Videos by Dennis Kurzon
In this seminar presentation I take a look at Oscar Wilde’s controversial play Salome not from th... more In this seminar presentation I take a look at Oscar Wilde’s controversial play Salome not from the usual literary and historical perspectives, such as the social situation at the fin de siècle, attempts to stage the play, censorship, its symbolism, etc., but as a text that shows interesting linguistic-pragmatic features, which, it could be argued, bring about the outcome of the drama. The model used in the analysis is the Austin/Searle theory of speech acts, specifically the speech act categories of directives, in which the speaker attempts to make the hearer to do something, e.g. commands and requests, and of commissives in which the speaker puts him/herself under an obligation to do a specific act, e.g. promises, swearing an oath. Thesis Chapters by Dennis Kurzon
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
In this paper, changes in the status and nature of one case from the Family Court of England and ... more In this paper, changes in the status and nature of one case from the Family Court of England and Wales will be discussed. The changes cover two aspects of the case. Firstly, the shift from a civil action-a standard family court case concerning the break-up of a relationship and its effect on the children born from the relationshipto a quasi-criminal case in which contempt of court plays the central role; this will be discussed from a Greimasian perspective. Secondly, the case is accompanied by types of silence-from the textual silence of private proceedings in the Family Court to the conversational silence in the form of one of the protagonists' right of silence. Keywords Right of silence • Semiotic square • Family court • Contempt of court My thanks to Prof. Meizhen Liao of the English Department, Central China Normal University in Wuhan, for giving me the opportunity to speak to his students, through web conferencing, on the right of silence. In my search for new material for the talk, I found the Moutreuil v. Andreewitch case.
List of publications -- books, edited books, articles in journals and in collections
1984-2023
Papers by Dennis Kurzon
International journal for the semiotics of law, May 20, 2024
In this paper, changes in the status and nature of one case from the Family Court of England and ... more In this paper, changes in the status and nature of one case from the Family Court of England and Wales will be discussed. The changes cover two aspects of the case. Firstly, the shift from a civil action -a standard family court case concerning the break-up of a relationship and its effect on the children born from the relationshipto a quasi-criminal case in which contempt of court plays the central role; this will be discussed from a Greimasian perspective. Secondly, the case is accompanied by types of silence -from the textual silence of private proceedings in the Family Court to the conversational silence in the form of one of the protagonists' right of silence.
John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks, 2008
The paper focuses firstly on English ago followed by the temporal NP, which seems to function as ... more The paper focuses firstly on English ago followed by the temporal NP, which seems to function as a postposition, although English is a SVO language, with prepositions. A comparison is then carried out with similar deictic expressions in other languages, including European, Semitic, Caucasian, Oceanic languages. From the results of this limited typology of languages based on the parameter of the equivalent forms of ago , it may be seen that while many languages use an adposition (e.g. German, Turkish, Arabic), including languages that have a verb-derived adposition (e.g. Romance languages and English), others use an adverbial expression (e.g. Russian, Tagalog, Basque).
Philosophy, Cognition and Pragmatics, 2024
In this paper I will take a look at Oscar Wilde's controversial play Salome not from the usual li... more In this paper I will take a look at Oscar Wilde's controversial play Salome not from the usual literary and historical perspectives, such as the social situation at the fin de siècle, attempts to stage the play, censorship, its symbolism, etc., but as a text that shows interesting linguistic-pragmatic features, which, it could be argued, bring about the outcome of the drama. The model used in the analysis is the Austin/ Searle theory of speech acts, specifically the speech act categories of directives, in which the speaker attempts to make the hearer do something, e.g., commands and requests, and of commissives in which the speaker puts him/herself under an obligation to do a specific act, e.g., promises, swearing an oath. The paper addresses communicative failure in the play. This failure may be divided into two types. Firstly, the failure of characters to understand each other, for example, the difficulties in understanding what the prophet Jokanaan is saying. Secondly, and the focus of the paper, the failure of the four main characters, Herod, Herodias, Salome, and Jokanaan, to communicate with each other in that they fail to perform successful directives. However, Herod's "success" in communicating is seen in his swearing an oath to give Salome whatever she wants if she dances for him and in fulfilling his promise. But his success in communicating is fatal: It costs the lives of Jokanaan and of Salome herself.
Typological studies in language, Aug 22, 2002
John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1986
Introduction Part One 1. A Sociolinguistic Look at India 2. The Status of Konkani 3. The Konkani-... more Introduction Part One 1. A Sociolinguistic Look at India 2. The Status of Konkani 3. The Konkani-Marathi Controversy - the 2000-1 version 4. English in Goa 5. Caste and Migration as Social Phenomena in Goa Part Two 6. Language Acquisition 7. Testing the Students 8. Results from Questionnaire 9. English in India 10. Multilingualism Conclusion Appendix Bibliography
Gillian Brown's book presents a careful argument for viewing the interpretation of referring expr... more Gillian Brown's book presents a careful argument for viewing the interpretation of referring expressions and definite expressions by listeners as a satisficing process. That is, listeners attempt to find an interpretation that is adequate for their present purposes, rather than one that is correct with respect to what the speaker might have intended. The author supports her claim with examples taken from a series of carefully controlled experiments that she and her colleagues have conducted over the last 14 years.
Typological Studies in Language, 2002
Language, 2010
Review of Kurzon, Dennis and Adler, Silvia (eds.), Adpositions : Pragmatic, semantic and syntacti... more Review of Kurzon, Dennis and Adler, Silvia (eds.), Adpositions : Pragmatic, semantic and syntactic perspectives
This paper provides further evidence for a typology of silence, viz. conversational, textual and ... more This paper provides further evidence for a typology of silence, viz. conversational, textual and situational silence. Some of the problems in the typology are dealt with, for example, a clearer distinction is made between conversational silence, on the one hand, and textual and situational silence on the other. The distinction between textual and situational silence is further illustrated against the background of controversial court cases in the United States concerning “moment of silence” legislation in a number of states.
The paper looks at the establishment of religion clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitu... more The paper looks at the establishment of religion clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and cases, e.g. Brown v. Gilmore, followed by Croft v. Perry and Sherman v. Koch, cases that relate to the concept of the ''moment of silence'' in educational institutions in which it was claimed that such events constitute a breach of the establishment clause. Courts have been inconsistent in their decision-making, which may indicate a lack of transparency not only in the interpretation of the relevant phrase in the Constitution but also in the judicial interpretation of the ''three-pronged test'' with regard to ''excessive entanglement'' as laid out in Lemon v. Kurtzman of 1971. The paper discusses the ''moment of silence'' within the framework of a model of silence in which this type of silence would be labeled as either textual or situational silence.
Cílem této práce je analyzovat právní úpravu statutu svěřenského fondu v občanském zákoníku, kter... more Cílem této práce je analyzovat právní úpravu statutu svěřenského fondu v občanském zákoníku, který je integrální součástí institutu svěřenského fondu, jenž byl do českého práva zaveden rekodifikací soukromého práva v roce 2014. Součástí této práce bude i komparace zahraničních právních úprav s českou právní úpravou. V první řadě bude komparována právní úprava českého svěřenského fondu s právní úpravou kanadského Québecu. Ve druhé řadě pak bude proveden exkurz do lichtenštejnské právní úpravy jejich trust-like institutu.
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Videos by Dennis Kurzon
Thesis Chapters by Dennis Kurzon
Papers by Dennis Kurzon