Language, Culture, Identity: Between Ethnolinguistics and Ethnomethodology [1 ed.] 9783737015745, 9783847115748

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Interdisziplinäre Verortungen der Angewandten Linguistik

Band 9

Herausgegeben von Sylwia Adamczak-Krysztofowicz, Silvia Bonacchi, Przemysław Ge˛bal, Jarosław Krajka, Łukasz Kumie˛ga und Hadrian Lankiewicz

Die Bände dieser Reihe sind peer-reviewed.

Maria Banas´ / Grzegorz Wlaz´lak (eds.)

Language, Culture, Identity Between Ethnolinguistics and Ethnomethodology

With 3 figures

V&R unipress

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über https://dnb.de abrufbar. © 2023 Brill | V&R unipress, Robert-Bosch-Breite 10, D-37079 Göttingen, ein Imprint der Brill-Gruppe (Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Niederlande; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Deutschland; Brill Österreich GmbH, Wien, Österreich) Koninklijke Brill NV umfasst die Imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, V&R unipress und Wageningen Academic. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Das Werk und seine Teile sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung in anderen als den gesetzlich zugelassenen Fällen bedarf der vorherigen schriftlichen Einwilligung des Verlages.

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage | www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com ISSN 2749-0211 ISBN 978-3-7370-1574-5

Contents

Acknowledgements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

List of common abbreviations

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Maria Banas´ / Grzegorz Wlaz´lak Chapter 1 – Preliminary considerations and state of art

15

. . . . . . . . . .

17

Tomasz Burzyn´ski Chapter 2 – The dialogicality of identity. The self as a theatrical performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

27

Iwona Dronia / Paweł Zakrajewski Chapter 3 – Maintaining respectful (?) communication by Generation Z students. The case of written discourse in the academic settings . . . . . .

37

Małgorzata Godlewska Chapter 4 – Cultural conceptualization of humour in audiovisual translation: subtitling the American series Big Little Lies . . . . . . . . . .

59

Agnieszka Gwiazdowska Chapter 5 – “Tell me what phraseology you use, and I’ll tell you who you are.” Some remarks concerning the diatopic variation and cultural diversity of the Spanish language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

Marcin Kuczok Chapter 6 – The semantics of bodily fluids in Biblical Hebrew and contemporary English: A contrastive study from the cognitive-linguistic perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Contents

Hadrian Lankiewicz Chapter 7 – Found in hybridity: Translingual practices of a plurilingual in the context of linguistic identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Rafał Krzysztof Matusiak Chapter 8 – Linguistic and cultural identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Anna Szkonter-Bochniak / Joanna Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙ Chapter 9 – Does the reader really have to understand everything? The role and scope of paratexts in the translation of cultural elements on the example of the Polish translation of Made in Mauritius by Amal Sewtohul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Mikołaj Woz´niak Chapter 10 – Intercultural competence in business: on the use of tools of bridging cultural gaps on the example of Polish managers working with Chinese teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Notes on Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Marie-Carolin Vondracek and the entire team of the series editors at V&R unipress for their assistance and accepting the volume to be included in the current series on Interdisciplinary Approaches in Applied Linguistics, Prof. Przemysław E. Ge˛bal among others. We are also very grateful to all contributors for their work and cooperation during the publication process, as well as to all reviewers for the insightful comments and suggestions. We would like to use this occasion to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported this effort, notably Magdalena Szymura PhD, Professor at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, who is the head of the Applied Linguistics Department. We owe special thanks to Prof. Małgorzata Fabiszak, from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan´, for scrutinizing the whole work with invaluable remarks. We are grateful to many fellow linguists and friends for inspiring discussions, fruitful comments, and native language intuitions. We wish to thank the institutions that provided financial support for this edition; we also wish to thank V&R for timely technical support and for a brilliant job of editing.

Introduction

Until recently, sociolinguistics has expanded its core interest in the field of micro- and macrolinguistic research, where the former concentrates on the relationship of language and society with its representatives, and the latter encompasses highly developed theory of language ideology and policy of education, including language variation, language change and varieties to elucidate their ethnicity and identity status. Enriched by ethnolinguistics and ethnomethodology, current sociolinguistic research challenges recent developments in discourse analysis, pragmatics and cultural theories with the latest discussion on the issues of conversation, mediation, negotiation and manipulation. The leading approach is to focus on how ‘we perform identity with words (rather than reflect identities in language)’ (Pennycook 2007, p. 71). This intercultural and interdisciplinary approach has become a central methodology of modern linguistic studies that yields tangible effects in the fields of education and linguistic policy, ethnicity, multiculturalism and language diversity of contemporary societies. Within this methodological framework, historical background, social hierarchy, patterns of internal and external interaction and ideology all help determine the construction of ethnolinguistic identity (Denton 2002). Originally, ethnolinguistics with its ethnometodology was not an independent field of scientific study but was subject to other disciplines, for instance, sociology and anthropology as a tool for examining cultural differences as well as uniqueness. In linguistics, the study of ethnolinguistics evolves as a branch of science which needs an interdisciplinary account of sociopragmatics (Llamas, Mullany and Stockwell 2007). The joint research effort formed this book out of the belief that language and linguistic inquiry is the place for scholars of varied disciplines: linguists, sociologists, anthropologists and educationalists. Thus, this volume includes 10 chapters that are the result of research by the authors from various scientific centers in Poland. They concentrate on aspects of contemporary linguistics, socio- and ethnolinguistics in particular, deciphering and culturally interpreting the systems of values fixed in each language and the ways of ordering the elements of extralinguistic reality.

10

Introduction

The texts gathered in the present monograph attempt to take diverse perspectives to analyse and interpret selected phenomena, based on current state of art. This vast interpretative perception stretches from the modern European and American conceptualisations of the societal identity (chapter 1,2,3), through the extralinguistic reality hidden behind the language expressions and phraseology (4,5,6) in order to complete this image with the insightful presentation of various linguistic diaspora (7,8,9). Sociopragmatic and ethnolinguistic considerations in chapters 1,7,9 and 10 accomplish this attempt to represent the leading themes of modern linguistic studies. Due to diverse methodological and empirical perspectives that are employed in the present monograph – from socioand ethnolinguistic issues through (inter)cultural and communication studies to translatology, the editors decided to arrange the chapters in an alphabetical order according to the authors’ names. The book is structured as follows: Chapter 1, written by the editors, contains literature overview and current state of art on the concepts of identity, ethnolinguistics and ethnomethodology. Chapter 2 raises the topic of human identity and subjectivity from the position of sociolinguistics, this time in terms of social communication and cultural production as a processual entity. Its author, Tomasz Burzyn´ski from the University of Silesia, employs the legacies of Goffman’s (1959) ethnomethodology, Bakhtinian (1986) sociolinguistics, and Giddens’s (1991) structuration theory in order to conceptualize individual identity within a sociological model. The title of the text, “The Dialogicality of Identity. The Self as a Theatrical Performance”, implies varied models of identity formation in which societal situatedness of self-presentation and the linguistic, or textual, nature of one’s self-concept are intertwined to produce a sociological metaphor of theatrical performance. The text itself makes a valuable opening contribution to the theme in the present collection. Two authors from the University of Silesia, Iwona Dronia and Paweł Zakrajewski, attempt to define politeness in social communication when analyzing cross-cultural interpretations of respectful behavior. They raise the question of “Maintaining respectful? communication by Generation Z students. The case of written discourse in the academic settings”, concentrating mostly on the addressative forms of the students towards the faculty members in their correspondence. The authors exploit the topic based on the extensive corpus resources of academic correspondence and language, seeking the most pervasive patterns. According to their findings, the area which needs detailed investigation is the sociopragmatic failure which probably results from cross-cultural differences; in this case, cross-culturally different assessments of relative power and social distance (cf. Woz´niak on Hofstede’s (2011) model in this volume, chapter 10) among the lecturers and their students. This creates a necessity for scholars, the

Introduction

11

authors argue, to devote more serious attention to the specific study of respect communication across cultures. The author of the next article concentrates on “Cultural conceptualization of humour in audiovisual translation: subtitling the American series Big Little Lies”. Małgorzata Godlewska from University of Gdan´sk espouses two theories of language and culture in Sharifian’s theory of cultural conceptualisations, and Gideon Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies. As an analytical tool, the Jeroene Vandaele’s (2002) superiority-incongruity model of humour is employed in her investigation based on the the first season of the American mini-series, Big Little Lies (2017–2018) directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, focusing on the parts of the subtitled film script, and the translation shifts in the transfer of humour categories in particular. The text itself is an interesting contribution to the translation studies (cf. in this volume, Szkonter-Bochniak and Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙ on literary translation, chapter 9), as it uses the cultural linguistics model to reveal the translators’ reductionistic practices of humour conceptualisation in selected audiovisual segments. The author maintains that such practices may lead to the unintended neutralisation of the characters’ idiolect. Agnieszka Gwiazdowska, from the University of Silesia, presents aspects of the Spanish language in the text titled “‘Tell me what phraseology you use, and I’ll tell you who you are.’ Some Remarks Concerning the Diatopic Variation and Cultural Diversity of the Spanish Language” to show the linguistic and cultural multiplicity of the Spanish-speaking countries with their significant conceptual differences and varieties. This study focused on the polycentrism of Spanish to demonstrate the worldview of Spanish speakers varied cultural backgrounds from an ethnolinguistic perspective. The same element of reality, even in one microsystem such as the broadly understood Spanish language, can be conceptualized in a variety of ways in the metaphorical projection, evoking different mental images. It goes along with another chapter in the present volume, following the premise that the phraseology of a given language shapes the worldview of the community of its users and is a reflection of its identity, customs and values. In a similar vein, “The semantics of bodily fluids in biblical Hebrew and contemporary English: A contrastive study from the cognitive-linguistic perspective” by Marcin Kuczok from the University of Silesia provides analysis of culture specific conceptualisations of metaphor and metonymy, here focused on the semantics of human body, and the assumed polysemy of fluids in phraseological expressions and collocations. These operations contribute to the semantic extensions that contribute to the given language community and their identity, as they appear culture-specific. Thus we find many common senses in both Hebrew and English, related to human fluids, such as blood that stands for life and human being itself, many of these instances being Hebraism or effect of Scrip-

12

Introduction

tures translations. We may claim that those non-literal meanings of bodily fluids can be interpreted as either metaphorical or metonymic extensions of their prototypical, literal senses. The chapter that focuses on the complexity of the linguistic identities of plurilinguals is based on the case study that investigated the subject’s multilingual identity as disclosed through the social practice and interaction. Hadrian Lankiewicz from the University of Gdan´sk in his convincing analysis demonstrates how plurilingual individuals reveal their identity and affiliation through language or translingual activity. The notion of languaging, or/and translanguaging is discussed within a broader spectrum of Applied Linguistics theories and ethnomethodology. It can be argued that translanguaging occurs most frequently on the edges of dominant languages, especially as a communication tool, in conversational contexts and it is an implicit signifier of one’s cultural identity. The ethnolinguistic perception of language is presented as a form of social action, and a form of relating to the world through the social background. Rafał Matusiak from the Silesian University of Technology, in his paper titled: “Linguistic and cultural identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland” continues the theme of translingual acculturation and the notions of ethnicity, linguistic identity, as instantiated by the Ukrainians’ attitudes towards Russian and Polish population, and how the individual attitudes towards the languages and their cultures change under hostile circumstances. The problem of Ukrainian-Russian acculturation is investigated against the background of triune Russian nation with two opposing policies regarding the legal status of the Russian language in Ukraine. The researcher arrives to the conclusion that, in contrast to the immigration-based acculturation of Polish, the process of acculturation of the Russian language among Ukrainians has been rather historically and (cross)culturally conditioned. A multi-cultural and plurilingual overview of literary translation that touches on the theme of identity as well as the search for self in the multi-ethnic society is the leading theme of the next chapter. The authors from two Silesian universities, Anna Szkonter-Bochniak and Joanna Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙, delve into the problem to which degree cultural elements are received by the reader of the translation, as well as the translator’s assessment of the secondary reader’s knowledge of the culture of the original, in order to interpret and adequately adopt the translation strategies. The study is a valuable and genuine contribution to the field of translatology of ethnic literature. The volume closes with the use and usefulness of intercultural competence and acculturation in the business environment of Polish managers working with Chinese co-workers in multinational firms. In the text titled “Intercultural competence in business: on the use of tools of bridging cultural gaps on the example of Polish managers working with Chinese teams” by Mikołaj Woz´niak,

Introduction

13

an independent scholar, the writer attempts to evaluate Hofstede’s (2011) model of cultural dimensions as a tool of facilitating communication between cultures in a business situation. As an analytical tool, Deardorff ’s (2009) model of facilitating communication between cultures in a business situation was applied to the series of interviews with actual individuals. The analysis of the collected interviews confirms that there are indeed strong patterns in terms of both PolishChinese business culture differences, and that the tools of intercultural competence are subconsciously utilized as a template by most of the managers whilst managing a multicultural team. Face Threatening Acts as in Dronia, Zakrajewski (in this volume, chapter 3) make another reference point for the sociopragmatic research in politeness as the continuation of this ethnolinguistic methodology. We hope that the present volume forms a valuable contribution to the studies conducted within the field of contemporary sociolinguistics, and ethnolinguistics in particular, trying to provide new insights into the sphere of current linguistic problems from the perspective of various language and nationalities contexts. Maria Banas´ and Grzegorz Wlaz´lak Gliwice, December 2022

References Bakhtin, Mikhail / Voloshinov, Valentin: Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, tr. L. Matejka and I.R. Titunik. Cambridge MA 1986. Llamas, Carmen, Mullany Louise and Stockwell Peter (Eds.): The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. Oxon 2007. Deardorff, Darla: The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks 2009. Giddens, Anthony: Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford 1991. Goffman, Erving: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York 1959. Hofstede, Geert: ‘Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context’. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2011/2 (1). Luckmann, Thomas/ Berger Peter: ‘Social mobility and personal identity’. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie/Europäisches Archiv Für Soziologie,vol. 5,no. 2,1964, pp. 331–44. Denton, Mendoza N.: ‘Language and identity’, in J.K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, Oxford 2002, pp. 475–99. Pennycook, Alastair: The myth of English as an international language. In S. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages, pp. 90–115. Clevedon 2007.

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Introduction

Sharifian, Farzad: Cultural Linguistics. Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2017. Strauss, Anselm L.: ‘Transforming of Identity’; in. Mirrors and Masks by A.L.Strauss. San Francisco 1969. Toury, Gideon: Descriptive Translation Studies and beyond. Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2012. Whorf, Benjamin, L.: Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge 1956. Vallee, Jean-Marc: Big little lies, DVD, 356 m., Home Box Office 2017, (ch. 1–6). Vandaele, Jeroen: ‘Humor Mechanisms in Film Comedy: Incongruity and Superiority’; in: Poetics Today 2002/23 (2): p. 221–249.

List of common abbreviations

AL AV CD CEFR c.f. Dr DTS EFL e. g. EMI et al. FTA ibid. ICT i. e. IT LIW NIK NN NRSV OCC OD p. Pl. pp. PU RQ SBU TL

academic language audiovisual compact disc Common European Framework of Reference for Languages confer, compare doctor descriptive translation studies English as a foreign language for example English medium of instruction and others face threatening acts Internet and Communication Technology that is information technology linguistic image of the world Najwyz˙sza Izba Kontroli /the Supreme Audit Office non-native New Revised Standard Version out of classroom communication Oxford Dictionary page Polish pages phraseological units research question situation-bound utterances target language

Maria Banas´ / Grzegorz Wlaz´lak

Chapter 1 – Preliminary considerations and state of art

1.

Identity: literature overview

The notion of individual identity, according to the classics of contemporary social sciences (e. g. Erving Goffman 1959, Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger 1964, Anselm L. Strauss 1969), seems to be an indispensable, if not essential, conceptual tool in the analyses of the human situation in contemporary society. This notion understood as “a configuration of self-conceptions which originate in social processes” (Luckmann and Berger 1964, p. 334) also becomes indispensable when one tries to understand the key social phenomena of the times. They are, after all, increasingly interconnected by an extended network of economic, political and cultural dependencies expressed in language. In such a world, whole social categories emerge, whose life and work are uprooted from a specific place and the notion of “we” goes beyond the boundaries of a local community. This raises the question of the factors that shape the self in the changing global world of the 21st century, including the categories within which people from different cultural backgrounds define themselves. If progressive globalisation favours the progressive homogenisation of the social world, making it “one”, it raises the case of language, whether it remains the distinguishing element within this homogenised world. Contemporary linguistics, socio- and ethnolinguistics as it were, emphasises the fundamental relationship between language, culture, people and reality. In its original form, this relationship had a three-part form, referring to the title of the book by Benjamin Lee Whorf Language, Thought and Reality (1956). The American scholar assumed that human thinking is closely related to the structure of the language one uses. Thus, language influences the way we think about reality, and the way we think about reality has its reciprocal impact on language, which ultimately affects culture. It is this hypothesis that underlies the theory of cultural linguistics, which does not consider language merely as a means of conveying information, but as a representation of the cultural heritage of a community, information about the ways people perceive the world. In modern

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research practice, ethnolinguistic studies are related to the reconstruction of the linguistic image of the world, and its area of interest includes semantic and grammatical categories of languages, their vocabulary, phraseology, proverbs, metaphors, proper names, and finally speech acts. Such analysis consists of deciphering and culturally interpreting the systems of values fixed in each language, as well as the ways of ordering the elements of extralinguistic reality. Thus, language, culture and identity as the three elements constituting people’s “being” in the world and their mutual relations, dependencies and contexts will constitute the subject of research presented in this study. The aim of this section is to delineate the scope of the notion of ‘identity’ in various fields of study that concern us. According to Norton (1997, p. 410), identity is: how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space and how people understand their possibilities for the future. In the Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics (2007), one may find a category that refers to the sense of being individuals or in groups, whilst, the notion of identity can be split into social and regional identity; there are aspects of social and regional identities, such as social class, age, ethnicity and geographical origin, correlated with diverse linguistic variables in studies of language variation. For some scholars, therefore, identity is seen as a fixed category, however in more recent studies, especially within a social constructionist perspective, identity is perceived as a dynamic concept, something that we actively perform in our daily language production. Historically, sociolinguistic research has been primarily concerned not with identity itself, but with describing and understanding variation in patterns of speech, and what that variation may mean. Sociolinguists have long acknowledged that variation in speech can be used to express social meaning and to ‘signal important information about aspects of speakers’ social identity’ (Eckert 1997, p. 64). Most sociolinguistic research has focused on determining why people speak differently from one another (interspeaker variation) and sometimes differ in their own speech (intraspeaker variation). As a result, it is not unexpected that sociolinguistic perspectives on identity and studies of language variation are closely related, and academics regularly mention both variation and identity when outlining the objectives of their field. (Milroy 1987, Chambers 1995). From the perspective of this discipline’s evolution, the first wave in the study of sociolinguistics employed the traditional methods of survey and quantitative data. The second wave includes ethnographic methods to understand more locally motivated language variations, such as determined by social environment and social structure. It is the third wave that concentrates on intra-speaker evolution and linguistic change, based on the social background, experience as well as motivation, including ethnic variables (Terkourafi 2016, pp. 221–235).

Preliminary considerations and state of art

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Indexicality was another concept in the sociopragmatic field of study to relate the linguistic form to the speakers’ identity, as well as typical communication activities that speakers perform (Milroy 2000), thus creating an association of a language or a linguistic form with some sort of socially meaningful characteristic. Both specific ethnographic research (like Heller 1999) and general theorybuilding work have been motivated by an interest in how people experience the language ideologies that affect them and how they respond in terms of identity (Joseph 2004). According to Mendoza Denton (2002), in the early stages of the discipline, sociolinguistic scholars assigned identification based on social category membership. Identity was seen as a set of broad, unchanging social categories created by researchers, such as social class, age, sex, and race (2007). Because of their standing within the social framework, people were therefore seen as “occupying distinct social identities throughout their lives” (Bucholtz 1999, p. 209). In other words, it was believed that a speaker’s identity as expressed through language was both fixed and the result of certain social interactions. As a result, speakers were also seen as mostly passive, as the by-products of a specific social system, which they would then recreate through their language. By integrating researchers with their communities, ethnographic approaches attempted to comprehend variance more thoroughly by reflecting the perspectives of those communities’ speakers in their analytical frameworks and interpretations, such as Giles (1977) Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT) and Le Page’s research in social psychology (Allan 2016). Over the past few decades, cross-cultural studies of speech patterns have frequently been conceptualized as an “ethnography of speaking” (Hymes 1962). The one-sided search for a universal “logic of conversation” and for “universals of civility” was confronted with a very healthy and necessary viewpoint (see Wierzbicka 2006), presenting a framework within which such an ethnography of thinking might be usefully and methodically explored. The theory of cultural scripts suggests that we go even further and complement the ethnography of speaking with the ethnography of thinking. The “ethnography of social behaviours” in general, as well as the ethnography of speaking, do not, Wierzbicka (2006) claims, constitute alternatives to the ethnography of thinking. The study of social practices, including language practices, is best viewed as an objective to understanding a society’s attitudes and values, Wierzbicka continues. The theory of cultural scripts offers a paradigm that enables us to investigate thinking and speaking as linguistic activities within a cohesive framework, and represents a cognitive approach to culture and society. The concept of cultural scripts blends the particularity, distinctiveness of cultures with human universals (Goddard 2004). One topic that has long been the focus of sociopragmatic research is politeness, broadly defined as polite friendliness and polite formality, and concerned with any behaviour including verbal behaviour of an interlocutor (Allen

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2016, p. 214). Since its publication in 1978, the American linguist Penelope Brown and the British linguist Stephen Levinson’s now classic ‘face-saving’ theory has generated a huge amount of research on politeness. Originally proposed by Brown and Levinson, the relationship between face and identity – which have quite a few commonalities and progressively little distinction between these two terms – is currently a topic of active politeness research, as noted by Wierzbicka. Interesting concerns are raised as regards to the relationship between identity and politeness, as well as whether or not we require the concept of face to understand politeness. Haugh and BargielaChiappini (2010), and Haugh (2013) – see also the chapter by Dronia and Zakrajewski in the current volume – have recently argued for the separation of face from studies on im/politeness. This is in line with an increasing interest in participants’ own experiences. In this situation, revising the connection between face and identity could help us understand the position of politeness study on a new foundation, since these two concepts share many characteristics and they develop in relation to one another. The other set of authors are proponents of the “romantic model,” as described by Polzenhagen and Dirven (2008) and Geeraerts (2003a), in which languages are viewed primarily as a means of expressing cultural identity and as a storehouse of cultural knowledge. According to the romantic model, language serves largely as a way of expressing identity or, in a stronger formulation, as a part of identity (see Crystal 2009). As a result, there is a focus on regional languages and linguistic diversity because this is the domain in which identity is believed to be realized. Global languages are often seen as a threat to local identities and as a method of social exclusion due to their close linkage to global power systems (cf. Ukrainian and Russian relations by Matusiak in the present volume). To sum up, identities such as gender, age, class, ethnic, professional, religious, political as analytical abstractions have no independent existence of their own but exist in living individuals. This suggests that identities are not attached solely to individuals but rather to the multiple social roles or capacities in which they relate to others. Through linguistic behaviour, the individuals assume and project the image which must be recognized and accepted by other participants of the exchange in order to be comprehended. This brings us to the final and possibly most important aspect that identity represents i. e. it only emerges against the background of pre-existing social groupings that remain constant because claiming an identity amounts to aligning ourselves with one social group rather than another through our use of language. Our personal characteristics derive from the group (or rather groups) to which we belong. Thus, individual identities will be both components and reflections of particular social (or cultural) groups (Edwards 2009, p. 20).

Preliminary considerations and state of art

2.

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Ethnolinguistics / ethnopragmatics, ethnometodology

As mentioned in the sources (The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics 2007, RCS ff.), ethnolinguistics functions in a branch of cognitively-oriented macropragmatics, which includes mainly socio- (or societal) pragmatics, cultural, cross- (or inter)cultural pragmatics, and part of inter-language pragmatics. Institutional, interpersonal, and variational pragmatics and conversation analysis (CA) also belong to this category. By definition, ethnolinguistics is the investigation of language and culture and overlaps extensively with the ethnography of communication. It is located at the interface between sociolinguistics and pragmatics, socio- (or societal) pragmatics studies and the use of language in relation to society (Wierzbicka et al. 2016 in RCS). Ethnomethodology, in this context, signifies the sociological discipline from a language perspective interested in examining the content of talk (RCS 2007). According to the Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (2006), ethnolinguistics, also known as neo-Humboldtianism, is a collective term for anthropological and linguistic investigations into the relationships between language and ethnically based, sociocultural aspects of the specific linguistic community (Miller 1968), whereas ethnomethodology is a field of study in interpretative sociology that examines the formal aspects of pragmatic thinking. It examines how sociocultural group members create and control the environments in which they live. Ethnomethodology assumes that members interpret their actions against a background of underlying patterns, i. e. they take certain shared commonsense knowledge for granted in the act of communication. Since Levinson’s work in the early 1980s, Conversation Analysis (CA) has become a branch of ethnolinguistics, alongside macropragmatics. Grown out of a breakaway group of sociologists known as ethnomethodologists within microsociology, CA represents an empirical, procedural and inductive approach to the analysis of (audio and/or video recordings of) naturally occurring, spontaneous conversations. It is concerned with the discovery and description of the methods and procedures that participants employ systematically to display their understanding of the structure of naturally occurring, spontaneous ‘talks in (face-toface) interaction’ (see Godlewska in the present volume). In conversation, there are rules governing sequential organisation such as the turn-taking system, the formulation of adjacency pairs and the mechanism for opening or closing a conversation, or norms regulating participation in a conversation (Huang 2016, p. 216). With this premise in mind, we must be aware that language is often not given much consideration in sociological theory. Even when language is said to play a part in explaining social facts, as in Habermas’s (1985) “universal pragmatics” or Schütz’s (1965) “intersubjectivity,” which forms the basis of ethnomethodology,

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it is done at a very abstract level, probing the (universal) conditions that allow for social interaction. So, just like linguists, sociologists who study language have developed a theory of how language is used in social contexts (Coulmans 2016, p. 576). Language reality is partly made up of cultural values and beliefs. The performance of language, how distinct genres are performed and assessed in various cultures, and how these are tied to broader sociocultural frameworks of practice have all been major topics of studying speech acts or verbal acts in this tradition (Foley 2016, p. 257). For instance, analysis of communicative occurrences is the area of study that has developed from Hymes (1972), as noted in previous sections. As a general word, “sociopragmatics” refers to social deixis, societal norms about the performance of speech acts, and social variables that limit the use of language, such as taboo. A subfield of pragmatics research known as institutional pragmatics looks on how language is used in institutionalized contexts such as courtroom interactions, job interviews, and police interrogations. Cultural pragmatics, also referred to as anthropological or ethnographic pragmatics, is the systematic examination of language use and its role in societal institutions from a cultural or anthropological perspective, with a particular emphasis on nonWestern civilizations but not solely. It relates to both speaking ethnography and communication ethnography. Ethnopragmatics is a specific subset of cultural pragmatics as an approach to language in use that was created by the Australian linguist Anna Wierzbicka (cf. above) and her colleagues. This discipline aims to learn more about the speech patterns and linguistic usage of specific local cultures when seen in the context of the speakers’ own beliefs, social norms, and personal values (cf. Gwiazdowska, Kuczok in this volume). Ethnographic pragmatics, which is defined in its strictest sense as the ethnographically oriented approach to context-sensitive language use is somewhat related to ethnopragmatics (Huang 2016, p. 215). According to Wierzbicka (1992, p. 143), examples of ethnocentrism occur when we extrapolate or even impose our Western categories onto those of other cultures. According to ethnolinguistics, also known as ethnopragmatics or ethnography of speaking, linguistic decisions are systematically influenced by environmental circumstances rather than being produced at random. One of the many significant models to explain the contexts for discourse linguists comes from a subfield of linguistic anthropology (Duranti and Goodwin 1992). Another significant tradition that has influenced the approach of discourse analysis on context maintains that speech lacks meaning unless it is accompanied by an anthropological examination of the context in which interaction occurs. In this view, the idea of context derives from the idea of situational context created by the anthropologist Malinowski. According to Malinowski, the situational context is crucial for comprehending spoken words, because conversational in-

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ferences play a significant role in the ethnographic approach to discourse analysis (in Aronoff et al. 2007). Participants link the content of an utterance and other verbal, vocal, and non-vocal cues with background knowledge (contextualization) to understand the specific interchange. Additionally, the way conversation develops may show how social identities are contested (cf. Erickson and Shultz 1982). In terms of methodology and fields of study, the ethnographic approach is similar to other contemporary sociological approaches (see Goffman above). Once the researcher is familiar with the society, a more ethnographic method built on anthropological principles eliminates predetermined social categories and instead uses locally relevant categories. With the attempt to approach Slavic linguistic developments with the concepts of cultural and anthropological linguistics in the broad sense, as practiced in Anglo-Saxon countries, it is Jerzy Bartmin´ski (2009) who stands out against the dominant Eastern European ethnolinguistic trend (mainly in the USA). Utilizing the knowledge gained from the linguocultural analysis of language in cognitive linguistics, his objective is to incorporate sociocultural factors, particularly ethnocultural factors, in semantic research. Exploring the function of language in the formation, expression, and reinforcement of group and national identity in both global and local dimensions is the main focus of Bartmin´ski’s work. The impact of the main social factors on language evolution is discussed in the sections that follow. We also talk about how sociolinguistics researchers have conceptualized inter-speaker variation in light of notions from anthropology and sociology.

References Allan, Keith (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London, New York 2016. Aronoff, Mark and Rees-Miller, Janie: The Handbook of linguistics. Oxford 2003. Bartmin´ski, Jerzy: Aspects of Cognitive Ethnolinguistics. London 2009, 2013. Bauman, Richard and Sherzer Joel (Eds.): Explorations in the ethnography of speaking, 2nd edn. Cambridge 1989. Bucholtz, Mary and Hall, Kira: ‘Language and identity’, in Alessandro Duranti (Ed.) A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology. Oxford 2004, pp. 369–94. Bussmann, Hadumod: The Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Gregory Trauth and Kerstin Kazzazi (Trans.&Eds.). London and New York 2006. Button, Graham (Ed.): Ethnomethodology and the human sciences. Cambridge 1991. Coulmans, Florian: Sociolingustics in Aronoff, Mark and Rees-Miller, Janie: The Handbook of linguistics. Oxford 2003, pp. 576–581. Dirven, René, Polzenhagen Frank, and Wolf Hans: Cognitive linguistics, ideology, and critical discourse analysis. In Geeraerts, Dirk, and Cuyckens, Hubert (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive linguistics. Oxford 2007, pp. 1222–1240.

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Duranti, Alessandro and Goodwin, Charles (Eds.): Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Cambridge 1992. Duranti, Alessandro: Ethnography of speaking: toward a linguistics of the praxis. In Frank Newmeyer (Ed.), Linguistics: the Cambridge survey, Vol. 4. Cambridge 1988, pp. 210–28. Edwards, John: Language and Identity: An Introduction. Cambridge 2009. Erickson, Fredrick and Shultz Jeffrey: The Counselor as Gate Keeper. New York 1982. Evans Suzanne, Ravindranath Maya: The use of language in social settings. In Allan, Keith (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London, New York 2016. Foley, William: Anthropological linguistics and field linguistics. In Allan, Keith (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London, New York 2016, p. 250–264. Garfinkel, Harold: Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1967. Geeraerts, Dirk, and Cuyckens, Hubert (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive linguistics. Oxford 2007. Głaz Adam, Danaher David, Łozowski Przemysław (Eds.): The Linguistic Worldview: Ethnolinguistics, Cognition, and Culture. London 2013. Goddard, Cliff. ‘Cultural scripts’: A new medium for ethnopragmatic instruction. In Michel Achard and Susanne Niemeier, (Eds.): Cognitive Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and Foreign Language Teaching. Berlin 2004, pp. 145–165. Gumperz, John. (Ed.): Discourse strategies. Cambridge. Language and social identity. Cambridge 1982. Habermas, Jürgen: The Theory of Communicative Action. New York 1985. Haugh, M. and F. Bargiela-Chiappini (2010): Face in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics [special issue] 42: 2073–171. Haugh, Michael (2013): Disentangling face, facework and im/politeness. Sociocultural Pragmatics Vol. 1. pp. 46–73. Huang, Yan: Pragmatics: Language Use in Context. In Allan, Keith (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London, New York 2016, pp. 205–220. Hymes, David: Toward ethnographies of communication. The Ethnography of Communication, in P. Giglioli (Ed.), Language and Social Context, Harmondsworth: 1972, pp. 21–44. Hymes, David: Ethnography, Linguistics, Narrative Inequality: Toward an Understanding of Voice. London 1996. LLamas Carmen, Mullany Louise, and Stockwell Peter (Eds.): The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. Oxon 2007. Le Page, R.B. and Tabouret-Keller, Andreé: Acts of Identity: Creole-based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity, Cambridge 1985. Levine, Robert & Campbell Donald: Ethnocentrism: Theories of Conflict, Ethnic Attitudes and Group Behavior. New York 1972. Malinowski, Bronisław: Jednostka, społecznos´c´, kultura. Warszawa 2000. Maynard, Douglas, and Clayman Steven: The Diversity of Ethnomethodology. Annual Review of Anthropology 17, 1991, pp. 285–418. McCarthy, John, and Prince Alan: Faithfulness and reduplicative identity. In Beckman, J., et al. (eds.), Papers in Optimality Theory, pp. 249–384. (University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 18). Amherst 1995. Mendoza Denton: ‘Language and identity’, in J.K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill and N. SchillingEstes (Eds.) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, Oxford 2002, pp. 475–99.

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Miller, Robert: The Linguistic Relativity Principle and Humboldtian Ethnolinguistics: A History and Appraisal. The Hague 1968. Pennycook, Alastair: The Myth of English as An International Language. In S. Makoni & A. Pennycook (Eds.), Disinventing and reconstituting languages (pp. 90–115). London 2007. Saville-Troike, Muriel: The ethnography of communication, 2nd edn. Oxford 1989. Schütz, Alfred: Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston 1965. Terkourafi Marina: The linguistics of politeness and social relations. In Allan, Keith (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Linguistics. London, New York 2016, pp. 221–235. Wierzbicka Anna: English: Meaning and Culture. New York 2006. Wolf Hans-Georg, Polzenhagen Frank: World Englishes A Cognitive Sociolinguistic Approach. Berlin, New York 2009.

Tomasz Burzyn´ski

Chapter 2 – The dialogicality of identity. The self as a theatrical performance

Abstract Sociology and sociolinguistics share a tendency to conceptualize human subjectivity in essentially processual terms as an entity which is linguistically and discursively constructed in the sphere of social communication and cultural production. Consequently, self-identity is a relational and changeable construct that binds networks of signs, values and norms whose influence is sufficient enough to address individuality as shrouded in the reciprocity of communication and the intersubjectivity of social systems. This article pays its intellectual debts to the legacies of Goffman’s ethnomethodology, Bakhtinian sociolinguistics, and Giddens’s structuration theory in order to conceptualize individual identity in terms of ‘theatrical performances’ that combine the discursive determination of culture as well as the individual’s interpretative agency. Individual identity is here subsumed within a sociological model comprising texts (i. e., symbolic resources which social actors deploy during their performances), theatrical stages (i. e., spatial-temporal dimensions of social systems), principal social actors, and the audience (i. e., significant others granted dominant roles in the individual’s biography). In this specific sense, individual identity evolves as a product of social processes of conflict and negotiation in the dialogical sphere of action in which diversified texts come to constitute the heteroglossia of cultural production. Keywords: self-identity, agency and structure, morphogenesis, intertextuality, dialogicality.

1.

Introduction

Identity is a notion of primary significance for studies aiming to explore social ontology and mechanisms of cultural production. The notion could be defined in terms of personal qualities, internalized beliefs, behavioral patterns, or group memberships that an individual reflexively recognizes in terms of his or her biographical experiences (Giddens 1991). Consequently, individual identity is a prerequisite of purposeful social actions and a vehicle of one’s knowledgeability, resourcefulness, and personal agency. Nevertheless, the dialectical reverse is also

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true: identity itself results from the social and cultural determination in socialization, acculturation, or education. As a scholarly term, identity is shrouded in various methodological dilemmas. Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss them in detail, our argument will focus on the realms of interpersonal interaction and language use in which individual identity is conceptualized respectively by sociological theory and sociolinguistics. Sociological perspectives, most notably ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism (Goffman 1959; Mead 2004), teach us that identity is acted out in the process of social interaction, which involves the presentation of carefully selected facets of oneself to the interested public. Sociologically, individual identity is understood from a perspective of tensions that relate one’s self-identity and social identity, whereas the latter is a set of social constructs acted out in staged social situations. On the other hand, sociolinguistics and cultural theory are more concerned with language as a medium of reflexivity and knowledgeability, which are hardwired into the very essence of individual identity (Deckert / Vickers 2011). In the latter context, identity is often understood as a matrix of discourses, texts of culture, and other symbolic references that the individual deploys to make his/her biographical experiences ordered and meaningful (Balsey 1980). This article aims to move beyond the methodologies above and suggest a middle-of-the-road perspective in which identity emerges as a product of interpersonal processes of conflict and negotiation in the dialogical sphere of interpersonal interaction in which texts of culture constitute the languages of self-creation and self-presentation. The article, furthermore, suggests a model of identity formation in which societal situatedness of self-presentation and the linguistic, or textual nature of one’s self-concept are intertwined to produce a sociological metaphor of theatrical performance.

2.

Social Situatedness, Textuality, and Dialogicality

As early as at the beginning of the 20th century, Charles Horton Cooley (1962 [1909], p. 5) postulated that “[S]elf and society are twin-born, we know one as immediately as we know the Other, and the notion of a separate and independent ego is an illusion.” Nowadays, Cooley’s conclusion sounds like a sociological cliché: self-concept, self-identity, and other properties associated with the agent are rendered a status of social constructs. To say that the individual identity is a social construct seems merely to re-write John Locke’s formative scripture one more time: there are no innate ideas, including the very concept of Self which is not inherent but, contrariwise, produced by processes of socialization, languagemediated interaction, and social participation. However, despite its apparent

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obviousness, the statement provokes at least two methodological dilemmas that structure sociological and sociolinguistic attempts to conceptualize individual identity; namely, the premises of social situatedness and textuality. The premise of social situatedness involves seeing self-identity in terms of a “dramatic effect” of interactions undertaken on social stages; that is, distinctive scenes of everyday interactions (Goffman 1959, p. 253). The individual becomes a social actor who projects a self-image, manipulating the staged performance’s emotional elements of interaction and material characteristics. Goffman’s dramaturgic perspective focuses on the relational character of identity that emerges in interaction between one’s personal goals and expectations articulated by others. Logically, identity formation is an inter-subjective process in which “the selfhood of oneself implies otherness to such an intimate degree that the one cannot be thought without the other” (Ricoeur 1994, p. 3). The premise of textuality involves seeing identity formation as a structured process of communication. Goffman’s perspective is predominately concerned with interactive structures, normative rules and regulations enforcing predictability and reciprocity to the otherwise chaotic nature of interpersonal interactions. However, the qualities of predictability and reciprocity logically presuppose a symbolic system of communication that fosters the routine, institutional character of interpersonal interactions. Sociolinguistically, identity formation presupposes a network of interactions in which, to use Mikhail Bakhtin’s terminology, “a word is a bridge thrown between myself and another.” (Bakhtin / Volosinov 1986, p. 20). Words are shared, exchanged, and distributed across the social tissue, providing individuals with textual forms of self-creation that can never be seen as their appropriations since they all reside in the shared system of symbolic communication and exchange: ‘Identity,’ subjectivity is thus a matrix of subject positions, which may be inconsistent or even in contradiction with one another. Subjectivity, then, is linguistically and discursively constructed and displaced across the range of discourses in which the concrete individual participates […]. The subject is constructed in language and discourse and, since the symbolic order in its discursive use is closely related to ideology, in ideology (Belsey 1980, p. 61).

The textual nature of self-identity gestures towards Anthony Giddens’s conceptualization which sees it as “the self as reflexively understood by the person in terms of her or his biography” (Giddens 1991, p. 2). The autobiographical perspective on identity refers to language narrative structures as a medium of organizing one’s experiences. Given the structural character of language as a differential network of associations, an individual’s autobiography inevitably becomes de-centered and dispersed across myriads of texts (Burzyn´ski 2020). In other words, individual identity is an intertextual entity, and the person’s bi-

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ography is an accumulation and selection of textual resources that render sense to the flow of everyday experiences. The premises of social situatedness and textuality are concerned with distinct aspects of identity formation. The former represents the agency of self-presentation, whereas the latter is concerned with the anchoring of one’s image in the reality of language and discourse. Sociologically, it may be represented as the duality of agency and structure (Archer 1995; Giddens 1984; Sztompka 1991). This duality is the crucial mechanism of identity formation: individuals are motivated to present their self-identities, but they do it in a socialized way, considering relevant cultural scripts. The duality is also a vital element of the dialogicality of self-identity: individual identity is formed in dialogical interactions that relate the agential mode of self-presentation with the structuralist perspective of textuality. The dialogicality of one’s identity could be expressed by a model that subsumes deliberative actions of image management and the textual (i. e., linguistic) nature of selfhood within a conceptualization that sees identity formation as a theatrical performance.

3.

Self-Identity as a Theatrical Performance

The dialogicality of individual identity is here understood in terms of a sociological model that comprises role scripts (i. e., textual resources which individuals deploy during their performances), theatrical stages (i. e., spatialtemporal dimensions of social systems), social actors, and the audience (i. e., significant others granted dominant roles in the individual’s biography). Identities are acted out on a basis of role scripts as well as social and material circumstances staged in the form of a social setting. Both role scripts and manipulable elements of the environment are, in turn, creatively deployed to exert influence upon other social actors (Burzyn´ski 2011; Burzyn´ski 2014). The components of the proposed framework cannot exist independently and are joined together as the theatrical performance. Role scripts are performed by knowledgeable actors who interpret textual resources to produce a specific, purposeful impression. Actors refer to themselves as being placed within the multiplicity of other agents who act on staged social environments, each characterized by distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. Therefore, during the performance, an actor is rooted in the potentiality of textual references and the actuality of other people’s presence.

The dialogicality of identity. The self as a theatrical performance

4.

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Texts, Discourses, Languages

An individual’s identity is anchored in the pre-existent system of cultural texts (i. e., role scripts), which constitutes the perimeter of knowledge conceived as a natural foundation of day-to-day experience (Goddard / Wierzbicka 2004). The egocentric autonomy of the Cartesian Self is as untenable as squaring of the circle: individuals are compelled to articulate pre-given lines, to perform preestablished gestures. The Self, consequently, is a collection of texts, languages, and discourses internalized and interpreted by the individual. The autobiographical continuity of self-identity is rarely a monolithic, linear narrative that unproblematically relates past experiences to present-day activities and foreseeable future outcomes. Instead, it is a bricolage made of overheard conversations, mass media representations, or popular beliefs implicit in the individual’s social environment. As Pierre Bourdieu puts it, role scripts constitute an actor’s cultural capital: the totality of symbolic assets from which the individual draws throughout his/her performances (Bourdieu 1990). Role scrips provide an individual with a sense of ontological security, which is a cornerstone of individual identity (Giddens 1991). One’s notion of ontological security evolves due to participation in institutionalized social facts and discourses rendering predictability of otherwise chaotic life events. In this sense, role scripts supply the observed continuity of life events, a sense of obviousness, and an expectation that risks and contingencies could be bracketed off. The theatricality of individual identity involves the practice of compulsive repetition. It implies the memorization of role scripts, following language conventions, social conveniences, and traditions. Nevertheless, individuals are not compelled to repeat the lines unreflectively, without the freedom to improvise. For instance, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann postulate that one’s past is prone to alternation; namely, re-interpretation of one’s biography to fit it into present circumstances of action (Berger / Luckmann 1967). One’s memory, hence, cannot be conceived of as a practice of sheer representation but rather a means of getting one’s past alternated. The alternation of the past sheds further light on the relationship between individual identity and cultural texts. The individual’s self-identity is not a passive entity that is entirely structured by role scripts. An actor is a person who understands his/her identity, actively reconstructs his/her character, and can deploy language tools relevant to a given social situation. By interpreting both the exterior and itself – and as a sign it cannot escape self-interpretation – the subject as much constitutes (or constructs itself) as it is constituted (or constructed) by discourses; it is as much offered subject positions as it co-creates those positions via appropriation and interpretation (Kalaga 1997, p. 179).

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In this context, interpretation is both a cognitive and ontological process, and the individual’s biography is a collection of signs in the process of constant (re)interpretation, which automatically produces alternative self-concepts. Consequently, the Self is not a mirror image of role scripts that have paved the way for its construction. The agential character of individual identities is anchored in the hermeneutic potential of the homo textualis, an agent who is both interpretatively active and constituted by the textual exterior (Kalaga 1997).

5.

The Stage

As opposed to the textual foundations of individual identity, the notion of the stage gestures towards the specific social situatedness in which identity-formation processes occur. The stage is primarily concerned with the actual or implied presence of others. In this sense, our conceptualization goes beyond the original understanding of the stage as postulated by the dramaturgic approach in sociology. Goffman’s perspective focuses on the front stage in terms of a social setting in which individuals are supposed to act in front of others, manipulating with their images and creating socially accepted impressions (Goffman 1959). In our case, the stage is a more all-encompassing term that embraces the fact that all social actions, following Max Weber’s seminal understanding, are always directed towards the presence of other people, regardless of their territorial location (Weber 1978). The presence of the Other, implied and actual, is an emotional experience. One’s emotionality is structured by constructive relationships of love, friendship, or hatred, as it frequently happens in fixed social systems, such as families, local communities, or groups of friends. In other cases, the emotional character of the stage is derived from benefits and losses, risks and chances associated with one’s participation in the reality of everyday social life. It is precisely the emotionality of the stage that differs it from an individual’s participation in the symbolic reality of cultural texts. The theatricality of one’s identity involves using cultural texts in an informed way, focusing on the societal interactivity and the emotionality of investing one’s time, effort, and stamina in dialogical relationships of coexistence, cooperation, negotiation, and conflict. In this sense, the stage supplies cultural texts with a necessary interpretative context: Not only the meaning of the utterance but also the very fact of its performance is of historical and social significance, as, in general, is the fact of its realization in the here and now, in given circumstances, at a certain historical moment, under the conditions of the given social situation. The very presence of the utterance is historically and socially significant (Bakhtin / Medvedev 1978, p. 120, emphasis added).

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Role scripts and the stage are inseparable elements of identity formation. The individual constructs his or her identity based on intertextual role scripts accumulated as an autobiographical narrative. At the same time, the essential quality of the Self implies self-cognition and self-interpretation, which logically presumes the existence of the ‘textual ego’, which provides discursive order, coherence and continuity to bits and pieces of our everyday experiences. Identity formation processes, however, do not take place in a social void. Individual identity is prone to transformations that occur in response to the variety of our social interactions. The interactive character of the stage forces us to juggle with our identities, unveiling (or hiding) role scripts in a frantic effort to make a positive impression or pursue valuable goals. The stage is a dialogical space where individual identities are contrasted and negotiated. It is an arena of public debate where dissimilar viewpoints, economic and political interests become intertwined with the pre-existing elements of culture. Consequently, the stage is neither a fixed geographical locale nor a unique social system. It is a metaphor that moves us towards a societal arena of multi-lateral, interpersonal relations. It is an associative total of spatial and temporal relations that exert an influence on the process of identity formation, an abstract field that assumes the dialectic of presence and absence, as well as the continuous flow of time linking the immediate actuality of our present experiences with the legacy of the past and potentiality of the future. Globalization processes structure the spatial aspect: performed actions are not only embedded in local, familiar circumstances of action but are also re-shaped by the phantasmagorical presence of myriads of distant Others (Giddens 1990). The temporal aspect gestures towards how individuals incorporate the perception of time into their day-to-day practices. In this respect, the stage can be understood as an interplay of modernization (i. e., future orientation) and tradition (i. e., orientation to the past). The inter-subjective and interpersonal nature of the stage renders its dialogical conceptualization as a kind of using Paul Ricoeur’s notion, “discordant concordance,” a nebular field of cognitive and axiological constructs disseminated through the symbolic exchange (Ricoeur 1994, p. 142). In this context, the stage is an essentially moral construct indicating that the axiology of interaction becomes a cultural foundation of identity formation. Existing in reality structured by the formative presence of other individuals depends on faith that the underlying moral framework of reality will not crumble. In this context, interpersonal trust emerges as a cultural mechanism that renders the existence of stages possible: trust transgresses the polysemic nature of textual reality, an excess of signs, and the multiplicity of discourses (Burzyn´ski 2014). At this point, trust is tantamount to the essential belief that, despite the proliferation of signs,

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people may depend on standard signifying practices and shared patterns of interpretation.

