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Direct speech, silent pauses, speech verbs, and basic word order: a comparative corpus study of 12 languages
No full textInternational audienceThis study investigates cross-linguistically the position of speech verbs and the occurrence of silent pauses relative to direct speech reports in narrative oral texts. We hypothesize that the position of speech verbs depends on the basic word order of verbs and their complements (VO vs. OV), and that the occurrence of speech verbs and pauses exhibit complementarity based on their shared function of marking the onset or end of reported speech. We use language documentation corpora from an areally balanced sample of 12 languages. We show that in most VO languages speech verbs exclusively precede speech reports, while in OV languages they may precede or follow them, or intervene, as middle verbs. Speakers of VO languages very often pause after speech reports, i.e. the position where there is no speech verb, while speakers of OV languages often pause before the speech report, and almost never between a speech report and a following ending verb. We conclude that basic word order substantially influences how speech reports are construed and prosodically phrased, in addition to asymmetries resulting from constraints on sequential ordering that are specific to complex units in general and to reported speech in particular
“Idol-houses” or “abodes of God”? Delhi’s non-Muslim places of worship as portrayed in two mid-19th and early-20th-century Urdu works
No full textFrom the mid-19th century till well into the second quarter of the 20th century, Delhi’s topography underwent a significant metamorphosis, as the ailing Mughal dynasty (1526-1858) finally came to an end and British rule was established over India. Several edifices in the capital Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi), symbols of former imperial authority, were damaged, desecrated, or demolished, and the city’s landscape was steadily dotted with structures of a more utilitarian nature, in keeping with the proclaimed objectives of the colonial government. These changes are evoked in two voluminous Urdu works composed during those years of transition, Syed Ahmad Khan’s Asar al-sanadid and Bashir al-din Ahmad’s Waqiyat-i Dar al-hukumat Dilli. A notable feature of these accounts is their portrayal of non-Muslim religious sites, the historical circumstances in which they came into existence, the legends and beliefs associated with them, and the rituals performed within their precincts. I shall, in my talk, demonstrate how the narrative style and the linguistic elements employed in this discourse differ substantially from those found in some of the official Persian-language court chronicles composed during the heyday of Mughal rule. Unlike the latter, which often summarily censured non-Muslim places of worship as dens of vice and errant behaviour, deserving to be wiped out, the later Urdu works adopt a more deferential attitude while describing Delhi’s temples and churches
Dictionnaires et diatribes : enjeux philologiques, esthétiques et stylistiques à l’époque moghole
No full textCette communication explore le contexte historique et intellectuel d’un débat majeur déclenché par la publication du Qatiʿ-e Burhan (« L’exécution de Burhān ») de Mirza Ghalib, une œuvre polémique visant le lexique jugé douteux du Burhan-e Qatiʿ (« La preuve décisive »), dictionnaire indo-persan antérieur d’une influence considérable. Compilé à la cour d’Abdullah Qutbshah à Golconde par un lettré iranien émigré, Burhan, le Burhan-e Qatiʿ devint rapidement l’objet de controverses linguistiques. La critique virulente de Ghalib suscita de nombreuses répliques d’intellectuels persanophones et ourdouphones du sous-continent, ouvrant un débat plus large sur l’autorité linguistique et la légitimité stylistique. Ce dictionnaire fit également l’objet de réflexions de la part de Khan Arzu, figure majeure de la philologie dans l’Inde moghole tardive, qui l’intégra à ses propres travaux savants. Ces polémiques s’inscrivent dans un moment charnière marqué par l’essor de la philologie et de la linguistique comparée en tant que disciplines, incarnées notamment par Sir William Jones et Anquetil du Perron. Alors que les échanges entre ces érudits européens ont fait l’objet d’une large attention, les débats esthétiques et stylistiques opposant philologues, poètes et théoriciens littéraires sud-asiatiques demeurent encore peu étudiés. À travers une analyse intertextuelle de ces controverses, cet article montre que la critique de Ghalib a cristallisé des mutations majeures d’ordre linguistique, esthétique et poétique dans l’Inde moghole tardive. L’examen de ces échanges éclaire sous un jour nouveau les principes stylistiques et esthétiques qui ont façonné la culture littéraire de l’époque. L’étude met particulièrement en évidence la manière dont les conceptions changeantes de la philologie, de l’autorité linguistique et du goût littéraire ont contribué à l’affirmation de la poétique ourdoue. En adoptant une perspective multilingue, elle souligne l’entrelacement des traditions persane et ourdoue, offrant ainsi une lecture plus nuancée des dynamiques évolutives de la production littéraire en Asie du Sud aux XVIIIᵉ et XIXᵉ siècles, tout en affinant la compréhension des processus parallèles de formation du canon littéraire
