• Title/Summary/Keyword: linguistic ideology

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Ideology, Politics, and Social Science Scholarship on the Responsibility of Intellectuals

  • Koerner, E.F.K.
    • Lingua Humanitatis
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    • v.2 no.2
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    • pp.51-84
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    • 2002
  • The 1990s have seen the publication of many books devoted to Language and Ideology (cf. Joseph & Taylor 1990. for one of the early ones) even though the term 'ideology' itself has remained ill-defined (Woolard 1998). The focus of attention has usually been placed on the particular use of language and often for some kind of 'political' ends, not on linguistic or other scholarship which might have been driven by some sort of ideology, i.e., a bundle of assumptions which themselves were taken as given. At least since Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism, it has been clear to everyone that scholars construct their conceptualization of things in line with their understanding of the cultural, social, and political world in which they live, and that this often unreflected 'pre-understanding' effects their view of cultures that are different from theirs and more often than not geographically and temporally distant from theirs. This recognition has had a sobering effect no doubt, and Said's book has long since become 'mainstream.' Much more disturbing to the scholarly profession has been the publication of Martin Bernal's Black Athena in 1987, since it went much further, going beyond accusations of colonialism and cultural bias, in suggesting that the Western representation of Classical Greece over the past two hundred years was false and that what had been accepted until now about occidental antiquity must now be seen derived from African-Asiatic cultures of the Near East, notably that of the Ancient Egyptians, and that no other than Socrates should be seen as black man. While we may understand the intellectual climate in the United States that led academics to present 'myth as history' (Lefkowitz 1996), it is obvious that lines of regular scholarly principles of investigation have been crossed (cf Lefkowitz & Rogers 1996). The present paper investigates what may be seen as the ideological underpinnings of such work. After reviewing some recent scholarship in the area of linguistic historiography that have shown that academic work has never been 'value-neutral' (as may have been assumed or has been claimed by some practitioners), it is argued that in effect one must be aware of what Clemens Knobloch has recently termed Resonanzbedarf, i.e., the desire, whether conscious or not, of scholars-and probably scientists, too-to have their work recognized by the educated public and that, in so doing, their discourses tend to pick up on contemporary popular notions. These efforts may be harmless if everyone was to recognize these allusions and adoption of certain lexical. items(buzz words) as props or what Germans call Versatzstiicke, but history tells us that this has not always been the case. Still, as Hutton (1999) has shown, not all scholarship during the Third Reich for example can simply be dismissed as worthless because it was conducted in under a prevailing political ideology. Indeed, in seemingly innocent times, linguists can be shown to frame their argument in a way that makes them appear so utterly superior to their predecessors (cf. Lawson 2001). Upon closer inspection, those discourses turn out to be much like those of scholars in nationalistic environments that have tended to select their 'facts' to prove a particular hypothesis (cf., e.g., Koerner 2001). The article argues for scholars to take a more active role in exploding myths, scientifically unfounded claims, and ideologically driven distortions, especially those that are socially and politically harmful.

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A Computer-Aided Text Analysis to Explore Recruitment and Intellectual Polarization Strategies in ISIS Media

  • Khafaga, Ayman Farid
    • International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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    • v.22 no.8
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    • pp.87-96
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    • 2022
  • This paper employs a computer-aided text analysis (CATA) and a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to explore the strategies of recruitment and intellectual polarization in ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) media. The paper's main objective is to shed light on the efficacy of employing computer software in the linguistic analysis of texts, and the extent to which CATA software contribute to deciphering hidden meanings of texts as well as to arrive at concise and authentic results from these texts. More specifically, this paper attempts to demonstrate the contribution of CATA software represented in the two variables of Frequency Distribution Analysis (FDA) and Content Analysis (CA) in decoding the strategies of recruitment and intellectual polarization in one of ISIS 's digital publication: Rumiyah (a digital magazine published by ISIS). The analytical focus is on three strategies of recruitment and intellectual polarization: (i) lexicalization, (ii) intertextual religionisation, and (iii) justification. Two main findings are revealed in this study. First, the application of CATA software into the linguistic investigation of texts contributes effectively to the understanding of the thematic and ideological messages pertaining to the analyzed text. Second, the computational analysis guarantees concise, credible, authentic and ample results than is the case if the analysis is conducted without the work of computer software. The paper, therefore, recommends the integration of CATA software into the linguistic analysis of the various types of texts.