6.

Actors and the Audience

Since the formation of individual identity presupposes the existence of significant relations with others, the structural construction of social reality, especially in the era of liquid modernity (Bauman 2007), incorporates actors into a multiplicity of stages. One’s identity is acted out across diversified social settings, motivating the individual to manipulate each performance’s linguistic and material conditions. When facing the multiplicity of stages, the individual’s Self constitutes itself as homo multiplex, a divergent and multi-layered identity. As George Herbert Mead postulates: We carry on a whole series of different relationships to different people. We are one thing to one man and another thing to another. There are parts of the Self which exist only for the Self in relation to itself. We divide ourselves up in all sorts of different selves with reference to our acquaintances. […] There are all sorts of different selves answering to all sorts of different social reactions. […] A multiple personality is in a certain sense normal, as I have just pointed out (Mead 2004, p. 223).

This multiplicity is not only a matter of textual heteroglossia, a polyphony of languages and discourses that characterizes societies in the information age. It is also a proliferation of audiences in the increasingly globalizing world. The implosion of traditional spatial-temporal constraints, which tears social spaces away from concrete geographical places, makes us susceptible to the influence exerted by distant audiences. Processes of globalization have paved the way for a plethora of personal traumas in which, as Ulrich Beck argues, “[T]he most intimate – say, nursing a child – and the most distant, most general – say a reactor accident in the Ukraine, energy politics – are now suddenly directly connected” (Beck 1987). In this sense, coping with multiplicity is an individual’s critical competence as it determines a level of individual agency in a given social context. Actors are compelled to use diversified cultural codes and act out a variety of role scripts in front of audiences situated in divergent historico-cultural, organizational, and technological settings. Under such circumstances, intercultural competence, intellectual dexterity, and flexibility are critical assets. The globalizing character of stages and audiences, as well as the intertextual reality of symbolic culture, are both structural conditions for seeing the individual in terms of reflexive management of own identity. “‘Reflexivity’ hence should be understood not merely as ‘self-consciousness’ but as the monitored character of the ongoing flow of social life”. (Giddens 1984, p. 3) Reflexivity, in

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short, is a practice of personal risk management through day-to-day monitoring of counterfactuals in which one’s biography is not seen linearly. It is rather regarded as an open field of possibilities, chances, and uncertainties in which one’s future is structured and conceptually organized around the notion of risk (Beck 2016).

7.

Conclusions

When perceived from sociological and sociolinguistic perspectives, the notion of individual identity is shrouded in duality. On the one hand, self-identity is a personal narrative, a self-concept that organizes individual experiences in a discursive form. This is a linguistic aspect of one’s identity in which texts of culture are incorporated and accumulated to produce a relatively stable narrative of oneself. On the other hand, self-identity is a ‘dramaturgic effect’ that is acted out on the stage of everyday social life. This, in turn, shows the social situatedness of one’s self-identity, its embeddedness in the network of meaningful social interactions that relate individuals in emotional or goal-oriented ways. The article postulates that the aforementioned aspect of self-identity may be subsumed within the model of theatrical performance that focuses on dialogicality, relying on the exchange of symbolic resources in meaningful social interactions. In this case, identity is a quality of a social actor that acts out role scripts (i. e., textual elements of one’s biography) on the stage (i. e., spatialtemporal circumstances of action). Role scripts are performed by knowledgeable actors who interpret textual resources from a perspective of performed roles. The performance takes place in a given social setting, which involves taking specific spatial and temporal determinants of one’s actions into consideration. Social actors are reflexively aware of the multiplicity of other agents whose performances are acted out on the stage. Therefore, an actor’s identity is rooted in the potentiality of role scripts and the actuality of other individuals’ actions.

References Archer, Margaret: Realist Social Theory: the Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge 1995. Bakhtin, Mikhail / Voloshinov, Valentin: Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, tr. L. Matejka and I.R. Titunik. Cambridge MA 1986. Belsey, Catherine: Critical Practice. London and New York 1980. Bauman, Zygmunt: Liquid Times. Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge 2007. Beck, Ulrich: ‘The Anthropological Shock: Chernobyl and the Contours of the Risk Society,’ Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 1987/32.

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Beck, Ulrich: The Metamorphosis of the World. Cambridge 2016. Berger, Peter L. / Luckmann, Thomas. The Social Construction of Reality. A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York 1967. Bourdieu, Pierre: The Logic of Practice, tr. R. Nice. Cambridge 1990. Burzyn´ski, Tomasz: ‘The Surplus of Structure. Towards the Morphogenetic Approach to Cultural Studies.’ in: Borkowska, Ewa / Burzyn´ski, Tomasz (eds.): The Surplus of Culture. Sense, Common-Sense, Non-Sense. Newcastle upon Tyne 2011. Burzyn´ski, Tomasz: Between the Stage and the Text. Agency and Structure in the Analysis of Cultural Change from the Perspectives of Trust and Uncertainty. Katowice 2014. Burzyn´ski, Tomasz: ‘Systemic Intertextuality. A Morphogenetic Perspective.’ Text Matters. A Journal of Literature Theory and Culture, 2020/10. Cooley, Charles H.: Social Organization. New York 1962 [1909]. Deckert, Sharon / Vickers, Caroline: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Society and Identity. London 2011. Giddens, Anthony: The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles 1984. Giddens, Anthony: The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford 1990. Giddens, Anthony: Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford 1991. Goddard, Cliff / Wierzbicka, Anna: ‘Cultural Scripts: What Are They and What Are They Good For?’ Intercultural Pragmatics, 2004/1–2. Goffman, Erving: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York 1959. Kalaga, Wojciech: Nebulae of Discourse. Interpretation, Textuality, and the Subject. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris, Wien 1997. Mead, George Herbert: ‘The Self, the I and the Me,’ in Social Theory. The Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert. Boulder 2004. Ricoeur, Paul: Oneself as Another, tr. K. Blamey. Chicago and London 1994. Sztompka, Piotr: Society in Action. The Theory of Social Becoming. Cambridge 1991. Weber, Max: Economy and Society. Berkeley 1978.

Iwona Dronia / Paweł Zakrajewski

Chapter 3 – Maintaining respectful (?) communication by Generation Z students. The case of written discourse in the academic settings

Abstract Every generation tends to accuse their predecessors of being impolite, disobedient and even violating and questioning already-existing norms of politeness and social rules. The guidelines of the so-called appropriate behavior have been shifted and now even the language that used to be considered as totally disrespectful has actually become the norm. Such situations are even visible in the academic context, which has always been perceived as a special, formal and rule-driven environment with asymmetric distribution of power. One may speculate on the reasons of such changes and ascribe them to e. g. “changing times”, lack of development of pragmatic competence (especially in the case of non-native speakers of English) or perhaps, students’ immaturity. The following paper aims at sharing the results of the research study which focused on verifying written communication patterns used in addressative system towards academic staff by their students. The corpus tokens gathered for the purpose of this research encompass various instances of expressions used towards academic teachers while maintaining written communication with them – email correspondence. For the purpose of this study, 500 emails received from students in the period of two years were analysed. Content analysis of the selected messages (92 out of 500) reveals most frequent communication patterns employed by the senders, and intends to indicate areas for further research. Keywords: politeness, email communication, language, addressative system, academic staff

1.

Defining respectful communication

It is challenging, if not even completely impossible, to clarify some of the conceptual ambiguities and confusions surrounding the term “respect” and “respectful communication.” To start with, one may attempt to explain such terms by providing purely philosophical theories, influenced for three centuries by the writings of Kant, Mill, or Rawls, to discover that their interpretation of respect rested on appreciation of universal human dignity, equality, and autonomy (Goodman 2009). However, more recent theoretical scholarship “has tended to connect respect with caring and supportiveness, and to insist on a fundamentally egalitarian, mutualistic understructure at the heart of truly respectful relation-

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ships” (Honneth 2007; Lawrence-Lightfoot 1999; Sennett 2004 in Schirmer et al. 2013, p. 58). On the other hand, there are also some arguments for linking respect with “being listened to, being given time and having your experiences, ideas, and views taken seriously and valued” (Jones 2002, p. 348). Thorne et al. (2004, p. 301) connect respect with regard for a specific individual that would be displayed while listening to someone, but also in “recognition of contributing value, awareness of social context, expressing empathy and offering information.” While the communication of equality, valuation, and showing genuine interest is the interpretation provided by Salacuse (2005), Giles, Dailey, Sarkar & Makoni (2007) define respect as a combination of politeness and deference. Moreover, as Mckenzie and Wallace (2011, p. 12) hold, several scholars have attempted to define respect “by distinguishing its level of variance from closely related synonyms and antonyms including the communication of empathy, perspective taking” (Simon 2007), encouragement, cooperation (Dreikurs Ferguson & Page 2003), politeness (Lalljee et al. 2008), dignified treatment (Simon & Sturmer 2005) appreciation, admiration, esteem, honor, reverence, deference, fear (DeLellis 2000), liking, equality (Spears et al. 2005), and tolerance (van Quaquebeke et al. 2009). Furthermore, although there is a substantial amount of scholarship on politeness, the communication of respect is a complex concept going beyond simple politeness and courtesies. Another problem appearing in an attempt to define respectful communication emerges when analyzing cross-cultural interpretations of respectful behavior. Schirmer (et al. 2013) provide examples of many researchers of nonEuropean countries in particular who admonish that respect towards parents, towards the elderly, or towards people of rank does not fit the western conception of a mutualistic relationship. While discussing communication of respect, it is also necessary to highlight that majority of definitions available require value judgments based on some knowledge about and encounters one has had with other individuals to be able to form opinions resting on feelings and shared cultural values (Goodman 2009). Culture, in turn, has a significant impact on how one perceives respect, and how it may be communicated across cultures can take on a variety of forms. Respect can be, for instance, “communicated verbally (i. e., appropriate word choice), nonverbally (i. e., appropriate use of touch during a greeting), and paralinguistically (i. e., appropriate use of intonation during question-asking)” (Mckenzie and Wallace 2011, p. 11). This creates a necessity for communication scholars to devote serious and specific study to the communication of respect across cultures. What is more, even advanced second language users often have pragmatic issues connected to the transfer of ‘rules of use’ related to the contextual appropriateness of their first language (L1). Finally, communication of respect may also occur through such varied communication behaviors as word choice, grammar use, paralanguage, com-

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munication style, and attentiveness (Carroll 2005; Crystal 1987; SriussadapornCharoenngam & Jablin 1999; Tamam 2010 in Mckenzie and Wallace 2011, p. 12). Thus, the multiplicity of the inconsistent meanings may produce conflict – what one person claims as respectful may be viewed as disrespectful by another. This kind of conflict between meanings may be evident in adult-children relationships and role and status differences (Goodman 2009). As defining respectful communication seems so problematic, it is more convenient to focus on the opposite, that is, what is considered (im)polite. According to Locher (2006, p. 250 in Harwood 2007, p. 37), what is considered (im)polite is related to “interactants assessments of social norms of appropriateness that have been previously acquired.” Thus, as Harwood (2007, p. 38) puts it, “(im)politeness involves the subjective judgments interactants make regarding the appropriateness of verbal and non-verbal behavior.” (Im)politeness is directly linked with face-threatening acts (FTA) and may also be determined by the extent to which, e. g., a request presented in email is low or high-imposing. There is no doubt that the email function has been shown to affect the use of politeness strategies. Kankaanranta (2006) states that the kind of politeness strategy one chooses is determined by variables such as social distance, power, rankings of individuals in specific cultures, and other cross-cultural norms and values. Moreover, as Li & MacGregor (2010 in Li 2016, p. 66) add, “other email acts such as postponement, use of punctuation marks, intentional exclusion, use of capitalization, cc-ing copy to other parties, no subject line, no salutation, and closing could also have impolite effects.” All in all, impolite communication may be therefore seen as the one that deviates from the features of respectful communication discussed above, the one that does not pertain to the rules of grammar, formality, and style requirements, that violates social practices appreciated in a given social group and, above all, poses a threat to the receiver’s face.

2.

Respectful communication in the academic context

Academic language (AL) comprises a set of features which, among other things, include academic vocabulary and its different grammatical and discourse structures. Lexical and grammatical choices one makes while using or creating AL are based on the speaker’s perception and response to a particular context of the situation. A fundamental construct of such language is that of register, which, according to Halliday and Hassan (1989 in Haneda 2014, p. 128), can be understood as “the constellation of lexical and grammatical features that characterizes the language used in a particular social context.” Moreover, some scholars argue that the command of AL is a prerequisite for understanding and using the sorts of language characteristic of formal situations (Delpit 1993, p. 125 in Ha-

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neda 2014, p. 129). Thus, AL is merely a part of a more expansive communicative repertoire of academic communication, and students willing to participate in it should understand the social practices valued in mainstream society (Freire and Macedo 1987). One part of academic communication and academic competence is computermediated communication. Modern university students are expected to participate in online communication, and e-mail is undeniably the most commonly applied contact form between students and faculty members. These online written interactions require students to demonstrate advanced written pragmatic competence in English to effectively manage their relationships and studies, especially if one considers English medium of instruction (EMI) universities. Email communication, though technically democratic, yet is still linguistically hierarchical. It has to be remembered that polite e-mails, for example, ought to reflect greater formality level, “they should therefore be status-congruent or at least status-appropriate; they should also exhibit indirectness rather than directness, as well as lexical and syntactic strategies aimed at mitigating the imposing force” (Bieserbach-Lucas 2006 in Danielewicz-Betz 2013, p. 25). It is also expected of the students to write e-mails which will reflect their lower, and, at the same time, indicate higher faculty’s institutional status. Thus, it is of utmost importance for students to learn how to properly construct messages that adhere to politeness, formality, and social conventions. It is, without a doubt, a necessary part of academic competence to be able to form requests of people who are superior in power (for example, professors and supervisors) as role and status considerations affect the respect. However, the perception of politeness, more often than not, is dependent on the relationship between the interactants and is culturally and contextually bound (Haugh 2007). What makes the process of writing polite e-mails even more difficult is that some “best practices are still being developed (Willis 2005), and explicit instruction in effective e-mail communication is often absent from course curricula” (Burns 2006 in DanielewiczBetz 2013, p. 24). Further, it is difficult to infer the norms for asymmetric communication (for example, between teachers and students) because imitating the interlocutor’s production will not work (Chen 2006, p. 50 in Ben-Aaron, online). Moreover, students often have difficulties with formal e-mails, both in their first and additional languages, because they are not yet familiar with the linguistic conventions, for instance, Hartford and Bardovi-Harlig (1996) have found that nonnative speakers’ e-mail messages to faculty differ pointedly from those of native speakers, particularly in their lack of downgraders and acknowledgements of the degree of imposition of their requests. Although e-mail appears to be one of the main modes of student-faculty communication, for younger students, namely the Generation Z cohort, it is a

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significantly less popular form of daily-used communication channels than other means, such as social media and texting (Dronia 2020). This, to some extent, may account for a growing number of faculty members being disturbed by both content and inappropriate linguistic form some e-mail messages take. As observed by Biesanbach-Lucas (2007, p. 59): “Complaints range from unreasonable requests in which students ask faculty to read drafts of students’ papers, copy notes for students who missed classes, or provide students with information that is already available on the class syllabus, to inappropriate salutations, abbreviations, spelling and grammar errors, and impolite tone”. Calongne (2002) also observes that the form of online communication, due to distance, and the fact that it is deprived of the potentially face-threatening context of direct communication, may help one to overcome inhibitions on the one hand easily, but also violate politeness conventions typical of face-to-face interactions (c.f. Danielewicz-Betz 2013, Lewandowski & Harrington 2006). A visible preference for directness, rather than indirectness in communication (Cameron 2003), a generally laxer attitude among the younger generation towards stylistics (Baron 2002), absence of social context cues in computermediated communication, and an influence of modern technology may provide an only partial explanation for the reasons underlying student-faculty communication problems. Other arguments can stem from general characteristics pertaining to the Generation Z cohort and their communication preferences, i. e., online and “shorthand” type of communication that dominates their daily interactions. With e-mails being an asynchronous medium, they may neither fully satisfy nor cater to the needs of this age group, who will favor clear communication with immediate feedback (Dolot 2018). To conclude, impolite emails faculty teachers receive from their students may be accounted for by a plethora of various factors of both (pragma) linguistic and sociocultural origin. Inappropriate and quite offending demands may be attributed to cultural differences, pragmatic transfer, and low linguistic mastery of the second language they use. However, as students have a lot to lose if they unintentionally offend their instructors, it is worthwhile to help them develop their abilities to make pragmatically appropriate requests when addressing faculty members.

3.

The development of pragmatic competence vs. the ability to produce polite e-mails

One cannot communicate effectively without a proper understanding of a given speech community’s social, cultural, and pragmatic niceties. A communication act in a second language is much more complicated and demanding than one

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held in our mother tongue. L2 learners must take part in meaningful communicative interactions in order to develop grammar and literacy. However, even realistic situations do not suffice to increase pragmatic discourse and sociolinguistic ability. Kasper and Rose (2002 in Rueda 2016) hold that pragmatic awareness can be exercised due to two sets of circumstances. In the first situation, pragmatic competence will appear as a specific side-effect of exposing students to instructional activities, whereas in the second, it will be the consequence of deliberate pedagogical activities aimed at acquiring pragmatics. Classroom activities focusing on the development of pragmatic competence will at the same time concentrate on metapragmatic declarative knowledge, whereas those designed to exercise TL pragmatic abilities will aim at metapragmatic procedural knowledge (Wildner-Bassett 1994). The studies conducted by Matsumura (2001, 2003) and Schauer (2006a in Xiao 2015, p. 142) support the claim that exposure to the target language benefits pragmatic development. What is more, “the SA context can provide ample pragmatic input (e. g., opportunities for learners to interact with and observe native speakers) (…)”. However, pragmatic development is likely also to be affected by all individual difference factors, such as motivation and variability among learners in their interaction or identities in the community. One of the phenomena preventing learners from using the language exactly as they want to communicate their meaning is pragmatic transfer. An interesting observation concerning the relationship between the level of pragmatic transfer and a student’s level of L2 proficiency can be found in the studies conducted by Beebe and Takahashi (1987) on Japanese users of English. They hypothesized and verified that more advanced L2 learners display more L1 communicative characteristics in their English proficiency than less proficient students. The more proficient learners (defined in this study as those who had been residents longer in the United States) made more frequent use of native-language patterns – particularly the high level of formality in the tone and content of refusals (…). However, the results for the EFL learners (i. e., those studying English at the college level in Japan) failed to support the hypothesis, there being no difference in the refusals of undergraduates and graduates (Ellis 1999, p. 180). The study also showed that even advanced L2 learners, who otherwise would not find it difficult to refuse in English, may still use different strategies and thus refuse in a way different than native speakers do. The pragmatic failures these students demonstrate can be broken down into pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic kinds. According to Leech (2014, p. 13), in pragmalinguistics “politeness can first be studied as to how it is conveyed or manifested, linguistically.” Thus, it encompasses such phenomena as “the range of lexico-grammatical resources of the language, their meanings, their degree of pragmaticalization, their frequency, and how they are deployed as linguistic strategies of politeness” (ibid.,

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p. 14). Sociopragmatics, on the other hand, studies the “socially oriented facet of politeness” and “the various scales of value that make a particular degree of politeness seem appropriate or normal in a given social setting” (Leech 2014, p. 14). Pragmalinguistic failure, according to Thomas (1983, p. 99), is “caused by differences in the linguistic encoding of pragmatic force,” whereas sociopragmatic failure happens as a result of “different perceptions of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behavior”. In the opinion of Kecskés (2013, pp. 72–73), pragmatic failure may also manifest itself in the wrong application of formulaic speech and especially of situation-bound utterances (SBUs). He notes that students who are otherwise very advanced in terms of grammar and lexis may be recognized as non-native speakers based on the different accent (pronunciation) and word choices and SBUs, defined as appropriate language use in a given speech community. Failing to adopt formulae that would or should typically be used by native speakers in given conversational contexts may reveal the nonnative identity or even lead to communication breakdown. However, it should also be emphasized that although NNs may know target language norms and expectations, they would neither necessarily be willing “to develop a conscious awareness” nor wish to act themselves accordingly. As Kecskés (2013, p. 69) summarizes, “In intercultural communication (especially in lingua franca) this fact may support rather than hamper the smoothness of the communicative process. The too frequent use of “thank you,” “I am sorry,” “have a nice day” type of expressions may be annoying for non-native speakers”. In the light of this article, it may be inferred that the development of pragmatic competence may significantly impact the ability to write respectful emails in English. As has been already said, students attempting to communicate with their faculty members should exercise not only linguistic (mainly understood as grammatical and lexical competence), but above all, pragmalinguistic niceties to appropriately convey the message they intend. What should also be stressed is that the vast majority of students’ emails take the form of requests, which have always been considered “highly sensitive” speech acts (cf. Leech 2014). In a study conducted on Polish students of English, focusing on the level of politeness exhibited through various forms of hedges and mitigations used in the Polish and English language, Dronia (2019) observed that the Polish respondents taking part in the study, though theoretically predisposed to represent advanced command of English, in fact visibly lack native speakers’ awareness when it comes to correctly applying politeness strategies and the intuition when and how to introduce hedge forms. A similar observation comes from the research organized by Danielewicz-Betz (2013) on Saudi Arabian, German, and Japanese learners of English. The primary purpose of her study was to determine whether and to what degree the use of pragmatic markers by students is congruent with the English

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netiquette in this specific domain. According to the author, the lack of pragmatic competence was found in all three groups of students, independent of the proficiency level and seniority, and “students appear not to be aware of the role their email messages play in creating an impression on faculty, and that structured instruction in email writing is required to improve the situation” (ibid., p. 24). To conclude, it seems that even a relatively high development of linguistic competence in English may not suffice in producing polite emails. Metapragmatic awareness when it comes to correctly applying politeness strategies and the intuition when and how to adjust oneself to different sociocultural constraints should be developed to successfully partake in this form of academic communication.

4.

The study

Over the past two decades Poland has undergone various processes which have both shaped and influenced the institutions of higher education. One of them is the need for internationalization, i. e. opening to students and researchers from foreign universities, establishing various exchange programmes and entering into international consortia in order to ensure best quality of education and research. As a result, Polish universities have been accepting foreign students who come to Poland for partial or full education. According to the data published by OECD (2017, 2018), the ratio of foreign students in Poland in the years 2017– 2018 was appropriately 4,1% and 3,6%. Additionally, the report published by NIK1 (2021) in the years 2016/2017–2019/2020 reveals that the number of foreign students at all Polish universities was 60,8; 67,2; 74,4 and 77,3 thousand, respectively. Most incoming students were from Ukraine (almost 40,000), Belarus (over 8,000), India (over 3,000), Norway, China, and Germany (almost 1,500) respectively. The report also mentions the majors/study programmes which were most popular among foreign students, namely: medicine, management, IT, international affairs or dentistry. Above all, English was the medium of communication and instruction for the vast majority of international students.

4.1

Context of the study

University of Silesia in Katowice cooperates with numerous universities around the world. The majority of incoming foreign students are from Erasmus + Programme, which is most popular. Other students choose exchange programmes 1 NIK – Najwyz˙sza Izba Kontroli – The Supreme Audit Office.

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based on double diploma agreements, scholarships, or other bilateral agreements. When it comes to the Faculty of Humanities, English Studies is the most popular programme among the foreign students. Every year over 60 foreign students participate in different exchange programmes (Erasmus +, double diploma, bilateral agreements). The majority of the exchange students (75%) study for one semester – the period of 5 months; others decide for one-year exchange. All exchange students are provided with coordinators who supervise the programme, schedule students’ classes, and solve all the issues which concern the exchange. At the beginning of the semester, exchange students are introduced to their coordinators, presented with the structure of the programme, and provided with students’ code which includes the description of the ethics, behaviour and other important hints. All these are for the adaptation purposes to both manage the students and help them study and live in the new community and culture. In order to participate in classes and lectures, the required level for B.A. Programmes is B2 and C1 for MA, respectively, according to CEFR. In the event of questions and queries, apart from on-site office hours, the coordinators also support exchange students by emails. Email exchange between students and faculty staff as part of out-of-classroom communication (OCC) has become a very popular form of information exchange (Hinkle 2002; Stephens, Houser & Cowan 2009) as it is common belief that it allows students greater and fast access to faculty members (D’Souza 1992a). These findings, personal observations and the remarks by faculty members on the content and quality of emails received from foreign exchange students resulted in the study which was conducted at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Silesia in Katowice.

4.2

Objectives of the study

The main objectives of the conducted analysis included: 1) assessing the level of politeness in the emails received from foreign exchange students in order to verify and (possibly) indicate the level of imposition and face threat; 2) assessing the areas of pragmatic transfer, i. e., pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic failure performed in the messages, and, finally 3) assessing both pragmatic and linguistic competence of the senders of the messages.

4.3

The objects and subjects of the study

The preliminary source for the study were email messages which were sent by exchange students to their coordinators and teachers in the period of two academic years. From the corpus of 500 messages, 92 emails (8067 running words in

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total) were selected as most representative objects of the research. The remaining 408 emails were not included in the study, as their form and content, apart from minor grammatical or spelling mistakes, did not represent significant pragmalinguistic and sociolinguistic failures which were the aim of the study. The subjects of the study were exchange students who attended classes and lectures at various BA programmes offered by the Faculty of Humanities between 2018 and 2021. The students – senders of the messages – studied the following programmes: English Studies Programme (75% of the subjects), followed by Applied linguistics (15%) and translation programmes: French-English; SpanishEnglish (10%). All the classes and lectures were run in English. The expected language level of the students was B2, according to CEFR. The subjects of the research represented 9 nationalities; English was a foreign language for all the subjects.

4.4

The relation between the senders and receivers of the messages

As mentioned in 4.3, the final analysis included 92 email messages sent by exchange students to the faculty staff. It is important to highlight that both senders and receivers of the messages knew each other, i. e., the receivers of the messages were not anonymous to the senders.

5.

The analysis – results

The content of the corpus contributed to establishing types of speech acts which were included / dominated in the messages. Table 1 presents the speech acts identified in the analysed messages. Table 1. Types of speech acts included in the messages Types of speech acts Representatives: assertions, statements, claims, descriptions Commisives: promises Directives: requests Expressives: apologies

Number of messages 5 12 64 11

Total:

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The (mis)use of English honorifics, academic and professional titles

Content analysis of the corpus revealed that English honorifics were either used inappropriately or were not used at all by the senders. Most serious mistakes concerned communicating with the receivers by using first name terms, e. g.: (1) “Hi + [name of the teacher]” (2) “[name of the teacher]”

missing the degrees, titles or name(s) of the receivers, e. g.: (3) “Dear + [name and surname of the teacher]” (4) “Mr or Mrs” (5) “Dear dr + [first names of the teacher]” (6) “Dear + [surname of the teacher]” (7) “Mr/Mrs + [first name of the teacher]”

or addressing the receivers with the use of their professions or positions at the university, e. g.: (8) “Dear Teacher” (9) “Dear Coordinator / Dear Director / Dear Dean”

It needs to be mentioned that all foreign students were familiar with both academic and professional titles of the faculty, as they are always included in class timetables, appear on the faculty’s business cards or the faculty website. However, in the analysed messages academic and professional titles were either wrong or joined together as a cluster of professional degrees, e. g.: (10) “Professor instead of doctor” (11) “M.A. instead of professor” (12) “Professor M.A. instead of Professor”

Although all the senders had been presented with the university email etiquette, still a significant number of students either misused the English honorifics or implemented / transferred the honorifics which are probably used in their countries of origin.

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5.2

Greeting formulae

In order to start the message, the senders used different greeting formulae which were not proper due to the status of the addressee(s). The formulae included in the messages indicate a close relationship between the sender and receiver of the message, e. g.: (13) “hi, hello, darling, dear, hey, hi there,”

The messages also contained formulae which are not typical of written discourse or phrases which are not used in formal correspondence to open a message, e. g.: (14) “glad to know you, sorry teacher,”

In some instances, the greeting formulae revealed the time when the messages were written with the intention that the receiver would read the message immediately after being received, e. g.: (15) “good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night,”

The examples of greeting formulae presented above may also prove that the majority of senders do not recognize the difference, especially the asynchronous character of the email correspondence and hoped that the reaction to the messages would be immediate as in other forms of online communications, for instance messengers or chats. In some cases, although the receiver of the message was known to the sender, the implementation of greeting formulae characteristic for formal correspondence in which the receiver remains unknown was used, e. g.: (16) “Good morning Sir/Madam”

Three of 92 messages did not include any greeting formulae. The senders immediately introduced the reason for writing: (17) “[first name of the teacher] + I do have a problem,”

stated the content of the attachment (in this case homework): (18) “[first name of the teacher] + there you go!”

or started the message with expressing the trust of the receiver’s well-being, e. g.: (19) “I hope everything is fine”

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Terminating formulae

As far as terminating formulae are concerned, similarly to the greeting ones, the subjects also implemented words or phrases which indicate other than studentteacher relationship, e. g.: (20) “Best!, Best wishes! Cheers” (21) “Thank you and regards” (22) “I will be waiting for your answer…. Bye”

The presented phrases are generally typical of informal messages among members of discourse community who share similar status, are in close relationship and exchange messages which do not concern issues that would require the implementation of proper form and language.

5.4

FTA – high level of imposition

Each act of communication carries the risk of threatening both speaker’s and receipients’ face. In the case of written communication, especially e-mail one, which is determined by certain spatial and temporal factors, i. e. physical distance between the participants of the communication act, lack of immediate reaction and delayed interaction, the sender of the message has more time to rethink and even reformulate the content of the message in order not to threaten the receiver’s face and at the same time remain respectful and polite. However, the analysed material revealed that due to the character of the messages and communication with the receivers, the senders implemented certain techniques to impose certain actions on the readers, which consequently resulted in threatening the receivers’ face. The reasons for such actions differed. The examples below demonstrate selected and most representative ones: (23) “I sent my work, which I redid, I hope you checked it already?” (24) “Hello +[first name], Sorry for bothering you but do you know something? I mean, do you already know what can I do with the 365 account?”

In both cases, the senders did not respect the position of the receivers and immediately introduced the subject of the message (requests) by imposing on the receiver and asking them to perform certain actions. Additionally, both lexical and syntactic analysis of the statements suggests that the senders treat the messages as part of oral communication with no temporal and spatial constraints, i. e., they do not realize that the recipient of the message is not able to act immediately.

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The following two examples demonstrate the position of the senders. Example 25 clearly shows that the sender presumes that actions performed by the receiver will meet his/her expectations: (25) “Thanks in anticipation for a favourable and positive response!”

whereas example 26 proves that the sender of the message treats the receiver more like a casual conversation partner who might be of similar age and status. Moreover, the statement suggests close bond between the interlocutors: (26) “Hope you can help me, please.”

Similarly, examples 27, 28 and 29 also demonstrate the change of power and weakening the position of the receiver of the message by either direct and authoritarian instructing the receiver to deal with the subject matter or evoking pressure related to time and urgency. (27) “I want you to help me to find a suitable trainee position at the university or the schools with which you have close relationships” (28) “I await your response to know when I can visit you” (29) “I would be glad if you can attend to it as a matter urgency”

Face threatening acts were also implemented in messages in which the students asked the teachers for retake exams or to grade them with higher scores, e. g.: (30) “We would like to ask if we could take extra tasks from you in order to increase our grades because we are about to lose our scholarship. It is extremely important for us, since we won’t be able to continue and finish our studies if we receive less than 3,5”.

The extract clearly demonstrates that the sender of the message, writing on behalf of a group of students, intended to maintain positive face, however, not in the actual communication with the teacher, but in the community they represented. On the other hand, the message is a threat to the teacher’s positive face and caused a sense of guilt, as by not allowing the students to take retake exams and performing extra tasks, the teacher will be blamed for students’ failure in receiving the scholarship.

5.5

Vague language

Another feature of the messages sent by students was the scarcity of vague language implemented in the e-mails. In order to clarify the issues which were the subjects of the messages, the senders implemented hedges the aim of which was probably to soften the content and create positive atmosphere in order to attain the main goals:

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(31) “I understand all of you are overloaded as well but I would be grateful if you could help me out with this.” (32) “I realize you must be very busy at the moment but if you could spare a moment I would be most grateful.”

Such strategies however, were very scarce. The vast majority of emails received was very straightforward and direct and thus imposing.

5.6

Overpoliteness / “super standard English”

One of the features of the analysed messages was overpoliteness or the use of extremely formal and “bookish” English, that was even inappropriate, bearing in mind the context requirements. Overpoliteness might result from the following factors: a) the sender of the message intends to impose certain actions on the receiver; however, they realize the social distance and the status of the receiver which require the implementation of face-saving acts in the message b) the tone of the message – apologetic one – is culturally bound and may usually refer to high-context cultures the senders come from in which the position, power-relations and social status determine communication between the participants. The examples below demonstrate most common techniques used in the analysed messages: (33) “I am really sorry for bothering you again and again” (34) “Thank you very much for replying me” (35) “I am really sorry” (36) “I hope this email doesn’t bother you” (37) “Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to reply me” (38) “Sorry for disappointing you”

As might be observed, the phrases express either apologetic stance of the senders or highlight the gratefulness the senders express to the receivers for dealing with the issues described in the messages.

5.7

Lack of proper development

Another example of both treating email communication as a form of oral conversation and lowering/disrespecting the position of the receiver is presented in examples 39, 40 and 41. Additionally, the messages, especially 40 and 41 lack

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proper development, which suggests that the senders of the messages might have presumed that the subject matter of the message is already known to the receiver and the message itself would not cause any ambiguity or misinformation. (39) “I have a question concerning our retaking exam. It will be tomorrow for everyone, won’t it?” (40) “Dear Dr. + [surname of the teacher], Have you received my thesis on email?” (41) “Dear + [surname of the teacher], If you can send it today it is ok for me. Best regards”

It is worth noticing that messages 40 and 41 contain elements of both written (greeting formulae) and oral communication (development and reasons for writing), whereas message 39 undoubtedly suggests either oral or written synchronous communication, for instance an online chat or a message sent through any messenger.

5.8

Using capital letters / exclamation marks to increase the sense of emergency

Writing in block capital letters or using them for particular words not in accordance with the rules of orthography of a given language is generally perceived as shouting, increasing the sense of emergency and calling the receiver of the message to perform certain actions immediately. Example 42 suggests that the sender(s) of the message neither respect(s) the position of the receiver, nor intend(s) to maintain positive face, by threatening the face of the receiver and highlighting his/her incompetence. (42) “we have two courses at exactly SAME TIME”

In example 43 capitalising the word please suggests threatening the face of the receiver and imposing immediate actions. (43) “Hope you can help me, PLEASE”

Another way of increasing the sense of urgency and shouting is the use of exclamation marks. Normally, exclamation marks are used to express strong feelings, emotions and emphasis on the described issue, as in the following examples: (44) “What can I possibly do!” (45) “Thanks in anticipation for a favourable and positive response!”

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However, Beck (2018) refers to McCulloch who states that (in digital communication) “the single exclamation mark is being used not as an intensity marker, but as a sincerity marker” which would suggest that the author of the message did not intend to be rude, but on the contrary, was “enthusiastic and sincerely thankful”.

Conclusions and Summary Although the present study was based on a small-size corpus of messages collected from four departments of one faculty, it has attained its main aims, i. e., providing a preliminary picture of the communication patterns employed in email correspondence between international students and the faculty. Content analysis of the corpus has revealed four major areas which we believe need to be considered in further research on respectful communication by non-native speakers of English in the academic settings. First, the use of English honorifics; the results clearly indicate that in the majority of messages, senders confused and, as a result, misused English honorifics, implemented the honorifics which are not used in the English language or did not use them at all. The study has also demonstrated areas of imposition which call for further analysis: inappropriate requests, lack of tentative language and a small amount of hedges (especially in requests), being “pushy” and face-threatening towards the addressees, and significant problems with appropriate judging of position (role and status of the addressees), property (age and sex of the receivers) and relations – dominance and authority. Another area which needs detailed investigation is the sociopragmatic failure which probably results from cross cultural differences; in this case, cross-culturally different assessments of relative power and social distance. Finally, the analysis revealed a relatively low linguistic level of the messages. Common problems with grammar, lexicon and negative language transfer have contributed to obtaining messages which demonstrate significant failure in maintaining respectful communication. Considering all the limitations, we believe that the results offer insight in the communication patterns and are a starting point for further analyses of cross-cultural dimensions of communication in the academic settings. Generation Z students comprise a group that has not yet been well researched, primarily regarding the development of their pragmatic competence. In light of the above, our study may be considered innovative as it analyzes the discourse produced not only by respondents of the same age but also representing different nationalities. Since there were not many students with the same cultural background, the conducted analysis lacks statistically representative sample, and its results cannot be interpreted as universal of a particular nationality. On the other hand, the analyzed examples seem to

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create a coherent and general picture that, in our opinion, may be ascribed to the whole Generation Z significantly struggling with sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic requirements concerning respectful communication in English.

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Li Lan / MacGregor, Lucy: ‘English in tiers at workplace: A case study of email usage’ in Forey, Gail / Lockwood Jane (eds.): Globalization, Communication and the Workplace. London 2010, p. 8–24. Li, L.: ‘Impoliteness and non-politeness in workplace emails written by Chinese users of English’, in: Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication, 2016/3, p. 64– 77. Locher, M.: ‘Polite behaviour within relational work: the discursive approach to politeness’, in: Multilingua 2006/25/3, p. 249–267. Mckenzie, L., Wallace, M.: ‘The Communication of Respect as a Significant Dimension of Cross-Cultural Communication Competence’, in: Cross-cultural Communication 2011/ 7/3, p. 10–18. Matsumura, S.: ‘Learning the rules for offering advice: A quantitative approach to second language socialization’, in: Language Learning, 2001/51, p. 635–679. Matsumura, S.: ‘Modeling the relationship among interlanguage pragmatic development, L2 proficiency, and exposure to L2’, in: Applied Linguistics, 2003/24, p. 465–491. NIK: NIK o kształceniu cudzoziemców na polskich uczelniach. 2021, available at: https:// www.nik.gov.pl/aktualnosci/cudzoziemcy-na-polskich-uczelniach.html [10. 09. 2021]. OECD: Education at a Glance 2017: OECD Indicators. 2017, available at https://doi.org /10.1787/eag-2017-en. [17. 09. 2021]. OECD: Education at a Glance 2018: OECD Indicators. 2018, available at: https://doi.org /10.1787/eag-2018-en. [17. 09. 2021]. Rueda, Y. T.: ‘Developing Pragmatic Competence in a Foreign Language’, in: Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 2006/8, p. 169–182. Salacuse, J. W.: ‘Deal is Done – Now What?’, in: Harvard Business Publishing Newsletters 2005, p. 3–5. Schauer, G.: ‘Pragmatic awareness in ESL and EFL contexts: Contrast and development’, in: Language Learning, 2006/56, p. 269–318. Schirmer, W., Weidenstedt, L., Reich, W.: ‘Respect and agency: An empirical exploration’, in: Current Sociology 2012/61/1, p. 57–75. Sennett, Richard: Respect: The Formation of Character in a World of Inequality. London 2004. Simon, B.: ‘Respect, Equality, and Power: A Social Psychological Perspective’, in: Gruppendynamik Und Organisationsberatung, 2007/38/3, p. 309–326. Simon, B., Sturmer, S.: ‘Respect for Group Members: Intragroup Determinants of Collective Identification and Group-Serving Behavior’, in: Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 2005/29/2, p. 183–193. Spears, R., Ellemers, N., B., Doosje, B.: ‘Let Me Count the Ways in Which I Respect Thee: Does Competence Compensate Or Compromise Lack of Liking from the Group?’, in: European Journal of Social Psychology, 2005/35/2, p. 263–279. Sriussadaporn-Charoenngam, N., Jablin, F.: ‘An Exploratory Study of Communication Competence in Thai Organizations’, in: Journal of Business Communication, 1999/36/4, p. 382–418. Stephens, K. K., Houser, M. L., Cowan, R. L.: ‘R U Able to Meat Me: The Impact of Students’ Overly Casual Email Messages to Instructors’, in: Communication Education, 2009/ 58/3, p. 303–326.

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Tamam, E.: ‘Examining Chen and Starosta’s Model of Intercultural Sensitivity in a Multiracial Collectivistic Country’, in: Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2010/39/3, pp. 173–183. Thomas, J.: ‘Cross-cultural pragmatic failure’, in: Applied Linguistics 1983/4, p. 91–112. Thorne, S., Harris, S., Mahoney, K., Con, A., Mcguinness, L.: ‘The Context of Health Care Communication in Chronic Illness’, in: Patient Education and Counseling 2004/54/3, p. 299–306. van Quaquebeke, N., Henrich, D. C., Eckloff, T.: ‘“It’s Not Tolerance I’m Asking For, It’s Respect!” A Conceptual Framework to Differentiate between Tolerance, Acceptance and Respect’, in: Gruppendynamik Und Organisationsberatung, 2009/38/2, p. 185–200. Wildner-Bassett, M.: ‘Intercultural pragmatics and proficiency: polite noises for cultural appropriateness’, in: International review of applied linguistics, 1994/32, p. 3–17. Willis, Katie: Theories and Practices of Development. London and New York 2005. Xiao, F.: ‘Adult Second Language Learners’ Pragmatic Development in the Study-abroad Context: A Review’, in: Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 2015/ XXV, p. 132–149.

Małgorzata Godlewska

Chapter 4 – Cultural conceptualization of humour in audiovisual translation: subtitling the American series Big Little Lies

Abstract This research paper discusses the English-Polish translation of subtitles for the American comedy drama Big Little Lies (2017–2018) and focuses on the transfer of humorous segments into the target audiovisual product. The theoretical framework of the analysis rests on Farzad Sharifian’s main postulates about the interconnectedness between language, culture and reality, the assumptions of Gideon Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies as well as Jeroene Vandaele’s incongruity-superiority model of humour. This research proposes a practical model for the analysis of the aforementioned interconnectedness reflected in the rendition of various categories of humour from the American film script into the Polish subtitles. It is believed that the comparative and discursive analysis of selected audiovisual segments grounded in cultural linguistics can disclose the consequences of the translator’s and subtitler’s reductionistic tendencies made on the conceptualisation of humour of the original film. Keywords: audio-visual translation; cultural conceptualisation of humour; subtitling; film translation; cultural linguistics.

1.

Introduction

The investigation of mutual relationships between language and extralinguistic reality has been of interest to numerous researchers, nevertheless, it was Farzad Sharifian (2017) who fostered the study of languages intertwined with cultural conceptualisations which underlie their uses. It is believed that language constructs meanings stored by communities and reflects cultural conceptualisations of reality. The author of this research conducts a descriptive comparative analysis, in the spirit of Gideon Toury’s DTS (2012), of the source and target multimodal texts so as to disclose divergencies in the transfer of the original cultural schema of humour contained in the characters’ discourses into the target text and culture. The author investigates selected “units of conversation” (Zabalbeascoa, Corrius 2019) from the first season of the American mini-series, Big Little Lies (2017–2018) directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. This exploration focuses on

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the parts of the subtitled film script which convey humour relying on Jeroene Vandaele’s incongruity-superiority model (2002) and Marta Dynel’s semanticpragmatic taxonomy of conversational humour (2009). The translation shifts in the transfer of humour categories are discussed with reference to instances of language variation found in the film script, “a phenomenon characterised by the co-presence, mixing, made-up languages of different jargons, dialects, sociolects” (Zabalbeascoa 2019, p. 19). The high-low language registers used by the film characters participate in the representation of the contemporary American upper-class community and in the de-construction of the American dream, one of the central themes of the film. Register clashes are regarded as an important means of class identification, and a method of conducting social critique. Hence, the following analysis of the translation strategy appropriated by the translators/subtitlers of the American film series must be accompanied by the multimodal analysis of the film discourse which has the potential to inform about different cultural cognitions of translators, subtitlers and, in consequence, their television audiences, as well as about divergent cultural schemas of humour exposed by the clashes of translation segments.

2.

Theoretical background

2.1

Cultural imagery and cultural conceptualisations

The early research which is believed to have spurred the development of cultural linguistics is often attributed to the work of Franz Boas and Benjamin Whorf (Palmer 1996, 2015 p. 22) and Wilhelm von Humboldt and Edward Sapir (Sharifian 2017, p. 1). Benjamin Whorf (1956) generated a perception of language as a phenomenon, both influenced by and influencing human thinking and the surrounding reality. Language should not be seen as an isolated entity but as a “vast pattern system” which comprises forms and categories controlled by one’s individual culture. As a result, the way people perceive the world, observe or ignore various aspects of their reality and communicate with others is grounded in their culture-affected language systems. Thus, human thinking, argues Whorf (1956, p. 246f), is “in a language”. The perception of language as ingrained in human thought was furthered by the 20th century scholars, such as Gary B. Palmer (1996), who observed that language is moulded not only by “innate potentials”, but also by “physical and sociocultural experiences”. According to Palmer (1996, p. 1), “It is the concurrence of language-as-culture and language-governed-by-culture that warrants an approach called cultural linguistics”. It is necessary to emphasise the significant role of “Ethnolinguistic School of Lublin” (Bartmin´ski 2012) in the

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advancement of research in the study of values implied in the languages used by communities. Nevertheless, as Palmer (2015, p. 22) argues, the differentiating feature between the focus of ethnolinguistics and that of cultural linguistics rests in the latter’s preoccupation with the ways grammatical patterns are impacted by “culturally defined and value-laden imagery”. The current interdisciplinary perspective on cultural linguistics is attributed to Farzad Sharifian and his expertise rooted in anthropology, cognitive science and linguistics (Peeters 2016, p. 6). This study draws on the scholar’s definition of cultural linguistics construed as a discipline which explores the relationship between language and “cultural conceptualisations”, thus replacing and dethroning Palmer’s concept of “imagery” (Palmer 2015, p. 22; Peeters 2016, p. 7). Sharifian (2017, p. 5f) proposes a theoretical and analytical framework to be applied to the analysis of the uses of languages with a key concept of cultural cognition, expounded as an “enactive”, “distributed”, “dynamic” and “open” system compared to the system of language. The enactive quality designates “the social and linguistic interactions between individuals across space and time” (Sharifian 2017, p. 5). It is distributed among the individuals of a given community, though unequally. Moreover, cultural cognition is a dynamic process which undergoes constant transformations across generations and other communities. It may develop new features through continuous interactions between its members. The description of the system as open indicates the impossibility to determine its borderlines. Furthermore, an individual plays a crucial role in the system as the “locus” of cultural cognition and an influential factor stimulating its transformations. Finally, language plays a dual function in relation to cultural cognition: as “a collective memory bank” of a given speech community, and as “a fluid vehicle for the (re-)transmission of cultural cognition” (2017, p. 5). In other words, it fosters the development of cultural conceptualisations in the process of the linguistic interactions of the community members. Conversely, these interactions may rely on linguistic structures embedded in the pre-existent cultural conceptualisations of the individuals’ speech community (2017, p. 5f). Sharifian (2017, p. 6) postulates that cultural conceptualisations are encoded not only in language, but also in the exemplary aspects of human existence, such as cultural art, literature, cultural events, non-verbal behaviour and rituals. The analytical framework of Sharifian’s cultural linguistics supplies practical tools of cultural schema, cultural category and cultural metaphor to analyse the features of language activated by cultural conceptualisations. Cultural schemas are interpreted as “beliefs, norms, and expectations of human behaviour as well as values” (2017, p. 7) which reflect particular aspects of human life. The meaning of the concept of cultural schema might be compared to a number of concepts already existing in cognitive linguistics, such as a mental model, script, scenario or plan (2017, p. 12). Sharifian (2017, p. 14) postulates further divisions of cul-

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tural schemas into particular subcategories related to the specific knowledge which they demonstrate. Furthermore, cultural schemas are embedded in various features of languages, including lexical items, as well as speech acts. As a result, the knowledge of these schemas builds the foundation for successful communication in a speech community. The second type of a practical tool within cultural linguistics incorporates “the culturally constructed conceptual categories” which are reflected in the vocabulary of languages. Lexical items function as denotations of categories and their instances. Categories can create hierarchical networks in which they can operate as a category itself or its instance (2017, p. 15). Categories, their subcategories, and their instances are culturally constructed, no matter their referents, and incorporate events, objects, mental states or relations (2017, p. 15). The last category of cultural metaphor is expounded as “cross-domain conceptualisations” rooted in human cultural traditions (2017, p. 7). Cultural metaphor involves a process of conceptualisation from the source domain into the target domain, along the lines of a conceptual metaphor (2017, p. 16). The application of Sharifian’s theory in Translation Studies is not a widespread analytical practice, despite the growing interest in the cultural approach in this branch of science. The existing studies in the translation of humour resort to Sharifian’s theory as part of their methodology and discuss the translation of humour through the prism of the Functionalist approach in translation and the General Theory of Verbal Humour by Attardo and Raskin (Prodanovic Stankic 2017; Heydon, Kianbakht 2020). In contrast to this, the present study builds its methodological framework, grounded primarily in Sharifian’s theory of cultural conceptualisations, upon Gideon Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies, the approach sensitive to the socio-cultural context of translation, as well as on Jeroene Vandaele’s superiority-incongruity model of humour, which admits the significance of socio-cultural mechanisms of humour next to the cognitive ones. The application of this methodology is expected to accentuate both the linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects of audio-visual translation, with the technical constraints of subtitling being one of them. a.

