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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 110-125, Winter 2018
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018122
Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic
landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo1, PhD
1 International
Burch University,
Sarajevo B&H
amna.brdarevic.celjo@ibu.edu.ba
Sead Zolota2
2 Kuwait
Academy Bilingual School,
Riggae, Kuwait
sead.zolota@gmail.com
Abstract: This paper examined the linguistic landscape of the
Governorate of Farwaniya, the biggest governorate in the State of
Kuwait, by means of public and private signs displayed in the city
center and side streets. A corpus of 150 photos of diverse signs, both
official and non-official, was collected, categorized, analyzed and
discussed. The results point to an undeniable representation of the
Arabic language in both public and private spheres of life as well as
to a substantial presence of the English language on a wide range of
signage therefore confirming the imprint the process of globalization
has made on this EFL context. The findings also indicate that some
other world languages, namely Bengali, Hindi, and Chinese, are
represented in the linguistic landscape of Kuwait but rather poorly.
Keywords: linguistic
landscape, monolingual and
multilingual signs, official
and non-official signs,
ethnolinguistic vitality
Article History
Submitted: 15 January 2019
Accepted: 10 February 2019
�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
1. INTRODUCTION
In the modern day and age, we are constantly surrounded by a maze of intricate
signage, whether it is a street sign, a shop sign, an advertisement, or a graffiti.
The most frequent manifestation of a sign takes the shape of a written message,
an image, or in most cases, a combination of both. Their display, content, location,
and context constitute the concept of linguistic landscape and they represent the
main investigatory data from which information about the linguistic and sociopolitical context of a country in question can be drawn. The field of linguistic
landscape focuses on studying representations of language in public spheres of
human life, which may include any visible signs, people`s perception of it, and
how they interact with it. With the process of globalization in full swing and the
ideologies of multilingualism and multiculturalism firmly rooted in different
countries around the world, this field has attracted the attention and intense
interest of researchers in different disciplines, such as sociolinguistics, sociology,
linguistic anthropology, politics, semiotics, and urban studies.
The term linguistic landscape has been contested and some other terms have
been proposed, namely “the decorum of the public life” (Ben-Rafael, Shohamy,
Amara & Trumper-Hecht, 2006, p. 10), the “environmental print” (Huebner,
2006, p. 33-35) and a “multilingual cityscape” (Gorter, 2006, p. 2). In all the
aforementioned proposals, the notion of landscape has been avoided due to the
fact that the term landscape denotes a large area of the countryside or “a painting
depicting a scenery on land” (Gorter, 2006, p. 83) whereas the main focus of this
field is actually a public, urban area. In addition to this, the term linguistic has
also been found problematic since, as Jaworski and Thurlow (2010) maintain,
linguistic is only one of the elements for the construction and interpretation of a
place as the written discourse always “interacts with other discursive modalities:
visual images, nonverbal communication, architecture, and the built
environment” (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 2). Still, as the notion of linguistic
landscape has been widely accepted and frequently used by many researchers in
the field (e.g. Backhaus, 2005; Ben-Rafael et al., 2006; Huebner, 2009; Landry &
Bourhis, 1997) it is employed as such in the current paper.
Linguistic landscape (LL) is described as “the language of public road
signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs,
and public signs on government buildings [that] combines to form the linguistic
landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (Landry &
Bourhis, 1997, p. 25) or as a language on the objects in the public space (BenRafael et al., 2006). It determines and clarifies which languages are most
prominent and particularly valued in the public and private spheres and
“indexes the social positioning of people who identify with particular languages”
(Dagenais et al., 2009, p. 254). Shohamy and Gorter (2009, pp. 1-2) believe that the
prime focus of LL research is language in the immediate environment, namely
words as well as images displayed in public spaces and they associate the LL
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
with language that is visible and can be observed in schools, buses, government
buildings, cities, etc. Thus, analyzing the language displayed in the researched
context, the context itself, people identifying with that language as well as
messages conveyed is the core of LL research.
Researchers in the field of linguistic landscape gather data on language
displayed in public spaces by visiting different geographical sites which they
believe might contain interesting information on the (socio)linguistic or sociopolitical situation. Thus, some studies focused on the analysis of main streets or
shopping streets (Blackwood & Tufi, 2015; Cenoz & Gorter, 2003) or researched
the surrounding of a public transport route (Backhaus, 2007), while others
focused on advertising billboards (Tulp, 1978) or shopping malls (TrumperHecht, 2009). As mentioned earlier, the main investigatory data in this field are
signs from the environment performing different functions. The purpose and
location of signs play a vital role in their interpretation and we distinguish them
based on their function and the context in which they are displayed. According
to Chandler (2002, p. 4) signs “take the form of words, images, sounds, odors,
flavors, acts or objects, but such things have not intrinsic meaning and become
signs only when we invest them with meaning”. Chandler (2002) emphasized
that something represents a sign when it is interpreted as a signifier of something
“referring to or standing for something other than itself” (p. 4). Scollon and
Scollon (2003) state that there are three different ways a sign can have a meaning
in semiotic theory. Firstly, the sign can be a picture of something in the
environment and it is called an icon. Secondly, it can be a random representation
of a thing in the world and it is called a symbol and thirdly, a sign has a meaning
because of the place and time it is located in and it is called an index.
Signs have been classified in various ways. Heubner (2009) focused on the
purpose a sign has in the linguistics landscape and proposed that signs be
classified as informational, interactional, directive, expressive, and poetic, which
emphasizes the importance of the function of a sign. Likewise, Landry and
Bourhis (1997) also attached great importance to the function of a sign and the
function of the linguistic landscape of a territory in general and they stated that
the linguistic landscape of a territory can have two different functions, namely
informational and symbolic. Thus, the linguistic landscape serves to inform “ingroup and out-group members of the linguistic characteristics, territorial limits,
and language boundaries of the region they have entered” (Landry & Bourhis,
1997, p. 25). However, Landry and Bourhis (1997) also point out the symbolic
function of a sign and state that signs can emotionally and ideologically impact
the members of the linguistic landscape in which these signs are displayed. Thus,
the absence of a language on public signs certainly affects the feelings of the
members of that language group in a setting featuring more than one language
(Bourhis, 1992).
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�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
Signs, such as traffic signs, may inform us or contain a warning notice we
should heed, whereas other signs may display names of government institutions
or product advertisements providing us with information which is in accordance
with our interest. Based on the type of the information signs provide, they can be
classified into private signs and government signs (Landry & Bourhis, 1997; Leclerc,
1989). Private signs are non-official and they are commercial signs on shops and
other businesses, commercials on billboards, advertising signs in public transport
system and individual cars (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). On the other hand,
government signs are road signs, street names, names of different governmental
institutions etc. Additionally, Ben-Rafael et al. (2010) rely on this classification
providing different names for public and government signs. Thus, they classify
signs as top-down and bottom-up, whereby top-down or official signs designate
government signs while bottom-up or non-official signs designate private signs.
In this division of signs, there exists an ambiguous area related to the
discrepancies in the design of official and non-official signs due to a substantial
difference between them. That particular area was scrutinized by Huebner (2009,
p. 74), who claimed that “the distinction between `top-down` versus `bottom-up`
failed to capture the notion of agency and how it impacted language forms in the
linguistic landscape”.
Official or government signs are frequently translated into some widely
spread world languages mainly for the purpose of ensuring that tourists and
foreigners who visit the country can read them and because of the language
policy in the country (Backhaus, 2006), though there are still some official signs
which are left untranslated. As for non-official or private signs, their translation
depends on the owners of the shops or any other businesses and most owners
decide to provide the translation because they want to attract as many tourists or
foreigners as possible. The representation of other languages on signs apart from
the native tongue is the basic criterion for distinguishing between monolingual
and multilingual signs, the distinction made by Backhaus (2006) and the
distinction which will be made in this paper.
Though a rather new research field, linguistic landscape has sparked an
interest of many researchers involved in decoding multilingualism on a global
scale. One of the pioneers of linguistic landscape research, Spolsky and Cooper
(1991), examined 100 signs in Jerusalem, proposing three classifications of signs.
The first classification relates to the function and the use of signs (street signs,
advertising signs, warning notices, building names, informative signs,
commemorative plaques, signs labelling objects and graffiti), the second one
takes into consideration the materials from which the sign is made or its physical
form (metal, tile, poster, wood, and stone), while the third classification takes into
account the language used in the sign and the number of languages, thus making
clear distinction between monolingual signs, bilingual signs, and multilingual
signs. The main focus of this study in the field of linguistic landscape was the
language choice on street signs in Jerusalem and the results revealed that public
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
signs make an important contribution to communication between people of
different ethnicities and that ethnic diversity is reflected on multilingual signs
and “recongized and respected” (Spolsky & Cooper, 1991, p. 151) in the Old City
of Jerusalem. Some other studies in this field followed. Hence, researching
linguistic landscape of Montreal, Monnier (1991) presented interesting results
which suggest that French was an overwhelmingly dominant language on the
signs in department stores, whereas English was highly prevalent in hotels and
restaurants. Moreover, Scollon and Scollon (2003) investigated the presence of
English signs in the linguistic landscape of Beijing and they concluded that
English is not used for the convenience of foreigners, but simply to advertise their
taste and manners. In addition to these studies whose main investigatory data
were solely signs, there were also some studies which employed questionnaires
to gain people’s perceptions of the linguistic landscape of the area they inhabit
or visit. Thus, Bruyèl-Olmedo and Juan-Garau (2009) conducted research on
tourists’ expectations about the linguistic landscape in the resort of Arenal in
Majorca and they stated that they expected to be able to see English in every place
in public thus confirming a global trend of the omnipresence of English in the
public space of an area, a tourist area in particular.
A broad range of countries, cities, and environments have been analyzed
offering a number of distinctive perspectives on multilingualism in different
parts of the world. However, to our knowledge, no studies in the field of
linguistic landscape have been conducted in Kuwait. Hence, this paper might
make a modest contribution to the future of studies in this field. This paper
examines the linguistic landscape of Kuwait which involves the presence of
official and non-official signs and their dissemination throughout the
Governorate of Farwaniya located in Kuwait. Kuwait, officially known as State
of Kuwait, is a small country located in the Middle-East in the northern edge of
the Persian Gulf bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It is a culturally diverse
country boasting numerous cultures and nationalities coming from Iran, Egypt,
India, Arica, and western countries as well. Due to its highly developed economy,
it has attracted many expatriates from around the globe. Consequently, more
than half the population consists of expatriates, which was confirmed by The
World Factbook (2015) stating that “Expatriates in Kuwait account for around 70%
of Kuwait's total population. 60% of Kuwait's total population are Arabs
(including Arab expats)”. The official language of Kuwait is Arabic. In addition
to Arabic, minority languages, such as Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Chinese and
Japanese, are also used as well as English which is most widespread due to its
role as a global lingua franca. The fact that the members of this linguistic
landscape speak different languages has contributed to the development of
multilingualism and the emergence of bilingual or multilingual signs.
In this paper, the representation of languages on signs in two urban areas,
the main market street abounding in both official and non-official signage,
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�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
namely the Governorate of Farwaniya and Riggae. Farwaniya was chosen on the
grounds of it being culturally and linguistically diverse. On the other hand,
Riggae is a sparsely populated area but was selected as a useful contrast to
Farwaniya. Taking into consideration all the shops selling perfumes, food,
jewelry, clothes, spices, and phones in the area of Farwaniya as well as some areas
neighboring the institution of Manpower and Government Restructuring
Program, the need for convenient signs was compelling, which granted us a
generous amount of signage to capture and analyze. Thus, this paper will explore
the presence of the native as well as minority languages on public and private
signage to see which language dominates this linguistically contested area. Due
to the importance and omnipresence of English in the world today, its
representation on the signs in the linguistic landscape of the two aforementioned
areas will be given particular attention.
Thus, the current paper aims to answer the following research questions:
RQ1: Which languages are most frequently represented on official and nonofficial signs in Kuwait and what is the role of English in the linguistic landscape
of Kuwait?
RQ2: What is the difference in the representativeness of two contestant
languages, namely Arabic and English, on official and non-official signs in the
linguistic landscape of Kuwait?
RQ3: What is the difference in the representativeness of two contestant
languages, namely Arabic and English, on signs displayed in city streets and in
side streets in the linguistic landscape of Kuwait?
2. METHODOLOGY
The research was conducted in the city of Farwaniya and in a smaller area in
Riggae. The city center is replete with small businesses and large enterprises,
local stores, supermarkets offering a wide variety of services and these were a
remarkable source for this study because of innumerable signs strewn in and
around the city center. Despite the overwhelming prevalence of non-official
signage, we managed to collect a sufficient number of samples of official signage.
For the research purposes, a smartphone camera was employed to capture the
signage in both areas as it was done in some previous studies as well (Huebner,
2006; Muth, 2008). Thus, 150 photos were taken containing a wide range of signs
including street, traffic, shop, warning signs and public places brimming with
advertisements. In order to create data as diverse as possible, we photographed
a range of different signs including street signs, advertisements, shop signs,
warning notices, graffiti, and shops and restaurants of Indian, Filipino, and even
Chinese cuisine in particular. The main street served as an ample source of
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
official signage consisting mainly of street names and traffic signs. Taking
pictures of the signs near government buildings was impossible due to a strict
prohibition of recording or photo taking imposed by the authorities.
Nevertheless, in addition to the main street, we decided to explore a few side
streets which proved to be abundant supply of non-official signage. The data
analysis was conducted by means of qualitative method, which allows for
convenient inspection and examination of signs and observation of the languages
used on signs but “since such observations are not based on a clearly defined
corpus, they cannot be quantified.” (Backhaus, 2005, p. 92-94)
3. RESULTS
Which languages are most frequently represented on official and non-official signs in
Kuwait?
For the purposes of this study, 150 photographs of signs were collected, 42 official
and 108 non-official signs. Although the number of two types of signs is
disparate, it will not negatively affect the research results. Moreover, there were
11 official monolingual signs and 31 official bilingual signs, whereas there were
as many as 52 non-official monolingual signs, 54 non-official bilingual signs, and
2 trilingual signs (Table 1).
Table 1. Official and non-official signs
Official signs
Non-official signs
Total
Total
42
108
150
Monolingual
11
52
63
Bilingual
31
54
85
Multilingual
0
2
2
The native language of Kuwait, namely the Arabic language, is most commonly
represented on various official and non-official signs displayed either in city or
side streets (n = 128), which makes 85.33% of the overall number of signs. The
language that seems to be contesting Arabic in this linguistic landscape is English
as it is present on 108 signs (n = 108) or in 72% of instances. The number of signs
in which only Arabic is employed is rather low (n = 42), which makes it only 28%
of the overall number of signs, whereas there are 21 signs on which only English
is displayed (14%). In addition to two competing languages on signs in the
linguistic landscape of Kuwait, there are some other languages, such as Hindi,
Bengali and Chinese, which are underrepresented since each language was
presented on one sign only (Table 2).
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�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
Table 2. Languages displayed on the signs
Language
Arabic
Number of
Instances
(out of 150)
128
English
108
Hindi
1
Bengali
1
Chinese
1
The majority of sings is in Standard Arabic, since apart from natives many
expatriates coming from other Arabic countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Syria,
Jordan, and Lebanon live in Kuwait. Since the varieties of Arabic spoken and
used in those countries are rather different and sometimes mutually
unintelligible, the use of Standard Arabic on signs is needed for their proper
interpretation by both natives and expatriates. However, since a large number of
people from some western countries and people from Pakistan, China, India and
the Philippines etc. live in this area, such a high representation of English on signs
is rather expected as it is a means of overcoming language barriers and it plays
the role of a Kuwait’s lingua franca. Thus, with English being the most represented
foreign language on signs in the linguistic landscape of Kuwait, its immense
international prestige has been confirmed once again. Therefore, the results of
the current study are fully in line with some previous research which also
emphasized the leading role of English (among other foreign languages) in the
linguistic landscapes around the globe (Cenoz & Gorter, 2006; Edelman, 2006;
Lamarre, 2014 etc.). A low representation of other minority languages is not
unexpected due to a small number of people using those languages living in this
area. However, two of the three signs representing these minority languages are
multilingual and they contain information in Arabic and English apart from
either Chinese (Figure 1) or Bengali (Figure 2). One remaining sign is bilingual
with the restaurant’s menu in Hindi and only the name of the restaurant in
English (Figure 3). It seems plausible that these languages represent the language
choice of the owners because they aim people from those specific cultures apart
from others as signs very often serve either an expressive or a poetic function
(Huebner, 2009).
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
Figure 1. Example of Chinese Language Representation
Figure 2. Example of Bengali Language Representation
Figure 3. Example of Hindu Language Representation
118
�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
What is the difference in the representativeness of two contestant languages, namely
Arabic and English, on official and non-official signs in the linguistic landscape of
Kuwait?
Most official signs are bilingual (n = 31) in English and Arabic, and they represent
73.81% of the overall number of official signs (n = 42) (Figure 4). Out of those 31
bilingual official signs, the Arabic language is represented first and displayed
above the English translation on 29 signs (93.55%) (Figure 4), whereas these two
languages are placed next to each other, English on the left side and Arabic on
the right side, on 2 signs only (6.45%) (Figure 5). However, there are no official
bilingual signs on which English is represented first. 11 official signs (26.19%) are
monolingual, and out of those 4 official signs represent only English, whereas 7
signs display information only in Arabic.
Figure 4. A bilingual official sign
As for non-official signs (n = 108), there are 105 signs which contain only
English and/or Arabic and we will elaborate on these further. Namely, out of
these 105 non-official signs, 52 signs are monolingual (49.52%), with 35 signs
representing only Arabic and 17 signs displaying only the English language. 53
signs (50.48%) are bilingual containing information both in Arabic and English.
On 25 bilingual non-official signs information in the Arabic language is
represented first, on 11 signs the information in English comes first, whereas on
the remaining 17 signs English and Arabic seem to be equally represented as the
information in English is displayed on the left side and the information in Arabic
on the right side of the sign (Figure 5).
Figure 5. A bilingual non-official sign
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
These results are rather interesting, as they show that official signs are
more frequently bilingual (73.81%) than non-official signs (50%), which points to
the consciousness of the governmental institutions of the presence of foreigners
in the country and their need to understand the displayed signs. The fact that
Arabic is not present on only 4 official signs out of 42 (9.52%) and on only 17 out
of 108 non-official signs (15.74%) points to a rather high awareness of nativism.
Moreover, it is rather interesting that on bilingual official signs Arabic is
displayed first in 93.55% instances which contrasts with the bilingual non-official
signs on which Arabic is presented first in 47.17% instances. Such a
predominance of Arabic on bilingual official signs can be ascribed to the
country’s policies related to the language choice on public governmental signage.
On the other hand, on 28 out of 53 bilingual non-official signs (52.83%), English
has either an equal representation as Arabic or it is more prominent as it is
presented first. Such findings point to the fact that English is directly competing
with Arabic on non-official signs. Still, the high representativeness of Arabic and
the place given to it on both official and non-official signs seem to suggest that
nativism is still valued in Kuwait and that that country still has high
ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) if Landry and Bourhis’s (1997) explanations of EV
are taken into consideration.
Official signs constitute a vital aspect in an ever-growing expatriate
community of the State of Kuwait. One of the critical requirements for a
functional community of expatriates is a proper and complete translation of
public government signs which convey crucial information regarding street
names, warning notices, or names of government buildings. Table 3 examines the
translation of English on public signage and strives to see whether the
information in Arabic is fully or partially translated into English. All 31 bilingual
official signs have been translated from Arabic into English in their entirety.
Conversely, the results are somewhat different concerning the translation of
bilingual non-official signs into English. Thus, out of 53 bilingual non-official
signs, 36 signs have been fully translated, and 17 signs have received a partial
translation.
Table 3. Translation on bilingual official and non-official signs
Type of translation
Official signs
Non-official signs
Full translation
31
36
Partial translation
0
17
What is the difference in the representativeness of two contestant languages, namely
Arabic and English, on signs displayed in city streets and in side streets in the linguistic
landscape of Kuwait?
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�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
The research sample was further subdivided into two additional categories,
namely the signs found in the city center along the main street and the signs
located in side streets outside the city center. Following this division, 106 photos
(70.67%) of signs were taken in the city center, whereas 44 photos (29.33%) of
signs were taken in side streets. Out of 106 signs displayed in the city center, 36
signs are monolingual (33.96%), 69 bilingual (65.09%) and 1 sign is trilingual
(.94%). On the other hand, out of the 44 signs on display in side streets, 27 signs
were monolingual (61.36%), 16 signs were bilingual (36.36%) and 1 sign was
trilingual (2.27%) (Table 4).
Table 5. Signage in the city center and in side streets
Total
106
Monolingual
36
Bilingual
69
Trilingual
1
Signs displayed in side streets
44
27
16
1
Total
150
63
85
3
Signs displayed in the city
center
The results also point to an almost equal presence of English (n = 87;
82.07%) and Arabic (n = 88; 83.02%) on the public signage in the city center and
to a much greater prominence of Arabic (n = 40; 90.9%) than English (n = 21;
47.73%) in side streets (Table 5), which is an indication of a great presence of the
Arab communities in those areas.
Table 5. The representation of English and Arabic on the signage in the city center
and side streets
Language
English
Arabic
City Center
87
88
Side Streets
21
40
Out of 68 bilingual signs displaying English and Arabic in the city center,
it is rather peculiar to notice that on 42 signs Arabic is displayed first, on 16 signs
both languages are represented equally and there are even 10 non-official signs
in the city center which are only represented in the English language. Moreover,
out of 16 bilingual signs displayed in side streets, 12 signs present information in
the Arabic language first, 1 sign presents information in English first and on 3
signs both English and Arabic are given equal credit. It is rather interesting to
notice that monolingual signs are more frequently displayed in side streets than
in the city center as they represent 33.96% of all the signs displayed in the city
center and 61.36% of all the signs displayed in side streets. Out of 36 monolingual
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
signs displayed in the city center, 17 signs are English and 19 Arabic. The
discrepancy between monolingual English and Arabic signs is much more
conspicuous in side streets, where out of 27 signs there were only 4 monolingual
English signs and 23 monolingual Arabic signs.
Table 6. Monolingual Signs in English and Arabic
Area of Inquiry
English
Arabic
Monolingual Signs
City Center
17
19
Side Streets
4
23
Such findings show that monolingual English signs are not highly valued and
present in side streets (only in 14.81% cases), where the majority of signs were
monolingual Arabic signs. On the other hand, in the city center monolingual
English and Arabic signs were almost equally represented, which also indicates
that English and Arabic in this sociolinguistic context are two contestant
languages. Due to the fact that side streets are not frequently visited by
foreigners, Arabic seems to be a predominant language in such places, whereas
in the city center, which is visited by many foreigners, both English and Arabic
are displayed almost to an equal extent. This shows that in the linguistic
landscape of Kuwait English is not competing with other foreign languages but
its contestant language is the country’s native language, which proves that
immense importance is attached to English in this rather peculiar sociolinguistic
context.
4. CONCLUSION
This study aimed to analyze the linguistic landscape of the Governorate of
Farwaniya, the biggest governorate in Kuwait. Within the corpus of 150
photographs taken in the city center along the main street and side streets, the
overall presence and language structure of official or public signs and nonofficial or private signs was explored. The results indicated that English is the
most dominant foreign language and that no other foreign language is so highly
represented in this socio-cultural context with Bengali, Hindi and Chinese each
occurring only once in the corpus. Thus, English is the only foreign language
competing with the native tongue, namely Arabic in this linguistic landscape.
The findings further pointed to a difference between official and non-official
signs, as well as between the signs displayed in the city center and those
displayed in side streets in terms of the property of monolingualism and
bilingualism and the positioning of the languages represented. Thus, it was
noticed that on bilingual official governmental signs Arabic is either represented
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�Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
Amna Brdarević Čeljo & Sead Zolota
first or Arabic and English are on an equal footing while there were no signs on
which English was positioned first. However, this was not the case with nonofficial signs. Moreover, the findings also pointed to a much lower presence of
English monolingual signs in side streets (n = 4) than in the city center (n = 17).
Compared to the number of 23 Arabic monolingual signs in side street, it
strengthens the belief that nativism is still nourished in this country in particular
outside a strictly public domain. The results of the current study are rather
important as they provide a clearer insight into the linguistic landscape of yet
another country where English has a prominent international role.
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�
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Journal of Education and Humanities
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Bilingualism in Kuwait – a linguistic landscape approach
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Abstract: This paper examined the linguistic landscape of the Governorate of Farwaniya, the biggest governorate in the State of Kuwait, by means of public and private signs displayed in the city center and side streets. A corpus of 150 photos of diverse signs, both official and non-official, was collected, categorized, analyzed and discussed. The results point to an undeniable representation of the Arabic language in both public and private spheres of life as well as to a substantial presence of the English language on a wide range of signage therefore confirming the imprint the process of globalization has made on this EFL context. The findings also indicate that some other world languages, namely Bengali, Hindi, and Chinese, are represented in the linguistic landscape of Kuwait but rather poorly.
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Amna Brdarević Čeljo
Sead Zolota
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2)
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International Burch University
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Winter 2018
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ISSN 2566-4638
DOI 10.14706/JEH2018122
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Keywords: linguistic landscape, monolingual and multilingual signs, official and non-official signs, ethnolinguistic vitality
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/7f0685171798d3f20b8eb00a4561501a.pdf
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Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 53-64, Winter 2018
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018123
The influence of Grade point Average and
Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
Haris Delić, MA
Senad Bećirović, PhD
Faculty of Education and Humanities, International Burch University
Francuske revolucije bb, Ilidža 71210, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
harisdelic91@gmail.com
senad.becirovic@ibu.edu.ba
Abstract: A variety of different factors seem to have an influence on
both second language learning difficulties as well as learning
strategies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of
different socio-economic status and grade point average on learning
strategies and learning difficulties in second language acquisition
(SLA) process. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to
gather data, i.e. a survey method was applied. The research sample
included 206 high school participants. The results showed that a
socioeconomic status did not have a significant influence on the
students’ second language acquisition difficulties. However, the
students’ grade point average significantly affected second language
acquisition difficulties and also language learning strategies. The
results of this study may help instructors to tailor instructions and
content to students’ needs and their preferable styles of learning.
Taking into consideration students’ learning difficulties and
learning strategies in designing and implementing classes may
significantly improve teaching and learning outcomes.
Keywords: learning
strategies, learning
difficulties, socio-economic
status, GPA level, second
language acquisition.
Article History
Submitted: 1 December 2018
Accepted: 15 January 2019
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
1. INTRODUCTION
Many factors make English language instruction in a foreign language context
such as the one in Bosnia and Herzegovina largely important. As the country
strives to become a part of international bodies and an equal member in the
international community, the significance of the mastery of the English language
is increasingly emphasized (Bećirović, 2017). As Wu (2001) points out, the
English knowledge has become highly important worldwide since it plays an
important role in all fields of modern life, starting from business or science to
communication between members of different cultures. With the growing
number of educational institutions in the country that are oriented towards
international education, it becomes natural that learners in Bosnia and
Herzegovina are expected to reach an advanced level of proficiency in the
English language by the time they finish their high schools. Thus, there is a need
to investigate all possible factors influencing the process of reaching higher levels
of proficiency, including socioeconomic status, learning strategies and average
grade.
Ariani and Ghafournia (2016) suggest that in the process of language
acquisition a socio economic status plays one of the major roles. However, the
literature on the relationship between socioeconomic status and language
learning does not include many empirical studies. On the other hand, there are
numerous research papers that deal with the relationship between
socioeconomic status and motivation for language learning presenting a bridge
to the language learning process. Khansir et.al. (2016) investigated to what extent
a higher socioeconomic status can influence motivation for language learning.
After investigating 10 year old students they realized that “when parents were at
the high level of the economical status, participants could have better situation
in dealing with English learning“ (2016, p. 749) mainly because students could be
more reinforced by their parents’ financial support and the level of language
success is increased as the family’s economical level is increased. In almost
similar investigation conducted in Chile, Kormos and Kiddle (2013) found that
“social class has an overall medium-size effect on motivational factors“ (2013, p.
400).
Next, language learning strategies, i.e. tactics making a new cognitive
demanding linguistic system simpler (Selinker, 1972), appear to be one of the
psycholinguistic processes that shape interlanguage system. Likewise, Abhakorn
(2008) deals with the learners’ strategies, also known as a cognitive model of
learning, as one of the possible factors in the L2 acquisition process. Learning
presents an active, ongoing, and dynamic process in which a learner “shapes”
the information that he/she receives, connects it with the previous ones, retains
the parts he/she thinks are important and uses it for further learning. Strategic
knowledge refers to the information about what strategies are likely to be
effective in achieving the learning goal (Flavell, 1979, p. 909). In other words,
54
�The influence of Grade point Average and Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
Haris Delić & Senad Bećirović
strategic knowledge is general knowledge about the nature and utility of
strategies (Wenden, 1987, p. 580). More precisely, it includes information about
the strategies as such, why they are useful and specific knowledge about when
and how to use them. The implications in learning English as a second language
that may negatively influence students’ achievement are situations when the
teaching methods used do not match students’ preferred learning styles, or the
teaching content does not match students’ levels.
Following, GPA (Grade Point Average) is a very important factor in the
process of language acquisition. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines GPA as
“the average obtained by dividing the total number of grade points earned by
the total number of credits attempted“ (Merriam-Webster.com, 2017). The
relationship between GPA and other factors such as gender, age, and language
proficiency has been investigated by Pan (2005). She explored the relationship
between these factors and found a significant correlation between GPA and other
three factors (2005, p. 109-121). She also investigated the connection between
GPA and language learning strategies. The results in her study showed that “the
higher the proficiency level, the greater the variety of learning strategies used“
(Pan, 2005, p. 120).
The purpose of this study is to investigate how GPA and socioeconomic status
influence second language learning difficulties and strategies among high school
students. In order to investigate the impact of these factors the study employed
quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The identification of those
factors and relationships enables easier understanding of the situations and steps
that need to be taken into consideration in order to create a better SLA
environment and improve the existing one.
2. THE PRESENT STUDY
Based on the aforementioned aim, the following research questions guided the
study:
RQ 1 Is there any statistically significant difference in second language
acquisition difficulties based on the students’ socio-economic status?
RQ 2 Is there any statistically significant difference in second language
acquisition difficulties based on the students’ GPA?
RQ 3 Is there any statistically significant difference in language learning
strategies based on the students’ GPA?
The following null hypotheses were tested:
H01 There is no statistically significant difference in second language acquisition
difficulties between the students with different socio-economic status,
55
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
H02 There is no statistically significant difference in second language acquisition
difficulties between the students with different GPA and
H03 There is no statistically significant difference in language learning strategies
based on the students’ GPA.
2.1.
PARTICIPANTS
The research sample consisted of 206 high school student. The participants were
selected from all four high school grades. The research sample includes 125 males
(60.7 %) and 81 females (39.3%). All participants were from Bosnia and
Herzegovina. A detailed summary of the sample according to socio-economic
status and GPA level is presented in the table below.
Table 1 Descriptive analysis of the participants
N
Percentage
Socio-economic status
GPA groups
2.2.
Low
Middle
High
2.5-2.9
3.0-3.4
3.5-3.9
4.0-4.4
4.5-5.0
15
124
67
10
10
31
39
116
1.5
61.7
36.9
4.9
4.9
15.0
18.9
56.3
INSTRUMENTS AND PROCEDURE
The instrument used for data collection was built on Rebecca Oxford’s Strategy
Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, 1990) and Dörnyei's Motivation
questionnaire (You & Dörnyei, 2016). The parts from the aforementioned
instruments were utilized and adapted for this research. The questionnaire
consisted of 40 statements and a 5-point Likert scale was used. The students could
choose one out of five statements (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and
strongly disagree). The questionnaire is composed of the following subscales:
second language impact on mother tongue (α = 0.51), motivation difficulties for
acquiring second language (α = 0.50), negative impact of school environment and
atmosphere (α = 0.97), target language difficulties (α = 0.86), passive learning
strategies (α = 0.64), individual strategies (α = 0.65), and language skills strategies
(α = 0.50). The questionnaire containing 40 items was distributed to the high
school students in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they needed around
20 minutes to fill it out.
56
�The influence of Grade point Average and Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
Haris Delić & Senad Bećirović
In order to minimize the possibility of false responses the students were
informed that the questionnaire was completely anonymous and would not have
any effect on their grades or school status. They were also told that the results
would be used just for the purpose of this study.
2.3.
DATA ANALYSIS
The collected data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS, v. 23). Following the guidelines for the questionnaire analysis, frequencies
and means were computed to ascertain the types and frequencies of the
implications and language learning strategies expressed by the participants.
Firstly, descriptive analysis including mean, standard deviation (SD) and
frequencies was employed. A one way ANOVA was used to show the differences
between the study groups.
3. RESULTS
The first research question focused on the differences of second language
acquisition difficulties between three different levels of socioeconomic status,
namely low, medium, and high.
Table 2 Descriptive statistics of differences based on socio-economic status
Socio-economic status
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Low
15
3.42
.56
Middle
124
3.25
.47
High
67
3.27
.49
Total
206
3.27
.48
A one-way ANOVA between subjects was conducted to compare second
language acquisition difficulties among students with different socio-economic
status. The results showed that there was an insignificant difference F (2.203)
= 1.18, p = .450, η2 = .008. The group of students of low socio-economic status had
the highest mean (M = 3.42, SD = 0.14) and the lowest mean was achieved by the
group of middle socioeconomic status (M = 3.27, SD = 0.47) Therefore, the results
showed that the students’ socio-economic status did not have a significant effect
on second language acquisition difficulties and the first null hypothesis was
supported. However, a one-way ANOVA between subjects showed that socioeconomic status had a significant influence on the difficulties in terms of second
language impact on mother tongue F (2.203) = 3.86, p = .023, η2 = .037, and on
motivation difficulties for acquiring second language F (2.203) = 4.84, p = .009, η2
= .046, and did not significantly affect the school environment and atmosphere
F (2.203) = 0.556, p = .574, η2 = .005 and target language difficulties F (2.203)
= 0.522, p = .594, η2 = .005.
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
The second research question referred to the differences in second language
acquisition difficulties among five different GPA groups of students.
Table 3 Descriptive statistics of differences based on GPA
GPA
N
Mean
Std. deviation
4.5-5
4-4.5
3.5-4
3-3.5
2.5-3
Total
116
39
31
10
10
206
3.42
3.11
3.10
2.98
3.05
3.27
.48
.41
.51
.21
.37
.48
A one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted to compare second
language acquisition difficulties among students with different GPA levels.
There was a significant difference at p < .05 between the students of different
GPA levels F (4.20) = 6.65, p < .001, η2 = .117. The students with the highest GPA
(4.5-5.0) reported the most difficulties M = 3.42 (SD = 0.48), while students with
GPA 3.0-3.5 reported the least difficulties M = 2.98 (SD = 0.21). Thus, GPA proved
to have a significant impact on second language acquisition difficulties and the
second null hypothesis was refuted. Post hoc Tukey HSD (Table 4) showed that
the GPA group 4.5-5.0 was statistically significantly different from all other GPA
groups except the group 2.5-3.0. The differences between the 2.5-3.0 group and
all other groups were insignificant.
(I)
GPA
4.5-5
4-4.5
3.5-4
58
Table 4 Analysis of variances between different GPA scores
Multiple Comparisons
Dependent Variable: Overall Implications
Tukey HSD
(J) GPA
Mean
Std.
Sig.
95% Confidence Interval
Differenc
Error
Lower
Upper
e (I-J)
Bound
Bound
4.0-4.5
.30*
.08
.00
.07
.54
3.5-4.0
.31*
.09
.00
.06
.57
*
3.0-3.5
.43
.15
.04
.01
.84
2.5-3.0
.36
.15
.12
-.05
.78
4.5-5.0
-.30*
.08
.00
-.54
-.07
3.5-4.0
.01
.11
1.00
-.29
.31
3-3.5.0
.12
.16
.94
-.32
.57
2.5-3.0
.05
.16
.99
-.39
.50
4.5-5.0
-.31*
.09
.00
-.57
-.06
4.0-4.5
-.01
.11
1.00
-.31
.29
3.0-3.5
.11
.16
.96
-.34
.57
�The influence of Grade point Average and Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
Haris Delić & Senad Bećirović
3-3.5
2.5-3
2.5-3.0
.04
.16
.99
-.41
4.5-5.0
-.43*
.15
.04
-.84
4.0-4.5
-.12
.16
.94
-.57
3.5-4.0
-.11
.16
.96
-.57
2.5-3.0
-.06
.20
.99
-.63
4.5-5.0
-.36
.15
.12
-.78
4-4.5.0
-.05
.16
.99
-.50
3.5-4.0
-.04
.16
.99
-.50
3.0-3.5
.06
.20
.99
-.50
*. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.
.50
-.01
.32
.34
.50
.05
.39
.41
.63
As for the subscales of second language difficulties, GPA had a significant
influence only on target language difficulties p < .001, η2 = .139 and did not have
a significant influence on second language impact on mother tongue p = .147, η2
= .033, on motivation difficulties for acquiring second language p = .124, η2 = .035,
school environment and atmosphere p = .413, η2 = .019.
The third research question was related to the differences in language
learning strategies between five different GPA groups. In order to answer this
question, a one-way between subjects ANOVA was conducted. The results
showed that in terms of overall usage of language learning strategies there was a
significant difference F (4.201) = 2.87, p < .024, η2 = .054. The group of students
with GPA 4.0-4.5 reported the highest mean M = 2.73 (SD = 0.37), while students
with GPA 4.5-5.0 reported the lowest mean M = 2.51 (SD = 0.41). GPA also had a
significant influence on passive learning strategy F (4.201) = 2.76, p = .029, η2 =
.052. where the group 4.0-4.5 reported the highest mean M = 2.63 (SD = 0.68), and
the group 4.5-5.0 reported the lowest mean M = 2.24 (SD = 0.73). GPA did not
have a significant influence on individual learning strategies and on the language
skills strategies. Regarding the subscale of individual learning strategies the
highest mean was again reported by the group with GPA 4.0-4.5 M = 3.13 (SD =
0.74), and the lowest by the group with GPA 2.5-3.0 M = 2.73 (SD = 0.43). As for
the language skills strategies the group with GPA 2.5-3.0 reported the highest
mean M = 2.77 (SD = 0.51), while the lowest mean was reported by the group
with GPA 4.5-5.0 M = 2.35 (SD = 0.59).
Table 5 Descriptive results of learning strategies
Report
GPA groups
Overall Lang.
Passive
Individual
learning
learning
Strategies
strategies
strategies
4.5-5
4-4.5
Mean
Std. Dev.
Mean
2.51
0.41
2.73
2.24
0.73
2.63
3.06
0.64
3.13
Language
Skills
Strategies
2.35
0.59
2.55
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
3.5-4
3-3.5
2.5-3
Total
Std. Dev.
Mean
Std. Dev.
Mean
Std. Dev.
Mean
Std. Dev.
Mean
Std. Dev.
0.37
2.62
0.33
2.70
0.42
2.67
0.33
2.58
0.39
0.68
2.44
0.58
2.60
0.64
2.54
0.63
2.38
0.71
0.74
2.97
0.85
3.03
0.65
2.73
0.43
3.04
0.69
0.60
2.55
0.46
2.50
0.86
2.77
0.51
2.44
0.60
4. CONCLUSION
We anticipated that there is no statistically significant difference in L2 difficulties
between students belonging to three major socio-economic groups, or that this
socio-economic status does not affect the language acquisition process. The
results showed that this hypothesis was supported. There can be a number of
reasons for such results, but we believe that they might be mainly attributed to
the fact that the most participants study at a private school with strict procedures
regarding paying and students are forced and inspired by their families or tutors
to struggle and force for the success regardless of their socio-economic status.
