The Journal of Contemporary Philology (JCP) is an international, peer-reviewed electronic journal that publishes high-quality scholarly articles in the fields of linguistics, applied linguistics, literary studies, and cultural studies. The journal is committed to advancing research that addresses both theoretical and applied issues, with particular emphasis on contemporary developments, innovative methodologies, and interdisciplinary approaches. JCP welcomes original contributions that: - address linguistic, literary, and cultural aspects; - engage in comparative or contrastive analysis; - explore key issues in literary theory and criticism; - examine translation and intercultural communication. Original contributions focusing on topics in Balkan and Slavic studies are especially encouraged. Authors are invited to submit previously unpublished research articles, review articles, and book reviews written in English or Macedonian. The journal is published twice a year with the support of the Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Indexed and abstracted in MLA (Modern Language Association) DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) Google Scholar ProQuest ERIH PLUS WorldCat LIBRIS BASE OpenAIRE Brill’s Linguistic Bibliography Online The Linguist List COBISS.MK-ID 109201930 (UDK 81) EBSCO The journal is recognized by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research as a scientific journal and is included in Class A for Sector 10/M2 (Slavistics)
Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje, RN Macedonia
Copyright © 2014 Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philology, Skopje Journal of Contemporary Philology (JCP) Современа филологија
THE IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES IN TURKISH CLASSROOMS: A STUDY IN NORTH MACEDONIA
This study aims to examine the level of implementation of active learning strategies in Turkish classes in North Macedonia. The study used the relational screening method, one of the quantitative research models. The study‘s data were collected from teachers working in Turkish classes in North Macedonia. In this context, 127 teachers who carried out educational activities in the 2024-2025 academic year constitute the study group. The study group was formed using the convenience sampling method, a non-random sampling method. In the study‘s quantitative data collection, the “Scale of the implementation of active learning activities in Turkish classes in North Macedonia” developed as a seven-point Likert was used. Parametric statistical techniques were used in the analysis of quantitative data. As a result of the analyses made on the quantitative data of the study, it was determined that teachers use active learning techniques at a high level in their lessons. However, it was determined that active learning applications were used less in the conclusion sections of the course. No significant difference was found between the teachers’ gender, age, professional seniority, branch, education level, their status of receiving active learning training, on the one hand, and their level of implementation of active learning strategies, on the other. However, it is recommended that awareness and in-service training programs be developed to make teachers’ active learning practices more effective. It is considered important to prepare guide materials that will increase the integration of active learning, especially in the conclusion sections of the course.
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Contemporary Philology
METAPHORICAL AND METONYMIC NAMES OF PEOPLE IN CONTEMPORARY MACEDONIAN COLUMN DISCOURSE
This paper analyses the use of metaphorical and metonymic names of people in contemporary Macedonian opinion columns, focusing on their nominative and discursive functions. The study is based on a corpus of ten political and social columns published on the website of the daily newspaper Sloboden pečat in January and February 2026. The aim is to demonstrate that metaphor and metonymy do not function merely as stylistic ornamentation, but as systematic strategies for naming, evaluating, and positioning social actors. The analysis shows that metaphorical names are most frequently employed in critical and polemical contexts, where individuals are typified and evaluated through mythological, zoomorphic, military, and other domains. Metonymic names, by contrast, predominate in analytical contexts and enable economical reference to persons through their institutional, professional, or functional roles, often resulting in depersonalization and a transfer of responsibility to the collective. Ultimately, the combined use of these two mechanisms confirms the evaluative nature of this genre and highlights metaphorical and metonymic names of people as a key instrument for shaping public interpretations of political and social actors.
THE CONCEPT OF THE BARBARIANS IN CONSTANINE CAVAFY’S AND IVAN DŽEPAROSKI’S POETRY
This paper examines the intertextual transformations of the figure of the barbarians in modern poetry through a comparative analysis of two poems: Constantine Cavafy’s Waiting for the Barbarians (1898) and Ivan Džeparoski’s The Barbarians Are Not Waiting for Anyone (2008). The theoretical framework integrates Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism, Julia Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality, Renate Lachmann’s cultural memory, and Dubravka Oraić-Tolić’s theory of citation. The analysis demonstrates that the barbarians in modern poetry do not constitute a stable topos but rather a dynamic discursive position that shifts across different historical, poetic, and ideological contexts. Cavafy’s poem functions as a hypotext, establishing a model of deferral and semantic emptying in which the barbarians operate as an alibi for power. In Džeparoski’s intertextual rearticulation, this matrix is historicized and ironized through illuminative citation strategy; thus, the barbarians are revealed as a product of historiographical discourses, while their function as a ‘solution’ proves paradoxical. The analysis concludes that the intertextual recurrence of the barbarian figure does not lead to a stabilization of meaning but to its constant displacement, constituting the barbarians as a metalyrical figure that marks the boundary of poetic language itself.