A Corpus-Based Longitudinal Study of Diction in Chinese and British News Reports on Chang'e Project

  • Lu, Rong;Xie, Xue;Qi, Jiashuang;Ali, Afida Mohamad;Zhao, Jie
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.1-20
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    • 2022
  • As a milestone progression in China's space exploration history, Chang'e Project has attracted a lot of media attention since its first launching. This study aims to examine and compare the similarities and differences between the Chinese media and the British media in using nouns, verbs, and adjectives to report the Chang'e Project. After categorising the documents based on specific project phases, we created two diachronic corpora to explore the linguistic shifts and similarities and differences of diction employed by the Chinese and British media on the Chang'e Project ideology. This longitudinal study was performed with Lancsbox and the CLAWS web tagger through critical discourse analysis as the theoretical framework. The findings of the current study showed that the Chang'e Project coverage in both media increased on an annual basis, especially after 2019. In contrast to the objectivity and positivity in the Chinese Media, the British Media seemed to be more subjective with more appraisal adjectives in the news reports. Nonetheless, both countries were trying to be objective and formal in choosing nouns and verbs. Ideology-wise, the Chinese news media reports portrayed more positivity on domestic circumstances while the British counterpart was typically more critical. Notably, the study outcomes could catalyse future research on the Chang'e Project and facilitate diplomatic policies.

Symbolic Meanings of The TV Commercials for Korean School Uniforms -Focus on CF Since 2000- (국내 교복브랜드 TV 광고에 나타난 상징적 의미 분석 -2000년 이후 광고를 중심으로-)

  • Han, Cha-Young;Namgung, Yun-Sun
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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    • v.31 no.1 s.160
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    • pp.11-20
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    • 2007
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the various signs seen on TV commercials for school uniforms since year 2000, thus uncovering the connotative meanings in them. For this study, the semiotic approach has been used. The signs seen on the TV commercials are separated into linguistic and visual signs. They are found to have symbolic connotations. The results are as follows: First, there are plenty of signs expressing the sense of belonging to the student group and sense of conformity to his or her peer group. They are intended to garner their collective identity in the peer group of teenagers. Second, the TV commercials express the self that is realizing one's value dynamically. The frequent designation of 'I', 'me' and 'myself' represents that I am at the center of the world. Furthermore, the suggestion of diverse student roles beyond mere academic pursuits symbolically shows the ideal self that most teenagers wish to have. Third, the TV commercials implied a commercial ideology. That is expressed in the emphasis on aesthetic value that teenagers can realize their self only by consuming expensive school uniform brands. Forth, there are many signs related to appearance and appearance care. They are expressed with very specific signs such as 3 : 7 proportion, long legs, small face, and so on. Repeating or emphasizing the importance of looks and a certain brand name as the tool to accomplish better looks indicates that it contains the ideology of appearance management.

Displacement of the Korean Language and the Aesthetics of the Korean Diaspora (한국어의 탈지역과 한국적 이산의 미학)

  • Yim, Jin-Hee
    • Journal of English Language & Literature
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    • v.54 no.1
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    • pp.149-167
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    • 2008
  • Korea has persisted in the notion of "ethnic nationalism." That is "one race, one people, one language" as a homogeneous entity. This social ideal of unity prevails, even in overseas Korean communities formed by voluntary and involuntary displacement in the turmoil of modern history: communities made intermittent with the Japanese colonial occupation and with postcolonial encounters with the West. Given that the Korean people suffered from the trauma of deprivation of the language caused by the loss of the nation, nation has been equated with the language. Accordingly, "these bearers of a homeland" are also firm Korean language holders. The linguistic patriotism of unity based on the intertwining of "mother tongue" and "father country" has become prevalent in the collective memory of the people of the Korean diaspora. Korean American literature has grappled with this concept of the national history of Korea and the Korean language. The aesthetics of Korean American literature has been marked by an influx of literary resources of 'Korea' in sensibilities and structure of feelings; Korean myth, folk lore, songs, humor, traditional stories, manners, customs and historic moments. An experimental use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, written down as pronounced, provides an ethnic flavor in the midst of the English texts. Despite its national framework of mind, however, Korean American literature as an interstitial art reveals a keen awareness of inbetweenness, and transnational hybrid identities. By exploring the complex interrelationships of cultural and linguistic boundary-crossing practices in Korean American literature, this paper argues that the poetics of the Korean diaspora challenges the closed structure of identity formation, and offers a transnational sphere to deconstruct a rigidly demarcated national ideology of "one race, one people, one language," for the world literary history.