Moreover, the school administration struggles to treat all students equally which
is more probably recognized by the students. These results are even more
indicative when we compare them with our previous research on related topic.
Delić, Bećirović and Brdarević-Čeljo (2018) investigated gender differences in
second language acquisition difficulties and found out significant differences.
This is without doubt interesting for this research mainly because Bosnian
cultural identity, according to Bećirović (2012), is not gender-biased, and, on the
other hand, socio-economic status is an extremely important variable in this
community in general (Foco, 2002).
By the second null hypothesis we supposed that there was no statistically
significant difference in second language acquisition difficulties between
students with different GPA scores. We were interested in the students’ gradepoint average (GPA) because we believe GPA is important for many reasons.
GPA shows how hard-working a student is, how much he or she knows, and
what his or her strengths and weaknesses are. Students may find that improving
their study skills can have a positive effect on their overall academic
performance. The findings indicated the existence of a significant difference
based on GPA groups and the null hypothesis was rejected. The research of
Rizvić and Bećirović (2017) also showed that GPA had a significant influence on
willingness to communicate in English as a foreign language in the BosnianHerzegovinian EFL context. Besides the refutation of the null hypothesis, we
were also surprised by the group that had the highest mean. Among five different
groups based on GPA the highest mean had the group 4.5-5.0, that is the students
60
�The influence of Grade point Average and Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
Haris Delić & Senad Bećirović
with best grades and achievements. Here we also anticipated that lower
achievement groups would have the highest mean but that was not the case. The
results showed that the group with the lowest mean is the GPA group 3.0-3.5
group. What is indicative here is that the students from the group that had the
highest mean, i.e. the group 4.5-5.0, comprised more than half of the total number
of sampled students, exactly 56.8 %. This means that more than half of the
students had some implications in terms of some of the categories that had been
examined.
By the third hypothesis we predicted that there was no statistically
significant difference in language learning strategies based on the students’ GPA.
According to the results, GPA had a significant influence on learning strategies.
However, Bećirović, Brdarević-Čeljo and Dubravac (2018) found that GPA had
an insignificant influence on reading strategies and Bećirović, Brdarević-Čeljo,
and Sinanović (2017) found that grade level and gender had a significant
influence on metacognitive reading strategies. The research conducted by middle
school participants showed that grade level and social context had a significant
effect on learning strategies while gender did not (Brdarević-Čeljo & Asotić,
2017).
Many researchers suggest that educators need to take into consideration
the needs and background of each learner in order to be able to employ
methodologies that guide students in using strategies which enhance their L2
learning process (Montano, 2017). Learning strategies are not always feasible to
promote L2 proficiency in advance students; these can be rather used by students
with a lower level of language proficiency (Oxford, 2003). As we discussed in the
review of literature, and as the definitions of individual strategies state, each
students adopt and create his/her specific way of learning. In the case of this
research we did not have any significant correlations between individual
strategies. There can be a possibility that our sample students did not actually
have much differentiated strategies or that, due to experience of having much
time spent together, they adopted similar learning strategies which did not differ
significantly. Each student has a certain degree in which he or she organizes and
follows his own way of learning. As presented in Table 5 individual strategies
had the highest mean (M = 3.04) which indicates that those strategies that each
individual adopts for him/herself are mainly used to overcome implications in
learning.
It is helpful for each individual to reveal which strategies work best for
them so the teacher or the facilitator can organize a lesson with the most
dominant strategies. There are supported arguments that some strategies work
better than others for learners but there can always be exceptions that teachers
need to be aware of. To do this all must be included, that is students, teachers,
and educational institutions. Educators should explain useful learning strategies
to students, raise their awareness of the importance of effective strategy usage,
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
and what is the most important, the purpose of an appropriate strategy for them.
What can also be implemented is that teachers first identify already used
strategies and those that can be added then try to incorporate them in the learning
process later. In that was, a learner with strategy-adopted way of learning would
become an autonomous and independent learner.
Lecturers should emphasize skills such as analyzing and evaluating
content, using typographical features, summarizing text and using reference
materials. Typically, lecturers should analyze the strategies they teach, and find
out in which contexts these strategies should be applied. They should also
provide students with opportunities to practice these strategies. According to
Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002), teachers and mentors can use a combination of
direct and indirect strategy training.
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Montaño-González, J. (2017). Learning Strategies in Second Language
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64
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The influence of Grade point Average and Socioeconomic Status on Learning Strategies
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Abstract: A variety of different factors seem to have an influence on both second language learning difficulties as well as learning strategies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different socio-economic status and grade point average on learning strategies and learning difficulties in second language acquisition (SLA) process. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to gather data, i.e. a survey method was applied. The research sample included 206 high school participants. The results showed that a socioeconomic status did not have a significant influence on the students’ second language acquisition difficulties. However, the students’ grade point average significantly affected second language acquisition difficulties and also language learning strategies. The results of this study may help instructors to tailor instructions and content to students’ needs and their preferable styles of learning. Taking into consideration students’ learning difficulties and learning strategies in designing and implementing classes may significantly improve teaching and learning outcomes.
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Haris Delić
Senad Bećirović
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2)
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International Burch University
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Winter 2018
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ISSN 2566-4638
DOI 10.14706/JEH2018123
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Keywords: learning strategies, learning difficulties, socio-economic status, GPA level, second language acquisition.
-
https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/8a0b28406be4224027a0610646f8178c.pdf
86295bda99fa30fc1033a7ad87d4e3d2
PDF Text
Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 126-142, Winter 2018
Professional paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018124
Translation and Translators in Romani
Context
Professional paper
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
Council of Europe - Committee of Experts for the European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages
France
hedina.sijercic570@gmail.com
Abstract: Since the area presenting former Yugoslavia has no
mandatory Romani langauge classes and consequently no offically
recognized translation classes, nor does it provide training for
Romani translators, this paper deals with the experience and the
current situation of Romani translation and translators. Theoretical
background of Polysystems, Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS),
Skopos and non-systems oriented ‘Cluster concept’ provide support
for a better approach to translation in the Romani context. ‘Cluster
concept’ allows the possibility to create a definition of Translation
Romani as a new approach to Translation Studies. As translation
represents one of the ways to preserve and develop linguistic vitality
in the minority languages, reassuring its speakers, activating the
creation of new vocabulary, and strengthening domains of language
use that are under-used, it also applies as a way for creating
translation strategies for teaching Translation Romani. This
research is grounded in personal experience, and presents the
beginning of the research on Translation Romani (TR).
Keywords: translation,
Romani language, Roma,
Romani translator, Romani
translation, training
Article History
Submitted: 18 Decemeber 2018
Accepted: 30 January 2019
�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
1. INTRODUCTION
Romani language/čhib1 is the common language of Roma, Sinti, Kale and other
European groups pejoratively known as “gypsies“. It “is the only new IndoAryan language spoken exclusively outside of the Indian subcontinent (Zatreanu
& Halwachs 2013, p. 3)” by about 10-15 million Roma throughout the world, and
“comprised of almost 80 dialects”2 of the Romani language. As stated by
Halwachs, Klinge and Schrammel (2013) Romani “may be described as a
heterogenous cluster of varieties with a homogeneous core – a common
morphology and a common lexicon- but without any generally accepted
homogenizing standard“ ( p. 5).
Even though the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
has been signed by eight (8) countries3 and ratified by twenty five (25) countries4,
fifteen (15)5 “have officially recognised Romani as a minority language
traditionally present on their territory” (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 36), the
development of Romani čhib is given an inadequate opportunity.6 In the
situation where discrimination and racism against Roma and Romani exist in
their visible and invisible forms, the speakers’ identity and the identity of the
language disappear. Such a situation, according to Hughes (2013), warrants
“intervention from governments to protect Romani language, as it is considered
an important, but vulnerable facet of the Roma peoples identity” (p. 19).
It is obvious that, as stated by Pym “political dimension [is] involved [in
the languages], especially in situations where translation policies are associated
with the defence and development of minority languages“ (2002, p. 4). A political
dimension is also present in the situation of the Romani language, and
consequently in Translation Romani. There are, unfortunately, no educational
programs where both the Romani language and Translation Romani are
1
Denomination of Romani language in Romani is Romani čhib. In further text will be used as Romani.
2
Translation Romani. See: http://www.translationromani.net/en/romani/language
Azerbaijan, France, Iceland, Italy, Malta,Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, The former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia
3
4
See: https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/148/signatures)
As Part II language signed by Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden,
Slovenia, and as Part III language signed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and Germany in Hesse.
5
”This is the highest number of ratifications for a single language under the Charter and it reflects, among
others, the status of Romani as a European language.” Statement adopted by the Committee of Experts of
the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) on 5 November 2015 on the occasion
of the International Romani Laguage Day.” (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 36).
6
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mandatory, and there are no trained Romani translators nor interpreters. 7 The
Romani language is a complex linguistic issue of translation process in Romani
context.
Until the twentieth century, the Romani was a spoken language only and
even today, as stated by Tahirović-Sijerčić,
[d]ominant ideology and culture erroneously understand Romani as an oral
language and not as written, and Romani literature as a folk literature with no
focus on contemporary creation. However, international Romani authors do, in
fact, write in Romani and publish in its different dialects, and the written
language is used in Romani networks, email, and chatrooms. (2017, p. 14)
At the present time, Romani as a mandatory subject is only taught within
Romistika in the frame of graduate studies at the Department of Indology and
Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb. In a frame of elective
courses, Romani is taught at the College of Professional Studies for Educators
“Michael Palov“ in Vršac, and at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Romani is
taught occasionally through short training courses, thanks to the small grants and
educational projects, within the Romani and non-Romani NGO circles. These
organizations are dealing with different issues in the areas of language, politics,
economics, history etc. for and about Roma. The main issues of such education
are not only Romani čhib and majority8 official language/s, but also Romani
culture and majority culture/s of the countries where the Roma live.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Within his theoretical framework of polysystems, Even-Zohar, cited in Pym (2010, 72),
sees translation playing an innovative role when: “(a) a polysystem has not yet been
crystallized, that is to say, when a literature is ‘young,’ in the process of being established;
(b) a literature is either ‘peripheral’ (within a large group of correlated literatures) or
‘weak,’ or both; and (c) there are turning points, crises, or literary vacuums in a literature”
(Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 10).
7
There is an individual initiative since 2016. Translator is not a professional translator, and does not have
any translation training but has translation experience. „Romany Interpreting and Translations (RIT) is
registered trademark and sole trading business based in Manchester, UK.
https://www.romanyinterpretingandtranslations.com/resume
The “majority society language” refers to dominant and powerful society and language which is in
contact with Roma as minority people or ethnic groups, and with Romani as minority language.
8
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�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
It accounts for bilingual and multilingual communities.
The literature of Roma and written by Roma is ‘young’, ‘peripheral’ and
‘weak’. As already stated, it started first to be published in the 20th century, and
its invisibility has been reflected by the history of Roma (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018,
p. 10), and their historical and current socio-economic situation.
In their difficult socio-economic situation Romani translators were
engaged because of different project needs related to human rights issues. On
that way, translation in Romani has been seen only as the need for “the ‘aim’ or
‘purpose’ (‘skopos’)9 that guides the production of a translation. According to
this perspective, it is the target culture which “defines [a translation’s] adequacy”
(Vermeer in Venuti, 2000, p. 222)” (Tahirović-Sijerčić 2018, p. 16).
It means that source text, depending of goals or purposes, could have
many different translations, also with possibility that the source text does not
meet meaning of the context in the target language and the source text is
destabilized, and does not have its function in the target culture.
The Skopos rule thus reads as follows: translate/interpret/speak/write in a way
that enables your text/translation to function in the situation in which it is used
and with the people who want to use it and precisely in the way they want it to
function (Pym, 2010, p. 45), (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 16).
Within the Romani translation using the concept of Skopos theory, there
are, also, the other problems such as: directionality of languages (majority –
Romani or Romani – majority); contact language effect including existence of
loanwords and neologisms in Romani; Romani readers and their different
dialects; acceptance of translation; and fulfillment of the needs (TahirovićSijerčić, 2018, p. 17).
It is important to state that a need for, and interest in, Romani translators
and interpreters was awakened during the Decade of Roma Inclusion 20052015.10 The funding provided for the projects of different institutions also covered
activities to bring Romani language to the forefront and thus to become more
visible. The issues that have been most translated are in the domain of human
rights and law, with special emphasis on housing, health, employment, and
education for Roma.
Diverse institutional and NGO reports on law and human rights have been
translated into Romani and have spawned many types of translation. Translation
9
“Skopos theory” is a concept of translation studies from the 1980s.
10
The Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) was an initiative of 12 European countries (Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia,
Slovakia and Spain), to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of the Romani
people across the region. An observer status had Slovenia and United States.
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and interpretation for different cultural events are also widespread, and found in
the form of flyers, guidelines and advertisements. Almost all of the official
Decade of Roma Inclusion conferences used Romani interpreters.
When looking for a Romani translator or interpreter, the institutions and
non-Romani NGOs mostly have recourse to certain individuals within certain
Romani NGOs. Once eligible for these institutions and NGOs, the
translator/interpreter, after gaining his/her first job, the translator/interpreter is
engaged with clients and is always called for the next engagement. Clients are
not aware of the specific challenges that inadequate translation and/or their
choice of translator/interpreter can cause.
In order to make readers aware of problems “of identity politics, to
experiences shrouded in silence, and to forms of representation that deepen our
to empathize with people who are different from us (Ellis & Bochner, 2000)“
(Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011, par. 3), it is important that client institutions and
NGOs as clients have translators/interpreters who identify themselves as
Romani, and as the speakers of the Romani language. These are the only criteria.
Of no interest to clients are the quality of the translator’s educational background;
the dialect/s he/she uses; the levels of his/her Romani as the target language,
the majority language as the source language; the quality of her/his
translation/interpretation; or the knowledge of cultural differences. Above all,
the cheapest price for translation would be appreciated. With Romani identity
and work being done at the cheapest rates possible, the client’s expectations are
fulfilled.
In such situations, clients and translators could experience problems with
the final product – the translation into Romani čhib. According to Rosemary
Mackenzie, it is not just because they “ [h]a[v]e insufficient information about the
situation or about the subject matter in hand“ (1998, p. 202), but also because they
are “ in the game“ and they have an opinion to hold a monopoly over translation
for NGOs and institutions (Mackenzie, 1998, p. 202). These translators would not
generally or readily confess that they do not know the grammar of the language
pair they translate. In fact, they will do the ‘work’ despite its bad quality and
despite a low understanding of the source text.
In fact, not just the Romani language but also its translation suffers from a
cultural, economic, political and educational pressure of the majority languages
in which they have been in contact. This unequal relationship of power between
minority and majority languages, their linguistic and cultural differences led me
to the postcolonial approach where question on power hierarchy came to
attention.
Since there is no translation theory nor approach that could be used to all
translations, Tymoczko’s ‘cluster concept’ as the most acceptable concept,
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�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
especially in the context of Translation Romani makes and “allow[s] for selfdefinition of translation by all cultures thus far been dominated by Western
logocentrism (2007, 2010, 2014, p. 105) ” (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 22).
This approach provides a space for creation and self-definition of Translation
Romani.
3. TRANSLATION ROMANI AND ROMANI TRANSLATORS – DEFINITION
Romani, as a minority language,11 has been constantly influenced by neologisms
and loanwords and creates an obstacle for communication between various
groups of Roma, as does the different use of writing style and script, likewise a
difficulty for translation. This situation of complex linguistic and cultural
differences leads to the importance of translation in Romani context, i.e.
Translation Romani.
Translation Romani as a new approach to Translation Studies, is
translation in and from the Romani language involving different dialect groups,
cultures, customs, religions, different geographical areas and nationality
languages where Roma live. In other words, Translation Romani is a cluster of
translation produced by Romani translators in diverse domains in and from
different Romani dialects, which preserve and still live in different Romani and
non-Romani cultures.
Following this definition, the Romani translator is any individual who has
been educated about both cultures and both languages, and has a very good
language knowledge in TL and SL, i.e. a majority language and Romani
language.
Romani translators, despite their bilingualism and multilingualism, have
different levels of knowledge of national language/s and of Romani, which also
creates difficulties in Translation Romani. The biggest problem is insufficient and
incomplete translators’ education in national language/s and their national
culture/s colored with particularities in expressions.
In the domain of literary translation, Translation Romani is produced mostly by
Romani poets who are self-translators.12 Without institutional support or access
According to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages “regional or minority languages
means languages that are: (i) traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State
who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and (ii) different from the
official language(s) of that State; it does not include either dialects of the official language(s) of the State
or the languages of migrants;“ Retrieved from https://rm.coe.int/168007bf4b
11
12
My PhD dissertation which seeks -through the optic of translation studies - to address some preliminary
questions with regard to Romani literature and self-translation. My readings of Romani poetry, in particular,
have led me to make some initial observations worthy of analysis: poems are written bilingual and
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to mainstream publishers, these poets and writers publish their own work
through their Romani NGOs.
The situation of translation and interpretation is in an unrivaled position
for both minority and majority languages, especially in the countries of Western
Balkans, having in mind that
[t]here are no translator training institutions as such in BiH. Most people who engage in
translation/interpreting hold a degree in modern languages and many do
translation/interpreting part time. Companies which offer translation or interpreting
services are very rarely found in BiH. The only professional association of
translators/interpreters in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the Association of Translators of
BiH (Udruženje prevodilaca Bosne i Hercegovine). (Jurida & Pavlović, 2016, p. 73)
In the case of Romani, both, the language and translation education is lacking,
and only a small percentage of Roma are fluent and literate in Romani.
Educational institutions that are responsible for supporting Romani programs,
and Romani language programs in particular, face difficulties in teaching
Romani and consequently in teaching Translation Romani.
4. ANALYSIS: CHALLENGES FOR CLIENTS, ORGANIZATIONS, NGOS
As an illustration of the problems in Translation Romani, we will briefly analyze
an excerpt of the Akcioni plan Bosne i Hercegovine za rješavanje problema Roma u
oblasti zapošljavanja, stambenog zbrinjavanja i zdravstvene zaštite [Аkcijako plаno
Bоsnе thaj Hеrcеgоvinе pala pandime e romenge problemura ande оblаst bućaripe ćherako
zbrinime thaj sastimake zаštita/Action plan of Bosnia and Herzegovina for addressing
Roma Issues in the field of employment housing and health care] which was published
by the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2009.
The publication is written in Bosnian as the source language and translated into
Romani as the target language by a Romani translator. The translation in English
is made by a professional English translator.
multilingual – in Romani and majority language/s; poems are self-translated by their writers; all versions
of the poem are complementing each other; versions of the poem are read ‘together’, “stereoscopically”, in
the sense that textual meaning is obtained through a reading of one in relation to another – bilingually or
multilingually.
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�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
Table 1. Translation Romani in 2009.
BOSNIAN
Akcioni plan Bosne i
Hercegovine za rješavanje
problema Roma u oblasti
zapošljavanja, stambenog
zbrinjavanja i zdravstvene
zaštite (title page)
ROMANI
Аkcijako plаno Bоsnе thaj
Hеrcеgоvinе pala
pandime e romenge
problemura ande оblаst
bućaripe
ćherako zbrinime thaj
sastimake zаštita (2009, 72)
ENGLISH
Action plan of Bosnia and
Herzegovina for addressing
Roma
issues in the field of
employment
housing and
health care (2009, 133)
Zаključаk
(...) Оčеkivаni rеzultаti u
plаnu pоstižu se krоz јаsnо
dеfinirаnе mјеrе Аkciоnоg
plаnа kоје оbuhvаtајu niz
аktivnоsti kоје trеbа
poduzеti i kоје mоrајu imаti
u vidu
i uzеti u оbzir pоstојеćе
stimulаtivnе mјеrе i
аktivnоsti u оblаsti
zаpоšljаvаnjа
kоје su dаlе оdrеđеnе
rеzultаtе. (2009, 47)
Zаključko
(...) Оčеkuvime rezultatura
an planpostignin pe krezo
jasno definišime mjere
Akcionone
planoha save obuhvatin nizo
aktivnosturengo save trubuj
te poduzmin pe i
save mora te aven an uvid i
te lol an obzir već postojime
stimulativni mjere te
aktivnostura
an oblastura
zapošljavanjeko save dje
određeni rezultatura. (2009,
112)
Conclusion
(...) The results anticipated
by the Plan are achieved
through the clearly defined
measures
of the Action Plan that
include a series of activities
which need to be undertaken
and which must also take
into account the already
existing incentives
and activities in the area of
employment, which have
already produced certain
results. (2009, 171)
Example 1. *The words in bold in the Bosnian source text have influenced the
Romani target text.
As stated by Munday, Vinay and Darbelnet’s translation strategy is the
“orientation of the translator […]” and procedures are specific techniques or
methods which are used “by a translator at a certain point in a text” (2012, p. 57),
on the basis of the appropriate translation procedure chosen by the translator
(Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 93).
In this example, even though unconsciously, the Romani translator uses
word for word translation procedure. Translator does not pay attention to the
style of the text, but to the grammar and idioms keeping the meaning in the target
language. This procedure is “the most common procedure when translating
between two languages of the same family [...], and even more so when they also
share the same culture (Vinay & Darbelnet 2000, p. 86)” (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018,
p. 96). It is the fact that Romani and Bosnian are not of the same language family,
but Romani uses Bosnian grammar, orthography and morphology. Contact effect
language, loanwords and neologisms, provide characteristic of Romani,
hybridity and mimicry.
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
Romani čhib, such as other minority languages, is constantly under the
pressure from dominant, majority languages, and therefore it can very easily, as
Cronin stated, “become mirror-image of the dominant language“ (1998, p. 147),
which is obvious in this example.
In the example of the Romani translation provided, several problems are
identified:
1. Translators seem to be very heavily influenced by the source text.
2. Compatibility between Bosnian / Serbian / Croatian / Montenegrin /
Macedonian and Romani is more than obvious.
3. Neologisms and loanwords dominate in the Romani translation.
4. Translators do not have enough knowledge about Romani language
grammar, about dialects and their differences. Their knowledge depends
on the second language grammar level which they learn in schools as a
mandatory subject.
5. The translator does not pay attention to punctuation or proper use of
uppercase letters. There is no uniformed textual use of the nouns Rom,
Roma, and adjective Romani/o/e, even though these nouns and
adjectives in the source text are correct.
6. Translators do not use translation technologies or tools, and they are
mostly unaware of the existence of Romani dictionaries.
7. The degree of translators’ textual awareness or use of textual knowledge
is limited. This might be attributed to the following: a) the translator does
not understand the text i.e. the meaning in the source language; b) the
translator imports the words from the source language into the target
language because he/she is not aware of their existence in the target
Romani language; c) in importing the source language words, the
translator builds, creates and self-invents ‘new Romani words’ (clumsy
hybrids) adding to SL words Romani suffixes; and d) the translator is not
aware of the existence of Romani dictionaries and grammars.
8. The revision phase is not done.
As another example in Revidirani Akcioni Plan Bosne i Hercegovine za rješavanje
problema Roma u oblastima zapošljavanja, stambenog zbrinjavanja i zdravstvene
zaštite 2013-2016. godine published by Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013, a translation shows how a Romani translator
produces Translation Romani when the translator is well educated, uses
language books, grammar and dictionaries, and has good knowledge in both,
the Bosnian and Romani language and culture.
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�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
Table 2. Translation Romani in 2013.
BOSNIAN
ROMANI
ENGLISH
Revidirani Akcioni Plan
Bosne i Hercegovine za
rješavanje problema Roma u
oblastima zapošljavanja,
stambenog
zbrinjavanja i zdravstvene
zaštite 2013-2016. godine
(title page)
Bosnako thaj
Hercegovinako
Revidirano Akciono
Plano pala ćhinavipe e
Romenge problemura
ande pašipende pala
bući, ćheresko ažutipe
thaj sastipesko
arakhipe 2013. - 2016.
(title page)
Revised Action Plan of
Bosnia and Herzegovina for
addressing Roma issues in
the field of employment,
housing
and healthcare 2013-2016
(title page)
Položaj pojedinaca i/ili ove
manjinske grupe udaljava
Rome od mogućnosti
obrazovanja i
zaposlenja, te smanjuju
njihovu mogućnost za
ostvarivanje prihoda, tako da
su mnogi od njih
isključeni i ne učestvuju u
društvenim mrežama ili
drugim aktivnostima u
zajednici. (1)
E peravneski situacija jal
situacija pala gova
nacionalno minoriteto ćerel
lungo drom e Romendar
koring edukacija, bući thaj
ćeren lengo bišajipe jal cikno
šajipe pala bućako poćinipe
jal bućako
therdipe, thaj pe gova drom
but katare lendar si ačhavne
thaj na den participacija
ande amalipeske
inzardende jal ande aver
aktivitetura ande amalipeste.
(1)
This position of individual
Roma and/or this minority
group alienates Roma in
terms of educational
and employment
opportunities and hence
restricts their ability to
generate revenue. It is for
this
reason that many members
of the Roma national
community are excluded and
do not participate in
social networks or other
community activities. (1)
Example 2. (neologisms and loanwords in bold)
In this translation, the Romani translator uses Vinay and Darbelnet’ (2000)
sense by sense translation procedure taking into consideration Romani grammar,
Romani dictionaries Romani writing, and Romani everyday communication.
In the final observation we would refer to Newmark who states that, “[i]n
communicative as in semantic translation, provided that equivalent effect is
secured, the literal word-for-word translation is not only the best, it is the only
valid method of translation” (1981, p. 39), and disagree in the case of Translation
Romani. Even though both examples are equivalent, the translation in Example
1 (one) does not work for revitalization activities: education of and in Romani13,
the development of written standards, vocabulary development, and learning
13
The Romani alphabet consists of 34-38 letters, two genders (feminine and masculine no middle genus),
two numbers (singular and plural), and eight cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative,
instrumental, locative, and ablative. Romani does not have infinitive (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018, p. 44).
The effect of contact language enabled the exchange, acquisition, adaptation and creation of a large
number of loanwords and neologisms from majority and other minority languages which influence
Romani in every country where Roma live.
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
materials to serve Romani translators’ training and Translation Romani. In both
examples, invisibility of translator/s is lacking.
Accordingly, as Venuti stated “linguistics remained a basic component in
the curricula of translator training programs” (2012, p. 391). As translation is one
of the ways to preserve and develop linguistic vitality in minority languages,1415
reassuring its speakers, activating the creation of new vocabulary, and
strengthening domains of language use that have remained under-used (Toury,
1985, p. 7), it applies also for the development of linguistic vitality in the case of
Romani (Tahirović-Sijerčić, 2018a), although at the same time, it could cause a
threat to its distinctiveness (Cronin, 1995, p. 89).
5. TRAINING RECOMMENDATIONS
Taking into consideration the position of Romani as a minority language, as well
as general situation of Romani, Translation Romani and Romani Translators, the
models found in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Jurida & Pavlović, 2016, pp. 74-82),
Montenegro (Lakić & Pralas, 2016, pp. 98-109) or other models in the Western
Balkans or Europe would not be applicable in the Romani context. Therefore, it
is necessary to create a course which complements language, translation and
translators training.
Since each student has a different cultural, social and linguistic
background (different dialects, customs and religion), and in order to avoid the
common generalization about Roma, we should state that “[...] no individual is a
typical example of the culture within which they live [and keep] in mind that all
individuals are unique“ (Garant, 1997, p. 26). Therefore, the mean goal is to make
students aware about “Rromanipe(n) /Romanipe(n) [as] the common denominator
of [what] is considered or believed to make up the essential characteristics of [the
world] Roma/Rroma. [Romanipe(n) is] the feeling of belonging to the same
people, to the same history, culture, and habits despite the differences” [specific
to each group and their linguistic and cultural sub-groups] (Tahirović-Sijerčić,
2017, p. 18).
In order to get professional teachers of Romani and thus professional
translators, it is necessary to develop Translation Romani as a university
curriculum program to provide training for professional Romani Translators
specializing in certain domains. These courses should inspire students to speak
14
15
(European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, European Treaty Series - No. 148, Strasbourg,
5.XI.1992, pg. 1-2.
136
�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
and cooperate in a group, to exchange, discuss and share their knowledge and
ideas of possible strategies employed for their work in translation. The course
would also help Roma and non-Roma students to eliminate anti-Roma prejudices
and stereotypes.
For example, we would suggest introducing an elective course for two
semesters Translation Romani within Romani Studies.16 The objective is to facilitate
student learning of relevant Romani linguistic and cultural traits and issues
(history, language, literature, migration, minority) through the concept of
cultural translation, using multi-modal content (text, image, audio-visual) in
Romani and other languages as examples for analysis and discussion. Through
lectures, reading assignments, discussions and practical exercises in small groups
students will learn about cultural translation in the unique context of the Romani
language and culture, with a special emphasis on the Romani identity.
Students will have opportunities to practice cultural translation in three
specific contexts: literary expression (poetry, short story); film; and advertising
and marketing. They will learn how language is used creatively in translation to
express Romani cultural identity and representation for reception in diverse
domains. The contents for this class would be presented at the introductory level,
and eventually at an intermediate level class with increased difficulty in reading
assignments and practical exercises. Oral presentations, discussion, individual
and collective textual analysis, manipulation of audio and video material with
subsequent analysis and demonstration would serve teaching methods and
would be used.
The basic themes for two semesters are: Introduction to Translation
Romani and Introduction to Romani Studies, Romani language and translation
history, Romani bilingualism and multilingualism within translation, and
Translational tools: Romani grammar and dictionaries, Special problems in
Romani translation, Translation Romani within Romani culture, Translating
Romani identity (self-perspective), and Self-translation in Romani context. Also,
included might be themes such as Terminology studies and Romani translation,
Translation Romani and Romani translators, Romani literary expression and
translation, Romani media and translation, Romani film and translation, and
Translation Romani and advertising/marketing.
Also, terminology classes are a necessity, and should include ongoing
exercises which deal with different types of interference and ‘false friends’. In
most translation, as well as in Romani translation, interference and interlanguage
forms are present and they are, as Toury stated, “likely to occur whenever one
language is used in some contact with another” (1978, p. 224). According to
Havlásková, “the seriousness of mistake caused by interference can be diverse-from
16
when possibility approved
137
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
“mistakes” which cause that the text is clumsy, but which preserve the meaning of the
original, to errors which completely change sense of the source text” (2010, p. 39).
Learning from one’s own errors and mistakes awakens ideas for creation
of terminology lists and glossaries, of use to all translators and interpreters in and
from Romani čhib. They could help in the creation of more uniform sets of words
missing or forgotten in Romani through their translation, and would provide
better understanding, communication, translation and interpretation.
In order to establish requirements and expectations for Romani translators
while being in training17 it is essential that theoretical discussions are promoted
in conjunction with a hands-on practice of translation (Pym, 2009, pp. 6-7).
6. CONCLUSION
It appears impossible to write about translation in the Romani context, about
creation of syllabuses of Translation Romani, along with training for translators,
without the knowledge of the Romani language, cultures and identities of Roma
and Romani translators.
This knowledge constitutes Translation Romani as a new approach to
Translation Studies. Translation Romani is a cluster of translations produced in
17
The translators should understand the text as readers better than even the author at the moment of writing;
they should investigate the problems they have while translating, and think about processes and the methods
which would be the most appropriate for this translation. Further, they should be aware of the language and
readership (source and target text) specificities, highlight the importance of the length of time devoted to
the translation of text, and consider the number of hours or days needed for quality translation. This may
include consultation with other translators about certain terminology problems in Romani. They may
require time for self-revision and revision by others, and think about realistically meeting the client’s
deadlines. They may need to think about the degree of their awareness or use of textual knowledge, and
reflect on the importance of self-confidence (advantages and disadvantages in the Romani case). In
addition, they must recognize the significance (and importance) of the text as a whole and what is the
interest of Translation Romani, and find the ways to develop Romani čhib and increase its value as a
language.
138
�Translation and Translators in Romani Context
Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
diverse domains in and from different Romani dialects, which preserve and still
live in different Romani and non-Romani cultures, done by Romani translators.
The biggest problem that faces Translation Romani is training of
professional teachers and trainers. A trainer of Romani must always have in mind
one important question: Which dialect/which Romani is the most correct and
most appropriate for the class teaching translation? When working with the
educational mediators in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the best way to approach
students is to establish good atmosphere, provide students with available
literature (different dictionaries, grammars, language text books etc.), and teach
them how to use these tools. After discussion about the accessibility of
educational and translational tools, students could work in groups to translate a
short text from Bosnian into Romani. In that way, both languages, of the source
and target text are taught. These classes should be mostly interactive and
practical, with translations discussed with students in detail so that
[i]ndividually and in groups students develop their own glossaries, learning the
basics of terminology and creating at the same time a solid basis for their future
activities in translation and interpreting. (Lakić & Pralas, 2016, p. 100)
The use of different Romani dialects could be of great challenges not just
for students but also for trainers who should have knowledge and experience to
explain the differences between them. Creating and building terminology must
be a challenge especially in case of Romani where terminology is lacking. A need
for the establishment of the program and designing curriculum, as the situation
imposes, should start “from the idea that the goal of the entire course was to meet
the needs“ (Lakić & Pralas, 2016, p. 115) of the speakers in the countries where
translation programs are supported and approved.
An important issue of translation, and especially of Translation Romani,
is intracultural and intercultural diversity along with cross-cultural knowledge
and skills that help development of communication skills (Yang, 2015, p. 249) and
provide people from “different cultural background an opportunity to observe
and analyse the differences, thus to understand them better and approach them
positively” (Yang, 2015, p. 250).
Finally, there is the problem of the evaluation/revision phase in translation.
How should revision be done, and who should provide a revision? Who should
validate Romani translation and validation, for certain translation choices? These
and many other questions should be a part of creating strategies for teaching
Translation Romani using “different Romani dialects to try to preserve [vitality]
of Romani čhib and its translation through intra-dialect exchange“ (TahirovićSijerčić, 2018, p. 87).
139
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
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Journal of Education and Humanities
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Translation and Translators in Romani Context
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Abstract: Since the area presenting former Yugoslavia has no mandatory Romani langauge classes and consequently no offically recognized translation classes, nor does it provide training for Romani translators, this paper deals with the experience and the current situation of Romani translation and translators. Theoretical background of Polysystems, Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), Skopos and non-systems oriented ‘Cluster concept’ provide support for a better approach to translation in the Romani context. ‘Cluster concept’ allows the possibility to create a definition of Translation Romani as a new approach to Translation Studies. As translation represents one of the ways to preserve and develop linguistic vitality in the minority languages, reassuring its speakers, activating the creation of new vocabulary, and strengthening domains of language use that are under-used, it also applies as a way for creating translation strategies for teaching Translation Romani. This research is grounded in personal experience, and presents the beginning of the research on Translation Romani (TR).
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Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić
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Journal of Education and Humanities
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International Burch University
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Winter 2018
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Keywords: translation, Romani language, Roma, Romani translator, Romani translation, training
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ISSN 2566-4638
DOI 10.14706/JEH2018124
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/a2aa2831ea180fddfd77dd6345da764a.pdf
e801655526780353283f7d14a57d18ef
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Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 89-98, Winter 2018
Short report
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018125
An Analysis of Gender Differences in the use
of Swear Words on Facebook
Melika Muhanović
Nejla Babić
Esma Latić, MA
International Burch University
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
melika.muhanovic@stu.ibu.edu.ba
nejla.babic@stu.ibu.edu.ba
esma.latic@ibu.edu.ba
Abstract: The question of gender differences in language use has
been repeatedly explored and claims about these distinctions that
were once considered invariable have been questioned and refuted.
One of the less explored areas within this issue, however, is the
phenomenon of swearing. This paper aimed to explore how and why
men and women swear on one of the most popular social media sites,
Facebook, and how the context in which such utterances are
produced modulates their frequency and form. The study found that
both men and women are more likely to swear when commenting on
the content produced by the same gender and also when surrounded
by other males and females, respectively. Furthermore, the research
confirmed some previous studies in which men were found to swear
more out of aggressiveness, while women do so to exaggerate their
words.
Keywords: gender,
differences, taboo language,
swear words, social media
Article History
Submitted: 15 January 2019
Accepted: 3 February 2019
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
1. INTRODUCTION
Research into language use in social media websites has shown it to reinforce and
reproduce the gender dichotomy and gender roles of the offline world (Miller et
al., 2016). In other words, the gender, here understood as a sociocultural category
constructed through social upbringing and nurturing (Beauvoir, 1949;
Haslanger, 1995; Millett, 1971) that one projects in the real world is likely to
mirror the one projected on social media. Furthermore, taking into consideration
that individuals form their identities, and thus different parts of it, including
gender, by continually exploring and embodying different selves (Waterman,
1999), it is natural for individuals to find social media a suitable place for such an
endeavour (Manago, Graham, Greenfield, & Salimkhan, 2008).
This paper focuses on the use of taboo language as one of the features through
which this formation of gender identity is realized. More specifically, it explores
whether and how men and women differ in their use of taboo language on one
of the most popular social media sites, Facebook, and what kind of image they
desire to portray about themselves while using the language. Moreover, it
attempts to clarify the question of whether certain patterns of behaviour or use
of this kind of language might be gendered, i.e. attributed to one of the genders.
Furthermore, the study looks at how the environment allows and encourages
different types of behaviour as well as how some specific web pages reinforce the
expressive language.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Taboo language has been broadly defined as the category of expressions socially
prohibited or evaded due to their, more or less severe, psychological harm that
may affect the society’s members (Jay, 2009; Wardhaugh, 2010). The vagueness
of this phenomenon makes its categorization quite difficult, but Jay (2009)
suggests they can be classified into “sexual references; those that are considered
blasphemous; scatological references and disgusting objects; animal names;
ethnic-racial-gender slurs; insulting references to perceived psychological,
physical, or social deviations; ancestral allusions; substandard vulgar terms; and
offensive slang” (p. 154). Gauthier (2012) suggests that profanity is “bad
language” that provokes many tensions and debates, similarly to slang, jargon,
misuse, new forms etc. (p. 8). He further notes that bad language refers to linguistic
performances deemed unacceptable by a majority due to their lack of conformity
to the traditional linguistic rules of the culture in which they are uttered
(Gauthier, 2012). Furthermore, Fägersten (2012) proposes that swearing refers to
the use of words which have the potential to be offensive, inappropriate,
objectionable, or unacceptable in any given social context. She adds that not every
use of a swear word is an instance of swearing, nor has the definition of swearing
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�An Analysis of Gender Differences in the use of Swear Words on Facebook
Melika Muhanović, Nejla Babić & Esma Latić
traditionally been restricted to the use of a particular subset of words, which
implies that what is considered a swear word is quite subjective (Fägersten, 2012).