Audio-visual translation framework

This study deals with the translation problems encountered in the relay of subtitles in a television series, an exemplification of an audio-visual construct. A film translator must consider a few semiotic channels, both linguistic and nonlinguistic ones, and their cross-relations which contribute to the creation of the senses encoded by the audience. The transfer of meaning in the act of translation is perceived as the relationship between the source communication and the target

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communication, rather than the source language/text and target language/text, as postulated by Teresa Tomaszkiewicz (2006, p. 63f). A perception of film translation as an intersemiotic, interlingual and multilayered phenomenon entails the awareness of numerous “enunciators” (Gambier 1994, p. 246) engaged in the production of the film and of their many voices, perspectives and cultural conceptualisations inscribed in the film texture. It is the role of the film translator to decipher this multimodal texture and relay it in the translation process. The significance of “the integration of the semiotic modes in a multimodal text that creates meaning” is highlighted by Christopher Taylor (2018, p. 41), who claims that “it is the task of the audiovisual (AV) translator to find the wording in his/her language that best expresses that integration of semiotic forces”. The translation process of film subtitles triggers a variety of text transformations, with reductions being their major exemplification. Gambier (1994, p. 246) delineates subtitle translation as a selective process involving changes from the oral code to the linear written one, and from one language to another. Thus, a translator must respect certain norms of a written discourse, such as “norms of good use”, exemplified by the omission of taboo elements in the replacing segment, and readability of the text, specifically, the imposed degree of textual coherence (1994, p. 248). The omission of the elements of the oral discourse such as repetitions, discourse markers, pragmatic connectors, but also names in appellative constructions, false starts and ungrammatical constructions, internationally known words, expressions followed by semantically potent gestures (Georgakopoulou 2009, p. 27) constitutes a common translation practice. The process of neutralisation of sociolinguistic variations and of the protagonists’ individual speech patterns in the target text, discussed by Gambier (1995, p. 248), requires further emphasis with regards to the transfer from the oral to written discourse in translation. The procedure of reduction in audio-visual translation, termed as “redundancy” by Panayota Georgakopoulou (2009, p. 25), and “omission” by Jan Ivarsson and Mary Carroll (1998), often stems from the technical impediment such as limited subtitle space. The conscious omission of various redundant speech elements frequently entails cohesion loss in the target text. Nevertheless, “linguistic redundancy” is suggested by Georgakopoulou (2009, p. 25) to be accompanied by “situational redundancy”: visual information often complements the semantic loss triggered by linguistic redundancy. The perception of the subtitled text by the translator must be always respectful of its multiple semantic channels, intersemiotic and interlingual, “the equilibrium between the image, sound and text of the original” (2009, p. 30). Linguistic redundancy, or omission, is often complemented with the technique of paraphrasing as the reduction of translation segments might necessitate

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reformulation of the remaining parts of dialogue, as Ivarsson and Carroll (1998) argue. The scholars (1998) distinguish two types of reduction: total omission, which might require a small degree of grammatical and stylistic reformulation, as well as partial condensation, which nearly always triggers a higher degree of reformulation. This study focuses on the exemplifications of linguistic reductions, concurrent with subtitle condensations, which are believed to generate the neutralisation of the film characters’ idiolects. b.

Jeroene Vandaele’s theory of humour

Jeroene Vandaele’s (2002) integrated model of humour structured by its cognitive and socio-cultural mechanisms, will serve as the analytical tool and constituent of this theoretical framework. The model relies on two interconnected concepts of incongruity and superiority, traditionally perceived as independent phenomena in relation to humour. Vandaele (2002, p. 224) argues against such an approach and contradicts Raskin’s model of humour based on the opposition of scripts and a semantic perspective with his model involving discourse analysis irreducible to mere semes. Each of the two concepts of Vandaele’s model represents a distinct perspective on humour: incongruity deals with its cognitive aspect and superiority with the social one (2002, p. 225). Vandaele (2002, p. 227f) presents a typology of incongruity relying on a definition of meaning perceived as a cognitive scheme, that is a mental model or a mental construction which people learn to use to interpret the external reality. In his definition, incongruity appears as “a contradiction of the cognitive scheme” or “a nonapplication of cognitive schemes”. Vandaele (2002, p. 227f) distinguishes several incongruity types. Linguistic incongruity represents a feature of language which stands in contrast to the expectations of fluency and economy of linguistic expression (2002, p. 228). Pragmatic incongruities involve instances of breaking cognitive schemes related to the use of language. The narrative type of incongruities addresses the issue of the text’s interpretation. The subsequent two types of incongruities refer to the concepts of parody, which occurs when the broken cognitive schemes are rooted in the field of art, and satire, which is present when the broken schemes are located in the social sphere (2002, p. 234). All of the located incongruities may lead to “group-related” feelings of superiority in contrast to the final type of unlocated or “Absolute” incongruity, regarded as transgressive rather than group-related (2002, p. 238). The superiority element is expounded as the “aggregate of social elements in humour dynamics” (2002, p. 239). The “aggressive” type of superiority can be differentiated from the “affirmative” one by the clearly identified target of the joke. The “circumstantial superiority”, a subcategory of the affirmative superi-

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ority, can be discriminated by the lack of inferiority or anxiety and the presence of two principles of “good mood” and “cuing” (2002, p. 241). Another subcategory of affirmative superiority, “institutionalised humour”, provokes humour by the presence or mention of humour-loaded sentences or human types (2002, p. 343f).

3.

Methodology

This research proposes a pragmatic model for the analysis of cultural conceptualisations inferred from the audiovisual translation segments from the perspective of cultural linguistics, grounded in the theory of audiovisual translation and reliant upon Vandaele’s incongruity/superiority model of humour. The analysis is qualitative, rather than quantitative, and consists in the interpretation of translation shifts in representative subtitles created for the first season of Big Little Lies issued on DVD. The analysed translation segments constitute “units of conversation” interpreted as the smallest possible units of oral or written discourse, “smaller than a scene and more meaningful than an utterance”, which can include a series of turns between characters or constitute a monologue unified by a single topic or purpose (Zabalbeascoa/ Corrius 2019, p. 64). The selection of a unit of conversation appropriate for the analysis is determined by the presence of a category of humour and of the translator’s techniques of “total omission” or/and “partial condensation” (Ivarsson /Carroll 1998), the factors which influence the register of the replacing segment. The following units of conversation are categorised with respect to Marta Dynel’s taxonomy of humour (2009). This study focuses on the translation process as well as on the translation product so as to assess the degree of the translator’s and/or subtitler’s impact on the cultural schema of humour in the translated audiovisual material. The methods applied to this research involve, first, the comparative analysis of the original film subtitles and their translation variants following the assumptions of Gideon’s Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies (2012); the selection of the representative corpus of units of conversation; the application of Vandaele’s incongruity-superiority model of humour to the discourse analysis of the units of conversation; the discussion of the translation shifts in the context of cultural linguistics and the indication of instances of re-conceptualisation of the cultural schema of humour and its effects on the interpretation of the film material. The proposed model of analysis reveals the translation and subtitling tendencies imposed in the target audiovisual culture by the target media, DVD distributors and television production, and, indirectly, by the assumed expect-

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ations of the target culture audience, all inferable as influential “enunciators” (Gambier 1994, p. 246) of cultural conceptualisations in the transfer of the audiovisual messages.

4.

The analysis of representative “units of conversation” from the series Big Little Lies

a.

Unit of conversation 1 – register clash and witticism

(CD1, chapter 1, time codes: 30:31–31:40) Gordon: Women, you all want to be the envy of your friends but, God forbid, you garner too much of it. [Kobiety, chcecie by przyjaciółki Wam zazdros´ciły, /byle nie za bardzo.]

The first unit of conversation covers part of the dialogue between a wealthy upper-class but snobbish and domineering couple, Renata and Gordon. The subtle humorous effect of the utterance quoted above relies on two elements, an instance of “witticism”, a sarcastic and spontaneous type of humour often observed in non-humorous conversations, which creates its humorous effect by means of a proverb or a saying, and “the clash of registers” constructed on the opposition of linguistic registers (Dynel 2009, p. 1287). The translation predicament of the first unit of conversation lies in the transfer of the original clash of the aggressive superiority expressed in Gordon’s utterance towards women, and the linguistic incongruity on the level of two semiotic channels, the verbal one, related to the lexical, phonetical, and structural aspects of the utterance, interconnected with the visual-gestural semiotic channel. Linguistic incongruity is located in the mixture of an informal phraseme, God forbid placed next to a formal verb to garner. This linguistic clash of registers is accentuated on the phonetic level in the character’s consoling tone of voice used in his sarcastic comment. Thus, the linguistic incongruity might be claimed to work as a cue for another type of incongruity located in the social field, which addresses successful women. The Polish subtitles created for this scene do not require any significant reductions of the original lines due to the lack of temporal or spatial constraints: The tempo of the characters’ speech is slow enough to fit all the translated segments into the subtitled space and the assigned time codes. Nevertheless, an instance of total omission can be observed together with partial condensation of the line. First, the phrase, God forbid, is removed from the target subtitle, which exemplifies a common subtitling procedure of omission of exclamations and

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interjections. The target text represents a neutral register in the first clause and informal in the second one, conveyed by the phrase “byle nie za bardzo”. The phrase does not find its direct semantic equivalent in the original film script due to the transformation of the source sentence structure. The structural modification of the source utterance might be held responsible for the further shift in the model of humour contained in the target subtitle and, what follows, in the cultural schema which it re-constructs. Specifically, the source witticism, which consists of a set-up and a punch line in two sentences, is reduced in the target subtitle to a one-liner and a putdown, a type of humour defined as offensive and denigrating the target of the joke (Dynel 2009, p. 1288). Dynel perceives a putdown as a more aggressive type of humour than witticism with the central function of ridiculing and abusing the object of the joke. In contrast, witticism, lost in the target subtitle, is believed to embrace an additional function apart from facilitating humour, namely a social comment in form of witty observations (Dynel 2009, p. 1294). All the aforementioned transformations result in the shift on the stylistic level of the target subtitle and trigger the process of neutralisation of the character’s speech. Furthermore, the subtitling procedures lead to the impairment of the original humorous effect implicit in the register clash. The subtitling procedures trigger the loss of the linguistic incongruity. However, the element of aggressive superiority is recreated in the target line. Hence, a more direct satirical effect of the utterance becomes foregrounded in the translated subtitle at the expense of the subtle humour located in the original linguistic incongruity. The shift in the incongruity-superiority model of humour in the translated segment might entail the transformation of the cultural schema of humour transferred into the target text. Indirectly, these seemingly insignificant translation modifications might result in a different conceptualisation of the role of language in the establishment of power relations in the fictional reality of the film and, implicitly, in the realms of the contemporary upper-class American community. b.

Unit of conversation 2 – register clashes

(CD 2, chapter 2, time codes: 00:32:50–00:33:10) Nathan: As far as I can tell, there was no undue influence or inference. [O ile wiem, / nikt nie wyskakiwał przed orkiestre˛.] I just wanted to discuss this whole thing…, like that which happened with Bonnie and Abby. [Chciałem pogadac´ o aferze z Bonnie i Abby.] (…) There was no parental usurping of any kind, I promise you that. [Nie uzurpowała roli matki.]

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The audience’s cognitive schemas detect the presence of incongruity signalled on the level of lexis, in the clash of registers in particular. The “institutionalised” superiority elements ridicule the artificiality of the protagonist’s formal register used in informal situations and highlight the feature which might be emblematic of the upper-class propensity. Since the protagonists’ mutual animosities and snobbery are reflected in their individual idiolects, the superiority principle might be claimed to expose the conceptualisation of the stereotype of the American newly rich. The translation procedures applied to the subtitles in the quoted unit of conversation prompt the neutralisation of formal expressions. The original formal phrasemes “no undue influence or interference” are superseded by a structurally modified sentence “nikt nie wyskakiwał przed orkiestre˛”, which incorporates a colloquial metaphorical expression. The neutral verb to discuss is supplanted by a colloquial Polish replacing segment, pogadac´, whose informal aspect is strengthened by the noun afera, a semantic equivalent of the informal fuss. The downgrading of the register clash in the subtitle results in the partial attenuation of the affirmative superiority element of humour. The final line of the Polish subtitle attempts to restore the original formal aspect of Nathan’s speech by means of a literal translation of the verb usurp into uzurpowac´. Nevertheless, the register of the translated unit of conversation is predominantly informal and colloquial on the level of lexis and sentence structure, deprived of the original mixture of registers, and what follows, of the de-normalising element contributing to the humorous effect of the scene. Together with the loss of the institutionalised affirmative superiority element in translation, the conceptualisation of humour found in the character’s mannerism is undermined. c.

Unit of conversation 3 – register clash and putdown

(CD1, chapter 2, time codes: 00:08:31–00:08:59) Yoga instructor: We do have a session where the rules are more relaxed, you know? Our peri-menopausal class. [Mniej rygorystyczne sa˛ zaje˛cia / dla Pan´ przed klimakterium.] Madeline: That won’t be necessary. I won’t be coming back. [Moja noga wie˛cej tu nie postanie.]

The first line exemplifies a putdown, a category emblematic of humour targeted at the third party since it draws on ridicule, mocking or sarcasm intended to denigrate the listener (Dynel 2009, p. 1294). Thus, the superiority element in the model of humour contained in this unit is of an aggressive type.

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The incongruity aspect of humour is located in the social field and targeted at middle-aged women. This type of incongruity indicates its pragmatic subcategory which rests on ambiguity embraced in the first two lines of the source text. The other linguistic subcategories of incongruity can be observed on the phonetic level of the utterance and on the level of the sentence structure: a sarcastic putdown consists of a set-up and a punchline, both uttered in a gentle and seemingly polite, though condescending and denigrating manner. The dominant subtitling procedures applied to this unit of conversation involve linguistic redundancy and partial modification of a sentence structure, both manifested by the decreased length of the subtitle. In both characters’ lines, the two-sentence structure is modified to a single sentence. The subtitler’s depleting procedures cannot be justified by temporal nor spatial constraints. Besides, the whole unit of conversation is uttered at a slow pace and both characters’ utterances are preceded by pauses. The aforementioned subtitling modifications affect the level of the humorous load of the lines. First, the two-sentence construction of the source putdown releases its humorous load gradually. Relying on the phonetic incongruity located in the character’s polite intonation, the source segment surprises the viewers with the aggressive humour of the punchline. In contrast, the humorous load of the target one-sentence utterance is manifested in a more explicit and forceful manner. The original polite/impolite opposition is removed from the target subtitles together with the linguistic incongruity on the phonetic level. In addition, the reading speed of the target text is accelerated in contrast to the reading speed of the original scene due to the different number of syllables in each of them, thus repudiating the structure of a polite interaction. The conceptualisation of humour in the target subtitle rests on a different model of humour than the one discovered in the original lines of the film. The aggressive superiority element of humour is reinforced at the expense of the linguistic and pragmatic incongruities of the original subtitles. In addition, the transformed model of humour in the target text influences the viewers’ perception of the characters’ attitudes: the yoga teacher’s sarcastic and mocking manner transforms into an aggressive and rude utterance in the target text, while Madeline’s original ironic but composed reaction which continues the seemingly polite word clash with the instructor alters into a more aggressive and peevish one in the eyes of the target viewers.

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Unit of conversation 4 – register clash and tease

(CD1, chapter 2, time codes: 00:32:14–00:32:55) Nathan: Love the look, especially the mirror. It’s … [GIGGLES]. You gotta respect a man who has his own back. [S´wietna stylówka, zwłaszcza lusterka. Lepiej nie ryzykowac´.] Ed: Well, standard stuff. [Standardowe wyposaz˙enie.] N: Yeah. How’s the computer business going? [Co w branz˙y komputerowej?] E: Oh, great. Kinda like landscape, I guess. [Jak w architekturze krajobrazu.] E: – Growth business. [Kwitna˛cy biznes.] (2) N: That’s clever. [Ma˛drala.]

The fourth unit of conversation relies on “teasing”, a category of humour defined as jocular but intended to challenge or mock the interlocutor (Dynel 2009, p. 1293). Its language relies mostly on colloquial and informal register, manifested by a sentence structure and lexemes, such as stuff, kinda, yeah, great, and gotta. The model of humour in this unit of conversation originates from the intersection of two different superiority and incongruity elements displayed by each of the characters’ utterances. The aggressive superiority of the tease in the first line is located in the linguistic and pragmatic ambiguity of the remark targeted at Ed who arrives by bike. The superiority element is specified since the target of the joke is clearly indicated and even verbally laughed at. Ed’s equanimity, which contrasts with Nathan’s contentiousness, is manifested in the model of humour discovered in his utterances. The translation procedures applied to the aforementioned segments undermine the effectiveness of both instances of teasing, the aggressive and the affirmative ones. The tease in Nathan’s first line is rendered with respect to the colloquial register of the original segment. Nevertheless, the subsequent lines of the conversation strike with the degree of linguistic neutralisation: the colloquial phrasemes are absent from the target lines and the informal sentence structure is hardly noticeable in the Polish subtitles. In addition, the original tease of Nathan’s line and the pragmatic incongruity contained in the ambiguous lexeme back are removed from the target text. In contrast, the second instance of the pragmatic incongruity of the phraseme growth business in Ed’s line might be claimed to render the source ambiguity as well as the contained affirmative superiority element. The neutralising process of the colloquial register of the original film script, the failure to render the teasing effect of Nathan’s utterance as well as the altered

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model of humour might be claimed to trigger a shift in the conceptualisation of the two characters’ personality profiles. What follows, the Polish audience may not share the same cultural schema of humour contained in the dialogue as the original audience due to the impaired source teasing and the removed aggressive superiority element of humour induced by the translation procedures. e.

Unit of conversation 5 – register clash and retorts

(CD1, chapter 2, time codes: 1:23:29: – 1:23:53) Ed: But you know, it doesn’t hurt to be mindful of other people’s feelings sometimes. (1) [Ale warto pamie˛tac´ o uczuciach innych.] N: Oh yeah, Mr Sensitive! [Pan Wraz˙liwy!] E: Excuse me? [Słucham?] N: No, actually I meant that as a compliment. [To komplement.] N: You’re kind of like today’s standard bearer for the evolved man. [Jestes´ wzorem nowoczesnego me˛z˙czyzny.] Like you work at home, and you … And you do almost 50– 50 of the childcare. You even cook. [Pracujesz w domu, opiekujesz sie˛ dziec´mi, a nawet gotujesz.] E: So, you’re the guy who likes to fish and hunt, and I’m…/ Mr Girly-Man? [Ty łowisz, polujesz, a ja jestem metroseksualny?] (2)

The fifth unit of conversation incorporates a few instances of retorts, witty utterances produced in response to the preceding ones, which can express unexpected sarcasm, intended to amuse the target of the joke, or manifest aggressive humour in front of the third party. They might rely on the mechanism of pretended misunderstanding, punning ambiguity or a rhetorical question (Dynel 2009, p. 1292). The first retort embraces Ed’s reaction to Nathan’s criticism of Ed’s wife. The model of humour located in the original line rests on the intersection of aggressive superiority, since Nathan’s insensitivity is the clear target of the utterance, and pragmatic incongruity, as the line relies on the ambiguity of the metaphor “it doesn’t hurt to be mindful…”. The lexical omissions and partial modifications detected in the translated segments activate the neutralisation process of the linguistic layer of the utterance: the segments you know, sometimes are removed, despite the absence of subtitling constraints, together with the original metaphor. The impact of Ed’s utterance in the target subtitle is attenuated – sarcasm is replaced with polite advice and a preaching tone. The final retort contained in Ed’s reaction to Nathan’s ironic and patronising depiction of his role in the relationship relies on two metaphors, the first one translated literally and the second, Mr Girly Man, by means of a semantic equivalent, which can be back translated as metrosexual. The consequences of the

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translation solution include the impairment of the central metaphor, which constitutes the source of the linguistic incongruity and the affirmative superiority of humour. Furthermore, the target semantic equivalent, metrosexual does not render the source text’s colloquialism of the phrase girly man nor its selfdenigrating humour. The whole unit of conversation is structured by colloquial speech visualised on the level of lexis and oversimplified sentence structures, the register which contradicts Nathan’s formal and pompous idiolect. The shift in the latter character’s manner of speaking is not transferred onto the translation segments due to a series of lexical and structural redundancies. Thus, humour located in the lexical and pragmatic incongruities and in their interconnectedness with the affirmative superiority element is undermined by the translation and subtitling decisions. The target audience’s interpretation of the dialogue between the characters and their mutual animosity as well as their created fictional personalities are subjected to the model of humour re-created by the translator. Hence, the appropriate assessment of the source power relations between the two characters is undermined by the shift in the model of humour contained in the film script.

5.

Conclusions

The application of Vandaele’s incongruity-superiority model of humour to the analysis of translation strategy constitutes an interdisciplinary analytical method sensitive to the interconnectedness between language, culture, and reality due to its social and cognitive grounding. It is observed that the applied model of humour unmasks the value of those aspects of the characters’ utterances which are undermined in the subtitling process. The contrastive analysis of the representative translation segments affirms linguistic redundancy as a prevailing subtitling technique in the discussed conversations from the first season of Big Little Lies. The frequency of the recurrent techniques of total omission and partial modification is believed to be exaggerated in the translated film subtitles since it cannot be fully justified by the indispensable temporal or spatial constraints of the audiovisual material. It is further believed that the neutralising procedures, involving the reduction of register clashes, affect the characters’ idiolects. This impact diminishes the constructions of the protagonists, identified with their idiosyncratic methods of self-expression, and undermines the power relations which the characters express. Furthermore, the linguistic reductions and neutralisation techniques subvert the interpretation of humorous utterances. The characters’ idiolects are often simplified, together with the implied model of humour: the incongruity

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element is many a time impaired or reduced and the superiority element frequently transformed from the affirmative to the aggressive type. In relation to the basic tenets of cultural linguistics, it can be assumed that the language of translation can function as Sharifian’s vehicle of re-transmission of cultural schemas, categories and metaphors in the target community. The strategy of translation of conversational humour and its semantic-pragmatic categories, such as retorts, witticisms, putdowns, teasing, and self-denigrating humour, all detected in the American series, demonstrates that the neutralisation of registers can impact the cultural schema of humour transferred to the target audience. Linguistic redundancy and the impairment of the incongruity and superiority elements or their shifts lead to the modification of the cultural schema of power relations structured by the film characters’ tendency to use or discard authoritative language, constructed on aggressive superiority, and frequently accentuated by vulgarisms. Moreover, the translation strategy and the modified model of humour underlie the structuring of the cultural schema of the American upper-class community and, perhaps, the American dream which the film deconstructs by means of humour. The re-conceptualisation of the American dream theme might underlie the neutralising tendency in translation and account for the different film genre designation. The genre of the film series was categorized as a comedy-drama by the Polish DVD distribution, a melodrama by the New York Times (Hale 2017), and the American television drama by Wikipedia. This shift in the genre classification between the American reviews and the Polish film distribution is symptomatic of the translation approach which transpires from the Polish DVD subtitles of Big Little Lies. Judging from the cultural schema of the American comedy drama reconstructed by the translators’ and subtitlers’ reductionistic tendencies, the Polish viewers might be assumed to favour the dominant genre markers of a comedy rather than the social drama. Nevertheless, it is the latter which explicitly defines the genre of the original film due to the varieties of superiority and incongruity elements and richness of humour categories, all impaired in the process of translation. Thus, the nuances of the American bourgeoisie manifested in the film may be interpreted disparately by a different audience in a distinct culture due to the altered model of humour, neutralised register clashes and the misleading film genre designation on the level of film distribution, one of the first “enunciators” of meaning in the process of film promotion. Nonetheless, the cultural schema of humour located in the audiovisual material of a film is believed to be affected by the conscious or subconscious work of many enunciators of the film meaning, including film distributors, advertising agencies and finally translators and subtitlers. Although the particular subtitling

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and translation decisions might be responsible for the success or failure of the film in the target culture, the target audience constitutes the ultimate enunciator of meaning located in the translated and subtitled audiovisual text, the successive vehicle of cultural cognition transferred into the distinct polysystem of culture.

References Bartmin´ski, Jerzy: Aspects of Cognitive Ethnolinguistics. Sheffield 2012. Diaz Cintas, Jorge / Anderman, Gunilla (eds.): Audiovisual translation. Language transfer on screen. London 2009. Gambier, Yves / Ramos Pinto, Sara (eds.): Audiovisual Translation: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2018. Georgakopoulou Panayota: ‘Subtitling for the DVD industry’, in: Diaz Cintas, Jorge / Anderman Gunilla (eds.): Audiovisual translation. Language transfer on screen. London 2009, p. 21–35. Heydon, Georgina / Kianbakht, Sajjad: ‘Applying cultural linguistics to translation studies: a new model for humour translation’, in: IJCLTS 2020, 8(3): p. 1–11. Ivarsson, Jan / Carroll, Mary: Subtitling. Simrishamn 1998. Palmer, Gary, B.: Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics. Austin 1996. Sharifian, Farzad: Cultural Linguistics. Cultural conceptualisations and language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2017. Taylor, Christopher: ‘The multimodal approach in audiovisual translation’, in: Gambier, Yves / Ramos Pinto, Sara (eds.): Audiovisual Translation: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2018, p. 222–236. Tomaszkiewicz, Teresa: Przekład audiowizualny. Warszawa 2006. Toury, Gideon: Descriptive Translation Studies – and beyond. Amsterdam / Philadelphia 2012. Zabalbeascoa, Patrick / Corrius, Montse: ‘Conversation as a unit of film analysis. Databases of L3 translation and audiovisual samples of multilingualism’, in: MONTI 2019/4, p. 57–85. Vallee, Jean-Marc: Big little lies, DVD, 356 m., Home Box Office 2017, (ch. 1–6). Vandaele, Jeroen: ‘Humor Mechanisms in Film Comedy: Incongruity and Superiority’, in: Poetics Today 2002/23(2): p. 221–249. Whorf, Benjamin, L.: Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge 1956.

Online sources Dynel, Marta: Beyond a Joke: Types of Conversational Humour. 2009, available at: https:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2009.00152.x [06. 09. 2021]. Gambier, Yves / Suomela-Salmi, Eija: Subtitiling: a type of transfer.1994, available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10810/10027 [29. 09. 2021].

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Hale, Mike: Review: In ‘Big Little Lies’, Monterey Moms and Their Cliches. 2017, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/arts/television/big-little-lies-nicole-kidman-r eese-witherspoon.html?smid=url-share [07. 09. 2022]. Palmer, Gary, B.: Ethnography: a neglected method of inductive linguistics. 2015, available at: https://journals.umcs.pl/et/article/view/1794/1376 [06. 08. 2021]. Peeters, Bert: Applied ethnolinguistics is cultural linguistics, but is it cultural linguistics? 2016, available at: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.3.2.01pee [11. 08. 2021]. Prodanovic Stankic, Diana: Cultural conceptualisations in humorous discourse in English and Serbian. 2017, available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317181523 [14/03/2022]. Zabalbeascoa, Patrick: That’s just what we need, a fourth language. Multilingual humour in film and television translation. 2019, available at: http://doi.org/10.3726/b16092 [12. 09. 2021].

Agnieszka Gwiazdowska

Chapter 5 – “Tell me what phraseology you use, and I’ll tell you who you are.” Some remarks concerning the diatopic variation and cultural diversity of the Spanish language Thus “sameness” is clearly a kind of unity in the being, either of two or more things, or of one thing treated as more than one; as, e. g., when a thing is consistent with itself; for it is then treated as two. Aristotle, Metaphysics, V, 1018 a Abstract The aim of this article, which is based on the assumptions of cultural linguistics, is to show the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking countries and to demonstrate that there are significant conceptual differences between the individual varieties of Spanish. Taking into account the fact that the phraseology of a given language shapes the worldview of the community of its users and is a reflection of its customs and values, the subject of this study are phraseological units, or phrasemes, with a zoonym component occurring both in the peninsular (European) variety of the Spanish language and in its American variants. These phrasemes have been divided into three groups and then juxtaposed for contrast: 1) phrasemes with the same phraseological meaning, but a distinct structure and a metaphorical basis or a mental image; 2) phrasemes with the same formal structure and the same metaphorical base but a different meaning, and 3) phrasemes found in American variants of Spanish, but not used in the peninsular variety of the language. Keywords: cultural linguistics, cultural diversity, phraseological units, Linguistic Image of the World, zoonym component

1.

Language as a tool for interpreting reality and an element of national identity

Issues related to identity understood in a multifaceted way as well as to the diversity and complexity of the relationship between language and society and culture are the subject of many sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic or anthropological studies devoted to broadly understood (inter)cultural communication. Particular attention has been paid to the mutual influence of linguistic and nonlinguistic elements on the formation of the worldview of a given community. As Andrzej K. Rogalski (2011, p. 39) emphasizes, “language can be perceived in a double way: on the one hand – as a social construct and a result of social interaction, and on the other – as a specific ‘carrier’ of communication, enabling

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the creation and maintaining of social ties, the acquisition of our knowledge of reality, and the accumulation of cultural heritage”.1 Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fras´ (2012, p. 125) points to the mutual relationship between linguistic identity and the sense of national self-awareness, and argues that “the native language, the national language, functioning as a treasury of the shared history and experiences of its users, becomes a carrier and a medium for expression of common aspirations and actions that can be described as ‘national’”. Thus, language and other elements of culture shape the social and national identity of a given community, confirm its belonging to a particular nation and enable the understanding of its traditions, rituals, history, and meanings hidden in artifacts and often incomprehensible to other social groups (Zaniewicz 2015, p. 207). The above statement should not surprise anyone, for, as Joanna Wilk-Racie˛ska (2009, p. 13) points out, language is not only a barometer of generally understood culture, but also a largely subjective formation, simultaneously constituting an integral component part of the human personality. This means that by examining language, we examine ourselves. It is worth emphasizing that the notion of cultural/national identity and the linguistic interpretation of reality are also inextricably linked to the notion of phraseology, which, being part of the lexical resource of a language, reflects a particular linguistic community’s cultural and national self-awareness. In other words, phraseology is “a natural defender of the beliefs, traditions, and symbols of a community” (Luque Durán, Manjón Pozas 2002); it is, as it were, a mirror of its mentality. When talking about the relationship between phraseology and culture, it is worth noting that phraseology is a heterogeneous “entity”, the boundaries of which are often blurry. While some phraseological units (henceforth PUs) are “carriers” of cultural values and reflect the specific character of a particular linguistic community, its uniqueness and distinctiveness, others are marked by a kind of universality, which stems from a generally understood collective cultural heritage (consisting of the Bible, mythology, Aesop’s fables, etc.) passed down from generation to generation (see Luque Durán, Manjón Pozas 2002). As Teresa Dobrzyn´ska (2002, p. 496) points out, this latter feature concerns “wide-ranging encyclopedic connotations, known in various ethnic circles which belong to a supranational cultural community”. Nevertheless, it should be clearly emphasized that both dimensions, the ontological and the cultural, interpenetrate each other and exert considerable influence on the creation of PUs.2 Phraseology is 1 All translations from Spanish and Polish are by the author. 2 According to the theory of Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij and Elisabeth Piirainen (2005, p. 214), cultural factors present in the imaginary component of a given PU can be divided into two large groups: 1) those which are culture-based, i. e., related to a wider cultural area which brings together various sociolinguistic communities, and 2) those which are culture-specific, related

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undoubtedly a component of the linguistic image of the world (LIW), which is determined by the place where we live and the cultural community to which we belong. This idea was emphatically expressed by Charles Taylor, who wrote: “In order to have a sense of who we are, we have to have a notion of how we have become, and of where we are going” (1989, p. 4). In this article, I use Renata Grzegorczykowa’s (2002, p. 19) definition of LIW, according to which it is “a conceptual structure fixed (solidified) in the system of a language, i. e., in its grammatical and lexical properties (in the meaning of words and their connectivity); [it is] manifested in utterances”. Taking into account the fact that a community’s worldview to some extent determines the structure of that community’s language, all image schemas and ways of their representation in the grammar of the language are also subject to a wide range of biological, psychological-social, and cultural conditions (see Wilk-Racie˛ska 2009, p. 13; Luque Durán 2004, p. 492). My aim in this article is not simply to point to differences between the worldviews of communities belonging to the so-called macrosystems, i. e., superior cultures, shaped by a shared philosophical and religious system (e. g., Polish culture and Spanish culture). Rather, my aim is to argue that, surprisingly, within the same microsystem (e. g., the Spanish language system with its dialectal variants) one can observe significant differences at the conceptual/imaginary level, which are reflected in linguistic forms.3 In other words, the worldview of native Spanish speakers who come from different cultural circles encoded in common and conventionalized linguistic expressions, can sometimes be considerably different. I will argue that, depending on the area where it is used, the same PUs may have different semantic and/or pragmatic characteristics and may evoke different, and sometimes even contradictory, connotations, understood as “characteristics attributed to the referents of a given lexical unit, regardless of its connections within the language code” (Dobrzyn´ska 2002, p. 494). It is connotations, both lexical and encyclopedic, that differentiate the content of expressions that have the same reference in different languages and their variations. To be more precise, these are discrepancies resulting from the use of expressions denoting the same object, but differently conceptualized and valorized in different cultures (ibid., p. 495). In order to show a significant phraseological variation of the Spanish language, I will analyze and contrast PUs with animal components. It is worth noting that the term ‘phraseological zoomorphism’ should be understood as the metaphorical or allegorical use of the name of an animal in reference to human to specific, idiosyncratic cultural areas. The latter are expressions rooted in a particular linguistic community, often incomprehensible to the non-native user of the language. 3 For a detailed description of macro- and microsystems, see Wilk-Racie˛ska (2007).

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behavior or traits of character and expressed with the help of a complex linguistic form (see Nazárenko, Iñesta Mena 1998, p. 101). The methodological basis of this study is the conceptual apparatus of (inter)cultural linguistics, understood as a multidisciplinary area of research4 on the relationship between language, culture, and cognition. This approach to linguistics shows the diversity of image schemas and of the ways of their realization in particular languages (Palmer 2000; Anusiewicz 1994). My research focuses on common and conventionalized phrases characterized by a high degree of idiomaticity and motivation. At first glance, they may be difficult to decode, which is hardly surprising given the fact that these PUs are at the very center of the so-called phraseological universe and are considered the most prototypical units, whose global meaning is not the sum of the meanings of its constituent elements. As some researchers point out, for instance, Susana Lili Carrillo and Alfonso Gallegos Shibya (2018), the differences between the individual varieties of a language are much more visible at the level of phrases than at the more abstract level of metaphorical models.

2.

The concept of phraseological variation

Before proceeding to concrete examples that confirm the existence of significant conceptual differences between particular varieties of the Spanish language, it is necessary to explain the concept of ‘phraseological variation’, considered an optional feature of PUs and at the same time a phraseological phenomenon that is one of the most difficult to define (Alvarado Ortega 2008, p. 9). Although there is no consensus among linguists as regards the classification of phraseological variation, this concept is frequently defined in opposition to phraseological fixation and understood as the formal variability of PUs. This is a property that PUs can acquire in everyday use (ibid., p. 10). One of the first classifications of phraseological variability in the Spanish language area is the one introduced by Alberto Zuluaga Ospina (1980, p. 106ff), who separated “authentic” phraseological variations (variants in the narrow sense) from variability (variants in the broad sense). In order for the units to be regarded as phraseological variants, they should: 1. occur in the same language and be without differences of meaning; 2. be independent of the contexts in which they occur; 3. be partially identical in terms of the form and structure of the constituent elements; 4. be fixed, i. e., be part of a stable and limited series. 4 I mean pragmatic, cognitive, ethno-, psycho- and sociolinguistic research.

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In other words, variants in the narrow sense are understood as variants of the same invariant, and so are different formulations of the same PUs. Even though they may show differences at the formal level, their denotative meaning remains unchanged. In the second group (variants in the broad sense) are included: 1. transformations and modifications of PU (meter la gamba/metedura de gamba [to put the shrimp/putting the shrimps]5; ponerse al corriente/estar al corriente [catch up/stay up to date]); 2. so-called ‘phraseological series’ that have opposite meanings (pasar la época de vacas flacas/gordas [pass the time of lean/fat cows]); 3. synonymous PUs, i. e., units with the same meaning but a different structure (tomar las de gaviota/hacerse perdiz [to take the seagull/to become partridge]; irse al otro barrio/estirar la pata) [to go to another neighborhood/to stretch the paw]; 4. diatopic variants (hacer novillos/hacer vaca [to do calves/ to do a cow]; agarrarse una mona/macaca [to grab a monkey/a macaque]), diaphasic variants (sentidísima condolencia/sentido pésame [heart-felt condolence]) and diastratic variants (feliz día/feliz cumpleaños [happy day/happy birthday]; tener alguien redaños/cojones [to have the guts/balls)6; 5. PUs with so-called empty cells/places ( jugar al abejón con alguien [to play bumblebee with someone]). According to Kazumi Koike (2001, p. 77), phraseological variants are PUs which, while retaining the same meaning, differ partly in formal terms. Thus, the phraseological variants are these expressions: hacer la pelota [to make the ball], hacer la rosca [to make the rosca], hacer la barba [to make the beard] and hacer la pata [to make the paw], but the idioms chupar las medias [to suck the stockings] and hacer la pelota [to make the ball] are not variants, but synonymous phrases. Gonzalo Damián Ortega Ojeda and María Isabel González Aguiar (2005, p. 92) are of a similar opinion; they define phraseological variability as “a phenomenon that occurs when a given PU, despite its stability, materializes into separate ‘forms’, which, however, do not change the phraseological meaning, because, in order to be called a variant, a unit should show more similarities than differences”. Taking into account the diversity of these “forms”, several classes of

5 In square brackets I give a literal English translation of a Spanish idiom. 6 It is worth noting that in the opinion of Esteban Tomás Montoro del Arco (2005, p. 138), diatopic, diaphasic and diastratic variants, due to the fact that they do not belong to the same functional language, should be referred to as external phraseological variants. Gonzalo Damián Orteja Ojeda and María Isabel González Aguiar (2005) consider them to be conditional variants.

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phraseological variation can be distinguished: morphological, morphosyntactic, syntactic, and lexical, the last named being the subject of this study. Moreover, as emphasized by linguists studying the phraseology and paremiology of the Spanish-language area7, despite an increased interest in the issue of regional phraseology, as yet there are no extensive contrastive studies that would make possible a holistic examination of the question of the phraseological variability of all varieties of the Spanish language.

3.

Diversity in unity8

Given the fact that even the peninsular (European) variety of the Spanish language is not characterized by phraseological uniformity9, it is impossible to talk about the homogeneity of the phraseological system of the Spanish language used in Latin American countries. As already mentioned, native Spanish speakers from different cultural backgrounds conceptualize the reality around them in different ways. The most significant differences can be seen very well in the lexical resource, in both simple and complex forms, and in fixed and conventionalized word combinations, i. e., in PUs. As Antonio Pamies Bertrán (2017, p. 61) emphatically notes, if a Spanish person goes on a trip to Argentina, it is not the accent or morphology of this variety of Spanish that they will find problematic, but the regional phraseology, which they will find to be as incomprehensible as the phraseology typical of any foreign language. Addressing the issue of dialectal diversity, Jesús Sánchez Lobato (1994, p. 554) states that it is idioms, neologisms, and other culturally marked structures that will always remain in the consciousness of communities originating from the Spanish cultural circle as characteristic elements, inextricably linked to national identity. These diatopic differences can at times be so great that they will impair communication between users from different Spanish-speaking countries. Let us, as an example, look at the concept of “being absent from a lesson”. It can be expressed by means of various PUs referring to the animal world as used in a particular community: hacer novillos [to do calves] (Spain), hacer la vaca [to do a cow]10 and un vaquero [cowboy] (Peru), hacerse la rabona [to make yourself 7 Worth mentioning is the research of Kazumi Koike (2001) and Pedro Mogorrón Huerta (2018). 8 The empirical part of this article is based on an article which I published in Spanish (Szyndler 2015); yet here the material has been broadened and modified. 9 For in-depth knowledge of the diversity of peninsular varieties of Spanish, see Antonio Pamies Bertrán (2017, p. 63ff.). 10 It is worth noting that in Peru a high frequency of use is characterized by another idiom tirarse la pera [throw yourself the pear]. Although it evokes a different mental image (does not refer

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snub-tailed or bobtailed] (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay), hacer(se) la rata [to do (to become) the rat], hacer la perra [to do the bitch] (Argentina), hacer conejo [to do the rabbit] (Columbia), hacerse la pava [to become the turkey] (Ecuador, Peru). Thus, as Antonio Pamies Bertrán (2017, p. 64ff.) points out, the concept of ‘truancy’ is not expressed by a single idiom common to the entire Spanish and Hispanic community, but by as many as 43 regionally diverse expressions.11 Kazumi Koike (2003, p. 48ff.), a Japanese scholar who does research on the phraseological variation of the Spanish language, distinguishes PUs with a general scope and PUs with a local reach. The former ones develop the same metaphorical meaning throughout the Spanish language area, e. g. estar patas arriba [to be upside down, in total mess], levantarse con las gallinas [to get up with the chickens], matar dos pájaros de un tiro [to kill two birds with one shot; to gain two things at the same time], dar gato por liebre [to give a cat for a hare; to deceive someone by giving a low-quality thing in exchange for a different and more valuable one], poner los cuernos a alguien [to put horns on someone’s head, to cheat on one’s spouse], etc. Local PUs are used in certain countries and regions. In other words, the area of their use is limited and narrow. My analysis begins with instances of Spanish phraseological zoomorphism which are characterized by a diverse geographical distribution and show a degree of lexical variability. I am referring here to PUs used in separate dialectal varieties with the same phraseological meaning, but a different metaphorical basis, i. e., phrases differing in formal structure (containing, for example, different zoonyms)12 or referentiality, meaning that they do not refer to the animal world, but to other semantic fields. This can be seen in the following examples: 1) cortar/partir el bacalao [to cut/to break the cod] (Spain) = cortar el queque [to cut the cake] (Chile): an idiom that refers to a person who has the decisive voice in a matter; who is the leader (DRAE); 2) ser más listo que una ardilla [to be smarter than a squirrel] (all of Latin America) = ser más listo que el hambre [to be smarter than hunger] (Spain): an idiom used to emphasize a person’s smartness, wisdom, and ingenuity (DRAE); 3) estar algo o alguien para el tigre [to be sth or sb for the tiger] (El Salvador) ‘to be in a poor mental or physical state, to be sick’ = estar para el arrastre [to be

to the animal world), it has the same phraseological meaning: “not to be present, not to be in some place”. 11 The lexical variability of the European variety of Spanish is also mentioned by Pedro Mogorrón Huerta (2018, p. 88). 12 The fact that the same human trait in different varieties of the Spanish language can be metaphorically attributed to another animal confirms the diversity of the imagery in societies that belong to the circle of Spanish-speaking culture.

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for the dragging] (Spain) ‘to be in a state of extreme physical and mental exhaustion’ (DRAE); hablar como un loro/una cotorra [to talk like a parrot] (Spain) ‘to talk a lot’ = hablar como perico [to talk like a parakeet] (Mexico) (DEM) = cachar la víbora [to catch the viper] (Argentina) = volarse bacalao [to fly yourself cod] (Honduras) (DAMER); hacer el burro/hacer el ganso/hacer(se) el oso/hacer el mono [to do the donkey13/to do the goose/to do/to become the bear/to do the monkey] (Spain) = pintar el mono [to paint the monkey] (Chile), hacerse el pato [to become the duck] (Mexico): an idiom that refers to a person who does or says stupid things to amuse others (DUEAE); ver burros negros [to see black donkeys] (Chile) = ver chivos [to see young goats (Bolivia) = ver cocuyitos [to see cocuyitos] (Panama) = ver las estrellas [to see the stars] (Spain), i. e., ‘to feel very intense physical pain’ (DAMER, DRAE); hacerse el sueco [to become the Swedish] (Spain)= hacerse el ruso [to become the Russian] (Costa Rica) = hacerse el burro [to become the donkey] (Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay) = hacerse el chancho/chanchito [to become the pig/the piggy] (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) = hacerse el chancho rengo [to become the lame pig] (Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador) = hacerse el chencho [to become the chencho] (Honduras, El Salvador) = hacerse el chivo loco/hacerse el pescado frito [to become the crazy young goat/to become the fried fish] (Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) = hacerse el cucho [to become the puss] (Chile) = hacerse el cojudo [to be not castrated] (Peru, Bolivia) = hacerse pato [to become duck] (Mexico, Guatemala) = hacerse sapo [to become toad] (Guatemala) = hacerse el oso [to become the bear] (Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay): these are idioms whose phraseological meaning can be described as ‘to pretend not to understand something, not to know what is going on, while in fact knowing very well’ (DAMER); oler a tigre [to smell of a tiger] (Spain) = oler a bacalao [to smell a cod] (Venezuela) = oler a cojón de oso [to smell a bear’s testicle] (Cuba) = oler a león [to smell a lion] (Mexico) = oler a mico [to smell a marmoset] (Columbia), i. e., ‘to smell bad, to stink’ (DAMER); oler a chivo [to smell of young goat] (Mexico, Panama) = oler a chivo correteado [to smell of a young goat chasing] (Mexico) ‘to smell bad, mostly of sweat’ (DAMER);

13 I am aware of the colloquial meaning of the verb “to do” and of the awkwardness of some of the English equivalents, but I have decided to translate the idioms in this manner in order to represent the literal meaning of the Spanish phrases.

