Manumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission... Show moreManumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission as a formal act, often understood as a gift that severed the bond between slave and master. More recently researchers have emphasized that it was a lengthy process that involved pre-existing dependencies and resulted in new hierarchies. This article takes a fresh look at the process and tries to gain a fuller understanding of manumission by examining it from the position of the manumitted and their social relations. Taking into consideration a wide range of documentary sources from colonial, notarial and Dutch governmental archives, we reconstruct the dependencies that were created in the process of manumission. The dependencies that evolved during manumission processes were related to family and other kinship ties, but also had an urban, communal, religious, economic and institutional logic. Manumission was not only an act at a specific moment, but also a process, and it was not a bilateral, but a multilateral one. With the instrument of manumission and within the limits set by economic reality and the colonial government, the manumittees tried to make meaningful life choices that transformed slave society profoundly. We find that they created complex dependencies across boundaries of status and racial categorization. Show less
Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat... Show moreResearch Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientifc behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct. Rather than framing misconduct as a result of an information defcit, we instead conceptualize Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) as attempts by researchers to reconcile epistemic and social forms of uncertainty in knowledge production. Drawing on previous literature, we defne epistemic uncertainty as the inherent intellectual unpredictability of scientifc inquiry, while social uncertainty arises from the human-made conditions for scientifc work. Our core argument—developed on the basis of 30 focus group interviews with researchers across diferent felds and European countries—is that breaches of research integrity can be understood as attempts to loosen overly tight coupling between the two forms of uncertainty. Our analytical approach is not meant to relativize or excuse misconduct, but rather to ofer a more fne-grained perspective on what exactly it is that researchers want to accomplish by engaging in it. Based on the analysis, we conclude by proposing some concrete ways in which institutions and academic communities could try to reconcile epistemic and social uncertainties on a more collective level, thereby reducing incentives for researchers to engage in misconduct. Show less
Fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore,... Show moreFluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore, the presentstudy was set up to investigate the effect of fluency training on speechfluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness of interpreter trainees. Twogroups of interpreter trainees at a university in Iran took part in the study,receiving the same amount of instruction and practice (12 hours over 4weeks). The experimental group (N=30) spent 33% of the time (i.e., 4 of the12 hours in the training program) on dedicated fluency strategy training,encouraging the memorization, repetition, and retelling of audio and videomaterials. The remaining 67% was spent on training general speaking skills.The control group (N=30) were only taught general speaking skills in thetraining program but received no dedicated fluency training. Systematicinterviews were run to assess the interpreter trainees’ speech fluency,comprehensibility and accentedness, which were judged independently bythree expert raters at three moments of testing, i.e., pretest, immediateposttest, and delayed posttest (one month later). The findings revealed thatthe fluency training significantly enhanced the interpreter trainees’ fluency,and to a lesser extent the students’ comprehensibility but had only amarginal effect on accentedness. The pedagogical implication would be thatawareness training on speech fluency Show less
Since the invention of the Indian writing system around the third century BC, Sanskrit literature was no longer exclusively oral. However, not all genres immediately adopted the new possibilities.... Show moreSince the invention of the Indian writing system around the third century BC, Sanskrit literature was no longer exclusively oral. However, not all genres immediately adopted the new possibilities. In order to fully understand the orality and writing of Sanskrit literature, I will first define a threefold division of what I call ‘the compositional complex’, the totality of processes involved in the creation of texts and their subsequent usages. The first stage is the composition of the text, the second is its preservation for the sake of future generations, and the third is its transmission to the audience. Each stage can be oral or written. After a brief discussion of secondary literature on the compositional complex of the Vedas, the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, I look for textinternal evidence for the compositional complex of Purāṇas in the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, ‘the Purāṇa of the future’. On the basis of this single Purāṇa, it is possible to make a reconstruction of the composition, preservation, and transmission of Purāṇas, where orality and writing intertwine. Show less
The present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of... Show moreThe present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of students were formed. All of them studied English as a foreign language at the BA level at Bu-Ali Sina University, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. Participants took a pre-test of listening comprehension skills before starting the programme. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, argumentation-based learning by the iBrainstorm application. The total instruction time was the same for two groups, i.e., 32 hours. Students then took a post-test and, a month later, a delayed post-test in listening comprehension skills. The results show that the use of the iBrainstorm app significantly improved the students’ listening comprehension skills, and significantly more so than those of the control group. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, material producers, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy Show less
Zworykin, D.; Müller, J.M.; Grundmeijer, H.; Pavlov, E. 2024
This article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation... Show moreThis article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation of the form of the singular proximal deictics can be understood from a basic form a, which could be expanded by a complementary element d, and, possibly, also by an element Ɂ; (2) that the proximal system of deictics originally had a number difference, even among adnominal deictics; (3) that the Ghadames (Libya) Anaphoric series sg -e, pl -id has clear parallels in other varieties, especially in Kabyle (Algeria), and that, as a consequence, it can be reconstructed for proto-Berber. Show less
This study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest... Show moreThis study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design. Twenty-three groups of 28 interpreter trainees at a University in Iran (six different branches) took part in the study, all groups receiving the same amount of instruction (9 hours over 3 weeks). Three control groups listened to/viewed authentic audio recordings and movies in English, discussed their contents, and completed a variety of speaking tasks but received no specific prosody instruction. Twenty experimental groups spent part of the instruction time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody by thirteen nonnative instructors, and seven native instructors. Three experts evaluated the comprehensibility of the trainees in elicited speech samples collected during the pretest, immediate posttest and delayed posttest, and subsequently presented in random order. The findings revealed that the experimental groups gained between 1 and 2 points on the 0 to 10 comprehensibility scale, and lost little in the delayed posttest; however, hardly any changes were observed in the control groups. We conclude that native and non-native English instructors’ prosody teaching were equally effective in enhancing EFL students’ speech comprehensibility. Show less
There are two French versions of Ancrene Wisse. One of these, which is preserved in London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius F. vii, has been examined in some depth. The other, known as the Vie de...Show moreThere are two French versions of Ancrene Wisse. One of these, which is preserved in London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius F. vii, has been examined in some depth. The other, known as the Vie de gent de religion, has been examined far less, and its place on the stemma of Ancrene Wisse has not been firmly established. This article seeks to establish its place on this stemma by using the two methods that scholars traditionally use to establish more “original” readings: source analysis and the common error method. Although it may come as a surprise to those familiar with Ancrene Wisse, both of these methods suggest that this French version preserves “original” readings that are missing in the English versions. The second part of this article, which explores the implications of this evidence and the key question of the Vie’s language of composition, shows that large sections of the Vie preserve rhyme, which calls into question the traditional argument that poetic elements in the English version of Ancrene Wisse suggest that it precedes the French. These and other findings presented here suggest that while the relationship between Ancrene Wisse and the Vie is often treated as a closed question, the issue is far more complex than has previously been acknowledged. Show less
