I made a faux paux the other day, responding to Martí Cabré. S/he (as I plunge headlong into another one!) copied a photo I took of an art installation in Istanbul last summer. I was curious. The photo is evocative and in fact reminded me of the struggle some of my juniors are having letting go of being told in order to risk reaching out on their own terms. When I clicked through to see Martí’s post, I discovered text in a foreign language and – for some reason – assumed the language was French. I am not sure why, as I do have a passing familiarity with Spanish; had I looked I would probably have made that (just as egregious an) error. At least, my good friend the Wanokip tells me, French and Catalan are both Latin languages.
What I realized, heart-in-mouth, was that I did not “look.” My eyes glanced over the unfamiliar script and bounced off, catching no friction. What would have held me was not (in this instance) any quality inherent to the language or the medium (internet computer screen). I was in a hurry. My mind
Catalan, not French
by Steph • October 8th, 2007
on being an ally
by Steph • October 7th, 2007
Anne Fadiman‘s “in” to a Hmong family’s view of their tragic encounter with the U.S. medical system was accomplished via two crucial individuals: an American psychologist and a Hmong-English interpreter. Dr. Sukey Walker explains why the Hmong community respects her:
“The Hmong and I have a lot in common. I have an anarchist sub-personality. I don’t like coercion. I also believe that the long way around is often the shortest way from point A to point B. And I’m not very interested in what is generally called the truth. In my opinion, consensual reality is better than facts.” (p. 95)
“Consensual reality is better than facts” strikes me as a way of articulating the value of intentional, conscious co-creation of meaning. Dr. Walker’s crucial advice to Ms. Fadiman is to find a qualified interpreter:
“…in [Dr. Walker’s] opinion,” writes Fadiman, ” someone who merely converted Hmong words into English, however accurately, would be of no help to me whatsoever. ‘I don’t call my staff interpreters,’ she told me. ‘I call them cultural brokers. They teach me. When I don’t know what to do, I ask them. You should go find yourself
Read Moremore of this
by Steph • October 6th, 2007
In keeping with Kenneth Burke’s mission to purify war, the use of social science to shift problem-solving from violence to conversation is a welcome development.
Burke says, “language… [is] the ‘critical moment’ at which human motives take form” (from GM 318, in Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism by Robert Wess).
Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones, a feature story from the NYTimes, has demonstrated the “ability to understand subtle points of tribal relations,” enabling soldiers “to focus more on improving security, health care and education for the population.”
This kind of humanitarian army is the cooperation that our world needs. We must learn to eat with our enemies. Liberal leftists (I assume?) are criticizing the experimental military program for institutionalizing yet another way to coerce local peoples to accept occupation. My initial lean, however, is that the military does not “‘yet have the skill sets to implement’ a coherent nonmilitary strategy,” as explained by United Nations’ official Tom Gregg (download a Real Audio interview by CBC radio, June 2007). One of the critics, Roberto, J. González, might characterize himself as an empowered critic of western domination. He is of course correct that the military machines have
no mother tongue?
by Steph • October 5th, 2007
“My best language is my third…”
Rhona Trauvitch complicates the usual equation that the first language learned establishes cultural ways of thought. Her spoken English rarely evinces signs indicative of a non-native user, although the trace of an accent suggests she did not learn English in the U.S. or United Kingdom.
We spoke after our professor promised to make her famous. Stephen introduced us to the thought of Matteo Bartoli, the figural teacher of Antonio Gramsci.
“Bartoli says all languages are the result of sociocultural conflict. Words are in competition with one another; words and languages are grammatical structures in competition with each other and cannot coexist: language is a battleground. There is always conflict between languages, and conflict within languages. Conflict conflict conflict, that’s what language is and what language is about. Words are always vying for position in language. [Bartoli] does not mean disembodied words, but that what we are doing in language is deciding ‘what will be the word for this? what will resonate?’” {From notes typed during lecture.]
Bartoli called his work neolinguistics, and then spatial linguistics. His phrase, “pattern of irradiations” caught my attention. Whatever the limitations of mathematical
Read Moreresearching the edges
by Steph • October 1st, 2007
I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where edges meet.
Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.
1997. (Preface, p. viii.)
The Review linked above does criticize Fadiman for overromanticizing some aspects of Hmong culture, history, and customs; what reviewer Mai Na M. Lee calls “the bigger issues.” In particular, she criticizes Fadiman’s conclusion that Hmong are “differently ethical.” The phrasing itself is curious, requiring some serious parsing. The way I read the phrase, Fadiman is asserting that ethics are as foundational and valued among the Hmong as within any people. The use of “differently” (instead of the starker label of “different”) – refers to the ethics being performed or based “in a different manner.” It seems to me this opens up comparision on the basis of more, rather then less, similarity. Dr. Lee did not read the phrase this way, interpreting its meaning as more distancing (differencing?) than joining.