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coger/agarrar(se)/enganchar(se)/pillar(se) una mona, pillar un lobo/un cerdo/una zorra/un topo/un cernícalo, dormir la mona, pescar una merluza [to take/to grab/to hook (yourself)/to catch (yourself) a female monkey, to catch a wolf/a pig/a vixen/a mole/a kestrel/ to sleep the female monkey, to catch a hake] (Spain) = pegarse alguien una mona [to stick (yourself) a female monkey] (Peru) = andar con la mona [to go with a female monkey] (Mexico, Chile) = bailar la mona [to dance the female monkey] (Argentina) = andar hasta la pata [to go up to the paw] (Honduras, Nicaragua) = meterse la del oso [to put yourself the bear’s] (Ecuador) = quedar/estar como piojo, estar enzorrado [to be like lice, to be enzorrado] (Chile) = estar con (un) ratón/tener un ratón [to be with (a) mouse/to have a mouse (Venezuela) = beber más que un macho asoleado [to drink more than a sunny male] = estar caído de la perra [to be down the bitch] (Colombia) ‘to be very drunk or otherwise intoxicated’ (DRAE, DUE, DUEAE); 10) andar pato, estar/quedar pato [to go a duck, to be a duck] (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) ‘to be without money/to be ruined’ = estar pelado/no tener blanca/ estar sin blanca/estar a dos velas [to be bald/not to have an old Spanish copper coin/to be with old Spanish copper coin/to be two candles] (Spain).

It is also worth mentioning the PUs typical of both European and American varieties of Spanish, which, although they have the same meaning, convey a different mental images, sometimes completely opposite to each other, e. g.: estar/dejar/quedarse/sentirse como perro sin pulgas [to be/to leave/to stay/feel like a dog without fleas] (Spain) = estar más contento que perro con pulgas [to be happier than a dog with fleas] (Chile) i. e., to feel lonely but happy and free. Thus, it can be concluded that the fact that a dog “has” fleas in a particular linguistic community is differently conceptualized and valued: either as something positive (in the Chilean community) or as something negative (in the Spanish community). When discussing the issue of the polycentrism of the Spanish language and the conceptual differences between the different Spanish-speaking communities, one cannot overlook the rather extensive group of PUs, used in both Spain and Latin America, which are characterized by the same or a similar formal structure and an identical metaphorical base (mental image), but differing in meaning. In other words, the same PU in different Spanish-speaking communities can evoke different connotations. For this reason, these units are called ‘pseudo-phraseological variants’ or ‘false phraseological friends’ (Szyndler 2014). Let us take a look at the following examples, which illustrate very well the conceptual diversity and phraseological richness of the broadly understood Spanish language. 11) Echar los perros a alguien [to throw the dogs at someone] a. Spain: ‘to slander someone, to kick up a row with someone’ (DRAE)

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b. Honduras, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela: ‘to offend, to insult someone’ (DAMER) c. Honduras, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela: ‘to criticize someone, to say bad things about someone’ (DAMER) d. Argentina: ‘to give someone a bad reception’ (DFHA) e. Honduras, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela: ‘to solicit someone’ (JDHH). 12) Ser (un) ganso/a [to be (a) duck] a. Spain: (noun/adj.): 1) ‘a lazy, careless, careless person’, 2) ‘a clumsy person, who can’t do something’, 3) ‘a person who thinks they’re funny and smart but are not’ (DLE) b. Venezuela, Argentina: ‘a stupid and naive person’ (DAMER) c. Ecuador: (noun./adj.) ‘a greedy and selfish person’ (DAMER) (an obsolete meaning) d. El Salvador: ‘a victim of theft’ (DAMER) e. Peru/Bolivia: (noun/adj.) ‘a person who is always hungry’ (DAMER) f. Chile: (noun/adj.) ‘a shy person who does not take part in activities typical of their age’ (DAMER) g. Chile: (noun) ‘a distracted person’ (DAMER) h. Puerto Rico: ‘a smart person, eager to find out things’ (DAMER) i. Mexico, Chile: ‘a homosexual person’ (DRAE). 13) Ser (un/a) lagarto/a [to be (a) lizard] a. Spain (noun/adj.): ‘a cunning man, a cheat’ (DRAE) b. El Salvador/Nicaragua: ‘a person who overeats’ (DRAE) c. Honduras, El Salvador, Nicarugua, Costa Rica, Guatemala y Panama (sust./adj.): ‘a greedy person’ (DAMER) d. Nicaragua (noun): ‘a profit-seeking person, a person who wants to take advantage of the situation, particularly by selling expensive goods’ (JDHH) e. Uruguay, Argentina (noun): ‘a person who spends a lot of time getting sun-tanned’ f. Costa Rica (noun): ‘a person who flirts with many women at the same time’ g. Panama, Columbia (noun/adj.): ‘an opportunist, a person who interferes in the affairs of others and receives benefits or positions without deserving them’ h. Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador (adj./sust.): ‘a person greedy for food, a gourmand’ (DAMER) i. Cuba: lagarto: ‘lizard’ (DRAE).

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14) Ser tigre [to be a tiger] a. Spain: ‘a cruel and a vindictive person’; (DRAE), ‘a very strong and courageous person’ (DLE), ‘an ambitious person who is willing to sacrifice others by pursuing their ambitions’ (DUE)14 b. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Urugay: ‘a person very capable in some matter’.15 It is worthy of note that that the figurative meaning of this PU, as used in many Latin American countries, is similar to the meaning of the Castilian expression: ser un animal/una fiera/una bestia en algo. c. Puerto Rico: ‘a clever person, skilful in business’ (DAMER); ser un tigre 1) ‘a womanizer, a man who easily falls in love’ (DAMER), 2); ser un tigre ‘a naughty child, a child who misbehaves’ (DAMER) d. the Dominican Republic: ser un tigre/tíguere: 1) a person without scruples, capable of anything, aggressive, sometimes impetuous and brutal; 2) the most courageous person, the most daring, a boastful person and a person who stands out in the crowd16 3) ser tíguere ‘a person whose identity is unknown’ (DAMER) 15) Hacer el oso [to do the bear] a. Spain: 1) ‘to expose oneself to ridicule, to act like a clown, to say or do stupid things’, 2) ‘to openly solicit someone, to flirt with someone’ (DRAE) b. Mexico: ‘to ridicule oneself by making a gaffe in the presence of others and to feel ashamed of it’ (DAMER) c. Columbia: ‘to be ashamed or self-conscious about what one does or says’ (DAMER) d. Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina: hacerse el oso [to become the bear] ‘to pretend not to see something or not to understand something obvious so as to avoid taking responsibility for one’s actions’ (DUEAE). 16) Hacer(se) el burro [to do/to becomethe donkey] a. Spain: hacer el burro [to do the donkey] ‘to do silly things, to fool yourself, to horse around’ (DUEAE)

14 The zoonym tiger in relation to man, in the European variety of Spanish, also has other meanings. It is emotionally marked; it serves to emphasize the cruelty and or aggressiveness of a person (como un tigre / una tigresa; refers to a person who is agitated, nervous, very upset (como un tigre enjaulado, ponerse [hecho] como un tigre, bramar/bufar como un tigre) and defines a lazy person, who does nothing but lie (hacer el tigre). 15 It is worth emphasizing that the figurative meaning of this PU, used in many Latin American countries, is similar to the meaning of the following Castilian expression: ser un animal/una fiera/una bestia en algo [to be an animal/a wild beast/a beast in sth.]. 16 Diccionario de Dominicanismos (https://sites.google.com/site/josellibre2/diccionariodomi nicanismost, date of access: 30/03/2015).

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b. Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay: hacerse el burro ‘to pretend not to know or understand something’ (DUEAE). 17) Pelar la pava [to pluck the turkey] a. Spain: ‘conversation of lovers, the man standing on the street and the woman on the balcony’ (DRAE) b. Mexico: ‘to waste time together, to kill time, to be lazy’ (DM) c. Honduras: ‘to be lazy, to waste time’ (DAMER). The above examples show that, depending on the dialectal variation in which it occurs, the same idiom presents significant semantic discrepancies. In one language community, it evokes positive connotations, while in another, it has a strong pejorative and disrespectful coloration (e. g., ser ganso in Spain and ser ganso in Puerto Rico). In addition, the same idiom can refer to completely different communicative situations: hacer el oso in Spain vs. hacerse el oso in Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina, pelar la pava in Spain vs. pelar la pava in Mexico, and so on. Moreover, a given PUs used in a specific socio-cultural system (e. g., Argentinian, Chilean, Mexican) may also have a polysemic character, i. e., it can have at least two distinct meanings, sometimes differing in their axiological value (ser un tigre in Spain and ser un tigre/tíguere in the Dominican Republic). When discussing the cultural diversity of the Spanish language world, one should also mention a large number of zoomorphic metaphors, which, depending on the area, evoke divergent connotations. For instance, the zoonym caballo [a horse] is used to refer to ‘a person who is very intelligent, possessing extensive knowledge of many subjects’ (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay), to ‘a person who is very intelligent, with extensive knowledge of many subjects’ (DAMER), to ‘a clever, skillful person’ (JDHH); in Chile, it is used in the sense of ‘great, very good’ and also, as in the countries mentioned above, it can refer to a person who knows something very well (estar a caballo en algo). In Uruguay, on the other hand, this noun, in its unchanged form, is used to refer to ‘an attractive, pretty person’ (JDHH). In Venezuela and northern Ecuador, it means ‘a close friend, an inseparable companion’, while in Cuba, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina, as well as in Honduras, Nicaragua and Uruguay, it refers to ‘a clumsy person, an ignorant person, a person who behave rudely’ (DAMER). A similar situation occurs in the case of the zoonym gata [a female cat], which in El Salvador and Mexico has a negative coloration and means ‘a servant’. In Argentina, its connotation is even more pejorative; it means ‘a prostitute’. Interestingly, Uruguayans use the word gata to refer to a beautiful, attractive woman. As we can see, there are as many worldviews as there are cultures. The last issue that I want to address in this article is that of PUs with a zoomorphic component used in Latin America, but completely unknown in

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Spain. It should be borne in mind, however, that, in fact, very few linguistic phenomena common to all American varieties of Spanish would not be used in ˇ erný, 2002: 40). Spain (see C 18) meter el perro [to put the dog] Argentina, Uruguay: ‘to lie, to deceive somebody’ (DAMER, JDHH) 19) correr la coneja/la liebre [to run the doe rabbit/the hare] Argentina, Uruguay: ‘to be in a difficult financial situation’ (DAMER) 20) como rata por tirante [like a rat by braces] México, Argentina, Uruguay: ‘to have no money’ (DAMER) 21) pelar gallo [to pluck a cock/a rooster] a. Honduras (west), El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala: ‘to die’ (DAMER) b. Mexico, Honduras: ‘to run, to flee’ (DAMER) 22) mamar gallo (a alguien) [to suck a cock/rooster to somebody] a. Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela: ‘to cheat somebody, to make fun of, to mock somebody’ (DAMER) b. Colombia: ‘to deceive somebody by giving them false promises or evasive answers’ (DAMER)

4.

Conclusions

Upon analysis of Spanish PUs, idioms and fixed expressions are the mirror of a cultural community’s customs, beliefs, and traditions; they are a carrier of values and reflect distinct worldview. The present article has discussed the linguistic diversity of Spanish on the European and American continents. A contrastive analysis of PUs that contain zoonyms allows to discover the hidden symbolic meanings and the lexical connotations of animal names in different varieties of the Spanish language. This study focused on the polycentrism of the Spanish language in order to show that the worldview of Spanish speakers from different cultural backgrounds may be different. The same element of reality, even in one microsystem such as the broadly understood Spanish language, can be conceptualized in a variety of ways, differ in the metaphorical projection, and evoke different mental images. Even if a given phraseological unit occurs in the same form in a number of variations, its phraseological or figurative meaning may vary. In other words, given the fact that each person creates and lives on the basis of their own worldview, not all members of a particular linguistic community will understand and interpret the world in the same way (see Palmer, 2000). Natividad Peramos Soler and José Juan Batista Rodríguez (2008, p. 44) emphasize that we all have some common universals (frames); however, these universals are culturally “colored” and therefore have specific and distinctive values.

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As a general conclusion, it can be stressed that the phraseological system of the Spanish language is a diverse linguistic formation. Between individual diatopic variants there are differences which are phonological and syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Even though phraseological variation is a phenomenon that is inextricably linked to language, it does not stand in opposition to phraseological stability (fixation), but emphasizes cultural diversity. According to Jesús Sánchez Lobato (1994, p. 554), the communities of particular Spanish-speaking countries, with their cultural, social, and historical particularity, display a plurality of linguistic habits, a variety of tones and accents, but these always flow, as it were, from the same common tune. Thus, the diversity of the Spanish language is not tantamount to a denial of its unity. As María Antonieta Andión Herrero (2008) writes, “what we perceive as diverse are ships sailing on the same ocean”.

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“Tell me what phraseology you use, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

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Luque Durán, Juan de Dios: Aspectos universales y particulares del léxico de las lenguas del mundo. Granada 2004. Luque Durán, Juan de Dios / Manjón Pozas, Francisco José: Claves culturales del diseño de las lenguas: fundamentos de tipología fraseológica. 2002, available at: http://elies.rediri s.es/elies16/Claves. html [13. 07. 2021]. Mogorrón Huerta, Pedro: ‘Unidades fraseológicas, diatopía y polisemia’, in: Berty, Katrin / Mellado Blanco, Carmen / Olza, Inés (eds.): Fraseología y variedades diatópicas. Pamplona 2018, pp. 83–110. Montoro del Arco, Esteban Tomás: ‘Hacia una sistematización de la variabilidad fraseológica’, in: Pastor Milán, María Ángeles (ed.): Estudios lingüísticos en recuerd del profesor Juan Martínez Marín. Granada 2005, pp. 125–152. Nazárenko, Lilia / Iñesta Mena, Eva María: ‘Zoomorfismos fraseológicos’, in: Luque Durán, Juan de Dios / Pamies Bertrán, Antonio (eds.): Léxico y fraseología. Granada 1998, pp. 101–109. Ortega Ojeda, Gonzalo Damián / González Aguiar María Isabel: ‘En torno a la variación de las unidades fraseológicas’, in: Almela Pérez, Ramon / Ramón Trives, Estanislao / Wotjak, Gerd (eds.): Fraseología Contrastiva con ejemplos tomados del alemán, español, francés e italiano. Murcia 2005, pp. 91–109. Palmer, George: Lingüística cultural. Madrid 2000. Peramos Soler, Natividad / Batista Rodríguez, José Juan (2008): ‘Unidades fraseológicas y variación’, in: Ogigia. Revista electrónica de estudios hispánicos 2008/3, pp. 43–52. Rogalski, Andrzej: ‘Socjologia je˛zyka’, in: Uniwersyteckie Czasopismo Socjologiczne 2011/ 5, pp. 38–57. Pamies Bertrán, Antonio: ‘Fraseología y variación diatópica en español’, in: Verba hispanica 2017/25, pp. 55–81. Sánchez Lobato, Jesús: ‘El español en América’, in: Sánchez Lobato, Jesús / Santos Gargallo, Isabel (eds.): Problemas y métodos en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de ASELE. Madrid 1994, pp. 553–570. Szyndler, Agnieszka: ‘Sobre la pseudo-equivalencia fraseológica desde una perspectiva cognitivista’, in: Anuario de Estudios Filológicos 2014/ 37, pp. 251–267. Szyndler, Agnieszka: ‘Una lengua, distintas visiones del mundo. Acerca de la variación fraseológica del español’, in: Santos Rovira, José María (ed.): Armonía y Contrastes. Estudios sobre variación dialectal, histórica y sociolingüística. España 2015, pp. 265–278. Taylor, Charles: Sources of the Self. The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge 1989. Wilk-Racie˛ska, Joanna: ‘Nuestro mundo, nuestras visiones del mundo y las lenguas que lo describen todo…’, in: Anuario de Estudios Filológicos 2007/30, pp. 439–453. Wilk-Racie˛ska, Joanna: Od wizji s´wiata do opisu je˛zykoznawczego w kategoriach lingwistyki kulturowej: uwagi na temat hiszpan´skiej syntagmy nominalnej. Katowice 2009. Zaniewicz, Joanna: ‘Rola muzyki współczesnej w wyraz˙aniu i kształtowaniu toz˙samos´ci narodowej’, in: Roguska, Agnieszka/ Danielak- Chomac´, Małgorzata (eds.): Uniwersalizm i tradycja w kulturze. Aktualnos´´c kultury ludowej, cz. III. Siedlce 2015, pp. 199–220. Zuluaga Ospina, Alberto: Introducción al estudio de las expresiones fijas. Frankfurt am Main 1980.

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Dictionaries DA = Sanmartín Sáez, Julia: Diccionario de argot. Madrid 2004. DAMER = Asociación de academias de la lengua española: Diccionario de americanismos, available at: http://www.asale.org/recursos/diccionarios/damer [13. 07. 2021]. DDFH = Buitrago, Alberto: Diccionario de dichos y frases hechas. Madrid 2005. DEM = Diccionario del español de México, available at: http://dem.colmex.mx/Defaul t.aspx [13. 07. 2021]. Diccionario de dominicanismos, available at: https://sites.google.com/site/josellibre2/dic cionariodomi-nicanismos [13. 07. 2021]. DFHA = Barcia, Pedro; Pauer, Gabriela: Diccionario fraseológico del habla argentina: frases, dichos y locuciones. Buenos Aires, 2010. DLE = Diccionario de la lengua española LEMA. Madrid 2005. DM = Santamaría, Francisco: Diccionario de mejicanismos. México 1959. DRAE = Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española, available at: https://dle.rae.es/ [13. 07. 2021]. DRDP = Junceda, Luis: Diccionario de Refranes, Dichos y Proverbios. Madrid 2005. DUE = Moliner, María: Diccionario de uso del español. Madrid 1998. DUEAE = Diccionario de uso del español de América y España. Madrid 2002. JDHH = Jergas de Habla Hispana, available at: http://www.jergasdehablahispana.org [13. 07. 2021].

Marcin Kuczok

Chapter 6 – The semantics of bodily fluids in Biblical Hebrew and contemporary English: A contrastive study from the cognitive-linguistic perspective

Abstract The present paper aims at comparing the meanings ascribed to bodily fluids in Biblical Hebrew and contemporary English. In both those languages, the words denoting the specific bodily fluids are polysemous: they appear not only in the literal sense, to name the specific fluid, but also in figurative senses, for instance, with reference to various emotions, people’s behavior in different situations, family relationships, as well as natural phenomena, animals, and objects. In line with the theory of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, in this paper we claim that those non-literal meanings of bodily fluids can be interpreted as either metaphorical or metonymic extensions of their prototypical, literal senses. The list of the studied words for bodily fluids includes: ‫( ָּדם‬dam) – blood, ‫ָחָלב‬ (chalab) – milk, ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) – seed (semen), ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar) – bile, ‫( ֵקא‬qe) – vomit, ‫ִּדְמָעה‬ (dimah) – tears, and ‫( ֵזָעה‬zeah) – sweat, ‫( ִריר‬rir) – saliva, and ‫( ַ ׁש ִין‬shayin) – urine. As the study has shown, while some of the identified metaphors and metonymies related to bodily fluids are common for both Hebrew and English, others seem to be unique to only one of the two contrasted languages, contributing to the specific cultural identity of the given speech community. Realizing those differences is indispensable for effective translation of the Tanakh into contemporary English and correct interpretation of the Bible in today’s world. Keywords: bodily fluids, Hebrew Scriptures, contemporary English, conceptual metaphor, conceptual metonymy

1.

Introduction

A distinguishing feature of ancient Biblical Hebrew is the fact that it is based on the so-called root words that usually contain three consonants. When combined with vowels and inflectional morphemes, they may be used in a range of contexts as different parts of speech with various meanings (Termin´ska 2015, p. 13). With the spread of Christianity in Europe in the Middle Ages, the Hebrew Scriptures have influenced a number of indigenous languages and cultures, including English. Biblical anthropology, unlike ancient Greek philosophy and modern Western thought, is not marked by the body-soul dualism, but rather depicts the

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human being as ‫( ֶ֣נֶפשׁ ַח ָּ֑יה‬nephesh chayyah) – “a living soul”, a soul and a physical creature simultaneously, in whom the bodily and the spiritual are never separated (Tresmontant 1960, pp. 107–112). Thus, the Hebrew words related to parts of the body at the same time denote their functions, for instance, ‫( ַע ִין‬ayin) – eyes are connected with seeing, ‫( ְזרוֹ ַע‬zeroa) – arms with exerting power, and ‫ֵלָבב‬ (lebab) – heart and ‫( ִּכְל ָיה‬kilyah) – kidneys with internal – intellectual or emotional – processes (Kus´mirek 2016b, pp. 9–24). The same refers to the words naming bodily fluids. For instance, ‫( ָּדם‬dam) – blood does not only mean the red fluid flowing in the veins, but also life, death, killing, and – figuratively – wine, “the blood of grapes” (Kuczok 2019, pp. 155–166). In English, like in Hebrew, it is possible to find various meanings of bodily fluids. Some of them might have been borrowed from the Bible, but it cannot be excluded that they have developed independently from the influence of the Hebrew Scriptures. Nevertheless, studying the differences concerning the semantics of bodily fluids in ancient Hebrew and Modern English seems to be of great importance in the context of Bible translation. The awareness of all the specific cultural connotations involved in the semantics of bodily fluids may have serious implications in interpretation of the Tanakh1 in the contemporary English-speaking world. Although Western thought and culture are said to separate the body from the spirit, in the paradigm of cognitive linguistics, it is claimed that thought is embodied – and embodiment means that the conceptualization of abstract reality is based on physical, bodily and sensory, experiences (Lakoff / Johnson 1999, p. 77). In consequence, meaning extension, as observed in the polysemy of body parts and internal organs in English and other modern languages, can be explained by the conceptual mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy, in which abstract concepts are understood by means of the bodily matter (Sharifian / Dirven / Yu / Niemeier 2008). That approach to thought and language may be said to resemble the non-dualistic view of humans in the Tanakh. Following all those claims and observations, we believe that also the complex semantics of bodily fluids in both ancient Hebrew and today’s English is underpinned by the metaphorical or metonymic conceptualizations of the reality that those fluids refer to. It bears emphasizing that, as shown for instance by Kövecses (2005), metaphorical and metonymic conceptualizations of various experiences are often culture-specific and largely contribute to the cultural identity of a particular speech community. It seems that while the semantics of the body and its parts in both Hebrew and English has been of interest to linguists (e. g. Enfield / Wierzbicka 2002; Shari1 The word “Tanakh” (also spelled “Tanach”) is a common name for the Hebrew Scriptures, and it constitutes a vocalized acronym based on the first letters of the names of the three traditional parts of the Hebrew Bible: Torah (the Law), Nevi’im (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings).

The semantics of bodily fluids in Biblical Hebrew and contemporary English

95

fian / Dirven / Yu / Niemeier 2008; Wolff 2012 [1973]; Kövecses 2014; Kus´mirek 2016a), the bodily fluids have not received much attention yet. One question that we want to answer is whether the English meanings of those fluids are different from those found in the Tanakh. Next, we ask what is common and what is unique in the semantics of bodily fluids in both languages. Another question is what conceptual metaphors and metonymies are used in each language to extend the meaning of bodily fluids, and whether they are similar or different in Hebrew and English. The paper starts with a discussion concerning the approach to bodily fluids in culture and language. Next, the semantics of the fluids is presented and compared for Hebrew and contemporary English. The list of the examined bodily fluids is based on those of them that appear in the Hebrew Bible, and it includes: ‫( ָּדם‬dam) – blood, ‫( ָחָלב‬chalab) – milk, ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) – seed (semen), ‫( ֵקא‬qe) – vomit, ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar) – bile, ‫( ִּדְמָעה‬dimah) – tears, and ‫( ֵזָעה‬zeah) – sweat, ‫( ִריר‬rir) – saliva, and ‫( ַ ׁש ִין‬shayin) – urine. Names for bodily fluids that exist only in English, such as pus, mucus, or phlegm, but are absent from ancient Hebrew, are not taken into account. Special attention is paid to collocations, fixed phrases, idioms, and proverbs referring to bodily fluids.

2.

Bodily fluids in culture and language

A bodily fluid is defined as “any fluid in the body including blood, urine, saliva, sputum, tears, semen, milk, or vaginal secretions” (Segen’s Medical Dictionary 2011). From the physiological point of view, bodily fluids fulfill a number of various functions in the human body. Blood, for instance, transports gases and important substances to the cells, breast milk constitutes food for babies, saliva and bile help us to digest food, semen passes sperm cells to the egg cell to enable conception, urine eliminates unwanted substances from the body, and tears clean our eyeballs. Nevertheless, in language, words denoting those bodily fluids may take a number of meanings shaped on various associations with the functions and contexts, in which people come in touch with them. It bears emphasizing that bodily fluids are listed among the most common taboo topics in language (Allan / Burridge 2006, p. 1). Taboo is a phenomenon which means that certain topics are forbidden and avoided because of the fear of pollution or distaste associated with them. The English word “taboo” derives from the Tongan form “tabu”, brought to England by Captain James Cook in the 18th century. During his visit to Polynesia in 1777, Cook noticed that the indigenous people used the words “tapu” or “tabu” to describe their behavior toward things that were not to be done, entered, seen, or touched (Allan / Burridge 2006, pp. 2–4). The notion of “taboo” has become widespread not only in

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Britain, but in the whole Western civilization to talk about what is prohibited or inappropriate in culture and language. Interestingly, the list of taboo topics in today’s English-speaking world is somewhat ambivalent as it combines the shameful and often disgusting spheres of disease, the physiological processes of micturition and excretion, and various aspects of sexuality with the sacred sphere of one’s religious beliefs. Douglas (1966, p. 8) notices that taboos divide what is clean from what is unclean, including the separation of the profane from the sacred in order to protect it and keep holy. Allan and Burridge (1991, pp. 52–53) discuss the Revoltingness Ratings of various bodily effluvia, which include bodily fluids, from shit and vomit, to semen, urine, menstrual blood, wound blood, snot, spit, sweat, belched breath, nail parings, hair clippings, breast milk, and tears. According to their respondents, the most disgusting were shit, vomit, sperm, and urine, while the least revolting were breast milk and tears. That result is explained by the fact that breast milk and tears are not waste products like virtually all the other bodily effluvia listed in the questionnaire. As a consequence of the taboo surrounding bodily fluids, people have developed various euphemisms that help them to avoid making direct references to those fluids. A euphemism can be defined as an “alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or, through giving offense, that of the audience, or of some third party” (Allan / Burridge 1991, p. 11). To mention just a few examples, English speakers say “to throw up” or “to be sick” instead of “to vomit”, when they sweat, they “are hot” or “dripping”, urinating becomes “going to the restroom”, a menstruating woman may have “the monthlies”, while semen is called “seed” (Allan / Burridge 1991, pp. 75–85). In his study devoted to taboo in the Hebrew Scriptures, Singer (2013 [1928], pp. 3–72) does not discuss bodily fluids as such. Among the identified taboo topics in the Bible, he lists certain foods and drinks, like pork or mixing meat and milk, as well as the foods and drinks that have been sacrificed in the temple. Next, he mentions sex taboos concerning certain forbidden sexual practices, which lead to religious uncleanness, and the preference for males in the cult. Finally, there are also certain persons, places and things that are tabooed, including what belongs to the sacred sphere: priests, the ark, Mt. Sinai, God’s name, but also the king, the warrior, the witch, and the stranger, dead bodies and acts of mourning, as well as some garments and hair. Nevertheless, in this list we can find a few indirect references to some bodily fluids – as we can read in Scripture, in the Hebrew culture it was forbidden to consume animal blood (Leviticus 7:26) and spill human blood (Genesis 9:6), while the menstrual bleeding in women (Leviticus 15:19) and a discharge of semen in men (Leviticus 15:16–18), as well as the sweat of a priest wearing woolen clothes instead of linen ones (Ezekiel 44:18) made people unclean (Unger / Harrison 2006 [1988], pp. 1759–1761).

The semantics of bodily fluids in Biblical Hebrew and contemporary English

97

3. Blood – ‫( ָּדם‬dam) In the Hebrew tradition, ‫( ָּדם‬dam) – blood of any living creature is metonymically perceived as a symbol of life.2 In Deuteronomy 15:23, we can read the following words referring to an animal: ‫תא ֵ֑כל ַעל־ָהָ֥א ֶרץ ִּת ְ ׁשְּפ ֶ֖כנּוּ ַּכ ָּֽמ ִים‬ ֹ ‫ַ֥רק ֶאת־ ָּד ֖מֹו ֣ל ֹא‬ – “Its blood,3 however, you must not eat; you shall pour it out on the ground like water” (NRSV).4 Because of that special meaning of blood, it was forbidden for Jews to consume animal blood or meat with blood. The metonymy underlying this meaning can be expressed as cause for effect – blood circulating in the body makes a person or animal alive, and we can say that it gives them life. Like in Hebrew, in English blood is connected with life too. There is the compound “lifeblood”, which metonymically emphasizes the life-giving function of blood. It can be used literally, as seen in the sentence “Somehow, the sight of all her blood, all her lifeblood on that shirt disturbed her” (OD),5 as well as metaphorically,6 to signify the factor or influence that gives something vitality: “The movement of coal was the lifeblood of British railways” (OD). Actually, the same metonymy motivates the English phrase that is used to refer to someone’s skills and abilities, which have become an integral part of someone’s life: “to have something in one’s blood”: “Racing is in his blood” (OD). In the Bible, killing a man is something sinful since it involves spilling human blood. As a consequence, blood becomes a symbol of both life and death. In 2 In line with the theory of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, we understand metonymy as using one entity to refer to another that is related to it. Metonymy occurs as a conceptual mapping within one conceptual domain (Lakoff / Johnson 2003 [1980], p. 35; Kövecses 2010 [2002], pp. 171–174). An extensive study of the nature of metonymy and a presentation of the variety of the most common metonymic mappings in language can be found, for instance, in: Radden / Kövecses 1999, pp. 17–59. 3 In all the quotations from the Bible and from dictionaries, presented in this paper, the discussed words and expressions are provided in italics for emphasis. 4 All the quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures come from the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977), which is available from the Bible Hub website: https://biblehub.com/. The English translation of the Bible cited in the present paper is the New Revised Standard Version (1989) (hereafter abbreviated as NRSV), available from the Bible Gateway website: https://www. biblegateway.com/. 5 All the English examples provided in this paper, including sentences, sayings, fixed phrases, idioms, and collocations, come from the Oxford Dictionary (hereafter abbreviated as OD), available at the Lexico website: https://www.lexico.com/. 6 Following the theory of conceptual metaphor and metonymy, in the present paper, metaphor is understood as a conceptual mapping from the source domain to the target domain, which helps people to reason and understand the target domain. Its function is explanatory rather than ornamental (Lakoff / Johnson 2003 [1980], p. 5; Kövecses 2010 [2002], p. 4).

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Leviticus 20:9, we read that “All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them” (NRSV). Again, in the original Hebrew text, the word ‫( ָּדם‬dam) is used, this time to talk about death: ‫שר ְיַק ֵּ֧לל ֶאת־ָא ִ֛ביו ְוֶאת־ִא ּ֖מֹו ֣מֹות יוּ ָ֑מת ָאִ֧ביו ְוִא ּ֛מֹו ִק ֵּ֖לל ָּדָ֥מיו ּֽב ֹו‬ ֨ ׁ ֶ ‫ִּֽכי־ ִ֣אישׁ ִ֗אישׁ ֲא‬ Moreover, ‫( ָּדם‬dam) is sometimes used in the Tanakh to refer to overt acts of killing or murdering someone (Deuteronomy 21:8): ‫ַּכֵּפ֩ר ְלַעְּמָ֙ך ִיְׂש ָר ֵ ֤אל ֲא ֶ ׁשר־ ָּפ ִ֙דיָ֙ת ְיה ָ֔וה ְוַאל־ ִּתֵּת֙ן ָּ֣דם ָנ ִ֔קי ְבּ ֶ ֖ק ֶרב ַעְּמָ֣ך ִיְׂש ָר ֵ֑אל ְו ִנ ַּכֵּ֥פר ָל ֶ֖הם ַה ָּֽדם‬ – “‘Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel’. Then they will be absolved of bloodguilt” (NRSV). Interestingly, in order to emphasize the idea of bloodshed the plural form ‫( ָּדִמים‬damim) is sometimes used, as seen in Isaiah 4:4: ‫ִ֣אם ָר ַ ֣חץ ֲאד ֹ ָ֗ני ֵ֚את צ ַֹ֣את ְבּנֹות־ִצ ּ֔י ֹון ְוֶאת־ ְּדֵ֥מי ְירוּ ָ ׁש ִַ֖לם ָי ִ֣די ַח ִמִּק ְרָּ֑בהּ ְבּ ֥רוּ ַח ִמ ְ ׁש ָּ֖פט וְּב ֥רוּ ַח ָּב ֵֽער‬ In the English translation, the verse has the word “bloodstains”: “once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” In both those languages, connecting blood with death or being responsible for someone’s death seems to be motivated by the metonymic mapping effect for cause – spilled blood or bloodstains are the consequence of the act of killing someone. Apart from that, ‫( ָּדם‬dam) in Hebrew may refer to a person’s temperamental character, in line with the metonymic meaning of blood as the effect of killing. “A man of blood” in 2 Samuel 16:8 means someone violent and vehement: “The Lord has avenged on all of you the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, disaster has overtaken you; for you are a man of blood” (NRSV). In the original text, the plural form ‫( ָּדִמים‬damim) is used: ‫תו כ[ ) ַּתְחָּ֔תיו ק( ַו ִּיֵּ֤תן ְיה ָו֙ה ֶאת־ַהְּמלוּ ָ֔כה‬ ֹ ּ ‫ֵה ִ ׁשי֩ב ָעֶ֨ליָך ְיה ֜ ָוה ּכֹ֣ל ְּד ֵ ֣מי ֵבית־ ָ ׁש֗אוּל ֲא ֶ֤ ׁשר ָמ ַ ֙לְכ ָּ ֙ת ]ַּתְח‬ ‫ְבּ ַ֖יד ַאְב ָ ׁש֣לוֹ ם ְבּ ֶ֑נָך ְוִה ְּנָ֙ך ְבּ ָ֣רָע ֶ֔תָך ִּ֛כי ִ֥אישׁ ָּד ִ ֖מים ָֽאָּתה‬ In the same vein, in English, blood also refers to one’s responsibility for someone else’s death, which is expressed by the idiom “to have blood on one’s hands”: “We will free others, but not the assassins, not those who have blood on their hands” (OD). Blood symbolizing violence and killing can be found in such expressions as “bloodshed” and “spilling one’s blood”: “Nothing can justify spilling innocent

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99

blood” (OD). Additionally, we can list here a few other English collocations: “blood and danger”: “A commando operation full of blood and danger” (OD); “blood and guts”: “I like blood and guts, adventure, that kind of thing” (OD); or “blood and thunder”: “This blood and thunder depiction of the coming of the Saxons could be a construct of our sources” (OD). Finally, the expression “to be out for one’s blood” is used to talk about setting on getting revenge, for instance, by killing someone: “Early Christians used them as a place to hide from those out for their blood” (OD). These English death-related meanings of blood follow the same metonymy as Hebrew: effect for cause. Next, apart from the common or similar meanings, there are also a number of unique senses of ‫( ָּדם‬dam) – blood in both Biblical Hebrew and English. A unique meaning of ‫( ָּדם‬dam) found in the Bible is its figurative used to refer to wine. In Genesis 49:11, it is metaphorically called “the blood of grapes”: ֹ [‫שֹּ ֵר ָ֖קה ְבּ ִ֣ני ֲאתֹ ֑נ ֹו ִּכ ֵּ֤בס ַּב ַּ֙י ִי֙ן ְלֻבשֹ֔ ׁו וְּב ַדם־ֲע ָנִ֖בים ]סוּתֹה כ‬ ׂ ‫אְס ִ֤רי ַל ֶּ֙גֶפ֙ן ]ִעיר ֹה כ[ )ִעי ֔ר ֹו ק( ְוַל‬ (‫)סוּ ֽתֹו׃ ק‬ – “Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes” (NRSV). It is worth noticing that in English, blood may metonymically signify a human being as such,7 following the mapping part for whole – blood as part of the body stands here for the person. For instance, we can talk about “new / fresh / young blood” meaning people: “We need some young blood and energy, as far as I know all of the volunteers are over 50” (OD). Apart from that, in colloquial English, “blood” or “bloods” in plural may mean elegant and energetic young men: “It’s actually the Spanish bloods who occupy the society pages and the top two percent of the social register” (OD). Blood may also be connected with the way English speakers refer to various emotions and feelings. For instance, the phrase “to make one’s blood boil” means to infuriate someone: “It made her blood boil every time he came near” (OD). Similarly, a passionate person can be described as “hot-blooded”, like “hotblooded Latin lovers” (OD). In the same line, to describe someone’s fiery and passionate temperament, we can say that something “fires up one’s blood”: “a ritual that fires up his blood” (OD). Also, to talk about someone who is vigorous and virile, we can depict them as “red-blooded”: “He was attracted to 7 Actually, in the Bible, there is the phrase “flesh and blood”, which signifies the human being, but it appears in texts that were not included in the Tanakh, like Sirach (e. g. 14:18 or 17:31). However, that book became part of the Greek Septuagint and is present in the Catholic and Orthodox versions of the Old Testament. That collocation is also found in the Greek New Testament, as well as its translations into English (e. g. Matthew 16:17; John 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Ephesians 6:12) (Rumianek 1985, p. 77).

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her, as any red-blooded male would be” (OD). Then, when describing something done with enthusiasm and vigor, we can say that it is “full-blooded”: “He could turn a political argument into a full-blooded, passionate struggle” (OD). On the other hand, to talk about fear, we can say “to make someone’s blood run cold / freeze / curdle”: “Their howl will make your blood run cold” (OD). Additionally, to talk about something done without emotion or pity we can say that it is “coldblooded”, for instance, “a cold-blooded murder” (OD). These meanings can be interpreted as metonymy-motivated, in line with the mapping physiological effects of emotions for emotions – when we get furious or passionate about something, our blood pressure increases, blood starts flowing through our veins faster, and our body temperature may rise; on the other hand, in the state of fear body temperature may fall, and people feel like paralyzed, unable to move. As claimed by Kövecses (2014, pp. 17–19), the physiological effects of emotions for emotions metonymy belongs to very popular ways of conceptualizing various emotions. One of them is fear, which can be metonymically represented by the experience of lack of body heat. Furthermore, such metonymies can give rise to the so-called physiological metaphors, which are common in the language of emotions (Kövecses 1990, p. 198–199; Kövecses 2014, p. 19; Apresjan 1997, pp. 180–183), for instance, anger is heat (e. g. “to boil with anger”) or fear is cold (e. g. “freeze with terror”). Furthermore, blood in English appears in a number of phrases related to the domain of conflict, fighting, and competition. Saying that “one’s blood is up” means that the person is ready to fight or compete: “This exhibition is a start; an encouraging sign that our blood is up and we are ready to storm the field” (OD). This meaning of blood seems to be motivated by the already mentioned metonymy physiological effects of emotions for emotions – when we get ready to fight, adrenaline makes our heart beat faster and the blood pressure rises. In English, there is also the phrase “bad blood”, which denotes conflicts and ill feeling between people: “All its disputes, all its ill-will and bad blood, rise up before you” (OD). Perhaps it could be suggested that this meaning of blood may be driven by the same metonymy – when people are hostile and angry towards others, their blood pressure rises, and they can have the impression that their blood is ill – or bad. Next, the phrase “to taste blood” means that someone has achieved an early success which stimulates to further efforts: “The speculators have tasted blood and could force a devaluation of the currency” (OD). In this phrase, there is the metaphor people are predators – a small success is conceptualized as tasting small amounts of blood, perhaps from a small prey, and that makes people hungry for more. Interestingly, blood in English appears also in various phrases referring to family relationships: we can talk about “blood relatives”, “blood relationship”, and “ties of blood” (OD). Here, we can observe a contrast with Hebrew, where

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these meanings are conceptualized through the bodily fluid of seed. That meaning of blood can be said to follow the metonymy cause for effect – a person’s descendants are believed to have the same blood as he or she, and that fact makes them related as members of the same family. What is more, blood may be used to specify someone’s nationality or family background, as seen in the sentence “She must have Irish blood in her” (OD). There are also such expressions as “to be of the blood royal” or “to have blue blood in one’s veins” (OD). Next, to refer to certain family characteristics that cannot be hidden, we can use the phrase “blood will tell”: “Of course Mark never has any money, just like his parents. Blood will tell, after all” (OD). The strength of family relationships is expressed by the English proverb: “Blood is thicker than water” (OD). Additionally, in English, there are also references to blood used in the context of hunting. The verb “to blood” means to smear the face of a novice with the blood of the kill: “This long-forgotten mask was given to me out hunting when I was about nine, just after a kill when I was first blooded” (OD). Also, hunting dogs can be “blooded”, which means to give them a first taste of blood: “This relates to the practice of blooding young hounds on fox cubs to whet their appetite for hunting” (OD). Apart from that, the verb “to blood” as a metaphorical extension of the meaning related to the experience of hunting may mean initiating someone in a particular activity: “Clubs are too slow to blood young players” (OD). Finally, in English, the adjective “bloody” functions as a vulgarism: “A beautiful bright and sunny morning, but bloody cold” (OD). It is also worth mentioning that the plural form “bloods” in the medical context means blood samples: “A nurse was out on the corridor taking bloods from the patients” (OD). That sense seems to be motivated by the metonymy generic for specific – blood as such stands here for specific blood samples.

4. Milk – ‫( ָחָלב‬chalab) When it comes to milk, the word ‫( ָחָלב‬chalab) is frequently used in Scripture in the literal sense, to refer either to human breast milk or animal milk. For instance, in Judges 4:19: ‫ַו ּ֧י ֹאֶמר ֵאֶ֛ליָה ַה ְ ׁשִקי ִני־ ָ֥נא ְמַעט־ַ֖מ ִים ִּ֣כי ָצֵ֑מאִתי ַוִּתְפ ַּ ֞תח ֶאת־ ֧נֹאוד ֶהָח ָ֛ל ב ַוַּת ְ ׁש ֵ֖קהוּ ַו ְּתַכ ֵּֽסהוּ‬ – “Then he said to her, ‘Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty’. So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him” (NRSV). However, the Hebrew collocation ‫( ָחָלב וּ ְד ָ֫בשׁ‬chalab udebash) – “milk and honey”

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appears in the Bible as a symbol of prosperity and God’s blessing, especially in reference to the Promised Land of Canaan (e. g. Deuteronomy 11:9): ‫וְּלַ֨מַען ַּתֲא ִ֤ריכוּ ָיִמי֙ם ַעל־ָ֣הֲא ָדָ֔מה ֲא ֶ ׁש֩ר ִנ ְ ׁש ַּ ֨בע ְיה ָ֧וה ַלֲאב ֵֹתיֶ֛כם ָלֵ֥תת ָל ֶ֖הם וְּל ַז ְר ָ֑עם ֶ֛א ֶרץ ָזַ֥בת ָח ָ֖לב‬ ‫וּ ְד ָֽבשׁ‬ – “And so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey” (NRSV). The Tanakh mentions also the act of sucking – ‫( ָי ַנק‬yanaq) the breast and drinking milk from it as a sign of participation in the future glory of new Jerusalem (Isaiah 60:16): ‫שֹ ׁד ְמָלִ֖כים ִּתיָ֑נִקי ְו ָי ַ֗דַעְּת ִּ֣כי ֲא ִ֤ני ְיה ָו֙ה ֽמֹו ִ ׁשי ֵ֔עְך ְוג ֲֹא ֵ֖לְך ֲא ִ֥ביר ַיֲע ֽקֹב‬ ֥ ‫ָי ַנְק ְּ ֙ת ֲח ֵ֣לב ּג ֹו ִ֔ים ְו‬ – “You shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breasts of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (NRSV). In those verses, the meaning of milk can be interpreted as the metonymy specific for generic – a particular substance associated culturally with prosperity stands for the state of prosperity and happiness itself. In English, the bodily fluid of milk has very positive connotations too. There is the collocation “milk and honey”, which entered the English language in the Middle Ages through the spread of Christianity and the translations of the Hebrew Scriptures, called the “Old Testament” by Christians, into English. Thus, like in Biblical Hebrew, the expression means prosperity and abundance: “Not all economists think late 1991 and early 1992 will be a time of milk and honey” (OD). Another interesting collocation is the phrase “milk of human kindness”, taken from William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, which metaphorically depicts one’s care and compassion for others: “She’s certainly not overflowing with the milk of human kindness, is she?” (OD).

5. Seed (semen) – ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) The next bodily fluid that has a number of special senses in Hebrew is ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) – seed or semen. Interestingly, the same word ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) means both the bodily fluid produced in human or animal testicles and the seeds produced by plants: – Jeremiah 31:27: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals” (NRSV). ‫ִה ֵּ֛נה ָיִ֥מים ָּב ִ֖אים ְנֻאם־ ְיה ָ֑וה ְו ָז ַרְעִּ֗תי ֶאת־ֵּ֤בית ִיְׂש ָרֵא֙ל ְוֶאת־ֵּ֣בית ְיהוּ ָ֔דה ֥ ֶז ַרע ָא ָ֖דם ְו ֶ֥ז ַרע ְבֵּה ָֽמה‬

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– Genesis 1:11: “Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so” (NRSV). ‫ַו ּ֣י ֹאֶמר ֱאל ֹ ִ֗הים ַּֽת ְד ֵ֤ ׁשא ָהָ֙א ֶר֙ץ ֶּ֔ד ֶ ׁשא ֵ ֚עֶׂשב ַמ ְז ִ֣רי ַע ֶ֔ז ַרע ֵ֣עץ ְּפ ִ֞רי ֤עֶֹׂשה ְּפ ִר֙י ְלִמי ֔נֹו ֲא ֶ֥ ׁשר ַז ְרעֹו־ ֖ב ֹו‬ ‫ַעל־ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ַֽו ְיִהי־ֵֽכן‬ Additionally, ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) may also mean sowing, for instance, crops (e. g. Genesis 8:22): ‫֖עֹד ָּכל־ ְי ֵ ֣מי ָה ָ֑א ֶרץ ֶ֡ז ַרע ְו ָ֠קִציר ְו ֨קֹר ָו ֜חֹם ְו ַ ֧ק ִיץ ָו ֛חֹ ֶרף ְו ֥י ֹום ָוַ֖ל ְיָלה ֥ל ֹא ִי ְ ׁש ּֽב ֹתוּ‬ – “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease” (NRSV). Next, a common meaning of ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) in the Tanakh is offspring or descendants, as seen in Genesis 3:15: ‫ְוֵאי ָ֣בה ָא ִ֗ ׁשית ֵּֽבי ְנָ֙ך וּ ֵ֣בין ָֽהִא ָּ֔ ׁשה וּ ֵ֥בין ַז ְרֲע ָ ֖ך וּ ֵ֣בין ַז ְר ָ֑עהּ ֚הוּא ְישׁוְּפָ֣ך ֔ר ֹאשׁ ְוַא ָּ ֖תה ְּתשׁוֶּ֥פנּוּ ָע ֵ ֽקב‬ – “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (NRSV). In fact, ‫ֶז ַרע‬ (zera) may also be used to refer to a specific family or “house”, as seen in 1 Kings 11:14: ‫ַו ּ ָ֨יֶקם ְיה ָו֤ה ָׂשָט֙ן ִל ְ ׁשל ֹ ֔מֹה ֵ֖את ֲה ַ֣דד ָהֲאד ִֹ֑מי ִמ ֶּ֧ז ַרע ַהֶּ֛מֶלְך ֖הוּא ֶּבֱא ֽד ֹום‬ – “Then the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the royal house in Edom” (NRSV). Apart from that, in the Bible, there are also references to the whole Chosen Nation, called ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) – “seed”, or in some English translations, “offspring” of Abraham (Isaiah 41:8): ‫אֲה ִֽבי‬ ֹ ‫ְוַאָּת֙ה ִיְׂש ָר ֵ ֣אל ַעְב ִּ֔די ַיֲע ֖קֹב ֲא ֶ֣ ׁשר ְבַּח ְר ִּ֑תיָך ֶ֖ז ַרע ַאְב ָרָ֥הם‬ – “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend” (NRSV). All those Hebrew meanings of ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) can be explained as metonymic in nature, following the mapping cause for effect – the seed is what is necessary to conceive a child, to start a family, and also to build a nation. As we can see, seed in Scripture has very positive connotations and it is used in serious contexts, which are described in a respectful way.