Paradox of the Multiculture-oriented TV Programs - Double-faced Phenomenon of Multicultural Traits and Sexuality in the Program of KBS-TV (다문화성 TV 방송 프로그램의 패러독스 - KBS-TV의 <미녀들의 수다>에 내재된 '다문화성'과 '섹슈얼리티'의 혼재성)

  • Baek, Seon-Gi;Hwang, Woo-Seop
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.45
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    • pp.255-295
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    • 2009
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate how much multi-cultural traits the multiculture-oriented TV programs would have and how they tended to represent it with what kinds of meaning structures. As an object of this study, the authors chose the Program of KBS-TV which had been discussed seriously to raise a multi-cultural issue as well as a sexuality issue of lady guests. They collected 70 weekly programs from Nov. 26 of 2006 to March 31, 2008, and finally selected and analyzed 5 weekly programs as main analytic data. They tried to analyze them with various semiotic research methods, especially, linguistic semiotic research methods and pictorial research methods. As results of this study, it was found that this Program was based on multiful-levels of meaning structure: that is, superficial level, representation level and in-depth level. The superficial level of this program presented various multi-cultural traits through many and various talks of lady guests. Its representation level indicated some patterns of discourses about issues and agendas of the talks among lady guests. The in-depth level was based on the sexuality of lady guests as well as the male-dominant ideology. It was finally implicated that this Program was based on the sexuality and feminity of lady guests even though it tried to advocate its multi-cultural traits.

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A Theoretical Construction for the Cultural-Political Study on the Place Names in Korea (한국 지명의 문화정치적 연구를 위한 이론의 구성)

  • Kim, Sun-Bae;Ryu, Je-Hun
    • Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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    • v.43 no.4
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    • pp.599-619
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    • 2008
  • Korean peninsula has a long history and a geopolitical location as a buffer tone, which has provided the conditions for cultural dynamism and diversity across space and time. The changing processes of place names in Korea is considered to be better suited to the study on cultural politics that is interested in the culture wars over the meaning of culture among different social subjects. In order to ensure the legitimacy of cultural politics for the study of place names in Korea, this study attempts to make a theoretical construction based on the concepts of place identity, territorial contestation, and the politics of scale. Cultural and linguistic theories to be best applied to the study of place names in Korea are the theories on Angehm's and Castells' identity, $P{\hat{e}}cheux's$ identification, Hall's decoding, and Voloshinov's ideological sign. Power relations involved in the inclusion and exclusion are necessarily concerned with the process of constructing a place identity or territorial identity by means of a place name, which represents identity and ideology of a social subject. In the examination of this process, it is necessary to take the elements of identity, ideology and power relations into consideration. In this study, therefore, the politics of scale is experimented for its applicability in the study of place name in Korea, which is expected to accommodate concepts of boundary, territory, territoriality and territorialization. In the end, it is suggested in this study that a series of basic and interdisciplinary studies on the cultural politics of place names in a range of area should be undertaken along with the enough theoretical knowledge of cultural politics.

