Papers by andrzej pawelec
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Yitzhok Katzenelson's Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk-in Polish Katzenelson's Song of the... more Yitzhok Katzenelson's Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk-in Polish Katzenelson's Song of the Murdered Jewish People is widely recognized as one of the most significant literary documents of the Shoah. Hence, its very limited reception after WW2 is at first glance baffling. We provide the necessary historical background to explain why Katzenelson's "Lament" was for several decades unwanted and why it still remains difficult to appropriate in translation. To show this in one particular context, we focus on the Polish translation by Jerzy Ficowski. We analyse selected examples of Ficowski's justly praised poetic achievement to point out the limitations of his declared goal: "My intention was to make the translation invisible, to allow the murdered poet say again the same-but this time, in Polish" (Ficowski 1982: 11).
Zeszyty Naukowe Centrum Badań im. Edyty Stein, 2015
In this essay I take up the idea presented in 'All Things Shining' that sport events „may be the ... more In this essay I take up the idea presented in 'All Things Shining' that sport events „may be the place in contemporary life where [people] find sacred community most easily”.
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poet... more If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? Emily Dickinson's letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (quoted in Felstiner 2009: 75) Anybody can make discursive statements about poems -half the people I know start making discursive statements a block and a half before they reach the poems. But to read the poems, really to read them -that is difficult. We are judging the poems, all right, but the poems are also judging us. Randall Jarrell (2005: 123)
While iconic effects can be detected at all levels of linguistic analysis, according to the stand... more While iconic effects can be detected at all levels of linguistic analysis, according to the standard position they have little, if any, relevance for the system of language. I would like to show that iconicity seems marginal only in static approaches. Motivation of form is central whenever a new way of expressing things is looked for. Once we see that language is about finding new means of expression, the obvious question to ask is what makes these means suitable: why they are accepted as satisfactory 'vehicles' of meaning. From this point of view, the issue of iconicity -correspondence of form and meaning -turns out to be an instance of a more general phenomenon: adequacy of symbols for novel tasks. The interactive theory of metaphor will be presented to substantiate the claim that conventional forms and meanings can be viewed as a reservoir of motives for expressive purposes.
Perspectives, Jan 1, 2005
While rejecting the proposal that translation should be conceived as 'blending'... more While rejecting the proposal that translation should be conceived as 'blending', a 'creative integration' of cultural inputs (Wang Bin 2003), I claimed in this journal that we need the notion of equivalence (or fidelity) to distinguish translation from non-translation or a good from a ...
Perspectives, Jan 1, 2003
Is the concept of 'equivalence' a trap for Translation Studies? Should it be re... more Is the concept of 'equivalence' a trap for Translation Studies? Should it be replaced by the notion of 'a blend'? These points made by Wang Bin in his wide-ranging article are well worth considering because they have signifi-cance for the very nature of translation and translation theory. ...
This article – based on a larger study (Pawelec 2009) – has two aims. The more limited one is to ... more This article – based on a larger study (Pawelec 2009) – has two aims. The more limited one is to present network models proposed by Ronald Langacker and George Lakoff. I try to show that both ventures rest on manifestly different assumptions, contrary to the widespread view that they are convergent or complementary. Langacker’s declared aim is “descriptive adequacy”: his model serves as a global representation of linguistic intuitions, rooted in convention. Lakoff, on the other hand, offers a developmental model: a fairly general abstract schema is “imagistically” specified and transformed, while the more specific schemas serve as the basis for metaphorical transfers. My wider aim is to offer a preliminary assessment of theoretical justifications and practical potential of network models in lexical semantics.
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Papers by andrzej pawelec