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In English, the presence of the rich semantics of ‫( ֶז ַרע‬zera) found in Biblical Hebrew cannot be attested. It seems that this bodily fluid has purely sexual connotations if not used in the biological or medical context, and that, unlike in the ancient Hebrew culture, there is a strong taboo connected with the references to semen in the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, the word “seed”, which constitutes a common euphemistic synonym for semen in English, is sometimes used in the sense of offspring or descendants, as a borrowing from Biblical Hebrew: “The key is that the promise was made to Abraham and to his seed, that is, to one seed, to one offspring” (OD).

6. Bile – ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar) and vomit – ‫( ֵקא‬qe) Bile and vomit, which contains a mixture of gastric juices and swallowed food, are associated with the digestive processes taking place in the stomach and bowels. For that reason, in this section they are discussed together. The word ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar) – bile or gall belongs to those bodily excretions that are used in Hebrew in a number of senses. First of all, it can of course be used literally (Job 16:13): ‫ָ֘י ֤ס ֹבּוּ ָעַ֨לי ַרָּ֗ביו ְיַפַּ֣לח ִּ ֭כְלי ֹוַתי ְו֣ל ֹא ַיְח ֑מֹול ִי ְ ׁש ֥פְֹּך ָ ֝לָ֗א ֶרץ ְמ ֵר ָֽרִתי‬ – “His archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground” (NRSV). Actually, a frequent meaning of that word is being bitter or making bitter, as seen in Isaiah 24:9: ‫ַּב ִּ֖ ׁשיר ֣ל ֹא ִי ְ ׁשתּוּ־ ָ֑י ִין ֵיַ֥מר ֵ ׁשָ֖כר ְלשֹ ׁ ָֽתיו‬ –“No longer do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it” (NRSV). This meaning can be explained as metonymic, in line with the mapping cause for effect – bile causes a bitter taste in the mouth and stands for such a taste itself. Then, when used with reference to people’s emotions, ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar) may describe someone distressed or troubled (e. g. 2 Kings 4:27): ‫אישׁ ָהֱאל ֹ ִ֤הים‬ ֨ ִ ‫ַוָּת ֞ב ֹא ֶאל־ ִ֤אישׁ ָֽהֱאל ִֹהי֙ם ֶאל־ָהָ֔הר ַֽוַּתֲח ֵ֖זק ְבּ ַר ְג ָ֑ליו ַו ִּי ּ ַ֨גשׁ ֵּֽגיֲח ִ֜זי ְלָה ְדָ֗פהּ ַו ּי ֹאֶמ֩ר‬ ‫ַה ְרֵּֽפה־ָל ֙הּ ִּֽכי־ ַנְפ ָ֣ ׁשהּ ָֽמ ָרה־ָ֔להּ ַֽויה ָו֙ה ֶהְע ִ֣לים ִמֶּ֔מ ִּני ְו ֥ל ֹא ִה ּ ִ֖גיד ִֽלי‬ – “When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, ‘Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me’” (NRSV). When referring to distress in this way, perhaps we can talk about the

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metonymy physiological effects of emotions for emotions – when people experience distress or anxiety, their body often produces more bile, so that seems to be the reason for referring to bile in this case. In English, bile or gall is also used to conceptualize metonymically such negative emotions as bitterness or distress, similarly to its meanings found in the Bible. For instance: “Scratch the surface and all you’ll find resentment, bitterness and bile!” (OD). Apart from that, it can be found to express anger, as seen in the examples: “The Sunday papers in Ireland were full of bile for the Lord Mayor” (OD) and “He was filled with gall at the suspected ambitions of his old enemies” (OD). Interestingly, Geeraerts and Grondelaers (1995, pp. 155–169) point to the connections between the vocabulary that developed for anger (and some other emotions) in English and the medieval theory of humors, rooted in ancient Greco-Roman philosophy and proto-scientific medicine. In that theory, it is assumed that the human body is regulated by “humors”, understood as the basic bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile (coming from the gallbladder), black bile (coming from the spleen), and phlegm (which could also mean a white or colorless secretion, including saliva, mucus, or even pus). The dominance of one of those humors is responsible for a person’s character, behavior, and emotions. Thus, blood makes people enthusiastic and active,8 black bile – in ancient Greek: μέλαινα χολή (melaina khole) – is responsible for melancholy (also called “the spleen” in English), phlegm makes people – as we still say today – “phlegmatic”, and yellow bile makes them aggressive and short-tempered. That would explain the use of the word “bile” in the English language to refer to anger. In fact, a similar sense of ‫( ָמ ַרר‬marar), denoting anger or rage, can found in the biblical Book of Daniel (11:11): ‫ְו ִיְתַמ ְרַמ֙ר ֶ ֣מֶלְך ַה ֶּ֔נ ֶגב ְו ָי ָ֕צא ְו ִנְל ַ֥חם ִע ּ֖מֹו ִעם־ ֶ ֣מֶלְך ַה ָּצפֹ֑ון ְוֶהֱעִמי֙ד ָה ֣מֹון ָ֔רב ְו ִנ ַּ֥תן ֶהָה ֖מֹון ְבּ ָי ֽד ֹו‬ – “Moved with rage, the king of the south shall go out and do battle against the king of the north, who shall muster a great multitude, which shall, however, be defeated by his enemy” (NRSV). Perhaps that fact could be attributed to the influence of the ancient Greek thought on the Hebrew culture: the Book of Daniel was written in the 2nd century BC, when the theory of humor already existed in ancient philosophy, so such an influence might have been possible. The word ‫( ֵקא‬qe) – vomit appears in the Hebrew Scriptures either in its literal sense or figuratively, to express contempt for Moab, “wallowing in his vomit”: 8 Perhaps the humoral theory was also responsible for the development of some of the meanings and uses of the word “blood” in the English language, presented in section 3 above. For instance, depicting someone energetic, active, and vigorous as “full-blooded” or “red-blooded” could be connected with the role ascribed to blood in the theory of humors (Geeraerts / Grondelaers 1995, p. 163).

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– Isaiah 19:14: “The Lord has poured into them a spirit of confusion; and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings as a drunkard staggers around in vomit” (NRSV): ‫או‬ ֹ ֽ ‫ה ָ֛וה ָמַ֥סְך ְבִּק ְר ָּ֖בהּ ֣רוּ ַח ִע ְו ִ֑עים ְוִהְת֤עוּ ֶאת־ִמְצ ַ֙ר ִי֙ם ְבּ ָֽכל־ַמֲעֵׂ֔שהוּ ְּכִהָּת ֥עֹות ִ ׁש ּ ֹכ֖ור ְבִּקי‬ – Jeremiah 48:26: “Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord; let Moab wallow in his vomit; he too shall become a laughingstock” (NRSV): ‫או ְוָה ָ֥יה ִלְׂש ֖חֹק ַּגם־ֽהוּא‬ ֹ ֔ ‫ַה ְ ׁשִּכי ֻ֕רהוּ ִּ֥כי ַעל־ ְיה ָ֖וה ִה ְג ִּ֑דיל ְוָסַ֤פק מֹוָא֙ב ְבִּקי‬ Using ‫( ֵקא‬qe) – vomit as a sign of disgust and derision may be interpreted metaphorically as disgust is being sick – one of the physiological metaphors for emotions, which are motivated by the physiological effects of emotion metonymy: vomit is a kind of disgusting waste that people throw up and treat with contempt. In English, similarly, the verb “to vomit”, as well as its synonyms like “to throw up”, “to feel sick” or “to make someone sick” are used to express the emotion of disgust metaphorically, as seen in the example: “It was making her sick and disgusted just looking at them” (Kuczok 2016, p. 33). Additionally, the English verb “to vomit” may mean to emit something in an uncontrolled stream or flow, for example, when talking about a machine producing some paper copies: “The machine vomited fold after fold of paper” (OD). In this use, we can identify the metaphor machine is human.

7. Tears – ‫( ִּדְמָעה‬dimah) and sweat – ‫( ֵזָעה‬zeah) In this section, tears and sweat are presented together as both of them often appear on the face, and, as we shall see, they share certain extended meanings in both Hebrew and English. The word ‫( ִּדְמָעה‬dimah) – tears, appears in the Bible as a metonymic reference to the act of weeping as tears express a person’s sadness, in line with the mapping physiological effects of emotions (tears) for emotions (sadness). For instance, in Psalms 42:3: ‫ָֽה ְיָתה־ ִּ֬לי ִדְמָע ִ֣תי ֶ ֭לֶחם י ֹו ָ֣מם ָו ָ֑ל ְיָלה ֶּבֱא ֥מֹר ֵא ַ֥לי ָּכל־ַ֝ה ּ֗י ֹום ַא ֵּ֥יה ֱאל ֶֹֽהיָך‬ – “My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’”(NRSV). In English, tears can similarly stand for sadness and weeping: “I certainly did not expect to spend the first day of my honeymoon in tears” (OD). However,

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tears may also be a sign of happiness and joy: “Soon her eyes were tearing and Kyle had joined in, laughing too” (OD). Furthermore, in English, tears, often in combination with the bodily fluids of blood and sweat, refer to effort and hard work: “He’s going through all the blood, sweat, and tears involved in getting a PhD” (OD). In consequence, the expression “without tears” is used to describe something learned or achieved easily and effortlessly: “Seminars will tackle issues such as funding business growth, reducing business risk, running IT systems without tears and best practice for human resource management” (OD). Here, the meaning is metonymic: effect (tears) for cause (effort and hard work). Next, ‫( ֵזָעה‬zeah) – sweat can be found in Genesis 3:19 in the expression ‫ְבּ ֵזַ֤עת‬ ‫( ַא ֶּ ֙פיָ֙ך‬bezeat appeka) – literally “by the sweat of your nose”, where it becomes a metonymic symbol of hard work, conceptualized again in line with the effect for cause mapping: ֹ ּ֣ ‫ְבּ ֵזַ֤עת ַא ֶּ ֙פיָ֙ך‬ ‫תאַכל ֶ֔לֶחם ַ֤עד ֽ ׁשוְּבָ֙ך ֶאל־ ָ֣הֲא ָדָ֔מה ֥ ִּכי ִמ ֶּ֖מ ָּנה ֻל ָ ּ֑קְחָּת ִּֽכי־ָע ָ֣פר ַ֔אָּתה ְוֶאל־ָע ָ֖פר ָּת ֽ ׁשוּב‬ – “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (NRSV). That metonymic meaning of sweat is also present in English: “You can only do it with a lot of sweat, working hard, and throwing stuff away” (OD). As shown above, sometimes sweat appears together with blood and tears in this sense. When focusing on physical effort, it is possible to use such English phrases as “to break a sweat”: “They began against a novice England side at Twickenham and hardly broke sweat in winning 19–3” (OD), or “by the sweat of one’s brow”, which is a Hebraism borrowed from the Bible: “Genesis chapter 3 deals with the fall of humankind and the curse that ‘by the sweat of your brow’ humans would have to work hard and long” (OD). Moreover, in the English language, there are a number of phrases with the word “sweat” which express a state of anxiety or distress, in line with the metonymic mapping physiological effects of emotions for emotions. Thus, one can “sweat about something or someone”: “I don’t believe he’d get into such a sweat about a girl” (OD); “sweat bullets”: “I had read that she should be smiling at me by the fourth week, and at the end of last week I was sweating bullets that she might not reach this milestone on time” (OD); “sweat it out”: “He sweated it out until the lab report was back” (OD); and “sweat the small stuff”: “He said it all the time, as if to remind his kids that life is too short to sweat the small stuff” (OD). If we want to urge someone not to worry or show that something is not a big problem, we can say “don’t sweat it”: “And if it’s rejection you’re worried about, then don’t sweat it” (OD), or “no sweat”: “-We haven’t any decaf, I’m afraid. – No sweat.” (OD).

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Additionally, the English verb “to sweat” may mean to heat vegetables in a pan so that they cook in their own juices: “Sweat the celery and onions with olive oil and seasoning” (OD), and to subject metal to surface melting, especially to join by solder without a soldering iron: “The tire is sweated onto the wooden parts” (OD). Both those senses are metaphorical extensions of the sweating of the human body, based on the mapping vegetables / metal are humans.9

8. Saliva – ‫( ִריר‬rir) Although the word ‫( ִריר‬rir) – saliva appears in the Hebrew Scriptures only in its literal sense, the verb ‫( ָי ָרק‬yarak) – to spit, is used to describe a situation when people are showing their contempt towards someone else, as seen in Deuteronomy 25:9, where we read about “spitting in the face”: ‫ם ְוָחְלָ֤צה ַנֲעל ֙וֹ ֵמ ַ֣על ַר ְג֔לוֹ ְו ָי ְר ָ֖קה ְבָּפָ֑ניו ְוָֽע ְנָת֙ה ְו ָ֣אְמ ָ֔רה ָּ ֚כָכה ֵיָעֶׂ֣שה‬ ֒ ‫תו ֵאָלי֮ו ְלֵעי ֵ֣ני ַה ְּזֵק ִני‬ ֹ ּ֣ ‫שה ְיִבְמ‬ ֨ ׁ ָ ‫ְו ִנ ְּג‬ ‫ָלִ֔אישׁ ֲא ֶ֥ ׁשר ל ֹא־ ִיְב ֶנ֖ה ֶאת־ֵּ֥בית ָאִֽחיו‬ – “Then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, ‘This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house’” (NRSV). In English similarly, the act of spitting in someone’s face functions as a sign of contempt and scorn: “The company spat in the face of its best customers” (OD). That sense of talking about saliva may be interpreted metaphorically, in line with the mapping contempt is spitting in the face. The reference to the face is very important here as it metonymically represents a positive image of self as well as one’s good name or reputation (Goffman 1967, p. 5; Bogdanowska-Jakubowska 2010, pp. 45–46). Apart from that, in English, the act of spitting may metaphorically describe other negative emotions, such as anger or frustration. Thus, for an angry English speaker it is possible “to spit blood”: “But leaders in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are spitting blood because the failure of the budget threatens vital projects in their countries” (OD). The same sense is expressed by such phrases as “to spit chips / tacks / venom”, that is, substances or objects that can be unpleasant or even harmful. In those examples we can identify the metaphorical 9 Although some animals like horses or monkeys sweat too, and for that reason perhaps we could suggest the metaphor vegetables / metal are animals here, in the conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory it is claimed that metaphorical mappings are based mainly on our own, human experiences, especially physical or bodily experiences (Lakoff / Johnson 1999, p. 77). Thus, in the case of sweating, a mapping from the source domain of animals seems to be less probable than a mapping from the domain of humans.

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mapping speaking in an angry / frustrated way is spitting something unpleasant / harmful. Furthermore, the bodily fluid of saliva itself functions in English as a metonymic expression of hunger, in line with the mapping physiological effects of emotions for emotions, as seen in the following sentence: “She turned around only to see a whole pack of wolves standing there, saliva dripping from their open mouths” (OD). The act of spitting may also have other metaphorical senses in today’s English. The phrase “to spit it out” is used in English to urge someone to say or confess something quickly, for instance: “Spit it out, man, I haven’t got all day” (OD). Here, we can identify the mapping getting rid of some knowledge is spitting it out. Next, “spitting in the wind” is a metaphorical way of describing doing something futile and fruitless: “They don’t have a snowball’s chance of winning the nomination – they’re just spitting in the wind” (OD) (the mapping: doing something futile is spitting in the wind). Moreover, a fire may spit, which means that it emits small bursts or sparks with short, explosive noises; or light rain may be described as spitting: “The rain was still spitting down, though not heavy enough to make people stop their activities” (OD). In those examples, we can talk about metaphors: fire / rain is human being. Finally, in English, there is also a common idiomatic saying that someone who resembles someone else is “the spit” or “the spitting image” of that person: “I was out the other day and there was a boy who looked the spitting image of James” (OD). As the Oxford Dictionary explains, that expression is based on a kind of folk conviction that a person who is similar to someone has been formed from their saliva or has been spat out from their mouth. Thus, it is possible to interpret this sense of that idiom as underpinned by the metonymy cause (spit) for effect (a similar person).

9. Urine – ‫( ַ ׁש ִין‬shayin) When it comes to ‫( ַ ׁש ִין‬shayin) – urine, it turns out that, similarly to ‫( ִריר‬rir) – saliva, it appears in the Bible only in its literal sense, to denote the specific bodily fluid. Nevertheless, the verb ‫( ָ ׁשַתן‬shathan) – to urinate is sometimes used metonymically to define a man as “the one who urinates against the wall” – ‫ַמ ְ ׁשִּ֥תין ְבּ ִֽקי‬ (mashtin bequir) (e. g. 1 Samuel 25:22): ֹ ‫ּ ֹכה־ ַיֲעֶׂ֧שה ֱאל ֹ ִ֛הים ְל‬ ‫א ְי ֵ֥בי ָד ִ֖וד ְו ֣כ ֹה י ִֹ֑סיף ִאם־ַא ְ ׁשִ֧איר ִמ ָּכל־ֲא ֶ ׁשר־֛לוֹ ַעד־ַה ּ֖ב ֶֹקר ַמ ְ ׁשִּ֥תין ְבּ ִֽקיר‬ – “God do so to David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him” (NRSV). The metonymy underlying that description

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could be formulated as salient property (urinating against the wall) for category (men). In English, it is possible to identify a number of phrases containing the vulgar synonym of urine – “piss”. Thus, “to be / go on the piss” metonymically means being engaged in a heavy drinking session (OD): drinking a lot of alcoholic beverages like beer usually results in the need to urinate a lot, thus the metonymic mapping: effect (pissing) for cause (heavy drinking). In a similar vein, the same metonymy may be said to motivate the phrase “to take the piss out of something”, which means to make fun or mock (OD): some people, when laughing a lot, feel the need to urinate more than usual. In a number of phrases pissing metaphorically expresses doing something ineffective and wasting time: “to piss in the wind”, “to piss around” or “to piss away something” (OD). Thus, the metaphor: wasting is pissing. Next, the act of pissing in some English phrases describes contempt for something: “to piss on / over something” (OD), which may be motivated by the metaphor contempt is pissing. It is also possible “to piss up something”, that is to spoil or ruin it completely (OD), in line with the metaphor spoiling is pissing, and when “it is pissing down”, it is raining heavily (OD), since rain is metaphorically depicted as human being. Then, the idiom “not to have a pot to piss in” describes the state of being very poor (OD) – “a pot to piss in” metonymically stands here for having money for a living. Moreover, being “pissed off” means being annoyed, and to tell someone “to piss off” is a vulgar way of telling them to go away (OD). As we can see, the bodily fluid of urine or piss has very negative connotations in English.

10.

Conclusion

As our analysis has revealed, bodily fluids in Hebrew and English appear in various meanings and contexts, contributing to the unique cultural identity of each speech community: the ancient Jewish society and today’s English-speaking world. The common senses found in each language include the references to life and death through blood, conceptualizing prosperity as milk, disgust as vomiting, bitterness, distress and anger through bile, sadness as tears, hard work and effort as sweat, and contempt as spitting. Also, in contemporary English, it is possible to identify three Hebraisms related to bodily fluids, copied directly from the original language of Scripture: “milk and honey”, “seed (of Abraham)”, and “by the sweat of your face / brow”. However, as we could see, most other senses of bodily fluids in both Biblical Hebrew and English are unique to only one of those languages and cannot be found in the other. For instance, in Hebrew, wine is the blood of grapes and a man

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is defined as the one who urinates against the wall. In English, blood may stand for a human being as such, help us to conceptualize various emotions and conflicts between people, describe a person’s personality, and refer to hunting; tears may express happiness; saliva – hunger while spitting – anger; sweating stands for anxiety, while pissing is used to refer to drinking, wasting, disdaining, and spoiling something. Interestingly, in the two languages, the same reality is sometimes conceptualized by means of different bodily fluids. For instance, family relationships in Hebrew are described by means of seed, while in English – of blood; in Hebrew, hard work and effort are conceptualized by means of sweat, but in English, it can be not only sweat, but also tears and blood. What is common in both Hebrew and English is the use of a number of the same conceptual metonymies for the extension of the meaning of bodily fluids. Those mappings include: cause for effect (e. g. blood for life and seed for descendants), effect for cause (e. g. blood for killing and sweat for effort), physiological effects of emotions for emotions (e. g. blood for passion or fear and vomit for disgust), and specific for generic (e. g. milk for prosperity). Also, the metaphors disgust is being sick and contempt is spitting in the face can be found in both languages. A few metonymies can be identified only in one of the languages, for example, in English: part for whole, when blood stands for a human being, and generic for specific, when blood stands for blood samples; in Hebrew: salient property for category, when urinating against the wall stands for a man. The same refers to metaphors, which seem to be connected with the unique meaning extension of the various bodily fluids in either Hebrew or English. For instance, wine is blood of grapes is found only in Hebrew, while the metaphor wasting is pissing occurs only in English. Definitely, the awareness of the similarities and differences related to the senses of the words denoting bodily fluids in the two compared languages is something that a translator or commentator of the Bible needs to bear in mind in order to convey the meaning included in the Sacred Scriptures correctly. Not only are those specific meanings the matter of different language rules, but above all, the result of representing and belonging to two distant cultures and worldviews.

References Allan, Keith / Burridge, Kate: Euphemism and Dysphemism. Language Used as Shield and Weapon. Oxford 1991. Allan, Keith / Burridge, Kate: Forbidden Words. Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge 2006. Apresjan, Valentina: ‘Emotion metaphors and cross-linguistic conceptualization of emotions’, in: Cuadernos de Filologia Inglesa 1997/6(2), p. 179–195.

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Bible Gateway, available at: https://www.biblegateway.com/ [16. 09. 2021]. Bible Hub, 2004–2021, available at: https://biblehub.com/ [05. 09. 2021]. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Stuttgart 1977. Bogdanowska-Jakubowska, Ewa: FACE. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Katowice 2010. Douglas, Mary: Purity and Danger. An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London 1966. Enfield, N.J. / Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.): The Body in Description of Emotion. Pragmatics and Cognition. Amsterdam 2002. Geeraerts, Dirk / Grondelaers, Stefan: ‘Looking back at anger: Cultural traditions and metaphorical patterns’, in: Taylor, John R. / MacLaury, Robert E. (eds.): Language and the Cognitive Construal of the World. Berlin 1995, p. 153–180. Goffman, Erving: Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-to-Face Behavior. Chicago 1967. Kövecses, Zoltán: ‘Conceptualizing emotions. A revised cognitive-linguistic perspective’, in: Poznan´ Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 2014/50(1), p. 15–28. Kövecses, Zoltán: Emotion Concepts. New York 1990. Kövecses, Zoltán: Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Second edition. Oxford 2010 [2002]. Kövecses, Zoltán: Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge 2005. Kuczok, Marcin: ‘Krew w hebrajszczyz´nie, angielszczyz´nie i polszczyz´nie – analiza kontrastywna’, in: Zaja˛c, Marta / Kida, Ireneusz (eds.): Studia hebraica. Ksiega pamia˛tkowa Seminarium Wiedzy o Hebrajszczyz´nie Biblijnej dedykowana Pani Profesor Kamilli Termin´skiej. Katowice 2019, p. 153–170. Kuczok, Marcin: ‘Repulsion, filth, and sickness: Metaphorical conceptualizations of disgust in English and Polish’, in: Kuz´niak, Marek / Rozwadowska Boz˙ena / Szawerna Michał (eds.): From Motion to Emotion. Aspects of Physical and Cultural Embodiment in Language. Frankfurt am Main 2016, p. 29–44. Kus´mirek, Anna (ed.): Symbolika ciała w Starym Testamencie. Warszawa 2016a. Kus´mirek, Anna: ‘Wprowadzenie do symboliki ciała w Starym Testamencie’, in: Kus´mirek, Anna (ed.): Symbolika ciała w Starym Testamencie. Warszawa 2016b, p. 9–24. Lakoff, George / Johnson, Mark: Metaphors We Live By. With a New Afterword. Chicago 2003 [1980]. Lakoff, George / Johnson Mark: Philosophy in the Flesh. The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York 1999. New Revised Standard Version. Grand Rapids 1989. Oxford Dictionary, 2021, available at: https://www.lexico.com/ [07. 09. 2021]. Radden, Günter / Kövecses, Zoltán: ‘Towards a theory of metonymy’, in: Panther, KlausUwe / Radden, Günter (eds.): Metonymy in Language and Thought. Amsterdam 1999, p. 17–59. Rumianek, Ryszard: ‘Rola krwi w Starym Testamencie’, in: Studia Theologica Varsaviensia 1985/23(1), p. 77–83. Segen’s Medical Dictionary, 2011, available at: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictiona ry.com/ [03. 09. 2021]. Sharifian, Farzad / Dirven, René / Yu, Ning / Niemeier, Susanne (eds.): Culture, Body and Language. Conceptualizations of Internal Body Organs across Cultures and Languages. Berlin 2008. Singer, Jacob: Taboo in the Hebrew Scriptures. Whitefish 2013 [1928]. Termin´ska, Kamilla: Studia z hebrajszczyzny biblijnej. Niedoczytanie moje. Katowice 2015.

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Tresmontant, Claude: A Study of Hebrew Thought. Trans. from French by M. F. Gibson. Paris 1960. Unger, Merrill F. / Harrison, R. K.: The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary. Chicago 2006 [1988]. Wolff, Hans Walter: Anthropology of the Old Testament. Revised edition. London 2012 [1973].

Hadrian Lankiewicz

Chapter 7 – Found in hybridity: Translingual practices of a plurilingual in the context of linguistic identity

Abstract Drawing on the idea of language as a local practice submitted as a critical element of Applied Linguistics by Pennycook (2010a, 2010b), the concept of the social production of identity (Weigert 1986) and on the ecolinguistic perception of embedded language use as a form of social action, and a form of relating to the world (van Lier 2004), I try to delve into the complexity of the linguistic identities of plurilinguals. In other words, the translingual instinct of plurilinguals (Li 2011), or translingual practices are studied “as emergent from contexts of interaction” (Otsuji / Pennycook 2010, p. 246) and as a way of accentuating one’s affiliation(s), since, playing with social cultural backgrounds, people “negotiate identities through language” (ibid.) In the case study based on a narrative analysis and indepth interviews via WhatsApp freeware, I examine the idea of how the subject studied here, using translingual practices (García / Leiva, 2014), manifests her multilingual identity. Instead of disclosing the respondent’s “pluralised language identities” (Pennycook 2010, p. 16.8), I aim at tracking down language mixing examples and the context in which they occur to demonstrate her personal plurilingual voice (van Lier 2004, p. 119–122), legitimised by her language experiences and her cultural background. Keywords: linguistic identity, language identity, plurilingualism, multilingualism, translanguaging.

1.

Introduction

Use of language is never an innocent communicative business. Any speech act has some strings attached, be they intentional (irony and innuendo) or unintentional, by which interlocutors disclose who they are. On the other hand, the self is not a ready-made product of one’s conceptualisation, it is rather a product of dialogism (me and the other) or discursivity (social interaction). It is the result of an “intricate web of meaning making, social activity, relations, connections, contingencies and conjectures, that are anchored both inside and outside our body, and that project outwards and inwards” (van Lier 2004, p. 119). In this chapter, drawing on the idea of language as a local practice submitted as a critical element of Applied Linguistics by Pennycook (2010), the idea of social

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production of identity (Weigert 1986) and on the ecolinguistic perception of embedded language use as a form of social action, and a form of relating to the world (van Lier 2004), I try to delve into the complexity of the linguistic identities of plurilinguals. In other words, the translingual instinct of plurilinguals (Li 2011) or translingual practices are studied “as emergent from contexts of interaction” (Otsuji / Pennycook 2010, p. 246) and as a way of accentuating one’s affiliation(s), since, playing with social cultural backgrounds, people “negotiate identities through language” (ibid.). The chapter presents the case study of Barbara (an alias to protect personal data), a 55-year-old educated Polish professional living in a transnational family in northern Italy. It is based on a narrative and in-depth interviews via WhatsApp freeware, I try to scrutinize the idea of how she, using translingual practices (García / Leiva 2014), manifests her multilingual identity. Instead of disclosing her “pluralised language identities” (Pennycook 2010), I aim at tracking down language mixing examples and the context in which they occur to demonstrate her personal multilingual voice (van Lier 2004, p. 119–22) legitimised by her language experiences and her cultural background. Since the two basic ideas (translingual practices and linguistic identity) which permeate the content of this chapter may be conceptualised in different ways, it is necessary to briefly outline our understanding of them before I proceed to the description of our case and analyse the data within the framework of linguistic identity.

2.

Translingual practices

The notion of translanguaging has captured the attention of professionals, artists and scholars (cf. Li, 2017, p. 9). Linguistically, the term alludes to the notion of languaging, which in the most simple terms stands for that fact that separate languages are sociopolitical inventions and we should rather talk about a linguistic continuum in which people operate in their meaning making processes, or it refers to the never-ending process of human cognition which is mediated by language (cf. Lankiewicz 2014). The term translanguaging, in turn, accentuates the fact that “communication transcends individual languages” (Canagarajah 2013, p. 6, cited in Mazak 2017, p. 3) and that “communication transcends words and involves diverse semiotic resources and ecological affordances” (ibid.). Some scholars additionally speak about trans-semiotising, standing for “multimodalities”, the diversity of signs engaged in the meaning making process, linguistic, visual, sound, gestures and so on (García / Li 2014, p. 42). Mazak (2017, p. 3–6) concisely delineates five applications of this notion: (1) “Translanguaging is a language ideology that takes bilingualism as a norm”; (2) “Translanguaging is

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a theory of bilingualism based on lived bilingual experiences […]”, (3) “Translanguaging is a pedagogical stance that teachers and students take on that allows them to draw on all of their linguistic and semiotic resources […]”; (4) “Translanguaging is a set of practices […] typical of bilinguals;” (5) “Translanguaging is transformational […] transforms not only our traditional notion of ‘languages’, but also the lives of bilinguals themselves as they remake the world through language”. Recently, Li (2017) has presented translanguaging as a practical theory of language for multilingual contexts to match the complex linguistic reality of the 21 century, the era of Post-Multilingualism, which subsumes all the above possible instances. In this paper, I understand translanguaging as synonymous with all other related terms (cf. Li 2017), including the notion of metrolingualism (Otsuji / Pennycook 2010), which entail the generation of hybrid forms of language and which “‘includes the full range of linguistic performances of multilingual language users’ (Li 2011, p. 1223) across all modalities of language, from codeswitching and mixing to translation and transliteration” (Androutsopoulos 2013, p. 186).

3.

Linguistic identity

Human beings are prone to identify themselves with various entities, groups or classes. As suggested by Martikaianen (2020), this is certainly part of our basic human activity and it is often done in an unconscious way, yet categorisation has the power to direct human actions in a very tacit way. We categorize the things and people around us, and then, in turn, we place ourselves in the social order to make sense of the chaos all around. Any human being is a part of a larger group. In this way, we can talk about cultural, national, ethnic and other identities. Since human beings possess a skill unknown to other creatures – language – this has been considered as a constitutive element of a person’s cultural, ethnic or national identity. The problem of the relation between language and identity has become one of the crucial issues for sociolinguists studying the social functions of language varieties, but their dominant approach is structural, based on the conceptualisation of language as an a priori entity, given and exercised. Poststructural linguistics, assuming among others, non-fixity of linguistic codes (Harris 1981) and the study of local practices (Pennycook 2010), studies language far removed from Saussure’s vision of it as a sociocultural monument. Similarly, the application of the ecology metaphor to linguistic research results in the search for identity issues inscribed in language beyond its traditional ethnocultural perception (one language/one culture, or one social group/one language

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variety). The structural approach to the problem of language and identity seems to be especially inadequate for research pertaining to contemporary mobile multilingual societies, living in transnational families. The fluidity of late modernity is manifested by the relativity of values and pervasive “deconstruction” of social life, resulting in the ubiquity of hybridity, most evident in metropolitan multilingual and multicultural communities. It is in this multilingual or plurilingual context that researchers raised again the notion of identity and language, suggesting, for example, the notion of metrolingualism (Otsuji / Pennycook 2010). For the purpose of the present case study, I use the terms multilingualism and plurilingualism interchangeably, with the latter being our preferred concept, due to its psycholinguistic nature, more adequate for the context of considering language hybridity. For some authors multilingualism is still engrained in monoglossic beliefs as a pluralised monolingualism (Heller 2007). It needs to be stressed, however, that some researchers of translingual practices underscore the need for heteroglossic perception of multilingualism (Creese/Blackledge 2011, Li 2011, Li 2017), incorporating plurilingualism as a constitutive component of multilingualism. As mentioned by Rajagopalan (2005, p. 12), a postcolonial world requires a postmodern conceptualisation of identity. Our understating of linguistic identity is generated by the ecology metaphor articulated by van Lier (2004). Identity in the first place is not perceived as something taken for granted in an essentialist way, a “naturally-constituted unity – an ‘identity’ in its traditional meaning (that is, an all-inclusive sameness, seamless, without internal differentiation)” (Hall 1996, p. 5). I draw upon the idea of the social production of identity (Weigert 1986) and go along with the belief that “identities are constructed and constantly being reconstructed in tune with multiple influences they are subjected to. Identities are in a permanent state of flux” (Rajagopalan 2005, p. 16). Additionally, ecolinguistically, I assume the inseparability of body and mind, thus identity is conceptualised in the ecological niche of an embodied mind (Valera, Thomson & Rosch 1991), standing for the fact that human physicality and the closed milieu determines our understanding of who and what we are. Language in this regard is not a simple means of transmitting information, since along with it we communicate “[w]ho we are ourselves, and who we think our listeners or readers are” (van Lier 2004, p. 108). Thereby, inspired by the idea of language as a local practice submitted as a critical element of applied linguistics by Pennycook (2010), we posit the dialogical nature of the relation between language and identity, as stipulated by Joseph (2004, p. 13). By analogy to the original claim that national languages shape national identities and the other way round, I contend that this “two-way street” is informative of any aspect of human life, including our languaging (the actual use of linguistic repertoires). The discursive nature of

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identities consists in “the relationship between subjects and discursive practices” (Hall 1996, p. 2) and entails signification practices on different levels. Allowing for the fact that identities are temporal, situative and precarious, and the fact people belong (sometimes simultaneously) to different cultures, researchers point to different identities, among others, racial, national, ethnic, or institutional. Recently, the notion of linguistic identity has gained attention from scholars. It is important to understand that linguistic identity constitutes only a fragment of the language-identity nexus and it is popular in research on multilingualism. Linguistic identity or, as it is sometimes referred to, the “linguistic self” is explored by scholars with the use of different methodologies. In bi- and multilingual research, linguistic identity stands for the fact that people speak more than one language, assuming additional identities according to the conviction that learning a language always entails developing a new identity. This basic claim has been proposed in the field of L2 acquisition to account for social factors in the process of language learning (cf. Norton 1995, 2013; Pennycook 2001, Lantolf / Pavlenko 1995). It needs to be stressed here that the idea of linguistic identity (coterminous with language identity), as it is used in the context of pluri- and multilingualism, seems to be an underdefined concept. Most researchers take it for granted and implicitly apply all the sociolinguistic considerations of the relation between language and identity, which may be going too far. On the other hand, some researchers suggest an interpretative framework for linguistic identity, claiming that it can be expressed in terms of (1) expertise (i. e., linguistic competence), (2) affiliation (formal or informal connections), or (3) inheritance (familial connections) (Leung / Harris / Rampton 1997), this, however, may be too narrow. Allowing for the fact that plurilinguals are naturally more linguistically aware (if only, because they have more repertoires at their disposal), it is important to include (4) the dimension of linguistic ideologies. As Woolard (1998, p. 3) argues, they pertain to “representations, whether explicit or implicit, that construe the intersection of language and human beings in a social world” and help researchers “examine the cultural and historical specificity of construals of language” (ibid., p. 4). Ultimately, it is not a search for situational identity in a particular context (space and time) (Pennycook 2010), but rather following Li’s (2018, p. 26) suggestion to see translingual practices as a manifestation of the linguistic identity of plurilinguals who “move dynamically between the so-called languages, language varieties, styles, registers, and writing systems, to fulfil a variety of strategic and communicative functions”.

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Case study

The following research presents the data which was obtained in a broader study pertaining to the (trans)languaging of plurilinguals in various contexts. In my recent publication I focused on translanguaging in the educational context with reference to learner identity (Lankiewicz 2021), here, I present a case study of a plurilingual person who lives in a transnational family outside her home country. All accounts presented in this paper are considered from her point of view and elucidate identity issues inscribed in her accounts. Her case emerged from a pool of respondents engaged in a different study dedicated to researching the occurrence of hybrid linguistic forms among plurilingual speakers in the context of familylect. To get a better insight into her case, the methodology of primary data collection used for the former study has been extended so that a more complete picture of the problem in question develops. The aim of the research is to identify moments in which identity issues come into play as manifested by the use of linguistic repertoires.

5.

Methodology

Due to travelling restrictions caused by the pandemic, an ethnographic study was out of question. Despite of the fact that ethnographic observation of the respondent’s interactions in the natural milieu would offer more reliable data, I believe that identities are more declarative in nature and hence her own selfreports and impressions may be equally valuable. Nonetheless, a search for identities, including linguistic ones, is a thorny issue, deeply dependent on contextual clues, which co-construct them. Thereby, in my study, I rely on data gathered in a respondent’s narrative construed as a narrative of life (personal linguistic history) and a semi-structured interview followed by a series of telephone calls. It is important to highlight here that interactive part of the research was carried out via WhatsApp freeware and accompanied with texting and shared images. Occasionally, Barbara was assisted by her husband Mario and/or her daughter Elena in the background, with whom she consulted some of the answers. Hence, I obtained additional conversational data.

6.

Objectives

The main objective of my study was (1) to define the degree, to which multilingualism influences translingual practices (declared by respondents and observed during interviews) as a manifestation of multi-competence (2) to identify

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translingual practices in the social life of the respondent selected for the study, including the family context (hence part of the data comes from a different study dedicated to familylects, to be presented elsewhere). Additionally, the intention is to see (3) whether any language ideology stands behind these practices and (4) how the two earlier components correlate with (or are evocative of) language identity issues. At this point, for the clarity of my research objective, a comment is necessary regarding the mutual correspondence between key terms such as multilingualism, translingual practices and multi-competence. The latter one stands for the macro category, as defined by Cook (1991/7), pertaining to the fact that a person operating more than one language has got one underlying competence rather than holds the linguistic systems as isolated entities in a psycholinguistic sense (inherent capacity). Multilingualism, in turn, pertains to the sociological or psycholinguistic reality of processing the systems in an active way in a given social context, while translingual practices are narrowed down to a moment-to-moment operational reality of activating the various linguistic systems in an instinctual (Li 2011) or deliberate way (e. g. to manifest one’s identity in an explicit way), which leads to language mixing, in other words linguistic hybridity. The choice of Barbara for this undertaking is an example of convenience sampling, a person known personally to me, available on a WhatsApp application. In the first place, she delivered a very extensive narrative in comparison to the other 12 respondents engaged in the familylect study. She was in the group of professionals living abroad in a transnational family. Both the narrative and the semi-structured interview for the former research were vibrant with identity issues (outside the focus of that study) on the declaratory, self-report level, therefore I decided to extend the initial interview into a series of 4 additional telephone calls of an average duration of 20 minutes to elicit additional data.

7.

Respondent’s profile

The respondent is a female of Polish origin living with her family in the Piedmont region in Italy. To retain her anonymity, the alias Barbara is used, together with a pseudonym for her husband, however, her daughter’s name had to be used in the original form to account for one example of translingual creativity. She is 55 years old and left her home country as a university graduate, She studied Polish, but was linguistically talented and can speak English and German, because her mother was a teacher of English and her father was of German origin (evident in her surname). She also knows communicative Russian from school. Moving to Italy, she knew basic Italian (self-taught) but she developed communicative competence in it pretty quickly.

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She works professionally in the textile industry, in customer service, responsible for product shipment to foreign wholesale customers. Since she is in touch with company clients all over the world, she uses all these languages on a daily basis in emails and phone calls. Her linguistic repertoire is facilitated by the fact that her husband Mario and his family speak Piedmontese at home. Due to the proximity of France, and historical relations between the region with this country, French is also spoken or at least comprehended by many Piedmontese, in particular more educated ones. Her knowledge of Piedmontese is, however, merely receptive. Her daughter Elena is 24, studies languages (French, Spanish, English and German) at the University of Pavia and has a Brazilian boyfriend, so various linguistic repertoires are in use in Barbara’s home. As to her native Polish, she uses it with her relatives in Poland, a Polish friend married to an Italian and occasionally with her daughter and her husband, but both have only a very basic knowledge of it. As she claims, her daughter learned Polish more from her grandparents, during her frequent visits to Poland, than from her. Being still a newcomer to Italy at the moment of giving birth, and being surrounded by Italian (her husband) and Piedmontese (her husband and his parents), she was absolutely unable to apply an OPOL (one parent / one language) policy.

8.

The ecology of linguistic repertoires in Barbara’s accounts

As mentioned earlier, both the narrative part of the research and the semistructured interview belong to a different study. Their task was to generate data pertaining to language mixing which would be particularly evocative of hybridity discursive practices in family life, but not restricted to it. Altogether, 21 individuals were invited to participate in the study but only 12 returned their narratives, out of which only 4 lived in transnational families, the rest of them were foreign or Polish plurilingual students. In the narrative task sent via email, respondents were asked to send their stories back, without length limit (see appendices). Barbara delivered the most extensive account of 2,987 words (as she admitted in one of the phone calls, she was on medical leave due to Covid-19 complications and had more time at her disposal), presenting lots of interesting translanguaging practices within and outside her family, but most of all her observations often explicitly manifested language ideology and language identity issues, hence the selection of her case for consideration here. It is important to mention that both the narrative and the interview were carried out basically in Polish, hence the respondent’s opinion quotes have been translated by the author.

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The translanguaging examples demonstrate mostly how the predominant language of her family, which is Italian, is “contaminated” by the influence of Polish and other languages. Nonetheless, considering her past and professional life situations, she delivers examples of linguistic hybridity pertaining to other languages in her command. For the reason of space limitations, only the most spectacular examples of translingual practices can be analysed on a language identity spectrum. In her narrative, she makes it clear that languages have always been a part of her life. Retrospectively, coming back to her childhood, she mentions that even if the family language was basically Polish “(…) there has always been some language business all around me. There were books, phone calls, records. Me and my sister listened to Radio Luxembourg (…). We enhanced the signal with aerial wiring between the balcony, the radiator and the lamp on the ceiling”. Neither her mother, nor her father insisted on their daughters’ learning languages (Barbara has a sister four years older than her) but they never discouraged them in their efforts, either. Their mother, was occasionally asked to write down some popular hit lyrics for them and the girls would sing them over and over again with the recordings and, as she narrates “we were changing the words, which was driving our mother mad, but with time, singing it so many times and with our mother’s assistance, sometimes forced on us, I must admit that with time we were able to catch the right word and the right meaning”. The father essentially spoke Polish, but he knew fluent German (learned from his parents and grandparents, whose land was incorporated into Poland with the territorial reorganisation after World War II). Also, his early education was in German. As Barbara recollects, her mother hinted she could teach them English, they even tried, but, with little enthusiasm on the daughters’ side, the whole idea collapsed. When asked whether she blames her mother, and possibly her father, for not endowing the daughter with language in an effortless way, she rationalizes their “negligence” by saying that “the times were different. Travelling possibilities were restricted so there was no motivation. Even our German family did not visit us very often (…). They [her German family] lived in the countryside so there was no fun there and we visited them only twice, as I remember”. Nonetheless, her narrative indicates that there were bits of language all around her, her father’s occasional use of German expressions partly Polonised, e. g. flaszka (Ger. die Flashe) for a bottle, mantel (der Mantel) for an overcoat, or some more direct borrowings like kartofelsalat (Ger. der Kartoffelsalat) for potato salad, ersatz (Ger. Ersatz) for something not genuine or real, or sometimes he used simple German expressions like Er ist sicher nicht ganz richtig im Kopf/ He’s certainly not quite right in the head, when emotionally moved. As Barbara admits, some of the expressions like these were taken up by family members and used in the Polonised form as on jest nierychtyk, meaning the same thing as the

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former example. When confronted with the problem during a phone call, she was not sure how much his Polish was influenced by his German and how much of it came from the Kuyavian dialect(s), which incorporated some German words and expressions (Podczaska 2013), like other Polish dialects spoken on the territories influenced by German culture. As she claims in one of the phone calls, “our mother rarely used English expressions, but sometimes when we were interrupting her when she was working on a translation, or had a private class at home, it happened that she reprimanded us in English, like shut up please”. Instructed language learning started for Barbara with Russian (the compulsory foreign language during the communist regime in Poland), from grade five of primary school and continued on higher levels of education. She makes it clear “as a child I resisted learning it. It was a natural thing to do, I did not know much about politics at that time but I somehow realised that it was the right thing to do, but I must confess that I was quite good at it anyway, and I learned it all the same, whether I wanted to or not”. When she was sent to a Catholic boarding school in a different town, the curriculum incorporated English, taught from scratch. “At the beginning, it was a piece of cake for me because it was not completely new for me, but with time there came hard work since the teacher was very demanding (…). Leaving the school I was able to communicate without problems even if my grade was poor”. She also attended a German class for one hour, twice a week, which, in her opinion, was quite intensive. All the same it was Russian that she chose for her A Levels with a good result. She ultimately graduated from a five year university course of Polish philology with an MA degree. The curriculum included two foreign languages. She opted for Russian and English, which she did for two years. She comments on her formal language education with these words “Most people claim that they have not learned much of the language from school. Well, I think they do not realize how much they actually absorbed. What they need mostly is some opportunities for language use (…) I realised that when corresponding with my prospective husband in English, being still a student”. In one of the interviews, she argues to have been a lucky person since, being surrounded by foreign languages, she, in the first place, had this opportunity and, secondly, she was not afraid of playing with language. It was formal language education which intimidated her because of so much attention to correctness. In this context, she maintains “I knew it that outside school everybody made mistakes so did I (…) what counted was communication (…) with time I realised that I will never be perfect in any language” and with hindsight she adds “this thinking helped me with my real challenge when I left Poland for Italy with a very basic knowledge of Italian”. At the age of 25, Barbara decided to live with her husband in Italy, in a small town in the region of Piedmonte. The total immersion in a new culture was a shock to her. She admits that her life was put upside down. In the new context, she

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had to learn things from scratch. Apparent similarities between her native and the new culture appeared remote. Ultimately, she immersed herself in Italian culture so much that, when asked about her citizenship affiliation, she claims to have only an Italian passport, because she neglected to sort out the problem with her Polish document in the Polish embassy. Now, her life is linguistically dominated by Italian. She claims to have learnt it from textbooks, Italian relatives and friends. She admits that she was not afraid of using Italian, but there was a certain moment in her life when she was more an observer rather than a user. An additional difficulty for her was the fact that she had to learn an additional regional Piedmontese ethnolect, a regional variety spoken by her husband’s parents and immediate family on different occasions, in spite of knowing mainstream Italian. In her narrative, she points out two important moments that contributed to her linguistic development. One was the birth of her daughter. Not to confuse her, she decided to speak to her in Italian, “which apparently benefitted the mother”, Barbara reflectively jokes in one of the phone calls. Using motherese, she became more confident herself and when the daughter started speaking, the mother became a personal reader to her, guiding her through the labyrinth of picture books, feature books, fairy tales, stories, or discussing cartoons, “we were learning together I felt like a child again myself, this time in Italian”. Then, staying at home with the child, she offered freelance multilateral translation services for various companies. By this, as she says, “I came to live as a professional, educated person. My Italian parents-in-law could see that my reading, since I was reading a lot of books in my pastime, was not in vain, and my Polish maybe very helpful in Italy. That surely was my coming to life as a person different from a mother and an Italian housewife [social functions] of foreign extraction”. An additional linguistic impulse for her was the moment when she found employment in the office of a textile company as a sales assistant when her daughter was about four. She admits to finding her job thanks to a family connection, but she was hired because of her linguistic assets. She was to serve mostly the Eastern European and Asian markets, but ultimately she ended up shipping textile fabrics to other countries. She recollects, “it was like the Tower of Babel, Italian in the office, Polish, Russian, English and sometimes German in emails, with my google translator always on, with some pieces of messages in two languages for clarity reasons. It was hell then, now I got used to it so much that I am not disturbed by this linguistic noise. I am recognised professionally with the nickname of ‘una poliglotta’ [a polyglot]”.