THE PRIESTLY APPARATUS: DUMÉZIL, DELEUZE AND GUATTARI, AND THE INDO-EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION OF DESIRE
This paper examines the structural and theoretical connections between Georges Dumézil’s comparative mythology and the critical philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, with particular focus on the Indo-European organisation of desire. Beginning with the enigmatic passage about the priest and the cardinal directions in A Thousand Plateaus, the paper demonstrates that Deleuze and Guattari establish a profound structural resonance with Dumézil’s documentation of tripartite functional ideology. Through analysis of the Indian legend of King Yayāti and its Indo-Iranian parallels, the paper traces two generational transformations of power: first, the capture of desire through cursing and peripheral exile; and second, its deepened captivity through a transcendental apparatus of redemption. The central argument is that Deleuze and Guattari do not reject Dumézil’s structural analyses but rather overturn them: they identify Indo- European ideological structures not merely as principles of social organisation, but as apparatuses of capture that organise desire, mutilate the subject, and produce dependency on state mediation. The figure of Mādhavī, the virginal matrix of the functional apparatus, serves as a key illustration of this operation. The paper concludes that Indo-European structure is not an archaic relic but continues to organise modern forms of subjectivity.
THE BIZZARE AND THE ABSURD AS CONTRASTS TO THE “PURITY” IN BAKAKAJ BY WITOLD GOMBROWICZ
The short stories in the book titled Bakakaj ([1957], 2018)2 by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz share something in common – almost all of them try to emphasize the “purity” (or the innocence, primitivism or incorruptibility) of the protagonist vis-à-vis society. However, what is notably present in the short stories is the absence of any previous connection to well-established religious, cultural, literary or social norms and doctrines to the concepts of the absurd and the bizarre. In Bakakaj, Gombrowicz presents the bizarre and the absurd as a necessary background on which he builds and presents the idea of an “unspoiled”-bycivilization “noble savage” (term by Rousseau), i.e., a protagonist who does not really fit in society due to his or her primitive self, and the quality of being shaped by cultural and social norms, as well as by other people and events. Thus, the paper explores the question whether Gombrowicz purposefully presents the bizarre and absurd events, situations, and characters just for the sake of it, just to be pompous and to be “in your face”, or there is a deeper underlying reason for these literary mechanisms.
AMBIGUOUS POSITION TOWARDS THE SOCIALIST PAST IN FILIPOVSKA’S NOVEL IDOL ON THE WALL
The form of socialism introduced in Yugoslavia after the Second World War under Josip Broz Tito is still being discussed from many contrasting viewpoints in the territory of former Yugoslavia. In the context of such discussions, Elena Filipovska published the novel Идол на ѕидот (Idol on the Wall, 2020). The story is set in modern-day Skopje, but in an alternative history in which Yugoslavia did not disintegrate. Instead, a third marshal leads the country, continuing and transforming the socialist rule into an increasingly dehumanized variant. This article explores how the novel constructs a dystopia, which both resembles life in the past, specifically in the 1970s and 1980s, and is based on familiar tropes in dystopian fiction: removal of children from their parents’ care to be raised by the state, fear of being followed by the government intelligence service, and nationalization of private property. The novel has mainly been discussed as criticism of the socialist system. I argue, however, that the ideas expressed through the narrative are much more ambiguous, and that rather than being critical, the novel assumes a more complex position toward socialist legacy.
UNPUBLISHED POEMS AND PROSE TEXTS BY KONESKI: MATERIALS FROM THE BLAŽE KONESKI COLLECTION IN THE ARCHIVE OF THE MACEDONIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS
The article presents unpublished literary works by Blaže Koneski discovered in the Blaže Koneski Collection of the Archive of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The research offers new insights into Koneski’s creative works through the use of archival materials and opens new perspectives (poetic, linguistic, cultural, and historical) for further study of his literary opus. The aim of this article is the identification of Koneski’s unpublished poems and prose texts and their presentation through facsimiles and in transcribed form. Furthermore, several observations are presented regarding the language and the thematic connections between the literary works from the corpus and the rest of Blaže Koneski’s oeuvre. Based on the presented corpus of 38 items, the final part of the article reflects on the challenges, risks, and possibilities of this type of research.