Mobilization of Gookmin, Formation of 'Gookmin': A Historical Study of the Discourse of 'Gookmin' in Korea (국리의 동원, '국민'의 형성: 한국사회 '국민' 담론의 계보학)

  • Jeon, Gyu-Chan
    • Korean journal of communication and information
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    • v.31
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    • pp.261-293
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    • 2005
  • This article aims at investigating the origin of 'gookmin', which is currently working as the dominant discourse and leading identity in the South Korean society. Like 'nation', 'people' or/and 'citizen', the term of 'gookmin' is a very much particular and historical outcome of the colonial modernity. Nevertheless, however, there have been not so much serious socio-linguistic, cultural-political studies about its root. It is theoretically as well as practically quite important to trace back the birth of 'gookmin', which is working as an ideological, epistemological frame in/between subject and reality. In this regard, this article will consider the late Japanese colonial period as a key period of the birth of 'gookmin'. It will then critically scrutinize how the total mobilization system by adopted the colonial government has formed the discourse and subjectivity of 'gookmin' based on various physical apparatuses. By revealing that a totalistic nation/state of Japanese colonialism is behind 'gookmin', which wanted to mobilize every individuals into a so-called article of empire, this article tries to show the fascist and propaganda nature of 'gookmin' continuing even after the liberation. As a historical-materialist work of deconstruction the dominant discourse of 'gookmin', this study will basically take a cultural studies approach.

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A Study on Genre Knowledge for Teaching Classical Korean Novels: Analyzing "Register" in Sohyeonsungrok (고전 국문 장편 소설 교육을 위한 장르 지식 연구 -<소현성록>의 '사용역(register)' 분석을 중심으로-)

  • Jeong, Bo-mi
    • Journal of Korean Classical Literature and Education
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    • no.34
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    • pp.5-39
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    • 2017
  • The purpose of this study is to establish genre knowledge that can be used to study classical Korean novels. Genre knowledge is important because it characterizes individual works based on their knowledge, as well as organically links them with the social context. In this study, I suggest that long classical Korean novels with similar contents can be analyzed using genre knowledge and analyze the "register" of the representative work Sohyeonsungrok as an example of a classical Korean novel. In the Sydney school, register connects genre and language. Register comprises field, tenor, and mode in the social context, and ideological meaning, interpersonal meaning, and textual meaning through language. These three meanings help us to understand how experiences are transformed into language, the relationship between participants, and the way a text is organized. Based on these frameworks, this study reveals that the linguistic features of Sohyeonsungrok is "an attitude that accepts a wide range of human emotions and desires and steadily waits for it to be included in norms." Classic Korean novels such as Sohyeonsungrok depict characters who are not wicked even though they cannot fully comply with social norms, and thereby create sympathy for family members living through Confucian ideology. This genre knowledge is useful for understanding the ideological implications of classical Korean novels.

A historical study on the flexibility square-format typeface and the prospects - Focused on the three-pairs fonts of hangeul - (탈네모글꼴에 관한 역사적 연구와 전망 - 세벌식 한글 글꼴을 중심으로 -)

  • Yu, Jeong-Mi
    • Archives of design research
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    • v.19 no.2 s.64
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    • pp.241-250
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    • 2006
  • Hangeul as the Korean unique characters were invented according to some character-making principles and based on scholars' exhaustive researches. While most of the characters in the world evolved naturally, Hangeul was invented based on a precise linguistic analysis of the time, and therefore, it is most scientific and reasonable among various characters throughout the world. Nevertheless, Hangeul typeface designs do not seem to inherit the ideology of scientific and reasonable Hangeul correctly. For the square forms have been used intact due to the influences from the Chinese characters which prevailed during the time. If a single set of square characters should be designed, as much as 11,172 fonts should be designed, which suggests that advantages of Mangeul may not well be used fully; Hangeul was invented to visualize every sound with the combinations of 28 vowels and consonants. Problems of such square fonts began to be identified since 1900's when typewriters were introduced first from the West. Since a typewriter is designed with 28 characters laid out on its keyboard by using such combinations, the letters may be easily combined on it. The so-called the flexibility square-format typeface was born as such. Specially, the three-pairs fonts of these can be combined up to 67 letters including vowels and consonants. The three-pairs fonts system can help to solve the problems arising form the conventional square fonts and inherit the original ideology of Hangeul invention. This study aims to review the history of the three-pairs fonts designs facilitated by mechanic encoding of Hangeul and thereupon, suggest some desirable directions for future Hangeul fonts. Since the flexibility square-format typeface is expected to evolve more and more owing to development of the digital technology, they would serve our age of information in terms of both functions and convenience. Just as Hunminjongum tried to be literally independent from the Chinese characters, so the flexibility square-format typeface designs would serve to recover identity of our Hangeul font designs.

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