Bøker utgitt av Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

This book explores non-territorial autonomy (NTA), an important modality of ethnic and religious diversity management. It addresses issues such as the limits and possibilities of implementing NTA models in liberal democracies, the ways in which NTA can serve the goals of European integration, and the role of NTA in resolving territorial conflicts.

Cet ouvrage propose une etude de la question du genre dans l'oeuvre d'Agota Kristof, ecrivaine suisse francophone d'origine hongroise. La preponderance des narrateurs masculins dans sa prose suggere la superiorite du masculin.

The Language of Self explores the portrayal of subjectivity in Don DeLillo's fiction. It proposes that his characters' conception of self is determined by the tension between a desire for connection and a longing for isolation. The particular form taken by this language of self is shown to be both shaped by, and in turn formed through, an interaction with larger, social constructions of agency. In order to explore this phenomenon from both an individual and a social perspective, the author undertakes detailed close readings of DeLillo's texts, informed by nuanced theoretical analysis which stresses the symbiotic interaction of social and individual context. This method informs the structure of the book, which is divided into three sections. The first, entitled 'Dasein', conceptualises how DeLillo's characters navigate between isolation and connection, shaping a particular enunciation of self which reflects the balance they strike between self and other. 'Phenomenology', the second section, explores how DeLillo's treatment of language and image alters this balance and examines the sustainability of each enunciation of self. The final section, 'Das Man', addresses how the language of self shapes, and is shaped by, a wider social context.

Contemporary impressions of Islam - especially in the post-9/11 world - are creating daunting challenges for Muslims everywhere. Muslim women, because of their specific mode of attire, seem to be at the forefront of the growing skepticism surrounding Islamic education. Ironically, it would appear that the same detailed attention devoted by Islamic scholars to the conduct of Muslim women now surfaces in contemporary debates, focusing on the exclusionary practices they remain subjected to in their communities. Yet because these debates seldom move beyond continued diatribes against Muslim women's subjugation to entrenched societal norms of male chauvinism, little is known about what has given shape to their identity and sense of belonging. This book attempts to further the debate in two ways: Firstly, it offers an insight into how some Muslim women engage with one another and with society more generally, and how their practices reflect the plurality of interpretations constitutive of Islam both within and outside the spheres of cosmopolitanism. Secondly, it offers the opportunity to consider how a renewed Islamic education informed by the principles of democratic citizenship education can begin to reshape multifarious forms of engagement by, with and among Muslim women.

Analysis of language as a combination of both a structural and a lexical component overlooks a third all-encompassing aspect: dynamics. Dynamic Linguistics approaches the description of the complex phenomenon that is human language by focusing on this important but often neglected aspect. This book charts the belated recognition of the importance of dynamic synchrony in twentieth-century linguistics and discusses two other key concepts in some detail: speech community and language structure. Because of their vital role in the development of a dynamic approach to linguistics, the three linguists William Labov, Andre Martinet and Roman Jakobson are featured, in particular Martinet in whose later writings - neglected in the English-speaking world - the fullest appreciation of the dynamics of language to date are found. A sustained attempt is also made to chronicle precursors, between the nineteenth century and the 1970s, who provided inspiration for these three scholars in the development of a dynamic approach to linguistic description and analysis. The dynamic approach to linguistics is intended to help consolidate functional structuralists, geolinguists, sociolinguists and all other empirically minded linguists within a broader theoretical framework as well as playing a part in reversing the overformalism of the simplistic structuralist framework which has dominated, and continues to dominate, present-day linguistic description.

Many countries have national policies in relation to English language teaching that are monitored through standardized tests, and students' performance in these tests may have a significant impact on their career prospects. When such high stakes become attached to a language test, it begins to play a far greater role than originally intended. A preeminent example is the College English Test (CET), taken biannually by upwards of ten million students in China, which makes it the world's largest national English test. Its impact is evident in many areas of Chinese society. Specified grades on the CET are requirements for graduation from universities, many job applications and even some residence permits. Consolidated CET results are widely used for rating teachers for promotion and for competitively grading institutions, hence influencing strategic planning by universities, government departments and companies, particularly those engaged in publishing or bookselling. The CET has, furthermore, given rise to a highly organized cheating 'industry', which is the subject of frequent governmental disclaimers and warnings. This book reports on an extensive study of the impact of the CET in China, both on the lives of students and teachers and on educational and governmental institutions. The authors also draw theoretical and practical implications from their study for educational planners in other countries.