(Angelina Banović-Markovska, Zlatko Kramarić, Once Again Politics, Culture, Identity: Intercultural Dialogue 2, MI-AN, Skopje, 2024, pp. 396)
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Contemporary Philology
CENTRAL EUROPEAN ENTANGLEMENTS AND WOMEN'S HISTORY: A CASE STUDY
This paper examines the intellectual and political entanglements of Alžbeta Göllnerová Gwerková (1905–1944), a Slovak scholar, translator, and activist whose work exemplifies the intersections of gender, culture, and politics in interwar Czechoslovakia. Positioned as both a supporter of Czechoslovakism and a mediator of Hungarian culture, Göllnerová Gwerková consciously inserted herself into academic discourse as a political actor. Her writings reveal a dual commitment: on the one hand, to democratic and liberal ideals that sought to transform estate society into civic society; on the other, to the promotion of Czechoslovak unity as a cultural and political project. The paper highlights how her feminist awareness, which started to take shape in the mid-1930s, intersected with her scholarly endeavors and with her marginal position in academia. By revisiting her intellectual biography, the study foregrounds the political dimension of her scholarship and argues for her reintegration into the history of Central European humanities. The paper also seeks to demonstrate that Slovak feminine identities are deeply entangled in the cultural dynamics of a small, non-dominant nation – an entanglement that shapes women's biographies and influences their intellectual work.
SALMAN RUSHDIE’S MIGRANCY AS A LITERARY FORM OF GIORGIO AGAMBEN’S PROFANATION
This paper addresses Salman Rushdie’s idea of migrancy as a literary version of Giorgio Agamben’s notion of profanation. Contrary to Agamben, who refers to profanation based on the sacred man (homo sacer), Rushdie’s work shows that profanation or impurity is at hand through migrancy. It displays, surveys, and discusses migrancy as an ambivalent reality which does not only embody the potential of uplifting human condition, but also reinforces and nourishes ostracisms. This paper argues for continuous cultural negotiation and renewal required by migratory rationality to uplift life quality in human condition. Theoretically, an intersectional approach that looks at “relationships among seemingly different phenomena” is convoked to examine the intellectual affiliations between Rushdie and Agamben. Rushdie being a writer and Agamben a philosopher, the paper implicitly pleas for the necessary reinforcement of connections between all subjects, like literature and philosophy, in the field of humanities in academia. The study itself consists of three sections. The first section deals with the significance of migrancy in Rushdie’s work. The second section deals with Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses. It addresses the relationship existing between migrancy and impurity in the novel. It also displays consequences of common perceptions about impurity in today’s cultural or ideological constellations. The last section deals with the scholarly affiliation of Rushdie’s impurity with Agamben’s profanation. It ends with discussion of impurity/profanation’s prospects in the ‘community to come.’
LOOK BOTH WAYS! CARRYING LITERATURE AND POETRY FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER
The work of the literary translator is a complex process of transporting ideas, sounds, and images back and forth across languages. In this short paper I explore problems for translators working from Macedonian into English, systemic impediments to translation, and the development of a translator’s methodology and ethics. Working from my own experiences as a linguist and translator, and the experience of other well-known translators, I discuss the expanding corpus of works translated from Macedonian, the intersections of literary and linguistic knowledge, with examples from my translations, and the political implications of translating from Macedonian into English.
AL-HIJRAH. ARABIC, ITALIAN, AND ENGLISH MIGRATION TERMINOLOGY IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
This paper discusses, from a qualitative and quantitative corpus-based perspective, the features and challenges in comparable terminology in the field of migration in Arabic, Italian, and English. More specifically, it examines terminology related to the migration process, migration agents and socially related issues such as marriage and adoption, taking into account linguistic, social, and cultural obstacles in identifying suitable translation candidates when applying European law to languages that do not share similar juridical frameworks and social practices. The aim of the paper is to identify common linguistic issues and their root causes and to present best practices for adequately covering of this terminological area.
