THE MODERN EVOLUTION OF TÎRGOVIŞTE
TOWN’S CULTURAL LIFE (1878-1914)
Ramona Elena STANCIU
ramonaestanciu@yahoo.com
Abstract
We could state that after having gone through a stage of great founders and
foundations in the 19th century, the Romanian culture began a new one.
Thus, in the general framework of the rebirth and national affirmation process that
characterized the second half of the 19th century, all the Romanian provinces lived a strong
cultural effervescence. In this context, in the old Walachian capital as well, culture was
reborn, cultural personalities such as I. H. Rădulescu being recognized on a national level.
He even tried to inaugurate a bookshop in Târgovişte with the help of I. D. Petrescu. A
restoration in the cultural life of this town occurred through the opening of several primary
schools and the creation of a secondary school in 1874,1 and especially through the
creation of the Society “Progresul” (The Progress), in 1876, the first cultural society of
Târgovişte, which managed to attract the town’s personalities. 2 Out of the intellectuals of
Târgovişte who laid the foundations of this cultural society and carried out a particular activity, we
shall mention: I. D. Petrescu, D. Condurăţeanu, Al. Dudea.
Key words: culture, library, school, cultural society.
1
Constantin Manolescu, Mihai Oproiu, Pagini din istoria culturii târgoviştene. Societatea
Culturală ,,Progresul” (1876) (Pages of the cultural history of Târgovişte. The cultural
society “Progresul”, 1876), in: Victor Petrescu, Mihai Oproiu, Constantin Manolescu,
Târgoviştea culturală. Studii. Articole. Note (Cultural Târgovişte. Studies. Articles),
Editura Bibliotheca, Târgovişte, 2000, pp. 137-138.
2
Ibidem, p. 138; Mihai Oproiu, Dobrin Pârvan, Târgovişte. Oraşul şi împrejurimile sale
între 1821-1918 (Târgovişte. The town and its surroundings between 1821 and 1918), vol.
II, Editura Biblioteca, Târgovişte, 2001, pp. 279-280; For the Cultural Society “Progresul”
(The Progress) of Târgovişte see the Central National Historical Archives (Arhivele
Naţionale Istorice Centrale), Authority of Dâmboviţa County (Direcţia Judeţeană
Dâmboviţa), (henceforth A.N.I.C., D.J.D.) Fond Primăria oraşului Târgovişte (fund:
Târgovişte Town Hall), dosar (file) 79/1876-1877.
147
Besides the activity of “culturalization” undertaken by the Churches
and monasteries, which supported schools and libraries and are
representative in architecture or mural painting, at the beginning of the 19 th
century, a process of effervescence shall begin and continues plentifully
after the 1950s.
Documents kept in the local National Archives, in archives created
by the Prefecture of Dâmboviţa County, by the Town Hall of Târgovişte or
by the local School Committee but also by the schools that are
representative in the cultural landscape of Târgovişte preserve pieces of
information that attest serious cultural preoccupations in the area of this
town and of this county, in general.
The prevailing information, when it comes to the existing situation
of the local education, refers to: construction of new schools or rental of
buildings to be “attested” by commissions caring about pupils’ health, in
agreement with the demands of the Ministry of Education3; need of repairs,
furniture and teachers, which generated a large number of petitions
addressed to the mayor of the town (“door repairs, as the classrooms get
unbearably cold”4; brooms and “ordinary cloth to dust the furniture”, or
“metallic mugs” to drink water5; school whitewashing, floor and window
cleaning, as the headmasters of the Boys’ Schools No.1 and No.2 demanded
- these schools occupied the floor and the upper storey of the same
building6); assuring wood to light the fire was another necessity that the
Town Hall needed to solve, as in the case of the School for Cantors, which,
for the cold weather of the year 1911, requested a fathom of wood7.
3
SJAN Dâmboviţa, Fond Primăria Oraşului Târgovişte, dos.27/1878, f. 3.
Ibidem, f.1.
5
Ibidem, f.5.
6
Ibidem, f.7.
7
Idem, dos.19/1911, f.6.
4
148
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, in town
there were 10 schools running their activity: the 4 grade secondary school,
two schools for girls and two for boys, a school of secondary practice for
girls, founded by Fussea, the school for army assistants of Dealu
Monastery, where in 1912, the Military High School of Dealu Monastery
was founded8, and other schools that had already begun to get open in the
outskirts of the town.
In 1910, the first kindergarten (“grădină de copii mici”) was
opened, too9.