Being stereotypically portrayed as “leaders, as dominant, aggressive,
independent, objective, and competitive”, and juxtaposed with women, being
“emotional, subjective, tactful, aware of the feelings of others, and as having their
feelings easily hurt” (Aries, 1996, p. 164), it comes as no surprise that males, as is
the case with many other linguistic forms demonstrating assertiveness, have
often been associated with the use of swearing (Coates, 2013; Latić & BrdarevićČeljo, 2018). Although the accounts of real language use have shown that taboo
language usage is found to be prevalent both among men (Coates, 2003; Gomm,
1981; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003) and women (De Klerk, 1992; Eckert &
McConnell-Ginet, 2003; Uhlman, 2015), the inclination to use strong swear words
has been found among males mostly (Bailey & Timm, 1976; McEnery, 2005; Mehl
& Pennebaker, 2003). One of the explanations for this phenomenon states that, in
our ancestral communities, women probably adopted the so-called “tend-andbefriend” reaction, i.e. a less aggressive response to stress and danger (Lee &
Harley, 2012; Taylor et al., 2006), since the costs of aggressive behaviour,
involving the actions of fighting or fleeing, was often higher than its benefits, as
the mother’s presence was more essential to the progeny’s survival than the
father’s (Campbell, 1999). Consequently, as some studies of brain biology have
shown (Gur et al., 2000; Jordan et al., 2002), these differences in the roles of men
and women affected our brain development, causing the female brain to have a
larger orbital frontal cortex that regulate amygdala-generated anger. The
linguistic consequence of this phenomenon is thus reflected in the overall
inclination of males to use taboo language more than females (Guvendir, 2015).
In the context of social networking, commenting on threads online, as a form
of social interaction, is a type of identity and hence gender performance
(Marwick & Boyd, 2011; Thelwall, 2008). Studies on gender differences in online
behaviour have shown that individuals tend to emphasize different aspects of
their identity through varied linguistic behaviour (Nguyen et al., 2014), including
the use of stereotypically feminine (e.g. a heart emoticon written as <3) or
masculine (e.g. taboo words) language. Moreover, a variety of studies have
researched online spaces including blogs (Mukherjee & Liu, 2010; Schler et al.,
2006), Twitter (Bamman et al., 2014; Bergsma and Van Durme, 2013), YouTube
(Filippova, 2012) and social network chats (Peersman et al., 2011) in search for
differences in linguistic behaviour of men and women, and found that the former
tend to use more links, numbers, technology words, etc., while the latter
generally use more first person pronouns, emoticon, words expressing emotions,
etc. (Bamman et al., 2014; Nguyen et al., 2013). In online spaces, although men
have been found to swear more on sites such as MySpace (Thelwall, 2008), the
difference that has been gaining more attention is the context as well as types of
swearing (Murray, 2012), since, as Hall (2003) suggests, linguistic studies on
gender should aim to “document the diverse range of women’s and men’s
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
linguistic repertoires as developed within particular contexts” (p. 375).
Furthermore, these virtual spaces, just as any other space for social interactions
in which people read contextual cues in order to understand what constitutes
appropriate behaviour (Boyd & Heer, 2006), set and encourage certain social
norms. This paper, therefore, aims to explore whether males and females on two
different Facebook pages differ in their frequency as well as type of swearing,
taking into account different contextual cues that might have encouraged such
behavior.
3. METHODOLOGY
The corpus of language data for this study was Facebook – a social website with
over one billion daily active users. As a source of linguistic data, it does not only
provide researchers with authentic language but also allows for inferences based
on the users’ publicly available information such as age, education, gender, etc.
In addition to that, the website contains interactive groups, i.e. Facebook pages,
gathering users with common interests, which enables researchers to collect data
from highly specific communities and thus infer more contextualized and reliable
conclusions. In order to analyse data from demographically, socially, and
psychologically varied language users, the data in this study was collected from
five different public Facebook pages, all of which are considered popular, with
millions of followers and hundreds of comments on every post: YouTube, 9gag,
and the official pages of Nicky Minaj, Eminem, and Miley Cyrus. The pages
receive comments that are mostly in English and this paper analysed only what
is considered taboo in the English language.
The total number of language users whose data was analysed is 50. The
manner in which the data was gather is by searching through the comments of
the most recent posts on these five pages and selecting only those containing
taboo language. Further, the comments were categorized based on the users’
gender and the page the comments were found on. In addition to that, the swear
words were categorized according to their purpose into those used humorously,
for exaggeration, assertively/aggressively, and for disrespecting/insulting.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As is shown in Table 1, with 29 comments containing taboo words, males
produced swear words more frequently than females (n=21), outnumbering
them in three out of five pages. More specifically, on 9gag’s and YouTube’s
Facebook pages, respectively six and nine out of ten comments observed were
written by a male. When it comes to Nicki Minaj’s as well as Miley Cyrus’ official
Facebook pages, more comments containing taboo language were written by
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�An Analysis of Gender Differences in the use of Swear Words on Facebook
Melika Muhanović, Nejla Babić & Esma Latić
females. Finally posts on Eminem’s page had seven swearing comments written
by males and only three written by females.
Table 1: Frequency of Comments Containing Swear Words
9gag
YouTube
Nicki Minaj
Miley Cyrus
Eminem
Total
Male
6
9
4
3
7
29
Female
4
1
6
7
3
21
Interpreting these distinctions, certain patterns may be discriminated.
First of all, the pages with more swear words used by females were the ones of
female celebrities – Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus. Although they contain roughly
equal number of female and male users’ comments, it seems that females here
feel more encouraged to use swear words. Another important thing to note is that
the swear words used by females on these posts were of the descriptive nature,
i.e. they were mostly used to enhance their compliments or exaggerate their
current feelings. On the other hand, men used swear words mostly to objectify
or insult these female celebrities, and their usage of taboo words increased when
commenting on pictures of a provocative nature. Furthermore, following the
same pattern of using taboo language when commenting on the content
produced by the same gender, more male fans (n=7) employed swear words on
Eminem’s Facebook page.
Based on these findings, it seems reasonable to infer that the use of taboo
language is influenced and encouraged by the context. Both females and males
used more swear words on pages of female and male celebrities, respectively,
implying thus that males, as well as females, seem to generally feel bolder and
more encouraged to use such words when writing comments about the same
gender. In addition to that, taking into consideration that these pages usually
attract either men or women, depending on the gender of the celebrity, it seems
that both males and females find it safer to use taboo language in interaction with
the same gender, while the opposite might lead to their losing of face. These
findings are in line with Uhlman (2015), who found that 75% of participants
believed to be more conscious of swearing when surrounded by the opposite
gender as well as the study by Jay and Janschewitz (2008), where men were found
to use swear words more often in company of other men.
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
Table 2 - Frequency of comments containing swear words classified according to
their purpose
Gender
Humorously
Exaggeration
Anger/Assertiveness Disrespect/Insult
Male
5
7
10
5
Female
5
13
3
2
In terms of the purpose of their swearing, as the data in Table 2 shows, male
and female users used swear words equally for the purpose of being humorous,
while women used them more than men for the purpose of exaggeration. On the
other hand, males were found to swear more when angry or when trying to be
assertive, as well when they are being disrespectful or insulting someone.
Therefore, it seems that the results obtained by this study support previous
research that have found men to be more likely to swear out of anger and
frustration (Bird & Harris, 1990; Jay, 1996; McEnery, 2005; Mehl & Pennebaker,
2003).
5. CONCLUSION
The study found that both men and women use swear words when commenting
on social media, but with slight variations influenced by different factors,
including the context in which the utterances are produced, the type of
interaction being either single or mixed-gender one, and the purpose of the act of
swearing itself. More specifically, men were found to swear on the site where the
male community is larger, while women were found to do so on the website of a
female celebrity, arguably attracting more female users. Furthermore, both men
and women were more likely to use swear words when commenting on the sites
of same-gender celebrities. Finally, the results have shown that men utter swear
words mostly to express aggressiveness and assertiveness, while women do so
to exaggerate their comments.
In general, what may be inferred from this study is that swearing, be it
online or offline, is a highly complex linguistic phenomenon that cannot be
simplified through a mere calculation of its frequency of appearance in one’s
language without taking into account a variety of other factors that cause,
influence, and shape their use by individuals across different demographical,
social and psychological categories.
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Melika Muhanović, Nejla Babić & Esma Latić
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Abstract: The question of gender differences in language use has been repeatedly explored and claims about these distinctions that were once considered invariable have been questioned and refuted. One of the less explored areas within this issue, however, is the phenomenon of swearing. This paper aimed to explore how and why men and women swear on one of the most popular social media sites, Facebook, and how the context in which such utterances are produced modulates their frequency and form. The study found that both men and women are more likely to swear when commenting on the content produced by the same gender and also when surrounded by other males and females, respectively. Furthermore, the research confirmed some previous studies in which men were found to swear more out of aggressiveness, while women do so to exaggerate their words.
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Melika Muhanović
Nejla Babić
Esma Latić
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2)
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International Burch University
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Winter 2018
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Keywords: gender, differences, taboo language, swear words, social media
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 99-109, Winter 2018
Pofessional paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018126
Deontologija učiteljskog poziva, Sokratova
zakletva ili Etički kodeks
Melisa Zukić, PhD
Srednjoškolski centar Hadžići
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
zukici@hotmail.com
Sažetak: Deontologija, znanost o dužnostima, učiteljskog poziva
upućuje na moralnu obavezu učitelja prema učenicima. Načelo
deontologije: „Age quod agis“ ili „Radi dobro ono što radiš“
obuhvata pravne propise, psihologiju komuniciranja, ponašanje i
etiku. Prevazilazeći pedagošku etiku kao odnos prema profesionalnim
obavezama, zajednici i kolegama, ona proučava prava i dužnosti
regulisane kodeksom profesije. Razlika između Benthamovog i
Kantovog pogleda na dužnosti je razlika između profesionalne zakletve
i etičkog kodeksa škole. Stoga, deontologija dužnostima polazi od
moralno i profesionalno zrele ličnosti koja se zaklinje na uspjeh, a
etički kodeks polazi od nepovjerljivog društva koje sumnja u
istoznačnost moralnih vrijednosti, profesionalca i društva.
Abstract: Deontology, the science of teaching professional duties refers to
the moral obligation of teachers towards students. The principle of ethics:
"Age quod agis" or "Do (well) what you're doing“involves legislation,
psychology of communication, behavior and ethics. Overcoming pedagogical
ethics as attitude towards professional obligations, community and
colleagues, it studies the rights and duties regulated by the code of the
profession. The difference between Bentham's and Kant's views about duties
is the difference between professional oath and school's code of ethics.
Therefore deontology consider duties as base of moral and professionally
mature person who swears to success, while code of ethics is based on a
mistrustful society that doubt in the identity of moral values, professionals
and society as well.
Key words: deontology, code of ethics, Socrates oath
Keywords: deontologija,
etički kodeks, Sokratova
zakletva
Article History
Submitted: 18 January 2019
Accepted: 4 February 2019
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
1. INTRODUCTION
Svakodnevni rad učitelja je obilježen promicanjem dobra kao najznačajnijeg
društvenog potencijala. Sama ličnost učitelja, stoga, bi trebala biti takva da
prepoznaje vlastite dužnosti autentično, te ih posvećeno obavlja najbolje što
može „Age quod agis“. Vlastitim obrazovanjem učitelj bi se trebao i etički
usavršavati čiji vrhunac bi bio obilježen profesionalnom zakletvom. Sa druge
strane, kako bi se izbjegle moguće individualne različitosti u ličnosti i sistemu
vrijednosti učitelja kao profesionalaca, donose se profesionalni etički kodeksi koji
sistematiziraju postupke i ponašanja u akciji, na taj način otvarajući mogućnost
za samoprocjenu i eksternu procjenu kvalitete rada. U tom smislu tekst se osvrće
na teorijsko razumijevanje etike kao društvene nauke o moralu, njenog
normativno-znanstvenog aspekta kao i same deontologije sa namjerom
razumijevanja dužnosti učitelja da prenese dobro učeniku, dok istovremeno
nastoji da prevaziđe (često nametnutu) činovničku komponentu poziva.
2. ETIKA
Iako je etika, kao pojam, rasprostranjena u svakodnevnom govoru potreban je
izvjestan trud za njeno definiranje. Etika i moral imaju ista značenja koja potječu
iz grčkog jezika (ethos) i latinskog jezika (mos, mores i moralis) u značenju
navika, običaj, karakter, ćudoređe. Stoga, prema Čehok, Koprek i dr. (1996) etiku
možemo definirati i kao društvenu nauku o moralu koja proučava ciljeve i smisao
morala, kriterije za vrednovanje moralnih postupaka te izvor, zasnovanost,
razvitak i usavršavanje morala. Vukasović (1993) se u tom smislu oslanja na
samog osnivača etike Sokrata, koji je smatra vrlinom življenja u skladu sa
zahtjevima “unutarnjeg glasa”, na njegovog učenika Platona koji je ideju dobra
smatrao osnovnom moralnosti, te na Aristotela koji etiku predstavlja kao sistem
društvenog ponašanja. S obzirom da se definicije etike svode na lično uvjerenje
čovjeka – lični sistem vrijednosti u kojem se zna što je dobro, a šta je loše, šta je
ispravno, a šta je neispravno, naslućuju se tri temeljne implikacije etike koje
Radoš (2017) predstavlja kao:
1. individualnost etike - pojedinci imaju etiku, a ne organizacije
2. etičko ponašanje može varirati od osobe do osobe
3. relativnost (a ne apsolutnost) etike
U tom smislu Radoš (2017) smatra da se od same etike očekuje usavršavanje
kao zauzimanje stava prema postojećim moralnim sistemima. Etiku možemo
vrlo jednostavno klasificirati na principu koji je predstavio Vukasović (1993):
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�Deontologija učiteljskog poziva, Sokratova zakletva ili Etički kodeks
Melisa Zukić
1. Kada kao kriterij uzmemo cilj čovjekovog praktičnog djelovanja, etika se
dijeli na:
Eudaimonizam (eudaimonia- grč. sreća) – svrha i smisao moralnog
djelovanja je u postizanju sreće.
Hedonizam (hedone- grč. užitak) – najveća vrijednost i smisao života je u
trenutačnom pozitivnom tjelesnom užitku.
Utilitarizam (utilis- lat. koristan) – u prvi plan stavlja težnju za korisnošću.
2. Po kriteriju sadržaja i namjere svijesti, etika se dijeli na:
Etika dužnosti (deontološka etika) – Kant je predstavio samu dužnost kao
takvu, uzvišenom i veličanstvenom. Poštovanje dužnosti je moralni
imperativ, unutrašnja zapovjed našeg uma koja zahtjeva da načelo
prilikom postupanja bude tako postavljeno da ga mogu prihvatiti i druge
osobe, tj. da ono bude opće ljudsko načelo.
Etika odgovornosti – pojam odgovornosti se često svodi na pravnu i/ili
moralnu uračunljivost podrazumijevajući znanje, volju i slobodu kao
nužne elemente. Danas, ovaj pojam sve više zauzima mjesto koje je u etici
imala dužnost konkretizujući se profesionalnim etikama.
3. Po kriteriju porijekla moralne obaveze, etika se dijeli na:
Autonomnu etiku – izvor morala je u samom čovjeku.
Heteronomna etika – izvor morala je izvan čovjeka (npr. društvene norme,
autoritet i sl.)
4. Po kriteriju odnosa pojedinca i društva, etika se dijeli na:
Individualna etika – lično uvjerenje pojedinca o ispravnosti/neispravnosti
njegovog ponašanja.
Socijalna etika – se bavi socijalnim aspektom moralnih odnosa i moralnim
obavezama pojedinca prema zajednici i zajednice prema pojedincu.
5. Po kriteriju važenja etičkih zapovijesti, etika se dijeli na:
Etika suštine - suština tvori postojanu prirodu neke stvari.
Situacijska etika - tvrdi da je moralnost nekog čina određena konkretnim
kontekstom.
6. Po kriteriju sadržaja pravila djelovanja, etika se dijeli na:
(Formalna) Etika dužnosti – može se poistovjetiti sa radnom etikom kao
skupom stavova i ponašanja utemeljenih na vrijednostima rada.
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(Materijalna) Etika vrijednosti– Shvatajući vrijednosti kao javna dobra u
sferama morala, religije, umjetnosti i tehnike koja podrazumijevaju
opstanak društvene zajednice.
7. Po kriteriju utemeljenja moralnog zahtjeva, etika se dijeli na:
Normativna etika – postavlja pitanja ispravnosti i opravdanosti postojećih
moralnih shvaćanja i odnosa zuzimajući kritički stav prema postojećim
oblicima istovremeno postavljajući i formulirajući određene kriterije
pravilnog moralnog prosuđivanja i djelovanja. Ovakva etika se pita:
„Kakav bi to moral trebao biti da čovjek (pojedinac) kao i društvo ispune
svoju ulogu?“
Deskriptivna (empirijska) etika –ima empirijsko eksplikativni
(deskriptivni) zadatak sastavljen od proučavanja i opisivanja moralnih
odnosa i moralnih shvaćanja koji su se pojavljivali u određenim etapama
društvenog razvoja. Ona nastoji dati odgovor na pitanja: „Šta je moral?“,
„Od kada postoji?“, „Kako je nastao?“, „Od čega ovisi?“, i sl.
3. ETIKA KAO NORMATIVNA ZNANOST
Normativni aspekti etike, fokusiraju se na čovjekovo ponašanje, odnosno na
etiku u praksi. U tom smislu normativna etika kao nauka nastoji da ostane
oslonjena na objektivne činjenice, koje su zadane i nepromjenjive. Stoga Rošić
(2017) prema Polić (1990) ukazuje a to da znanstvena etika odnosno etika kao
normativna znanost, teži da utvrdi one teorijske principe, prema kojima svaki
pojedinac treba živjeti i djelovati, što ukazuje na njen bitan zadatak da
znanstveno-teorijski odredi moguće ljudsko djelovanje. Etika u tom smislu
pokazuje pravac u kojem se osoba treba ostvariti kao čovjek, stavljajući naglasak
kako je to moguće tek uz pomoć nauke, suprotstavljajući je samovolji i pokazujući
put ispravnog ljudskog djelovanja. Tek tada umjesto čovjekovog lutanja u
svakodnevnom životu etika ga nedvosmisleno usmjerava prema dobru. U tom
smislu prepoznajemo etiku kao normativnu znanost u težnji ka tome da u danom
traži mjesta ka mogućem. Kao i kod svake znanosti, Rošić (2017) ukazuje da
normativna etika želi znati da bi mogla mijenjati, a čini se kako je upravo znanje
najbolja osnova za to. Pri tome Rošić (2017:7) predlaže da se vodi računa o tome
da „... moguće iz kojega i po kojem promjene mogu doći, još nije ali niti ne može
biti predmet znanstvene spoznaje sve dok moguće ne postane zbiljsko, čime se
potvrđuje da je zbiljsko moguće, ali istovremeno, barem za znanost, prestaje biti
moguće kao nešto drugo od onoga što već jest. S obzirom na navedeno, znanost
je uvijek korak iza djelatnog čina, koji po njoj mora biti određen, što znači da
normativna znanost može zahtijevati isključivo ono što jeste“.
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4. KANTOVA ETIKA
U želji da probudi moralnu svijest savremenika, Immanuel Kant je
nedvosmisleno ukazivao na čovjekovu potrebu za uvažavanjem i poštovanjem
ljudskih dužnosti. Na tom stanovištu se suprotstavio „etici dobara“,
materijalnom vrednovanju, korisnosti, osjetnim efektima kao izvoru morala i
kriterija moralnih vrijednosti. Kao takva Kantova etika kategoričkog imperativa,
započinje potpuno novo razdoblje u historiji etike. Kant je u svojim reformama
kako primjećuje Rošić (2017) zahtijevao temeljitu razradu moralnih shvaćanja
kreirajući etiku prihvatanja normi i zakona. U tom smislu, Kantova etika ne
temelji etičku normu na sadržajnom dobru, već dobro izvodi na temelju norme.
Iz tog razloga, Kantova etika je apriorna jer istražuje načela ljudskog uma i čistu
volju, neovisno o vanjskim utjecajima ali i pobudama. Kantova etika je isto tako
i etika moralnih dužnosti. Rošić (2017:8) u tom smislu citira Kanta koji govori: “
Čovjek mora izvršavati svoju dužnost, svoju ljudsku dužnost!” Iz navedenog se
vidi da je za Kanta dužnost nešto veliko, uzvišeno i veličanstveno. On je smatrao
kako se ljudski duh uzdiže pomoću unutarnje svijesti o dužnosti, njenim
ispunjavanjem i poštivanjem. Poštovanje i obavljanje ljudskih dužnosti spada u
imperative unutrašnjeg ili apriorornog zahtjeva kao zapovijedi našeg uma. U
takvim okolnostima unutarnji glas uma kako navodi Rošić (2017) kategorički
zahtijeva od nas i naše volje da načela našeg postupanja, budu takva da ih mogu
prihvatiti i druge osobe, odnosno da ono bude opet ljudsko načelo. Kant pritome
ističe da slobodu ne trebamo doživljavati tako da možemo raditi šta god želimo
i kako god to želimo, već da čovjek koji postupa u skladu s ljudskim dužnostima
i u skladu s moralnim zakonima je istovremeno u skladu sa kategoričkim
imperativom i predstavlja najslobodnijeg čovjeka na svijetu. Rošić (2017) ne
zaobilazi ni drugi Kantov moralni zahtjev, kojim traži da se čovjek ali i sve
ljudsko u čovjeku tretira kao svrha a ne samo kao sredstvo, zato što čovjek
pripada svojevrsnom “carstvu svrha”, sam sebi propisujujući zakone i norme te
ih kao takve sam primjenjuje i izvršava. Kantova etika čovjeka postavlja kao
mjerilo moraliteta, a sam moralni zakon postaje plod čovjekova uma koji se
ostvaruje njegovom voljom. Vujović (2017), Kantovu filozofiju morala
centralizovanu oko principa moralnosti postavljenog u Kritici praktičkog uma,
postavlja kao osnov za razumijevanje njegove deontološke etike. Karakterizacija
kategoričkog imperativa kao objektivnog, racionalnog, neophodnog i
bezuslovnog principa, kojim se mora uvijek voditi svako umno biće, fundament
je za oblikovanje deontologije.
5. DEONTOLOGIJA
Pedagoška etika kao dio pedagoške kompetencije predstavlja normativnu
znanost djelovanja učitelja nastojeći dati odgovore o potrebi činjenja dobra i
njegovog definisanja, predstavljajući odraz moralnosti učiteljskog posla.
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Savremena škola je potreba i imperativ postmodernog društvenog stanja
obilježenog kontradiktornošću između „ja hoću" i „ja treba da", tragajući za
učiteljem osposobljenim za aktivni komunikacijski proces od kojeg ovisi
uspješnost međuljudskih odnosa, a to je učiteljska deontologija kako je Rosić
(2011) predstavlja. Naziv deontologija se pojavljuje polovinom 19.vijeka u djelu
„Deontology“ engleskog filozofa Jeremije Benthoma oslanjajući se na grčke
termine „deon“ - što treba biti i „logos“- nauka. U tom smislu deontologija je
nauka o dužnostima koje treba ispuniti, o dužnostima kao moralnoj obavezi
učitelja prema osobama koje se oslanjanju na njegovo znanje. U tom smislu
osnovno načelo deontologije predstavlja grčka izreka: „Age quod agis“ – „Radi
(dobro) ono što radiš“. Deontologija učiteljskog poziva se reguliše
odgovarajućim kodeksom profesije. U okvire deontologije spadaju i pozitivni
pravni propisi koji regulišu učiteljsku struku kao i svojevrsna psihologija
komuniciranja, ponašanja i etika. Iako je deontologija dio etike ona je šira od
pojma pedagoške etike jer obuhvata i zakonske propise. Stoga možemo govoriti
o etičkoj, stručnoj i kaznenoj deontologiji učiteljskog poziva. Etička deontologija
učiteljskog poziva je najšira, pa jednim dijelom obuhvata i stručnu koja može, a
i ne mora biti etički neprihvatljiv postupak ili čak kazneno djelo. Etiku
klasificiramo kao deontološku i teleološku etiku ili kao formalnu i materijalnu
etiku. Deontološke teorije o etici grupišu norme ili načela djelovanja koje etiku
čine dobrom u skladu sa normom ili u skladu sa načinom djelovanja. Baziraju se
na dužnosti da se nešto učini ili ne propusti učiniti ističući vrijednosti moralnog
djelovanja kao takvog. Istraživači deontologije dijele se na monističke i
pluralističke. Monistička deontologija polazi od jednog etičkog načela kao
ishodišta za sva ostala npr. Kantov kategorički imperativ, dok pluralistička
deontologija polazi od više međusobno ravnopravnih pravila npr. deset (Božijih)
zapovjedi. Stoga se pluralistički deontolozi češće nalaze u moralnim dilemama.
Odgovarajući primjer deontološke etike prema mišljenju Rosić (2011) i Živković
(2009) je Kantova etika, koja polazi od pojma dužnosti koja za njih predstavlja
“nužnost djelovanja iz poštovanja prema zakonu”. Profesionalne etike se pak
oslanjaju na osnovna opća etička načela nastojeći ustanoviti norme djelovanja
pojedinih struka i zanimanja, dok personalistička etika kao načelo etike postavlja
osobu, čineći je temeljem svih kriterija etičko-moralnog djelovanja i vrijednošću
koja nadilazi sve druge. Personalistička etika, kao takva, predstavlja bazu
Hipokratove zakletve i Opće povelje o pravima čovjeka, kao općeprihvaćenim
aktima etičko-moralnih vrijednosti savremene civilizacije. Za Rosića (2011)
učiteljska etika obuhvata odnos prema profesionalnim obavezama, prema
zajednici i prema drugim učiteljima, postavljajući etička načela od kojih su neka:
načelo koristi, dobročinstva, neškodljivosti, autonomnosti, pravednosti,
povjerenja, istinoljubivosti itd.
6. ETIČKI KODEKS ILI ZAKLETVA
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Pedagoška etika se može definirati i kao disciplina koja se bavi procesom
moralnog prosuđivanja uspostavljanjem kriterija koji preciziraju šta je dobro a
šta loše u procesu i rezultatu odgoja i obrazovanja, ali i kao zaseban sistem
moralnih normi koji reguliše ponašanje učitelja prema učenicima, sebi,
nastavnom sadržaju i drugim učesnicima pedagoškog procesa. U njenim
okvirima, učitelji nastoje postići najviše ideale svoje profesije. To se odnosi na
temeljne profesionalne odgovornosti (individualno, kolektivno i institucionalno)
usmjerene prema njihovoj profesiji, akademskoj disciplini, obrazovnoj instituciji
i društvu u cijelosti. Pedagoška etika u svojoj srži predstavlja deontologiju
učiteljskog posla, u smislu učenja o dužnostima učitelja prema učenicima.
Savremena škola u praksi očekuje da učitelj svoje dužnosti usmjeri ka pomaganju
učenicima da napreduju u skladu sa individualnim mogućnostima, ka sticanju
iskustava, ohrabrivanju učenika kao partnera odgovornog za preuzete obaveze,
organiziranju učenika da iskažu vlastitu kreativnost, poticanju učenika itd. Iz
navedenog se može uvidjeti da je pedagoška etika razvijajuća a ne statična,
doprinoseći tako mijenjanju i učenika i učitelja. Iako je posao učitelja za etiku
određen moralnim zakonom, učitelj ipak zakonske propise struke svakodnevni
uči i primjenjuje. Rosić (2011) stoga kaže kako u etičkom, pedagoškom i
deontološkom značenju u svom moralnom djelovanju gospodarimo nad
postupcima od početka do kraja. Deontologija učitelja je smislena aktivnost koja
povezuju učiteljska umijeća i to najprije znanje o nastavnom sadržaju, nastavnim
metodama, nastavnom planu i programu, učenicima i drugim faktorima koji
utiču na uspješnost učenja sa pripremanjem za nastavni rad i konkretnim
nastavnim aktivnostima. Stoga nas ne iznenađuje što se mnoge deontološke
postavke o odgoju i obrazovanju kao interakcijsko-komunikacijskom procesu
ostvaruju u ličnosti samog učitelja i njegovom načinu rada na šta su ukazivali
Henting (1997), Liessmann (2008) i Rosić (2011). Uvriježeno je mišljenje kako je
poštovanje etičkih pravila i načela istoznačno sa poštovanjem zakona. Međutim,
profesije poput medicine, obrazovanja ili vojske zahtijevaju ponašanja koja
prevazilaze zakon. Stoga, među bitnim elemenima za razlikovanje profesija i
neprofesija je postojanje profesionalne etike formulisane eksplicitnim
profesionalnim kodeksom. Živković (2009) ukazuje kako je UNESCO u
Preporukama za učiteljski status od 5. 10. 1966. zahtijevao da „norme ponašanja
i mjerila koja se utemeljuju u prirodi nastavničke djelatnosti treba definisati u
saradnji s nastavničkim udruženjima i onda ih se pridržavati“. U SAD-u postoji
„Code of Ethics of the Education“, dok je kod nas npr. radna grupa, Agencije za
predškolsko, osnovno i srednje obrazovanje uz tehničku podršku UNICEF-a,
izradila dokument pod nazivom „Etički kodeks“, namijenjen svim osnovnim
školama u Bosni i Hercegovini. Kodeks je nastao u okviru projekta: Razvoj
sistema praćenja kvalitete u obrazovanju, tj. etičkog kodeksa i indikatora
interkulturalnog i inkluzivnog obrazovanja, u okviru pružanja tehničke pomoći
pri razvijanju interkulturalnog etičkog kodeksa za nastavnike i učenike u
osnovnom obrazovanju koji stoji na stavu da razvijanje i usvajanje etičkog
kodeksa omogućava instituciji definisanje parametara zrelog profesionalnog
identiteta kao standarda u praksi te pravnu regulaciju njegove upotrebe, ali i kao
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sredstvo za procjenu i samoprocjenu profesionalca. U tom smislu bi se definicija
etičkog kodeksa usmjerila na zajedničke vrijednosti i skup pravila ponašanja koje
neka profesija prihvata sa svrhom osiguravanja svim sudionicima u radu, bez
obzira na rang i položaj, jasnih smjernica potrebnih za donošenje jednoobraznih
etičkih odluka u profesionanom kontekstu. Etički kodeks se istovremeno obraća
i javnosti govoreći o određenoj profesiji, njenim zalaganjima i očekivanjima.
Hartmut von Hentig (1997) se, sa druge strane u svojoj knjizi Humana škola,
zalaže za Sokratovu zakletvu koja nastupa sa pozicije personalističke etike baš
kao i Hipokratova zakletva. Tekst Sokratove zakletve obavezuje učitelja:
da odgojno-obrazovnom poslu pristupi svjesno i obavlja ga savjesno
da cjelokupni odgojno-obrazovni rad utemelji na saznanjima pedagogije,
psihologije i njima srodnih nauka
da poštuje svako dijete
da ga braniti od svega što je usmjereno protiv njega
da se zalaže za njegov psihički i fizički sklad
da poštuje njegove osjećaje
da ga uvažava kao ravnopravnog sagovornika
da traži njegovo odobrenje za sve što čini za njega
da upozna zakonitosti njegovog razvoja
da otkriva i razvija njegove sklonosti
da ne lomi njegovu volju
da ga poučava kako korištenju sopstveni razum
da ga osposobljava za preuzimanje odgovornosti za život, rad i
stvaralaštvo u zajednici
da ga ne podčinjava svojim shvatanjima svijeta, ljudskog društva i čovjeka
da mu nastoji pružiti viziju boljeg svijeta
da mu omogući upoznavanje dobrog života
da ga uvjeri kako se vizija boljeg svijeta može ostvariti
da ga podučava istinoljubivosti
da pokazuje ličnim primjerom
da javno obrazlaže svoja uvjerenja i djela, argumentima ih braneći od
kritike
da sopstveni rad svjesno provjerava
da bude spreman za provjeru djelatnosti
U tom smislu bi se etičke norme internalizirale u samu osobu, u njen
sistem vrijednosti, dok bi se sa druge strane izgubila prethodno navedena svrha
eksterne mogućnosti standardiziranog testiranja kvalitete rada. Stoga, ne
iznenađuje sveprisutna zapitanost treba li donositi učiteljski kodeks ili pak
učiteljsku zakletvu, jer je razlika bitna. Zakletvu polažu ljekari završavanjem
medicinskog fakulteta a vojnici završavanjem obuke. Pitamo se: „Je li logično da
učitelji imaju svoj profesionalni kodeks, a ne zakletvu“? Zakletva, koja sugeriše
neupitnu obavezu čini se da bi bolje odgovarala prirodi učiteljskog poziva, kako
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konstatuje Živković (2009). U tom smislu Živković (2009) navodi kako se nakon
Hentiga i Cindrić zalaže za zakletvu koju bi davali studenti preuzimanjem
diplome, predlažući da tekst zakletve R. Dottrensa iz 1996., uz UNESCO-vu
podršku čiji je tekst: „Vršiću svoju obavezu savjesno i ponosno. Moji učenici biće
mi ne samo učenici nego i djeca te nikada neću zaboraviti da za njihovu sudbinu
i sam snosim dio odgovornosti. Svim raspoloživim sredstvima ću čuvati čast
učiteljskog poziva. Moje kolege će mi uvijek biti prijatelji. S njima u saradnji
nastojaću stalno usavršavati puteve kojima škola ide priznajući svima pravo na
odgoj i socijalnu pravednost u obrazovanju. Ovu zakletvu polažem sasvim
slobodno i časno“. Za razliku od zakletve kodeksom se pobraja skup konkretnih
dužnosti kojih se treba pridržavati u obavljanju neke službe. Prema Kantu, etički
kodeks bi se trebao temeljiti na formulaciji kategoričkog imperativa obuhvatajući
osnovne dužnosti prema sebi i prema drugima sa pozicije specifičnosti
učiteljskog poziva. Iz navedenog razumijevamo da bi svaki kodeks za učitelje
trebao imati pet osnovnih teza: kategorički imperativ i četiri odredbe koje govore
o odnosu učitelja prema sebi i prema drugima (učenici, kolege, šira socijalna
sredina, država). Iz ovoga slijedi da bi prema Živkoviću (2009) jezgra etičkog
kodeksa za učitelje mogla glasiti ovako:
1. Učitelj poučava tako da su mu učenici svrha a ne sredstvo
2. Učitelj kao uzor, živi tako da se hrabro nosi s nevoljama života ne
narušavajući svoj tjelesni i duhovni integritet, a tome poučava i svoje
učenike
3. Učitelj raste kao duhovna osoba koja unaprjeđuje svoje znanje i umijeće
poučavanja, a svojim učenicima pomaže da otkriju i razvijaju vlastite
talente
4. Učitelj kao istinoljubiva osoba tome poučava i svoje učenike
5. Učitelj pomažući ljudima, tome poučava i svoje učenike
7. ZAKLJUČAK
Vođeni promišljanjima iz ovog rada proveli smo akcijsko istraživanje u jednom
od Srednjoškolskih centara KS na uzorku od 80 profesora (opći predmeti, stručno
teorijski predmeti i praksa), primjenom anketnog upitnika koji se nalazio kao
prilog tekstu Etičkog kodeksa škole i tekstu Sokratove zakletve.
Pitanje u anketnom upitniku je glasilo: „Koji od priloženih tekstova (Etički
kodeks škole ili Sokratova zakletva), po vašem mišljenju, autentičnije predstavlja
učiteljev doživljaj dužnosti?“
Rezultati su nas doveli do saznanja da je 72 (90%) od ispitanih profesora
sklonije Sokratovoj zakletvi u poređenju sa 8 (10%) profesora kojima je etički
kodeks preferirana formulacija za sistematiziranje učiteljskih dužnosti.
Interesantno je spomenuti i zapažanje da je Sokratova zakletva kao neformalan
107
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
dokument vidljivo istaknuta u zajedničkim prostorijama nastavnog osoblja škole
u kojoj je istraživanje provedeno. To nas je povelo putem do pedagoške službe i
neformalnog objašnjenja kako Sokratova zakletva ipak „ima motivacijski učinak“
a etički kodeks „normativni učinak“. Razloga vjerojatno ima još, a to bi moglo
pokrenuti potpuno novi istraživački proces. Bez obzira na okolnosti, učitelji
ulažu izuzetan trud u savjesnom odnosu prema svojim dužnostima, ostvarujući
tako osnovno pravilo odgojnog rada da se prihvatanjem dužnosti prihvatamo i
svakodnevnog djelovanja, prevazilazeći spoznaju o činovničkoj dimenziji
učiteljskog poziva u pravcu spoznaje o učiteljima kao kreatorima znanja i razvoja.
Stoga, promišljajući o razvoju etičkih kompetencija učitelja, kreira se okosnica za
promišljanja o savremenom učitelju koji predstavlja ključnog aktera promjena u
budućnosti.
REFERENCES
Cindrić, M. (1995), Profesija učitelj u svijetu i Hrvatskoj. Velika Gorica–Zagreb:
Persona.
Čehok, I. Koprek, I. i dr. (1996. Etika – priručnik jedne discipline, Zagreb: Školska
knjiga.
Fiamengo, A. (1985). Osnove opće sociologije, Zagreb: Narodne novine.
Fočo, S. (2003). Sociologija odgoja i obrazovanja, Zenica: Dom štampe.
Glasser, W. (1993). Nastavnik u kvalitetnoj školi, Zagreb: Educa.
Hentig, V. H.(1997). Humana škola, Zagreb: Educa.
Kant, I. (1953), Osnove metafizike ćudoređa. Zagreb: Matica hrvatska.
Konig, E. i Zedler, P. (2001). Teorije znanosti o odoju: uvod u osnove, metode i
praktičnu primjenu, Zagreb: Educa.
Liessmann, P.L. (2008). Teorija neobrazovanosti- Zablude društva znanja,
Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk.
Radoš, M. (2017). Etika i odgoj, Završni rad, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Učiteljski
fakultet,
Odsjek
za
odgojiteljski
studij,
na
sajtu:
https://repozitorij.ufzg.unizg.hr, očitano: 22. 1. 2019.g.
108
�Deontologija učiteljskog poziva, Sokratova zakletva ili Etički kodeks
Melisa Zukić
Rosić, V. (2011). Deontologija učitelja - temelj pedagoške etike, u časopisu:
Informatol. 44, 142-149.
Strike, K. A. (1988). The Ethics of Teaching. The Phi Delta Kappan, 70(2), 156-158.
Tillmann, K-J, (1994). Teorije škole, Zagreb: Educa.
Vukasović, A. (1993). Etika-Moral-Osobnost, Zagreb: Školska knjiga.
Vujović, M. (2017). Osnovni principi Kantove etike dužnosti, u časopisu: Matica,
br. 71, str. 389-426, očitano na sajtu: http://www.maticacrnogorska.me, 22. 1.
2019.g.
Warnick, B. R. & Silverman, S. K. (2011). A Framework for Professional Ethics
Courses in Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education 62, 273-285.
Živković, M. (2009). Kodeks učitelja zasnovan na Kantovom nauku o dužnosti,
u časopisu: Metodički ogledi, 16, 23–34
Učiteljska zakletva, na sajtu:http://www.prviprvinaskali.com, očitano: 26. 3.
2017.
National EducationAssociation (2002). Code of Ethics of the Education
Proffesion. www.nea.org./aboutnea/code.html.
109
�
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Abstract: Deontology, the science of teaching professional duties refers to the moral obligation of teachers towards students. The principle of ethics: "Age quod agis" or "Do (well) what you're doing“involves legislation, psychology of communication, behavior and ethics. Overcoming pedagogical ethics as attitude towards professional obligations, community and colleagues, it studies the rights and duties regulated by the code of the profession. The difference between Bentham's and Kant's views about duties is the difference between professional oath and school's code of ethics. Therefore deontology consider duties as base of moral and professionally mature person who swears to success, while code of ethics is based on a mistrustful society that doubt in the identity of moral values, professionals and society as well.
