It is almost 3 am and I want to write about something I have admired for so long...da da da...the moon! In the past two weeks, the moon has become something that I consciously think of, I keep saying to myself how much it is beautiful and inspiring. Daydreaming, I wrote a poem (sort-of) about me and the moon. In the foggy and fluffy space, the moon was wearing a face mask and when I took it off, there were sirens everywhere and spotlights on my face. Last Friday, I was admiring the moon even more when this song, descended from somewhere in Seventh Sky to YouTube to my laptop. It is called paper moon. "Say it is only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea...Yes it's only a canvas sky.. hanging over a muslin tree" ♫♫♫
I did not mean it...it just happened ^_^
Well, I have recently cut my hair, very short that I sometimes feel myself a bit strange or as if -sometimes- I don't recognise my old self.
I discovered myself as a reasonably 'good' hair dresser in the coronavirus pandemic. I started cutting my hair, using two mirrors, one at the front and one at the back. I once cherished myself on the thought that there is nothing better than hearing that noise of the scissors taking away a clip of my hair, then looking at my hair strips on the floor with happiness and uncertainty, if I have done the right thing? ha?
But before this last time, I had no back mirror to look at and I did not care. I was enclosed by an Egyptian sunny weather; everyday, I enjoyed a walk in the hot weather to buy groceries and lots of fruit, peaches, figs, red grapes and white grapes.
And when I decided to 'fix' my hair, I cut it too short.
The lesson is that when something goes wrong, may be it is just better to wait and wait, give yourself time and more time.
Apart from this, everything is reasonably okay. I have been busy with a few things. Do you want to know? (Raising my eyebrows and looking at an imaginary mirror!).
Well, guys, I gave a presentation in BALEAP (abbreviation is coming! British Association for Lecturers of English for Academic Purposes). I co-presented on the use of students' hobbies and interests in EAP teaching. It was a rewarding co-presentation, as I had many good questions after my presentation on literacy practices (that have to do with reading, writing, listening and speaking) and on EAP teaching.
Another thing I was happy about is that I participated in a workshop for a project about accents by Queen Mary University London. The workshop was entitled 'Accent and discrimination'. As you can guess from the title, this workshop raised awareness about perceptions of accent and accent discrimination. It made the argument that all accents are equal and should be treated the same. It was also very interesting as it dealt with accent perception from many viewpoints, e.g. sociology and sociolinguistics.
Well, guys, I have more to share with you; I have published an article about the coronavirus pandemic, more specifically, its representation in YouTube songs. Ask me for the link, and I will post it here, ha ha, just ask.!
Well, write to you again soon!
The representation of coronavirus: 'Don't be afraid but pay attention'
Coronavirus...coronavirus...'Don't be afraid but pay
attention'
14 June 2020
In this blog post, I would like to
write about coronavirus and language: how it is talked about in the media? As I
do this, I am hoping to contribute to an interest in ‘coronavirus and language’
(see below). I would like to find out if there might be, if any, a positive
representation of coronavirus other than its negative (and rather grim)
representation in the news.
I am also inspired by auto-ethnography
(self-reflection through writing) and I would like to talk a bit about how I
coped with the lockdown. I will do so in the second part of this blog post.
But first, I will tell you more about what I have learnt so far about language
(particularly metaphors) and coronavirus, and how the use of metaphors creates
a specific representation of coronavirus. Ready?
I would have liked to travel this
summer, day dreaming…and I could bizarrely hear the sounds of a helicopter, as
if I am in it, leaving the ground, for some exciting good views!
Coronavirus and language
Many blog posts, tweets and articles have
explored how language, mostly used by politicians, frame our attitudes about the coronavirus.
When we analyse language, there are many aspects we can look at for example,
the presuppositions and assumptions made in a text, the nominalisations used
(for example, how a particular phenomenon is named and described) and the metaphors used (see for example, Unger, Wodak & KhosraviNik 2016: 283 and Wodak &
Krzyzanowski 2008). The metaphors used to talk about coronavirus has been a
focus of interest in what is written about coronavirus and language. So, what are metaphors?
What do they do? And what does the use of metaphors tell us about the
representation of coronavirus?