Non-verbal predication in Cuwabo (Bantu)
No full textInternational audienceCuwabo, a Bantu language spoken Central Mozambique, has a rich system of non-verbal predicative constructions which includes two verbal copulae (li and kála), a non-verbal class-inflected pro-copula (historically derived from demonstrative pronouns), predicative inflection through tone deletion, and predicative inflection involving the cliticization of subject indexes + copula a. Most copular constructions based on li and kála also imply predicative tone deletion on the following noun or adjective. Whereas verbal copulae may be used in all types of non-verbal predication, the other strategies appear in distinct (and often complementary) contexts. Overall, Cuwabo does not exclude or constrain the usage of a specific word class in predicative position. In addition to the most common semantic types of non-verbal predication – inclusion and identity, verbless clauses in Cuwabo also serve to convey typologically neglected types, such as quantification, possession, existence, location, and temporality. More particularly, Cuwabo has both plain-possessive predication (I have a knife) and inverse-possessive predication (the knife is mine). Distinction between plain- and inverse-locational predication is also relevant in the language. In addition to negating the copula verb li ‘be’, Cuwabo has two dedicated non-verbal negators, namely kahíyo ~ kahíye and ka-sp-hí=loc, both translated as ‘(there/it) is not’, but the latter is limited to the context of locational-existential predication
Gaṇdī Bāt !! Re-evaluating Foḥșh in Urdu Literary History
No full textHazl/Hazliyat and Hajv/Hajviyyat, as genres within Urdu literary traditions, have been intentionally overlooked due to their use of profanity, or more succinctly, verbal obscenity "foḥșh", intrinsically including aspects of humour, satire, and occasionally, filthy or obscene material. This study aims to emphasise these works, so fostering a dialogue to challenge the dominant under-recognition and disregard of this literary history. Its primary objective is to elucidate the post-colonial mindset inside the South Asian Urdu public sphere, which has embodied South Asian ethics and Victorian propriety. The principal works examined herein are Mir Jafar Zat̤alli's "Zatalnamāh" and Chirkīn’s works, which are analysed in detail. Zat̤alli employed unique Persian-Hindavi literary techniques to critique the socio-political turmoil of Mughal governance, while Chirkīn’s distinctiveness unveils scatological components to convey his personal depressive angst towards society, thereby challenging the conventions of Persian poetry tradition. The paper employs methodologies based on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the “carnivalesque,” Michel Foucault’s “discourse analysis,” and Shamsur Rahman Faruqi’s interpretation of obscenity in Urdu poetry, aiming to comprehend both the literal curiosities and the insights into historical socio-political dynamics by highlighting the subversive power of language. The point of departure of this paper would be to enquire the societal manufacture repulsion of foḥșh and how different moralities operated in making foḥșh as vulgar. Ultimately, it raises the question of whether the subversion and repulsion associated with foḥșh works have lessened their appeal. Were the morals conveyed during the colonial era justifiable
Food as an identity marker and a window to cultural contacts and linguistic history: The "Bougna" (Kanaky-New Caledonia)
No full textInternational audienceWith a limited number of ingredients available, traditional preparations are elaborated around varied and precise techniques, passed down from generation to generation, and best described as "chaînes opératoires", in that they involve both practical and symbolic dimensions (Leroi-Gourhan 1964, Lemonnier 1976, Godelier 2012).While those preparations often are strong markers of cultural identity, they can be altered by changes that are traces of population movements or cultural contacts, either among neighbouring groups, or between groups of different origins (Mettouchi & Schiattarella, in press).In this talk, we present variations in chaîne opératoire and in names for the emblematic Kanak dish called "Bougna" in New Caledonian French. A Melanesian preparation wrapped in leaves, containing (among other ingredients) taro or yams and coconut cream, cooked under hot stones or in boiling water (Wacalie 2023), called bunyâ in Iaai (Ouvéa) itra in Drehu (Lifou), aël in Nengone (Maré), the dish is itself a variation on a whole group of similar preparations of Oceania (e.g. lablab in Dorig, loko in Mota (Vanuatu), takihi in Niuean (Niue)).The