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Volume 1 (2)
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ISSN 2566-4638
DOI 10.14706/JEH2018126
-
https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/e715d915eaac7425ef7919ee0104e72a.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1 (2), pp. 65-88, Winter 2018
Review paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
http://dx.doi.org/10.14706/jeh2018121
Semantic preference and semantic prosodya theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić, PhD
University of Zenica
Bosnia and Herzegovina
mjasavic@yahoo.de
Abstract: Semantic preference and semantic prosody are two
notions that were carefully analysed in post-Firthian corpus
linguistics and in the past few years there has been a growing interest
in them. As corpora have become larger in size, and tools for
extracting different lexical items for different purposes have been
developed, the two terms have been addressed more frequently by
linguists1. Throughout history, semantic preference and semantic
prosody have sometimes been used for the same phenomenon but at
other times the two were considered different but closely related.
Previous corpus-based studies on the two terms have shown that
they can be attached to many investigated lexical items. Therefore,
this paper aims to present a detailed theoretical overview of the two
terms in order to emphasise their immense importance for
identifying the meaning of all the lexical items.
Keywords: semantic
preference, semantic prosody,
corpus, corpus linguistics.
Article History
Submitted: 15 November 2018
Accepted: 3 January 2019
Studies which use corpus data to investigate semantic preference and semantic prosody have been
published since the early 1990.
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
1. INTRODUCTION
Semantic preference and semantic prosody are two distinct yet interdependent
collocational meanings (McEnery, Xiao & Tono, 2006, p.84). As it is almost
impossible to examine semantic preference separately from semantic prosody,
the two notions will be presented as contingent on each other.
Throughout history, semantic preference and semantic prosody have
sometimes been used for the same phenomenon but at other times the two were
considered different but closely related. Stubbs (2001) points out that “the
distinction…is not entirely clear-cut. It is partly a question of how open-ended
the list of collocates is: it might be possible to list all words in English for
quantities and sizes, but not for ‘unpleasant things’” (p.66). Therefore, the need
for precise definitions of the two terms emerges.
Partington (2004) states that the relationship between the two terms can be
described in two ways- on the one hand, semantic prosody can be described as a
sub-category or special case of semantic preference i.e. it is “reserved for
instances where an item shows a preference to co-occur with items that can be
described as bad, unfavourable or unpleasant, or as good, favourable or
pleasant” (p.149). However, some examples discussed in the literature prove that
the relationship is more complex. Sinclair points out that semantic prosodies are
“evaluative or attitudinal and are used to express the speaker’s approval (good
prosody) or disapproval (bad prosody) of whatever topic is momentarily the
object of discourse (Sinclair 1996, p. 87).
On the other hand, semantic prosody can be described as a further stage of
abstraction than preference.
…semantic preference generally remains relatively closely tied to the phenomenon of
collocation. As we have seen, it describes a phenomenon whereby a particular item x
collocates frequently, not with another item y, but with a series of items which belong to
a semantic set. (Partington, 2004, p.150)
Therefore, Partington describes the difference between the two in his claim that
semantic preference and semantic prosody have different operating scopes: the
former relates the node item to another item from a particular semantic set
whereas the latter can affect wider stretches of text. Semantic preference can be
viewed as a feature of the collocates while semantic prosody is a feature of the
node word. Partington also adds that these two terms interact. While semantic
prosody “dictates the general environment which constrains the preferential
choices of the node item”, semantic preference “contributes powerfully to
building semantic prosody” (Partington, 2004, p.151).
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�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
In order to exemplify the above mentioned, two examples commonly
discussed in the literature are presented. The first one of the verb break out,
explained by Stewart (2010). The verb is investigated in the BNC (all inflected
forms of the verb) where 1,126 occurrences were found. In the majority of cases
break out showed semantic preference for ‘situations of conflict’, ‘disease’ or
more broadly for ‘problematic circumstances’, since in the immediate
environment of break out the following words are found: war, conflict, infection,
crisis. As the verb cannot be classified as an item whose basic meaning is
unfavourable, it is “considered to be associated with an unfavourable semantic
prosody or ‘aura of meaning’, which is contingent upon its semantic preferences”
(Stewart, 2010, p. 3).
The second example is the verb undergo, discussed by Stubbs (2001, pp.
89-95). The collocates to the right of the verb indicated that undergo expresses
several semantic preferences- for ‘medicine’ (treatment, hysterectomy, brain,
surgery, etc.), ‘tests’ (examination, training) and ‘change’ (dramatic changes, a
historic transformation among others). All these preferences result in a very
strong unfavourable prosody of the verb undergo, since people are forced to
undergo something they would rather not.
Moreover, the verb bent on is classified as the verb with unfavourable
prosody, but bent on can be also found in neutral as well as in favourable
environment. Louw investigated how the speakers/writers change from the
“expected profiles of semantic prosodies” (1993, p. 157). He explains that if they
do that unconsciously, they are trying to sound ironic. Louw mentions an
example from Small World by David Lodge:
The modern conference resembles the pilgrimage of medieval Christendom in that it
allows the participants to indulge themselves in all the pleasures and diversions of travel
while apparently bent on self-improvement.
Louw explains that since the verb bent on is usually found in the environment of
unpleasant items (destroying, harrying, mayhem), in the cited example the
author is trying to produce ironic effect and therefore uses the verb bent on in the
environment of self-improvement.
Corpus-based analyses from recent years have shown that semantic
preference and semantic prosody have been considered in terms of ‘priming’
(Hoey 2003; Partington 2004) i.e. “as the word is learnt through encounters with
it in speech and writing, it is loaded with the cumulative effects of those
encounters such that it is part of our knowledge of the word that it co-occurs with
other words” (Hoey, 2003, p. 5). Partington (2004) adds that the theory of
priming helps us to answer one of the frequently raised question about prosody,
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
...if the favourable or unfavourable evaluation of an item said to display semantic prosody is
not part of its in-built, inherent meaning- as is clearly the case for words excessive or timely
– then how do language users decide to employ such items in the appropriate environment?
The answer is that language users have a set of mental rules derived from the priming
process, alongside or integrated with the mental lexicon, of how items should collocate (p.
132).
2. SEMANTIC PREFERENCE
The term semantic preference seems to be less problematic than the term
semantic prosody. Stubbs (2001, p. 65) defines it as “the relation, not between
individual words, but between a lemma2 or word form and a set of semantically
related words”. In his work, Stubbs analysed the item large in the 200-millionword corpus and found out that at least 25 per cent of the 56, 000 occurrences of
large collocated with words for “quantities and sizes”, such as numbers, scale,
part, amounts, quantities. Later, Stubbs adds that an item shows semantic
preference when it co-occurs with “a class of words which share some semantic
feature” (Stubbs, 2001, p. 88).
Partington (2004) examined the collocational behaviour of maximizersabsolutely, perfectly, entirely, completely, thoroughly, totally and utterly (group
of items defined as such by Quirk et al. 1985). His analysis states that absolutely
expresses semantic preference for items which have superlative sense such as:
delighted, enchanting, splendid, preposterous, appalling, intolerable. Semantic
prosody of absolutely is equally divided between favourable and unfavourable
items. When it comes to perfectly, the tendency of the item to occur with pleasant
things is evident (capable, correct, fit, good, happy, harmless, healthy, lovely,
marvellous, natural). Furthermore, Partinton’s analysis showed that completely,
entirely, totally and utterly shared a large number of collocates. Utterly indicated
semantic preference for ‘absence’ (collocates are: helpless, useless, unable,
forgotten, failed, ruined, destroyed) and ‘change’(changed, different, failed,
ruined, destroyed). The overall semantic prosody is evidently unfavourable.
Totally demonstrates semantic preference for ‘absence’ or ‘lack of’ collocating
with bald, exempt, incapable, irrelevant, lost, oblivious, uneducated,
unemployed, etc. but also for ‘change of state’ and ‘transformation’ words such
as destroyed, different, transformed, absorbed, failed. Completely also showed
semantic preference for ‘absence’ (devoid, disappeared, empty, forgotten,
hopeless, ignored, lost, oblivious, vanished, etc.) but also for ‘change’ (alerted,
changed, destroyed, different). Entirely expressed semantic preference for
‘absence’ and ‘change’ as well. Partington found the last maximizer thoroughly
in the company of words relating to ‘emotions’ and ‘states of mind’, such as
2
68
The lemma make is realized in text by the word forms make, makes, made and making
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
annoyed, approved, enjoyed, confused, happy, sure, disgruntled and he
concluded that thoroughly evidently retains traces of its ancient sense of
thorough-like.
Table 1 Summary of maximizers (Partington, 2004, p. 148)
Maximizer:
Absolutely
Perfectly
Utterly
Totally
Completely
Entirely
Thoroughly
Preference for:
hyperbole, superlatives
absence/change of state
absence/change of state
absence/change of state
absence/change of state,
(in)dependency
emotions/ liquid
penetration
Prosody
favourable
unfavourable
Partington (1998, pp. 34-39) also analysed the item sheer in the newspaper and
academic corpora. His analysis indicates that sheer collocated with a number of
items from specific semantic sets i.e. 1. ‘magnitude’, ‘weight’ or ‘volume’, 2. items
expressing ‘force’, 'strength’or ‘energy’, and 3. words expressing ‘persistence’.
Then Partington (1998, pp. 39-47) compared the behaviour of sheer with other
items that are consider to be its synonyms- complete, pure and absolute, and
discovered that none of them shared semantic preferences with sheer.
3. SEMANTIC PROSODY
The term semantic prosody was originally Sinclair’s idea in 1987 (later recited in
Sinclair 1991), but he did not use the term as such when he first discussed it.
Sinclair was observing the lexicogrammatical environment of the phrasal verb set
in using a corpus of about 7.3 million words and he noticed that the verb is
associated with unpleasant events.
The most striking feature of this phrasal verb is the nature of the subjects. In
general they refer to unpleasant states of affairs. Only three refer to the weather;
a few are neutral, such as reaction and trend. The main vocabulary is rot (3), decay,
ill-will, decadence, impoverishment, infection, prejudice, vicious (circle), rigor mortis,
numbness, bitterness, mannerism, anticlimax, anarchy, disillusion, disillusionment,
slump. Not one of these is desirable or attractive. (Sinclair 1987, pp. 155-156)
In the same work Sinclair notes that “many uses of words and phrases show a
tendency to occur in a certain semantic environment, for example the word
happen is associated with unpleasant things- accidents and the like” (Sinclair,
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
1991, p. 112). Sinclair’s remarks were something completely new and they were
completely backed up by corpus data.
The ‘father’ of the term semantic prosody is Bill Louw who introduced the
term to public in 19933. The term was coined with the reference to Firth’s
discussion of prosody in phonological terms. Namely, Firth noticed that the
realization of the phoneme /k/ depends on the sounds which precede it as well
as the sounds which follow it, so the /k/ in word kangaroo is not the same as the
/k/ in word keep because during the realization of the consonant the mouth is
already making provision for the production of the next sound. In the same way,
Louw (1993) claims that the expression symptomatic of prepares for the production
of what follows i.e. something undesirable (e.g. parental paralysis, numerous
disorders).
In his definition of semantic prosody, Gavioli (2005) also points out the
connection between meaning and sound:
The term ‘prosody’, which is generally used in linguistics to refer to the
sound or rhythm of words, is applied here to the sound of meanings
rather than phonemes and particularly to the way in which words and
expressions create an aura of meaning capable of affecting words around
them. Gavioli (2005, p. 46)
Several other linguists investigated the subject- they analysed several lexical
items, proposed their definitions and expressed their standpoints on the topic of
semantic prosody: Bublitz (1996) analysed the words cause, commit, happen,
somewhat and prevail; Sinclair (1996a, 1998) analysed set in, cause, the idiom naked
eye, the collocation true feelings, the word place and the verb brook; Stubbs (1995,
2001) investigated the lexical environment of heritage, provide, career, credibility,
accost, loiter and lurk; Tognini-Bonelli (2001) analysed prosodies in both English
and Italian including proper, expression andare incontro (literally “go towards”)
and face; Chanell (1999) investigated fat and self-important; Partington (1998, 2004)
analysed the verb peddle, 'happen' words (happen, take place, occur, set in, come
about) and amplifying intensifiers (absolutely, perfectly, entirely, completely,
thoroughly, totally, utterly).
Bill Louw introduced the term semantic prosody in his article Irony in the text or insincerity in the writer?:
The diagnostic Potential of semantic prosody (1993)
3
70
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
Table 2. The chronological review of the literature on semantic prosody.
Study
Examined lexical
Items
Sinclair
(1987,
1991)
Louw
(1993)
Semantic
prosody
Definition / contribution
The most important
standpoints
set in
happen
-semantic prosody was
Sinclair’s idea, although he did
not use this very term when he
first discussed it
-many uses of words and
phrases show a tendency to
occur in a certain semantic
environment; the words
happen and set in are
associated with unpleasant
things
symptomatic of
utterly
bent on
Louw was the first to use the
term semantic prosody,
connecting the term to Firth’s
discussion of prosody in
phonological terms
-Louw was interested in irony
produced by deviations from
habitual co-occurrence
patterns (pp.157)
-He also made few allusions
to diachronic considerations
claiming that prosodies are
undoubtedly the product of a
long period of refinement
through historical change
(pp.164)
Stubbs
(1995)
cause
Cause is near the stage where
the word itself, out of context,
has negative connotations.
(1995:50)
-made reference to diachronic
consideration related to the
word cause
Bublitz
(1996)
cause
happen
commit
somewhat
prevail
-node may be coloured by its
habitual co-occurrences
acquiring a “halo” of meaning
as a result
-prosodies vary according to
the different basic meanings
of any given word
-diachronic emphasis on
semantic prosody
Sinclair
(1996a,
1998)
naked eye
true feelings
brook
A semantic prosody… is
attitudinal, and on the
pragmatic side of the
semantics/pragmatics
continuum. It is thus capable of
a wide range of realization,
because in pragmatic
expressions the normal
semantic values of the words
are not necessarily relevant.
But once noticed among the
variety of expressions, it is
immediately clear that the
semantic prosody has a leading
role to play in the integration of
an item with its surroundings.
It expresses something close to
the ‘function’ of an item- it
shows how the rest of the item
is to be interpreted
functionally. (Sinclair 1996a:88)
-in his work from 1996,
Sinclair explained semantic
prosody within his model of
extended unit of meaning
-in 1998 Sinclair stated that
semantic prosody is one of the
obligatory elements of the
unit of meaning along with
the ‘core item’, which is
invariable, and constitutes the
evidence of the occurrence of
the item as a whole. (1998:15)
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
Partington
(1998)
peddle
green
fundamentalism/
fundamentalist
Hunston
and
Francis
(1999)
A word may be said to have a
particular semantic prosody if
it can be shown to co-occur
typically with other words that
belong to a particular semantic
set. (1999:137)
-the importance of semantic
consistency of lexical profiles
Hunston
and
Thompson
(1999)
The notion of semantic prosody
(or pragmatic meaning) is that
a given word or phrase may
occur most frequently in the
context of other words or
phrases which are
predominantly positive or
negative in their evaluative
orientation…As a result, the
given word takes on an
association with the positive,
or, more usually, the negative,
and this association can be
exploited by speakers to
express evaluative meaning
covertly. (1999:38)
-the importance of the
evaluative quality of semantic
prosody
-the words ‘take on’ meaning
from their surrounds
Speakers and writers cluster
negative items so that there is a
mutually supporting web of
negative words (Channell
1999:44)
-she does not refer to items
with less obviously evaluative
meanings
-fat and self-important are
also to be found in
undesirable company
-she adopts the expression
‘evaluative polarity’
-focuses on unfavourable
prosodies
A semantic prosody refers to a
form of meaning which is
established through the
proximity of a consistent series
of collocates, often
characterized as positive or
negative, and whose primary
function is the expression of the
attitude of its speaker or writer
towards some pragmatic
situation. A secondary, though
no less important attitudinal
function of semantic prosodies
is the creation of irony through
the deliberate injection of a
form which clashes with the
prosody’s consistent series of
collocates. (2000:60).
-Contextual Prosodic Theory
which would seek to elucidate
through semantic prosodies
the Firthian view that that
situational and linguistic
contexts are co-extensive.
(2000:48)
-makes the difference between
semantic prosody as strongly
collocational phenomenon
from connotation which he
considers to be more
‘schematic’ in nature.
Chanell
(1999)
regime
par for the course
fat
self-important
off the beaten track
Louw
(2000)
TogniniBonelli
(2001)
72
-focuses on similarities and
differences between semantic
prosody and connotation
-Partington is interested in
prosodies within the political
discourse in newspapers
proper
largely
broadly
(to) face
-importance of strict relation
between lexical and
grammatical choices
-stresses that the pragmatic
dimension is central
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
Stubbs
(2001a)
accost
amid
amusement
backdrop
care
cause
commit
community
deadlock
distinctly
soar
heritage
lavish
loiter
lurk
proper
provide
somewhat
standard
undergo
untold
discoveries
expression
mutual
career
launch
A discourse prosody is a
feature which extends over
more than one unit in a linear
string… Discourse prosodies
express speaker’s attitude. If
you say that something is
provided, then this implies that
you approve of it. Since they
are evaluative, prosodies often
express the speaker’s reason for
making the utterance, and
therefore identify functional
discourse units. (2001:65)
in 2001 Stubbs switched from
‘semantic prosody’ to
‘discourse prosody’
Stubbs
(2001b)
sit through
Hunston
(2002)
Semantic prosody…refers to a
word that is typically used in a
particular environment, such
that the word takes on
connotations from that
environment. (2002:141)
semantic prosody is a result of
transferred meaning
Sinclair
(2003)
As corpus enables us to see
words grouping together to
make special meanings as to
the reasons why they were
chosen together. This kind of
meaning is called a semantic
prosody; it has been recognized
in part as connotation,
pragmatic meaning and
attitudinal meaning. (2003:178)
Partington
(2004a)
Hoey
(2005)
‘happen words’
(happen, take place,
occur, set in, come
about)
absolutely
perfectly
entirely
completely
thoroughly
totally
utterly
Semantic prosody is a type of
evaluative meaning which is
spread over a unit of language
which potentially goes well
beyond the single orthographic
word and is much less evident
to the naked eye. (2004a:131132)
-Partington also discusses the
interaction between semantic
preference and semantic
prosody
Priming prosody occurs when
the collocations, colligations,
semantic associations, textual
collocations, textual semantic
associations and textual
colligations of words chosen
for a particular utterance
-Hoey points out that the
words are primed in all sorts
of different ways, and that
results in priming prosody
-states that the boundaries
between semantic preference
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
harmonise with each other in
such a way as to contribute to
the construction and coherence
of the utterance. (2005:166)
Whitsitt
(2005)
-focuses on the synchronic/
diachronic questions, on the
function of intuition in
identifying prosodies
Hunston
(2007)
-discusses whether semantic
prosody should be regarded
as the property of a word or a
longer unit of meaning;
whether the binary
distinctions should be used
(favourable vs. unfavourable
prosody); whether semantic
prosody can be transmitted
from one context to another
-gives overview of the
literature on both, semantic
preference and prosody
Bednarek
(2008)
-stresses the importance of the
role of different registers for
realisations of both semantic
preferences and semantic
prosodies
Stewart
(2010)
make sense
-presents extensive literature
overview of the literature on
semantic prosody
Begagić
(2013)
initial/preliminary
following/subsequent
sufficient/adequate
-More uses of the collocation
are found than provided by
dictionaries
-Semantic prosody for
'difficulty', almost always
accompanied by the
preposition of
Wei & Li
(2014)
Hu (2015)
74
and semantic prosody should
be avoided
-favours the term ‘semantic
association’ instead ‘semantic
preference’ only because he
thinks that the term ‘semantic
preference’ leads to a
psychological preference on
the part of the language user
and may lead to confusion
-A word may be associated
with more than one group of
semantic features thus
designating different
prosodies
-Sematic prosody of a word
cannot be accurately detected
until its collocates are
carefully scrutinized in the
text
-An apparently negative
collocate might indicate a
positive connotation
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
Throughout literature, semantic prosody is mostly described as a type of
meaning. However, several authors defined it rather as a process. For example,
Baker et al. in their Glossary of Corpus Linguistics (2006, p. 58) define it as a term
“relating to the way that words in a corpus can collocate with a related set of
words or phrases, often revealing (hidden) attitudes”. Coffin et.al (2004, xxi) also
define semantic prosody as “a way in which apparently neutral terms come to
carry positive or negative associations through regularly occurring in particular
collocations”. Both authors refer to semantic prosody as the ways that contributes
to establishing meanings. Berber-Sardinha (2000, p. 94) refers to semantic
prosody as a pattern, while Lewandowska-Tomaszcyk (1996, p. 153) refers to it
as a phenomenon.
From the literature review it can be said that semantic prosody includes
some type of reference to its evaluative or attitudinal quality. It is described as an
aspect of evaluative meaning, which is defined by Hunston and Thompson (1999,
p. 5) as “the speaker or writer’s attitude or stance towards, viewpoint on, or
feelings about the entities and propositions that he or she is talking about”.
Though this definition seems to be too broad, some other authors defined the
term in a more restricted sense, i.e. with emphasis on lexical expressions of the
speaker’s/writer’s emotional attitude (see Conrad and Biber 1999 and Martin
1999).
As stated in Table 2, according to both Sinclair and Stubbs, prosodies
express speaker attitude. Stubbs claims that if something is provided, then you
approve of it, “since they are evaluative, prosodies often express the speaker’s
reason for making the utterance” (Stubbs 2001a, p. 65). Sinclair (1994) states that
semantic prosody is attitudinal, and on the pragmatic side of the semantics/
pragmatics continuum and continues that:
It is thus capable of a wide range of realization, because in pragmatic expressions the
normal semantic values of the words are not necessarily relevant. But once noticed
among the variety of expressions, it is immediately clear that the semantic prosody has a
leading role to play in the integration of an item with its surroundings. It expresses
something close to the ‘function’ of the item- it shows how the rest of the item is to be
interpreted functionally. (Sinclair 2004, p. 22)
According to the above mentioned, Stewart (2010) follows that when speakers
use items like naked eye, true feelings, provide, commit, set in, undergo, happen, cause,
symptomatic of, they make some type of evaluation or convey some type of
attitude.
In this way an utterance such as the cold weather set in might be considered more obviously
attitudinal than, for instance, the cold weather started; John Smith had to undergo an operation
more attitudinal than John Smith had to have an operation; and symptomatic of management
inadequacies more attitudinal than indicative of management inadequacies (Stewart 2010, p.
22).
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However, there are certain examples that prove this does not have to be that
way. Sinclair (1996a, p. 87) ascribed the prosody of difficulty to item naked eye,
and the evaluative element does not seem to be of huge importance at all4.
Stewart (2010) also mentions example of the item cause, which has been assigned
an unfavourable prosody in the literature, since it co-occurs with accident,
problem, chaos, etc. Nevertheless it seems problematic to postulate that some sort
of attitude has been expressed in certain examples, such as in the following
examples:
The door closed and then Elaine pulled the magazine in, causing the letter
box to snap shut smartly.
The inhibitors might therefore be causing amnesia not because they
prevent protein synthesis but because of their effect on increasing animo
acid levels.
(Stewart 2010, p. 23; examples taken from the BNC)
The fact that the notions of evaluation and attitude are the complex one is
proved by the following citation from Bernardini and Aston (2002, p. 291):
Would this be the speaker as principal, author or animator (to use Goffman’s (1981)
famous breakdown of the speaker discourse role (Levinson, 1988)? In contexts of reported
speech, it is clear that prosodies may indicate the evaluation of the cited speaker, not the
citing one, as the author (but not animator) of the text in question.
It can be concluded that in most of the examples the two elements are present,
evaluative and attitudinal quality of an item, however not in all cases. Each item
in question should be carefully analysed in its environment in order to be claimed
that evaluative and attitudinal qualities are pivotal for its semantic prosody.
Apart from the evaluative and attitudinal quality, element that is found in
almost all definitions and discussions on semantic prosody is its hidden nature.
Most of the authors mentioned in Table 1 refer to semantic prosody as to
something subliminal, covert or unconscious. Louw (1993, pp. 169-171) writes
that semantic prosody can reveal speaker attitudes even when the speaker tries
to conceal them, and Tognini-Bonelli, citing Louw’s statement argues that
“semantic prosodies are mainly engaged at the subconscious level”. Hunston and
Thompson (1999, p. 38) state that semantic prosody “can be exploited by speakers
to express evaluative meaning covertly” and Hunston (2001, p. 21, 2002, pp. 61,
While analysing the idiom naked eye, Sinclair used The Bank of English as corpus which contained 211
million words of current English. Sinclair found 154 instances of naked eye, but since 3 pairs of lines were
identical he used 151 lines. Words see and visible (and their variations) are evident on position N3 which
prove the clear semantic preference for visibility. Since the words visible and see are in 85 per cent of
instances combined with words such as small, faint, weak and difficult, Sinclair concluded that the idiom
naked eye indicates semantic prosody of difficulty.
4
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�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
119, 141-142) makes several points to how semantic prosody conveys covert
messages and hidden meanings. Partington (2004a, p.131) also states that
semantic prosody “is much less evident to the naked eye”.
Most of the authors interested in semantic prosody analysed lexical items
that are neutral in semantic sense i.e. that have neither positive nor negative
meanings. It seems that literature review suggests that the meaning of the item
in question must be hidden, otherwise the prosody cannot be ascribed to it.
However, there are still some examples that prove that the lexical item in
question does not need to be semantically neutral in order to possess semantic
prosody (e.g. verb brook). This study will also test weather only the neutral
meanings of investigated items possess semantic prosody.
As stated above, most of the authors investigated ‘neutral’ lexical item
(happen, cause, break out, set in, undergo etc.) and to most of them the unfavourable
prosody is ascribed (cause, set in, happen, break out, load of, undergo…) while only a
few of them revealed positive or favourable semantic prosody such as provide and
career. Saying this, it should be mentioned that several linguists noticed the
importance of registers and genres in revealing semantic prosodies of certain
lexical items. Hunston (2007, p. 263) argues that the verb cause “loses its
association with negative evaluation when it occurs in ‘scientific’ registers”.
Bednarek (2008) also mentions the importance of analysis of items in different
registers:
..for instance, an analysis of concordance lines for responsibility for in the Bank of English
shows a negative semantic preference (it co-occurs with recent bombings, Sunday’s suicide
bombing, one of the murders, some of the explosions, the killing, these murders, the Holocaust, the
kidnapping, the worst act of terrorism) while an analysis of the same lexical expression in a
business English corpus does not (here responsibility for collocates with budgets, a major
functional area, the product, a new stream of scheme, outcomes, decisions, aspects, the technical
aspects, scale/up and operation, outcomes )(Walker 2004 in Bednarek 2008,p. 126)
Analogous to O’Halloran (2007) this could be called register or genre
preference i.e. semantic preference that is register or genre dependent.
O’Halloran claims that there is a greater likelihood of some lexicogrammatical
patterns in certain registers than others and as example she mentions the item
‘erupted’ saying that “the fact that ‘erupted’ in the past tense has largely positive
associations in the sports report register, but largely negative ones in the hard
news register, provides evidence for seeing ‘erupted’ in register prosody terms”
(O’Halloran, 2007, p. 12). At this point, it is important to define the word
‘register’. According to Halliday and Hasan (1985, pp. 38-9) registers are varieties
of language which are “typically associated with a particular situational
configuration of field, tenor and mode”. Genre, on the other side is mostly treated
at a ‘higher level’ than register, as Wales (2001, p. 338) states that “genres are
groups of texts which perform a similar function”. However, in this study all the
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newspaper texts found in COCA are considered to belong to the newspaper
register, whereas the academic texts belong to the academic register.
Partington (2004) anlaysed words that belong to the happen semantic group with
the hypothesis that not only happen and set in have unfavourable prosody but all
the other words from that group as well. Therefore he looked at the behaviour of
set in, happen, occur, come about and take place in two corpora, one of the academic
texts and the other of the newspaper texts. Partington presented the frequency of
occurrence of all the ‘happen’ words as follows:
Table 3. The analysis of happen words (Partington, 2004, p.134)
Academic
(one million
words)
Newspaper
(four million
words)
Total
Per million
words
Happens
Happen
Happened
Totals
70
80
67
217
187
230
326
743
47
57
82
186
Occurs
Occur
Occurred
Totals
125
221
114
460
27
32
112
171
7
8
28
43
Comes about
Come about
Came about
Totals
2
16
9
27
2
9
5
16
1
2
1
4
Takes place
Take place
Took place
Taken place
Totals
25
39
44
23
131
47
87
68
38
240
12
22
17
9
60
Sets in
Set in
Totals
1
8
9
4
9
13
1
2
3
After the analysis of each happen word separately (he decided to examine only
the examples from the academic register), Partington confirmed his hypothesis
that all investigated happen words have unfavourable prosody, although there
are different degrees of unfavourable prosody among the items in the group. “Set
in has the worst prosody, followed by happen, followed by occur and take place,
78
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
while come about does not seem to evince any particular inclination” (Partington,
2004, p.144). Partington also states that there are register differences among the
investigated lexical items “probably linked to cohesive function, i.e. more formal
items like occur are used for extended cohesion more often than less formal ones
such as happen” (ibid.).
Most of the linguists discussing semantic preference and semantic
prosody agree that semantic prosody is primarily contingent upon semantic
preference and that “semantic preference 'feeds’ semantic prosody” (Stewart
2010, p.88, citing Hoey 2005, p.16ff). When Sinclair (1996) analysed expression
true feelings he found out that there is a clear semantic preference for ‘expression’verbs: express, communicate, show, reveal, share, pour out, give vent to, indicate, make
public. Hunston and Francis (1999, p. 137) stated that “a word may be said to have
a particular semantic prosody if it can be shown to co-occur typically with other
words that belong to a particular semantic set”, while Louw (2000, p. 57) writes
that “semantic prosody refers to a form of meaning which is established through
the proximity of a consistent series of collocates”.
On the other hand, when Stubbs (1995) analysed the word provide in the
200-million word corpus, he found that some of its top collocates were
information, service(s), support, help, money….It cannot be argued that there is an
obvious semantic set in other words clear semantic preference, but there is
definitely favourable prosody (which is interesting, since most of the investigated
lexical items in literature review on semantic prosody have unfavourable
prosody). The necessity to investigate more examples emerges, in order to claim
that semantic preference is obligatory element in constituting semantic prosody.
Very interesting example analysed by Sinclair (1996) is the one of the verb
brook. Its dictionary meaning is something like ‘tolerate’ as Sinclair analysis
shows that “ ‘tolerate’ can replace brook in all the examples without disturbing
their message” (Sinclair, 1996, p. 91). Sinclair points out (ibid.) “since it always
appears with some form of negative, e.g. brook no interference, will not brook any
attack, it is used by speakers to indicate not tolerance, but intolerance.” Regarding
this it could be concluded that the item expresses an unfavourable prosody.
However, Sinclair’s analysis confirms that the verb brook expresses “the
intolerance of intrusive behaviour by another” (ibid.). The overall prosody does
not tend to be unfavourable but favourable. It can be concluded that although
some words have negative basic meaning it is possible to find out that they reveal
positive semantic prosody.
Another interesting verb is alleviate which has positive meaning although
negative semantic prosody can be ascribed to it. Stewart (2010) analysed this verb
in the BNC and from his analysis it is obvious that the verb is associated with
negative prosody “in view of the fact that its co-text is peppered with seriously
undesirable elements”, but he adds that “we could not by any stretch of the
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imagination argue that they have negative connotations” (Stewart, 2010, p. 73).
Accordingly, it can be said that the verb alleviate has a positive basic meaning
although it is mostly mixed with bad company (collocates with the words such
as pain and suffering). Therefore, alleviate has not been ‘contaminated’ by its
unpleasant co-occurrences.
Stewart (2010) analysed the lexical environment of intuition in the BNC
(British National Corpus) as well as in the other, the corpus of semantic prosody.
On the one hand, in the BNC he found out that intuition seems to be neutral or
even leaning towards the favourable prosody (according to the OED intuition is
defined as our instinctive, immediate ‘feel’ for language). On the other hand, in
the corpus on semantic prosody, intuition has thoroughly unfavourable prosody
“occurs in the company of, unreliable, wrong, stranglehold, not reliable and accurate,
chancy and unreliable…” (Stewart, 2010, p. 122). If this is observed from the
diachronic view, we can say that a good word intuition has fallen under the
influence of bad company and has been contaminated by its bad influence. The
word intuition can also be observed from synchronic view and in that case it
shows unfavourable prosody in the corpus of semantic prosody.
It seems important to mention that the work, in which examples for the
corpus on semantic prosody are gathered, is the book Semantic Prosody written
by Stewart. Most of the scholars who dealt with the topic of semantic prosody
agree that intuition is a poor guide to revealing semantic prosody as follows:
“speaker’s intuition is usually an unreliable guide to patterns of collocation and
that intuition is an even poorer guide to semantic prosody” (Xiao & McEnery,
2006, p. 103).
“attested data are required in collocational studies, since native speaker
intuitions are not reliable source of evidence” (Stubbs, 1995, p. 24)
“analysis of evaluation can be removed from the chancy and unreliable business
of linguistic intuitions based in systematic observation of naturally occurring
data” (Channell, 1999, p. 39).
“semantic prosodies are difficult, if not impossible, to determine on the basis of
intuition alone” (Adfolphs & Carter, 2002, p. 7).
“The quantitative analysis of text by computer reveals facts about actual
language behaviour which are not, or at least not immediately, accessible to
intuition” (Widdowson, 2000, p. 6).
“It may well turn out to be the case that semantic prosodies are less accessible
through human intuition than most other phenomena to do with language”
(Louw, 1993, p. 173).
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�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
“SPs are open to introspection in principle...but native speakers have no reliable
and accurate intuitions about them” (Bublitz, 1996, p. 8).
Considering the historical development of language, the roots of the
synchronic and diachronic approach can be seen in the works of Breal (1897),
Saussure (CLG) and Bloomfield (1933). Breal, who is usually considered to be the
father of semantics, differentiates between what is the synchronic and the
diachronic study of a language, however his statements remained within the
realms of historical linguistics5. Saussure recognised one of the major distinctions
in linguistics, between synchronic and diachronic study of a language where the
latter relates to the historical dimension or the outside world 6. However,
Bloomfield restricts the object of linguistics to the decriprion of language in a
synchronic way, even when the decription aims to study the historical
development of a language (the historical development is considered to present
series of synchronic slices of evidence at different times)7.
When mentioning synchronic and diachronic approaches, it seems
important to point out that the corpora used to evidence the existence of semantic
prosody have always been synchronic.
As Stewart notices (2010) the diachronic dimension seems to be of huge
importance in descriptions on semantic prosody, though it has never been
entirely central. The interests of all the mentioned linguists interested in the
subject were somewhere else, and the diachronic analyses are almost entirely
absent.
Sinclair describes semantic prosody using synchronic criteria, while most other authors
approach the subject using both diachronic and synchronic criteria, with scarcely
acknowledgement that a single appellation (semantic prosody has been adopted to
denote distinct phenomena). Diachronic explanations tend to…favour the folkoristic
notion of good being contaminated by evil. (Stewart, 2010, p.55)
An issue that is commonly discussed among linguists is whether semantic
prosody resides in a single word or in several words. Bublitz (1996, p. 9) claims
that “with prosody we refer to the fact that a feature extends its domain, stretches
over and affects several units…something that accords with Firth’s idea that
meaning is regularly dispersed in context”. Partington (2004a, pp. 131-132) also
describes semantic prosody as a type of evaluative meaning which is “spread
over a unit of language which potentially goes well beyond the single
5
Breal (1897) outlined new scientific criteria for the study of language based on observation.
According to Saussure, the meaning of a word is no more just the relationship between a word and a
concept or thing, but the set of relationships that a specific word may entertain within a relational
network.
7
Bloomfield accepts that “in some cases a transferred meaning is linguistically determined by an
accompanying form” (1933, p. 150)
6
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Volume 1, Issue 2, Winter 2018
orthographic word” and Sinclair (2003, p. 117) claims that “semantic prosody
typically ranges over combinations of words in an utterance rather than being
attached just to one”. Although many of the authors agree that semantic prosody
does not reside in a single word but in several words, there are still several who
argue for the opposite. Stewart (2010, pp. 57-58) summarizes their statements as
the following:
“utterly has an overwhelmingly bad prosody” (Louw, 1993, p. 160)
“affect has a clearly negative prosody” (Stubbs, 1995, p. 45)
“the lemma cause has a strongly unfavourable prosody...the word provide,
on the other hand, had a favourable prosody in the Cobuild corpus
material” (Partington, 1998, p. 68)
“we know that the English equivalent of forarsage, namely cause, has an
overwhelmingly negative prosody” (Dam-Jensen & Zethsen, 2007, p.
1618)
“The negative semantic prosody of cause has been widely observed” (Xiao
& McEnery, 2006, p. 114)
However, Cotterill (2001, p. 291) refers to “the SP of a word” and to “the
semantic prosodies of words” (p. 293), whereas later assigns semantic prosody to
“lexical items” (p.297). It seems that another open question remains and the need
for more lexical items to be investigated in other to claim the former or latter.
Another interesting question regarding semantic prosody that arises is
whether connotation is a synonym of semantic prosody. In order to connect this
term to the notion of semantic prosody, several definitions of the connotations
are presented:
connotation of a word is “an emotive or affective component additional to
its central meaning” (Lyons, 1977, p. 176)
connotation implies “emotive or evaluative meaning” (Palmer, 1981, p. 92)
the main application of connotations “with reference to emotional
associations (personal or communal)which are suggested by, or are part
of the meaning of, a linguistic unit, especially a lexical item” (Crystal, 1991,
p. 74)
On the one hand Partington (1998), Berber-Sardinha (2000) Stubbs (2001),
Hunston (2002) and Whitsitt (2005) all agree that semantic prosody is
connotational. Partington, while analysing concordances of the verb commit says
“unfavourable connotation can be seen to reside not simply in the word commit
but over a unit consisting of commit and its collocates” (1998, p. 67). Partington
continues that “connotation would locate the meaning within a word, while
semantic prosody would locate meaning as spread[ing] across words” (p. 68).
Berber-Sarinha (2000, p. 93) states that “semantic prosody is the connotation
82
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
conveyed by the regular co-occurrence of lexical items” whereas Hunston (2002,
p. 142) writes that semantic prosody “accounts for ‘connotation’: the sense that a
word carries a meaning in addition to its ‘real meaning’ ”. While analysing the
verb cause, Stubbs concludes that “cause has overwhelmingly unpleasant
connotations” (2001a, p. 49) and Whitsitt (2005, p. 285) states that semantic
prosody is defined in three different ways and one of these “which is very
widespread, treats semantic prosody as if it was a synonym of connotation”.
On the other hand Louw (2000, p. 49-50) argues that “semantic prosodies are
not merely connotational” as “the force behind SPs [semantic prosodies] is more
strongly collocational than the schematic aspects of connotation” and he
indicates that that semantic prosody is more strictly attitudinal than connotation.
Louw’s remarks suggest that semantic prosody is dependant on the relationship
between the item and its lexical environment, whereas connotation is related to
the single word and the experience the speaker/hearer associate with that word.
Besides Louw, Sinclair is another important person to be mentioned, who does
not seem to support excessive overlap between connotation and semantic
prosody. Sinclair (1996, p. 34) stated that:
But once noticed among the variety of expressions, it is immediately clear that the
semantic prosody has a leading role to play in the integration of an item with its
surroundings”...and he continues (ibid., p. 39) “The major structural categories that have
been proposed here- collocation, colligation, semantic preference and semantic prosodyand their inter-relationships, will be elaborated and will assume a central rather than a
peripheral role in language description (emphasis my own).