This book investigates the study abroad profile of non-native speaker teachers of English, exploring the impact of studying abroad on the acquisition of sociopragmatic variation patterns and the relationship between such patterns and identity development. Introducing the concept of 'loci of learning', the book provides a compelling insight into the relationship between the duration of study abroad and the intensity and diversity of access to the target language. It then proceeds to explore the impact of varying degrees of intensity and diversity of language contact on the development of sociopragmatic variation patterns through a micro-analysis of recorded learner discourse. Finally, it maps the correlation between these linguistic patterns and the enactment of a compound identity. Linking ethnographic and quantitative data with extensive examples of learner discourse, the author offers a unique perspective on non-native speaker teachers of English. By turning the focus of study abroad research onto this group, who are not only learners but also disseminators of the language, this book fills a significant gap in current scholarship.

In this book, outstanding researchers from the fields of History, Language and Literature discuss the different ways for getting internal cohesion in Portugal and Catalonia from its medieval origin to 19th century, examining the reasons behind the dissimilar evolution of the two peripheral sides of the Iberian Peninsula.

The volume focuses on the languages of Anglophone films and television series and their dubbing into Italian. The chapters cover a rich range of topics including syntactic, lexical and sociolinguistic features of audiovisual dialogue, cross-linguistic contrasts, and the translation of culture specific references and multilingualism on screen.

This book tackles the history of the Swiss watch industry in a global perspective: it gives particular attention to rival nations such as the United Kingdom, the USA and Japan. The author demonstrates how Swiss watchmakers succeeded in facing various challenges: the industrialization of production at the end of the 19th century, the delocalization of production in the interwar years and globalization since the 1960's. These challenges helped Switzerland to maintain and strengthen its position as a leader on the world market. This study shows how innovation and new technologies, the industrial policy of the Swiss authorities, the industrial district organization and the relations with trade unions explain the worldwide success of the Swiss watch industry.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has transformed the educational scene and brought about a revolution of teaching methods and principles in the bilingual education environment. The major challenge in the implementation of a teacher education curriculum in CLIL is the integration of different teaching approaches to promote content and language mastery. What is certain is that there is no fixed model for CLIL and that for resources to be effective they have to be contextualized and motivating for both teachers and students. The four Cs (Content, Cognition, Communication and Culture) proposed by Coyle (1999) as framework for CLIL implementations find in drama a powerful meeting point to develop communicative skills and beyond. CLIL opens new possibilities for the implementation of drama in its multiple varieties: role-play, simulations, drama activities, educational drama and so on. This book proposes articles on the possibilities of drama as a challenging learning experience from primary to higher education.

The book, written by Ukrainian scholars, explores in interdisciplinary approach the revolutionary 2013-2014 Euromaidan and its social, political and cultural results. The contributors identify various factors of Ukraine's upheavals, explore their impact on the European and global politics and analyse the challenges of the reforms for the country.

This volume comprises transformations of vocational education and work, the impacts of gender, ethnicity, culture and globalization as well as the anticipation of possible futures of vocational education and work. With contributions from European VET researchers it assembles critical reflective, empirical, cross-cultural and historical perspectives

This book contains selected papers from the meeting Conditioned Identities. Wished-for and Unwished-for Identities, held in the Institute of Research in Identities and Society (University of Lleida) in 2013, dealing with the imposition and acceptance of the identities.

This book offers a thorough lexical description of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) variety, English for Architecture, by means of a selfmade corpus. As other knowledge communities, Architecture practitioners have a distinctive discourse and a linguistic identity of their own. Both are conveyed through specific linguistic realizations, and are of considerable interest in the field of ESP. The corpus used was designed for the purpose of describing and analyzing the main lexical features of Architecture Discourse from three different perspectives: word-formation, loanword neology and semantic neology, which are the three main foundations of lexis. In order to analyze all materials a database of almost three thousand entries was produced, including a description and classification of every word from the corpus considered relevant for the analysis. Thanks to this methodology the lexical character of Architecture language is ultimately revealed in connection with the linguistic identity of its practitioners.