Metaphors and coronavirus
You might be already familiar with the
term ‘metaphor’ (for example, saying ‘my mother is the moon'). But if you do
not know the term, here is its definition by an expert on metaphors, Elena
Semino. She defines metaphors as follows:
‘By metaphor, I mean the phenomenon
whereby we talk and, potentially, think about something in terms of something
else’ (Elena Semino (2008: 1).
In Metaphor in Discourse, Elena Semino shows us
how metaphors can frame the way we think about actions, processes, or
phenomena; metaphors also have richness of meanings (see for example, Semino
2008: 4-10). For example, when we say 'life as a journey', we are likely to
communicate many meanings about life, for example, life as movement, as an
adventure, or possibly going through unexpected events or new things.
I like this article by Paul Elie, named
‘against virus as metaphor’ published in the New Yorker (I knew about this
article on Twitter: @elenasemino). This article is interesting because it
explains why some/many of us did not take coronavirus seriously at first. The
article tells us two things. First, even before the outbreak of covid 19, ‘the
virus’ was already popular as a metaphor, for example, when we say, this video
went ‘viral’ or when we say this computer had ‘a virus’. Second, it is this
popular use of ‘the virus’ as a metaphor -the article suggests- that could have
made coronavirus seem less serious than what it is.
There is more about metaphors and
coronavirus, in this blog post by Brigitte Nerlich named ‘metaphors in the time of coronavirus’. (She is on Twitter: @BNerlich). The blog post talks us through the many metaphors that have
been used to talk about coronavirus, such as ‘flattening the curve’ (also used
as a persuasive device as in ‘stay at home, flatten the curve’), ‘the domino
effect’ (showing how easy it is to spread the virus) and the ‘spike protein’ as
‘weapon’ in reference to the spikes on the virus that allow it to stick to
human cells. This blog post also explains how coronavirus is described as a
natural disaster or as a plague killer. Another variation of this metaphor is
describing coronavirus as a tsunami, as @elenasemino pointed out in one of her
tweets. To elaborate on the tsunami metaphor, here is an example from an
article on the BBC news website about coronavirus in South Africa:
'But so far, and against most
predictions, South Africa's hospitals remain quiet, the anticipated tsunami of
infections that many experts here have been waiting for has yet to
materialise'.
Coronavirus is also described as ‘an
enemy’ in which nations are described in a ‘state of war’. You might have
already noticed that politicians used phrases such as ‘the fight’, ‘the
struggle’ and ‘the battle’ in their speeches on the coronavirus. From one
perspective, you might argue that the war metaphor is used as a persuasive
strategy to show the seriousness of the situation and to persuade people to
follow the social distancing rules.
The war metaphor, however, has been
criticised a lot. In fact, if there is anything positive about the coronavirus
pandemic, it could be said that it has contributed to an increasing interest
and debate about metaphor, language use and the coronavirus. To illustrate, a
google search on ‘coronavirus and the war metaphor’ shows about ‘21 million
results’, which leads to many many pages with links to content
(articles/videos) about the war metaphor and the coronavirus.
As I mentioned above, many of these
articles are against the use of the war metaphor. Since this feeds into my
inquiry of the representation of coronavirus, I will briefly sum up the main
arguments against the war metaphor, before moving on to the second part of my
blog post about coping with the lockdown (yay, finally!).
The war metaphor
There are at least two arguments
against the use of a war metaphor in talking about covid 19. First, a war
metaphor could give wrong assumptions about the world, which needs unity and
cooperation rather than discourse on war, as this article argues, for example.
Second, a war metaphor could put the listener/viewer in a state of frenzy and
panic, as my former lecturer Veronika Koller argues in this article.
In my view, the above-mentioned
metaphors of a war, of a natural disaster make an official representation of
coronavirus. It is described here as a looming threat (‘a war’ or an ‘enemy’), as something dynamic (‘a moving
curve’) and as something unavoidable (‘a tsunami’, ‘a natural disaster’ etc.).