Therefore, according to Sinclair, semantic prosody is completely central to the
unit of meaning and has nothing to do with something peripheral.
A statement claimed by McEnery, Xiao and Tono (2006, p. 85) represents
the link between the two views above mentioned, as they argue that “connotation
can be collocational or non-collocational whereas semantic prosody can only be
collocational”.
To sum up, the notions semantic preference and semantic prosody have
been addressed frequently in several past years. The two prominent names to be
found in relation to the two terms are Sinclair and Louw. Stewart (2010) presents
the most common features of semantic prosody prioritised by Sinclair’s and by
Louw’s approach.
Element’s prioritized by Sinclair’s approach:
it is central to the unit of meaning, one of the two obligatory elements
it is considered within a synchronic framework
it is a feature of a unit which is larger than the single word/expression
it is not restricted to semantically ‘neutral’ lexical items
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
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it is not restricted to descriptions in terms of ‘good’ and ‘bad’
Elements prioritized by Louw’s approach:
it is transferred or attached meaning
it is considered within both a diachronic and synchronic framework
it is a feature of the word
it is associated above all with more semantically ‘neutral’ lexical items
it is generally expressed by means of a binary distinction whose primary
terms are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ (positive / negative, favourable /
unfavourable)
(Stewart, 2010, p. 161)
Their approaches can be described in different ways, and other linguists
interested in the topic are either influenced by Sinclair or by Louw. Still most of
the issues related to the two terms and mentioned above are open for further
discussion.
4. CONCLUSION
From the literature review it is evident that some basic problems concerning
semantic preference and prosody are yet to be solved. There is evident necessity
for more examples, lexical items, to be analysed in this way in order to prove or
refute some of the conclusions that have already been reached. In sum, the
following are some of the open and much disputed issues that can serve as the
commencement for the further research for the linguists interested in the subject:
84
the possibility of the existence of semantic prosody in the targeted V-N
collocations
‘neutral’ meaning is necessary when revealing semantic prosody
hidden element is (not) crucial for semantic preference
semantic preference is (not) obligatory element in identification of
semantic prosody
connotation is (not) the synonym of semantic prosody
semantic prosody resides (does not reside) in the single word
semantic prosody can be considered in a diachronic framework as well
�Semantic preference and semantic prosody - a theoretical overview
Mirna Begagić
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Semantic preference and semantic prosody-a theoretical overview
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Abstract: Semantic preference and semantic prosody are two notions that were carefully analysed in post-Firthian corpus linguistics and in the past few years there has been a growing interest in them. As corpora have become larger in size, and tools for extracting different lexical items for different purposes have been developed, the two terms have been addressed more frequently by linguists1. Throughout history, semantic preference and semantic prosody have sometimes been used for the same phenomenon but at other times the two were considered different but closely related. Previous corpus-based studies on the two terms have shown that they can be attached to many investigated lexical items. Therefore, this paper aims to present a detailed theoretical overview of the two terms in order to emphasise their immense importance for identifying the meaning of all the lexical items.
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Mirna Begagić
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Keywords: semantic preference, semantic prosody, corpus, corpus linguistics.
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3 (2), pp. 3-22, Winter 2020
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial
Re-reading of Sir Thomas More,
The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest
Damir Kahrić, MA
Nađa Muhić, BA
University of Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
damir95484@gmail.com
muhicnadja13@gmail.com
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to shed light on the
representation of ‘the Other’ in three Shakespearean dramas: Sir
Thomas More, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. The article
describes several Shakespearean characters through the prism of
post-colonialism and, therefore, the paper is structured as the postcolonial re-reading of the aforementioned dramatic texts. William
Shakespeare portrayed the sad fate of immigrants in Sir Thomas
More, but the Bard also tackled the refugee issue which remains
relevant for the contemporary period. Additionally, Shakespeare
dramatized the position of the Jewish community in Venice through
the portrayal of Shylock. The re-reading of The Tempest focuses on
the process of colonisation and the Manichaean division within the
conquered world. In conclusion, the article portrays experiences of
those dramatic individuals stigmatised and subjugated by the
colonial forces, thus allowing the readers to better understand the
binary division within colonial systems.
Keywords: William
Shakespeare, Refugee Issue,
Stereotyping, Manichaean
World
Article History
Submitted: 28 August 2020
Accepted: 25 November 2020
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
1. INTRODUCTION
William Shakespeare is one of the most profoundly important writers to have
ever existed. In the contemporary framework, the Bard may be synonymously
associated with the very term of drama, as such. His narrative poetry, his sonnet
sequence, as well as his dramatic pieces are the body of work which encompasses
numerous elements of the social and cultural sphere. Shakespeare thus stands as
the just equal to some of the most brilliant minds to have ever worked in the
realm of literary achievements, such as Dante, Dostoevsky and Dickens. As some
of the most important contributions to the great literary tradition, the Bard’s
dramas are an inexhaustible field for various literary theories. The post-colonial
literary criticism is especially important for Shakespeare’s dramas, because
particular plays superbly depict the process of ‘othering.’
In order to better understand the representation of ‘the Other’ and
‘otherness’ in Shakespearean dramas, it should first be explained why a single
minority group of people(s) is subjugated by the community which surrounds
them. Brons (2015) elaborates on idea of ‘otherness’ by stating: “Othering often
sets up a superior self/in-group in contrast to an inferior other/out-group, it can
also create distance between self/in-group and other/out-group by means of a
dehumanizing over-inflation of otherness” (72). Edward W. Said’s work
Orientalism also explains the Eurocentric opinions of the East and anything which
is related to the so-called Orient. Said (1979) explains that the Orient is: “Almost
a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic
beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences” (1).
However, this rather biased and Eurocentric worldview does not only portray
elements of romance, or exoticism, because more often than not, the dwellers of
the ‘mysterious East’ are perceived as ‘the Other,’ hence extremely negatively.
The basic aim of this paper is to further disseminate the knowledge of the Bard
and ‘the Other.’ In other words, this paper will analyse three dramas through the
prism of post-colonial literary theory: Sir Thomas More, The Merchant of Venice and
The Tempest. In the case of Sir Thomas More, the Bard was not the main or the only
author, however Shakespeare did add a particularly interesting monologue
which describes the rising tension of the people of London, as well as their
frustrations. The inserted speech presents the clash between the superior ‘ingroup,’ that is to say, the people of London, and the dangerous and unwanted
‘strangers.’ Moreover, this drama focuses on some of the most vocal protests
especially in regards to the refugee issue.
Secondly, this paper will focus on The Merchant of Venice, as one of
Shakespeare’s greatest and best-recognised tragicomedies. The characters of
Shylock the Jew will be analysed in order to portray the negative elements
attributed to the Jewish community in Venice during the 16th century. Shylock
will be described as the character who is perceived as ‘the Other,’ but with the
highest degree of negative connotations. As a Jewish character, Shylock is heavily
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�The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial Re-reading of Sir Thomas More, The Merchant of
Venice and The Tempest
Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
marginalised by the Christian society. Different characters treat him harshly,
attributing animal pejoratives to Shylock, and ruthlessly try to expel him from
the society since he is perceived as ‘the Alien’ of the Venetian state. The third and
therefore the final segment of this paper will focus on the inhabitants of the
mysterious island in Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest. The paper will
predominantly focus on the analysis of Caliban as the natural native of the
aforementioned isle. On the other side of the spectrum there stand Prospero and
Miranda who are the newcomers of the island and they epitomise the European
conquerors. Thus, Caliban will be presented as the downtrodden and colonised
individual, whereas Prospero the Wizard will be analysed as the dominant ruler.
Ergo, this paper will focus on the portrayal of implicit/explicit forms of
subjugation of ‘the Other,’ but also the response which ‘the Other’ makes in order
to survive in the coloniser’s domain.
2. THE CASE FOR STRANGERS: SHAKESPEARE’S CONTRIBUTION TO SIR
THOMAS MORE
In the world of the 21st century, so heavily marked by censorship and intolerance,
one author’s voice was able to transcend all barriers of time and space. William
Shakespeare’s literary opus remains, undoubtedly, one of the best-recognised
contributions to the realm of theatre, poetry, but also linguistics and modern
understanding of various political and social systems. Shakespeare was not an
author situated within a single timeframe, rather he was a writer for every day
and age, and since he was able to brilliantly understand and depict the sociopolitical difficulties of his own epoch, the Bard’s dramatic pieces remain relevant
for the contemporary era.
A historic play dubbed Sir Thomas More grants the readers an invaluable
opportunity to discover one of the most passionate defences of the refugee policy.
The refugee issue was an important element in England’s history, however it is
equally if not even more relevant for the contemporary society. The dramatic
work is titled after the famous English chancellor Sir Thomas More whose
devotion to the Pope cost More his own life. Since the Chancellor refused to
accept Henry VIII’s divorce and his political split from the Church of Rome, he
was beheaded. Thomas More is even nowadays remembered as a passionate
defender of the Catholic faith who stood against the teaching of Martin Lutheri.
After the passing of Elizabeth Gloriana, Shakespeare was invited to make
adjustments to the text of the play. He and other playwrights revised the text and
the Bard of Avon included 147 lines in the middle of the central plotline. Namely,
Shakespeare inserted an additional monologue for the character of Sir Thomas
More. In this speech, More addresses the violent outbursts of the antiimmigration riot on the streets of London. This speech is intended for the people
because they so fervently desire the immigrants to be removed. It was explained
that they are baying for the so-called ‘strangers’ to be unequivocally banished
(Dickson, 2016). In this case, the superior and self-entitled group of the rioters is
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Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
juxtaposed with the ‘the Other,’ and the term refers to the ‘strangers’ in their
unfortunate position. More’s philosophical enquiry about the fate of the outcasts
attempts to reignite some degree of empathy among the angry people and More
says, “What would you think / To be thus used? this is the strangers case; / And
this your mountanish inhumanity” (2.4.121-123). At this instance, More switches
the places of the two opposing sides. He hypothetically ‘otherises’ the rioters by
placing them into the roles of those whom they deem unworthy. Through More’s
mouthpiece, Shakespeare poses the question of what would happen if the
downtrodden individuals were to replace their position with the people who
want to see them banished.
Shakespeare presents a kind approach, prompting both sympathy and
empathy among the rioters, whereas the plight of the alienated and dispossessed
is viewed with mercy rather than contempt. Dickson (2016) adds that this speech
may prefigure the great dramas which would later ensue in Shakespeare’s opus;
such dramas being Othello or The Merchant of Venice. The Bard was able to
successfully implement his own opinions into the monologue, by portraying a
sharp eye for the troubled relationship between the ethnic majorities and
minorities. The long speech additionally depicts Thomas More’s own courageous
side as he was more than willing to face the rioting mob at St. Martin’s Gate.
Thus, Shakespeare can be examined as a transnational traveller, and More as his
representative in the dramatic world. More’s albeit unsuccessful attempt to stop
the rioters does not only pose urgent ethnical questions, rather the same speech
addresses the issue of the responsibility for ‘the Other.’ In his article, Stephen
O’Neill (2020) explains that: “These iterations draw Shakespeare, long imagined
as a type of transnational traveller, into urgent ethical questions about borders,
displaced peoples, and responsibility to the Other, as More's empathetic plea
comes to function synecdochally for Shakespeare” (1). In addition to the
aforementioned empathy-prompting, More’s speech exemplifies the notion of
cultural tensions and mistrusts that still prevails. The cultural mistrust remains
ever-so-present even in the contemporary setting, whereas this play emphasises
the idea that cross-cultural connection should be bettered by all means necessary.
It would appear that the 16th century society of England and the post-modern era
of the world do not differ vividly from one another. Globalisation and masscommunication brings together various cultures nowadays more than ever
before. However, xenophobic nationalists and those people adhering to the
rightist political systems consequently try to drive different ethnic or cultural
apart. The Bard was able to inform the audience of his own time about issues
which plague their own society, and his words, or rather those of Thomas More
as a character, definitely must have tackled many people, giving them additional
reason to muse over the anti-immigration crises. The multi-authored play of Sir
Thomas More appears to foreshadow not just some of Shakespeare’s own great
tragedies and comedies, but also the countless problems which will be described
later on in literature, especially in terms of ‘the Other’ and the so-called ‘themus’ division. Bamford’s paper (2018) connects the late Renaissance period to the
21st century in this regard by further perpetuating the notion that the mistrust
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�The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial Re-reading of Sir Thomas More, The Merchant of
Venice and The Tempest
Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
between the cultures and nations is growing: “Sir Thomas More’s speech,
attributed to Shakespeare, and found in the little-known and multi-authored play
Sir Thomas More, which deals with the responses to Huguenot immigrants to the
UK in the 16th century, demonstrates that mistrust of other cultures, and the
recognition of the need for cross-cultural communication are nothing new” (1).
Furthermore, it should be noted that the Bard used whatever medium he had at
his disposal to portray the hard position of ‘the Other,’ or in this case the
mistrusted ‘strangers.’ As a playwright, his empathic plea was delivered through
the adapted lines of Henry VIII’s Chancellor, while the theatre in itself was
profoundly important as an entertainment medium of his own era. Similarly
enough, for many decades numerous people have been able to enjoy the medium
of television in a similar yet far more modern setting and Bamford (2018) adds:
“Shakespeare made his plea through the medium of contemporary
entertainment, and in the last hundred years many have used the medium of
screen entertainment to make similar pleas” (1). Born in William Shakespeare’s
mind, the idea of ‘the Other’ was transmitted through the adaptation of this lessknown play.
Although the xenophobic and superior society of England desires to see
all strangers exiled from their kingdom, Shakespeare decided to alter the overall
focus of the spectators listening to the speech: “Shakespeare shifts the focus of
the audience and of the play as a whole from fear of the other to fear for the other”
(Lawrence, 2018, p. 2). For the xenophobes, all strangers are the enemy.
Moreover, everything or better to say everyone who is not a part of the
mainstream English society in this case is considered to be ‘the Other,’ therefore
these strangers are posing a serious threat for all those who do not wish them to
stay. Shakespeare, or actually More’s empathy-prompting, in this speech
addresses the issue of the mob suffering. In fact, More compares and contrasts
the pain of the audience present with that of the ‘terrifying strangers.’
More openly asks the people gathered what they would think of their own
exile, at least hypothetically. More enquires, “Should so much come to short of
your great trespass / As but to banish you, whether would you go? / What
country, by the nature of your error, / Should give you harbor?” (2.4.107-110). In
this portion of the long speech, More is trying to make the connection between
the actual exile of the foreigners and the hypothetical one, and Lawrence (2018)
explains that: “Fear for the other precedes and serves as a model of fear for the
self” (8). In order to tackle their own compassion, Shakespeare through More
inverts the logic of the so-called social contract. He accepts the alleged existence
or the myth of the ‘state of nature,’ and moreover, he perceives it as a terrifying
primordial phenomenon, an anarchy of some sort. Thus, More accuses the rioters
of their inhuman approach to the strangers, arguing the strangers’ case.
Lawrence (2018) elaborates on this notion by explaining: “Instead of imagining a
state in which everyone would fear for herself or himself, however, More
imagines a situation in which everyone would fear for other people” (8). The
communal spirit is important. By not being, to phrase it bluntly, selfish to the
core, various people are able to open themselves to empathy. The rioters, as well
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
as everyone else, should feel this level of genuine human compassion in order to
redirect fear from themselves to other individuals, as such. Essentially, the
gathered people are called to recognise ‘the Other’ as ‘the stranger’ and vice
versa. However, in this particular case, More advises the people to perceive them
differently.
More explicitly advises the people to recognise ‘the Other’ as the widow,
the orphan, and Lawrence (2018) further elaborates on this idea by explaining
that: “More’s speech calls for a recognition of the Other as “the stranger, the
widow, and the orphan” (8). The migrants carry different stories with them, they
can be recognised perhaps as strangers, but also as someone’s child, someone’s
mother, father, sister. Their own experiences do not necessarily have to differ
greatly from the experiences of the people who want them to be banned from
London. William Shakespeare advises, in turn, the fictional characters on the
stage, but also his real spectators, to pass through the doors of fiction and reality,
but also to transcend the barriers between their own experiences and the
experiences of ‘the Other.’ In More’s vision, the rioters are commanded almost to
imagine their own position wherein they would be excluded from the society,
reduced to a level of bare existence, and denied citizenship, as well as the status
of a human being (Lawrence, 2018, pp. 8-9). The inserted speech transmits one
very important message for the fictional rioters, but also for the theatre audience,
because More openly says: “Nay, any where that not adheres to England,— /
Why, you must needs be strangers” (2.4.112-113). Evidently, More tells the
people that only England is their home, for anywhere else, they would be
discarded and perhaps even treated unfairly. The Londoners are not invited
immediately to care for the strangers’ case by comparing their own position to
the plight of the newcomers, because this would imply a level of personal agenda
or self-interest. Rather, they are first asked to empathise with the tragic fate of the
foreigners before their hypothetical exile is described. More asks his addressees
to imagine the journeys of the foreigners, or as More calls them ‘the wretched
strangers.’ This can be observed when More says: “Imagine that you see the
wretched strangers, / Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, /
Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation” (2.4.57-59). The actual pain of
the ‘wretched strangers’ should be also considered, because as Lawrence (2018)
moreover explains: “The rioting Londoners are not called to care for the strangers
by comparing “the strangers’ case” to their own, which they would first care
about in the manner of self-interested agents. Before being asked to imagine
themselves becoming exiles, they are asked to imagine the suffering of “the
wretched strangers”” (9).
The tale of Sir Thomas More remains relevant for the contemporary society,
due to the fact that we are able to reinterpret the Bard’s writings in order to better
comprehend our own world, and Loomba (2002) emphasises this notion by
stating that Shakespeare’s writings: “Form a bridge between the past and us:
even as we read in them stories of a bygone world, we also continually reinterpret
these stories to make sense of our own worlds” (4-5). The Bard’s contribution to
the dramatic realm in terms of post-colonial theory remains a prominent aspect
8
�The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial Re-reading of Sir Thomas More, The Merchant of
Venice and The Tempest
Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
because as Popa (2013) explains: “Postcolonial theory attempts to consider the
circumstances of marginalized, exploited or subaltern systems and the social
groups that become stigmatized and it is a reflection on the difference, on the
Other, but more importantly, an address to the colonial Other” (92). Taking into
consideration Shakespeare’s entire dramatic opus, numerous dramatis personae
which may be described as ‘the Other’ can be found in the Bard’s writings, and
as Popa (2013) explains: “Four of Shakespeare‘s plays deal with non-white
characters: Titus Andronicus, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, while
in The Merchant of Venice we have non-Christian characters” (93). Moreover, Popa
(2013) also adds that: “There are a few other characters who contribute to the
general picture of Shakespeare‘s perception of a racial Other” (93). For this
reason, it should be noted that Shakespeare’s dramas are a fertile ground for the
portrayal of ‘the Other’ while in turn the post-colonial theory can consider and
analyse such stigmatised social groups. The plight of various refugees can be
detected all around the globe, even in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As countless
peoples from Palestine and elsewhere voyage over heavy terrain and dangerous
seas. Women, children and elderly immigrants can be seen moving from
countries ravished by conflict. By acknowledging such strangers as ‘the Other’
Shakespeare instructs the London rioters, but also everybody else to remember
that our own fates and experiences do not have to differ so vividly, due to the
fact that the wheel of fortune keeps turning. The Bard presents the case for ‘the
Other,’ whereas Shakespeare’s teachings and instructions during the Renaissance
period also prevail as something extremely relevant for the contemporary
society. Shakespeare’s empathy-prompting refers to the Bosnian society as well
as to all other communities. Since the playwright was able to understand the
functioning of the human heart and mind so analytically, it is no wonder that
Shakespeare successfully managed to contribute to the overall sense of empathy
and/or compassion in the real world.
THE ‘ALIEN’ OF VENICE
Shylock the Jew is the main antagonist of one of Shakespeare’s greatest
(tragi)comedies. He is at the same time a comic character, villainous, but also
particularly tragic in his own right. The Bard represents Shylock as ‘the Other’ of
the play. The Jew stands in contrast to the other Venetian characters due to his
Jewish identity, his usury and money-lending occupation. This type of a
profession, so to say, was greatly frowned upon during the Elizabethan times.
Hence, in post-colonial terms, Shylock is ‘the Other’ in The Merchant of Venice.
Huang (2019) elaborates on this notion by explaining that: “Compared with the
other characters in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock seems to be totally an
outsider and alien of Venice because he is considered to be the “Other” in the
eyes of the other Venetians as a result of his identity a Jew as well as his
occupation as a usurer, both of which are despised and degraded at the
Elizabethan times” (661). Shylock may be presented a villainous individual,
however his fate is, indeed, very tragic at the end of the dramatic piece.
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Moreover, his entire fictional existence seems to be marked by this constant
element of degradation. The Jew stands in contrast to the people of Venice who
are predominantly Christian.
Thus, it would appear that the superior Christian group has placed itself
over the position of ‘the Other’ when it comes to Venice. Taking into account
Frantz Fanon’s monumental work The Wretched of the Earth, it becomes evident
that the Venetian society may be interpreted as a ‘Manichaean world’ in a
nutshell. Primarily, because the Manichaean world is a functioning community
divided into different segments. Fanon (1963) rendered the Manichaean setting
in the following lines: “The affirmation of the principle “It is them or us” does
not constitute a paradox, since colonialism, as we have seen, is in fact the
organization of a Manichean world, a world divided up into compartments” (84).
Ergo, the Manichaean setting is established as a world where there exist constant
binary divisions. In The Merchant of Venice, this division is exemplified through
Shylock. He is a part of the world split into compartments, and in his case,
Shylock is the less-fortunate compartment of this environment. Fanon’s
contribution to post-colonial studies has allowed numerous scholars over the
decades to better understand the binary dichotomy when it comes various texts.
More often than not, Shylock is undermined by other Venetian characters. This
is particularly plausible when Antonio insults him at the Rialto. Shylock reminds
Antonio of these insults when the Merchant arrives to ask money from the Jew
by citing the following lines: “You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog, / And spet
upon my Jewish gaberdine, / And all for use of that which is mine own” (1.3.121123). From this description, the position of the Jews in the Manichaean
environment of Venice is easily recognisable, because Shylock is condemned for
both what he is and for what he does. Since the Manichaean world represents a
divided environment, it should be noted that the term is derived from the name
of Mani and his teachings. Mani’s teachings focused on the duality of the world,
or in other words: “As he developed Manichaeism, Mani composed seven
writings, including the Shabuhragan. His teachings focused on the origins of evil
and taught a “dualistic” view between good and evil” (Reese, 2019). Therefore,
Venice can be perceived as a Manichean world divided between the Christian
characters on one side and Shylock the Jew on the other. The Jew of Venice and
everything relating to him is vividly frowned upon by Antonio and the rest of
the characters.
In a similar manner to the speech delivered in Sir Thomas More, William
Shakespeare yet again invites (or instructs) his audience/readers to cry and
sympathise with the fate of the Jew. Undoubtedly, Shylock might have wronged
different characters through his shrewd money-lending profession, nonetheless
his own existence in Italy has been greatly undermined by the Christian
population. In one of Shylock’s most famous monologues, the Bard touches the
basic humanity of every individual when Shylock says, “If you / poison us, do
we not die? And if you wrong us, shall / we not revenge? If we are like you in
the rest, we will / resemble you in that?” (3.1.64-67). Shylock wants everybody
to recognise that he is a person, just like all other dramatis personae. Primarily,
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Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
the Jew should be perceived as a human individual regardless of his origins, his
creed or even his profession. Huang (2019) presents the notion that Shylock
actually tries to deny his own position as ‘the Other’: “Shylock denies his status
as the “Other” and makes every effort to defend and justify his identity and at
the same time attempts to other the Christians” (668). In the previous chapter of
this paper, it was explained that More tried to draw the gathering rioters closer
to the feeling of empathy by presenting the empathic case for strangers. In this
drama, however, Shakespeare through Shylock tried to depict the Jew in a
different manner. The usurer should be treated justly like any other Christian
individual, because as Shylock himself explains, they are not so vividly different
from each other after all. One might examine Shylock of narcissistic or vengeful,
yet he is a tragic individual when everything is taken into consideration. Shylock
is the ‘alien’ of Venice and is therefore (mis)treated accordingly.
The term ‘alien’ in this case is of vital importance, due to the fact that the
term denotes a social pariah, an outsider. For this reason, Shylock’s position is
not something one would desire. Near the end of the play, the lexeme ‘alien’ is
used once to describe Shylock, referring to the laws of Venice. Once the Jew
decides that he would get his revenge on Antonio and seize one pound of his
flesh, Portia disguised as Balthazar comes to the Merchant’s rescue. Once Shylock
is not persuaded to render any mercy to Antonio, and once he is robbed of the
opportunity to kill the Merchant, Portia informs Shylock that he cannot yet
escape the Venetian justice. To confirm this, Portia recites the following: “It is
enacted in the laws of Venice, / If it be proved against an alien / That by direct
or indirect attempts / He seek the life of any citizen, / The party ’gainst the which
he doth contrive / Shall seize one half his goods” (4.1.363-368). One of the
greatest Shakespearean actors Sir Patrick Stewart presented his article describing
Shylock as Shakespeare’s ‘alien’ in which he explains Shylock’s sad fate. Namely,
Stewart (1981) addresses the issue of Shylock’s greedy personality, and Stewart
explains that the Jew’s nature is disordered by avarice. It is Shylock’s bad
experience of the world and his endeavour to cope with it which makes Shylock
so malicious and cruel at certain instances. Shylock and his kind are the outsiders,
they are the strangers of Venice, feared and hated simply for being different than
the rest. They are, as the laws of the Venetian state clearly explain, the aliens. The
Jews are stamped by the world, thus being always vulnerable (142-143).
Just as it was the case with the strangers in Sir Thomas More, Shylock is likewise
another Shakespearean alien. In post-colonial terms, he is ‘otherised’ by the
Venetian state. Huang (2019) explains the use of the verb ‘othering’ within the
context of post-colonialism and other studies by saying that: “The term “Other”
together with its other variations such as its noun form “otherness” and verb
form othering is often used in psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, and cultural
studies” (662). Since ‘the Other’ is a term used in post-colonial studies, and since
this paper classifies Shylock as ‘the Other’ of The Merchant of Venice, it is safe to
assume that Shylock is the epitome of the post-colonial ‘otherness’ within the
Venetian state. Furthermore, Huang (2019) confirms this aspect of Shylock’s
‘otherness’ by explaining that: “He is a stranger and a foreigner as well as an
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outsider and an alien “marginalized and firmly placed on the fringe of society”;
he does not “fit the norm” which has been largely determined by the Christian
Venetian society. Therefore, it is absolutely safe for us to define Shylock as an
“Other” in the play” (662-663). The esteemed Shakespearean thespian also adds
that Shylock has found a way to ‘merge’ with his environment. Stewart (1981)
adds that Shylock appears as a shabby, unmemorable and eccentric old clown in
the eyes of the people around him. Not many would consider him a threat. It is
only Antonio, his competitor is business, whose senses are sharpened by
commerce, and who is able to detect contempt behind Shylock’s visage (143).
Nevertheless, the Jacobean audience of England would be able to recognise and
condemn Shylock not only for what he does, but for what he is and the way he
looks.
Primarily, this becomes evident in the process of stereotyping when Jews
are concerned. In post-colonial terms, Mushtaq (2010) defines stereotyping and
he explains that: “In post-colonial theory, ‘stereotype’ refers to the highly
generalized views of the colonizers about the colonized” (25). In Shakespeare’s
play, the image of Shylock the Jew is often presented rather negatively, and this
is important to consider, because Mushtaq (2010) adds that: “Stereotyping can be
defined as an image, mostly negative, of a person in relation with a group or
society” (25). Shylock is the part of the so-called ‘out-group’ mentioned at the
beginning of this paper, therefore he is the object of stereotyping. The superior
group on the other hand perceives individuals from the ‘out-group’ as: “shirkers,
liars, corrupt, weak, inferior, uncivilized, impotent, cruel, lazy, irrational, violent
and disorganized” (Mushtaq, 2010, p. 25). Shylock’s outward appearance on the
stage would mark him as the Jewish individual, and afterwards many
stereotypes would be attributed to the character. Nahvi (2015) elaborates on this
notion: “Elizabethan theatergoers would have recognized Shylock as a Jew
immediately. His red wig, bulbous nose and huge cape immediately label him as
the other and as an outsider. Even though Jews were not living in England (at
least not openly), they represented a stereotype evil, cunning, greed and at
the very core, heartlessness” (1293). Interestingly enough, in order to undermine
Shylock’s positions, other characters, such as Antonio or Bassanio, even
Portia/Balthazar refer to him simply as ‘the Jew.’ Nahvi (2015) adds that: “Even
before the play begins, the dramatis personae presents Shylock as an archetype,
Shylock, the Jew. Throughout the play, the other characters consistently refer to
him as simply, the Jew. This characterization dehumanizes and de-personalizes
Shylock” (1294). Such a characterisation certainly undermines but also dehumanises Shylock, however this is by no means the only case of Shylock’s dehumanisation, because, for example, Gratiano compares Shylock to a dog by
saying, “O, be thou damned, inexecrable dog” (4.1.130). Such references serve
one function and that is to replace Shylock’s human soul. Bianchi (2005) explains
this element of de-humanisation by stating that: “The images increase in
vulgarity as Gratiano dehumanizes Shylock, and the animal references serve to
take the place of Shylock's human soul” (14). Other fictional characters and
citizens of Venice reduce Shylock from a person to a mere category (Nahvi, 2015,
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p. 1294). Shylock is furthermore moved from a position of ‘the Other,’ to the
position of stranger, to his well-known ‘alien status,’ however even more
prominently he is treated as an animal occasionally by various dramatis
personae. He is attributed bestial terms such as ‘dog’ or ‘wolf.’ He is, also,
equated to the devil. Shylock cleverly recalls this remark in the third act of
Shakespeare’s drama and Shylock says, “Thou call’dst me dog before thou hadst
a cause, / But since I am a dog, beware my fangs” (3.3.7-8). He reminds the
Merchant of this epithet, thus the danger behind Shylock’s vindictiveness is
portrayed clearly to the readers/spectators.
Additionally, Antonio in the play spits on the Jew, while his daughter
Jessica runs off with a Christian, symbolically leaving the Jewish family, thus
converting to Christianity. Eventually, Shylock is left without his livelihood, and
perhaps even figuratively without his own life. Shakespeare’s creation of ‘the
Other’ unquestionably mirrored the sentiments, fears and the myths about the
Jews commonly visible in the Bard’s own time. Many of such sentiments prevail
even in the 21st century (Nahvi, 2015, p. 1296). The Merchant of Venice remains
relevant for the contemporary world, because as Nowosad (2017) states: “The
play is a good selection for the time we live in right now as we strive to examine
the way we look at people who are different from ourselves. Religious and racial
prejudice prevail in this play opening our thoughts to what happens in our own
modern day society.” The aforementioned prejudice and intolerance can be
observed also within the lives of various people today, because Nowosad (2017)
likewise explains the notion that: “The desire for wealth, anti-Semitism,
prejudice, racial and gender bias, all of these take place in this story as well as in
many people’s lives today. How we decide to view them are [sic] influenced by
our own places in this life. Being open to examining them allows us to express
our thoughts and perhaps overcome what we can.”
The pivotal scene of The Merchant of Venice is, by all means, the court scene,
when Portia beats Shylock in his revenge and makes him in turn pay for the foul
agendas. Portia, or rather Balthazar in disguise, urges the Jew to render some
mercy, nevertheless the Jew refuses to do so. It would appear that the ‘crude’
Shylock stands in contrast to the ‘merciful’ Christians of Venice. The basic
messages of the Old and the New Testament(s) are juxtaposed through Shylock
and the rest of the community. However, it should be noted that the mercy which
Portia so adamantly mentions is not extended to the Jewish characters within the
drama (Navih, 2015, p. 1296). In his (tragi)comedy, William Shakespeare
portrayed the problems of his day and age which linger even in our own sphere
of existence. The issue of Shakespeare’s world is almost identical to the issue of
the post-modern society. In order to connect the similarities of problems in
Shakespeare’s own time and the current era, Bambušková (2019) analysed The
Merchant of Venice, especially in regards to the previously-mentioned court scene,
and she explained that: “Today’s ‘Christian Europe’ (Christian in name but
focused on easy, enjoyable life, much like the Venetians) may profit from
recognition of what kind of law and what kind of mercy we may offer those who
come into our country, who are our ‘Others’ and whose ‘Others’ we are” (1-2).
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Thus, it is less relevant whether Shylock the Jew is a tragic character or a
sympathetic villain, because one fact is evident, he is ‘the Other,’ he is the
undermined ‘alien’ of this dramatic piece.
3. CALIBAN THE NATIVE
Shakespeare’s last (authentic) play, his final ‘farewell’ from the London audience,
presents one of the most memorable dramatic pieces ever written. The Tempest
perhaps above all other Shakespearean dramas remains most relevant for the
post-colonial analysis. Characters such as Caliban, the original dweller of the
enchanted island will be presented as the central element for the post-colonial
examination of the play. Caliban, and other magic inhabitants such as Ariel,
stand is sheer contrast to the European newcomers. The wizard called Prospero
arrives from Milan with his daughter to the mysterious isle and it is there that
Prospero establishes his hegemony over other beings of the enchanted island.
Through his dominance, his alleged magical prowess, Prospero is able to control
other island-dwellers, enslave them and ‘otherise’ them to such a degree that they
are henceforth treated even worse than the strangers in Sir Thomas More or
Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
In order to better understand both the colonised and the coloniser, it
should be taken into consideration that the post-colonial (re-)reading of The
Tempest was inspired by the process of de-colonisation. Singh (2016) connects The
Tempest to the post-colonial interpretation by explaining the following: “Postcolonial readings of The Tempest were inspired by the decolonisation movements
of the 1960s and 1970s in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.” Initially,
Prospero’s craft symbolised the world of civility, as well as learning, rendered in
contrast to the ‘natural’ dark spells of Caliban’s mother, whereas the postcolonial re-reading of Shakespeare’s play challenges this rather Eurocentric
approach: “If, traditionally, Prospero's art represented the world of civility and
learning in contrast to the 'natural' black magic of Caliban's mother Sycorax, anticolonial revisions of the play challenged this rather abstract Eurocentric division
between art and nature” (Singh, 2016). In the book Eurocentrism, the Eurocentric
perception of the Western colonisers is explained, and in this sense the
Westerners view themselves as efficient, rational, democratic, whereas the
colonised peoples on the other hand are perceived as underdeveloped and as
individuals who have nothing to offer, yet they have to imitate the West in order
to progress, albeit slowly and imperfectly (Amin, 2009, p. 180). The post-colonial
reading of the play challenges this Eurocentric approach by focusing on postcolonial elements. For example, Goicoechea de Jorge (2016) mentions the postcolonial representation of Prospero as the European coloniser enslaving the
indigenous people of a newly-discovered place, but also as a European person
who imposes his tradition and language over the natives’ own culture. Caliban
tries to resist by rejecting to learn Prospero’s tongue. Therefore, it becomes
obvious that this romance play grants a better insight into the world of the
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Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
‘civilised’ European society, and the naturalised albeit ‘savage’ realm of Caliban
and the rest. The Bard gives the voice to ‘the Other’ in this dramatic work and
moreover Caliban clearly reminds his colonisers that the isle once belonged to
him, and Caliban says: “This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou
tak’st from me” (1.2.331). Caliban had inherited his home from Sycorax, yet the
colonisers, in this case Prospero and his daughter who had previously escaped
from Europe, made the island their home and furthermore they enslaved the
creatures encountered there.
There exists a clear dichotomy between the two opposing sides of the
island. Shylock stood against the Christian characters of Venice, and he was
‘otherised’ because of his Jewish origins, religion, outward appearance, moneylending and other activities. Similarly enough, Caliban is vividly dissimilar from
the Wizard or Miranda primarily because Caliban is a non-human being. He is a
mysterious creature. As such, the island-dwellers possess a particular form of
personality, just like Prospero or Miranda, nonetheless they still differ from one
another. Prospero and Miranda are both human characters, with their own sets
of unique traits, however on the other hand, the spirit Ariel and Caliban are
portrayed as monstrous perhaps on the outside, but they also develop their own
personalities. Harold Bloom (1998), as one of the greatest Shakespearean
scholars, further perpetuated this idea by stating that: “Caliban and Ariel are
personalities, but then Caliban is only half-human, and Ariel is a sprite” (582).
Both Caliban and Ariel are ‘otherised’ and by being only semi-human unlike
Prospero or Miranda, both island-dwellers can be perceived as ‘the Other’ in the
play. The Manichaean world can again be observed in this regard, and Fanon’s
own teachings can be applied adequately. The enchanted isle is a divided setting,
it is an isolated world conquered and colonised by the Europeans. The island is
colonised and inherently Manichaean. Fanon (1963) openly proclaims that: “The
colonial world is a Manichean world” (41). It is a world divided into segments,
and it is a world where Caliban is constantly undermined.
The character of ‘the Other,’ in this case Caliban, appears to be a pun in its
own right. In other words, the name ‘Caliban’ actually stands for the term
‘cannibal’: “The name Caliban/Cannibal appears in Shakespeare's play and in
colonial history as a cultural stereotype for the natives of the New World” (Singh,
2016). For this reason, Caliban can be observed as one of the natives of the New
World, and therefore his own background, his own culture and even language,
all play a significant role in post-colonial theory. Prospero uses various methods
in order to keep his slave at bay; moreover, the Wizard uses colonial
methodology to harm, control, beat and subjugate the ‘savage.’ Prospero even
attempts to assert his dominance via linguistic capacities.
It is clearly stated in the play that the colonisers, Miranda particularly,
tried to teach Caliban their own, European, language. Colonisation, as such,
brought with it subjugation not just on the physical level but also in regards to
the cognitive sphere of the natives. Singh (2016) elaborates on this notion of
Prospero’s dominance by stating that: “His mission assumed that the natives
lacked any culture or formal language until the Europeans brought them the
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‘gifts’ of Western language and culture. If the natives resisted European paternal
rule, then they were labelled as ‘savages,’ beyond redemption.” Miranda even
insults Caliban by addressing him as ‘the abhorred slave,’ reminding him that is
was her who tried to teach Caliban their language: “Abhorred slave, / Which any
print of goodness wilt not take, / Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, / Took
pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour / One thing or other” (1.2.351).
It is apparent that Miranda takes up a superior position and she is more than
willing to undermine Caliban by any means necessary. However, Caliban does
not even remain silent on this remark. Rather he, too, reminds Miranda that he
loathes their language and that now he is only able to curse in their European
mother-tongue: “You taught me language, and my profit on’t / Is, I know how
to curse” (1.2.363). The assertion of language backfires, due to the fact the ‘the
Other’ is now able to retort in the language of his new masters. Their imposition
of power and superiority is gradually subverted. Miranda and Prospero attempt
to de-humanise the native as much as it is possible, nonetheless even in his own
speech, Caliban appears more sophisticated than one would perhaps expect.
Primarily, it should be noted that Caliban is more of a poetic creature. He
is able to utilise verse in order to transmit the message of his speech. Bloom (2008)
explains that: “He never falls into the prosaic and low familiarity of his drunken
associates, for he is, in his way, a poetical being; he always speaks in verse” (73).