TRANSLATION OF COVID-19 ENGLISH NEOLOGISMS INTO AFRICAN LANGUAGES FOR PUBLIC USAGE: REFLECTIONS ON KISWAHILI IN THE TANZANIAN CONTEXT
This qualitative study investigated the translation techniques used to translate English COVID-19 neologisms into Kiswahili to suit the communicative needs of the general public. The data were collected from two websites which host health texts that are translated into many languages. From Medline Plus and Doctors of the World websites, a total of five English-Kiswahili translated COVID-19 texts were purposefully selected because they were the only available texts at the time of data collection. From these texts, a total of 18 COVID-19 related neologisms with their English-Kiswahili translations were obtained. The translation pairs containing the neologisms in both languages were extracted and analysed based on the framework of translation techniques proposed by Molina and Albir (2002). The findings show that borrowing, description, established equivalent, modulation, amplification, generalisation, literal translation and reduction techniques were used to adapt those medical terms to the general domains of use where they would be used and understood by the general lay public in the Tanzanian context.
ANGLICISMS IN THE MACEDONIAN LANGUAGE: DIRECT BORROWINGS VS LOAN TRANSLATIONS
The significant influx of Anglicisms into the Macedonian language has become an undeniable linguistic phenomenon. Anglicisms appear in various domains such as information technology, law, business, social welfare and science. They reflect the influence of English over Macedonian as well as the interest of the Macedonian society. The analysis is qualitative and it is based on a randomly collected corpus of 300 Anglicisms that appear in the Macedonian language from the beginning of the 21st century. The research, first, focuses on the identification and classification of visible Anglicisms and criteria that verify their visibility, and then it contrasts them with the loan translations. The study also examines the patterns of borrowing Anglicisms into Macedonian, focusing on the distinction between direct lexical borrowings and calques or loan translations. It aims to determine why certain English expressions are directly incorporated into the Macedonian language, while others are translated part by part, sometimes coexisting with their original English forms. Certain tendencies are noted, based on the analysis, which indicate that socio-cultural factors play more significant role than linguistic circumstances when establishing the predictable patterns of borrowing.
INDIRECT CAUSATION: ENGLISH GET-CONSTRUCTIONS AND THEIR MACEDONIAN EQUIVALENTS
This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation into the typology of indirect causation in English and Macedonian. The study focuses on English causative analytic constructions formed with the verb get and non-finite verb forms. The aim of this research is to identify typological differences in how indirect causation is encoded in the two languages by comparing English constructions with their translational equivalents in Macedonian. Given that English, unlike Macedonian, possesses dedicated lexicogrammatical markers for encoding indirect causation – such as the grammaticalized verb get, we hypothesize that the Macedonian translational equivalents of causative get-constructions will vary depending on the construction type. To test this hypothesis, we extracted examples of these constructions from both fiction and documentary prose. The quantitative analysis of the data shows that the functional equivalents of infinitival contructions are predominantly biclausal structures, whereas the translations of present participial get-constructions tend to use monolexical verbs.
EVENT MODALITY IN BALKAN TURKISH. FORMAL AND SEMANTIC VARIATION IN CONTACT
This article constitutes the second part of a two-part study on event modality in selected Turkish varieties spoken in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Thrace (Turkey). Building on the analysis of expressions of possibility and necessity in Part 1, this part investigates expressions of volitive modality and their intra- and inter-dialectal variation in Western Rumelian Turkish and Eastern Rumelian Turkish contextualizing the dialectological data with reference to Modern Standard Turkish and Ottoman Turkish varieties. In addition to the consideration of lexical and semantic features, special attention is given to the complementation patterns, which involve both non-finite and finite linking strategies. The Balkan Turkish data will be discussed within the three-dimensional framework of heritage, universal tendencies, and language contact. The survey at the end of this part summarizes and compares the main findings of the study on expressions of possibility, necessity, and volition, and evaluate these findings in the context of Balkan linguistic.
LOST IN THE BALKANS: DIFFERENTIAL PLACE MARKING IN THE AROMANIAN VARIETIES
The phenomenon of Differential Place Marking (Haspelmath 2019), also called zero-marking of spatial relations (Stolz et al 2014), has often been mentioned in the languages of the Balkans. Examples of such differential marking have been documented in the Aromanian varieties (Kramer 1981; Caragiu-Marioțeanu 1975), Modern Greek (Holton et al 1997), Macedonian (Koneski 1965), Ancient Greek (Luraghi 2017), and Latin (Haspelmath 2019; Kramer 1981). However, while the presence of Differential Place Marking has been widely acknowledged, detailed descriptions of such patterns in different varieties are still lacking. Our aim is to present and discuss linguistic data from Aromanian and other Balkan Romance varieties (Istroromanian and Meglen Vlach) to better understand the inter- and intra-dialectal variation of Differential Place Marking. We study and compare their occurrences in the linguistic transcripts from different synchronic Aromanian varieties: from Kruševo (Gołąb 1984), Ohrid and Struga (Markoviḱ 2007), and Turia/Kranéa (Bara et al 2005). The results of the comparative analysis suggest that the dialectal and diachronic picture is not uniform. Various semantic factors, such as the type of noun indicating location (proper vs. common) and whether the location is perceived as proximal or distant seem to play a key role.