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Hadrian Lankiewicz

Translanguaging vs. linguistic identity

Accounting for the research objectives, I will consider them holistically. First, I illustratively mention some examples of translanguaging practices as they emerge from the study and comment on them in general terms and, then, I will scrutinize them in reference to language ideology and identity issues. In this way, goals three and four will be covered within the interpretative frameworks of translanguaging practices. Barbara’s narratives and the interview sessions that follow abound in translanguaging practices. She delivered a total of 67 examples of language mixing, pertaining to many categories of translingual practices (Lankiewicz 2021) such as language play, intercomprehension and code switching, lexical and pragmatic calques and borrowings, lexical and grammatical hybridity. The numerical representation of data is inessential for these considerations, since it is induced by the narrative task instructions and interview questions, nonetheless the ease with which it was recalled in this retrospective study is certainly informative of the fact that translanguaging is a natural practice of plurilinguals (Li 2017), which is based on a translanguaging instinct (Li 2011) as evidence for multi-competence (Cook 1991/7), standing for the fact that many languages are stored in one mind and effect each other. Additionally, translanguaging practice, appeared spontaneously in the series of interviews. To exemplify, speaking Polish, she used the word forcowac´* instead of forsowac´ (force/ push) most probably due to the Italian pronunciation of an Italian equivalent forzare or pragmatically, she used Italian filler words such as beh (good) boh (I don’t know) or interjections such as ah (ha!) eh (eh), mah (who knows!), not used by Poles, but characteristic of Italian speakers. Most translingual practices pertain to the family context, which again was partly exerted by the format of the study, but when asked for additional examples during successive phone calls, she delivered them abundantly. Analytically, we consider them in the categories worked out in the theoretical framework for linguistic identity. Many scholars studying the relation between language and identity stress the fact that identity can be constructed only via linguistic means in a discursive way. This claim draws on Bakhtin’s idea of dialogicity and the suggestion that the basic function of language is not communication but the need for people to express and objectify themselves (1986, p. 67–68 in Lanehart 1996, p. 322). Similarly, Norton (2013, p. 45) construes the dynamic nature of identity as follows: “how a person understands his or her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the person understands possibilities for the future”.

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Combining the above mentioned line of thinking with Block’s (2009, p. 40) definition of language identity as “a relationship between one’s sense of self and different means of communication, understood in terms of language, a dialect or sociolect, as well as multimodality” allows me to see Barbara’s translanguaging practice as the manifestation of her plurilingual orientation (being a plurilingual). In the family context, she plays with cultural and linguistic devices. She is the one who shapes the familylect through trans-semiotising (García / Li 2014, p. 42) understood as meaning making across various semiotic devices, visuals, gestures, bodily movement. In this family, arte culinarian/ culinary art denotes both cooking skills and her daughters’ exercises, due to a homonymous association with culo in aria (“ass in the air”). Similarly, the family’s sortie to the nearby town called Bra is not accompanied by the typical wording in Italian Andiamo a Bra/we are going to Bra, but by a humorous alternative Andiamo Avra*, which echoes the moment when a small daughter misunderstood her utterance in Italian and corrected it with a future form of the Italian verb avere/ avra’. Hearing the name of the town for the first time the daughter thought her mother was using the wrong grammar form of the verb. Their familylect is burdened with expressions transgressing “language borders”. Italian people eat dinner/ cenano but they kolazjonano* (own transcription). Here, the Polish noun for dinner, kolacja, (which cannot be changed into a verb) has not only been Italianised, but it also alludes to an Italian noun colanzione which means breakfast, the opposite of its original Polish meaning. She also delivered examples of linguistic hybridity in her professional milieu. She, for example, had a tendency to create neologisms, by transferring morphological elements from one word to another. In this way, she coined the word infrodare* to mean the same as ingannare and frodare (to cheat), which at first produced laughter and dismay, but later, when her co-workers got used to it, it was a reason of intertextual play, and her “mistakes” were echoed by others. Or, when speaking to colleagues in the office, she offered concurrent English translations of Italian expressions for clarity. Interestingly, she mentioned that her Polish suffers regarding computer vocabulary. She left Poland when ICT was at a very early stage, thus, talking over the phone to Polish customers she often intersperses her Polish with Italian words, or, if she wants to be sure of being understood, she automatically switches codes. Thanks to these practices she gained the nickname traduttrice compulsiva (compulsive translator), which alludes to the fact that she often offers unnecessary and unpaid services. Whether it’s the work milieu or family life, Barbara manifests her linguistic competence of Polish, Italian, English, Russian and basic German by using the appropriate linguistic repertoires, depending on requirements. At the same time, she facilitates her communicative effectiveness by code-switching, intercomprehension (understanding one language and delivering the answer in an-

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other), or by code-meshing. Admitting the support of her husband and his family in the development of her Italian, she clearly articulates two breakthrough moments in her linguistic development – the assistance in speech development of her daughter and her professional career. I construe them as moments of “taking over” (a manifestation of her agency in social life) when her “international voice” became recognised, both in her family and at large. As she admits herself “at first I mostly listened and responded with a few words [in Italian], although I understood almost everything. People thought I was timid and not very intelligent, but in fact I did not want to sound stupid, you know there is this saying, it is better to keep quiet and be considered a fool than to say something and dispel all the doubts [laughter]”. A bit later, in the same interview, she explicitly articulates that going to work was like being born again “I realised that I was adored for my linguistic abilities even if my Italian friends initially thought that Polish and Russian were very similar, they sounded the same to them, they accepted me as a person, one of them”. The linguistic effect of Barbara’s professional career may also be framed in the concept of “return on investment” (Norton Peirce 1995, p. 17) an important factor in shaping linguistic identity. She is convinced that having a good communicative knowledge of Italian was the reason for this social inclusion. She also points out the fact that she was additionally appreciated for her good knowledge of English, particularly its pronunciation. The appreciation of her linguistic competence boosted her selfconfidence as a person. Barbara’s case also points to the importance of a command of local languages in her social inclusion. She mentioned at some point that she had to learn Piedmontese not to feel alienated, since her family used it frequently. As she says “sometimes they switched language at home, I had the feeling they were gossiping about me, maybe they were, maybe they were not, but I felt uncomfortable” (for a discussion of the value of local language, see Wa˛sikiewicz-Firlej, Szczepaniak-Kozak & Lankiewicz 2022). Now, she does not speak it apart from some common expressions, but she understands it, nonetheless she always responds in Italian. In any case, the issue of Piedmontese brought about a critical moment in her marriage, when her suitcases were packed and she was ready to return to her home country. The majority of translingual practices delivered by Barbara pertain to the generation of hybrid forms between Polish and Italian, the two dominant languages in her life. The former is the result of being born and educated in Poland. Although she is a native of Poland and additionally a graduate of Polish philology, her Polish has already been corrupted, and the process of language attrition can be observed. Although she explicitly declares a connection to Polish culture, it seems that her almost 30 year sojourn in Italy has contributed to a cultural and national identity shift. She openly claims her preference to express herself in Italian. She assimilated well with the new culture and argues that it is

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only thanks to her sister (her parents passed away about ten years ago) and Polish customers that she keeps in contact with Poland. Interestingly, during social meetings with her Polish friend, who like her is also married to an Italian, she claims to speak mostly Italian with her for practical reasons (no need to translate anything to other people). In this respect, her Polish-Italian translanguaging maybe indicative of her affiliation to her heritage culture and language. Affiliations (Leung, Harris, & Rampton, 1997, cited in Block 2009, p. 40), along with competence and inheritance should be considered in working out one’s linguistic portrait. Affiliation refers to one’s attitude to a particular type of communication or identification with it. By translanguaging Barbara makes informal connections with her heritage culture and language. It is most evident in her familylect, burdened with ideocracies influenced by her heritage language. With regard to that which was mentioned earlier, trans-semiotising examples can be added. In Italy, as in any other country traffic lights regulate the movement of cars, yet everybody knows that the observance of the highway code is a bit lax in southern cultures. In this context, the family worked out the idea of rosso czerwone/ red-red (a combination of the Polish and Italian word for red), only then is it absolutely necessary to stop the car. Another example pertains to the brand name of Italian cream Panna Elena/ Cream Elena, which on the family shopping list becomes Panienka Elena to underscore the fact that a Polish person might understand an Italian word panna/ cream as a maid/ (Pl. panna, diminutive panienka) and alludes to the fact that the daughter is still not married. Tellingly, when the daughter is addressed by her surname, for humorous reasons, she becomes Elena Rossa instead of Elena Rossi. By this, the mother touches on the fact that Polish female surnames usually obtain a feminine ending, which is -a. Doing so, she accentuates the Polish roots of the family. Nonetheless, her cultural assimilation on the one hand and her predilection for translingual wordplay may indicate that she passed the stage of cultural and linguistic liminality (transitional stage of being on the boarder) and reached the stage of inclusion into a new culture with a new status (Turner 1969: 94–95), that of a transcultural plurilingual. The informality of family relations, filled with emotional loads, creates favourable conditions for the development of a familylect which is burdened with cross-cultural thinking, embedded in linguistic repertoires and accentuates the fact that a family is not only a biological entity, but also a small culture constructed of various discursive practices (Gordon 2009, p. 28). Barbara’s translanguaging, echoed by family members, or sometimes created by them, is indicative of the family’s transcultural nature. The linguistic hybridity contained in the familylect is influenced by the mother’s heritage language and culture, even if she herself admits successful assimilation with the new culture. It can be argued that translanguaging occurs most frequently on the edges of dominant lan-

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guages, in particular, in conversational contexts and it is an implicit signifier of one’s cultural identity. The agency of translanguaging processes in Barbara’s family belongs to all members since, as claimed by Gabrys´-Barker (2019, p. 341), we are all multilingual by nature, because we belong simultaneously to different cultural and linguistic communities of multiple languages which play a key role in the construction of identity. In this regard Barbara offers examples when Piedmontese is at play with Polish, English or Italian. She mentions a situation when her daughter was studying a Polish map hanging in her study. Coming across the name of the capital city of Germany, Berlin, she burst into laughter. The reason of her amusement was the semiotic process of the daughter. Later, she explained it to her mother. It turned out that in Piedmontese it stands for small faecal matter, pooh. Interestingly, a humorous effect appeared when the mother pronounced it in English with the stress on the second syllable, which corresponded with the Piedmontese word berlin. Similarly, fare prut* / breaking wind (a combination of Italian and Polish) or Andiamo a Srei/ we a going to Ceretto (a combination of the Italian and Piedmontese name of the place where the family has a summer cottage) are the result of family’s multilingualism. All these instances are frequently recontextualised (used in various situations) and echoed by all family members. Lastly, in these considerations, I refer to the language ideology perspective to get a better insight into translingual practices in Barbara’s life. I understand language ideology as a set of beliefs, regarding language and its social use. Woolard (2021, p. 2) referring to (Woolard/Schieffelin 1994) maintains that “[t]hey forge links between language and other social phenomena, from identities (ethnic, gender, racial, national, local, age-graded, subcultural), through conceptions of personhood, proper human comportment, intelligence, aesthetics, and morality, to notions such as truth, universality, authenticity”. This dimension may be of particular importance for plurilinguals functioning in multilingual environments whose hybrid forms (as I assume in this paper) are indicative of their linguistic identities, since it is believed that language ideologies mediate linguistic forms and social processes and reflect one’s values (Woolard 2021, p. 1). Barbara disclosed her language ideologies in all data gathering tools. In her narratives she frequently offers her opinions as a form of justification or explanation for a particular hybrid form. For example, explaining the use of the term rosso czerwone she says “they know that in Poland we follow the rules, we observe traffic lights, so my incidental shouting at my husband while driving became an important message for him. My Polish word alarmed him (…) you know words have meanings in languages but they are not the same” Thereby, now this translingual compound reiterated on different occasions serves in the family not only as word play, but also as an expression reinforcing duty and obligation,

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echoing cultural discrepancies and speakers’ relations to them. Barbara is fully aware that her Italian, even if fluent, is not the same as this of native speakers when she says in an interview “My Italian is without accent, they do not know where I come from. What I mean ‘without accent’ is that it is not regional and they cannot say if I come from Calabria, Lazio or Piedmont, they are disoriented but they would not say I am from Eastern Europe”. Thus her different “voice”, not alien to Italian culture, could belong to a well-trained, educated person, both an Italian citizen, or a foreigner. Elsewhere, she argues that what betrays her as a foreigner is a good English accent (her Italian colleagues appreciate and envy her this, since they claim Italian people are not talented linguistically), her heteroglossia (other languages that she speaks) and ultimately her translanguaging practice (lingwistyczny melanz˙ (Pl.) / linguistic farrago, as she refers to it). In follow-up interviews (not featured in the appendix) we asked her further language ideology related questions. She, not surprisingly, manifested high Critical Ecological Language Awareness (Lankiewicz 2015). Her linguistic mindset reaches beyond the monolingual perception of language as a cultural monument and the separation of language entities. She exemplifies her stance with translanguaging examples and the claim “well in our family our Italian is contaminated with so many languages. I change it, my daughter changes it and the rest of the family changes it with their Piedmontese”. This folk theory, in a sense, is compatible with the stance generated by the application of chaos/complexity theory to language study, claiming that “[e]very time language is used, it changes” (Larsen-Freeman 1997, p. 148). For Barbara, meanings are fluid, shaped by users’ experiences (“In my family some words mean different things from what they mean to other people”) and subject to negotiation. The latter process may be exemplified by a conversation she had with her husband, explaining the background for an example of familylect, which is Purilla, the way they call her daughter. They both were unsure about its origin, whether it was a combination of the Piedmontese word for purila/ a beret with a pompom (she had one as a child), with an allusion to her mother’s tendency to pronounce some Italian words doubling some letters, or possibly it is a compound of an Italian adjective pura/pure and the Latin noun puella/ a girl due to its phonetic similarity. The ultimate version has never been established, which highlights Li’s claim that translingualism goes beyond discrete languages (Li 2017, p. 13–14) or Bakhtin’s vision of intentional hybridity. Pursuant to Bakhtin (1981, p. 359), linguistic hybridization is “a mixture of two individualized language consciousnesses” which manifests socio-linguistic reality rather than abstract language systems and offers images of various world views produced agents (living being). With this attitude, Barbara and her family use all the linguistic resources at their disposal to create new meanings and shape their reality with the deictic or rep-

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resentative power of language. By this, they accentuate their agency in semantic processes and their multi-cultural and multilingual identity.

10.

Conclusions

Barbara, as a plurilingual living in a transnational family and an active professional delivered many examples of translingual practices within the familylect in her narrative, the semi-structured interview and subsequent telephone calls. Additionally, during the actual interview, I observed her translanguaging in action. Explaining the meaning and the context for her examples of linguistic hybridity, she accentuated the fact that her plurilingualism is of a heteroglossic nature (Blackledge & Creese, 2010), transgressing the traditional one language/ one culture relation. Neither of the languages in which she feels most confident (Polish or Italian) is free of hybrid forms. Her linguistic ideology elucidated in the semi-structured interviews and telephone calls does not seem to corroborate the compartmentalised perception of languages. For her, language is a conversational tool, and she switches between languages to increase conversational efficiency. She manifests her plurilingual identity by frequent code-switching, intercomprehension and the use of code meshing, when she is sure her interlocutor is able to follow her. She admits explicitly that she cannot help it, it comes out naturally. Since both dominant languages have been learned through the process of socialisation, culture-related issues are active in semiotic processes. For example, her concept of Christmas stands for an Italian/Piedmontese tradition enriched by Polish customs and modern international fads. This festivity is celebrated in its hybrid form both physically and linguistically (objects obtain hybrid names). Both culture and language are fluid concepts for her (cf. Blackledge / Crease 2008). Her linguistic reality is basically that of a multilingual going markedly beyond “La and Lb identity” (Li 2017, p. 26). To sum up, her plurilingual identity is manifested by (1) deconstruction of traditional conceptualisations of language as a sociocultural monument endowed by cultural heritage, (2) treating linguistic repertoires as communication tools subject to hybridity and (3) producing her own “voice” thorough the use of linguistic repertoires which vibrate with her own personal meanings, which is “authoritative – i. e., authentic and autonomous” (van Lier 2004, p. 119). She is fully aware of the fact that any of the languages she uses is different from the version presented by their native speakers and there seems to burgeon a conviction that her linguistic repertoires constitute a continuum (languaging, Lankiewicz 2014), a translanguaging space (Li, 2011), by which she positions herself as a plurilingual and transcultural person. But, at the same time, her “voice” has tamed the linguistic and cultural otherness embedded in those repertoires, when

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she affirms that she uses them in her own way, transgressing standard normativity or sociocultural appropriateness. She underscores her multilingual identity and resultant privileges in the comment “I try to use Italian with my Elena [daughter] and Mario [husband] but why should I use equivalents when swearing, they know I am angry. Anyway, the equivalents are never the same. By the way, my family learned [Polish] bad words during visits to Poland”.

References Androutsopoulos, Jannis: ‘Networked multilingualism: some language practices on Facebook and their implications’, in: International Journal of Bilingualism, 2013/19/2, p. 185–205. Bakhtin, Mikhail, M.: ‘The Problem of Speech Genres’, in: Emerson, Caryl./ Holquist, Michael, (eds.), Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin 1986. Bakhtin, Mihhail, M.: The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. (Emerson, Caryl / Holquist, Michael, Trans.). Austin 1935/1981. Block, David: Second Language Identities. London 2009. Canagarajah, Suresh: Translingual practice. Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. New York 2013. Cook, Vivian: ‘The poverty-of-the-stimulus argument and multi-competence’, in: SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH, 1991/7, p. 103–117. Creese, Angela / Blackledge, Adrian: ‘Separate and flexible bilingualism in complementary schools: Multiple language practices in interrelationship’, in: Journal of Pragmatics, 2011/43/5, p. 1196–1208. Gabrys´-Barker, Danuta: ‘Studying bilingual and multilingual language identities: natural settings versus formal instruction’, in: Linguistica Silesiana, 2019/40, p. 341–59. García, Ofelia / Leiva, Camila: ‘Theorizing and enacting translanguaging for social justice’, in: Creese, Angela / Blackledge. Adrian (eds.). Heteroglossia as practice and pedagogy. New York 2014, p. 199–216. García, Ofelia / Li, Wei: Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Basingstoke 2014. Gordon, Cythia: Meanings, creating family: Intertextuality and framing in family interaction. Oxford 2009. Hall, Stuart: ‘Who needs ‘identity’?’, in: Hall, Stuart / Du Gay, Paul (eds.): Questions of cultural identity. London, Thousand Oaks / New Delhi 1996, p. 1–16. Harris, Roy: The language myth. London 1981. Heller, Monica: ‘Bilingualism as ideology and practice’, in: Heller, Monica (ed.): Bilingualism: A social approach. New York 2007, p. 1–21. Joseph, John, E.: Language and identity: National ethnic and religious. Houndmills / Basingstoke / Hampshire / New York 2004. Lanehart, Sonia, L.: ‘The Language of Identity’, in: Journal of English Linguistics, 1996/ 24/4, p. 322–331.

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Lankiewicz, Hadrian: ‘From the concept of languaging to L2 language pedagogy’, in: Lankiewicz, Hadrian / Wa˛sikiewicz-Firlej, Emilia (eds.), Languaging experiences: learning and teaching revisited. Newcastle upon Tyne 2014, pp. 1–32. Lankiewicz, Hadrian: ‘Linguistic hybridity and learner identity: translingual practice among plurilinguals in the educational setting’, in: Neofilolog, 2021/ 56/1, p. 55–70. Lankiewicz, Hadrian: Teacher Language Awareness in the ecological perspective: A collaborative inquiry based on languaging. Gdan´sk 2015. Lantolf, James. P. / Pavlenko, Aneta: ‘Socio-cultural theory and second language acquisition’, in: Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 1995/15, p. 108–124. Larsen-Freeman, Diane: ‘Chaos/complexity science and second language acquisition’, in: Applied Linguistics, 1997/18/2), p. 141–165. Leung, Constant/ Harris, Rosy / Rampton, Ben: ‘The idealised native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities’, in: TESOL QUARTERLY, 31/3, p. 26–37. Li, Wei: ‘Moment analysis and translanguaging space: discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain’, Journal of Pragmatics 2011/43/5, p. 1222– 1235. Li, Wei: ‘Translanguaging as a practical theory of language’, in: Applied Linguistics, 2017/ 39/1, p. 9–30. Martikainen, Jari: Membership categorization analysis as means of studying person perception, Qualitative Research in Psychology 2020, published online, https://www.tand fonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14780887.2020.1794089. Mazak, Catherine, M.: ‘Introduction: theorizing translanguaging practices in higher education’, in: Mazak, Catherine, M. / Carroll, Kevin, S. (eds.): Translanguaging in higher education: beyond monolingual ideologies. Bristol 2017, p. 1–10. Norton Peirce, Bonny: ‘Social identity, investment, and language’, in: Tesol Quarterly, 1995/ 28, p. 9–31. Norton, Bonny: Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Bristol, England 2013. Otsuji, Emi / Pennycook, Alastair: “Metrolingualism: fixity, fluidity and language in flux”, in: International Journal of Multilingualism, 2010/7/3, p. 240–254. Pennycook, Alastair: ‘Critical and alternative directions in applied linguistics’, in: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 2010a/33/2, p. 16.1–16.16. Pennycook, Alastair: Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Mahwah, NJ 2001. Pennycook, Alastair: Language as a local practice. Milton Park 2010b. Podczaska, Katarzyna: Mały słownik gwary kujawskiej. Inowrocław 2013. Rajagopalan, Kanavillil: ‘Postcolonial world and postmodern identity: Some implications for language teaching’, in: D.E.L.T.A. Especial 2005/21, p. 11–20. Turner, Victor: The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. London 1969. van Lier, Leo: The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Boston 2004. Varela, Francisco, J. / Thomson, Evan / Rosch, Eleonor: The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge 1991. Wa˛sikiewicz-Firlej, Emilia / Szczepaniak-Kozak Anna / Lankiewicz, Hadrian: Dos´wiadczenia pobytu w Polsce w narracjach zagranicznych studentów. Warszawa 2022. Weigert, Andrew, J.: ‘The Social Production of Identity: Metatheoretical Foundations’, in: The Sociological Quarterly, 1986/27/2, p. 165–183.

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Woolard, Kathryn, A. / Schieffelin, Bambi, B.: ‘Language ideology’, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, 1994/ 23, p. 55–82. Woolard, Kathryn, A.: ‘Language Ideology as a Field of Inquiry’, in: Schieffelin, Bambi, B. / Woolard, Kathryn, A / Kroskrity, Paul, V. (eds.). Language Ideologies, Practice and Theory. Oxford 1998, p. 3–47. Woolard, Kathryn, A.: ‘Language Ideology’, The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, edited by James Stanlaw. John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2021, pp. 1–21. Free access, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118786093.iela0217.

Appendices The narrative task “I am a person who has never used one language …” (continue your story). Describe the story of your family life regarding languages used (including dialects) known to your family members. Consider: How languages have been mixed altogether in your life, how certain expressions were known only to your family members (mention situations in which you used them), how your family members were mixing languages in one utterance, how your native language is different from the language used by other native speakers of that language. Do not answer the questions directly, you may simply include them in your story. Do not bother with grammar or punctuation. It is not a test. What counts is your story. Thank you for your effort!

Semi-structured interview 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

What languages do your parents know? How well do they know them? What languages do you know? How well do you know them? In which countries have you lived up to now and why? What languages are known to your family (close and distant family)? What language do you use contacting your close and distant family members? Have you ever mixed languages in one utterance, created expressions consisting of different languages. Is it OK to mix languages? Can you mention words which are known only to you family, In which situations do you use them ? Are you able to mention situations in which you mixed language codes in the context of family life? Why? Is it a good thing to do?

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10. Have there been any decisions in your close or distant family, regarding the use of languages?

Rafał Krzysztof Matusiak

Chapter 8 – Linguistic and cultural identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland

Abstract This study concentrates on the phenomenon of linguistic and cultural identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland. The theoretical background of Ukrainian bilingualism is discussed, including the imperial topos of the triune Russian nation. Two opposing policies regarding the legal status of the Russian language in Ukraine are evoked. The bilingual chessboard of contemporary Ukraine is mapped, along with the factors that depict this black-and-white picture. The terminological framework of this paper involves the notions of ethnicity, linguistic identity and acculturation which were cited after Hansen 1937, Phinney 1996, and Berry 1997. One of the aims of this paper is an attempt to present the linguistic panorama of the Ukrainian minority in Poland, including a description of the acculturation process towards the Polish language. Further, the research questions examine the social tendency to change attitudes towards a country, its culture and language. The background of this study embraces pejorative attitudes toward the Russianness that have spilled over worldwide as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The research samples include two ethnic groups: Ukrainians (both Ukrainophones and Russophones) and Poles. The verified thesis is that linguistic identity is the sphere of sacrum of every individual, and hence it cannot be profaned even if the aggressor and the retaliator speak the same language. In contrast, if the Russian language does not form a part of the ethnic identity of the individual, then odium extends to anything that is identified with a hostile statehood, including both its culture and language. Keywords: linguistic identity, acculturation, Russian in Ukraine, Ukrainian diaspora in Poland

1.

Linguistic and legal status of Ukrainian and Russian in Ukraine

From the imperial point of view, Ukrainian was considered a dialect of Russian. Three supradialects of the pluricentric Russian language were distinguished in the Russian Empire: Great Russian (pre-reform Rus. velikorusskіy), Little Russian (pre-reform Rus. malorusskіy), and White Russian (pre-reform Rus. bѣlorusskіy) (Shakhmatov, 1915, p.vi). This nation-building allegory of the triune Russian identity was incorporated into the official title borne by Russian tsars from 1654

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to 1721: The Sovereign of all Great and Little and White Rus’ (pre-reform Rus. vseya Velikіya i Malyya ii Bѣlyya Rossіi Samoderzhets) (Plokhy 2006, p. 327). This irredentist misconception has perpetuated to this day, since the President of the Russian Federation published a historical essay/fiction1 On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainian (Rus. Ob istoricheskom yedinstve russkikh i ukraintsev) (Putin 2021). Primarily, the linguonymic dichotomy between Little and Great Russian reflected a historic(al) division into central, ancient Kievan Rus’(sia) and peripheral, expansive Muscovite Rus’(sia) respectively, over time, this distinction boiled down to an evaluative opposition between less and more significant parts of the Russian Empire (cf. Zhovtobyukh / Moldovan 2005, p. 513). The imperial AllRussian nation and language correspond to today Russian(s), Ukrainian(s), and Belarussian(s). After the fall of Tsardom where Russian was an official language, the Russian language continued to be accorded sociolinguistic prestige for the following decades by virtue of being a lingua franca of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian was relegated to, on the one hand, a language of peasants and provincials, and on the other hand, a language of the Ukrainian nationalist intelligentsia (Sigalov 1993, p. 234). Leaving aside the question of linguonymy and irredentism, Russian and Ukrainian belong to the East Slavic languages. Nevertheless, Ukrainian is only slightly more intelligible with Russian than other Slavic languages. As the findings demonstrate, except for approximately 30 percent of lexicon, which is common etymologically to all Slavic languages, Ukrainian shares with Russian only 0.8 percent of roots idiosyncratic exclusively to East Slavic languages (Radchuk 2000, p. 11). One reason for the illusory mutual intelligibility between the two languages might be the extensive use of a mixed Ukrainian-Russian language which is known under the generic name2 Surzhyk3 (cf. Bilaniuk 2005, p. 3). From a sociolinguistic point of analysis, Surzhyk is associated with folk culture, nescience and illiteracy, and reflects diglossic bilingualism where a dominant language (Russian) suppresses and disregards rules of another language (Ukrainian) (Trub 2000, p. 48)4. The linguistic status of Surzhyk is still under 1 Historians, journalists and politicians lambasted an unhistorical and mythological plot of Putin’s essay (cf. Doman´ska 2021; Mazurenko 2021; Mead 2021; Roth 2021; Winiarski 2021). 2 The Ukrainian term surzhyk, initially meaning a mixture of different grains, refers to the process of hybridization of any languages, not necessarily involving Ukrainian and Russian. 3 All Ukrainian and Russian words were transliterated according to BGN/PCGN romanization. 4 Consider: Tak a sho bin, ne chustvovaly, koly yoho rozdivaly (And what, he did not feel when they were undressing him?), where the words in bold type exemplifies the use of Surzhyk: sho (a hybrid of the Russian chat and the Ukrainian shcho), chustvovaly (a Russian verb with a Ukrainian inflectional ending), and rozdivaly (a blending of the Russian verb razdevali and its Ukrainian equivalent rozdiahaly) (Rewakowicz 2018, p. 154). On the phonological level,

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debate as it is recognized as a vernacular dialect (Ukr. prostorichchya) (Trub 2000), undertranslation (Ukr. nedopereklad) (Radchuk 2000), a mixed language (Ukr. zmishana submova) (Masenko 2011), pidgin (Ukr. pidzhyn) (Cherednychenko 2007), or a group of different idiolects (Ukr. kil’kist’ riznykh idiolektiv) (Taranenko 2013). From the zeitgeist perspective, Surzhyk is perceived as “a concoction of remains of the past, of what pertained to one’s ancestors, with the foreign which obliterates the speaker’s personality and both their national and linguistic consciousness” [own translation from Ukrainian] (Serbens’ka 2017, p. 6). Surzhyk seems to fill a gap in the linguistic-ethnic continuum of Ukraine, where three main groups can be distinguished: Russophone Russians, Russophone Ukrainians, and Ukrainophone Ukrainians. In this three-point spectrum, Surzhyk would be situated in between the centre and the opposite ends, and hence it deals with code-switching situations where the speaker of Ukrainian would find themselves in a Russian-speaking environment, and vice versa, consider cases of Surzhyk speakers described by Maheshwari (2015). As the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates, the State language of Ukraine is Ukrainian (sec. 10). The same article in fine guarantees the free development, use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine. In the 21st century, two linguistic policies can be observed in Ukraine. The first of them paid tribute to Ukraine’s multilingualism, while the second sought to Ukrainianize the country. The Law On the Fundamentals of the State Language Policy (Ukr. Pro zasady derzhavnoyi movnoyi polityky) entered into force on August 10, 2012. Under this law, languages that, according to the 2021 population census, are considered native by more than 10 percent of residents of a region can be used on a par with the state Ukrainian language. As a result, Russian was recognized as a regional language in 13 out of 27 Ukrainian regions. In detail, all acts passed by higher state authorities shall have been published in the state language (Ukrainian), Russian, or in other regional or minority languages (sec. 10.1). Further, Russophones were given freedom in terms of choosing the language of instruction (sec. 20.1.). The study of the state language and one of the regional or minority languages is guaranteed in all general secondary schools (sec. 20.7.). The linguistic policy of the state was reoriented on April 25, 2019, when the Verkhovna Rada passed the Law On ensuring the functioning of Ukrainian as the state language (Ukr. Pro zabezpechennya funktsionuvannya ukrayins’koyi movy yak derzhavnoyi). The new law has mirrored the constitutional supremacy of Ukrainian throughout the entire country, thus being oblivious to the linguistic identity of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. For instance, customer service in Surzhyk is characterized by many features inherent in Russian, such as akanye, ikanye, and the preservation of the fricative /g/ (cf. Flier 2010, p. 647).

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languages other than the state language may be provided only at the request of the client and with the mutual consent of the other party (sec. 30.3.). A fine may be imposed on the business entity if violation of this provision is repeated within a year (sec. 57.6.). Pursuant to section 10.2, the share of Ukrainian in national television channels shall amount to at least 90 percent. In a similar vein, the printed mass media in the state language must make not less than 50 percent of publications distributed in this place (sec. 25.4.). In accordance with the statute On education (Ukr. Pro osvitu), secondary and higher education shall be provided exclusively in Ukrainian (sec. 7.1.).

2.

Linguistic identity of Ukrainians and their acculturation

The most seminal research in ethnic identity was conducted by Phinney (1996) who wove a neat pattern from a tangled skein of tenets of ethnicity (Berry 1970; Marcia 1966; Erikson 1968). A triad of strands of ethnicity includes culture, identity, and minority status (Phinney 1996, p. 918). Identity as culture incorporates social norms, moral principles, and rules of conduct that have been established by an ethnic community. It is crucial to emphasize that language plays a pivotal part in forging cultural identity (Isurin 2011, p. 222). Ethnic identity refers to a perception of being a member of an ethnic group, whereas the concept of minority status seems to be the flip side of the same coin, since it embodies, for most, discriminatory or prejudicial experiences an individual faces as a member of a minority (cf. ibid. p. 922). As far as the contemporary Ukrainian identity is concerned, it is composed of a sense of national sovereignty, reinforced when the independence of Ukrainian state was proclaimed in 1991. Thus, the Ukrainian identity at this moment in time is devoid of the sense of belonging to a national minority that accompanied Ukrainians in past eras. As regards a cultural facet of the Ukrainian identity, its cultural heart constitutes the Ukrainian language. Despite the fact that Ukrainian nationalists refuse the use of languages other than Ukrainian (including hybrid Surzhyk)5, the questions arises as to whether or not the linguistic identity of the Ukrainians is more complex and the Ukrainian language forms the left (western) ventricle of the linguistic heart of Ukraine, while Russian is its right (eastern) ventricle.

5 For instance, in 1936 in Warsaw, Prof. Ivan Ohiyenko, who nota bene translated the Bible into Ukrainian, formulated the ten commandments to promote the use of the native (Ukrainian) language (cf. Babych 1993, p. 373). Further, Dmytro Pavlychko, a poet and politician, writes: “Our language needs the fire of love, […] One who breathes in Surzhyk cannot have spiritual health” [own translation from Ukrainian] (2004, p. 44).

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Any variations in ethnic identity could be pressurized by acculturation (Sam / Berry 2010). The process of acculturation applies to a direct encounter of two ethnic groups which results in ensuing changes in the primordial structure of their cultural behaviour (Redfield / Linton / Herskovits 1936, p. 149). In brief, acculturation involves adapting to a host culture which differs from ancestral culture (Berry 1997, p. 6). The process of acculturation is readily apparent among successive generations of immigrants. Hansen (1937) observed that “what the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember” (p. 9). He formulated the principle of the third-generation ethnic interest, whereby the first generation of immigrants is permanently tied to their ethnic culture, while the second generation strives for acculturation so as not to share their parents’ negative experiences of ethnic alienation, and the circle closes, when a revival of the interest in ethnic origin is sparked in the third generation. On this account, the middle generation is considered to be the marginal generation that is the link between the two cultures (Park 1969). As discussed, acculturation is explored mainly in the context of immigrants (Berry 1997; Navas et al. 2007; Cohen 2011; Bell 2013; Salo / Birman 2015). However, this approach seems to cordon off yet another space of acculturation, since the process of acculturation could be observed throughout territories that came under the cultural influence or political control of a foreign power centre. Acculturation in such situations led to the marginalization of ethnic culture, as evidenced by the cases of Irish (Anglicization), Breton (Francization), Frisian (Dutchification), Silesian (Polonization), Samogitian (Lithuanization), Javanese (Indonezation), Coptic (Arabization), or Gaulish (Latinization). However, each such case must be considered individually because of its different political and historical background. The process of Ukrainian-Russian acculturation can be characterized by several qualities, such as: (a) proximity, (b) parallelism, (c) dynamics, and (d) multigenerational nature. The quality of proximity (a) has relevance to East Slavic cultural heritage rather than to geographical neigbourhood. This perplexed heritage encapsulates such extreme identity concepts as ‘the Byzantine commonwealth’ and ‘the Homo Sovieticus mentality’6. Contradictory though it may seem at first glance, the Ukrainian-Russian acculturation is both dynamic (c) and con6 The notion ‘the Byzantine commonwealth’, coined by Dimitri Obolensky (1971), embraces religious, doctrinal, ethical, and social linkages between the nations who accepted the Orthodox faith from the Patriarchate of Constantinople (ibid., p. 202–203). The concept of ‘Homo Sovieticus’, popularized by Aleksandr Zinovyev (1982), lampoons a utopian citizen of the Soviet Union. This defeatist portrayal emphasizes an unthinkingly acquiescent person who is inherently subordinated to the state authority, further, it is a state of mind involving intellectual enslavement and the lack of individuality and self-reliance (cf. Zemtsov 2017, p. 105– 107).

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tinual (multigenerational) (d). This antithetical relation refers to the centuries-long shared history of all nation(s), but despite this multigenerational continuity, their chronicles were scribbled dynamically in different ink, covering Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods. Hence a parallel (b) can be drawn between history and acculturation; the political dominion of (Great) Russians over (Little) Russians was conducive to acculturation and melting linguistic identity of the latter ones. Two Russian adjectival demonyms may illustrate an indelible relationship between Russian and Ukrainianness. The fist russkіy bears a broader meaning, as alluding to Russia, Rus’, Russian language and traditions, and people born in Russia or having its citizenship. The second adjective rossiyskiy defines a relation to the Russian Federation. Andrij Kurkov, the author of the Diary of the Maidan (Rus. Dnevnik Maydana), epitomizes this semantic and identity complexity as follows: Maybe that’s why there is a big difference between the words russkіy and rossiyskiy, which a lot of Ukrainians don’t notice. In fact, I am a Russian [russkіy], an ethnic Russian [russkіy] citizen of Ukraine. But I am not Russian [rossiyskiy], because I have nothing to do with Russia, with its politics, I do not want Russian [rossiyskiy] citizenship. Probably that is why the party was registered as a party of Ukrainian “Russians” [russkіy] [own translation from Russian] (2020, p. 154).

As regards linguistic identity of Ukrainians, a plethora of research has been devoted to language issues in Ukraine, but the 2001 national census7 seems to be the most extensive and relatively current study on this subject. Based on the census data, 78 percent of the population considered themselves ethnic Ukrainians, while 17 percent stated Russian as their nationality, though Ukrainian and Russian were perceived as native languages by 67 and 30 percent of the population of Ukraine respectively. When going back in time to the USSR census (1989), a disparity between linguistic and ethnic identities was slightly more profound as 65 percent of ethic Ukrainians indicated Ukrainian as their mother tongue, whereas 33 percent of the USSR tovarisches declared Russian, this ratio does not equate to the percentage of ethnic Ukrainians (73 percent) and Russians (22 percent) (Derzhavnyy komitet statystyky Ukrayiny /Eng. the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine/ 2021). New light was shed on Ukrainian (bi)lingualism when questions on language fluency were included in the analysis. The Public Opinion Foundation Obshchestvennoye mneniye surveyed 2,000 residents of all regions of Ukraine, asking which language is easier for them to speak. Russian was indicated by 44 percent of the respondents while 40 percent declared themselves more fluent in 7 The 2001 census has been the only nation-wide state statistics conducted after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, subsequent censuses were postponed several times; the next one is planned for 2023.

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Ukrainian; 13 percent replied that they spoke both languages with equal ease, and 3 percent did not respond (Rogotnev / Gonchar 2014). Further, the question of language economics8 may have been the reason why, as the U.S. Gallup Institute reveals, 83 percent of Ukrainians surveyed preferred to speak Russian while having been interviewed (Gradirovski / Esipova 2008). The linguistic identity of Ukrainians is territorially determined. Russian is preferred in urban centers (75 percent) while Ukrainian predominates in rural areas (65 percent) (Rogotnev / Gonchar 2014). The largest linguistic differentiation can be observed between western and eastern Ukraine, to wit, the use of Russian fluctuates throughout the country from 5 percent9 to 92.3 percent10 (Khmel’ko 2004, p. 11). As a consequence of acculturation, for instance, Russian became a language of culture as a great many writers who were born in Ukraine published in Russian: Nikolai Gogol, Isaac Babel, and Anna Akhmatova, just to name a few. Further, Russophone paramountcy was glaringly apparent in the system of secondary and higher technical education of the Ukrainian SSR, as more than two-thirds of the students studied in Russian (Aref ’yev 2018, p. 26). As a 2012 study found, Russian still preponderates in the Ukrainian mass media, consider: 60 percent of newspapers, 83 percent of journals, 87 percent of books, 60 percent of songs on the radio, 44 percent of TV programs, another 28 percent of them were broadcast in both Russian and Ukrainian (Metel’ova 2016, p. 110– 111). A number of Ukrainian academics, such as Burda (1998), Panchenko (2003), and Ponomariv (2009) are apprehensive about linguistic assimilation as a potential source of reducing the ethnic identity of Ukrainians, what is more, all of them take the same citation from Borys Hrinchenko, a writer and lexicographer, who is quoted as saying that if Ukrainians speak the Muscovite language, their thoughts will be Muscovite as well. In the following analytical part of the present paper this national(istic) thesis will be verified.

3.

Goals and research questions

The primary aim of this research is to explore whether a change in attitude to the Russian language can be observed as a result of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Russian-speaking Ukrainians may be expected to deprecate the Russian language less than non-Russian speaking citizens, since as stated in 8 From a geopolitical perspective, Russian with 258 million speakers is the main native language in Europe, the eighth-most spoken language in the world, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations (Ethnologue 2022). 9 Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi. 10 Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk.

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the previous sections, Russian seems to remain part of the Ukrainian linguistic identity, regardless of current political issues. Further, the attitude of Ukrainians towards Russian culture might be presumed to become more radical, despite the theoretically inextricable link between language and culture. Finally, a question was raised regarding the attitude towards the aggressor country. A questionnaire was designed to answer the following research questions: RQ1: Has the attitude of Ukrainian people to the Russian language become (more) negative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? RQ2: Has the attitude of Ukrainian people to the Russian culture become (more) negative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? RQ3: Has the attitude of Ukrainian people to the Russian Federation become (more) negative after its invasion of Ukraine? Further research questions were included to ascertain/repudiate the thesis of the perdurability of linguistic identity among Ukrainians. It was assumed that a nonRussian-speaking nation (Poles) would be more likely to become hostile to both the language and culture of the aggressor’s country, notwithstanding that Poland has not suffered directly from this conflict so far, hence the following questions were asked: RQ4: Has the attitude of Polish people to the Russian language become (more) negative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? RQ5: Has the attitude of Polish people to the Russian culture become (more) negative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? RQ6: Has the attitude of Polish people to the Russian Federation become (more) negative after its invasion of Ukraine? The examination was conducted during the Russian invasion, when numerous manifestations of Russianness started to be shunned around the globe. The secondary aim of this paper is to investigate the linguistic identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland (RQ7). The quandary is where Ukrainian, Russian and Polish stood on this linguistic podium.

4.

Research method and participants

The research instrument in the present study includes two questionnaires (A and B). The Questionnaire A was sent by email to Ukrainians known to the author personally, asking them to answer the questions and send the questionnaire to other Ukrainians staying in Poland if interested. The same procedure was applied

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to the Questionnaire B which was designed for Polish participants of the examination. The questionnaires had been emailed on the 4th of March, and responses were collected by the 18th of March. The Questionnaire A was written in Ukrainian and Russian and consisted of seven questions. In the first question, the respondents were asked from which oblast of Ukraine they come. This question is of great import, since Ukraine is not a linguistically homogeneous state and the percentage of people who speak Russian at home ranges from 5 percent to over 90 percent depending on the region of the country (Khmel’ko 2004, p. 11). The second question concerns the length of stay of Ukrainians in Poland. The respondents were offered to select one of the five periods: the shortest (less than one month) de facto would embody war refugees, while the longest (more than 20 years) would include people who in theory should be more or less linguistically acculturated into the Polish society. The third question involves the respondents’ self-assessment of their linguistic identity. The participants were asked to rank which language they consider to be their native, second, and third language. The choice was limited to the official language of Ukraine (Ukrainian), the most spoken minority language in Ukraine (Russian), and the language of the immigrants’ country of residence (Polish). The fourth question asks about the language spoken at home by Ukrainian immigrants, as in the case of married couples a discrepancy may be captured between the native language of one spouse and the actual language spoken at home. The subsequent questions (5–7) were designed to answer the research questions. Language is regarded as a cardinal and indispensable part of any nation’s culture, therefore in principle culture and language would be rejected to an equal degree when regarded hostile. The conundrum arises when the linguistic identity is shared by both invader and defender. It is postulated that in such circumstances pejorative associations are not projected onto language, otherwise the individual not only would find themselves doomed to silence, but they would deprive themselves of part of their ethnic identity. As far as Questionnaire B is concerned, it was written in Polish and included only questions 5–7 from version A; questions on voivodeship of residence and languages spoken were excluded because Poland is a monolingual country11. A full English version of Questionnaire A can be found in the Appendix. In view of the estimation theory, the minimum sample size for estimating the structure index with an unknown initial fraction level is determined using the following formula:

11 According to the 2011 census data, Polish is spoken at home by 97.78 percent of the Polish population (Główny Urza˛d Statystyczny /Eng. the Central Statistical Office/ 2011). The 2021 census data have not yet been fully published at the time of writing this article.

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n ≥ zα2 / 4·d2 where

n – a sample size z - the inverse of the normal cumulative distribution for a given probability value (α) d – the statistical error rate expressed in a decimal form

A maximum error of 10 percent was assumed, as with an error above this value, the results from the sample cannot be generalized to the entire population. A confidence level was set at 0.94, hence we have the estimate: n ≥ 1,64 2 / 4·(0,1)2 = 67,24 ≈ 68

Thus, a sample of 68 respondents is required to conclude the results with the given statistical characteristics. The responses of two groups of 68 respondents (Ukrainian and Polish citizens) were compared. Both samples were selected on a voluntary basis. The minimum age of respondents was 16, as under Ukrainian civil law (sec. 32 CKU), people at this age have limited legal capacity (Ukr. nepovna diyezdatnist). The same age qualification was applied to Polish respondents, although limited capacity to perform acts in law (Pol. ograniczona zdolnos´c´ do czynnos´ci prawnych) is obtained in Poland upon reaching the age of 13 (sec. 15 KC). Ukrainian respondents come from eight oblasts: Odessa (22 persons), Kyiv (20), Kharkiv (6), Mykolaiv (6), Dnipropetrovsk (5), Chernihiv (5), Zhytomyr (3), and Rivne (2). The majority of the participants of this examination were economic immigrants (83.82 percent), 78.95 percent of them have lived in Poland for over five years. Nevertheless, 16.18 percent of the respondents were war refugees whose ties with Poland had so far been limited to having relatives there. As regards Polish participants of the study, the criteria of origin and period of stay were not assessed. As the Ukrainian minority in Poland constitutes the primary research sample of this study, its quantitative outline will be included. Ukrainians are the largest ethnic group among foreigners in Poland. At the end of 2019, there were 2,106,101 foreigners living in Poland, 64 percent of whom were Ukrainian citizens (1,351,418), in addition from 2013 to 2019, the number of economic immigrants from Ukraine increased sevenfold (Drabczuk 2020), and as a result of the Russian invasion, 2.48 million war refugees arrived in Poland between February 24 and April 4 (Polska Straz˙ Graniczna /Eng. The Polish Border Guard/ 2022). Thus, the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland is only in the process of establishing, and in consequence instances of Hansen’s Law will be barely perceptible.