However, Miranda is not even swayed by this reply. She constantly attempts to
degrade Caliban, going as far as reminding him that he was completely unaware
of his own purpose. In other words, Miranda reminds Caliban that only through
her education Caliban was able to realise his own existence, his own meaning:
“When thou didst not, savage, / Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble”
(1.2.355). It would appear that Caliban was unable to comprehend his own
existence until the moment his new master came and took over. Caliban’s
quintessence and merit is constantly annihilated by such claims, and more often
than not he is reduced to a particularly inferior level. Bloom (2008) states that
such a proclamation made by Miranda would imply that in her own perspective:
“Unlike a civilized person, the savage Caliban did not know what his true
meaning was as a human” (16). The colonisers use violence in order to subjugate
‘the Other,’ but this violence is both open as well as subtle. Fanon (1963) adds
that: “Violence in the colonies does not only have for its aim the keeping of these
enslaved men at arm's length; it seeks to dehumanize them. Everything will be
done to wipe out their traditions, to substitute our language for theirs and to
destroy their culture without giving them ours” (15). Only when the entire
heritage of creatures originally living on the island is destroyed, only then will
the complete control be established. The implicit, as well as the explicit, forms of
violence presented are there to serve one purpose – to make characters such as
Caliban or Ariel utterly subservient. Thus, Prospero is able to establish his
governance of the isle, and the Wizard becomes the sole sovereign of the
enchanted landscape.
Caliban is ‘otherised’ in his own house, so to say, on his own island. He
was the primary settler of the island, much earlier than Prospero or Miranda,
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however even this right was taken from him. For Caliban, Prospero is the first
intruder who betrayed his host’s welcome and conquered with power and might.
Caliban recalls Prospero’s arrival: “When thou cam’st first, / Thou strok’st me
and madest much of me, wouldst give me / Water with berries in’t, and teach
me how / To name the bigger light, and how the less, / That burn by day and
night; and then I lov’d thee / And show’d thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle” (1.2.332337). In Caliban’s own rendition of history, it is described that it was Prospero
who arrived to the island but later decided to take full control over its beauties.
Now, it is the Wizard who holds the utmost power. Singh (2016) focuses on this
element of representing history, as such, by adding that: “It is this rendition of
history that became the battle cry for the anti-colonial movements in Africa, the
Caribbean, and Latin America – a rendition that became the staple of many
revisions and appropriations of Shakespeare's play in these regions.” The Tempest
is considered to be a multi-layered play which contributes greatly to the postcolonial theory, because it should be noted that: “While the play was written in
17th-century England, post-colonial criticism takes the play outwards towards
its complicated transactions between European and African and Caribbean
cultures in the succeeding centuries” (Singh, 2016). There exists a clear purpose
in trying to define the history of the island by observing both sides. The postcolonial approach allows for a better insight when Caliban as the character is
examined, because the readers or the spectators are able to fully understand his
own experiences. They are able to better understand the perspective of ‘the
Other.’ Post-colonialism in this case focuses on history from Caliban’s angle.
Thus, the version of ‘the savage Other’ challenges the version presented by
Prospero to Miranda. Singh (2016) explains this by stating: “In trying to view the
conditions of Caliban's servitude from his perspective, post-colonial criticism
gives legitimacy to his claims to the island, based on a reading of history that
challenges the version narrated by Prospero to his daughter.”
William Shakespeare allowed for the amplification of the seemingly
marginalised voices of ‘the Other’ in his dramatic opus. Predominantly, the Bard
presented the shifting perspective of the island from both sides, emphasising the
idea that even various things or elements should be constantly considered and
reconsidered from numerous perspectives, because it should be noted that:
“Post-colonial criticism in the West has mined this new archive of the reception
history of Shakespeare's The Tempest, questioning, once again, all normative ideas
of a ‘common humanity,’ while articulating, as Shakespeare did, the voices of the
seemingly marginal characters in Prospero’s grand designs” (Singh, 2016).
Caliban the Native in the play is ‘Caliban the Other,’ Caliban’s home was taken
from him, Prospero established his dominance and through the Wizard’s ruthless
demeanour managed to forcefully command every creature encountered.
Caliban’s cry stands for all those who were oppressed and stigmatised by the
overwhelming power of the coloniser. Perhaps Prospero and Miranda thought
that by teaching their language to Caliban they were bringing civilisation and
enlightenment to the savage, however the de-humanisation, the mechanism of
slavery applied, simply continue to assert Caliban’s position as ‘the Other.
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CONCLUSION
The most important element which is easily recognisable in Shakespearean
dramas is the Bard’s universality. The dramatic plots of Sir Thomas More, The
Merchant of Venice and The Tempest present a fertile ground for post-colonial
analyses. In post-colonial terms particularly, representation of ‘the Other’ and
‘otherness’ is of paramount importance, due to the fact that Shakespeare’s
message remains crucial for every day and age, surpassing and linguistic,
cultural and political boundaries. In Sir Thomas More, Shakespeare added a
speech which clearly presents the Bard’s opinions on the idea of the refugee issue,
and through More, the Bard of Avon attempted to make his spectators render the
deeds of mercy. Furthermore, The Bard endeavoured to show the plight of the
immigrants who had to travel abroad in order to find a better life, en route they
encounter various forms of stigmatisation. William Shakespeare managed to
switch the roles, at least hypothetically, in order to remind the people of London
that they could also experience great misfortunes should their own ruler turn on
his own subjects.
In the second chapter, this paper examined the role of Shylock in Venice.
Since Shylock is a Jew, he is the epitome of the marginalised Jewish community.
Shakespeare cleverly presented Shylock as ‘the Other’ in order to remind his
audience/readers that Shylock had to behave in a negative manner since he was
constantly undermined by the predominantly Christian society of the Venetian
state. In a sense, Shylock’s stand against Antonio, Portia and the rest formulates
a distinct ‘clash’ between the Old and the New Testament. In the final segment
of this paper, the character of Caliban was analysed. Since Caliban was the
original native of the magical island, he was subjugated by the European
colonisers, primarily Prospero the Wizard. In post-colonial re-reading of the text,
it became apparent that Prospero and Miranda applied all methods in order to
bend the ‘savage native’ to their will. Prospero trapped, threatened and used
violence against the poor creature, whereas Miranda even tried to teach him their
language, therefore assimilating Caliban further. However, this paper portrayed
Caliban as a poetic being, a creature which was able to distinguish things for
himself. The paper also reflected on Caliban’s position as ‘the Other,’ as someone
whose home had been conquered. Ariel and Caliban might be non-human
characters, however it may be presumed that they hold more humanity than
Prospero and the rest.
In analysing William Shakespeare’s dramas through the prism of postcolonial criticism, the readers were presented with an exciting dialogue
formulated between the dramatic universe and the post-colonial portrayal of the
world. The post-colonial academic field of research presents the repercussions of
imperialism/colonialism as the main by-products of the European rule and
exploitations. Hence, Shakespearean plays are the superb replicas of the worlds
and societies branded by colonialism, and moreover the Bard’s round characters
transmit the suffering and experience of every inhabitant of the East subjugated
by the European control. This paper determined the post-colonial ‘Other’ in three
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Shakespearean dramas and it examined the story of colonial systems which
exploited characters because they were perceived differently than the rest. It is
the identification of the colonised and the oppressed individuals, however this
article was also presented as the definition of the colonisers who attempt to assert
their hegemony, relaying on all techniques necessary in order to exert utter
dominance over ‘the Other.’
4. CONCLUSION
The most important element which is easily recognisable in Shakespearean
dramas is the Bard’s universality. The dramatic plots of Sir Thomas More, The
Merchant of Venice and The Tempest present a fertile ground for post-colonial
analyses. In post-colonial terms particularly, representation of ‘the Other’ and
‘otherness’ is of paramount importance, due to the fact that Shakespeare’s
message remains crucial for every day and age, surpassing and linguistic,
cultural and political boundaries. In Sir Thomas More, Shakespeare added a
speech which clearly presents the Bard’s opinions on the idea of the refugee issue,
and through More, the Bard of Avon attempted to make his spectators render the
deeds of mercy. Furthermore, The Bard endeavoured to show the plight of the
immigrants who had to travel abroad in order to find a better life, en route they
encounter various forms of stigmatisation. William Shakespeare managed to
switch the roles, at least hypothetically, in order to remind the people of London
that they could also experience great misfortunes should their own ruler turn on
his own subjects.
In the second chapter, this paper examined the role of Shylock in Venice.
Since Shylock is a Jew, he is the epitome of the marginalised Jewish community.
Shakespeare cleverly presented Shylock as ‘the Other’ in order to remind his
audience/readers that Shylock had to behave in a negative manner since he was
constantly undermined by the predominantly Christian society of the Venetian
state. In a sense, Shylock’s stand against Antonio, Portia and the rest formulates
a distinct ‘clash’ between the Old and the New Testament. In the final segment
of this paper, the character of Caliban was analysed. Since Caliban was the
original native of the magical island, he was subjugated by the European
colonisers, primarily Prospero the Wizard. In post-colonial re-reading of the text,
it became apparent that Prospero and Miranda applied all methods in order to
bend the ‘savage native’ to their will. Prospero trapped, threatened and used
violence against the poor creature, whereas Miranda even tried to teach him their
language, therefore assimilating Caliban further. However, this paper portrayed
Caliban as a poetic being, a creature which was able to distinguish things for
himself. The paper also reflected on Caliban’s position as ‘the Other,’ as someone
whose home had been conquered. Ariel and Caliban might be non-human
characters, however it may be presumed that they hold more humanity than
Prospero and the rest.
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Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
In analysing William Shakespeare’s dramas through the prism of postcolonial criticism, the readers were presented with an exciting dialogue
formulated between the dramatic universe and the post-colonial portrayal of the
world. The post-colonial academic field of research presents the repercussions of
imperialism/colonialism as the main by-products of the European rule and
exploitations. Hence, Shakespearean plays are the superb replicas of the worlds
and societies branded by colonialism, and moreover the Bard’s round characters
transmit the suffering and experience of every inhabitant of the East subjugated
by the European control. This paper determined the post-colonial ‘Other’ in three
Shakespearean dramas and it examined the story of colonial systems which
exploited characters because they were perceived differently than the rest. It is
the identification of the colonised and the oppressed individuals, however this
article was also presented as the definition of the colonisers who attempt to assert
their hegemony, relaying on all techniques necessary in order to exert utter
dominance over ‘the Other.’
20
�The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial Re-reading of Sir Thomas More, The Merchant of
Venice and The Tempest
Damir Kahrić & Nađa Muhić
REFERENCES
Amin, S. (2009). Eurocentrism (R. Moore and J. Membre, Trans.). New York:
Monthly Review Press. (Original work published in 1988).
Bambušková, T. (2019). Law and Mercy in The Merchant of Venice and the
Present Refugee Crisis. Archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société, pp.
1-14.
Bamford, N. (2018, January). The Strangers’ Case: harnessing the power of screen
entertainment to communicate between cultures. Paper presented at Cross-Cultural
Communication Conference, Barcelona.
Bianchi, Tina J. (2005). Shrews, Jews, and Public Dues: The High Price of Rhetorical
Savvy (English Master’s Thesis). Retrieved from Digital Commons @Brockport.
Bloom, H. (1998). Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead
Books.
Bloom, H. (2008). Bloom’s Shakespeare Through the Ages: The Tempest. New York:
Infobase Publishing.
Brons, L. (2015). Othering, an Analysis. Transcience, a Journal of Global Studies, 6(1),
pp. 69-90.
Dickson, A. (2016, March, 1). The Book of Sir Thomas More: Shakespeare's only
surviving literary manuscript. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/collectionitems/shakespeares-handwriting-in-the-book-of-sir-thomas-more.
Frantz, F. (1963). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Weidenfeld: A
division of Grove Press, Inc.
Goicoechea de Jorge, M. (2016, January, 15). A Post/colonial View. Retrieved
from https://thetempestcomplutense.wordpress.com/a-postcolonial-view/.
Huang, L. (2019). On the Otherness of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Journal
of Literature and Art Studies, 9(7), pp. 661-668. DOI: 10.17265/21595836/2019.07.001.
Lawrence, S. (2018). Fear and the Other in Sir Thomas More. Actes des congrès de la
Société française Shakespeare, 36: 1-13. DOI: 10.4000/shakespeare.4123.
Loomba, A. (2002). Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism. Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press.
Munday, A. et al. (cca. 1591-1593). Sir Thomas More. Retrieved from
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1547/pg1547-images.html.
Mushtaq, H. (2010). Othering, Stereotyping and Hybridity in Fiction: A
Postcolonial Analysis of Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) and Coetzee's
Waiting For The Barbarians (1980). Journal of Language and Literature, 3: 25-30.
Nahvi, A. (2015, May, 5). Shakespeare’s Shylock, the Everlasting Character of all
Times. Chumhuriyet University Faculty of Science: Science Journal (CSJ), 36(3) Special
Issue, pp. 1291-1299.
Nowosad, K. (2017, May, 31). ‘The Merchant of Venice’ Still Relevant Today.
Retrieved from https://letsgotothetheater.com/merchant-of-venice/.
O’Neill, S. (2020). Shakespeare's Hand, or "the strangers' case": Remediating Sir
Thomas More in the context of the Refugee Crisis. Borrowers and Lenders: The
Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, 13(1), pp. 1-23.
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Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
Pettinger, T. (2014, August, 3). Biography of Thomas More. Retrieved from
https://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/thomas-more.html.
Popa, A. (2013). Post-colonialism in Shakespearean Work. Annals of the
„Constantin Brâncuși” University of Târgu Jiu, Letter and Social Science Series, 4: 9195.
Reese, M. R. (2019, October, 17). Manichaeism: The Ancient Religion that
Rivaled Christianity. Retrieved from https://www.ancientorigins.net/history/manichaeism-one-most-popular-religions-ancient-world002658.
Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Random House, Inc. (Original work
published in 1978).
Shakespeare, W. (Ed. by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine). (1605). The
Merchant of Venice. Washington: Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare, W. (1998). The Tempest. St. Paul: Minnesota. (Original work
produced in 1611).
Singh, J. (2016, March, 15). Post-colonial reading of The Tempest. Retrieved from
https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/post-colonial-reading-of-the-tempest.
Stewart, P. (Ed. by Marie-Thérèse and Jones-Davies). (1981, November, 1).
Shylock, Shakespeare’s Alien (Royal Shakespeare Company). Actes des congrès de
la Société française Shakespeare, 3: 137-156. DOI: 10.4000/shakespeare. 444.
For more information on Thomas More, please consult the following: Pettinger, T. (2014, August 3).
Biography of Thomas More. Retrieved from https://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/thomasmore.html.
i
22
�
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Journal of Education and Humanities
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Education and Humanities
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
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The Bard and ‘the Other’: A Post-colonial
Re-reading of Sir Thomas More,
The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest
Author
Author
Damir Kahrić, Nađa Muhić
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The purpose of this article is to shed light on the
representation of ‘the Other’ in three Shakespearean dramas: Sir
Thomas More, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest. The article
describes several Shakespearean characters through the prism of
post-colonialism and, therefore, the paper is structured as the postcolonial re-reading of the aforementioned dramatic texts. William
Shakespeare portrayed the sad fate of immigrants in Sir Thomas
More, but the Bard also tackled the refugee issue which remains
relevant for the contemporary period. Additionally, Shakespeare
dramatized the position of the Jewish community in Venice through
the portrayal of Shylock. The re-reading of The Tempest focuses on
the process of colonisation and the Manichaean division within the
conquered world. In conclusion, the article portrays experiences of
those dramatic individuals stigmatised and subjugated by the
colonial forces, thus allowing the readers to better understand the
binary division within colonial systems.
Keywords
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William
Shakespeare, Refugee Issue,
Stereotyping, Manichaean
World
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2566-4638
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10.14706/JEH2021321
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https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/12e3f17de9b0e90606d47caa6ad09f60.pdf
006c07311a567400a76719e99abf843c
PDF Text
Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3 (2), pp. 23-32, Winter 2020
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to
Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Adisa Ahmetspahić, MA
University of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
ahmetspahicadisa1@gmail.com
Abstract: Mind colonization has been a burning issue in the last few
decades in the fields of science and humanities. It is argued that mind
colonization of the indigenous populations has been conducted via
education and language in the mission of ‘civilizing’ since education
and language carry culture specific sets of meaning, including
knowledge and truth which condition our perception of the world.
Zitkala-Ša is one of the earliest Native American authors and
activists who sought to subvert the epistemological hierarchy
imposed through mind colonization. Zitkala-Ša’s autobiographical
collection of short stories titled American Indian Stories (1921)
documents her boarding school experience and the acquisition of the
colonizer’s education and language. The present paper seeks to
address mind colonization through language and education on the
example of Zitkala-Ša’s American Indian Stories relying on a
number of theories and approaches. The paper also reflects on the
importance of Zitkala-Ša mastery of the colonizer’s language.
Keywords: Native
American, mind
colonization, education,
language, boarding schools
Article History
Submitted: 3 November 2020
Accepted: 28 December 2020
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
1. INTRODUCTION
Native American self-determination and activism officially began with the
formation of the Red Power Movement in the 1960s. The Red Power Movement
emerged when the US Congress sought to abolish tribal organization by
relocating Native American communities off the reservations, thus enticing
assimilation. Cross-country protests, the seizure of Alcatraz Island and Wounded
Knee occupation were all part of Native American appeal for self-government
and self-redefinition caused by “the political and economic threats to indigenous
people, land, and sovereignty” (Coulombe, 2001, p. 34-35). Writers and scholars,
such as Vine Deloria Jr. with his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian
Manifesto (1969), also partook in the movement for the Native American cause.
Nevertheless, Native American activism had begun in the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries as evident in the speeches by Native American chiefs
who advocated Native American right to sovereigntyi.
Although frequently overlooked and neglected, the personage of ZitkalaŠa (original name: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin), a Yankton Sioux, is illustrious
both for her literary oeuvre and ardent activism which sought to promote the
rights of the Native American population and resist colonial binarities. ZitkalaŠa graduated from Quaker boarding school in Wabash, Indiana and Earlham
College in Richmond, Indiana. She obtained a diploma in teaching and
afterwards worked at the Pennsylvania Carlisle Indian Industrial School (Fisher,
1979, pp. v-xii).
As noted by Tadeusz Lewandowski in his study of Zitkala-Ša’s luminary
titled Red Bird, Red Power: The Life and Legacy of Zitkala-Ša (2016), Gertrude
Simmons Bonnin’s embracement of the name Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird) and her
zealous nature adumbrated the pan-Indian solidarity and the formation of Red
Power groups. Zitkala-Ša’s essays, public speeches, and establishment of the
National Council of American Indians in 1926 make her a predecessor to the midtwentieth century Native American (female) activism (Lewandowski, 2016, p.
14). In a similar vein, Mary A. Stout describes Zitkala-Ša’s literary opus as
follows: “Although she wrote as an American Indian and a female at a time when
few similar voices were being heard, she did not flinch, nor did she moderate her
voice” (303). Much of Zitkala-Ša’s life is known from her autobiographical stories
and essays collectively known as American Indian Stories (1921). This particular
work is deemed to be one of the earliest examples of unaided autobiographical
writing, i.e. without any mediators such as interpreters or editors. The stories and
essays are concerned with her Native American childhood, teenage years spent
at the boarding school in Carlisle, and her subsequent life and work (Fisher, 1979,
pp. v-vi).
American Indian Stories has been a frequent topic in the analyses of ZitkalaŠa’s and Native American biculturality and double consciousness as well as
boarding school experience. However, little attention has been paid to education
and language in American Indian Stories and no attention to education and
language as a mind colonizing weapon on the example of this short story
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�Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Adisa Ahmetspahić
collection. The present paper argues that education and language are some of the
most powerful armory in mind colonization. American Indian Stories shows that
both education and language carry culture specific sets of meaning, including
knowledge and truth which condition our perception of the world. Another
notable aspect of this short story collection is its discussion on how resettlement
and mind colonization work together towards the erasure of the colonized. It can
be inferred that Zitkala-Ša is one of the earliest Native American authors and
activists who sought to subvert the epistemological hierarchy imposed through
mind colonization. The paper takes a dialectic approach in its analysis, relying
on a number of differing theories and studies, including those by Homi Bhabha,
Michel Foucault, and Abdul JanMohamed, which speak of power/knowledge
relations in the (post-) colonial context and the reversal of these relations. The
contrariety of the theories is not discussed due to space constraints and the
thematic preoccupation of the paper. Therefore, the working of the theories
toward the idea of mind colonization is paid more heed.
2. COLONIZING THE MIND: EDUCATION AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN
AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES
Boarding schools are considered to be only one among a plethora of the
assimilation policies imposed upon the Native American population. The
inception of boarding schools is traced to 1860s when the Bureau of Indian Affairs
founded the first boarding school on the Yakima reservation. “Kill the Indian
Save the Man”, coined by Richard Henry Pratt who established Carlisle Indian
School, was the boarding schools’ raison d'être (“History and Culture”, n.d.).
Pratt’s motto is evocative of the Manichean understanding of the world as a series
of antagonistic structures, e.g. good-bad, light-dark. In the (post-) colonial
context, the term was used by JanMohamed in Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics
of Literature in Colonial Africa (1983) to denote the colonial relations in terms of
conflicting categories between the colonizer (‘good’, ‘civilized’) and the colonized
(‘bad’, ‘degenerate’):
The colonial world is a Manichean world. It is not enough for the settler to
delimit physically, that is to say with the help of the army and the police
force, the place of the native. As if to show the totalitarian character of
colonial exploitation the settler paints the native as a sort of quintessence
of evil …. The native is declared insensible to ethics; he represents not only
the absence of values, but also the negation of values. He is, let us dare
admit, the enemy of values, and in this sense he is the absolute evil. (as
cited in JanMohamed, 1983, p. 4)
Such understanding of the world endorses the legitimacy of colonial
claims for the usurpation of the land as well as the usurpation of the mind
conducted through boarding schools. However, both types of usurpation are
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
tightly linked as argued by Teresa L. McCarty. Based on the US legal documents,
McCarty concludes that there is a link between education and land balkanization.
In 1887, Senator Henry Dawes formulated a policy known as The General
Allotment Act, or Dawes Act. The policy presented an appeal for the partition
“of reservation lands into 160 acre family parcels, with the surplus to be sold to
the whites.” (McCarty, 2013, pp. 51-52). Concurrently, a law requiring education
for all Native American children was passed. Parents who did not abide by this
law were imprisoned. In other words, sequential physical and mental larceny
would ensure a faster erasure of Native American cultures (McCarty, 2013, pp.
51-52).
According to John McLeod, “[c]olonialism uses educational institutions to
augment the perceived legitimacy and propriety of itself, as well as providing the
means by which colonial power can be maintained” (2000, p.140). Perceived
legitimacy of the colonizer originates from the perceived epistemological
hierarchy. According to Foucault, epistemological hierarchy is engendered by
power/knowledge relations, especially disciplinary power as the one practiced
at boarding schools, whereby power shapes knowledge to hew the purposes of
those who possess the power. Foucault further suggests that if knowledge
signifies and/or produces the truth and if knowledge is conditioned by power, it
follows that truth also is a protean notion conditioned by power:
‘Truth’ is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the
production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of
statements. ‘Truth’ is linked in a circular relation with systems of power
which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and
which extend it. (Foucault, 1980, p.133)
Manifest Destiny is a fitting example of the above-mentioned
interpretation of truth as a concept strongly attached to “the forms of hegemony,
social, economic and cultural, within which it operates at the present time”
(Foucault, 1980, p.133). Apart from having been a justification for imperial and
colonial expansion, Manifest Destiny was a firm belief that the English nation
was chosen by God, on account of its supremacy in all aspects of life, to eradicate
what they deemed to be savage customs in the indigenous population. In the
words of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the colonizers attempted to change “the mental
universe of the colonized” (1986, p.16) and to succumb the colonized to their
version of truth. As mentioned previously, education, which implies the
acquisition of the colonizer’s language in this context, is one of the methods of
mind colonization. The recruitment of Native American children for boarding
schools was mostly performed by Christian missionaries.
In 1632, Gabriel Sagard, a missionary, informed that Native American
languages are “defective in words for many things…like Trinity, Glory, paradise,
Hell, Church etc.” (as cited in Irwin,2002, p. 106). Sagard’s words reflect the
Eurocentric view of the world and Foucauldian notion of truth. Sagard as a
member of the colonizer’s race was able to postulate his knowledge of the world
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�Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Adisa Ahmetspahić
as a fact. Zitkala-Ša’s first contact with the missionaries confirms Sagard’s
previously mentioned words. The missionaries seized the imagination of Native
American children by telling them stories of “a more beautiful country than
[Native American]” (Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 39), and a country
where grew red, red apples; and how we could reach out our hands and
pick all the red apples we could eat. I had never seen apples. I had never
tasted more than a dozen red apples in my life; and when I heard of the
orchards of the East, I was eager to roam among them. (Zitkala-Ša, 1979,
pp. 41-41)
The excerpts point to a patronizing perspective that compares worldviews
and favors one over the other as a fixed idea of truth which, as Foucault states,
“induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse” (Foucault, 1980,
p.119). The missionaries’ presentations of the country induced pleasure in the
minds of Zitkala-Ša and other Native American children since they pleaded with
their mothers to let them go with the missionaries. Simultaneously, the
missionaries formed knowledge and presented definite truths that places where
Native Americans resided were not beautiful, thus instilling epistemological
hierarchy in their minds and ultimately the genesis of the inferiority complex as
well as the prosperity of the superiority complex. JanMohamed argues that
“[s]uch claims, designed to rationalize and perpetuate the colonizer’s dominant
position, are not accurate appraisals of reality but rather projections of the
settler’s own anxieties and negative self-images” (1983, p. 3).
As presented further in the narrative, the children were subjected to strict
educational and dietary regimes. Upon their arrival, they had their clothes taken
away and soon after their hair cut. In the story titled “The Cutting of My Long
Hair”, Zitkala-Ša recounts the moment when her braids, cultural markers, were
cut off. Zitkala-Ša realized the gravity of the situation because “[their] mothers
had taught [them] that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair
shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners,
and shingled hair by cowards” (Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 54). Without her braids, she
would also be considered a coward defeated in a different type of battle. Along
with the loss of hair, she felt the loss of her spirit which was invested in the Native
American system of beliefs.
The above-mentioned practices of haircutting and the imposition of the
colonizer’s attire would prove viable in the process of mind colonization. As an
adult Zitkala-Ša reflects back on Native American education in the light of the
attitude that such cruel treatment is a method of ‘civilizing’:
In this fashion many have passed idly through the Indian schools during
the last decade, afterward to boast of their charity to the North American
Indian. But few there are who have paused to question whether real life or
long-lasting death lies beneath this semblance of civilization. (Zitkala-Ša,
1979, p. 99)
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
Zitkala-Ša’s words speaking about death, a long-lasting one, hint at
genocide though a cultural one. George E. Tinker maintains that cultural
genocide
involves the destruction of those cultural structures of existence that give
people a sense of holistic and communal integrity. [...]Finally, it erodes a
people’s self-image as a whole people by attacking or belittling every
aspect of native culture. (1993, p. 6)
In addition to clothingii, which, in Tinker’s terms, constitutes cultural practices,
language is another structure that provides people with identity and a structure
frequently used in cultural genocide. For wa Thiong’o, language is the most
straightforward method of mind colonization since language carries cultures and
histories which in turn carry “the entire body of values by which we come to
perceive ourselves and our place in the world” (1986, p. 16). On a similar note,
Foucault perceives knowledge and language as inextricable concepts of the mind:
“It is in one and the same movement that the mind speaks and knows. [...] Hence
the possibility of writing a history of freedom and slavery based upon languages”
(Foucault, 2005, pp. 95-97). When translated into the world of colonialism,
Foucault’s argument would indicate that if the colonizer’s language is imposed
then the colonizer’s truth is imposed through it.
Rules against speaking Native American languages at boarding schools
were strict and punishments were severe. One of the Comissioners of Indian
Affairs, Hiram Price, explains the “No Indian Talk” rule: “The Indian child …
must be compelled to adopt the English language.” (as cited in McCarty, 2013,
pp. 52-53). John D.C. Attkins, another Commisioner, expounds the same: “There
is not an Indian pupil … who is permitted to study any other language than our
own” (as cited in McCarty, 2013, pp. 52-53).
The above-referenced insistence upon the acquistion of the English
language by the indigenous population has several interpretations. Tove
Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Dunbar’s study Indigenous Children’s Education as
Linguistic Genocide and a Crime Against Humanity? A Global View (2010) highlights
linguicism, “linguistically argued racism”, as one of the leading arguments for
English language learning and a more subtle method of subduing minority
groups (p. 41). According to Skutnabb-Kangas and Dunbar, linguicism leads to
linguicide, the genocidal campaign against indigenous languages (2010, p. 40),
which concurs well with cultural genocide mentioned above. However, there is
a political dimension to it which argues for the augmentation of dominance. Bill
Ashcroft et al’s definition of language in the process of colonization is rooted in
the main tenets of power/knowledge relations introduced by Foucault as
outlined earlier in the paper. Ashcroft et al argue that language is “the medium
through which a hierarchical structure of power is perpetuated, and the
medium through which conceptions of ‘truth’, ‘order’, and ‘reality’ become
established” (2002, p. 7).
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�Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Adisa Ahmetspahić
Zitkala-Ša reverts the idea of power by excelling in the colonizer’s
language. Zitkala-Ša’s objective can be traced to her schooldays. It is mentioned
in the story collection that a series of language misunderstandings occurred at
school. The confusions resulted in severe beatings of the children and ignited
young Zitkala-Ša contempt of such an education: “Within a year I was able to
express myself somewhat in broken English. As soon as I comprehended a part
of what was said and done, a mischievous spirit of revenge possessed me”
(Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 59).Soon after, she began attending oratory competitions as
the college representative. In one of the competitions, Zitkala-Ša faced blatant
racism when
some college rowdies threw out a large white flag, with a drawing of a
most forlorn Indian girl on it. Under this they had printed in bold black
letters words that ridiculed the college that was represented by “squaw”.
(Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 79)
The rest of story has it that she won the competition and that“[t]he he evil
spirit laughed within [her] when the white flag dropped out of sight, and the
hands which hurled it hung limp in defeat” (Zitkala-Ša, 1979, 80). Despite her
momentary feelings of triumph, Zitkala-Ša is aware of how the education at
boarding schools altered her identity, as presented in “The Four Strage
Summers” story:
During this time I seemed to hang in the hearts of chaos, beyond the touch
or voice of human aid. My brother, being almost ten years my senior, did
not quite understand my feelings. My mother had never gone inside of a
school house and so she was not capable of comforting her daughter who
could read and write. Even nature seemed to have no place for me. I was
neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one. This
deplorable situation was the effect of my brief course in the East, and the
unsatisfactory “teenth” in a girl’s years. (Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 69)
Zitkala-Ša’s feelings of (un)belonging or the state of in-betweeness are
ascribed to her partial immersion into both cultures precipitated by her education
as a Native American at the boarding school. JanMohamed problematizes the
position of the colonized after colonial education as a double bind position that
is unable to espouse any of the two polarities:
if he chooses conservatively and remains loyal to his indigenous culture,
then he opts to stay in a calcified society whose developmental momentum
has been checked by colonization. If, however, the colonized person
chooses assimilation, then he is trapped in a form of historical catalepsy
because colonial education severs him from his own past. (1983, p. 5)
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�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
Zitkala-Ša’s Native American community, represented by her mother,
shunned the education of the colonizer for its goals and methods, which she
speaks of in the story “Incurring My Mother’s Displeasure:” “Her few words
hinted that I had better give up my slow attempt to learn the white man’s ways”
(Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 76). It is revealed throughout the stories that Zitkala-Ša’s
mother held a grudge against her decision to go to college for a long period of
time since her mother perceived the act as something that would deepen the
chasm of acculturation. As outlined in the above-quoted section, Zitkala-Ša felt
she did not belong fully to her Native American community any longer.
Similarly, the white community did not see her as an equal, even after she had
attained their education and started working as a teacher at Carlisle, evident
when her employer told her the following: ““I am going to turn you loose to
pasture!” He was sending me West to gather Indian pupils for the school, and
this was his way of expressing it” (Zitkala-Ša, 1979, p. 85). He is assuming a
condescending attitude and categorizing her as if she were a chained animal that
would be given freedom by those who possess the power over it.
Bhabha defines the double bind position mentioned previously as Third Space.
For Bhabha, the friction between antagonistic/manicheancultures, which have
opposing truths, assists the emanation of new identities. According to Bhabha,
although dangerous, this position need not necessarily be unfavorable since the
“interstitial passage between fixed identifications opens up the possibility of a
cultural hybridity that entertains difference without an assumed or imposed
hierarchy” (Bhabha, 1994, p. 4). Hence, Bhabha’s theory might be beneficial in
analyzing Zitkala-Ša’s ability to appropriate education and language as a power
reversal strategy that would benefit her in spreading the Native American cause
in the language of the colonizer. It seems as if Zitkala-Ša followed Ema
LaRocque’s formulation: “I have sought to master this language so that it would
no longer master me” (as cited in McLeod, 2000, p. 125). Ashcroft et al argue that
writing in English would prove high-yielding for many Native Americans since
the language enabled them “to intervene more readily in the dominant discourse,
to interpolate their own cultural realities, or use that dominant language to
describe those realities to a wide audience of readers” (2007, p. 16).
The significance of Zitkala-Ša’s boarding schools experience and mastery
of the English language could be paralleled to Diane Glancy’s (Cherokee)
chronicle of events at Fort Marion prison titled Fort Marion Prisoners and The
Trauma of Native Education (2014). According to Glancy’s study, about seventytwo Plains Indian warriors were captured and imprisoned after the Red River
War (1874-1875). A rigorous regime was installed in the prison. The prisoners
were stripped off their clothes and their hair was cut. They were also taught
English and given ledger books to produce paintings and drawings for profit.
Glancy provides a number of these drawings which, surprisingly, portray Native
American battles, implying that a new, although unintentional, mode of Native
American cultural continuity was created in spite of the epistemological
hierarchy that was foisted upon the indigenous population.
30
�Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Adisa Ahmetspahić
3. CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper was to investigate the link between education and language
and mind colonization on the example of Zitkala-Ša’s American Indian Stories. The
analysis was supported by a number of theories and studies and as such
provided an overview of different aspects closely related to education and
language in the process of colonization. Although the theories used in the paper
are somewhat differing and from different domains, they meet at the point of the
same inference: education and language are less aggressive methods of
colonization, in a physical sense, yet most dangerous. For example, Foucault’s
theories on power/knowledge relations help understand the mindset of the
colonizer and ultimately its propensity in transferring that particular mindset
onto those who are in a less favorable position. On the other hand, theories of
Homi Bhabha reveal the position of the colonized, namely Zitkala-Ša, after they
have been immersed into the education and language of the colonizer as well as
her ability to speak up.
It is plausible that a number of limitations could have influenced the
analysis of the paper given that relatively little publications have dealt with the
importance of Zitkala-Ša and no publications, to the best of my knowledge, have
discussed education and language in this story collection. However, this analysis
might be valuable in understanding the methods and outcomes of mind
colonization, eventually creating a link between the past, the present, and the
future. In addition, Native American literary tradition is rich in narratives that
speak of mind (de)colonization and the reinvention of Native American identity
in the contemporary world of the United States where they are enrolled as legal
citizens yet marginalized. Hence, Zitkala-Ša’s subversion of colonial modes of
dominance can be considered a forerunner to such matters. Overall, this study
has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding of the benefits and
hindrances of education and language for the indigenous population in the US.
Further work needs to be performed to establish the use of religion in mind
colonization as well as gender aspects in the same process based on American
Indian Stories.
31
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
REFERENCES
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2007). Post-colonial studies: The key concepts,
(2nd ed.). Routledge.
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2002). The empire writes back: Theory and
practice in post-colonial literatures (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.
Coulombe, J. (2001). Reading Native American literature. Routledge.
Fisher, D. (1979). Foreword. In American Indian stories (pp. v-xx). University of
Nebraska Press.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 19721977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (2005). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. Taylor
& Francis e-Library.
History and culture: Boarding schools. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2020, from
http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=airc_hist_boar
dingschools
Irwin L. (2002). Native American spirituality: History. In Deloria, P., & Salisbury,
N. (Eds.), A companion to American Indian history (pp. 103–120). Blackwell.
JanMohamed, A. (1983). Manichean aesthetics: The politics of literature in colonial
Africa. University of Massachusetts Press.
Lewandowski, T. (2016). Red bird, red power: The life and legacy of Zitkala-Ša.
University of Oklahoma Press.
McCarty, T. (2013). Language planning and policy in Native America: History, theory,
praxis. Multilingual Matters.
McLeod, J. (2000). Beginning Postcolonialism. Manchester University Press.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Dunbar, R. (2010). Indigenous children’s education as
linguistic genocide and a crime against humanity? A global view (Vol. 1). GálduČála –
Journal of Indigenous Peoples Rights.
https://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education2/indigenouschildrenseducation
.pdf.
Stout, Mary A. (2012). Zitkala Ša. In Wiget, P. (Ed.), Native American literature (pp.
303-307). Routledge.
Tinker, G. (1993). Missionary conquest: The gospel and Native American cultural
genocide. Augsburg Fortress.
wa Thiong’o, N. (1986). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African
literature. James Currey Ltd.
Zitkala-Ša. (1979). American Indian stories. University of Nebraska Press.
For more information see Bob Blaisdell's Great Speeches by Native Americans (2012).
should be noted here that it is not my intention to contribute to the stereotyped portrayal of Native
Americans.
i
iiIt
32
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Journal of Education and Humanities
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education and Humanities
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Colonizing the Mind: A Dialectic Approach to
Education and Language in Zitkala-Ša’s
American Indian Stories
Author
Author
Adisa Ahmetspahić
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Mind colonization has been a burning issue in the last few
decades in the fields of science and humanities. It is argued that mind
colonization of the indigenous populations has been conducted via
education and language in the mission of ‘civilizing’ since education
and language carry culture specific sets of meaning, including
knowledge and truth which condition our perception of the world.
Zitkala-Ša is one of the earliest Native American authors and
activists who sought to subvert the epistemological hierarchy
imposed through mind colonization. Zitkala-Ša’s autobiographical
collection of short stories titled American Indian Stories (1921)
documents her boarding school experience and the acquisition of the
colonizer’s education and language. The present paper seeks to
address mind colonization through language and education on the
example of Zitkala-Ša’s American Indian Stories relying on a
number of theories and approaches. The paper also reflects on the
importance of Zitkala-Ša mastery of the colonizer’s language.
Keywords
Keywords.
Native
American, mind
colonization, education,
language, boarding schools
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2566-4638
DOI
Digital object identifier
10.14706/JEH2021322
-
https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/93ad8e438ec751c94c2d0a3af49697f2.pdf
b743dfacd07d30b2dd135db34a79b93f
PDF Text
Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3 (2), pp. 33-47, Winter 2020
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Dr. sci. Davor Trlin
Doc. dr. Esad Oruč
International Burch University
davor.trlin@ibu.edu.ba
esad.oruc@ibu.edu.ba
Abstract: In this paper, through the analysis of the normative framework for the
operation of these institutions, but also their activity, and the application of
international standards in BiH, we will try to find an answer to the question of
whether Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state or a protectorate. A lot has been
achieved through the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, but most of it was
due to the activity of the international community. According to the General
Framework Agreement for Peace, this activity does not envisage a protectorate.