I passed through days since the corona
outbreak when stepping out of the door (to buy things from the shop nearby)
gave me negative feelings and was something uncomfortable. I always looked
round me, as if the coronavirus (the ‘invisible enemy’) would suddenly appear
and track me down, as I went to the shop and came back. Luckily, these feelings
were intermittent. It was listening to songs and music that helped me get over
my fears. I will tell you more below about my fascination with a song in
Spanish called 'coronavirus', in this following section.
Coping with the corona quarantine…đ§
My main coping strategy in corona
lockdown was listening to songs. I would like to say more about this but first I will tell you about a course/module I attended at Lancaster University. It was about understanding media. I learnt from the
lectures of Julia Gillen that when we study media texts, we can examine not
only the texts themselves (for example, the lyrics) but also what we do with
them, for example, the practices that surround listening to songs.
In corona lockdown, I think I was mainly
listening to songs to overcome boredom and negative thoughts. Like
books or paintings, some songs inspire me, for example, give me energy to go through the 'tasks of the day' or explore new things. But since in the past, I mainly listened
to songs in English and Arabic, I thought it would be a good idea to listen to songs of languages I don't
speak. I even thought after a while that life could be more welcoming
and tolerant, if we adopt this as a practice, since songs and their
video-editions carry with them cultural symbols, new tastes etc.
I started listening to Indian songs; I
am still exploring them but so far, I like this one by Neha Kakkar. I then
moved to explore songs in Spanish. In this (most amazing) time of self-reflection, I stumbled upon a song on YouTube called
'coronavirus'. When I first listened to it, it sounded like a dance song, and I thought it is brave. It is not something usual, I think, that we have songs about
'disease', and with such an upbeat rhythm? I became more curious and checked the lyrics' meanings in Google.
As I will explain below, this song was inspiring as it was hopeful and humorous. It made me more confident; as a language scholar, I could see other representations of coronavirus other than the dominant images of war and tsunami.
As I will explain below, this song was inspiring as it was hopeful and humorous. It made me more confident; as a language scholar, I could see other representations of coronavirus other than the dominant images of war and tsunami.
CORONAVIRUS, CORONAVIRUS, LĂVENSE LAS
MANOS, HĂGANLO SEGUIDO ‘wash your hands. Do it often’
The 'coronavirus' song -I am using as an example of another representation of coronavirus- has at least three versions on
YouTube: one is by the singer Andy Zvala, another is by Mister Cumbia (these are
grown-ups) and a third version is by a child singer, Ramiro MartĂnez. He is an
accordion player and has a YouTube channel of his own, with about 6 thousand subscribers
(featured below).
I hope that you, like me, enjoy the
song (here is the link to it! Surprise!).
As you listen to the song, you will
notice that it has an upbeat music and a call for interactivity. For example,
the description of Andy Zavala's performance reads: 'Andy Zavala wants to teach
how the virus is fought by singing’ and at 00.38 of the song, as the singer
mentions his name and we read it as well like a banner running on the screen,
we see an image of him on stage. It is as if he is now in front of us, performing the
song live (see below).
Besides the upbeat music and
interactivity (through the repeated mention of the singers' name: Andy Zavala
and Mister Cumbia, humour is apparent, I think, in the two songs. Andy Zavala’s song
for example, has a funny picture of a man wearing a ‘Norton antivirus CD’ to
his nose, as a face mask, drawing on the double meaning (pun) of a virus: 1-computer virus and 2-coronavirus. There is also a graphic image of people
wearing masks in a collective action, perhaps in a self-mocking manner, as if
from now on, this will be our 'new' dress code.
In the song by Mister Cumbia, coronavirus
is personified as two faces that keep moving in their place throughout the song
(which perhaps shares with the metaphor of ‘flattening the curve’, the idea of
movement). The two faces of the coronavirus have crossed eyebrows, suggesting
an evil attention, which is also communicated by the ‘fake’ smile on their face
(see the figure below). This cartoonist style of personifying the virus, however,
brings it closer to children's stories, as if this could be a part of a
(monster) story book for children, giving a light-hearted
representation of the corona virus.
This light-hearted approach is also
evident in the song by Ramiro MartĂnez. He 'seriously' acts the role of a
medical professional, as can be seen
from his gestures and dress code, for example, he gestures with his index
finger to the viewer, and applies a disinfectant in front of the camera,
which takes me to my last and my final section (I promise!) about the lyrics of
the song.