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Results

The figures regarding the residence (Q1) of study participants were discussed in the previous section. As far as the linguistic identity of the respondents from Ukraine is concerned (Q3), 64.70 percent indicated Ukrainian as their native language, while 55.88 percent declared Russian as their mother tongue. This statistical discrepancy results from the fact that 20.58 percent of the participants marked both Ukrainian and Russian as their first language. After excluding natively bilingual respondents, those for whom Ukrainian was the only native language were 53.70 percent, while the ratio of those who considered exclusively Russian as their first language was 46.30 percent. These figures are comparatively consistent with the answers provided regarding the language spoken at home (Q4), where 52.94 percent declared Ukrainian, and 47.06 percent stated that they mostly used Russian at home. The fact that none of the respondents indicated Polish as their home language is typical of the first generation of immigrants. By dint of the territorially selective research sample, the statistics on linguistic identity differ from the results obtained in the 2001 national census, according to which the number of Russian speakers was estimated at 29.6 percent. In the present study, this ratio was 55.9 percent, as residents from predominantly Russian-speaking oblasts responded to the questionnaire in the main. In addition, the questionnaire did not exclude the possibility of identifying two languages as native. In contrast, the number of Ukrainian speakers in the sample (64.7 percent) deviated only slightly from the national figures (67.5 percent), which may be partially a consequence of the Ukrainization of the eastern and southern regions of the country. As regards the length of stay in Poland (Q2), the results were as follows: less than 6 months (16.17 percent), from 6 months to 2 years (5.88 percent), from 2 to 5 years (11.76 percent), from 5 to 20 years (66.17 percent), over 20 years (0 percent). These statistics are significant in terms of both acculturation and deculturation, since the process of full acculturation or deculturation is perceived dimly among the first generation immigrants, therefore none of the respondents indicated Polish as their native language, nor did any of them consider Russian or Ukrainian as their third language. In depth, 63.23 percent (43/68) indicated a second language12, a regularity that can be observed is that those who selected Russian as their first language chose Ukrainian as a second language, and vice versa. However, 6 respondents stated that Polish was their second language; a plausible reason for this might be found in the fact that their stay in Poland had been relatively lengthy, ranging from 5 to 20 years. 45 respondents recognized 12 The respondents who indicated two languages as their first languages (Ukrainian and Russian) were excluded from this calculation.

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Polish as their third language. When a group of 11 Ukrainians, who had stayed in Poland for less than 6 months at the time of the examination, is added to 45, it means that a dozen participants of the study did not consider Polish their third language, despite having been in Poland for more than 6 months. Thus, the linguistic identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland (RQ7) not only mirrors the bilingual nature of the country of their origin, but imparts a trilingual flavour as 75 percent declared knowledge of three languages. Further, bilinguals accounted for 14.71 percent, of whom 8.82 percent spoke Polish as a second language. For the sake of clarification, the ratio of Polish speakers (and Ukrainian or Russian speakers) to non-Polish speakers (Russian and Ukrainian speakers) in the bilingual group was 6:4. Monolinguals (Russian or Ukrainian speakers) made up 10.29 percent of the respondents. The constancy and stability of the Ukrainian linguistic identity was investigated by means of three questions. In order to verify the thesis of this inquiry, the responses of the Ukrainian sample were juxtaposed with the replies offered by the Polish respondents. In both groups, all respondents confirmed that they had become (more) prejudiced against the Russian Federation following its invasion of Ukraine (Q7). A part of the participants in the examination did not transfer negative associations from the aggressor country to its culture (Q6), thus the attitude to Russian culture remained unchanged for 13.24 percent of Ukrainians and 7.35 percent of Poles. Notwithstanding the fact that language is an integral part of culture (Q5), 10.29 percent of the Ukrainian respondents felt that their attitude towards Russian had turned (more) negative after the outbreak of war in their homeland. As regards the Polish participants of the present study, Russian was viewed slightly more favourably than Russian culture (8.82 per cent). It can be concluded that perhaps due to their common history, tradition and language, the ties of the Ukrainians to Russian culture are stronger, and thus a higher percentage of the respondents in this group does not equate a Russian artist with a Russian soldier. However, the strongest ties in this identity puzzle are the linguistic ones, as only one in ten Ukrainians apprehended that their attitude towards the Russian language had deteriorated.

6.

Conclusions

The linguistic identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland is predominantly trilingual, albeit the process of acculturation in relation to Polish embraces the first generation of immigrants. In consequence, Polish has not assumed the role of Ukrainian and Russian and is spoken as a second (in the case of monolinguals) or third language among bilingual immigrants.

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In contrast to the immigration-based acculturation of Polish, the process of acculturation of the Russian language among Ukrainians has been rather historically and culturally conditioned. It seems that the course of acculturation can be compared metaphorically to types of mixtures; in the case of substances (ethnic groups) with similar densities (cultures) a homogeneous solution is formed, while substances with different densities “resist” homogenization (acculturation). As regards heterogeneous mixtures, particles (individuals) with distinct densities (cultures) can still be easily captured in the mixture despite the fact that they constitute a negligible percentage. This ethnic distinctiveness may become apparent on many levels, e. g., in clothing, accent, religion, cuisine, etc. In contrast, the composition of a homogeneous mixture is difficult to perceive with senses. However, notwithstanding the visually (culturally) apparent homogeneity, the resulting solution does not exhibit the same properties as the original components. It seems that this type of mixture represents the identity of the Ukrainians, in which, among other things, the Russian language was dissolved. This process was made possible owing to the similar cultural density of the two nations. Moreover, it seems that in recent times, this bicultural mixture has become a supersaturated solution, and it is impossible to dissolve any more Russian in it; consider the Ukrainian-speaking west of Ukraine and the legislation aimed at the Ukrainianization of the public sphere. However, regardless of this linguistic saturation, it would take time to evaporate or filter the Russian language from the Ukrainian identity. The fact that on the night of February 23–24, 2022, Russian turned from the language of a neighbour into the language of an invader did not fundamentally alter the attitude of Ukrainians towards it. Thus, through the prism of culture, Ukrainianness is built on a solid Slavic and Orthodox skeleton, and although youthful Ukrainian blood is bubbling in its veins, Russian still lingers in the marrow of its bones, that being the case, no one should see a threat to the obliteration of ethnic identity in a Ukrainian girl reciting the poem “Ya lyublyu tebe, Ukrayino” (Eng. I love you, Ukraine) in Russian13.

7.

References

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13 A reference to a 1969 poem by Matvey Hartsman, a Ukrainian poet of Jewish origin. The poem was translated from Yiddish into Ukrainian and Russian by a Ukrainian Soviet writer, Teren’ Masenko.

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Appendix 1. What Ukrainian oblast are you from? Please tick with an X where appropriate. Cherkasy Chernihiv

Lviv Mykolaiv

Chernivtsi Dnipropetrovsk

Odessa Poltava

Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk

Rivne Sumy

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Kharkiv Kherson

Ternopil Vinnytsia

Khmelnytskyi Kyiv

Volyn Zakarpattia

Kirovohrad Luhansk

Zaporizhzhia Zhytomyr

2. How long have you been staying in Poland? Please tick with an X where appropriate. for less than 6 months (including war refugees)

for from 6 months to 2 years

for from 2 to 5 years

for over 5 to 20 years

for over 20 years

3. Evaluate your attitude towards the following languages. Please tick with an X where appropriate. If any of the given languages is not your native, second, or third language, leave the field blank. Ukrainian

Russian

Polish

native second third

4. What language do you speak mainly at home? (Choose one language only) …………… 5. Has your attitude towards the Russian language turned (more) negative after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? NO

YES

6. Has your attitude towards the Russian culture turned (more) negative after Russia’s invasion. NO

YES

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7. Has your attitude towards the Russian Federation turned (more) negative after its invasion? NO

YES

Anna Szkonter-Bochniak / Joanna Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙

Chapter 9 – Does the reader really have to understand everything? The role and scope of paratexts in the translation of cultural elements on the example of the Polish translation of Made in Mauritius by Amal Sewtohul

Abstract This paper is an attempt to reflect on the role and scope of paratexts, in particular the translator’s footnotes and afterword, in the process of introducing the reader to another culture. The authors present the solutions applied by the translator being at the same time the author of the afterword and the editor of the series to supplement the knowledge of the non-native reader on the example of the Polish translation of Amal Sewtohul’s novel Made in Mauritius, published in the Frankofonia Literaria series, translated by Krzysztof Jarosz. They also reflect on the presence of paratexts in the context of the specificity of the Frankofonia Literaria series, as well as in the context of the translator – a literary scholar himself. Keywords: literary translation, Mauritian literature, Amal Sewtohul, paratext, footnotes, afterword

1.

Introduction

The way in which and the extent to which cultural elements are received by the reader of the translation undoubtedly depend on the prior reading of the translator, who becomes the reader and the author alike. It is the translator’s way of reading and interpreting the work, the translator’s assessment of the secondary reader’s knowledge of the culture of the original, and, ultimately, the strategy that the translator adopts (exoticization or naturalization) that will determine how the work is read in translation. If a literary work is saturated with cultural elements that refer to a culture that is unknown in the target culture, the translator faces a considerable challenge. How to express and complement what is obvious to the reader of the original? How to judge where to draw the line between mandatory additions and unnecessary explicitation? What translation techniques to use? Are footnotes always a translator’s failure? This study is an attempt to answer these questions based on the analytical material from Krzysztof Jarosz’s Polish translation of Amal Sewtohul’s Mauritian novel Made in Mauritius. The authors of the paper will present the translator’s methods of

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translating proper names, Mauritianisms, the third language in the original, as well as references to history, culture and everyday life on the island, in the context of the used paratexts: footnotes and afterword.

2.

Frankofonia Literaria series

Amal Sewtohul’s novel Made in Mauritius was published in 2021 by the publishing house ‘Wydawnictwo w Podwórku’ and the publishing house of the University of Silesia, (Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu S´la˛skiego). This is chronologically the third volume of the Frankofonia Literaria series, which was initiated by Professor Krzysztof Jarosz, a specialist in Romance studies, literary scholar and translator from the University of Silesia, who is responsible for the selection of the works, provides a critical review of them, and – so far – has been the only translator of the works published in the series. The series was created with the aim of disseminating outstanding contemporary literary works from the Frenchspeaking area. The series was inaugurated with a translation of the novel by the eminent Mauritian writer, Ananda Devi, titled Ewa ze swych zgliszcz (2019). As can be read on the website of the publishing house, “[t]he book received the prestigious Prize of Five Continents of La Francophonie (2006), the most important accolade for a work in French by a writer from outside France”. Moreover, this is not the first translation of Devi’s prose to be published in Poland. In 2018, Krzysztof Jarosz published Zielone sari in Polish. The book is widely regarded as one of this writer’s most important works, if not the most important. Moreover, the book was published by ‘Wydawnictwo w Podwórku’ and, in principle, one can say that, although it does not officially belong to the Frankofonia Literaria series, it is its unofficial beginning, the translator being the link and, at the same time, the person responsible for the selection of works for translation, along with the manner of translation and critical reviews. Both novels by Ananda Devi met with great interest among Polish readers, who in 2020 had the opportunity to read the Mauritian writer’s short stories thanks to the collection Smutny ambasador, published in the second volume of the Frankofonia Literaria series. The third volume features a different author within the same geographical circle: this time Krzysztof Jarosz offers a Polish translation of Made in Mauritius by Amal Sewtohul (2021). Published in September 2021, the fourth volume contains a translation of the Quebec novel: Okiem Markizy by Monique LaRue. The next volumes in the series are already in the pipeline: the Quebec Orzełek z biała˛ głowa˛ by Robert Lalonde and the next novel by Ananda Devi, Indian Tango.

Does the reader really have to understand everything?

3.

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Made in Mauritius at the crossroads of cultures

Made in Mauritius is Amal Sewtohul’s third novel, published in 2012 by the French publishing house Gallimard in the “Continents noirs” series, and awarded the Prize of Five Continents of La Francophonie in the following year. Amal Sewtohul, born in 1971 in Mauritius, is an acclaimed contemporary writer who writes, like most writers on the island, in French. Along with Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, Nathacha Appanah, Carl de Souza and Barlen Pyamootoo, he is one of the renowned authors both in his homeland and within Francophone literature. He is the author of four novels in which he touches on the theme of identity, the search for self, and the search for one’s roots, which turns out to be quite a challenge in the multi-ethnic society from which his protagonists originate. In Made in Mauritius the author presents the fate of his protagonists in an interesting way against the background of important events in the contemporary history of Mauritius; the plot begins shortly before the country became independent. The main characters, Laval, Feisal and Ayesha, represent two ethnic groups, Laval the Chinese diaspora on the island, while the other two are Hindus who follow Islam; both are minority communities. It should be noted that characters hailing from these communities are rarely described by Mauritian writers. With his unique novel, Amal Sewtohul bridges this gap in the contemporary literature from the island1. The author presents the life story of Laval, who lives with his parents in the Chinatown district of the island’s capital PortLouis. The youth and adolescence of this leading character and his Hindu friends are closely linked to the history of the young independent Mauritius. The adventures, first loves, fascinations, hopes and disappointments of the characters are told with humour and tenderness. The story is not told chronologically, with scenes from childhood and youth alternating with descriptions of the life of the adult Laval travelling with his friend Frances across Australia, where he moved for the period of his university study and where he later stayed – in search of Feysal, who formed a commune there, similar to the neighbourhoods in the capital of Mauritius. The theme of the work is a container that arrived from Hong Kong with cargo with the main character’s parents; it is the place of his conception, birth and death. According to Amal Sewtohul, the container is a meaningful metaphor referring to the island’s early colonization, migration,

1 In other novels by Mauritian authors, Sino-Mauritians sometimes appear only as supporting characters, as is the case in Marie-Thérèse Humbert’s famous novel Moje drugie ja (1988, transl. Ewa Fiszer), in which the protagonist of Chinese origin is the owner of a general store, called “boutique”, on the island and run mainly by representatives of this community.

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location of Mauritius on the popular sea route to India2 and Mauritius’ trade contacts3. The complicated history of the multicultural, multilingual and multi-ethnic island seems important in order to be able to read the novel properly. The population of the island is very diverse. The majority are Indo-Mauritians (68%), whose ancestors, the so-called kulis, i. e. hired agricultural workers, came to the island from India after the abolition of slavery, followed by Creoles (27%), descendants of slaves brought from Africa (mainly from Madagascar and Mozambique)4, Sino-Mauritians (3%) who arrived here at the end of the 19th century, Franco-Mauritians (2%), descendants of French colonizers and the so-called Îlois, i. e. Chagos islanders, resettled to Mauritius in the late 1970s. According to the Mauritian Constitution, the population is divided into the following four groups: Hindus, Muslims (also of Indian origin), people of Chinese ancestry, and the so-called general population (population générale), consisting of Creoles and Caucasians whose ancestors came from Europe, mainly France and England. Mauritius’ multilingualism, multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism are not surprising given the country’s aforementioned colonial past. However, individual groups try to live within their communities, enter into endogamous marriages, and have little contact with representatives of other groups. This phenomenon has come to be known as communalisme. When the island became an independent state, no official language was chosen. English is still a very important language in Mauritius, it is used in education, administration, business and politics (parliamentary sessions are held in this language). The Mauritian media are French-speaking. The island’s cultural elites also mostly opted for French. Hindi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu (spoken mainly by Muslims of Indian origin), Hindustani (a colloquial language, popular and known by IndoMauritians mainly through Bollywood movies), Telugu, Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin are among the other languages of the island. The creole language (kréol morisyen), spoken by 90% of the population and mainly used orally, is one of the few elements uniting all the inhabitants of this “nation arc-en-ciel” (rainbow nation).

2 The motto of Mauritius: Stella Clavisque Maris Indici (Star and Key of the Indian Ocean) emphasizes the strategic location of the island in the middle of the sea route to India, the main destination of the European colonizers. 3 https://www.rfi.fr/fr/emission/20131222-amal-sewtohul-ecrivain-mauricien-auteur-roman-m ade-in-mauritius. Access: 13/08/2021. 4 Creole in Mauritius stands for a Métis. Earlier, in the 19th century, the term meant a person of white race who was born in exotic colonies.

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Footnotes – a translator’s failure?

In translation theory and in many translation studies, reflections on the translator’s footnotes range between two extremes: the footnote is either referred to as the last resort or even as a translator’s failure or as a “tribute to fraternal difference”5 (Pasquier 1992, p. 196), as an erudite addition which makes it possible to include in the literary text additional content that is stheorists: according to Jean-René Ladmiral (1994, p. 231), a translator’s work should not turn into that of a commentator; translators should confine themselves to “spot” explanations. Antoine Berman (1986, p. 106), on the other hand, believed that the primary role of translation is criticism and commentary. However, translation scholars also include believers in the golden mean, who are of the opinion that a footnote is a way to overcome untranslatability resulting from linguistic and cultural barriers (Skibin´ska 2009, p. 13). The footnote is by no means a translation invention. Gérard Genette (1987, p. 7) defines it as a text on the margin (“sur le seuil”, as the French theorist puts it); it is: a statement of varying length (one word may be enough) referring to a more or less specific segment of text and placed either beside it or in reference to it. The always incomplete nature of the reference text and, consequently, the always local nature of the footnote text seems to me the most distinctive formal feature of this element of the paratext […]6

A footnote can also be looked at from the vantage point of text structure and its graphic form. According to Julie Lefèvre, a footnote is an element that disrupts the linearity of graphic characters, which is expressed by a reference in the main text, be it in the form of an asterisk, a number or a letter. Thus, the footnote becomes a foreign element (cf. Lefèvre 1998). Not without significance, also for our further considerations, is the location of the footnote, which may be at the bottom of the page, at the bottom of the chapter, or at the end of the book, after the main text. Elz˙bieta Skibin´ska (2009, p. 11) indicates that the location of a footnote denotes a spatial and symbolic hierarchy, as the footnote is subordinated to the main text. The author of the footnote is also subordinated and dominated by the author of the main text. Jacqueline Henry (2000, p. 229) reminds us that it matters who creates the footnote: whether it is the author of the text (la note auctoriale) or someone else 5 Translation of quotations in French into English by Teresa Czogała-Koczy. 6 “un énoncé de longueur variable (un mot suffit) relatif à un segment plus oumoins déterminé du texte, et toujours disposé soit en regard soit en référence à cesegment. Le caractère toujours partiel du texte de référence, et par conséquent lecaractère toujours local de l’énoncé porté en note me semble le trait formel le plusdistinctif de cet élément de paratexte […]”.

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(la note allographe), hence the publisher, translator, researcher, critic, etc.7. This division is related to the function of footnotes: in the case of the author’s footnotes, it is often about a meta-linguistic aspect, a definition, an explanation, a translation of a quotation. It is frequently also a kind of expansion, an addition. It can be a commentary, an explanation, but also a way to add historical or cultural context. An allographic footnote, on the other hand, very often provides an encyclopaedic, linguistic or biographical explanation. In the case of literary texts, footnotes, if they do appear in the text, tend to be allographic rather than authorial, and usually come from the publisher or translator, although whether they are present in the text and in what form depends primarily on the type of publisher and the objectives of the publication in question8. A specific type of footnote is the translator’s footnote, which, as Henry (2000, p. 230) reminds us, “is the work of a third party whose task is to reproduce the original work in a different linguistic, cultural, geographical, and temporal context”9. Pascale Sardin (2007, online) points out that the footnote contributes to the rupture of the unity of the text and its decentralization, and even to a kind of aggression that prevents a translation that is equal to the original from being produced. Undoubtedly, the very presence of a footnote is a sign that the translator is not invisible, as Ladmiral (cf. 1994, p. 230), among others, writes more extensively; on the contrary, the translator imbues the text with subjectivity and reads it through the lens of the target culture.

5.

Specificity of footnotes in Made in Mauritius

When analysing the footnotes in the Polish version of Made in Maurtius, the translator’s personality and his professional path should be borne in mind; he is an academic lecturer, which can be seen in the way the footnotes are formulated, as well as in their number and content. The first and fundamental feature of these paratexts is the desire to acquaint the reader with the language and literature and the need to comment on the literary work, as well as to provide all the information that is necessary from the translator’s point of view. A total of 70 footnotes can be found in the novel, placed at the bottom of the page, nine of which have been 7 In the case of a literary text, Genette also considers the existence of footnotes of the ‘actoriales’ type, that is, written by the person to whom the text refers and by a literary character (fictional footnote). 8 In Poland, Anna Bednarczyk stresses the necessity to distinguish between three types of paratexts: original (authorial) paratexts, translation paratexts (introduced by the translator) and editorial paratexts; cf. Bednarczyk, 2011, p. 49–50. 9 “elle est [donc] le fait de ce tiers dont la tâche est de restituer l’œuvre première dans un contexte linguistique, culturel, géographique, voire temporel, second”.

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written by the author (T: 43, 50, 64, 67, 67, 90, 98, 132, 231)10; the author’s footnote from page 98 was supplemented with the translator’s note, three footnotes were added by the editors (T: 86, 106, 252), and the remaining footnotes are the translator’s. Given this diversity in footnote authors (original author, publisher, translator), the “arrangement” between the author and the translator should be taken into account. Henry (2000) wonders whether, in acting as a kind of second author, the translator must respect the choices of the author themselves: if the author does not translate certain things, should the translator explain them? Where is the line between explaining to a foreign reader what a native reader knows and over-explicitation? Let us take a closer look at the footnotes in the novel. The notes by the author of the novel explain foreign terms from other languages (T: 43, 50, 67, 231), and they also include a short biographical note (T: 64), an explanation concerning the cuisine (T: 67), a reference to Mauritian literature (T: 90), a remark referring to the education system in Mauritius (T: 132). As for the authorial footnote on page (T: 98) concerning a French-language daily newspaper published on the island, the translator in his annotation explains the newspaper’s symbolic name related to the Portuguese discovery of the land and its subsequent Dutch colonization. An analysis of the authorial footnotes leads to a reflection on which reader they are addressed to (Mauritian, Frenchspeaking off-island or foreign)? While the footnotes on pages T: 43, 231 may be incomprehensible to both the primary and secondary reader, the remaining information contained in the authorial footnotes is understandable to the native Mauritian reader, but it may be unfamiliar to both the French-speaking reader, e. g. from France, and the target reader reading the translation. The Mauritian writer’s novel was published in France by the Gallimard publishing house, which explains the nature of the authorial footnotes addressed to a French-speaking reader outside Mauritius. The editorial comments are cultural and relate to a third culture: they explain Aboriginal beliefs (T: 86, 106) and provide additional information about a well-known television series (T: 252). The paratexts edited by the translator are of varying length, usually a few lines, although there are also more extensive explanations (T: 98, 201, 209), sometimes even split into two pages (T: 192, 193). The translator’s footnotes can be divided into the following groups: toponyms and proper names (27 footnotes, the majority of the notes), explanations of elements of the original culture, notes relating to the history of Mauritius and the realities of life on the island, local fauna and flora, a note on the original language (T: 292), footnotes explaining elements of a third language (in this case it will be mainly English and Mauritian creole, and single terms from German (T: 40) and Mauritianisms. 10 In this analysis, letter ‘O’ stands for the original novel, while ‘T’ stands for the translation.

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Toponyms and proper names

In the case of toponyms, the translator chose to translate most of the names into the target language without annotating them, which is consistent with the translation practice, e. g. ‘Place d’Armes’ (O: 11) is translated into Polish as ‘plac Broni’11 (T: 7). Some of the toponyms have not been translated, and it is difficult to identify a rule here. Following is an example of street names: “Les rues de Tranquebar” (O: 57) is in Polish ‘na ulicach Tranquebaru’12 (T: 51), while ‘la rue Château d’Eau’ (O: 67) has been translated as ‘na ulicy Wiez˙y Cis´nien´’13 (T: 60). As Weronika Woz´nicka (2017, p. 222) noted, (…) attention should be paid to whether the author of the translation is consistent in what they do – whether they translate all the foreign words, unfamiliar concepts from the primary culture, etc., or whether they are rather inaccurate and selectively annotate issues that may pose a problem for the reader of the secondary culture. Sometimes the authors of the peritext explain terms to the audience that do not require this explanation

Toponyms can be found in the Polish text, which have been additionally commented on in a footnote: 1. “jusqu’au pied de la montagne Le Pouce” (O: 51)

“az˙ do podnóz˙a góry zwanej Kciuk” (T: 51)14

2. “Après environ une heure, nous “Po mniej wie˛cej godzinie dotarlis´my do sommes arrivés à un petit col avant le małej przełe˛czy tuz˙ pod samym Kciukiem, Pouce, au sommet de la colline” (O: 155) na szczycie zros´nie˛tego z nim wzgórza” (T: 142)15

Example 2 is interesting because in addition to translating the toponym ‘le Pouce’ into the target language, the translator describes the shape of the rock and the resulting name in a footnote: “Le Pouce, czyli Kciuk, składa sie˛ z pionowej, wa˛skiej skały (czyli Kciuka włas´ciwego) oraz zła˛czonego z nim horyzontalnie, rozcia˛gnie˛tego wzgórza o kształcie przypominaja˛cym dłon´ z pozostałymi zacis´nie˛tymi palcami” (T: 142)16. A question arises whether today, when the reader can check the appearance of the described rock on the Internet at any time, it is necessary to describe it in a footnote. 11 12 13 14 15

Armaments Square. in the streets of Tranquebar. on Pressure Tower Street. “up to the foot of the mountain called Thumb” (T: 51). “After an hour or so, we reached a small pass just below Thumb itself, at the top of the adjacent hill” (T: 142). 16 “Le Pouce, or Thumb, consists of a vertical, narrow rock (i. e. Thumb proper) and, horizontally adjacent, a stretched hill shaped like a hand with the other fingers clenched” (T: 142).

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In the category of proper names the following example should be noted: 3. “‘Il s’appelle comment, cet ami ? Feisal’ ai-je répondu, toujours d’une petite voix. J’ai vu la lèvre supérieure de ma mère se tordre de dégoût” (O: 62–63)

“‘A jak sie˛ nazywa ten twój przyjaciel?’. – ‘Feisal’, odpowiedziałem, cia˛gle ledwie słyszalnie. Zobaczyłem jak górna warga matki zwija sie˛ w ryjek z obrzydzenia” (T: 56)17

As a commonly accepted translation rule, the name has not been translated/ Polonized, but the translator explains in a footnote: “Na Mauritiusie wie˛kszos´c´ imion (tak samo zreszta˛ jak nazwiska) dosyc´ wyraz´nie wskazuje na przynalez˙nos´c´ etniczna˛. ‘Feisal’ to imie˛ muzułman´skie, co na wyspie oznacza człowieka rasy hinduskiej” (T: 56)18. Given the connotations that the quoted name will evoke in the native user, this element could be classified as a lexico-cultural element, i. e. one that “updates spontaneously for the native recipient. The lexicocultural element thus belongs to the unspoken and is […] a kind of surplus to the words”19 (Antoine 1998).

7.

Cultural elements

Several translator’s footnotes explaining elements of the original and third (Chinese and Aboriginal) cultures deal with terms from religion, folk beliefs, and folklore: 4. “Guan Yin” (O: 30)

“Guan-yin” (T: 24)20

5. “ce grand Ministre Prince” (O: 54) 6. “On me parlera de feng shui, d’énergies tellurgiques, de songlines qui convergent vers ce point du Champs-deMars” (O: 124)

“o wielkim Ministrze Ksie˛ciu” (T: 47–48)21 “Sa˛ tacy co wspomna˛ o feng shui, o tellurycznej energii o songlines zbiegaja˛cych sie˛ w tym punkcie Pola Marsowego” (T: 113)22

17 “‘And what is the name of this friend of yours? – ‘Feisal’, I replied, still barely audibly. I saw my mother’s upper lip curl in disgust” (T: 56). 18 “In Mauritius, most given names (as well as surnames) quite clearly indicate ethnicity. ‘Feisal’ is a Muslim name, which on the island means a man of Hindu race” (T: 56). 19 “s’actualise spontanément chez le locuteur natif. Le lexiculturel appartient donc au non-dit, et il constitue […] une sorte de valeur ajoutée aux mots”. 20 “Guan-yin” (T: 24). 21 “about the great Minister Prince” (T: 47–48). 22 “There are those who will mention feng shui, telluric energy, songlines converging at this point in the Field of Mars” (T: 113).

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7. “les piétinements des danseurs de séga et de bharatanatyam et de danses chinoises” (O: 125) 8. “Lorsque j’étais avec lui, j’avais l’impression que le mot ‘travail’ prenant un sens sacré et purificateur, et lorsqu’il disait ‘Bismillah’, en bisant un morceau de pain à la fin de la journée, je sentais dans mes tripes qu’il avait vraiment gagné son pain” (O: 193)

“pod stopami tancerzy – w rytmie segi, bharatanatjam i tan´ców chin´skich” (T: 115)23 “Kiedy z nim byłem, miałem wraz˙enie, z˙e słowo ‘praca’ nabierało sakralnego i oczyszczaja˛cego znaczenia, a gdy na koniec dnia wypowiadał ‘bismillah’, odłamuja˛c kawałek chleba, czułem w swoich wne˛trznos´ciach, z˙e naprawde˛ na ów chleb zapracował” (T: 179)24

The translator modifies slightly the spelling of the name of the goddess “Guan Yin” from example (4ff), informing the target reader accurately in a footnote about her origins and worship in China (T: 24). In the next passage of the text (5), a figure of “Ministre Prince” appears, described by the translator to the Polish readers in a footnote, introducing them to the world of folk beliefs and tales popular in Mauritius, presenting at the same time the transcription of this character’s name in Creole, “minis prins” (T: 47–48). The footnote on the text excerpt (6) is interesting because the translator explains at the bottom of the page the term “songlines” referring to Aboriginal beliefs (two footnotes related to this topic were an intervention by the editor (T: 113). In passage (7) there are references to the folklore of the island; the translator notes in a footnote that the “sega” dance with African roots was spread in Mauritius mainly by Malagasy slaves, while the “Bharatanatyam”, on the other hand, is a classical Indian dance (T: 115). In the last selected example (8), the translator provides a definition of a foreign term and describes a ritual practiced by Muslims: “Bismillah (arab.) – dosłownie ‘w imie˛ Boga’ formuła religijna wypowiadana przez poboz˙nych muzułmanów przed rozpocze˛ciem pracy, posiłku, podróz˙y etc.” (T: 179).25 The footnotes under study are characterized by meticulousness and care in explaining not only the concept itself, but also the related other cultural elements. It seems that in many cases the translator takes on the role of a teaching practitioner (which, by the way, he is, owing to his university career) who wants not only to explain potentially unfamiliar issues, but also to impart additional knowledge to the recipients.

23 “under the dancers’s feet – to the rhythm of segi, Bharatanatyam and Chinese dances” (T: 115). 24 “When I was with him, I felt that the word ‘work’ took on a sacred and purifying meaning, and when he uttered ‘bismillah’ at the end of the day, breaking off a piece of bread, I felt in my gut that he had really earned that bread” (T: 179). 25 “Bismillah (Arabic) – literally ‘in the name of God’; a religious formula uttered by pious Muslims before starting work, meals, travel, etc.” (T: 179).

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Names of TV shows and series, references to comic book characters and song titles appearing in the original have been extensively explained by the translator in a footnote at the bottom of the page: 9. “Si quelqu’un avait jeté un coup d’œil à ces gribouillages, il aurait eu des doutes sur mon équilibre mental car, mêlés à des dessins encore enfantins, de Zembla et de Blek le Roc cognant un pruneau à un soldat anglais […]” (O: 141)

10. “‘Donne-moi ta main et prend la mienne, mais oui, mais oui, l’école est finie’, chantait une starlette d’autrefois” (O: 213)

11. “[…] Il suffit que vous sachiez que tous mes cousins m’attendent dedans depuis des heures, il y a Umar et Yusuf et Khal et Shenaz, et je vous demande vivement de ne pas chercher d’ennuis avec moi, […]” (O: 164)

“Jes´li ktos´ rzuciłby okiem na te bazgroły, miałby wa˛tpliwos´ci co do mojej równowagi umysłowej, gdyz˙ obok komiksowych postaci Zembli i Bleka, posyłaja˛cych kulki angielskiemu z˙ołnierzowi […]” (T: 129)26 The translator explains in great detail in the footnote: “Zembla – a comic book series from 1963–1979, whose title character is a brave, strong and good tarzanoid fighting against all forms of evil, a character inspired by Tarzan. Blek – Italian comic book series (1954–1967). In the French version it was titled Blek le Roc. The main character here is a Breton trapper during the American War of Independence, fighting against English soldiers referred to as “lobsters” (due to the colour of the British army uniforms)” (T: 129). “Podaj mi re˛ke˛ i chwyc´ moja˛, alez˙ tak, alez˙ tak, szkoła sie˛ skon´czyła” (T: 198)27 In the bottom footnote the translator explains: “It is about the well-known hit L’école est finie, which was sung by the French pop singer Sheila (Annie Chancel) in 1962” (T: 198). “Wystarczy, z˙ebys´cie wiedzieli, z˙e moi kuzyni Umar, Yusuf, Khal i Shenaz czekaja˛ na mnie od kilku godzin, wie˛c dobrze wam radze˛ nie szukac´ ze mna˛ zwady, […]” (T: 150–151)28

Among the excerpts listed above both from the original and the translation, along with the translator’s footnotes below, the last example (11) is of particular interest. The translator, who is also a researcher on Mauritian literature, most likely reads correctly, being the “ideal reader” postulated by Eco (1985), the writer’s hidden joke, understandable only to the inner circle. The translator helps 26 “If one were to glance at these scribbles, one would have doubts about my mental equilibrium, for next to the comic figures of Zembla and Blek sending bullets to an English soldier […]” (T: 129). 27 “Give me your hand and grab mine, but yes, but yes, school is over” (T: 198). 28 “It is enough for you to know that my cousins Umar, Yusuf, Khal and Shenaz have been waiting for me for a few hours now, so take it seriously and don’t try to argue with me, […]” (T: 150–151).

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decode this allusion for the target reader by writing: “Prawdopodobnie autor przywołuje tu imiona swoich przyjaciół (równiez˙ pisarzy maurytyjskich), sa˛ to Umar Timol, Yusuf Kadel, Khal Thorabully i Shenaz Patel” (T: 151)29. A question arises whether the above, otherwise erudite, footnote is necessary in the text. As Woz´nicka (2017, p. 222) noted, it seems that the translators should use this type of paratext when cultural barriers prevent them from rendering the meaning in the target culture. The decision to use or not to use this technique is an individual matter for each translator. Footnotes can help the reader make sense, but they can also make the text difficult to read, especially if they exceed the appropriate length limit (although there is no limit for footnotes, they should not take up half the page).

On the other hand, let us quote this researcher again: ‘If there is a translation technique that will help the translator convey the meaning of the original culture to the target audience, then why should translators not take advantage of that help.’ (2017, p. 222). It is difficult to decide where the line between over-explicitation and necessary or desirable explanation runs in this case. As for the names of the dishes, the translator makes some modifications in the text and sometimes uses a footnote: 25. “une chopine de Coca ou une paire de dholl purees” (O: 82).

“szklanke˛ coca-coli czy porcje˛ dholl puri” (T: 74)30

26. “les mangeurs de badjas” (O: 106–107) 27. “comme le poutou, ou le oundé” (O: 139).

“zjadaczy badjasów” (T: 97)31 “jak poutou czy oundé” (T: 127)32 See the bottom footnote for definitions: “poutou – a steamed pastry made of crushed rice, oundé – a sweet round pastry sprinkled with shredded coconut” (T: 127).

Thus, in example (25) he changes “purees” to the creole version “puri”, annotating the passage with a description of the dish at the bottom of the page. In example (26) the translator interprets the name of the dish “badjas”, proposing the form “badjasy”; by analogy to the previous passage, he provides a definition of the dish in a footnote, and the same strategy accompanies the last of the selected examples (27). The above-described desire to broaden the reader’s knowledge and to add what is not indispensable for a complete reading can be seen here.

29 “It is likely that the author invokes the names of his friends (also Mauritian writers); they are Umar Timol, Yusuf Kadel, Khal Thorabully and Shenaz Patel” (T: 151). 30 “a glass of Coca-Cola or a serving of dholl puri” (T: 74). 31 “badjas eaters” (T: 97). 32 “like poutou or oundé” (T: 127).

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References to the history of Mauritius and the realities of life on the island constitute another ensemble of cultural elements that pose a challenge to the translator. Made in Mauritius mentions events on the island immediately preceding independence in 1968, as can be seen in the examples below (examples 28 and 29). In the footnotes the translator brings these facts home to the Polish reader, detailing the complexities of the negotiations with the British, the tensions, the skirmishes between representatives of different ethnic groups, and the mood that accompanied those events. 28. “Probablement que les autorités britanniques se souciaient bien peu de l’arrivée d’une famille de Chinois à port Louis, car nous étions en 1967, et elles avaient d’autres chats à fouetter à cause de la situation politiques dans l’île” (O: 60)

“Prawdopodobnie brytyjskie władze nie interesowały sie˛ przybyciem do Port Louis chin´skiej rodziny, bo był rok 1967 i miały na głowie inne, waz˙niejsze sprawy z powodu sytuacji politycznej na wyspie” (T: 53)33

29. “Hé ! Quand les Indiens vont-ils remporter la coupe du monde? lançaient certains aux Indiens qui voulaient l’indépendance de l’île” (O: 79–80)

“Hej! A kiedy Hindusi be˛da˛ mistrzami s´wiata?, rzucali niektórzy do Hindusów, którzy chcieli niepodległos´ci wyspy” (T: 72)34

The narrative features historical figures, the “Fathers of Independence”, as is the case in example (30) with Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the first prime minister of independent Mauritius (O: 107). The translator introduces the target reader to the profile of this important Mauritian politician in a footnote (T: 98). The other quoted politicians are Gäetan Duval (example 31) and Mohamed Razack (example 32). Each time the translator provides a brief biographical note of the figure in question, mentioning the political parties that they represented. 30. “à propos de Ramgoolam” (O: 107) 31. “Et, tout comme moi je brûlais d’un désir inavouable pour Ayesha, chez les politiciens aussi, Gäetan, le roi créole, le grand adversaire de l’indépendance, faisait maintenant des yeux doux à Ramgoolam, […]” (O: 145)

“na temat Ramgoolama” (T: 98)35 “I podobnie jak ja płona˛łem skrytym uczuciem do Ayeshy, ws´ród polityków Gäetan, król kreolski, wielki przeciwnik niepodległos´ci, robił teraz słodkie oczy do Ramgoolama, […]” (T: 133)36

32. “Avocat… comme Razack Mohamed ou “Adwokat… jak Razack Mohamed czy Gäetan Duval” (O: 216) Gäetan Duval” (T: 200)37

33 “Probably the British authorities were not interested in the arrival of the Chinese family in Port Louis because it was 1967 and they had other more important matters on their minds because of the political situation on the island” (T: 53). 34 “Hey! And when will the Hindu be masters of the world?, said some to the Hindus who cared about the island’s independence” (T: 72). 35 “as far as Ramgoolam is concerned” (T: 98).

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One of the subsequent historical events cited in the novel is the “student protest riots” of 1975. In a footnote the translator points out that it was in fact a rebellion of high school students, and that the word “student” appearing in the original text, mistakenly used by the writer, is a loanword from the English language. The translator then provides the historical context of the event and bibliographical sources (T: 192–193). This is an interesting example, which shows that the translator takes on the role not only of an “explainer” of the source culture, but also of an insightful researcher, and hence a very attentive reader. 32. “c’était la grande manifestation de 1975, “to była wielka manifestacja z 1975 roku, ce qu’on appelle ‘la révolte des która˛ nazywa sie˛ na Mauritiusie ‘rewolta étudiants’ à Maurice” (O: 208) studentów’” (T: 192)38

Sometimes the desire to explain and add all the information to the reader seems excessive. This is the case in the footnote accompanying example (33), in which the translator introduces the target reader to the vicissitudes of daily life on the island by explaining: “S´rodkiem komunikacji publicznej na Mauritiusie sa˛ autobusy kursuja˛ce pomie˛dzy kilkoma rozrzuconymi po wyspie dworcami w wie˛kszych miastach (les gares routières)” (T: 99).39 The reader will fully understand the text without this knowledge. 33. “des campagnards arrivés en ville par autobus” (O: 109)

“wies´niaków przyjez˙dzaja˛cych do miasta autobusami” (T: 99)40

The local flora, almost absent from the descriptions, appears in the following two passages (examples 34, 35). The translator uses dictionary equivalents from the target language. In the case of the first of these names , “banian”, the translator provides a detailed definition in a footnote: “Banian, inaczej figowiec bengalski – drzewo z rodziny morwowatych, z jego poziomych gałe˛zi wyrastaja˛ pe˛dy, które zakorzeniaja˛ sie˛ w ziemi, tworza˛ system dodatkowych pni, co stanowi podpore˛ dla nadzwyczaj rozłoz˙ystej korony drzewa (niekiedy o powierzchni dwóch hektarów)” (T: 60).41 36 “And just as I was burning with secret affection for Ayesha, among the politicians Gäetan, the Creole king, the great opponent of independence, was now making eyes at Ramgoolam, […]” (T: 133). 37 “A lawyer … like Razack Mohamed or Gäetan Duval” (T: 200). 38 “it was the great demonstration of 1975, which is called in Mauritius the ‘student protest riots’” (T: 192). 39 “The forms of public transport in Mauritius are buses running between several bus stations scattered around the island in cities (les gares routières)” (T: 99). 40 “villagers coming to town by bus” (T: 99). 41 “Banyan, or Bengal fig tree – a tree of the mulberry family; shoots sprout from its horizontal branches and root into the ground, forming a system of additional trunks, which provides support for the tree’s remarkably broad crown (sometimes two hectares in area)” (T: 60).

Does the reader really have to understand everything?

34. “j’ai vu le grand banian” (O: 67)

“zobaczyłem wielki figowiec bengalski” (T: 60)42

35. “un faux amendier” (O: 101)

“pod wilczomleczem migdałolistnym” (T: 92)43

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Third language(s)

Other languages that appear in the novel are short sentences written in Creole, single words spoken by the characters in English or, rarely, short sentences in German (T: 35, 86). Each time the translator quotes them in their original form in the main text and translates them into the target language in footnotes (examples 36, 37, 38). Regarding the last of these examples, the translator, in a footnote, apart from the translation into Polish, informs the readers about the origin of the quotation – it is a passage from the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale (T: 86) 36. “Couma to appéle ? […] Mo même Prince Feisal” (O : 55)

“Couma to appéle ? […] Mo même Prince Feisal” (T: 48)44

37. “Hullo there, what’s that you’re saying?” (O: 168) 38. “Die Bremer Musikanten sind ein Hahn, ein Hund, eine Katze und ein…” (O : 95)

“Hullo there, what’s that you’re saying?” (T: 168)45 “Die Bremer Musikanten sind ein Hahn, ein Hund, eine Katze und ein…” (T: 86)46

In the next example (39), the translator showed great linguistic creativity by producing the neologism ‘Laskaruchy’, with a pejorative connotation by means of an augmentative for the proper name. The translator does not translate the authorial footnote literally, but adds information about the negative connotations of this word (T: 50), based on his external knowledge. On the other hand, Amal Sewtohul, by using the term ‘Lascars’ and giving an explanation in a footnote, only informs the readers that this is the name of one of the ethnic groups. He does not say anything about the negative perception of this community (O: 57). The very fact that the authorial footnote is placed in the original should be noted; since the author explains a term that is obvious to the native Mauritian audience, presumably, the footnote is intended to be of help to the French-speaking readers outside the island, such as the French. In this case, the

42 43 44 45 46

“I saw a great Bengal fig tree” (T: 60). “under the wood spurge” (T: 92). “What’s your name? […] My name is Prince Feisal” (T: 48). “Hello there, what’s that you’re saying?” (T: 168). “The Town Musicians of Bremen are a rooster, a dog, a cat and a…” (T: 86).

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Polish translator adds what is implicit for the author himself, and what will certainly escape the attention of the non-native audience. 39. “Les Lascars” (O: 57) Author’s footnote: “Lascar – nom dérogatoire donné aux musulmans à Maurice.”

“A Laskaruchy” (T: 50)47 The translator’s footnote: “Every ethnic group in Mauritius has some pejorative name; ‘Lascar’ is a Muslim (author’s note)” (T: 50)

When translating a passage (example 40) in which the Creole words: “zoli femme” are used, the translator adds in a footnote an explanation of the Mauritian Creole spelling and the semantic differences between French and Creole: “Przytaczaja˛c wypowiedz´ po kreolsku, Amal Sewtohul uz˙ywa na ogół pisowni francuskiej. Współczes´nie na Mauritiusie obowia˛zuja˛ zasady ortograficzne ustalone przez krajowa˛ Akademie˛. Według tych coraz powszechniej respektowanych norm, sformułowanie ‘ładna kobieta’ nalez˙ałoby zapisac´ po kreolsku jako ‘zoli fam’. W kreolskim maurytyjskim nie istnieje rozróz˙nienie na ‘ładny (fr. jolie) oraz pie˛kny (beau, belle), wie˛c ‘zoli fam’ moz˙e oznaczac´ zarówno kobiete˛ po prostu ‘ładna˛’, jak równiez˙ zdecydowanie pie˛kna˛’”(T: 56).48 This is definitely a footnote written by a translator who is simultaneously a philologist and pedagogue, and educates his audience in detail. Readers with a similar predilection will certainly appreciate this information, while for others it may be an unnecessary explicitation. This is also the case for the footnote where the translator notes that: “Ayo – wykrzyknik po kreolsku, stosowany na pocza˛tku wypowiedzi, wyraz˙a najróz˙niejsze stany emocjonalne, od zdziwienia, rados´ci, po zasmucenie, przygne˛bienie etc.” (T: 199–200).49 40. “[…] et ils filtraient lourdement avec elle, en l’appelant ‘zoli femme’ […]” (O: 63)

“Flirtowali z nia˛ niezre˛cznie, nazywaja˛c ja˛ ‘zoli femme […]’” (T: 56)50

Example 41 is quite interesting; apart from its educational value, it complements the translation itself: the translator, in order to achieve full equivalence and a play on words, translates the rules of French phonetics: “W je˛zyku francuskim litera h

47 “And the Lascars” (T: 50). 48 “When quoting a statement in Creole, Amal Sewtohul generally uses the French spelling. Nowadays, the spelling rules set by the national Academy apply in Mauritius. By these increasingly respected standards, the phrase a pretty woman should be written in creole as zoli fam. In Mauritian creole there is no distinction between pretty (Fr. jolie) and beautiful (Fr. beau, belle), hence zoli fam can mean a woman who is simply pretty as well as definitely beautiful” (T: 56). 49 “Ayo – an exclamation in creole, used at the beginning of an utterance, expresses a wide variety of emotional states, from surprise, joy, to sadness, low spirits, etc.” (T: 199–200). 50 “They flirted awkwardly with her, calling her zoli femme […]” (T: 56).

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nie jest wymawiana, co w tym wypadku daje forme˛ “Mohammad A-li”, sta˛d nawia˛zanie do słynnego amerykan´skiego boksera” (T: 276).51 41. “Pas vraiment. Tu n’aurais eu qu’à ajouter ‘Ah’ et t’aurais eu Mohammad Ah Lee, un peu comme le boxeur” (O: 301).

“Niekoniecznie. Wystarczyłoby, z˙ebys´ dodał ‘Ah’, i miałbys´ Mohammada Ah Lee, troche˛ jak bokser” (T: 276).

Mauritius is known for its multilingualism, which the translator also mentions in one of the footnotes (example 42) by giving a definition of the Hakka language: “Jeden z je˛zyków chin´skich, którym mówi sie˛ głównie w południowych prowincjach kraju, na przykład w Guangdongu, ska˛d pochodzi ojciec Laval” (T: 116).52 In the next of the selected passages, the Bhojpuri language appears (example 43). In this case, too, the translator provides an explanation about this language in a footnote (T: 170). 42. “Canaille venue des tripots de Bretagne, coolies du Bihar, prisonniers des guerres tribales du Mozambique et de Madagascar, hakkas fuyant les guerres et les impôts de l’empereur de Chine” (O: 126)

“Kanaliami przybyłymi z tawern Bretanii, kulisami z Biharu, jen´cami plemiennych walk z Mozambiku i na Madagaskarze, Chin´czykami z południa Pan´stwa S´rodka, mówia˛cymi je˛zykami hakka, uciekaja˛cymi przed wojnami i podatkami cesarzy” (T: 116)53

43. “Oh, il y a des types venus un peu partout, des gars de la campagne, ils parlent bhojpuri entre eux” (O: 184)

“Och, ludzie sa˛ zewsza˛d, sa˛ chłopaki ze wsi, miedzy soba˛ mówia˛ w bhodz´puri, […]” (T: 170)54

9.