This book focuses on contemporary Nevada fiction as one of the most probing and intense literary explorations of the American West as a whole. Recent fictional representations of Nevada possess a revelatory value in relation to the whole West because they encompass some of the most common thematic trends in contemporary western writing. Actually, the thematic maturation of Nevada fiction over the last four decades often parallels the evolution of postfrontier writing, in particular, its growing departure from the overused topics and images of the formula western. Nevada fiction also possesses some unique and distinctive themes, such as its depiction of Basque immigrants, its emphasis on nuclear testing and nuclear waste, and its portrait of such peculiar cities as Reno and Las Vegas. This study discusses contemporary writing set in Nevada both by Nevadans (Robert Laxalt, Frank Bergon, Willy Vlautin, Phyllis Barber, Claire Vaye Watkins...) and by non-resident authors (Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, Larry McMurtry...), drawing new attention to a remarkable literature that has been too often neglected in discussions of the American West.

This book explores the extent to which four sensation novelists responded to the Victorian theorizing of professionalism. A crucial period of redefinition of the professional ideal, the third quarter of the nineteenth century also witnessed the rise and the decline of the sensation novel, a scandalous and electrifying form that challenged aesthetic and socio-cultural standards. Owing to their controversial position in the literary marketplace, novelists like Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charles Reade and Ellen Wood developed a keen interest in professional issues, which occupy centre stage in their 1850s-70s narratives. By drawing on a variety of sociological, cultural and philosophical theories, Costantini skilfully assesses the ideological implications of the genre's fictionalization of professionalism. She shows how sensation novelists provocatively represented the challenges faced by both elite and rising professionals, who are used as narrative vehicles for thorny discourses on authorship, ethicality, aestheticism and sociocultural identity.

This book explores the interplay between norm and usage in lexis. The contributions examine the norm-setting role of dictionaries, the importance of authentic data in lexicography, the impact of the Web on language usage and on the processes of norm creation, and the impact of mass-mediated communication on lexis.

Michel Houellebecq posits himself as an officer of civilization, offering a map of contemporary reality and according literature a substantial role in the field of public involvement. His unique style problematizes contemporary cultural processes and deconstructs the aesthetic and ideological thought-habits that design the collective imaginary of our era. As such, this book seeks to analyze the particularities of Houellebecq's poetics in the context of literary tradition, intertextual relations, psycho-cultural aspects and social semiotics, alongside contacts with the contemporary field of art. The author focuses on Houellebecq's poetical differentia specifica, the unique and innovative intersection between the cooperation with transnational capitalism and the resentment toward ignorant indulgence in it. This book reads Houellebecq as both iconoclastic and subversive and at the same time as a commodity in the literary marketplace and shows how his narratives are harnessed for the purposes of activism in the service of engaged impact.

Many philosophers adopt methods that emulate those of the natural sciences. They call such an overall approach naturalism, and consider it indispensable for fruitful philosophical debate in various areas. In spite of this consensus however, little is ever said about how naturalism depends on the underlying idea of nature, which we often endorse unconsciously. If we can determine how naturalism reflects an underlying account of nature, we would be in a better position to distinguish between different kinds of naturalism and to assess the merits of each. This book undertakes a sustained study of the concept of nature to answer this need. It examines in detail how conceptual, historical, and scientific constraints affect the concept of nature in various domains of philosophy, and how, in the opposite sense, these constraints are themselves affected by the concept of nature. In so doing, this book relates the conceptual framework of scientific inquiry back to the lived experience that is proper to everyday self-understanding.

English morphophonology has aroused considerable interest in the wake of Chomsky and Halle's ground-breaking The Sound Pattern of English (1968). Various theoretical models have subsequently emerged, seeking to account for the stress-placement and combinatorial properties of affixes. However, despite the abundance and versatility of research in this field, many questions have remained unanswered and theoretical frameworks have often led their proponents to erroneous assumptions or flawed systems. Drawing upon a 140,000-word corpus culled from a high-performance search engine, this book aims to provide a comprehensive and novel account of the stress-assignment properties, selection processes, productivity and combinatorial restrictions of native and non-native suffixes in Present-Day English. In a resolutely interscholastic approach, the author has confronted his findings with the tenets of Generative Phonology, Cyclic Phonology, Lexical Phonology, The Latinate Constraint, Base-Driven Lexical Stratification, Complexity-Based Ordering and Optimality Theory.