Another quantitatively representative series of documents of those
times, kept in the local archives, reflect the interest in the books needed to
award the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize at each school, at the end of a school year
(for example, the headmaster of “I.Văcărescu” Primary and Secondary
School handed over to the mayor a clear list of the books that needed to be
purchased, some of them being Nine Stories for Children (“Nouă istorioare
pentru copii”), The Two Sisters (“Cele două surori”), The Christian Family
(“Familia creştină”), The Nightingale (“Privighetoarea”) etc., worth 0.70
lei each 10.
The petitions addressed to the Town Hall also concern other aspects
of the cultural life of Târgovişte, for example the holding of certain courses
or the organization of exhibitions, for whose good running it was required
to assure the necessary space11, the organization in Târgovişte of congresses
or conferences of the personnel in education (for example, at the 8 th
8
Fr. Dr. C.Niţescu, Mănăstirea Dealu şi Liceul Militar “N.Filipescu” (Dealu Monastery
and the “N. Filipescu” Military High School), Tgv., 1932, pp. 60-74.
9
Xxx, Şcoala generală “Vasile Cârlova” (“Vasile Cârlova Primary and Secondary School),
Tgv., 1976, pp.70-74.
10
11
Idem, dos.106/1978, f. 4.
149
Romanian Primary Teachers’ Congress /Congres al Învăţătorilor din
România, August 1911, for whose organization, the mayor Gonzalv Ionescu
asked the local butchers, bakers and bar-owners to provide “enough food
for 2000 people”12, or the congress of the “Orientalists of Rome”, of 1899,
attended among others by Smaranda Gheorghiu (Mother Smara)13.
The organization of the local museums starts timidly, with a
numismatic mini-collection, at the “Ienăchiţă Văcărescu” Primary and
Secondary School, due to the personality of D.Papazoglu and the donation
made by Fussea in 1911, who donated his houses and goods, where the
History Museum was established14.
The important figures of the local and national culture were given
their due importance by placing their statues in the town squares (I.H.
Rădulescu, Gr. Alexandrescu, Tudor Vladimirescu – situated in front of the
Metropolitan Church, owing to the efforts of Mother Smara 15.
The same cultural set included the settlement of different, numerous
societies, according to what the documents indicate – “Progresul” (The
Progress), with a role in the editing of the newspapers “Armonia”
(Harmony), “Progresul” (The Progress) or “Unirea” (The Union); “Liga
Culturală din Târgovişte” (The Cultural League of Târgovişte);
“Târgoviştea” - 191016, aiming to preserve and maintain the historical
monuments; “Năluca” – a gymnastics society, founded in 1907; “Societatea
Corpului Didactic din Târgovişte” (The Society of the Teaching Staff of
Târgovişte), aiming to create a school for adults, in town17.
12
Idem, dos.21/1911, f. 1-5.
Oproiu Mihai, Dobrin Pârvan, Târgovişte, vol.II, Tgv., 2001, p. 290.
14
Ibidem, p. 303.
15
Mihai Oproiu, Op.cit.,p. 321.
16
Ibidem, p. 286.
17
13
150
We also need to mention the innumerable petitions regarding the
execution of different repair works, demolitions or the building or new
churches, the announcements regarding the events occasioned by the
celebration of Their Royal Majesties, and the numeorus petitions requesting
space or authorization for the organization of different shows, masquerades
or cinema projections18.
Bibliography:
***, 1910, Statutele Societăţii “Târgoviştea” (Statuses of “Târgoviştea” Society),.
***, 1972 “Acta Valachica”.
***, 1976, Şcoala generală “Vasile Cârlova” (“Vasile Cârlova” School), Târgovişte.
***, 1980-1981, “Valachica”, nr. 12-13, Târgovişte.
IANCU, Maria, 1974, Liceul Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, monografie (Ienăchiţă
Văcărescu High School monograph), Târgovişte.
NIŢESCU, Fr. Dr. C., 1932. Mănăstirea Dealu şi Liceul Militar “N.Filipescu”
(Dealu Monastery and the N. Filipescu Military High School), Târgovişte.
OPROIU, Mihai; PÂRVAN Dobrin, 2001, Târgovişte, vol. II, Târgovişte.
SJAN Dâmboviţa, Fond Comitetul Şcolar al Oraşului Târgovişte (papers of
the School Committee of Târgovişte).
SJAN Dâmboviţa, Fond Prefectura Judeţului Dâmboviţa (papers of
Dâmboviţa County Prefecture).
SJAN Dâmboviţa, Fond Primăria Oraşului Târgovişte (papers of
Târgovişte Town Hall).
18
Idem, dos. 37/1878, f. 3, dos. 91/1878, f. 8 şi 42, dos.10/1912, f. 4 şi 15.
151

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