Special Issue -Dedicated to the study of the Balkan languages
THE MACEDONIAN AND BALKAN SLAVIC THREE-PART ARTICLE AND THE TYPOLOGY OF DEICTIC ARTICLES
Macedonian’s tripartite article system (proximal, neutral, and distal) aligns with similar systems found in other Balkan Slavic varieties, but also exhibits parallels with non-Slavic languages, such as Wolof, which feature deictic definite articles. This paper investigates the morphosyntactic and semantic features of these articles in Balkan Slavic, aiming to clarify their status within the broader typology of definiteness and deixis. We show through the study of the Macedonian spoken corpus that there are significant differences between the articles regarding their relative frequency. Cross-linguistic comparison further informs the typological status of these articles. In both Balkan Slavic and Atlantic languages like Wolof, definite articles are enclitics, with one form generally occurring significantly more frequently than the others. While interesting secondary functions such as nominal tense have been proposed for these articles, these features are not diagnostic of their “articlehood” and may be expressed by demonstrative pronouns in other languages.
The article examines two phonetic phenomena in the Balkan dialects of Macedonia: the restriction of accent placement to the last three syllables and double accentuation. These phenomena are characteristic of the Macedonian-Albanian-Greek area at the center of the Balkan Sprachbund. The author disagrees with the widely accepted thesis in Balkan literature that the western and central Macedonian dialects share a common accentual system with the Greek, Aromanian, and Albanian dialects in this region. The article presents arguments that challenge previous views on the central Balkan nature of the restriction of accent placement to the last three syllables. The author argues that this phenomenon does not merit special attention, as it represents a universal tendency driven by natural linguistic preferences. Regarding double accentuation, the author identifies a specific type of this phenomenon that may be considered a distinct Balkan trait. This type of accentuation is characteristic of a Balkan micro-region where Slavic and Greek dialects are in contact.
EVENT MODALITY IN BALKAN TURKISH: FORMAL AND SEMANTIC VARIATION IN CONTACT
The present article constitutes the first part of a two-part study on event modality in selected Turkish varieties of Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Eastern Thrace (Turkey). The linguistic structures will be compared with corresponding expressions in Modern Standard Turkish and pre-modern Ottoman Turkish varieties. The study identifies both common features and differences among the Balkan Turkish varieties. Variation occurs in different slots within the investigated constructions and concerns lexical, semantic and morphosyntactic features, including complementation patterns, where both infinitive and subjunctive structures can be found. The linguistic variation is partly dialect-specific and distributed differently among the eastern and western dialects of Balkan Turkish, but intra-dialectal variation is also observed. It will be argued that while some processes that have led to the present situation in Balkan Turkish may be attributed to internal developments of inherited structures and to universal tendencies, impact of language contact has also contributed to the distribution of certain structures within the Turkish dialects of the Balkans.
LABILE VERBS IN MODERN ALBANIAN: A PRELIMINARY CORPUS-BASED STUDY
The goal of the study is to analyze the use of labile verbs in the modern written Albanian language based on the Albanian National Corpus, which contains over 31 million words. In this paper, we present our findings from a pilot study of eight Albanian P-labile verbs belonging to different semantic groups that are typologically prone to lability. The study has shown that the selected verbs behave differently. Only phasal verbs filloj ‘begin’ and mbaroj ‘finish’ demonstrate consistent lability. The motion verb lëviz ‘move’ is used as a labile verb, with a predominance of active intransitive usages, while the verb ziej ‘boil; seethe; ferment’ shows variation between non-active and active intransitive usages. Deadjectival color verbs zbardh ‘whiten; brighten’ and skuq ‘make/color red; fry’ appear both transitively and intransitively, but only in their basic color-related meanings. The verb of distinction and change dalloj ‘distinguish; differentiate’ primarily employs active intransitive forms in reciprocal meanings and morphologically non-active forms in other meanings, while the related verb ndryshoj ‘change; vary, distinguish’ behaves as a typical labile verb, with a secondary development of non-active usages.