The lyrics and their structure
The lyrics follow a problem-solution
structure. First, they establish coronavirus as an ‘alarm’ that has ‘scared’
the world, something that at first might be similar to the representation of
coronavirus in the news. Yet, having established coronavirus as an alarm, the
lyrics offer advice/solution: ‘wash your hands frequently, wear a mask and keep
a meter distance from others’. It is up to the listener to infer the following
message: follow this advice and things will be fine or as the description in
Andy Zavala’s song says: ‘Don’t be afraid but pay attention’.
In my corona quarantine, I listened to
this song quite a bit and I found it inspirational and empowering, through its
upbeat music, use of humour and message of hope. Plus, it was good to see
another representation of coronavirus, other than the images of coronavirus in
the news, as a looming threat, a weapon; and a tsunami that is approaching.
References
Elie, Paul. 2020. (Against) virus as
metaphor. The New Yorker. March 19:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/against-the-coronavirus-as-metaphor
Accessed May 27, 2020.
Nerlich,
Brigitte. 2020. Metaphors in the time of coronavirus. Making Science Public.
March 17.
https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2020/03/17/metaphors-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/
Accessed May 27, 2020.
Tisdall, Simon. 2020. Lay off those war
metaphors, world leaders. You could be the next casualty. The Guardian. March
21.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/21/donald-trump-boris-johnson-coronavirus
Accessed May 27, 2020.
Semino,
Elena. 2008. Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Serhan, Yasmeen. 2020. The case against
waging ‘war’ on the coronavirus. The Atlantic. March 31.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/war-metaphor-coronavirus/609049/
Accessed May 27, 2020.
Unger, Johann, Wodak, Ruth, &
KhosraviNik, Majid. 2016. Critical discourse studies and social media data. In
David Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research (4th ed.). London: SAGE, pp. 277-293.
Wodak, Ruth, & Krzyzanowski, Michal.
2008. Qualitative discourse analysis in the social Sciences. Palgrave Macmillan
Links to the songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lap1eCx3Wvw&t=2s
(Andy Zavala)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hW4DF6FWtk
(Mister Cumbia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21oUje8pUcY
(Ramiro MartĂnez)
Happy International Women's Day...The mic is on...
Here is a recent post I wrote on Facebook on International Women's Day:
Apparently, the mic is still on from the last Facebook post I wrote and the kind response to it from my family, friends, colleagues and lecturers. This morning, I found myself writing this in pencil on a recycled, blank sheet of paper. Here is my imaginary speech on International Women’s Day:
“Today is a day like no other. International Women’s Day. It is gloomy and cloudy, but in my heart there is hope, sun shining and a bright blue moon. Dear strong women out there, I would like to congratulate you for your strength, for surviving and facing subtle or clear patterns and patches of silencing, pigeonholing and exclusion.This patchwork (raising my voice) is not artwork (pause). I believe it is only through our unity, believing in ourselves and shunning the stereotypes about us women that we can take on this ongoing challenge, for example, stereotypes about East and West, and stereotypes about differences of skin colour and religion (putting on a faint smile as I move my glasses towards my face).Whether you are now in Japan, Egypt, US, Indonesia or the UK, let us all unite against forms of exclusion and make sure that our voices are heard and listened to. And dear men out there (looking at something in a vacuum) you will only be included and human till you challenge your prejudices and do something about it.”