However, especially in the first years of the functioning of post-Dayton Bosnia and
Herzegovina, many constitutional and legal theorists tried to define the legal
nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina's dependence on the international community
in certain elements (which later softened). The results showed no unambiguous
answer. In the last fifteen years, this issue has moved to the periphery of interest
in domestic and regional constitutional and legal science. But it seems the time to
re-establish it has come, especially in light of the announcement of changes in the
attitudes of key actors in the international community towards Bosnia and
Herzegovina. We are also interested in the issue related to this central research,
which is the degree of sovereignty of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina inside
and outside, given the Dayton construct of the international community's
involvement in the constitutional and political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sažetak: U ovom radu ćemo, kroz analizu normativnog okvira za djelovanje ovih
institucija, ali i njihov sam aktivitet, te aplikaciju međunarodnih standarda u BiH,
pokušati doći do odgovora na pitanje da li je Bosna i Hercegovina država ili
protektorat. Kroz implementaciju Daytonskog sporazuma se postiglo dosta, ali
većinom je zaslužan bio aktivitet međunarodne zajednice. Taja aktivitet ni, prema
Općem okvirnom sporazumu za mir, ne predviđa protektorat. Ipak, posebno u
prvim godinama funkcioniranja post-Daytonske Bosne i Hercegovine, brojni
ustavno-pravni teoretičari su pokušavali definirati pravnu prirodu odnosa
ovisnosti Bosne i Hercegovine prema međunarodnoj zajednici u određenim
elementima (koja se kasnije sve više ublažavala). Rezultati su pokazali da nema
jednoznačnog odgovora. Ovo pitanje je u posljednjih petnaest godina u domaćoj
ali i regionalnoj ustavno-pravnoj nauci prešlo na periferiju interesiranja. Ali, čini
se da je vrijeme da ga se ponovo postavi, posebno u svjetlu najave promjena
odnosa ključnih subjekata međunarodne zajednice prema Bosni i Hercegovini.
Takođe nas interesuje i pitanje koje je povezano s ovim centralnim istraživačkim,
a to je stepen suvereniteta države Bosne i Hercegovine unutra, ali i prema vani,
imajući u vidu Daytonski konstrukt uključenosti međunarodne zajednice u
ustavno-politički sistem Bosne i Hercegovine.
Keywords: Protectorate,
International Community,
High Representative, Peace
Implementation Council,
Bonn Powers.
Ključne riječi: Protektorat,
Međunarodna zajednica,
Visoki predstavnik, Vijeće za
implementaciju mira, Bonske
ovlasti.
Article History
Submitted: 30 October 2020
Accepted: 10 December 2020
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
1. UVOD
Ustavni sistem Bosne i Hercegovine je determiniran sporazumom za mir, koji je
postignut u Daytonu (Ohio, SAD) novembra 1995. godine, a formalno potpisan
u Parizu, decembra 1995. godine. Aneks 4 ovog sporazuma je Ustav Bosne i
Hercegovine. Prema Članu I tačka 2, Bosna i Hercegovina je demokratska država
koja funkcionira u skladu sa zakonom i na osnovu slobodnih i demokratskih
izbora. Iako ova odredba proklamuje koncept demokratije, Aneks 4 sadrži dosta
normi koje nisu u skladu sa demokratskim principima, ali je i antinomičan, tj.
određene njegove odredbe su međusobno nesaglasne (npr. proklamovan je
princip zabrane diskriminacije, ali istovremeno je pojedinim kategorijama
uvedeno nejednako aktivno i pasivno biračko pravo, odnosno postoji otvorena
ustavna diskriminacija). O donošenju ovog akta, ali i pojedinim njegovim
odredbama, te komparaciji ovog akta sa drugim aneksima sporazuma bitnim za
ovaj rad ćemo detaljnije pisati u slijedećim poglavljima.
2. POJAM PROTEKTORATA
Protektorat je jedan odnos ovisnosti jedne (slabije) države od druge (jače),
protektora. Klaić (1986), pod „protektorom (protekcijom) podrazumijeva: 1.
pokrovitelj, zaštitnik; 2.u međunarodnom pravu država koja preuzima nad
nekom zemljom protektorat. Protektorat- pokroviteljstvo, zaštićivanje, okrilje,
obrana uopće, a osobito: formalno pokroviteljstvo jače države nad slabijom;
faktički- pokroviteljstvo je oblik zavisnosti koji imperijalističke države nasilno
nameću drugim zemljama; 2. naziv ovako okupirane zemlje; isto i
protektorstvo.” Prema Ibleru (1987) nastaje na temelju međunarodnog ugovorai
kojim se odnos ovisnosti uređuje tako što se navode prava i dužnosti obiju strana
(s. 259). Iz ovog razloga se npr. ne može prihvatiti da je Čehoslovačka bila pod
protektoratom Trećeg Rajha, budući da između njih nije zaključen ugovor.
Protektirana oblast je uspostavljena jednostranim aktom okupacije, i postala je
dio „teritorije velikog njemačkog Rajha“. U Hoffmanovoj analizi (1987) navodi se
da se država zaštitnica ugovorom obavezuje da će štiti protektiranu državu od
agresije ili drugih oblika povrede prava zajamčenih međunarodnim pravom, te
od internog ugrožavanja, a država zaštitnica preuzima njene ovlasti u
međunarodnim odnosima (s. 1153).
Dvije su vrste protektorata: potpuni i ograničeni. Kod potpunog
protektorata država štićenica u potpunosti ugovorom o protektoratu stavlja
svoje aktivnost u nadležnost države zaštitnice, a kod ograničenog zadržava
poslovnu sposobnost, ali je ograničena naknadnim odobrenjem protektora. Seidl
i Hohenveldern (2006) navode da protektirani teritorij ne ulazi u državni teritorij
protektora, državljani zadržavaju svoja državljanstva, a ugovori koje protektor
zaključuje obavezuju protektiranu državu (s. 177). Neki pravni teoretičari među
oblike „složenih država“ ubrajaju i protektorat. Berislav Perić (1994) dijeli
složene države na: 1) protektorat, 2) unija (realna i personalna), 3) konfederacija,
34
�Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Davor Trlin & Esad Oruč
4) federacija (s. 103). Fuad Muhić (1998) smatra da su se kroz istoriju razvila dva
osnovna oblika složenih država – konfederacija i federacija (s. 104-107). Ovaj
autor navodi da su unije „oblici povezivanja država koji se nalaze na sredini
između konfederacije i federacije.“ – (s. 109). Dijeli ih na realne i personalne unije,
a kao vrstu personalne unije podrazumijeva protektorat: „Kao oblik državnog
uređenja, unije su u modernom dobu iščezle, i na njih donekle podsjećaju samo
veze nekih malih evropskih državica sa susjednim državama, koje za njih
obavljaju većinu najvažnijih poslova (veze San Marina sa Italijom, Monaka sa
Francuskom, Lihtenštajna sa Švajcaskom i Andore sa Španijom i Francuskom).
Takva veza naziva se protektoratom (štićeništvom)“ (s 109.).
Međutim, moderna pravna teorija kao ni međunarodno pravo ne smatraju
protektorat za oblik državnog uređenja već za odnos ovisnosti. Tako ih svrstava
Degan (2000), a ne među oblike država (s. 294-295). Najviše su protektori bili
Francuskaii i Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo Velike Britanije i Sjeverne Irskeiii.
Schweisfurth (2006) je dao detaljan pregled protektorata UK (s. 25.). Može se reći
da je klasičnih protektorata, kao odnosa dvije države (zaštitnice i štićenice) kroz
povijest nestalo i da su se oni transformirali u tzv. „Međunararodnu teritorijalnu
upravu“, institut međunarodne zajednice kojim ona osigurava međunarodni
pravni poredak. Protektorat nisu ni slučajevi kad se manja država služi većom za
obavljanje određenih poslova (primjer Lihtenštajna u odnosu sa Švicarskom ili
San Marina u odnosu sa Italijom), gdje države imaju autonomiju odlučivanja. To
npr. nije slučaj sa Monakomiv pa se može reći da je ispravna tvrdnja Seidla i
Hohenvelderna (2006) da je ovo jedan od rijetkih primjera (oslabljenog)
protektorata u savremenom društvu (s. 176.).
3. ULOGA EKSTERNOG FAKTORA U USTAVOTVORNOM DRŽAVNOM POSTUPKU
„Daytonski“ ustav nije jedini slučaj u ustavnoj istoriji da je ustav određene
države sačinjen uz pomoć i nadzor eksternog faktora. Tako su savezničke
okupacijske sile, nakon poraza Njemačke u Drugom svjetskom ratu, ukinule
Weimarski ustav, koji je bio na snazi u Njemačkoj od 1919. do 1945. godine. Na
snagu je, u Zapadnoj Njemačkoj“ stupio Temeljni zakon (23. 05. 1949. godine,
nakon što je odobren 08. 05. 1949. godine, u Bonnu (sve su Zemlje, osim Bavarske,
takođe potvrdile), te od, strane Saveznika Drugog Svjetskog rata 12. 05. 1949.
godine). Ovaj ustav je sada, uz određene amandmane, na snazi u Saveznoj
Republici Njemačkoj. Sačinili su ga, pod usmjeravanjem Zapadnih sila, 1948.
godine, ministri-predsjednici zapadnonjemačkih država, koji su formirali
Parlamentarno vijeće.
Takođe je Ustav Japana od 03. 05. 1947. godine, kojeg je, pod nadzorom
Vrhovnog komandanta Savezničkih snaga, Douglasa MacArthura, sačinio
određen broj državnih službenika i vojnog osoblja SAD. Nakon toga su japanski
pripadnici akademske zajednice pregledali i modificirali tekst, prije konačnog
usvajanja ustava od strane Nacionalnog dijeta, parlamenta Japana. Ustav od
1947. godine je zamijenio dotadašnji autoritarni sistem kvaziapsolutne
35
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
monarhije, sa liberalnom demokratijom, a cilj učešća Saveznika je bio da se
suspregne militaristički nacionalizam japanske vlade.
4. SUVERENOST, MEĐUNARODNO PRAVO I USTAVNO PRAVO
Tri osnovna elementa državne organizacije su: stanovništvo, teritorija i
suverena vlast.
Prije nego što objasnimo sintagmu „suverena vlast“, trebamo prvo
objasniti šta zapravo znači termin „vlast“ i u čemu je to suštinska razlika između
moći i vlasti. Vlast je institucionalizovana i legitimizovana moć. Prema Viskoviću
(2006) „Vlast je nešto više od gole moći i prisile. To je prisila koja je legitimna ili
barem formalno zasnovana na običajnim i pravnim normama, tj. koja je po
mišljenju nekih ljudi opravdana kao „dobra“ ili se barem poziva na običaj i
pravo.“ (s. 19). Vlast znači da se tačno znaju hijerarhijski odnosi između onih koji
imaju vlast i onih koji je nemaju (tj. između nadređenih i podređenih) i da se ti
odnosi moraju poštovati. Razne su vrste vlasti, ako je moć određenih društvenih
subjekata zasnovana na pravnim normama. Tako postoje ekonomska vlast,
roditeljska vlast, državna vlast. Ova zadnja, državna vlast najviša je vlast u društvu.
Vrhovnost državne vlasti je element državne suverenosti. Državna suverenost se
manifestira dvojako:
1. kao unutrašnja suverenost (profesor Visković ju naziva „pravna vrhovnost“) i 2.
kao vanjska suverenost.
1. Unutrašnja suverenost državne vlasti znači da država ima isključivo pravo da
stvara najviše pravne akte. Državna vlast ima pravo izricati određene sankcije za
nepoštivanje dispozicija pravnih normi iz pravnih akata koje je donijela, i u tu
svrhu koristi prinudu. Ona je jedina organizacija u društvu koja ima monopol
legalne fizičke prinude. Perić (1994) navodi:„“Glede toga predložio bih da državu
treba šire definirati kao onu društvenu organizaciju koja ima: (1) VLAST, koja (a)
unutar državnih granica raspolaže NE monopolom prisile, nego NAJVEĆOM
prisilom, (b) u odnosu na druge države, dakle „prema vani“, nastupa kao
„jednak s jednakima“. Ova vlast, također, ima sljedeća obilježja: ona je društvena
organizacija, suverena, ona je i prisilna. Ima svoj: (2) TERITORIJ, (3)
STANOVNIŠTVO i (4) PRAVO, tj. PRAVNI POREDAK. Ukazujući na činjenicu
da državna vlast, ako hoće ostati državna, mora na svom teritoriju raspolagati
(ne monopolom fizičke prisile, jer to je nemoguće) n a j v e ć o m ili n a j j a č o m
p r i s i l o m. Nadalje, ako takva država izgubi i tu najjaču prisilu, ona bi prestala
biti državna vlast i njene bi izreke prestale biti pravo. Druga politička snaga, koja
bi u svoje ruke preuzela ili osvojila tu najveću i najjaču prisilu, time bi postala i
nova državna vlast.“ (s. 137). Država nije i jedina organizacija u društvu koja
stvara pravne norme. To su i brojni subjekti autonomnog prava (privredna
društva, vjerske organizacije, sindikati...). Moderno poimanje suverenosti je
nastalo zahvaljujući konceptima narodne suverenosti i pravne države. Ono je
dokinulo apsolutističko, feudalno poimanje suverenosti države o pravno
neograničenoj vlasti monarha.
36
�Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Davor Trlin & Esad Oruč
2. Vanjska suverenost državne vlasti znači da je državna vlast nezavisna u odnosu
na druge državne vlasti (tj. jednoj državi nijedna druga država ne može nametati
svoju volju). Ona je u međunarodnim odnosima ravnopravna sa drugim
državnim vlastima, bez obzira na sve razlike koje u modernom društvu
objektivno postoje između država. Ipak, postoje i određeni, istina, ne brojni
slučajevi pravne neravnopravnosti državnih vlasti u međunarodnoj zajednici i
međunarodnim odnosima. To se najbolje vidi na primjeru Vijeća sigurnosti, gdje
sile pobjednice Drugog svjetskog rata imaju pravo veta.
Suverenost državne vlasti u modernom društvu može biti veća ili manja.
Brojne su države u kojima se vode oružani sukobi i one koje su u specifičnim
odnosima ovisnosti o drugim državama, međunarodnim organizacijama ili čak
cijeloj međunarodnoj zajednici država.
Svaka država mora pribavljati sredstva kojim se osigurava materijalna
osnova za brojne zadatke koje država mora obavljati, ali i da bi mogla egzistirati.
Tim sredstvima se zadovoljavaju i objektivno postojeće potrebe u društvu
(prvenstveno ekonomsko-socijalne prirode), ali se i zadovoljavaju dobra
neophodna za reprodukciju ljudske vrste i same države.
Postavlja se pitanje da li šira decentralizacija unitarne države, odnosno
veće nadležnosti federalnih jedinica, znače i dijeljenje suverene državne vlasti
između oblika decentralizacije i unitarnih država, odnosno federalnih jedinica i
federacije? Teoretski, suverenost državne vlasti ne može biti podijeljena.
Suverenost državne vlasti je jedinstvena. Određena unitarna država ili federacija
može samo biti više ili manje suverena, ako je u unitarnoj državi oblicima
decentralizacije data široka autonomija – npr. kod zakonodavne decentralizacije,
odnosno ako u federativno uređenim državama federalne jedinice imaju brojne
nadležnosti i to one koje su u velikom broju federacija na saveznom nivou.
Zavisno od oblika državnog uređenja, uže političko-teritorijalne zajednice
mogu dobiti određena prava i dužnosti reguliranja finansijskih odnosa na svojoj
teritoriji. Tako, samo federalne jedinice, kao i sama federacija imaju finansijska
prava. To nije slučaj (izuzev kod zakonodavne decentralizacije), kod unitarnih
država. Dakle, kod unitarnih država, za razliku od federacija, samo centralna
vlast ima (puni) finansijski suverenitet. Kod Dautbašića (2004), u njegovom
udžbeniku, nalazimo da je kod unitarnih država postoje dva sistema regulisanja
odnosa između centralnih organa i decentralizovanih i lokalnih organacentralizovani i decentralizovani finansijski (fiskalni) suverenitet (s. 57). Kode
centralizovanog finansijskog suvereniteta, kakav je apliciran npr. u Francuskoj
Republici, centralne vlasti zakonom utvrđuju temeljne elemente fiskalnih
dažbina (npr. porezna osnovica), a decentralizovani organi i lokalni organi
svojim pravnim aktima dalje razrađuju i reguliraju ove dažbine. Decentralizirani
finansijski suverenitet (npr. primijenjen u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu Velike
Britanije i Sjeverne Irske), znači da decentralizovani i lokalni organi vlasti imaju
široke ovlasti u pogledu reguliranja finansijskih (i uže, fiskalnih) odnosa, dok
centralni organi samo kontroliraju cjelokupni finansijski i fiskalni sistem unitarne
države. Kod federacija postoje i vertikalno i horizontalno raspoređivanje potreba
i prihoda, tj. raspoređivanje između federacije i federalnih jedinica i
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javnopravnih kolektiviteta, i horizontalno raspoređivanje potreba i prihoda, tj
raspoređivanje između javnopravnih kolektiviteta istog stepena. Profesor
Dautbašić (2004) navodi da se vertikalno raspoređivanje prihoda vršilo, a i sada
se vrši, po nekim od sljedećih sistema: sistem učešća, konkurentni sistem, sistem
odvajanja, sistem povezivanja (zajednica), sistem jednoobraznosti, kombinirani
sistem, te da postoje dva metoda za primjenu sistema separacije, sistema
zajednice i mješovitog (kombiniranog) sistema: automatski (utvrđuje se fiksna
kvota prihoda za nosioce finansiranja) i diskrecioni (koji se sastoji od
pojedinačnog odlučivanja o raspoređivanju prihoda u ovisnosti o vrsti i obimu
potreba) (s. 58-62).
Još treba napomenuti da je svaka državna vlast titular javnih subjektivnih
prava. Ona se nazivaju državnim javnim subjektivnim pravima. Dihotomija
javnih subjektivnih prava je, inače, na individualna javna subjektivna prava i
državna javna subjektivna prava. Otajagić (2005) piše o državnim javnim
subjektivnim pravima, te objašnjava da se ona nalaze u ustavnom, upravnom i
procesnom pravu, i prema svom objektu, dijele se na: 1. čisto lična državna prava,
odnosno prava na svoju radnju (npr. pravo na krivičnu sankciju utvrđenu
krivičnim zakonima); 2. prava države na tuđu radnju neimovinskog karaktera
(npr. pravo na vojnu službu pojedinaca); 3. prava na tuđu radnju imovinske
prirode (npr. pravo države na određivanje i naplatu poreza) i 4. čisto imovinska
državna prava (npr. pravo na slobodnu trgovinsku zonu u drugoj državi na
osnovu ugovora) (s 78 i 79). Kod unitarnih decentralizovanih država ne postoji,
izuzev kod zakonodavne decentralizacije, pojava da su oblici decentralizacije
titulari ovih državnih javnih subjektivnih prava. Rijetke su federacije koje na
centralnom nivou nemaju mnogo državnih javnih subjektivnih prava, a da ih
suprotno, federalne jedinice imaju više nego savezna vlast.
5. MEĐUNARODNO UGOVARANJE USTAVA: SLUČAJ BIH
Kod Sokola i Smerdela (1998) nalazimo da je Daytonski mirovni sporazum
sklopljen između predsjednika Republike Hrvatske, Republike Bosne i
Hercegovine i Savezne Republike Jugoslavije, uz sudjelovanje predstavnika
konstitutivnih naroda u BiH, te uz aktivno sudjelovanje američkih dužnosnika (s
297). Ovim sporazumom je okončan oružani sukob ali su se i postavili temelji za
organizaciju državne vlasti BiH. Potpisan je u Parizu 14. 12. 1995. godine, kao
Opći okvirni sporazum za mir. Opće odredbe Sporazuma, potpisali su, za
Republiku BiH, Alija Izetbegović, za Republiku Hrvatsku, Franjo Tuđman, za
Saveznu Republiku Jugoslaviju, Slobodan Milošević. Kao svjedoci, Sporazum su
potpisali predstavnici EU, Francuske Republike, Savezne Republike Njemačke,
Ruske Federacije, Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva Britanije i Sjeverne Irske i Sjedinjenih
Američkih Država. Ovaj dokument ima 11 članova, te isto toliko aneksa. Kod
Bakotića su navedeni Aneksi (1998): Aneks 1-A - Sporazum o vojnim aspektima
mirovnog rješenja, Aneks 1-B - Sporazum o regionalnoj stabilizaciji, Aneks 2 Sporazum o granici među entitetima i srodnim pitanjima, Aneks 3 - Sporazum o
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izborima, Aneks 4 - Ustav, Aneks 5 - Sporazum o arbitraži, Aneks 6 - Sporazum
o pravima čovjeka, Aneks 7 - Sporazum o izbjeglicama i prognanicima, Aneks 8
- Sporazum o komisiji za očuvanje nacionalnih spomenika, Aneks 9 - Sporazum
o javnim poduzećima Bosne i Hercegovine, Aneks 10 - Sporazum o provedbi
civilnih aspekata, Aneks 11 - Sporazum o međunarodnim operativnim
policijskim snagama (s. 6). Pored ovih 11 aneksa, koji uređuju detaljnije obaveze
za njegovu realizaciju, postoje još dva opća dodatka – Sporazum o parafiranju i
Završnu izjavu sudionika u posrednim mirovnim pregovorima u BiH.
Sporazumom nijedna strana nije stekla pravo nad Bosnom i Hercegovinom.
Kada je riječ o centralnom istraživačkom pitanju ovog rada, treba napomenuti da
su se strane obavezale prihvatiti aranžmane koji se odnose na civilnu
implementaciju sporazuma, tj. OHR i Visokog predstavnika. Aneksom 10,
potpisnici „zahtijevaju imenovanje visokog predstavnika, koji će biti imenovan u
skladu sa relevantnim rezolucijama Savjeta bezbjednosti UN“, takođe je Visokom
predstavniku u mandat dato i tumačenje Sporazuma. Na osnovu ovog aneksa,
uspostavljen je Ured Visokog predstavnika.
6. DA LI JE BOSNA I HERCEGOVINA PROTEKTORAT: TEORIJA I NORMA
Ideja o Bosni i Hercegovini kao protektoratu se često spominjala tokom 1993.
godine u sklopu mirovnih pregovora i različituh prijedloga za prekid ratnih
sukoba i buduće organizacije države, a Andrassy, Bakotić i Vukas (2006) pisali
da se predlagala se čak i za pojedine dijelove Bosne i Hercegovine ili gradove (s.
111). Daytonski sporazum uspostavio je sistem uloge međunarodne zajednice u
funkcioniranju javnog sistema u BiH. Tako Aneks 3 (Sporazum o izborima),
zadužuje OSCE da uspostavi izborni sistem u BiH. Aneksom 7 (Sporazum o
izbjeglicama i prognanicima) poziva se UNHCR da pripremi plan repatrijacije i
povratka raseljenih osoba. Organizacija Ujedinjenih Nacija je, na osnovu
Sporazuma o Međunarodnim operativnim snagama, zadužena da organizira
policijske snage. Za ovaj rad najznačajniji je Aneks 10 koji predviđa instituciju
Visokog predstavnika čiji je, kako se navodi kod Sloan (1998) zadatak da
koordinira aktivnostima organizacija i agencija koje se uključene u projekat
civilnog aspekta mirovnog rješenja (s. 84). Prvi Visoki predstavnik bio je švedski
diplomat Carl Bildt, koji je za vrijeme svog mandata formirao Vijeće za provedbu
mira, koje je uključivalo 40 zemalja i 10 međunarodnih organizacija, s ciljem
koordinacije humanitarnih organizacija, Ujedinjenih nacija, UNHCR-a i OSCE-a.
Bosna i Hercegovina je bila podvrgnuta saradnji sa Haškim sudom za bivšu
Jugoslaviju (ICTY). Član IX. Ustava BiH je odredio: “Nijedna osoba koja izdržava
kaznu što ju je izrekao Međunarodni sud za bivšu Jugoslaviju i nijedna osoba
protiv koje je taj sud podigao optužnicu, a koja se nije pokorila nalogu da izađe
preda nj, ne može se kandidirati ni biti imenovana ili birana ili na koji drugi način
postavljena na bilo koju javnu funkciju na području Bosne i Hercegovine.” Ovo
se ne može smatrati ograničenjem suvereniteta u okviru protektorata
međunarodne zajednice, nego naprosto obavezom države koja je proistekla iz
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članstva u Ujedinjenim Nacijama. U prilog tome ide i činjenica da su i Hrvatska,
te Srbija i Crna Gora imale jednaku obavezu saradnje sa istim međunarodnim
forumom.
Smatramo da se može prihvatiti Maslin (2000) da je Opći okvirni
sporazum za mir, ugovorni odnos kojim bi se mogao zasnovati odnos
protektorata (s. 8). Međutim, njime se on nije zasnovao niti proglasio (a takođe
ni neki drugi oblik ovisnosti, npr. starateljstvo).v Protektirani odnos nije reguliran
ni u jednom od ugovorenih odnosa i ovo je vjerovatno i ključni argument za
osporovanje teze da je Bosna i Hercegovina protektorat (Dautbašić 1998, 51 ).
Nema države kao subjekta međunarodnog prava koja stupa u funkciju
protektora niti se vidi izražena volja Bosne i Hercegovine da slobodu u
odlučivanju podvrgne ograničavanju od strane druge države. Da Bosna i
Hercegovina nije protektorat posebno se vidi i iz činjenice da su državni organi
Bosne i Hercegovine vanjsku suverenost od početka post-Daytonske ere imali u
potpunom kapacitetu, a država je svoj međunarodnopravni subjektivitet
koristila bez ikakvih ograničenja kakva su imale protektirane države (Maslin
2000, 6). Ostalo je da ispitamo da li je unutrašnja suverenost ograničena, što ćemo
učiniti u redovima koji slijede.
Iz brojnih normativnih rješenja može se zaključiti da Bosna i Hercegovina
nije protektorat. Tako, Ustav BiH u članu I ističe kontinuitet Republike Bosne i
Hercegovine koja nastavlja pravno postojanje prema međunarodnom pravu kao
država, uz prilagodbu unutrašnjeg uređenja prema predviđenim odredbama
Sporazuma. Bosna i Hercegovina ostaje članica Ujedinjenih nacija, te može tražiti
članstvo u organizacijama unutar sistema Ujedinjenih nacija i drugim
međunarodnim organizacijama. Takođe, prema članu VII/2 Ustava BiH, ostaje
ili postaje strankom međunarodnih sporazuma nabrojenih u Prilogu I Ustava.vi
U prilog tezi da Bosna i Hercegovina nije protektorat idu i određene nadležnosti
Predsjedništva BiH, i to: samostalno vođenje vanjske politike, imenovanje
ambasadora i drugih međunarodnih predstavnika Bosne i Hercegovine,
predstavljanje Bosne i Hercegovinu u međunarodnim i evropskim
organizacijama i ustanovama, te mogućnost traženja članstva u organizacijama i
ustanovama kojih Bosna i Hercegovina nije članica. Iz ovoga se može zaključiti
da Bosna i Hercegovina nije ni protektorat potpunog oblika.
Osnovi tvrdnji zastupnika ideje da Bosna i Hercegovina jeste protektorat,
nalaze se u pojedinim odredbama Ustava, a posebno Aneksa 10, koji sadrži
Sporazum o provedbi civilnih aspekata mirovnog rješenja. Kada je riječ o Ustavu,
u navedenom smislu, relevantne su odredbe koje uređuju izbor i imenovanje
sudaca Ustavnog suda BiH. Tri suda Ustavnog suda (od ukupno devet) bira
predsjednik Evropskog suda za ljudska prava, a oni ne smiju biti državljani
Bosne i Hercegovine ni susjednih država. Prvog guvernera Centralne banke, koji
također nije smio biti državljanin Bosne i Hercegovine niti neke susjedne države,
imenovao je Međunarodni monetarni fond, a Ustav BiH je propisao i da
Guverner može imati odlučujući glas u slučaju neriješenog ishoda glasanja (Član
VII.2 Ustava BiH.).
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Kod Bakotića (1998) se može izvršiti uvid da je ključni razlog zašto su
pojedini autori tvrdili da je Bosna i Hercegovina protektorat je pravni položaj
Visokog predstavnika u ustavnom sistemu BiH, a posebno njegovo konačno
pravo u pogledu tumačenja Sporazuma o provedbi civilnih aspekata mirovnog
rješenja (s. 148). Treba napomenuti da se rješenja koja se tiču Visokog
predstavnika, mogu dovesti u suprotnost sa Aneksom 4, koji propisuje da su
građani i konstitutivni narodi i Ostali u Bosni i Hercegovini suvereni. Drugi
razlog je bio angažman međunarodne zajednice u vidu Međunarodnih
operativnih policijskih snaga Ujedinjenih nacija (IPTF) zbog implementacije
programa pomoći u cijeloj Bosni i Hercegovini. IPTF je nastao nakon što su
Republika Bosna i Hergecovina, Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine i Republika
Srpska, zaključili Sporazum o međunarodnim oružanim snagama, na osnovu
kojeg su zahtijevali da Vijeće sigurnosti UN pokrene operaciju UNCIVPOL, tj. da
uspostavi vid UN policije sa ciljem povećanja međunarodnog mira i sigurnosti,
podržavanjem država članica u konfliktu, post-konfliktnim i drugim kriznim
situacijama. Cilj je bio realizirati efektivnu, efikasnu, reprezentativnu,
odgovarajuću i odgovornu policijsku službu koja služi i štiti populaciju. IPTF je
bio autonoman u obavljanju poslova, a njihovim aktivnostima koordinirao je
Visoki predstavnik, koji je izdavao upute Povjereniku na čelu IPTF-a. Između
ostalog, pomoć IPTF-a se sastojala u obučavanju osoblja za osiguranje primjene
prava te procjenu prijetnji javnom poretku, te savjetovanje u pogledu sposobnosti
službi za osiguranje primjene prava da se nose s takvim prijetnjama.
Od 1998. godine, visoki predstavnik međunarodne zajednice je dobio
prošireni mandat, pa je mogao sam donositi odluke koje ustavni organi ne mogu
donijeti. Ovo, kao i prisustvo SFOR-a je opredijelilo pojedine autore, poput
Sokola i Smerdela (1998), da zauzmu stav da je Bosna i Hercegovine protektorat
(s. 299). Koncem 1997. godine, Vijeće za provedbu mira u BiH u Bonnu
jednostavno „pozdravlja odluku Visokog predstavnika da koristi svoje široke
ovlasti“, a što uključuje ovlast smjenjivanja izabranih dužnosnika, nametanja i
ukidanja zakona u Bosni i Hercegovini, kao i drugih nedefiniranih mjera koje on
smatra nužnima. Zbog ovakve formulacije, tj. načelnog odobravanja preuzimanja
ovih ovlasti od strane Visokog predstavnika na ovoj konferenciji, one se danas
zovu Bonskima. Visoki predstavnik je imao autonomiju u korištenju „Bonskih
ovlasti“; države potpisnice i države svjedoci Daytonskog sporazuma nisu imale
nikakvu ulogu. Visoki predstavnik, nikome nije davao argumente, obrazloženja
za donesene odluke. Pojedini autori, poput Pehara (2012) su smatrali da za njih i
nije bilo moguće podastrijeti jasne, razumljive i opće valjane razloge (s 3-9).
Visoki predstavnik u implementaciji ovih ovlasti preuzeo tri državne funkcijezakonodavnu, izvršnu i sudsku. Odluke mu po pravnoj prirodi najviše liče na
akte egzekutive, budući da su neposredno izvršive. Ovo je u kontradikciji sa
postojanjem Ustavnog suda BiH, ali i implementacija Schmittove ideje da čuvar
ustava treba biti predsjednik, tj. izvršna vlast (s. 211-253) (za razliku od Kelsena,
koji je tvrdio da to treba biti ustavni sud). Visoki predstavnik je ovlašten da
tumači Daytonski sporazum u cijelosti, pa i odredbi koje se tiču samog sebe, tj.
on ima ovlast tumačenja svojih ovlasti. Njegov legitimitet izvodi se „odozdo“, tj.
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iz građana Bosne i Hercegovine, ali i „odozgo“, jer on treba da djeluje po
uputama Upravnog odbora Vijeća za provedbu mira (PIC-a).vii
7. AKTIVITET MEĐUNARODNE ZAJEDNICE PREMA DRŽAVNIM ORGANIMA BIH
Decembra 1995. godine je Vijeće sigurnosti Ujedinjenih nacija ovlastilo države
članice da u roku od godine dana uspostave međunarodne implementacijske
snage (IFOR) sa mandatom da nadziru i podupiru provedbu odredbi Sporazuma
o vojnim aspektima mirovnog rješenja i Sporazuma o regionalnoj stabilizaciji, te
djeluju u skladu sa glavom VII Povelje Ujedinjenih nacija. Prema Lerotiću (2004),
provedbu sporazuma trebale su jamčiti snage NATO-a od 60.000 vojnika (s. 138).
Lapaš (2004) navodi da je IFOR, sastavljen od kopnenih, zračnih i pomorskih
snaga NATO-a, (s. 217) je zamijenio UNPROFOR, a kasnije su snage IFOR-a
zamijenile Stabilizacijske snage (SFOR). Aneks 10 se vrlo teško provodio.
Prisustvo međunarodne zajednice se opravdavalo nedovoljnim stepenom
demokratičnosti lokalnih lidera, i to OHR-a za provedbu postavljenih
demokratskih ciljeva, a ITA-e za tržišnu ekonomiju i slobodu medija (Wilde 2001,
601).
Iako je „bonski“ mandat evidentno nedemokratski, korišten je više puta u
toku evolucije društveno-političkog sistema post-Daytonske BiH. U početku su
visoki predstavnici snažno koristili „bonske“ ovlasti, i to kroz cijeli period svog
mandata. Ilustrativan je primjer nametanja amandmana na Ustav F BiH, koji je
Visoki predstavnik Wolfgang Petrisch izveo pred kraj mandata, u aprilu 2002.
godine, a na osnovu odluke Ustavnog suda F BiH iz jula 2000. godine. Visoki
predstavnik Valentin Inzcko je 2011. godine suspendirao Odluku Središnjeg
izbornog povjerenstva, tijela koje je među najvažnijim u institucionalnodemokratskom sistemu. Visoki predstavnik Schwarz-Schilling je 2007. godine
donio odluku da je nevažeća odluka Ustavnog suda BiH u kojoj je utvrđeno da
su smjene ili zabrane rada političkih dužnosnika u BiH od strane Visokih
predstavnika, kršenje temeljnih političkih prava tih dužnosnika. Na ovaj način se
dovodila u pitanje i vladavina prava u BiH. Takođe se onemogućilo da su sva tri
kulturna segmenta u BiH, postojanje i funkcionisanjem institucije Visokog
predstavnika, onemogućene da kroz neposredni dijalog dođu do rješenja (O
stavovima Visokog predstavnika Carlosa Westendropa u: D’Amato 1999,). Istina,
dešavalo se i da se izbjegne djelovanje Visokog predstavnika. Republika Srpska
je uspjela blokirati Lajčakovu odluku od 19. oktobra 2007. godine o promjeni
etničkih kvota potrebnih za ulaganje veta u Vijeću ministara i Parlamentu BiH.
Milorad Dodik je 2011. godine uspio zaobići Visokog predstavnika Valentina
Inzka i postići dogovor s visokom predstavnicom EU za vanjske poslove i
sigurnosnu politiku, Catherine Ashton, o potrebi reformiranja pravosudnih
organa na nivou BiH.
Aktivitetom Visokog predstavnika formirane su brojne institucije na
državnom nivou (uspostavljeno Visoko sudsko i tužilačko vijeće BiH,
uspostavljeni Sud BiH i Tužilaštvo BiH), te prenesene nadležnosti sa entiteta na
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Davor Trlin & Esad Oruč
nivo Bosne i Hercegovine. Od 2000.-2006. godine došlo je do obimne izmjene
ustavnog uređenja BiH, bez ijedne intervencije u sam Ustav BiH, ali su zato
izvršene izmjene entitetskih i kantonalnih ustava, a brojni zakoni su stupilli na
snagu. Ovdje je međunarodna zajednica imala odlučujuću ulogu, putem Ureda
Visokog predstavnika. Od 2006. godine su domaće politične snage sve više i više
preuzimale ulogu u legislativi. Nakon ovog perioda se generalno smanjivala
intervencija međunarodne zajednice u pravni sistem BiH, a region je generalno
bio manje u fokusu također. Neki su sektori javnog sistema reformisani bez
nametanja rješenja od Visokog predstavnika (odbrana, uspostavljanje sistema
indirektnog oporezivanja, itd.).
Ključna godina za promjenu uloge Visokog predstavnika u političkoj
praksi bila je 2006. godina. Prvo je, nakon isteka mandata Paddyja Ashdowna,viii
Upravni Odbor Vijeća za provedbu mira, donio odluku o pripremi zatvaranja
Ureda visokog predstavnika, odnosno o prestanku važenja „bonskoga
mandata“. Nakon toga je došlo do neusvajanja tzv. „Aprilskog paketa“ ustavnih
reformi. PIC je Odluku o pripremi za zatvaranje Ureda visokog predstavnika,
odnosno o prestanku važenja „bonskog mandata“ donio 23. 06. 2006. godine. Ova
je odluka obrazložena činjenicom da je vrijeme da BiH preuzme odgovornost za
vlastitu sudbinu. Istovremeno je BiH iz faze implementacije Daytona ušla u fazu
„euro-atlantskih integracija“. U februaru 2007. Upravni odbor PIC-a odgađa tu
odluku, a mandat Visokog predstavnika je produžen za nešto više od godinu
dana (do juna 2008.). Samo je Rusija izdvojila mišljenje u komunikeu o podršci
djelovanja Visokog predstavnika pod „bonskim ovlastima“. Vremenom je
konsenzus o primjeni „bonskih ovlasti“ iščezao.
Politički direktori Upravnog odbora Vijeća za provedbu mira su na sastanku u
Bruxellessu 26. i 27. 02. 2008. godine utvrdili slijedeće zahtjeve koje organi BiH
trebaju ispuniti prije zatvaranja OHR-a, a koje su organi Bosne i Hercegovine već
prethodno prihvatili:
- Prihvatljivo i održivo rješenje pitanja raspodjele imovine između države i
drugih razina vlasti;
- Prihvatljivo i održivo rješenje za vojnu imovinu;
- Potpuna provedba Konačne odluke za Brčko;
- Fiskalna održivost (promovirana putem Sporazuma o utvrđivanju stalne
metodologije za utvrđivanje koeficijenata za raspodjelu sredstava UINOa i osnivanje Nacionalnog fiskalnog vijeća); i
- Zaživljavanje vladavine prava (demonstrirano putem usvajanja Državne
strategije za ratne zločine, donošenjem Zakona o strancima i azilu i
usvajanjem Državne strategije za reformu sektora pravosuđa).
Pored ovih ciljeva, Upravni odbor Vijeća za provedbu mira je također utvrdio
dva uvjeta koje treba ispuniti prije zatvaranja OHR-a:
- Potpisivanje SSP-a; i
- Pozitivna procjena situacije u BiH od strane Upravnog odbora Vijeća za
provedbu mira utemeljena na punom poštivanju Daytonskog mirovnog
sporazuma.