Labouring Lives unravels the huge changes which have so fundamentally altered the life courses of ordinary women over the past one hundred and fifty years, namely the changes in marriage and fertility patterns. Using dynamic data from Dutch population registers and analytical techniques from the life course approach, the book offers new evidence on women's changing position in the labour market, their role in pre-nuptial sexuality, and their contribution to marriage and fertility change in the Netherlands between 1880 and 1960. The author reconstructs the socio-economic and demographic worlds of different groups of working and non-working women, and by doing so she is able to locate the various groups driving the changes. Advanced statistical tools enable the author to analyse differences in fertility strategies, stopping versus spacing, employed by various social and cultural groups in the Netherlands. This book leads to conclusions which challenge a number of orthodoxies in the field.

The book outlines the different prespectives of academic excellence, pooled with entrepreneurship for new partnerships, focusing thus on an additional sense of innovation, fresh ideas and clever solutions in T&I training at universities. New projects of cooperation between universities and the market and international institutions are presented.

This monograph is a fundamental theme in Thomism. It deals with the basic ontological principles. From the Thomistic perspective and based on Aristotle, it studies the nature and roles of the essential principles on which reality itself is constructed. The work starts with a brief historical survey of first principles from the classical period through the modern/post-modern philosophical schools. The monograph proceeds to study Thomas Aquinas' understanding and use of the principles along with the possibility of the knowledge of these first principles especially through their habits. It underlines the central position of the habits of the first principles in realistic philosophy. To determine their proper character, the volume juxtaposes the first ontological principles with some transcendental notions followed by the most basic practical ethical principles. Since there are no demonstrations for the first principles, the work further investigates the evidence and indirect demonstration of these first realistic crucial principles and ends with an accent on transition from principles to a wise vision that culminates in man's relationship to reality and especially to God

Cruel Britannia: Sarah Kane's Postmodern Traumatics examines four plays by British playwright Sarah Kane (1971-1999), all written between 1995 and 1999 within the context of the Cool Britannia or In-Yer-Face London theatre movement of the 1990s. Kane's plays were notorious for their shocking productions and challenging and offensive subject matter. This book analyzes her plays as products of a long history of theatrical convention and experimentation, rather than trend. I read Kane's plays through an optic of trauma theory, and link the trauma to postmodern experience as defined by war, inter-personal violence, repetitive memory, and sex as medium of violence. Kane's plays' unrelenting violence and graphic depictions of violent sex suggest a relationship with theories and practices such as Artaud's theatre of cruelty, and Kroker and Cook's theory of the postmodern as sign of excremental culture and an inherently abject state of being. Through a play by play analysis I conclude that Kane's work suggests that violence and trauma are endemic to postmodern life, and are ultimately apocalyptic due to their culmination in Kane's final play, the suicide text of 4.48 Psychosis.

This book compares Butler's and Wang's moral vision and conception of conscience. It seeks to advance our ongoing inquiry into the complex encounter between Christianity and Confucianism. The study shows that in both thinkers' treatises are profound consonances that could serve as framework for a constructive interaction between these two civilizations.

In this book, contributions in the fields of History, Language, Literature, Sociology and Anthropology analyze the different aspects of identities in conflict since the ancient world to current days. Interdisciplinary perspectives facilitate a completed view attending gender, aging, linguistic, political and cultural tensions that show the different perverse side of the identities.

In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, all five of the Chief Ministers since 1967 have been former actors. This provocative book debunks the notion of Bollywood as the synecdoche of Indian cinema to explore the hitherto less studied, yet highly influential cinema in South Asia. Developing the concept of the politics of sentiment, the author examines the ways in which actor-politicians constructed their cinematic charisma, projecting themselves as messiahs saving the people from injustices, to create a political appeal to voters. The resilience of cinematic charisma, as Indian society undergoes massive socio-economic changes, provides a compelling study of modern politics, cinema, celebrity and the culture of the subcontinent.