Mauritianisms

Two mauritianisms can be identified in the novel. The first word, “brède”, (example 44) means plants, and has been translated as “Chinese vegetables”. The translator explains this term more extensively in a footnote: “Nazwa ta oznacza zielone jadalne lis´cie róz˙nych rosna˛cych na wyspie ros´lin, zjadane najcze˛´sciej

51 “In French letter h is not pronounced, which in this case gives the form ‘Mohammad A-li’, hence the reference to the famous American boxer” (T: 276). 52 “One of the Chinese languages spoken mainly in the southern provinces of the country, for example in Guangdong, where Laval’s father comes from” (T: 116). 53 “Scoundrels coming from the taverns of Brittany, coolies from Bihar, captives of tribal warfare from Mozambique and Madagascar, the Chinese from the south of the Middle Kingdom, speaking Hakka languages, fleeing the wars and taxes of the emperors” (T: 116). 54 “Oh, people are from everywhere, there are village boys, they talk among themselves in bhojpuri, […]” (T: 170).

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po uwarzeniu” (T: 67).55 As for the phrase “de dehors” (example 45), the author himself uses a footnote informing the reader that in Mauritius this expression means “abroad” (O: 72), which makes us assume that the original edition was addressed to a wide Francophone audience, not necessarily Mauritian. The translator chose not to translate the authorial footnote; he wove the key point into the translated passage (T: 64). 44. “brèdes de Chine” (O: 12)

“chin´skie warzywa” (T: 8)56

45. “‘C’est pas une boîte, ai-je essayé, c’est un conteneur’, en donnant un ton de grandeur à ce mot : ‘Ça vient de dehors, de Hong Kong” (O: 72). Author’s footnote: “‘de dehors’ expression utilisée à Maurice, pour signifier l’étranger” (O : 72)

“‘To nie pudło’, próbowałem sie˛ bronic´, ‘to kontener’, wymawiaja˛c to słowo podniosłym tonem: ‘Przypłyna˛ł z zagranicy, z Hongkongu” (T: 64).57

The above analysis clearly shows that the translator breaks the principle of “transparency”: he is not invisible; on the contrary, he becomes visible and even “brings his own voice to the pages of the book” (Henry 2000, p. 239) There is no doubt that the translator’s visibility stems from the fact that this is a critical edition, and publications of this kind enable the translator to become a commentator, a literary critic, a biographer, and the author of the preface. Such multiple functions also involve the use of footnotes that serve a variety of purposes (Henry 2000, p. 234). Henry reminds us that such principles govern, for example, the French critical series Pléiade. It seems that in the case of not only the volume under scrutiny, but the entire Frankofonia Literaria series, the translator and series editor in one person is following this path. A picture emerges from the footnotes of a translator and researcher with great subject matter knowledge, which he confirms in the afterword (this will be elaborated on later). The translator is often seen as a teaching practitioner, wishing to familiarize the Polish reader as fully as possible with a culture that is foreign, as he implicitly assumes. Hence the presence not only of footnotes closely related to the text and possible culturally foreign elements, but also of such footnotes that are intended to broaden the reader’s knowledge.

55 “The name means the green edible leaves of various plants growing on the island, usually eaten after cooking” (T: 67). 56 “Chinese vegetables” (T: 8). 57 “‘It’s not a box,’ I tried to defend myself, ‘it’s a container,’ pronouncing the word in a solemn tone: ‘It came from abroad, from Hong Kong’” (T: 64).

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Afterword as a specific translation paratext

The main feature of a paratext in the form of a preface or an afterword in translation is that it shows the recipient from the target culture, whom the author of the paratext wants to prepare for an encounter with another culture by including information as well as fact-based, cultural and linguistic explanations to prevent misunderstanding and enable a more complete reception of the work (cf. Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙ 2016, p. 62–63). In addition to a note from the publisher, the preface and afterword are, as Risterucci-Roudnicky (2008, p. 48) believes, linguistic and intercultural mediators. The following criteria may be useful in their classification: – the linguistic and cultural relation of the author of the preface to the translated work: within this category, three subgroups can be distinguished: the author’s preface, the allographic preface, and the translator’s preface; – the identity of the author of the preface: this may be the author, the translator or the publisher; sometimes all three possibilities appear within the same edition; – the date of the preface from the first edition of the translation or from the retranslation; this criterion permits an analysis of the translation from a historical perspective (Risterucci-Roudnicky 2008, p. 49). As Boz˙ena Tokarz, following Gérard Genette, reminds us, the paratext is always a place of “transaction or – as Danuta Danek (cf. 1980) prefers– games with the target audience”. According to the French researcher, the way in which paratexts (peritexts and epitexts) are constructed allows us to read the image of the author themselves, the profile of the publishing house and, in the case of translation, also the image of the translator (cf. Genette, 1987). Tokarz (2017, p. 16) adds that “[i]n translation, the possible field of peritexts expands because they are the place where the ‘transaction’ between the translator and the author and between the translator and the reader and the reader’s idea of the author takes place”. What also matters is that the peritext prepared by the translator allows us to read the translator’s strategy, as well as their state of knowledge of the source culture and the state of knowledge of the audience in the target culture. Let us recall again the words of the Polish researcher (Tokarz 2017, p. 17): “The translator in the peritext can refer to the stereotype on the one hand, secondly – they can perpetuate it, and thirdly – transcend it. This is because the paratext is a confirmation of the translator’s interpretation of the original as a result of a change in the factors conducive to understanding the text on the part of the recipient in a different cultural space-time”. The afterword is, in the case of translation, a particular form of paratext; as Maria Papadima (2011, p. 22) notes, it is a window in which the translator shows

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themselves. In the afterword, the translator most frequently undertakes the task of “illuminating all possible aspects of the work” (Tokarz 2017, p. 19–20), that is, they introduce both the author of the work and the work itself; moreover, taking into account the state of knowledge of the readers from the target culture, they add what is unknown, and they also often elaborate on their translation dilemmas. Papadima (2011, p. 15) states that the translator’s voice can often be heard in the space surrounding the translation, that is, in their peritext (preface, afterword, footnotes and commentaries). In this non-autonomous space, since it is created by the translation, situated on its periphery, outside the text, nevertheless being part of the book, the translator can afford to talk about the work and/or its author, but also – implicitly or explicitly – about their own work.

11.

The role of the afterword in Made in Mauritius

The extensive afterword in Made in Mauritius by the translator of the novel, Krzysztof Jarosz, takes up 25 pages and has 30 footnotes. The afterword is a critical analysis modelled on scholarly texts, which is not surprising given the translator and the publishing series. In the first part of the text the translator presents the author’s biography, his earlier works, presents the history of the island in great detail (focusing especially on the events of 1968, immediately preceding the independence of Mauritius), discusses the multi-ethnicity, multiculturalism and multilingualism of this island country, describes the symbolism of the flag, and quotes the motto of Mauritius. The translator then explains the reasons why Amal Sewtohul and many other Mauritian writers compose in French. In the second part of the afterword, the translator briefly presents the plot of the novel and the main character, and draws attention to the etymology of his name. The translator presents his interpretation of the work, which is academic in nature; he analyses the intra-textual emblematic metaphor (la mise en abyme) of the container known from the novel, and he also uses the notion of matryoshka metaphor (footnote p. 295). In his reflections on the work, he refers to the output of well-known contemporary Mauritian writers: Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Carl de Souza and Alain GordonGentil, who, through their novels, perpetuated the image of the Sino-Mauritian as a small merchant owning une boutique. The author of the afterword also refers to Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, Proust’s madeleine or Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro. In his analysis, the translator stresses the writer’s use of parody and desacralization, notes elements of magical realism, and emphasizes the fact that the walls of the container of the main character, Laval, constitute a kind of palimpsest of Mauritius’ history. The author of the afterword refers the

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reader to scholarly works by researchers of Mauritian literature: Srilata Ravi and Kumari Issur recommends watching the program featuring Amal Sewtohul as part of the Questions pour île en île interview series. To recapitulate, one can say that Krzysztof Jarosz shows himself in the “window” of the afterword as a literary researcher who creates a “postscript guide”58. Reading the afterword allows the reader to fully understand all aspects of the novel, to grasp the hidden allusions, and to see the work in a broader literary and historical perspective.

12.

Does the reader really have to understand everything? In lieu of a summary

As Umberto Eco (1985) remarked, the reader’s task is to fill in the unspoken or unsaid spaces while reading, and the spaces will remain so until a specific reading by a specific recipient. Usually the average projected reader of the original fills in these unsaid spaces with content without any problem. In the case of translation, it is the translator who becomes the first reader. The translator reads the text through a double filter: an expert in the source culture (i. e. a reader who can fill in all the gaps) and a reader immersed in the target culture, and therefore aware of the knowledge of the projected reader of their translation. In addition, the translator reads the text from his own position melded from his cultural background and identity. It is up to the translator, Henry reminds us, “to enable the encounter with the Other, and thus to choose the explicitation, through various means, including the translator’s footnotes, to leave parts of the text intended for the reader unexplained and foreign, or to remove the otherness, by ‘naturalization’ or ‘adaptation’ of the work”59 (Henry 2000, p. 237). Without a doubt, the strategy chosen by the translator says a lot about them. Boz˙ena Tokarz’s (2017, p. 16) words are rather meaningful in this respect: There is (…) a relationship between paratexts and the translator’s strategy, attitude to foreignness and the concept of the function of translation in the perspective of the receiving culture, as represented by translators, critics and researchers. Paradoxically, while aiming at objectivity, they bear witness to the manipulation of reading in the name of subjective interpretation or the so-called interpretation proper, which does not exist. They always define the literary and cultural consciousness of individuals and the era. While remaining closely related to the main text, they create a new literary and mental 58 This is a term used with reference to translators of Polish literature into Slovenian by Boz˙ena Tokarz (cf. 2017, p. 20). 59 “rendre possible la rencontre de l’Autre, et donc de choisir tantôt d’expliciter, par différents moyens, dont la N.d.T., tantôt de laisser au texte proposé à son lecteur une part d’ombre et d’étrange, tantôt de gommer l’altérité, en ‘naturalisant’ ou ‘acclimatant’ l’œuvre”.

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reality based on the way in which the original is anchored in the second language, literature and culture.

Given the above, it seems that Krzysztof Jarosz as a translator takes on a dual role that can be described as that of a “missionary” and a “consacrant”. A missionary, Elz˙bieta Skibin´ska argues, is a translator who undertakes a mission, for example, the mission of bringing culture closer to us. Krzysztof Jarosz does it by, for example, providing the text of the translation with a paratext that makes it possible to better understand “his” author. This role, in the case of the creator of the Frankofonia Literaria series, is connected with the role of the “consacrant”, which is described in more detail by Pascale Casanova (cf. 2002) and recalled by Elz˙bieta Skibin´ska (cf. 2012), among others. This is all about a translator who is affiliated with a university institution and thus has an impact on the promotion of foreign culture and literature within a native audience;,). Boz˙ena Tokarz notices a similar tendency in the case of translations of Polish literature into Slovenian. She writes about researchers and at the same time translators, equipped, of course, with linguistic, encyclopaedic, but also critical-research competences, which are revealed in paratexts. These are translators who feel “obliged to produce in the reader the necessary knowledge about the text”60 (Tokarz 2017, p. 20). Krzysztof Jarosz also seems to be such a translator. An analysis of the translator’s paratexts, i. e. the footnotes and the afterword, in the Polish translation of Made in Mauritius shows that the translator takes on the obligation to provide the reader with the knowledge necessary to read the work comprehensively. The footnotes in the main text concern various phenomena, especially cultural ones, are very detailed, often meticulous, and often contain encyclopaedic knowledge, without which the reception of the work would be possible, though perhaps less complete. Undoubtedly, their absence would not prevent the reader from understanding the universal message of the work; moreover, even cultural elements exotic to a Polish audience would be somehow understandable (thanks to the context, general knowledge, or the reader’s own research, which is easier in the era of the internet, as mentioned earlier). This knowledge is organized and consolidated by the afterword. From the vantage point of translation studies, the presence of paratexts, in the form of footnotes and the afterword, undoubtedly brings in great value: in this way, the reader is not only able to get to know the work of an unknown author, but also to learn more about the translator himself, who steps out of the shadows. The absence and transparency of a fiction translator is always fiction. Here this illusion is shattered by the first translator’s footnote; moreover, the translator

60 “zobowia˛zani do wytworzenia u czytelnika koniecznej wiedzy o teks´cie” (Tokarz, 2017, p. 20).

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shows himself by what and how he comments. As Mireille Calle-Gruber rightly (2000, p. 9) pointed out, [o]n the edges of the textual stream, on the planes of the pages, there dwells another book. Hybridizations, transplants, rejections, transfusions take place. In fact, anything can happen on paratextual surfaces, an area of intersections. Paratexts are the energy reserves from which the writing tissue draws.

The above analysis shows that paratexts are an extremely interesting and promising area for research, where the translator, usually hidden modestly behind the annotation on the first page: “translated by”, has the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and to show their face. In the case of the Frankofonia Literaria series, the translator’s emergence from the shadows and his visible presence in the translated text is legitimized by the concept of the series, hence the combination of translation itself with an encyclopaedic knowledge and literary analysis. Ultimately, it is the reader of the translation who will choose what to take from the translation additions; it is possible to read only the translation, the translation and its footnotes, or to read the whole, including the afterword, depending on the reader’s own needs. Let us return to the title question: does the reader really have to understand everything? One might be tempted to say that they do not have to, and, what is more, they are never able to do so fully. All in all, the reading will always be enriching for the reader as an encounter with the Other, and it is up to the reader to decide how much to take from it for themselves. (Translated by Teresa Czogała-Koczy)

References Antoine, Fabrice: ‘Traduire les titres de la presse : humour et lexiculture’, in: Ateliers 1998/ 15, Lille. Bednarczyk Anna (2011). ‘Polskie parateksty “Poematu bez bohatera” Anny Achmatowej’, in: Mie˛dzy Oryginałem a Przekładem 2011/XVII. Berman, Antoine: ‘Critique, commentaire et traduction (Quelques réflexions à partir de Benjamin et de Blnachot)’, in: Po&sie 1986/37, Paris, p. 88–106. Calle-Gruber, Mireille: ‘Au titre de la promesse’, in: Calle-Gruber, M. / Zawisza, E. (eds.), Paratextes. Études aux bords du texte. Paris, Montréal, Torino 2000, p. 7–13. Casanova, Pascale: ‘Consécration et accumulation de capital littéraire’, in: Actes de la recherches en sciences sociales 2002/144. Danek, Danuta: Dzieło literackie jako ksia˛z˙ka. Warszawa 1980. Eco, Umberto: Lector in fabula, Milan 1985. Genette, Gérard: Seuils, Paris 1987. Genette, Gérard: ‘Palimpsesty’, in: Markiewicz, H. (ed.): Współczesna teoria badan´ literackich za granica˛. Antologia. T. 4, cz. 2. Kraków 1992.

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Henry, Jaqueline: ‘De l’érudition à l’échec: la note du traducteur’, Meta, 2000/45, p. 228– 240. Ladmiral, Jean-René. 1994. Traduire: Théorèmes pour la traduction. Paris 1994. Lefèbvre, Julie: ‘Approche syntaxique de la note de bas de page’, mémoire, Université de Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle 1998. Papadima, Maria, 2011: ‘Głos tłumacza w periteks´cie jego przekładu: przedmowa, posłowie, przypisy i inne zwierzenia’, Mie˛dzy Oryginałem a Przekładem 2011/17, p. 13–32. Paquier, Marie-Claire: ‘Traduire la fiction’, in: Barret-Ducroq, Françoise (ed.), Traduire l’Europe, Paris 1992. Risterucci-Roudnicky, Danielle: Introduction à l’analyse des oeuvres traduites. Paris 2008. Sardin, Pascale:‘De la note du traducteur comme commentaire: entre texte, paratexte et prétexte’, in: Palimpsestes [en ligne] 2007/20, mis en ligne le 01 septembre 2009. http://jo urnals.openedition.org/palimpsestes/99. Sewtohul, Amal: Made in Mauritius, Paris 2012. Sewtohul, Amal: Made in Mauritius. Przekład i opracowanie naukowe tekstu – Krzysztof Jarosz. Seria: Frankofonia Literaria. Red. Krzysztof Jarosz, tom III. Gdan´sk-Katowice 2021. Skibin´ska, Elz˙bieta: ‘O przypisach tłumacza: wprowadzenie do lektury’, in: Skibin´ska, Elz˙bieta (ed.): Przypisy tłumacza, Wrocław–Kraków 2009. Skibin´ska, Elz˙bieta: ‘Missionnaire, consacrant, passeur, hérault? Figures du traducteur de littérature polonaise en France’, in: Romanica Wratislaviensia 2012/LIX, p. 185–201. Tokarz, Boz˙ena: ‘Parateksty jako wyraz koncepcji przekładu’, Przekłady Literatur Słowian´skich 2017/8, cz. 1, p. 15–35. Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙, Joanna: Szkice o przekładzie literackim: literatura rodem z Quebecu w Polsce, Katowice 2016. Woz´nicka, Weronika: ‘Przypisy tłumacza w polskim przekładzie zbioru esejów Terra incognito Draga Jancˇara’, in: Przekłady Literatur Słowian´skich 2017/8, cz. 1, p. 220–231.

Mikołaj Woz´niak

Chapter 10 – Intercultural competence in business: on the use of tools of bridging cultural gaps on the example of Polish managers working with Chinese teams

Abstract The paper assesses the use and usefulness of intercultural competence in the business environment of Polish managers working with Chinese co-workers in multinational firms. The key goal is to determine whether the constituents of competence, those being abilities, attitudes, and knowledge (as proposed by Deardorff) are manifested in managers’ daily work. Another objective was to determine the extent to which Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions can be used as a tool of facilitating communication between cultures in a business situation. To evaluate this, a series of interviews with the Polish managers that have been working with Chinese co-workers has been conducted. It has been found that Deardorff ’s model a) holds and b) can be used as a template whilst managing a multicultural team. Furthermore, the findings suggest that intercultural competence is more likely to be treated as primarily acquired rather than innate, as it can be further developed and perfected as a tool. According to the findings, the key intercultural traits that a manager should exhibit were openness, communicativeness, and adaptability (characteristics mentioned by 63%, 55%, and 36% of the interviewed respectively). Similarly, the interviews have shown multiple traits of Chinese business culture that can constitute hurdles for a Polish manager. These have been confirmed to be overlapping with Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions, particularly in terms of individualism, tolerance of uncertainty, and long-term orientation. Keywords: Intercultural competence, cultural dimensions, Poland-China, intercultural management

Introduction In the book “The Little Prince”, Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote that the asteroid of the protagonist was discovered in 1909 by a Turkish astronomer. The said scientist then attended an international conference eager to share his findings with academia. However, because he was wearing traditional Turkish attire, nobody believed in what he said. In 1920, the said astronomer gave that presentation once again, this time dressed elegantly and in a more Western fashion. This time, everybody accepted his report (Saint-Exupery 1943, ch. 3). This, I believe, is a

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stellar example of just how important applied intercultural competence can be in business situations. The article aims to evaluate whether (if at all) international competence is or can be utilized in successful management between cultures. I found a worrying scarcity of analyses regarding Poland-China business management in the abovementioned context. The scientific objective is to start filling that niche, with a hope that this topic will be then further elaborated on in future research. In the first part, the definitions needed to proceed with the analysis and perform a literature review are provided – although the lack of scientific articles on the Polish-Chinese topic has forced me to concentrate on other, less formal sources such as online news articles. Then, the usability of intercultural competence in business will be tested as based on the experiences of Polish managers in China. In this assessment, I chose to interview a set of international managers of Polish origin that have worked with a Chinese team in China, Poland, or remotely, for a period of at least 3 years. The interviewed specialists have been selected to represent consulting and sales sector rather than services or production – it was made sure that their experiences are all connected to export. Finally, in the third section I will analyse the findings and formulate conclusions for both researchers and business practitioners.

1.

Setting the scene

1.1

Definitions

Before proceeding further, there are several concepts that need to be described, namely culture and the competence of communicating between cultures. The first one will be defined following the proposal of Geert Hofstede, one of the key actors in the field and the father of Cultural Dimensions. He states that culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another” (Nakata 2009, p. 3.). It is the second term the definition of which is somewhat of a bone of contention between researchers. One of the many characteristics of intercultural competence is that numerous definitions position it as a single skill, a trait, or a set of behaviours or abilities. As a proponent of one of the key schools of thought in that matter, Liu (2014, p. 7–15) describes it as a range of behavioural and cognitive skills that facilitate the communication between representatives of distinct cultures. This is reinforced by other authors such as Alizadeh and Chavan (2016) and Messner and Schaefer (2012, ch. 1–2.).

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A slightly different proposal comes from Rathje who in turn proposed a rather more structured description of the term within a single, relatively complex sentence: “Given that culture is understood as existing within human groups, characterised by cohesion that is due to familiarity with inherent differences between them, then intercultural competence can be defined as a culture-generic skill which is required in interactions between individuals from different human groups who are experiencing foreignness as a consequence of their mutual ignorance of the spectra of differences between them with a view to producing culture by creating familiarity and thus cohesion amongst the individuals involved, allowing them to pursue interactional goals” (Rathje 2007).

A possible flaw here is that the skill is a requirement, rather than a facilitator, of cohesion between groups, which in turn diminishes its practical application. While these propositions are compelling, I believe the first one is too minimalist in its nature, whereas the latter is convoluted and generates more questions than answers. That is why for the needs of this work, I will instead follow the definition by Deardorff (2009, ch. 2) whose model is more practical, as she sees intercultural competence as more of a tool, a set of abilities allowing one to better communicate across cultures and bridge the gap between them; a definition also utilized by Magala (Korczyn´ski 2017, p. 152–154.). The first group, i. e. abilities, comprises cultural self-awareness, culture-specific knowledge, socio-linguistic awareness, and grasp of global trends and issues. Intercultural skills consist of listening, observation, patience, and empathy. Finally, the attitudes described by Deardorff are respect, openness, tolerance, and curiosity. Put simply, intercultural competence may be understood as an array of tools – i. e. skills, attitudes as well as acquired knowledge that facilitate the communication between representatives of distinct cultural groups. Another definition is connected directly to the highly distinct (from a Western perspective) concept of guanxi (Chin. 关系). Put in simple terms, it is a Chinese form of networking, but also an “informal mechanism that can fill the institutional voids in the Chinese market by providing business information and market opportunities through personal connections.” (Guo et al. 2018, p. 455–464.) To summarize and further simplify – guanxi is a network of informal and mutual business support – this is also what makes it different from the concept of Western networking, which tends to be limited to business only. The last definition is that of the mianzi and the phenomenon of losing it. The term mianzi (Chin. 面子) literally means “face” and stands for personal brand, honour, showing how reliable and useful someone is to the group. Losing it by conflicts or admittance of not knowing particular information directly endangers the social standing of an individual. Kwok et al. add that it is a matter of

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respect, especially in public settings and that “Chinese people attempt to avoid inappropriate behaviour or comments that may create embarrassments and disappointments of others” (Kwok / Xu 2015). From a more linguistic perspective, a certain connection can be drawn between this viewpoint and the concept of FTA – Face Threatening Acts as presented by Brown and Levinson (Brown / Levinson 1987), which challenges the individual’s social standing in a similar fashion.

1.2

Literature review

As there is arguably a noticeable scarcity of academic research regarding the intercultural competence that addresses directly the Polish managers dealing with Chinese teams, I will instead concentrate on the literature regarding three topics: cultural differences between the West and China (e. g. Portugal, USA), Chinese business culture from the Polish perspective, and strictly theoretical framework as defined by Hofstede, Deardorff, Brown and Levinson that will be helpful in performing the analysis of the interviews. In terms of the first topic, that being the experiences of Western managers in China, Selmer presents a rather comprehensive description of differences in business culture between Western European vs. North American expat managers in China and their Chinese local counterparts, emphasizing the role of language and behavioural barrier (Selmer 2001). A similar view is presented by Liu and Mackinnon, who in turn concentrated on assessing the comparative management practices on the example of Europe and China (Liu / Mackinnon 2002). Their finding was a different approach to hierarchicality. This was further enhanced by Guo et al., (2018, p. 455–464) who found that foreign managers in China, as non-locals, will never have the 1:1 networking power when compared to Chinese workers as they are not a part of the local culture. A shared trait of all these analyses is the extent to which those two cultures, i. e. the Chinese one and the “Western” are different and at times, non-compatible with each other. The matter of Polish cultural experiences in China (in terms of business relations) is considerably under-researched, so I will instead resort to online news articles. Grochot et al. (2019) delineate the specificity of business culture in China, emphasizing the significance of guanxi as opposed to plain Western networking. Similar summaries of the guanxi phenomenon are presented by Bernat (2014) and Sobczak (2017), who arrive at analogous observations, mostly describing the Chinese business culture and not investing in scientific conclusions. A worthwhile contribution comes in Karczewski (2017), who presents valuable insights regarding the culture of China and the effect it has on the

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Chinese economy, i. e. through the emergence of economic patriotism, elements of meritocracy, and long-term planning. Finally, for the theoretical tools needed to compare the culture of Poland and China, after much deliberation, Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions (Hofstede 2011, ch. 1.) was selected over Trompenaars’ (1997) concept on the same topic. It is because the first one may be considered to have a very practical approach towards the aspects of culture whereas the latter may at times appear too theoretical.

2.

The interview

2.1

Structure

To inquire about the relationships between Polish managers and their Chinese co-workers, I conducted a set of qualitative interviews. As Poles managing teams in China are still somewhat rare, I approached eleven such individuals. They were freelancers as well as representatives of notable firms and institutions connected to export such as a leading commercial bank that supports corporations selling in China, Polish-Chinese Business Council (PChRB) tasked with promoting commerce, and finally FASING Group – a 100% Polish-owned company and industry leader with physical presence in 14 locations across the world that has been selling chains (that are used in mining, energy, lifting, and marine industries) to China since the 1970s. Due to external limitations (COVID, limited supply of Polish managers working in China), this analysis is to be treated as introductory research, which can later be a point of reference for other researchers in their further deepening of the concept. For the needs of clearer data presentation and because most managers provided more than one answer to a question (making it a de facto multiple choice scheme), I will be using percentages instead of numbers. As regards the composition, the interview comprises fourteen questions related to the managers’ experiences with their Chinese team members – the challenges in communication they have been facing due to cultural and language barriers, the misconceptions, the similarities and dissimilarities with the Polish work environment, etc. Moreover, as intercultural competence is more of an academic term, all the questions only relate to the concept indirectly, so as not to startle the interlocutors with unnecessary scientific terminology. Each interview has been performed electronically in the third quarter of 2021 in the Polish language, each one lasted for up to thirty minutes – a full list of questions is attached in Appendix 1.

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Findings

The first block of interview questions pertained to the relationship between managers and their Chinese co-workers. Over half of the interviewed (55%) said that the communication was at least good. There were some mixed feelings (27%), but the overall reception was positive. Furthermore, each manager admitted to always or almost always being able to come to an agreement with their Chinese team members. However, a majority has experienced some conflict situations – mainly related to maintaining and saving face (27%); there have also been clashes with Chinese managers over competence issues (18%). In terms of communication problems that the managers found in their everyday work, the two phenomena that were being quoted the most was an issue with understanding requests and instructions by Chinese employees (45%) and the matter of Chinese social standing (over a quarter of the interviewed). Only three managers did not encounter any issues. When asked about the possible source of these problems in communication, the interviewed pointed primarily to the concept of face (45%), to the collectivist approach (36%), and guanxi – social networking (18%). The next block of interview questions revolved around similarities and differences between Polish and Chinese business cultures. The most common traits shared were diligence and openness (55% and 18% respectively). It was however the differences that were more diverse.

What are, in your opinion, the main differences in the approach to work between the inhabitants of Poland and China? 4% 14%

Ends over means

14%

Distorted work-life balance Lack of independence / collec!vism No worker loyalty

9% 9%

36% 14%

Low quality of work Lack of crea!vity Hierarchy

Fig. 1. The main traits of Chinese approach to work from the Polish perspective. Source: own work.

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Looking at figure 1, the most commonly quoted differences (from the Polish perspective) were that Chinese workers display little to no work-life balance (36%) and tend to be available to business around the clock. Another strong position was that they tend to concentrate on ends (14%), often disregarding the means of reaching the goals. This is also related to the lower quality of work (14%) – it manifests itself in two ways. On the one hand, the prevalence of ends over means; on the other, having to use more working hours to perform the same task as their Polish equivalent. That in turn is also connected to two more characteristics, i. e. the often found lack of creativity (14%) and lack of independence / visible collectivist tendencies. The strong pressure of hierarchy has also been mentioned. This has been confirmed in a slightly rephrased version of this question regarding the traits that the Chinese workers lacked. These were: lack of initiative, lack of creativity, and the avoidance of responsibility. The next two questions revolved around the managers’ personal solutions on how to keep the communication with Chinese co-workers efficient. The most commonly used methods were hosting frequent meetings/talks (63%), inquiring whether the task has been understood, and making sure that the messages are clear and descriptive to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding (both at 45%). To indirectly inquire about the use of intercultural competence, I asked my interviewees about the traits and abilities that a Polish manager working with a Chinese team should exhibit. The most commonly mentioned characteristics, as seen in figure 2, were openness (being open-minded) and communicativeness, followed by adaptability and understanding the local culture. Surprisingly, this did not list Chinese language skills as crucial – English was used as the common tongue. Other important traits were patience and empathy. The final set of questions was linked with the attitude of Chinese workers towards Polish managers. In terms of the differences in communication, the feelings were mixed: a part admitted their messages with Chinese workers were less formal than these with Polish counterparts, whereas the others described them as considerably more formal. On the other hand, 55% of managers said that they feel they are being considerably more respected as superiors in China than in Poland and that hierarchy is of higher value.

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What quali!es and skills, in your opinion, should a Polish manager working with Chinese team members exhibit? Empathy Pa!ence Understanding local culture Adaptability Communica!veness Openness 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Fig. 2. Crucial qualities and skills of a Polish manager in China. Source: own work.

3.

Analysis

The analysis of the collected interviews has confirmed that there are indeed strong patterns in terms of both Polish-Chinese business culture differences and that the tools provided in the form of intercultural competence are subconsciously utilized by most of the managers. The results and finds correlate well with the concepts proposed by Deardorff and Hofstede, as stated in the initial sections, regarding intercultural competence and national characteristics (i. e. cultural dimensions) respectively.

3.1

Intercultural competence

The findings collected from the interviews show that in the circumstances of working with their Chinese team members, Polish managers do use the skills within the arsenal of intercultural competence. However, this use is purely unconscious, as no user has previously had any experience with the concept in question itself. The data shows clearly that when approaching Chinese co-workers, managers altered their style – they were more open-minded, tolerant, even changed and simplified their way of speaking to be more descriptive to reduce the number of

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possible misunderstandings. The language they used became simpler; they would concentrate on the essence of the message. Similarly, the managers’ attitudes were different when approaching Chinese co-workers in order to optimize information and workflow. Most of the interview has shown an internal system of expectation management and a sense of readiness to adapt to the business environment of China. Judging by the majority of answers, it is clear that their openness to local culture and self-awareness has been strong and further improving in the process of cooperation. Table 1. Components of intercultural competence according to Deardorff found during interviews. Source: Adapted from Deardorff (2009) and own work (interviews). Part Elements identified by Deardorff Findings extracted from interviews Knowledge Cultural self-awareness Not assessed Culture-specific knowledge Yes Socio-linguistic awareness

Yes, illustrated by simplification of language used in communication Grasp of global issues and trends Yes, mostly sector-specific and ChinaWest oriented Skills

Listening Observation

Attitudes

Yes, an effort to comprehend the interlocutor has been mentioned in most cases Yes, a manager’s job is to observe in the first place

Evaluating using patience and perseverance Viewing the world from other people’s perspective

Yes, heightened patience towards workers from other cultures confirmed Yes, the empathetic approach confirmed in a number of interviews

Respect – valuing other cultures Openness – withholding judgment

Yes Yes, connected with patience

Discovery – tolerance for ambiYes, connected also with adaptability guity Curiosity – viewing difference as a Partial – identified by some as more of learning opportunity an “as-is” environment

As shown in table 1, most of the components identified by Deardorff as parts of intercultural competence have been found within the daily activities of the interviewed Polish managers working with Chinese employees. The main points mentioned in a majority of interviews concerned tolerance, openness, and considerably increased readiness to adapt. As intercultural competence is essentially a means of bridging the gaps between cultures, that trait can be understood as key.

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Cultural dimensions

However, worth mentioning is a comparison of cultural differences between Poland and China that the interviewed managers have to tackle at work, using their innate or acquired skills, knowledge, and attitudes to best communicate with their Chinese partners. Geert Hofstede created a practical tool for comparing the national characteristics of different countries. The current list consists of six aspects. These are indulgence, long-term orientation, masculinity, tolerance of uncertainty, individuality, and power distance, with descriptions as described in table 2 below. Table 2. Constituents of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Source: own compilation, adapted from Hofstede. No

Dimension

1

Indulgence

2

Long-term orientation

Definition The ability of people of self-restraint in terms of consumption Measures how pragmatic a society is and how rigidly it follows its traditions

Remarks Restrained societies tend to better control the impulse to self-gratify Also shows how well a nation can adapt

Masculine nations tend to concentrate on wealth and material success, feminine ones – equality and caring The extent to which individuals The higher it is, the more willing feel threatened by the risk society is to take risks The degree to which national culture is characterized by assertiveness or nurturing

3

Masculinity

4

Tolerance of uncertainty

5

Individuality

Approach to the importance of individuals

6

Power distance

An indicator of how well society Also refers to the acceptance of is willing to accept the existence inequalities of power of a set hierarchy

Individualist societies concentrate on individuals and families, collectivist – on groups

Hofstede’s model quantifies cultural characteristics in these categories on a scale from 1 to 100. Based on that, the scores of Poland and China are presented in figure 3. While there is a handful of shared traits such as a similarly low level of indulgence (both nations are fairly restrained), masculinity (both are moderately masculine) and power distance (both acknowledge hierarchy), the levels of longterm orientation, uncertainty avoidance and individualism are staggeringly different. That is also why these particular topics were expected to constitute areas of particular intercultural friction for Polish managers that would have to be overcome when communicating with Chinese co-workers. To illustrate this,

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100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Indulgence

Long-term orienta!on

Uncertainty avoidance China

Masculinity Individualism

Power distance

Poland

Fig. 3. Comparison of cultural dimensions of China and Poland. Source: adapted from Hofstede.

I have put the key intercultural challenges that have been identified during interviews in table 3. Table 3. Comparison of cultural dimensions and traits identified during interviews. Source: own work. Dimension Indulgence Long term orientation Masculinity Tolerance of uncertainty Individualism Power distance

Key traits of Chinese workers identified in interviews Extensive ability to self-restrain – working beyond business hours; leisure time considered a waste Chinese work model reported as more open to rapid change and elastic, to the point of goals being valued whilst sometimes disregarding the means; more pragmatic Stronger tendency to work past business hours, labile work-life balance Considerably less willingness to accept risks – also associated with the risk of losing face (i. e. the concept of mianzi) A strong tendency towards collectivism, diffusion of individual responsibility Mentions of respect towards superiors and the adherence to set office hierarchy stronger than in Poland

The main identified challenges do, in fact, revolve around the attitude towards risk, practicality (particularly ends over means), and collectivist tendencies, as well as the concept of losing social face. They have been categorised into clusters based on Hofstede’s dimensions. A particular surprise presented itself in the

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form of weakened work-life balance in China and working past business hours, even though masculinity scores of both countries were similar. It is worth pointing out that a tendency to work overtime is a sign of both high masculinity and low indulgence levels, as those factors have some tangent points.

4.

Conclusions

The research conducted has shown that, Polish managers working with Chinese co-workers do utilize intercultural competence in their everyday work even though they might be unaware of this. Adaptability, tolerance to newness, and openness to dialogue were among the key skills described in our findings; an observation which overlaps with the extended checklist-esque definition provided by Deardorff that divided competence into knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Similarly, a positive connection was found between the findings and Hofstede’s comparison of cultural dimensions of Poland and China. In particular, the main challenges that the Polish managers were facing when bridging the intercultural gap with their Chinese co-workers did pertain to these characteristics in the model that have shown the main discrepancies between the countries. These were long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, and approach to individualism. Furthermore, it can be assumed that intercultural competence does have a practical, not just academic, application and can be utilized as a tool of support to great effect. There is a surety for this instrument, in the case of international managers working abroad, to serve as a pre- and mid-deployment point of reference, in complementing other tools such as the knowledge of local language and customs. In some sense, intercultural competence already does come into play in the international business environment. Multiple books and guides on the theory of sales have recently been published (such as Jeffrey Gitomer’s “The Sales Bible” 2015) that instruct traders how to be open, ready to communicate, and adapt to the circumstances. However, such examples only partly cover the phenomena discussed in the present paper, and just as the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility has moved from a strictly academic field into the business world, Intercultural Competence is likely to enter the market in the future in a similar fashion.

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References Alizadeh, Somayeh; Chavan, Meena: ‘Cultural competence dimensions and outcomes: a systematic review of the literature’. Health & Social Care In The Community 2016/ 24 (6). Bernat, Maria: ‘Chin´ska kultura biznesu’, 2014, available at www.wu.po.opole.pl/chinska -kultura-biznesu/ [28. 09. 2021]. Brown, Penelope; Stephen C. Levinson: “Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage”. Cambridge: CUP 1987 [1978]). Deardorff, Darla: The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Competence. Thousand Oaks 2009. Gitomer, Jeffrey: The Sales Bible. New Jersey 2015. Grochot, Iwona; Kwiecin´ski, Rafał; Trojnar, Ewa: ‘Specyfika kultury biznesu w Chinach’, 2019, available at https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/handle/item/239430 [28. 09. 2021]. Guo, Ying; Rammal, Hussain; Benson, John; Zhu, Ying, Dowling, Peter: ‘Interpersonal relations in China: Expatriates’ perspective on the development and use of guanxi’, International Business Review 2018/27 (2). Hofstede, Geert: ‘Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context’. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2011/2 (1). Karczewski, Leszek: ‘Wprowadzenie do Badan´ Nad Kultura˛ Chin i Jej Wpływem Na Gospodarke˛’, Człowiek i Społeczen´stwo 2017/46. Korczyn´ski, Mariusz: ‘Kompetencje mie˛dzykulturowe polskich emigrantów zarobkowych w Anglii’, Lubelski Rocznik Pedagogiczny 2017/36 (3). Kwok, Pamela; Xu, Dong-Li: ‘A Closer Look of Mianzi Influences on Perceived Interactional Justice by Chinese Customers during Service Recovery Process’. Proceedings of The 5th International Research Symposium on Branding in Emerging Markets 2015. Liu, Jonathan; Mackinnon, Alex: ‘Comparative management practices and training: China and Europe’, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 2002/21 (2). Liu, Shuang: ‘Becoming intercultural: exposure to foreign cultures and intercultural competence’. China Media Research 2014/10 (3). Messner, Wolfgang; Schäfer, Norbert (eds): The ICCA Facilitator’s Manual. Intercultural Communication and Collaboration Appraisal. London 2012. Nakata Cheryl: ‘Going Beyond Hofstede: Why We Need to and How’, in: Nakata C. (eds) Beyond Hofstede. London 2009. Rathje, Stefanie: ‘Intercultural Competence: The Status and Future of a Controversial Concept’. Language and Intercultural Communication 2007/7. Saint-Exupery, Antoine: The Little Prince. New York 1943. Selmer, Jan: ‘Adjustment of Western European vs North American expat managers in China’, Personnel Review 2001/30 (1). Sobczak, Iwona: ‘Chin´ska kultura w biznesie – wszystko, o czym warto pamie˛tac´ podczas negocjacji’, 2017, available at https://businessinsider.com.pl/lifestyle/savoir-vivre/savoi r-vivre-w-chinach-jak-kulturalnie-zachowywac-sie-w-chinach/khlby80 [28. 09. 2021]. Trompenaars, Fons; Hampden-Turner, Charles: Riding the Waves of Culture. New York 1997.

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Appendix 1: Interview Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

12. 13. 14.

How would you rate your communication with your Chinese colleagues? Can you and your Chinese co-workers always come to an agreement? What conflict situations have you experienced in dealing with them? What are the main communication problems in contact with your Chinese co-workers that you have had contact with so far? What do you think are the causes of these misunderstandings? What similarities do you see in the approach of the inhabitants of Poland and China to work? What are, in your opinion, the main differences in the approach to work between the inhabitants of Poland and China? What solutions, processes or techniques do you use to improve / improve communication with your Chinese colleagues? What qualities and skills, in your opinion, should a Polish manager working with Chinese team members exhibit? In your opinion, is there anything missing from the Chinese work style? Do you see any differences in your communication with Polish and Chinese employees in the way of writing e-mails, messages, letters and communication (apart from the language used, e. g. English, Chinese)? Is there a difference between the way Polish and Chinese colleagues treat you in business? If so, what kind? Before working with Chinese co-workers for the first time, what were your expectations? Before working with Chinese co-workers for the first time, what were your concerns?

Notes on Contributors

Tomasz Burzyn´ski received his PhD in 2009 from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. He works at the Institute of Literary Studies where he teaches Sociology, Media Studies, and Cultural Studies. His research interests include cultural studies and cultural theory, sociology of risk, theories of trust, and discourses of health and illness. Recent publications: “Sociologizing Automotive Heritage. Traditions of Automobile Folklore and the Challenges of Risk Society,” in: The Routledge Companion to Automobile Heritage, Culture, and Preservation, red. J. Clark, B. Stiefel. (New York and London: Routledge: 2020); “Systemic Intertextuality. A Morphogenetic Perspective,” Text Matters. A Journal of Literature Theory and Culture 10 (2020). Iwona Dronia, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Institute of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Silesia in 2008. Her main areas of interest are SLA theory and research, discourse analysis (especially academic teacher discourse), rhetorics, sociopragmatics and cross-cultural communication. Recent publications include: Millennials as second language users : the analysis of communication patterns employed for L1 and L2 interactions (2020) in: Second Language Learning and Teaching; Teaching styles and roles and their influence on teachers experiencing Face Threats (2021) in: Issues in Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher Development: reflection and analysis (ed. Jolanta Latkowska) and a monograph Communicating with generation Z. the development of pragmatic competence of advanced Polish users of English (2022) Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu S´la˛skiego w Katowicach. Małgorzata Godlewska, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the University of Gdan´sk (Poland). She received her M.A. degree in English Philology and PhD degree in contemporary English literature from the University of Gdan´sk as well as M.A. degree in audiovisual translation from Instituto Superior de Estudios Linguisticos y Traduccion in Seville, Spain. Her

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academic interests concern audiovisual and literary translation, and English teaching methodologies in the area of translation. She is the author of a monographic work “Multidimensional Discourse in the Fiction of Eva Figes” (2019) and a number of articles on English literature and translation studies. Agnieszka Gwiazdowska, is an assistant professor at the Institute of Linguistics of the University of Silesia in Katowice. She holds a PhD in linguistics. In her academic research, she focuses on applied phraseology and new disciplines: phraseodidactics and phraseopragmatics. Her interests also relate to language and culture, cognitive linguistics and cross-cultural studies. She is the author of Zoomorfismos fraseológicos del español y del polaco: un estudio contrastivo desde el punto de vista de la lingüística cultural [Phraseological Units with Zoosemic Terms Related to the Human Being in Polish and Spanish: A Contrastive Study in the Framework of Cultural Linguistics] (2014) and the co-author of Frazeologia somatyczna w ´cwiczeniach [Somatic Phraseology in Exercises: the Spanish Language] (2019). She has presented papers at conferences both home and abroad and she has published over 25 articles in journals and chapters in books. Marcin Kuczok, PhD, works as assistant professor in the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Silesia in Katowice. His research interests include cognitive semantics with particular emphasis on conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory, axiolinguistics and religious language, as well as contrastive studies. He has published a monograph “The Conceptualisation of the Christian Life in John Henry Newman’s Parochial and Plain Sermons” (2014), four co-edited volumes in English on contrastive linguistics and the theory of verbal humor, as well as over forty articles in various English and Polish journals and collective volumes. Hadrian Lankiewicz, D. Lit. in Applied Linguistics and PhD in American Literature, currently occupies the position of a professor and the head of the Department of Applied Linguistics and at the University of Gdan´sk, Poland. His scientific interests oscillate between History, American Literature and Applied Linguistics, with the primary focus on language acquisition and the methodology of teaching foreign languages. In recent years, his research has been inspired by the application of an ecological metaphor to the study of language and its learning (ecolinguistics). Drawing on the concept of multi-competence and political autonomy in the process of language learning, he concentrated on issues of critical linguistics such as marginalization, empowerment and legitimization in the use of English as a foreign language as well as L2 user identity and the phenomenon of translingualism.

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Rafał Krzysztof Matusiak is an independent scholar. He studied Law (2017), English Philology (2014), Spanish Philology (2011), Bulgarian Philology (2010), and Russian Philology (2009) at the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he also obtained a doctoral degree in linguistics (2020). He completed a two-semester course in Mediation (2021) at the University of Wrocław. He is currently studying for an MA in Economics at the University of Economics in Katowice. His research interests include legal linguistics, business English and translation studies. He is the author of several publications on legal language, e. g. Linguistic Indeterminacy in the Criminal Law (2021, Gliwice: Wydawnictwo Politechniki S´la˛skiej). Anna Szkonter-Bochniak, PhD in Literature Studies and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education and Communication Studies of the Silesian University of Technology. Author of the monograph “L’effet-personnage dans les romans d’Ananda Devi” (2020) and articles on Ananda Devi’s oeuvre and Francophone literature. Her research revolves around contemporary literature, Francophone culture and translation of literary texts. She is the author of: La post-mémoire et le problème de l’identité nationale et individuelle présentés dans la littérature mauricienne contemporaine d’expression française, in: L’art de vivre, de survivre, de revivre. Approches littéraires. 50e anniversaire des études romanes à l’Université de Łódz´ (2021), Différentes sources d’inspiration dans l’œuvre romanesque d’Ananda Devi. in: Romanica Silesiana 2022, No 1 (21), p. 1/15. Joanna Warmuzin´ska-Rogóz˙, Associate Professor of University of Silesia in Katowice, academically attached to the Institute of Literary Studies and, in didactics, to French Studies at the University of Silesia. Author of two monographs (De Langlois à Tringlot. L’effet-personnage dans les Chroniques romanesques de Jean Giono – analyse sémiopragmatique, 2009 ; Szkice o przekładzie literackim. Literatura rodem z Quebecu w Polsce, 2016 – Pierre-Savard Award), deputy editor of the journal Romanica Silesiana, co-author, with Krzysztof Jarosz, of Antologia współczesnej noweli quebeckiej (2011) and the author of dozens of articles on Quebec literature and literary translation. Mikołaj Woz´niak, is an independent scholar. MA in Economics from Shanghai University in China and BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Exeter in England. He also completed post-graduate studies in banking at the Warsaw School of Economics. Two-time winner of the award for the best thesis on the cooperation between Poland and China in the nationwide competition of the Polish Chinese Business Council. He has many years of experience in Chinese business, ie. in terms of economic and behavioral analysis. On a daily basis, he deals with international trade.

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Paweł Zakrajewski, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the Institute of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. He received his PhD in Linguistics from the University of Silesia in May 2015. His scientific interests center on LSP – Language(s) for Specific Purposes, discourse analysis, rhetoric, communication (especially new media), translation, cross-cultural & cross-linguistic comparative studies, and language policy. Recently, he has been involved in several projects related to genre and linguistic analysis, and science communication. Dr Zakrajewski is an assistant editor of TAPSLA Journal (Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition) and a member of AEDEAN – Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos. Recent publications include: Exploring Business Language and Culture (2020). Springer, (co-edited with Urszula Michalik, Iwona Sznicer and Anna Stwora); Miltilingual publication practices in the social sciences and humanities at a Polish University: choices and pressures (2021). International Journal of Multilingualism (coauthored with Krystyna Warchał).