43
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
Upravni odbor Vijeća za provedbu mira je redovno na svojim sastancima
od 2008. godine vršio uvid u pomake ostvarene u pogledu realiziranja programa
(tzv. 5+2). OHR je konstatovao da, iako su u nekim oblastima ostvareni pomaci,
zbog neslaganja domaćih političkih elita, postoje zastoji u realizaciji programa.
Nakon ovog perioda je Visoki predstavnik prestao sa intervencijama u
pravni sistem BiH. Pehar (2014) smatra da se ovo, pored težnje o samostalnom
razvoju bosanskohercegovačke demokratije, vjerovatno desilo i zbog nastojanja
da se na globalnom planu spriječe konfrontacije između Ruske Federacije i SAD,
te između SAD i Evropske unije.
8. ZAKLJUČAK
Protektorat nije institut savremenog međunarodnog i unutrašnjeg prava. Danas
su rijetke situacije u kojima samo jedna država obnaša ulogu države zaštitnice.
Umjesto protektorata u ulozi zaštitnika određene države u posljednih četrdeset
godina se javlja međunarodna zajednica kroz tzv. međunarodnu teritorijalnu
upravu. Daytonski mirovni sporazum ne predviđa protektorat i vrlo je precizan
u određivanju uloge Visokog predstavnika, kada mu propisuje da je dužan da
„pomaže naporima koje strane ulažu“, da „nadgleda“ i „koordinira“. Uloga
međunarodne zajednice je, uz neke druge faktore, bila segment ograničenja
unutrašnjeg suvereniteta Bosne i Hercegovine, iako je, paradoksalno, mnogo
učinila u formiranju državnih organa i sprovođenju izbora. Ostali su drugi
faktori koji ometaju da Bosna i Hercegovina ima pun unutrašnji kapacitet na
svom teritoriju, a to su prvenstveno djelovanje pojedinih političkih elita, ali
izvedbeni oblik federalizma, koji su manifestuje kroz manjak ekonomskih
funkcija BiH te generalno državnih javnih subjektivnih prava (oba koncepta su
predstavljena u poglavlju 4). Stiče se dojam da je strategija izlaska međunarodne
zajednice iz ustavnog i političkog sistema Bosne i Hercegovine bila da se ne
oktroiraju demokratske vrijednosti, već da njen politički sloj i njeni građani,
moraju da ih nauče, a za to treba vremena. Nastojalo se i vremenom ograničene
ovlasti Visokog predstavnika rijetko koristiti kako bi se državljanima Bosne i
Hercegovine dala prilika da sami upravljaju svojom sudbinom. Smanjivala se
ovisnost Bosne i Hercegovine od međunarodne zajednice. „Klasičnim“
protektoratom bi ova ovisnost bila još i veća, a spriječila bi samoodrživost
bosanskohercegovačkog društva. Vježbe iz demokratije su svaki slijedeći izbori,
koji se odavno odvijaju bez međunarodne zajednice. Međunarodna zajednice želi
pustiti političkim elitama da se dogovore oko novog Ustava. Takođe, ne miješa
se u proces odvajanja ekonomije i pravosuđa od politike, što se odvija veoma
sporo. Iz svega se vidi da se trenutno i da će se u budućnosti uloga međunarodne
zajednice svoditi na to da usmjerava i pomaže. Nejasno je da li će Visoki
predstavnik u budućnosti nametati određene ključne zakone (ekonomske
reforme, povratak izbjeglica, nova radna mjesta...), ako većina članova
parlamenata ne bude spremna da ih donese. Najavljeno je npr. nametanje Zakona
o negiranju genocida. U intervjuu za njemački TAZ, Visoki predstavnik Valentin
44
�Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Davor Trlin & Esad Oruč
Inzko je nedavno izjavio kako tzv. princip pod nazivom „ownership” (princip
preuzimanja odgovornosti od strane domaćih političara) nije bio uspješan u
BiH. Pojasnio je i da je OHR imao dvije faze: „robusnu fazu koja je trajala 12
godina i koja je donijela čuda – zajedničku graničnu policiju, šest dodatnih
ministarstava na razini cijele države, zajedničko Ministarstvo odbrane pri čemu
je od tri vojske postala jedna kao i zajedničku valutu – konvertibilnu marku koja
je postala stabilna.”. Nakon ovog je nastupila druga faza suzdržavanja od
primjene Bonskih ovlasti, a Inzko smatra i da bi sada trebala uslijediti „treća faza
u kojoj bismo morali ponoviti neke elemente iz prve faze, inače ćemo izgubiti još
15 godina”. Bosna i Hercegovine evidentno može funkcionisati i bez velikog
uplitanja međunarodne zajednice, ali je njen put prema Evro-Atlantskim
integracijama onda jako spor. Djeluje da se procesi poput: jačanja nadležnosti
BiH, deblokada institucija i reforma pravosuđa, ne mogu adekvatno izvesti bez
međunarodne zajednice. To nas ipak ne dovodi do zaključka da je BiH
protektorat, što ona nije, ni prema teorijskom pojmu ovog odnosa ovisnosti, ali i
prema Daytonskom sporazumu. Činjenica je da taj odnos još uvijek ne postoji u
Teoriji države i prava, Međunarodnom pravu i Ustavnom pravu. Najbliži je
odnosu međunarodne uprave, ali nije ni to. Kada pravnici nešto ne mogu
definisati nazovu to sui generis (poseban oblik). Tako bismo i mi, do neke
adekvatnije terminologije, nazvali odnos ovisnosti BiH prema međunarodnoj
zajednici, koji postoji i prema pravnim rješenjima, ali i npr. prema odnosu prema
MMF-u, nazvali „poseban oblik odnosa ovisnosti sui generis“.
45
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
LITERATURA
1. Andrassy, J., Bakotić, B. & Vukas, B. (2006) Međunarodno pravo, sv. 1, Zagreb:
Školska knjiga.
2. Bakotić, B. (1998) Daytonski sporazum, Zagreb: Pravni fakultet Sveučiliπta u
Zagrebu.
3. Dautbašić, I. (2004). Finansije i finansijsko pravo, Sarajevo: Magistrat.
4. Degan, V. Đ. (2000). Međunarodno javno pravo, Rijeka: Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta
u Rijeci.
5. Hoffman, G. (1987). Protectorates. u: R. Bernhardt, (ur.) Encyclopedia of Public
International Law, sv.10, Amsterdam, New York, Oxford, Tokyo, North-Holland,
1153-1154.
6. Ibler, V. (1987), Rječnik međunarodnog javnog prava, Zagreb: Informator.
7. Klaić, B. (1986) Rječnik stranih riječi, Zagreb: Nakladni zavod MH.
8. Lapaš, D. (2004) Sankcija u međunarodnom pravu, Zagreb: Pravni fakultet u
Zagrebu.
9. Lerotić, Z. (1996). Postdaytonska Hrvatska, Politička misao, sv. 33., br. 4., 131149.
10. Maslo, S. (2000). Bosna i Hercegovina između „principa odgovornosti“ i
protektorata, Pravna misao, 9-10/2000
11. Muhić, F. (1998) Teorija države i prava III izdanje, Sarajevo: Magistrat.
12.
Office
of
the
High
Representative
(2008).
Očitanje
sa:
http://www.ohr.int/program-52-2/ .
13. Otajagić, F. (2005). Javna subjektivna prava u složenim državama, Sarajevo:
Studentska štamparija Univerziteta u Sarajevu.
14. Pehar, D. (2012). Bosna i Hercegovina kao veleposlanstvo Visokog
predstavnika – republikanska kritika, Političke analize, br. 10, 3-9.
15. Pehar, D. (2014). Zašto Visoki predstavnik sa “bonskim” mandatom nikada
nije značio pozitivni pomak za Bosnu I Hercegovinu: četiri refleksije. Očitanje sa
linka: https://www.idpi.ba/visoki-predstavnik/
16. Perić, B. (1994) Država i pravni sustav, Šesto izdanje, Prvo izdanje u „Pravnoj
biblioteci“, Zagreb: Informator.
17. Rješenje Firera i Kancelara Rajha od 16. 03. 1939. godine, RGBI, I 1939 s. 485.
18. Schmitt, C. (1929) Čuvar ustava, u: S. Samardžić (iz.) Norma i odluka – Karl Šmit
i njegovi kritičari Prevod njemačkog originala: Danilo N. Basta, Beograd: „Filip
Višnjić“, 211-253
19. Schweisfurth, T. (2006). Völkerrecht, Tübingen.
20. Seidl I. & Hohenveldern, T. (2006.). Völkerrecht Tübingen.
21. Sloan E. C. (1998). The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia
and Herzegovina u: Bosnia and the New Collective Security, London: Praeger, 1998.
22. Sokol & Smerdel (1998) , Ustavno pravo, Zagreb: Informator.
23. Visković, N. (2006) Teorija države i prava, Zagreb: Birotehnika.
i
46
Usp. Rješenje Firera i Kancelara Rajha od 16. 03. 1939. godine, RGBI, I 1939 s. 485.
�Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Davor Trlin & Esad Oruč
Najpoznatiji su oni nad Marokom (od 1912.- 1956. godine), i Tunisom (1881.-1956. godine).
Posljednji britanski protektorat je Brunei . 1959. je Brunei dobio samostalnost, ali su vanjski poslovi i
odbrana i dalje bili u nadležnosti Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva. 1983. godine je ugovorena puna nezavisnost, a
od 01. 01. 1984. godine, Brunei je samostalna država, koja je 1984. godine primljena u Ujedinjene nacije.
iv Na osnovu ugovora od 27. 07. 1919. godine, Francuska je imala uticaja na personalni sastav vlade Monaka.
Do današnjeg dana, francuska vlada ima odgovornost za odbranu Monaka, dok Monako ima samo male
policijske snage i stražu palate. Ugovorom koji je potpisan 09. 11. 2005. u Parizu, Monako je dobio veću
autonomiju u međunarodnim odnosima, ali i dalje ima obavezu da se za najvažnija pitanja konsultira sa
Francuskom.
v Razlog je što bi takav odnos bio u suprotnosti sa članom 78. Povelje Ujedinjenih nacija i uslovima pod
kojima je BiH primljena u članstvo UN-a. Šire: Edin Šarčević, Ustav iz nužde, Rabic, Sarajevo, 2010., s. 332.
vi To su: Konvencija o sprečavanju i kažnjavanju zločina genocida iz 1948., Ženevske konvencije I-IV o zaštiti
žrtava rata iz 1949. sa Ženevskim protokolima I-II iz 1977., Konvencija o statusu izbjeglica iz 1951. s
Protokolom iz 1966., Konvencija o državljanstvu udatih žena iz 1957., Konvencija o smanjenju slučajeva bez
državljanstva iz 1961., Međunarodna konvencija o ukidanju svih oblika rasne diskriminacije iz 1965.,
Međunarodni pakt o ekonomskim, socijalnim i kulturnim pravima iz 1966., Međunarodni pakt o
građanskim i političkim pravima iz 1966. s fakultativnim protokolima iz 1966. i 1989., Konvencija o ukidanju
svih oblika diskriminacije žena iz 1979., Konvencija protiv mučenja i drugih okrutnih, nečovječnih ili
ponižavajućih postupaka ili kazni iz 1984., Evropska konvencija o sprečavanju mučenja i nečovječnih ili
ponižavajućih postupaka ili kazni iz 1987., Konvencija o pravima djeteta iz 1989., Međunarodna konvencija
o zaπtiti prava svih radnika migranata i članova njihovih obitelji iz 1990., Evropska povelja za regionalne ili
manjinske jezika iz 1992., Okvirna konvencija za zaštitu nacionalnih manjina iz 1994.
vii Ovo uključuje: Sjedinjene Američke Države, Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo Velike Britanije i Sjeverne Irske
Njemačku, Francusku, Tursku (u ime Organizacije islamske konferencije), Rusku Federaciju, i
Predsjedništvo Evropske unije.
viii Riječ je o Visokom predstavniku koji je sa funkcije smijenio najviše dužnosnika u BiH (uključujući i
smjenu člana Predsjedništva BiH). Samo u 2004. godini je smijenio šezdeset dužnosnika Republike Srpske
zbog „nekooperativnosti u pronalaženju i hapšenju Radovana Karadžića“. Samo mjesec dana prije (juni) iste
godine, je Parlamentarna skupština Vijeća Evrope, pozdravila činjenicu smanjivanja broja intervencija
Visokog predstavnika u BiH, što je bila jedna indicija jačanja demokratije u BiH.
ii
iii
47
�
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Title
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Journal of Education and Humanities
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education and Humanities
Dublin Core
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Title
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Bosna i Hercegovina - država ili protektorat?
Author
Author
Davor Trlin, Esad Oruč
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
U ovom radu ćemo, kroz analizu normativnog okvira za djelovanje ovih
institucija, ali i njihov sam aktivitet, te aplikaciju međunarodnih standarda u BiH,
pokušati doći do odgovora na pitanje da li je Bosna i Hercegovina država ili
protektorat. Kroz implementaciju Daytonskog sporazuma se postiglo dosta, ali
većinom je zaslužan bio aktivitet međunarodne zajednice. Taja aktivitet ni, prema
Općem okvirnom sporazumu za mir, ne predviđa protektorat. Ipak, posebno u
prvim godinama funkcioniranja post-Daytonske Bosne i Hercegovine, brojni
ustavno-pravni teoretičari su pokušavali definirati pravnu prirodu odnosa
ovisnosti Bosne i Hercegovine prema međunarodnoj zajednici u određenim
elementima (koja se kasnije sve više ublažavala). Rezultati su pokazali da nema
jednoznačnog odgovora. Ovo pitanje je u posljednjih petnaest godina u domaćoj
ali i regionalnoj ustavno-pravnoj nauci prešlo na periferiju interesiranja. Ali, čini
se da je vrijeme da ga se ponovo postavi, posebno u svjetlu najave promjena
odnosa ključnih subjekata međunarodne zajednice prema Bosni i Hercegovini.
Takođe nas interesuje i pitanje koje je povezano s ovim centralnim istraživačkim,
a to je stepen suvereniteta države Bosne i Hercegovine unutra, ali i prema vani,
imajući u vidu Daytonski konstrukt uključenosti međunarodne zajednice u
ustavno-politički sistem Bosne i Hercegovine. / In this paper, through the analysis of the normative framework for the
operation of these institutions, but also their activity, and the application of
international standards in BiH, we will try to find an answer to the question of
whether Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state or a protectorate. A lot has been
achieved through the implementation of the Dayton Agreement, but most of it was
due to the activity of the international community. According to the General
Framework Agreement for Peace, this activity does not envisage a protectorate.
However, especially in the first years of the functioning of post-Dayton Bosnia and
Herzegovina, many constitutional and legal theorists tried to define the legal
nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina's dependence on the international community
in certain elements (which later softened). The results showed no unambiguous
answer. In the last fifteen years, this issue has moved to the periphery of interest
in domestic and regional constitutional and legal science. But it seems the time to
re-establish it has come, especially in light of the announcement of changes in the
attitudes of key actors in the international community towards Bosnia and
Herzegovina. We are also interested in the issue related to this central research,
which is the degree of sovereignty of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina inside
and outside, given the Dayton construct of the international community's
involvement in the constitutional and political system of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Keywords
Keywords.
Protektorat,
Međunarodna zajednica,
Visoki predstavnik, Vijeće za
implementaciju mira, Bonske
ovlasti. / Protectorate,
International Community,
High Representative, Peace
Implementation Council,
Bonn Powers.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2566-4638
DOI
Digital object identifier
10.14706/JEH2021323
-
https://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/7ddead26038654065181856ab84ba4fe.pdf
be010fee6487bae9252386b7eb311249
PDF Text
Text
Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3 (2), pp. 48-63, Winter 2020
Original research paper
ISSN 2566-4638
© International Burch University
Conceptualizing News Literacy
Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich, M.A
FH Burgenland, Austria
1819001202@fh-burgenland.at
Abstract: The nascent field of news literacy is often described as a
subset of media literacy. A review of international scholarship with
regard to news literacy conceptualizations confirms that there are
diverse and competing notions of its definition and purpose: while
the civic component of news literacy clearly distinguishes it from
media literacy and other new literacies, there is a noticeable divide
between journalism-driven and media literacy-derived approaches.
Qualitative data analysis was used to identify patterns in a subset of
approximately 120 examples of current English-language
international scholarship. By proposing three preliminary
taxonomic classifications of news literacy – protectionist versus
empowerment; skills versus knowledge; and levels of abstraction –
this conceptual paper provides orientation in the field.
Keywords: Literacy, media
literacy, news literacy,
taxonomy.
Article History
Submitted: 10 December 2020
Accepted: 10 January 2021
�Conceptualizing News Literacy
Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
1. INTRODUCTION
Defining “news literacy” is a challenge when the definitions of both news and
literacy are in flux. Where “news” was once a valuable commodity gathered by
professional journalists and distributed regularly to mass audiences, it is now
ubiquitous, available 24-7, often free, and increasingly customized (Ashley,
2020). Today’s news consumers must be able to navigate an increasingly
complicated news ecosystem in order to find news they can trust. Similarly, the
meaning of “literacy” has also evolved. Since the 1970s, the scope of literacy
began to expand in education from the ability to read and write to become a
meaning-making activity that requires different skills for different types of media
messages: “Literacy today [...] is inevitably and necessarily multimedia literacy;
and to this extent, traditional forms of literacy teaching are no longer adequate”
(Buckingham, 2003, p. 35). Multiple new literacies have emerged in lockstep with
the development of digital technologies (Stordy, 2015), including not only media
and news literacy, but also computer, data, digital, economic, health, historical,
information, MIL (media and information literacy), new, scientific, and visual
literacy.
The term news literacy first emerged among journalism educators around
2006 (Fleming, 2017). News literacy has been characterized as a subset and
“crucial emerging field” of scholarship and education within the larger field of
media literacy (Mihailidis, 2012, xii-2). As a subfield of media literacy (Ashley,
Maksl, & Craft, 2013; Kendrick & Fullerton, 2019; Mihailidis, 2012; Palsa &
Ruokamo, 2015; Tully, Vraga, & Smithson, 2018) it has inherited to an extent the
same fruitless debate on definitions, scope, and aims that has plagued media
literacy since the early 1990s (Maksl, Craft, Ashley, & Miller, 2017). There is to
date no universally accepted formulation of news literacy. Its various
permutations include news literacy, news media literacy, critical news media literacy,
and critical news literacy. A recent paper co-published by a constellation of news
literacy scholars went so far as to claim that the “[current] state of the field is
chaotic ” (Vraga, Tully, Maksl, Craft, & Ashley, 2020, p. 13).
Yet even though “chaos” may be overstating the status quo, navigating
today’s news information environment has indeed become an increasingly
complex task. The key goals of media literacy education, such as enhancing
critical thinking skills (Silverblatt, 2004, 2014); analysis and evaluation
(Aufderheide, 1993; Hobbs, 2010); conscious processing of media messages
(Potter, 2004); and promoting civic agency (Mihailidis, 2019) may be applied
specifically to news content and news products. Whether such application allows
news literacy to emerge as a full-fledged, independent discipline may be beside
the point. Allowing for a degree of “semantic interoperability” with respect to
news literacy definitions would better reflect the diversity of news and news
consumers, as Malik et al. argue (2013, p. 9). The more important goal must surely
be to produce savvy and empowered readers and disseminators of various kinds
of media messages, including news.
49
�Journal of Education and Humanities
Volume 3, Issue 2, Winter 2020
The purpose of this paper is to address the question of whether
meaningful classifications of news literacy definitions can be established at all.
Doing so may help clarify the current state of this cross-disciplinary field, but
also provide a framework for future scholarly work in this domain.
2. METHODOLOGY
This paper draws on a systematic literature review of news literacy which was
carried out in 2019. The literature review describes the current state of research
and identifies both scholarly and non-academic organizations and institutions
active in the field. While its theoretical focus lies on English-language scholarship
originating primarily in the US and UK, the review encompasses Englishlanguage scientific papers published by international scholars. Due to the nature
of the topic itself – news literacy –material published by non-academics such as
journalists, media commentators, educational outreach organizations and
programs has also been included in the literature review.
Searches were carried out on ERIC, SSCI, Google Scholar, ProQuest and
commercial search engines as well as on the theses and dissertation databases
OATD, BASE, and NDLTD. The literature review has been continually
augmented with works published since 2019, with particular effort devoted to
identifying new papers by scholars or practitioners already included in the
original literature review.
Using the full literature review as a base, an electronic search was carried
out during the months of August and September 2020 to identify whether, and
how often, the terms news literacy, news media literacy, critical news media literacy
and/or critical news literacy were used in the body of papers or published
materials. This step yielded approximately 120 peer-reviewed papers that used
one of the terms at least once. Several monographs and encyclopedia entries
published by scholars in the field were also identified. Occurrences of the terms
that were limited to citations or bibliographies were excluded for the purpose of
this study. Backward and forward searches of citations were carried out
selectively to ensure the completeness of the set. In a next step, qualitative data
analysis software tools were used to extract a collection of relevant terms and
concepts. These key operative words, including “skills,” “knowledge,” “civic,”
“democracy,” “act,” and “produce” (see also Table 1.) were counted, analyzed,
and used to identify possible relationships.
3. RESULTS
Of the approximately 120 works identified that use the term news literacy (or
variants thereof) in the body of the work, only 37 offer any type of specific
definition of the term itself. The rest – around 80 – use the term, but do not define
or otherwise elaborate on it. Instead, these papers often situate news literacy
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Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
within the existing media literacy landscape; it is characterized as one “strand”
in the “big tent” of media literacy education which embraces critical media
literacy as well as digital, information and visual literacies (RobbGrieco & Hobbs,
2013, p. 22). It is often described as a subset or outgrowth of media literacy which
applies the general media literacy principles of act, access, analyze, and create to
news-based texts (Ashley et al., 2013; Jones-Jang, Mortensen, & Liu, 2019;
Kamerer, 2013; Kartal, Yazgan, & Kincal, 2017; Kendrick & Fullerton, 2019;
Mihailidis, 2012; Notley & Dezuanni, 2019; Sivek, 2018). Toepfl (2014)
characterizes critical news literacy as part of the media literacy tradition, yet
emphasizes that its facets vary according to whether it is applied in countries
with democratic or non-democratic regimes. Others situate news literacy within
other related literacies such as digital media literacy (Dezuanni, Notley, & Corser,
2020) or information and digital literacies (CIVIX, 2020). Kendrick & Fullerton
(2019) point to the intersection of news literacy with civic literacy. Finally, news
literacy is occasionally offered as just one of many in a long list of literacies (Palsa
& Ruokamo, 2015; Stordy, 2015).
Of the 37 works that define news literacy, 21 propose original or own
definitions. The remainder cite previously published definitions forwarded by
other scholars or organizations. Twelve of the 21 original definitions are offered
by one or more scholars in the loose collective of Ashley, Craft, Maksl, Tully and
Vraga. Four definitions originate with or are directly associated with the Center
for News Literacy at Stony Brook University (Center for News Literacy, 2019),
and an additional five definitions are proposed by journalists, practitioners, or
educational organizations.
Malik et al. underscore that what sets news literacy apart from other
literacies is its “connection to civic engagement” (2013, p. 7). The US-based News
Literacy Project cites the promotion of “engaged participation in civic life” as the
ultimate aim of news literacy (2020, p. 5). The 21 original definitions and/or
statements of purpose located in this study tend to confirm this clear
differentiating characteristic: eighteen refer expressly to the civic and/or
democratic aspects.
Table 1. Occurrences of operative words in news literacy definitions and
statements of purpose
Term
Total
number
of
mentions
Ability, abilities
13
Act, active, action
9
Analyze, analysis
6
Assess
4
Attitude(s)
3
Civic
7
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Citizen,
citizenry,
citizenship
Create, creation
Credible, credibility
Critical, critically
Democracy, democratic
Empower, empowered
Engage,
engaged,
engagement
Evaluate
Fact, fact-based
Information
Informed
Knowledge,
knowledgeable
Meaningful
Mindful
Navigate
News consumer(s)
News consumption
News production
Productive
Skill, skills, skillset
Understand,
understanding
Verify, verification
13
5
4
20
11
8
16
6
3
18
7
13
1
2
1
3
9
15
1
16
16
2
Note: Key operative words counted in the group of 21 works proposing original or own news literacy
definitions and/or statements of purpose. Due to the small number of units of analysis, permutations of the
same word are grouped together. Only the first mention of the term is included in the count.
4. DISCUSSION
News literacy is still a young discipline with a relatively small yet rapidly
growing body of scholarly research. As its definition and purpose evolve, there
will likely be more material with which to create truly meaningful taxonomies.
Before delineating three possible modes of classification, it is useful to track the
evolution of definitions offered by one or more of the scholars who have coauthored multiple papers in the discipline since 2010: those belonging to the
aforementioned loose constellation of Ashley, Maksl, Craft, Tully and Vraga.
In 2010, Ashley, Poepsel and Willis employ the term media literacy in their
exploration of the ways in which knowledge of media ownership influences
opinions on print news credibility (2010). In “Developing a News Media Literacy
Scale” (2013), Ashley, Maksl and Craft describe news media literacy as a “subset of
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Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
the broader field of media literacy” without providing an explicit definition of
the term. Two years later, Maksl, Ashley and Craft again use news media literacy
(2015), describing it as an “emerging subfield” of media literacy. Ashley later
writes (2020, p. 50) that the authors deliberately used news media literacy in the
2015 study to underline their allegiance to the discipline’s roots in media literacy,
as opposed to journalism. The same authors employed news media literacy again
in “News Media Literacy and Political Engagement: What’s The connection?”
(Ashley, Maksl, & Craft, 2017). Yet in another paper published in the same year,
news literacy was the main term used in their evaluation of the Stony Brook
University curriculum (Maksl et al., 2017). They describe the overlap and
competition among different literacies, and describe news literacy in spatial
terms: “If a definition of news literacy is the destination, then the journey to reach
it passes through several other literacy neighborhoods” (2017, p. 229). Ashley
offers an autonomous definition for news literacy in the International Encyclopedia
of Journalism (2019b): “Starting from the premise that an informed citizenry is
central to democratic self‐governance, news literacy is comprised of the
knowledge, skills, and dispositions that news audiences need to successfully
engage with news media. [. . . ].” The most recent collective effort of the scholars
Vraga, Tully, Maksl, Craft and Ashley employs the term news literacy, which they
define as “Knowledge of the personal and social processes by which news is
produced, distributed, and consumed, and skills that allow users some control
over these processes” (2020, p. 15). In his 2020 monograph News Literacy and
Democracy, Ashley claims that news literacy “has emerged as a domain of its own”
and while distinct from media literacy, still belongs to its overarching realm
(2020, p. 17).
In addition to identifying how the term has developed thus far, patterns
may also be discerned in the 37 instances located for this study. These may be
elaborated in three preliminary modes of classification. The first is based on the
general protectionist and empowerment paradigms in the media literacy
education tradition (RobbGrieco & Hobbs, 2013, p. 2). A second draws on the
skills and knowledge-based framework developed by Potter (2004). A third
presents news literacy as one level of abstraction in a framework proposed by
Palsa & Ruokamo (2015). Each of the four permutations of the term (news literacy,
news media literacy, critical news media literacy, and critical news literacy) have been
merged in the creation of these classifications.
5. NEWS LITERACY PARADIGMS
The varying approaches to defining news literacy may be generally categorized
as fundamentally protectionist, or empowering (Mihailidis, 2012; RobbGrieco &
Hobbs, 2013). The protectionist paradigm presupposes a more “correct” way to
consume news and aims to cultivate appreciation of it (Fleming, 2014). It
encourages news consumers to think like journalists, and to employ the
traditional tools and techniques of the journalism trade (e.g. verification,
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consulting multiple sources, using an accuracy checklist etc.). In contrast, the
empowerment paradigm stems from the critical/cultural tradition in which the
individual not only interprets and deconstructs (news) media messages, but can
also actively contribute to message creation and dissemination. In news literacy,
the protectionist approach drills down on concrete news products and messages,
while the empowerment approach encourages contemplation of the wider
socioeconomic, cultural and institutional contexts. The protectionist paradigm is
most closely associated with proponents based in the United States, while the
empowerment paradigm is more global in scope (Fleming, 2017).
Origins
General stance
vis-à-vis media
Orientation
Desired actions
Geographic
sphere
Proponents
Table 2. News Literacy Paradigms
Protectionist Paradigm
Empowerment
Paradigm
Journalism, journalists, J-school
Critical/cultural
approach (“think like a journalist”)
approach
(based on media literacy
in US, media education
in UK)
Aims to mitigate potentially harmful
Encourages individual
media effects by cultivating
construction and
appreciation for certain media forms
negotiation of meaning
and messages
in all media forms
Content-oriented: examines and
Context-oriented:
evaluates specific news texts or news
considers the larger
products
socioeconomic, cultural,
institutional contexts
Skill cultivation: journalistic tools of
Ability to access,
fact-checking, verification, accuracy
analyze, create, reflect,
checklists, sourcing practices
act in all media
“American”
Global
Center for News Literacy at Stony
Brook University; News Literacy
Project (US); Poynter Institute; Radio
Television Digital News Association
(US); Howard Schneider (founder of
Stony Brook program)
Seth Ashley; Renee
Hobbs; Malik, Cortesi &
Gasser (2013); Paul
Mihailidis; Stephen D.
Reese
6. SKILLS VERSUS KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH
The skills versus knowledge-based taxonomy follows Potter’s (2004)
classification of media literacy definitions. After counting explicit mentions of an
operative set of terms across all 37 definitions, four main areas of focus were
delineated: 1) “skills” (the related terms “abilities,” “competencies” were also
counted in this category); 2) “knowledge” (including “understanding,”
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Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
“comprehension”); 3) the combination of both “skills” and “knowledge.” This
study adds a fourth and crucial aspect, the “civic” component.
Table 3 classifies the original definitions according to the four areas. The
modest number of definitions (units of analysis) hinders the creation of
substantive classifications, yet a heightened emphasis on “skills” can be
discerned among the journalism-centric authors and organizations based in the
US (e.g. Center for News Literacy and its founder Schneider, the News Literacy
Project, Radio Television Digital News Association). Variations of “civic”
(“citizen,” “citizenship,” etc.) were included in eight definitions, thus
underscoring its centrality to the discipline. This aligns with Mihailidis, who
locates news literacy at the intersection of journalism, technology, and citizenship
(2012); and Malik et al., who stress that it is the “connection to civic engagement”
that sets news literacy apart from the other literacies (2013, p. 7). Appendix 1
offers verbatim excerpts of wording within each definitional focus area.
Table 3. News Literacy Definitional Focus
Definitional focus
Author(s)/Year
(listed in alphabetical order by author)
Focus on skills
Ashley et al. 2017
Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook
University (US)
Kajimoto & Fleming 2019
News Literacy Project (US)
Radio Television Digital News Association (US)
Schneider, Howard (Stony Brook University)
Focus on knowledge
Maksl et al. 2015
Reese 2012
RobbGrieco & Hobbs 2013
Focus on both skills
Ashley 2019
and knowledge
Ashley 2019a
Ashley 2020
Malik et al. 2013
Tully et al. 2018
Vraga et al. 2020
Mention of civic
Ashley 2019
component
Ashley 2019a
Ashley 2020
Kajimoto & Fleming 2019
Malik et al. 2013
Mihailidis 2012
News Literacy Project (US)
RobbGrieco & Hobbs 2013
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7. LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION FRAMEWORK
One thread identified in this study is a reluctance among scholars to insist on the
universality of any one news literacy definition. In their preference for semantic
flexibility, Malik et al. emphasize the importance of understanding the building
blocks of news literacy: what people need news for, how and why they seek out
news, and identifying how to help news consumers hone their skills in evaluating
and disseminating news (2013, pp. 8–9). Mihailidis has alluded to the lack of clear
definitional boundaries between news and media literacy. Yet rather than
limiting the concept from the outset, he suggests a more flexible approach that
enables “definitional rigor and fluency” to arise naturally in the course of
scholarship and pedagogy (2012, p. 3). Palsa & Ruokamo (2015) eschew
altogether any attempt to establish a global definition of media literacy,
proposing instead to recognize the legitimacy of multiliteracies and arrange these
on the basis of high, medium, and low levels of abstraction.
This more holistic view of literacies may indeed be of use when
considering news literacy. Adapting the Palsa & Ruokamo framework to this
end, media literacy – in this instance, the overall desired outcome of education –
is thus the highest level of abstraction. News literacy is situated in the middle,
and is employed as a targeted application of media literacy concepts to newsbased texts. At the lowest level of abstraction are literacies that feed into both
news and media literacy, such as headline literacy (Johnson, Paal, Waggoner, &
Bleier, 2020), which involves the ways in which news consumers identify and
evaluate the reliability of news headlines, particularly in social media-rich
information environments.
Table 4. Framework of abstraction for literacies (based on Palsa & Ruokamo, 2015)
High level of abstraction
Media literacy as desired outcome of educational efforts
Medium level of abstraction
News literacy as targeted application of media literacy concepts
Low level of abstraction
Headline literacy as highly specific and contextualized application of
news literacy concepts
8. CONCLUSION
This study underscores the current lack of any single, universally accepted
definition of news literacy in the English-language literature. Most scholarly
works included in this study apply the foundational definition of media literacy
to news-based texts instead of providing a new or original definition of news
literacy. Moreover, as a stand-alone discipline, news literacy competes not only
with media literacy, but with a range of other new or newish literacies, in
particular digital and information literacy. Yet news literacy is consistently
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Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
distinguished from other literacies by way of its civic component. This study
suggests that among the relatively small group of scholars and practitioners that
employs the term, classification of conceptualizations may follow the
protectionist versus empowerment paradigm; a skills versus knowledge-based
approach; or within a framework of levels of abstraction. This classification could
serve as an initial taxonomic foundation which may be built upon as the
discipline develops.
A clear limitation of this study is the small number of extant original
definitions of news literacy. However, as the field matures and the corpus of
scholarly research expands, future researchers will have more material to draw
on in order to create more substantive classifications. The overall scope of
evaluation could be enlarged to include news literacy scholarship originating in
non-Anglo countries and explore the dimensions of the term in other languages.
The present rapid pace of publication in the field will likely continue as
researchers explore how news literacy is helping – or not helping – news
consumers navigate the complexities of news ecospheres, and whether news
literacy functions as a corrective to the scourge of “fake news” and
misinformation.
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APPENDIX 1.
News Literacy Definitional Focus as described in Table 3.
In alphabetical/chronological order for each category.
SKILL-BASED DEFINITIONS
Ashley et al.
"News media literacy takes the broad goals of media literacy—the ability to
access, analyze, evaluate, and create media [...] —and applies them to news
content specifically with a focus on the contexts of news production." (2017, p. 81)
Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University
“News Literacy is the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability
and credibility of news reports, whether they come via print, television, radio,
the internet or social media.” (2019)
Kajimoto & Fleming
“News literacy is an emerging field within the disciplines of media literacy,
journalism education, information technology, and other related areas, although
there is no unified definition or consensus among researchers as to what exactly
the news literacy curriculum should entail. Its core mission is broadly recognized
as ‘citizen empowerment’ in that the critical-thinking skills necessary to the
evaluation of news reports and the ability to identify fact-based, quality
information encourage active participation and engagement among wellinformed citizens.” (2019)
News Literacy Project (US)
“News literacy is the ability to determine the credibility of news and other
content, to identify different types of information and to use the standards of
authoritative, fact-based journalism to discern credible sources and content from
misinformation and unreliable sources. Being more news-literate also means
recognizing the critical role of the First Amendment and a free press in a
democracy and interacting with news and other information in ways that
promote engaged participation in civic life.” (2020, p. 5)
Radio Television Digital News Association (US)
“News literacy is the acquisition of 21st-century, critical-thinking skills for
analyzing and judging the reliability of news and information, differentiating
among facts, opinions and assertions in the media we consume, create and
distribute.” (2020)
Schneider, Howard (Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University)
“News literacy is the ability to decide for yourself whether the news reports you
receive, whether they come from television, the Internet, newspapers, or
magazines, whether those reports are reliable. And by reliable I mean whether
you can act on the information. Can you take an action? Can you reach a
conclusion? Can you make a judgment? Or is the information suspect or
insufficient – and how do you know?” (2019)
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KNOWLEDGE-BASED DEFINITIONS
Maksl et al.
“News media literacy is oriented toward understanding how and why people
engage with news media, how they make sense of what they consume, and how
individuals are affected by their own news consumption.” (2015, p. 29)
Reese, Stephen D.
“By news literacy I essentially mean an understanding of how news ‘works,’
including the underlying media and technological systems that support certain
meanings embedded in media ‘texts’ and the creative process that yields them [.
. . ]; [global] news literacy, then, means the ability to understand, ‘decode,’ and
create media with particular awareness of one’s social location within an
international context.” (2012, p. 65)
RobbGrieco & Hobbs
"This strand [of media literacy] helps learners understand and participate in the
roles and responsibilities that newsmakers, news consumers, news texts, and
news organizations play in a healthy society. Practitioners focus on key questions
of representation and reality, and of techniques used to construct messages in the
news.” (2013, p. 22)
BOTH SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Ashley (International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies)
“Starting from the premise that an informed citizenry is central to democratic
self‐governance, news literacy is comprised of the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions that news audiences need to successfully engage with news media
[. . . ].” (2019b)
Ashley (International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy)
“[The] emerging field of news literacy includes the knowledge and skills
necessary for empowered audiences to engage with news media and civic life in
meaningful and productive ways.” (2019a)
Ashley
"News literacy is the critical evaluation of information content as well as the
contexts where it is produced and consumed. We can think of news literacy as
the set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that a person brings to their personal
consumption of information and to their understanding of the structure of the
news media landscape.” (2020, p. 9)
Malik et al.
“News literacy is at the intersection of [media and information literacies], as news
is a type of information which can be delivered through the media. However, its
connection to civic engagement is what conceptually distinguishes it from other
information or media.” (2013, p. 7)
Tully et al.
"NML [news media literacy] [. . .] emphasizes the development of knowledge,
skills and a personal sense of control about media choices”; “[. . . ] NML, then,
62
�Conceptualizing News Literacy
Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
focuses on the necessary abilities relevant to becoming a critical news consumer."
(2018, 3-4)
Vraga et al.
News literacy is “knowledge of the personal and social processes by which news
is produced, distributed, and consumed, and skills that allow users some control
over these processes.” (2020, p. 15)
CIVIC COMPONENT (WHERE NOT ALREADY INCLUDED ABOVE)
Mihailidis
“The news literacy educational movement is premised on exploring how to best
prepare journalists and citizens for lives of active inquiry and participatory
citizenship in information societies worldwide.” (2012, p. 8)
63
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Journal of Education and Humanities
Subject
The topic of the resource
Education and Humanities
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Conceptualizing News Literacy
Author
Author
Kimberly Callecod-Weinrich
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The nascent field of news literacy is often described as a
subset of media literacy. A review of international scholarship with
regard to news literacy conceptualizations confirms that there are
diverse and competing notions of its definition and purpose: while
the civic component of news literacy clearly distinguishes it from
media literacy and other new literacies, there is a noticeable divide
between journalism-driven and media literacy-derived approaches.
Qualitative data analysis was used to identify patterns in a subset of
approximately 120 examples of current English-language
international scholarship. By proposing three preliminary
taxonomic classifications of news literacy – protectionist versus
empowerment; skills versus knowledge; and levels of abstraction –
this conceptual paper provides orientation in the field.
Keywords
Keywords.
iteracy, media
literacy, news literacy,
taxonomy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2566-4638
DOI
Digital object identifier
10.14706/JEH2021324