#themicison #daydreaming #IWomensDay #ÙÙÙ _ۧÙÙ Ű±ŰŁŰ©_ۧÙŰčۧÙÙ Ù
“Today is a day like no other. International Women’s Day. It is gloomy and cloudy, but in my heart there is hope, sun shining and a bright blue moon. Dear strong women out there, I would like to congratulate you for your strength, for surviving and facing subtle or clear patterns and patches of silencing, pigeonholing and exclusion.This patchwork (raising my voice) is not artwork (pause). I believe it is only through our unity, believing in ourselves and shunning the stereotypes about us women that we can take on this ongoing challenge, for example, stereotypes about East and West, and stereotypes about differences of skin colour and religion (putting on a faint smile as I move my glasses towards my face).Whether you are now in Japan, Egypt, US, Indonesia or the UK, let us all unite against forms of exclusion and make sure that our voices are heard and listened to. And dear men out there (looking at something in a vacuum) you will only be included and human till you challenge your prejudices and do something about it.”#themicison #daydreaming #IWomensDay #ÙÙÙ _ۧÙÙ Ű±ŰŁŰ©_ۧÙŰčۧÙÙ Ù
My reflections on Lancaster University Corpus Linguistics Summer School
This
year I participated in the Corpus Linguistics Summer School on Discourse, Language and Society at Lancaster University which took
place from 25-28 of June. The school was inspiring on many levels. It
was a great opportunity to learn about Corpus Linguistics from top
scholars in the field. I also gained insights into many domains such
as health communication and historical linguistics. Here I am, in the
bright summer days of Great Britain, reflecting on my participation
in the school.
Corpus Linguistics methods and tools
In
the school, we explored the meaning of Corpus Linguistics (CL), its
methods and strengths.
So is CL a method or an approach or both?! In his lecture, Andrew
Hardie described corpus linguistics as a “toolkit for research
which gives us the power to search, process and analyse a vast and
complex array of language data”. Through CL tools, we can explore
the frequency of a particular word and its collocations. So why are
collocations worth exploring? As Paul Baker explained in his lecture,
when we see words together (e.g. “illegal immigrant”), we would
be primed to associate one word (immigrant) with the other (illegal).
The
school included lab sessions in which we we used three
websites/software
for corpus analysis: CQP (Corpus Query Processor) Web, #LancsBox and
W-Matrix. CQP
web is
a good starting point to explore corpus linguistics. In Paul
Baker’s lecture, for example, we searched for the word “refugees”
in the British National Corpus. One interesting collocate of refugees
was the word “flood” i.e. “flood of refugees” in which
refugees are represented in a negative way as a burden or a danger.
In other lectures, we used LancsBox to create graphs of collocates
and collocational networks. As for W-Matrix, it allowed us to gain
insights into keyness (words which are more frequent in one corpus in
reference to another corpus) and to identify the main semantic fields
(topics) in a corpus.
I
have always thought of statistics as dull or boring but Vaclav
Brezina gave us very interesting lectures on statistics in which we
steadily learnt about key concepts such as mean, median, the null
hypothesis and the different ways to look at statistical
significance. His engaging approach to statistics motivates me to
read his forthcoming book Statistics
in Corpus Linguistics: A Practical Guide.
Multi-disciplinarity
As
much as learning about CL methods and
tools, the school allowed me to explore new domains such as forensic
linguistics! Claire
Hardaker gave us a very interesting lecture about forensic
linguistics, its scope, types and the application of CL to forensic
linguistics. I find it inspiring that she keeps a blog on forensic
linguistics and organizes
a writing retreat for students and scholars involved in work in
forensic linguistics.
Elena
Semino gave us a great plenary lecture on corpus linguistics and
health communication. She presented
the methodology and findings of two recent studies she undertook with
a multidisciplinary team on communication about chronic (neuropathic)
pain. As she pointed out, chronic pain can be a difficult task to
talk about, which can have negative implications for patients and
health care providers. The two studies drew on innovative methods. In
one study, for example, patients were given cards (from which they
choose one/s) to relate to as they described their feelings of pain.
While Elena Semino is already a superstar in stylistics and metaphor
theory, she has turned her attention to health communication. I look
forward to reading her forthcoming book Metaphor,
Cancer and the End of Life: A corpus-Based Study.
Other
domains that I explored in the school are lexicography and historical
linguistics. In Jonathan Culpeper’s lectures, I learnt about the
Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare’s Language Project; he explained the
myths that surrounded Shakespeare’s language and how the
development of CL resources and software made it possible to analyse
Shakespeare’s language, also in relation to the general language of
the period. For more about Culpeper’s journey with corpus
linguistics and the Shakespeare’s Language Project, you may like to
listen
to this comprehensive interview with him
available on YouTube!