CONTACT-INDUCED CHANGES IN THE ORDER OF MODIFYING ADJECTIVES AND NOUNS IN SLAVIC DIALECTS IN ALBANIA
In this article, I investigate the sociolinguistic factors that influenced the word order in nominal phrases in the South Slavic dialects that are spoken in Albania, with a specific focus on the impact of Albanian. Utilizing data from the Corpus of Slavic Dialects in Albania, I examined variations in adjective placement (pre- or post-noun) across several dialects – Golloborda Macedonian (GM), Korça Macedonian (KM), Prespa Macedonian (PM), and migrational Štokavian dialects from Shijak (SŠ) and Myzeqe (MŠ). The analysis revealed that the Albanian-influenced Noun-Adjective order (NADJ) was increasing in these dialects, and was mainly influenced by age, gender, residence type (rural versus urban), and type of community dwelling (compact versus dispersed). The stability of the conservative Adjective Noun (ADJN) order in compact communities and older generations in contrast to the increased Albanian-influenced NADJ usage among younger speakers and by those in dispersed communities, was particularly notable. The influence of standard Slavic languages may reverse the process by supporting the conservative ADJN word order. These findings contribute to the research on the areal spread of word order patterns.
NEW RESEARCH ON ROMANI IN EASTERN NORTH MACEDONIA: THE MALESHEVO DIALECT
This article presents new data on previously undescribed Romani varieties spoken in the eastern part of the Republic of North Macedonia, specifically in the geographical region of Maleshevo. We show that this is a South Balkan dialect that differs from other South Balkan dialects spoken in North Macedonia (especially in Skopje), while sharing several features with the Romani dialects of southwestern Bulgaria. This pattern corresponds to the geographical distribution of South Slavic dialects. Following South Slavic terminology, these Romani varieties can be referred to as Maleshevo-Pirin Romani. In addition to describing typical dialectal features, this study pays special attention to borrowings from local Macedonian dialects.
SYNTAX OF CLITICS IN BULGARIAN CONTACT DIALECTS
The article analyzes interference phenomena in the syntax of clitics in Bulgarian dialects that have been in contact with the Romanian language over a long period of time. The analysis focuses on Bulgarian dialects spoken in the territory of Romania, as well as the specific dialect of Novo Selo in northwestern Bulgaria. It is assumed that both Romanian syntax and dialectal features introduced by Macedonian settlers have influenced this dialect. The principles of clitic order in the sentence, characteristic of Standard Bulgarian, are largely preserved in these dialects. This is mainly due to the fact that both the donor and recipient languages belong to the group of languages with verb-oriented clitics. The analysis shows that in the examined Bulgarian dialects, clitics can appear in initial position, which means that the Tobler-Mussafia law is violated under the influence of the contact languages. At the same time, most of the restrictions on initial clitic placement present in the donor language are shown to be irrelevant.
This volume presents a series of contributions that address key morphosyntactic, semantic, phonological, and contact-induced phenomena in the languages and dialects of the Balkans. The eight studies collected here examine diverse linguistic structures within a shared areal and typological context, offering new data and analyses that contribute to our understanding of the Balkan Sprachbund and its internal diversity.
AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME SASANIAN PAHLAVI WORDS IN THE BOIR-AHMADI DIALECT
Since the late Achaemenid period, the Sasanian Empire legitimated Middle Persian as the language of religion and government. Widespread in southwestern Iran, this language which was a continuation of Old Persian and was used in inscriptions and books for several centuries after Islam, gradually became obsolete and lost its place. Today, in the light of precise and scientific knowledge of Iranian languages, including Middle Persian, and because of in-depth studies of historical linguistics, it is possible to identify many words and expressions of this language being preserved in the local dialects of southwestern Iran. Among these dialects are Boir-Ahmadi, Mamasani, and Bakhtiari belonging to the southwest branch of Iranian languages and dialects known as Luri. These linguistic varieties are the continuation of the ancient languages of Iran in terms of linguistic evolution. The present study investigates and introduces some words of Middle Persian preserved in the Boir-Ahmadi dialect and spoken by successive generations. This study aims to identify and introduce several Sasanian Pahlavi words that are present and used in the Boir-Ahmadi dialect and, where possible, discuss their etymology and phonetic evolution from Avestan and Old Persian to Middle Persian languages of the Sasanian era.