variation among the names of a given preparation is particularly interesting when it occurs within a language family or branch: the names can be cognates, or they can be different, and cognate to other terms, in which case tracing their etymologies brings a rich perspective on the representations associated to the preparation (e.g. aël, related to the notion of 'wrapped up and tied bundle').Our aim is to situate "bougna" within the chain of preparations involving taro or yam and coconut cream, wrapped in leaves and cooked with hot stones, and to study the network of etymologies and cognates referring to this kind of preparations, in Kanaky-New Caledonia and beyond (Lichtenberk 1994, Lichtenberk & Osmond 1998), so as to better understand cultural and linguistic contacts in the area, adopting a method at the crossroads between linguistics and anthropology
La poésie selon le poète : une exploration de la théorie littéraire à travers les écrits du poète ourdou dakani, Nusrati
No full textNusrati, poète de dakhni ourdu du XVIIe siècle, a écrit son œuvre le Gulshan-I Ishq, ou le Jardin de l’Amour après avoir été nommé poète lauréat de la cour de Bijapur. Il était non-seulement le poète lauréat, mais aussi, il était parmi les rangs des premièrs écrivains du langue d’ourdu ou dakhni. Dans cette position, il avait le pouvoir d’établir les normes d’un idiome relativement nouveau. Cependant qu’il y avait d’autres poètes dakhni avant lui, il avait dû à justifier le choix d’écrire en dakhni au lieu de persan. Quand même, il se s’est place parmi les œuvres du canon persan en nommant autres romans tels que Layla va Majnun et Khusrau va Shirin. L’introduction à son œuvre fait 45 pages (dans la version éditée de Maulvi Abd’ul Haqq) dont lequel, parmi les élégies habituelles à Dieu, son protecteur, etc., il ajoute également des commentaires sur son propre style d’écriture, sur les travaux des autres poètes, et sur la tache de l’écriture elle-même. Entre vantardise et humilité, il révèle aussi les critères d’une bonne écriture. Dans ce commentaire, il révèle son engagement envers la théorie esthétique « rasa » (saveur ou essence) ; par exemple, dans son éloge du poète et souverain dakhni Ibrahim II : « jagat guru nauras koon nauras diya ; har ek ras chuka man koon sauras diya ; » ou, dans ma propre traduction : « Le Professeur du Monde donne neuf saveurs aux neuf saveurs ; Et tant de chaque saveur, cent autres sont sentis au coeur » (Nusrati 28). Cet article analysera les vers de Nusrati sur le métier et la critique littéraire afin de révéler une lecture contemporaine de la théorie littéraire en Asie du Sud du XVIIe siècle
Lexicographie Bilingue : Pour un dictionnaire pratique français-ourdou avec manuel
No full textÀ la suite d’essais successifs (Manuel d’ourdou, polycopié INALCO, 2008, and Petit Lexique Français Ourdou, Paris polycopié INALCO, 2008), j’ai l’intention de présenter les grands traits de mon Dictionnaire Pratique Français Ourdou avec Manuel selon un double point de vue, théorique (lexicographie) et pratique (pédagogie). Mon Manuel Pratique, étant un complément essentiel du Dictionnaire. Pratique, comportant des introductions linguistiques détaillées à la langue et à la littérature ourdou
Politique linguistique familiale et linguistique du développement. Quelle articulation ?
No full textInternational audienc
The Political and Moral Economies of Gold as Money in Rural Tamil Nadu
No full textInternational audienceApril 2022: One of us is talking to a group of Dalits from a Tamil village, mainly women. The discussion revolves around price increases, and the villagers debate which increases are most problematic, from fuel to onions and oil. ‘It is the price of gold that is a problem,’ exclaims one of them. ‘If the government wants to help us, it must lower the price of gold.’ The price of gold is indeed a permanent and daily concern. In the same discussion, another woman wonders how she will find the five gold sovereigns for her daughter's future wedding. To give less to in-laws would be to lose face but also, as we shall see, to lose the investment in her son's education and housing. Gold acts as a currency, used as a unit of account and a means of exchange for matrimonial transactions. It is also a store of value: its price has increased tenfold between 2000 and 2020, while the general consumer price index has increased threefold. Through pledging, gold is also a payment technology for daily transactions, now used to access cash to smooth out expenses and income and make ends meet. Long reserved for the dominant castes as a symbol of purity and prosperity, gold is now a currency accessible to many, even if its uses and meanings remain deep markers and drivers of social differentiation.In this chapter we explore the political and moral economies of gold as money and its profound transformations in rural Tamil Nadu over the past two decades. The political economy of gold refers to the structural and material conditions that allow the unequal access and use of gold to occur and be sustained