Dr. Lee has the benefit of context; I have not yet read that far. There is a Bakhtinian movement discernable here: the counterplay of centripetal and centrifugal forces in the utterances of
i think contiguously
by Steph • September 18th, 2007
Seriously! Roman Jakobson (Prague School Linguist, functionalist), describes a kind of aphasia that brings the distinctions between metaphoric and metonymic speech. Metaphoric speech operates by substitution – you say something, I say something about another thing that reminds me of that thing you said – it “re-fills” the same space by replacement of an equivalent. Metonymic speech jumps levels, instead of substitution, you say something, and I say something related in terms of meaning but operating at a different position within a realist hierarchy.
While reading The metaphoric and metonymic poles today (subsequent to a few other articles, too) I became convinced that simultaneous interpreters can orient themselves to the performance of interpretation as verbal art, possibly even a kind of poetry. Some already do, but I think these are possibly a minority? Or, perhaps the dominant paradigm prevents full admission of the poetic latitude often exercised. 🙂
reducing art to programming :-(
by Steph • September 16th, 2007
I have a mixed reaction, leaning to the negative, concerning news of a software translation program for British Sign Language. The avatars look cool, and the idea is neat, but I cannot imagine that Artificial Intelligence has suddenly improved so much that the translations represent a wide swath of potential meanings instead of a cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all reduction to dictionary definitions.
I was surprised at the endorsement from the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID), until I looked at their website. I admit, I have not looked all that closely and do not know any contextualizing history…but the RNID is registered as a charity and the products on the home page are geared to late-deafened and hard-of-hearing people, not the culturally Deaf who use BSL as their native language.
In other words, the avatar system might work just fine for people using BSL now but whose first language is English. Notice the difference in the homepage of the British Deaf Association Sign Community. In fact, looking at their internal link on language, I’d say it looks like the most useful thing allies and advocates can do is make BSL legal and – therefore – subject to anti-discrimination law.
BSL
Read Morebilingual announcement (Spanish/English)
by Steph • September 10th, 2007
2007 Ct River Cleanup — Holyoke
You’re invited! Canoes, kayaks, riverbank scrambling, scuba divers — and a
river left cleaner than when we arrived! (To continue reading this in English, please look further down!)
Limpieza del Rio Connecticut de 2007 — Holyoke
¡Ud. Está Invitado a Participar! Canoas, kayac, cruzando la orilla del río, buzos – ¡y un río más limpio de que cuando llegamos a hacer la limpieza!
La 11a Anual Limpieza del Río Connecticut “Source to Sea” – Patrocinado en cuatro estados por el Concilio de la Cuenca del Río Connecticut y por New England Family Farms Milk, y aquí en Holyoke por los Amigos del Río de Holyoke.
La limpieza “Source to Sea” es un evento annual de un solo día que tomará lugar desde el norte de New Hampshire hasta el océano, organizado por el Concilio de la Cuenca del Río Connecticut, y por comunidades locales a lo largo del Río Connecticut y sus afluentes.
Los Amigos del Río de Holyoke participarán en la Limpieza “Source to Sea” el sábado, 29 de septiembre de 2007. Estamos trabajando juntos con el Club de Buceo del Pioneer Valley, Appalachian Mountain Club Berkshire chapter, y otras organizaciones locales y personas de la comunidad. Nuestro foco
Instruction in ASL
by Steph • September 9th, 2007
I should have watched these training clips about using a Blackberry before signing my presentation in class the other day! The discourse structure of ASL is evident in each clip: first, the point, second – the illustration, third, the point again/expanded. One can watch how technical terminology is introduced and then incorporated naturally – with the side effect of contributing to the standardization of new terms in the lexicon. (I notice he does not fingerspell “email” for instance, which will annoy at least a few of my purist friends!) There’s evidence of contextualization: the same sign is used for “escape” and “sprint” – illustrating how meaning coheres in different combinations of signifiers/signifieds within different languages. (Hence, why interpreters, when asked, “What’s the sign for _______?” usually say, “It depends.”) Finally, there is much to notice about the logic of the visual in ASL.
This is an area in which (it seems to me), non-deaf people need serious education. I, myself, am still learning how to shift out of the linearity of sound-based logic to the three-dimensionality of the visual – eighteen years (!) after I began to learn ASL. One of the most
Interpreted Music
by Steph • September 7th, 2007
God is a DJ, by Faithless.
The signer is using British Sign Language (note the two-handed alphabet for “D” and “J”). He seems to rely on a literal translation, taking few liberties with BSL’s capacity to generate meaning beyond the coded English. Since I do not actually know BSL, this is just an impression, but notice the production difference between the song lyrics and the clip of Deaf Britons talking. I’m not referring to the stylistic use of no facial expression – I assume this is an aesthetic choice by the interpreter – rather, the difference in the general animation of the language in use.
Cool. Very very cool. 🙂 Thanks David!
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