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Contemporary Philology
In this article, we look into the semantics and pragmatics of the particle zar in the standard Macedonian language, which is used interchangeably with its variant zarem. We argue that zar or zarem is employed in biased polar questions, particularly in contexts where there exists a discrepancy between the speaker’s presupposition and contextual evidence that contradicts it. Our investigation aims to uncover the role of zar/zarem in biased polar questions and determine the discourse functions of zar- questions. To achieve this goal, we conducted an analysis using a sample of questions extracted from contemporary Macedonian prose. The results of our analysis indicate that the particle zar/zarem in biased questions is not obligatory but rather serves to enhance the assertive component at the expense of the inquisitive component in the semantic structure of such questions. This enhancement is reflected in the speaker’s disbelief and surprise regarding the truth of proposition encoded in the question, especially in contradiction contexts. Such semantics enable zar-questions to serve rhetorical purposes or perform indirect claims, thereby functioning as effective persuasion strategies.
SOCIAL SATIRE IN COVID-19 MEDIA CARTOONS IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE: A MULTIMODAL CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
This paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach involving satire, multimodality, and critical discourse to investigate the interplay of semiotic modes used in Gbich! COVID-19 cartoons. It examines how these cartoons depict the socioeconomic and political realities of Ivorian citizens during the pandemic and how they served as tools to raise public awareness, critique governmental and global (in)actions, and challenge existing traditional structures and practices. The study is based on 6 purposively selected COVID-19 front-page cartoons of Gbich!, a prominent satirical and humorous newspaper in Côte d'Ivoire. The data were analysed using Kuiper's Perceptual Theory of Satire and Machin and Mayr's Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings reveal that the newspaper satirised issues reflecting domestic, local, and global discourses during the pandemic. It highlighted power dynamics within family structures during crises, as well as between the virus, citizens and global entities. The paper concludes that the newspaper elicited discussions on gender roles and expectations, information management, crisis management and prioritisation of responses during emergencies. Moreover, it impressed its ideological stance on solidarity, power and marriage to its audience.
THE MYTH OF THE MONSTROUS FEMININE: A VIEW ON MESOPOTAMIAN, ANCIENT GREEK AND ALBANIAN FEMALE MONSTERS
This paper analyses the expression of the monstrous-feminine in Mesopotamian, Ancient Greek and Albanian myths and folklore, while connecting them with and interpreting them through ideas expressed by Barbara Creed (1993) in her book The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. In this paper we can notice matters of the monstrous-feminine that connect between different cultures and geographies, what these matters show us about the cultural perception towards femininity, and how these matters have often been used to portray the danger and risk perceived by a male-dominated society, and the connection these myths and mythological creatures have with Creed’s interpretation of the monstrous-feminine in horror films. By studying this topic, we will better understand how the mentioned cultures, but not only, have portrayed female monsters and monstrous beings, what role they have had in the culture-building of these societies, how they reflect general psycho-social tendencies, and how they continue to be influential to this day in our understanding of gender-roles, societal duties and metaphysical views.
THE STRANGE AND ITS COMIC EFFECTS IN THE NOVEL THE INVISIBLE MAN BY H. G. WELLS
This paper explains the strange and gives examples of a comic relief resulting from the strange behaviour in the novel The Invisible Man ([1897] 2010) by Herbert George Wells. The strange can be defined as that which is unusual, extraordinary, and which does not belong to everyday life and routine (i.e., which is contrary to the norm and the expected social behaviour). The strange can both evoke fear and humour or laughter as an unexpected reaction to something serious, which then serves as a mechanism for creating tension that escalates with a plot twist. What is regarded as strange are the stranger Griffin's appearance, his clothes, but also gestures, behaviour and his responses to other characters. The novel combines the comic and the serious, the funny and the horrific; in fact, the strange – the fear it evokes and the terror caused by it – does not necessarily exist in isolation from the comic or the bizarre. All these elements are a crucial part of the structure of the novel, which depicts scenes of strange and unusual occurrences, characters, and events producing a comic effect. The author uses the scenes that cause a potential comic effect as building mechanisms, which gradually unveil the unexpected culminating in an unusual plot twist towards the end of the novel. The Invisible man is neither a comic work nor a horror story although it combines both elements of humour and terror, which function as complementary literary devices.