Tony
McEnery gave us another fascinating lecture about the representation
of the marginalised groups in 17th
century England. One particular example intrigued me as it relates to
coffee making! He showed us how there is a vast literature/discourse
around the “Mohammedan berry”, which refers to coffee beans that
were introduced from Istanbul to England in the 17th
century. In this discourse, Ottomans were represented as dangerous
or wanting to undermine the social fabric of the society at the time.
In my notes of McEnery’s lecture, I found myself drawing stars on
his remark on the 'longevity' of discourses. Discourses (for example,
on Muslims and blacks) can be produced in a particular era and can
lie in the background for many years or eras before they are called
upon again at a certain moment in time.
Overall,
the school was truly a festival of ideas as one participant in the
school described it. It was also a call for a critical approach to
language analysis or as Tony McEnery put it in the closing plenary of
the school, be critical as you approach language and do it with
humility.
Writing about Faith and Language Practices in Digital Spaces
Besides my recently published article on ‘the representation of Islam and Muslims in the YouTube videos of the American Muslim televangelist Baba Ali’, I am super excited that I contributed a chapter to the book Faith and Language Practice in Digital Space which offers a timely contribution to the nexus of faith, language practices and electronic technology. The book is published by Multi-Lingual Matters and broadly speaking includes a variety of topics that draw on sociolinguistics and language practice, multi-modality and Critical Discourse Studies. Since not many books have explored the interaction between faith, language practice and online technologies, I would like to dedicate this blogpost to discuss the main themes in the book, including my chapter on Muslim televangelism in the West.
The book comprises four main parts. Part I: Faith, Language and Social Media includes two chapters that explore the interaction between religion and social media, for example, 'how transnational faith communities employ Facebook as an important online resource for developing virtual transnational networks that support language ideologies'.
Part 2 Faith, Language and Transnational Online Practices investigates how 'language practice adapts itself to online contexts with transnational audiences' (p. 11). For example, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 explore the language and cultural practices of the Yoruba people, an ethnic group in Nigeria that has its own language and spiritual traditions. In addition, Chapter 5 examines the Yiddish virtual community on wikipedia.
Part 3 is entitled Faith, Language and Online Televangelism. It turns attention to televangelism, which has gained huge popularity over the past few decades. In Chapter 7, Omoniyi adopts a sociolinguistic approach to evangelism. Drawing on World Englishes, he shows how 'non-native varieties of English (e.g. of Nigerian English) can 'replace or at least mirror the global reach of standard varieties' (p. 13).
In Chapter 8 'Televangelists as religious celebrities: the changing face of religious discourse', I investigate the online performances of two popular televangelists (i.e. Baba Ali and Hamza Yusuf) and analyse their self-representation strategies. Drawing on Critical Discourse Studies, I show how televangelists construct their online identities, using a variety of discursive and multimodal strategies, for example, the use of formal/informal language, camera shots, and frame size. I show that televangelism represents an example of ‘religio-tainment’ that can be contextualised in the broader genre of info-tainment.
Part 4 Faith, Language and Online Ritual investigates the changes that occur to rituals as they are performed online. In Chapter 9, Rajeshawi, explores online Satsang and online puja. In the language of Sanskrit, Satsang refers to gatherings aimed at meditation and spiritual awakenings, whereas puja refers to devotional worship in Hinduism. In her chapter, she marks the contrast between the flexibility of online practice as opposed to the fixity of offline ones (p. 14). Another chapter in this section is by Andrey Rosowsky on ‘online ‘Baya’a’ Practices within a Worldwide Sufi Order’. Rosowsky reveals that although pledging is traditionally an oral ritual, written text appears 'embodied, visual and shaped to support the ritual'.
I am really delighted that in 2017, my chapter on Muslim televangelists’ online performances came to light among a variety of interesting topics on many religious traditions and employing many approaches and conceptual framework. As such, it offers an important contribution to the domain of online technologies, language practices and faith.
The book comprises four main parts. Part I: Faith, Language and Social Media includes two chapters that explore the interaction between religion and social media, for example, 'how transnational faith communities employ Facebook as an important online resource for developing virtual transnational networks that support language ideologies'.
Part 2 Faith, Language and Transnational Online Practices investigates how 'language practice adapts itself to online contexts with transnational audiences' (p. 11). For example, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 explore the language and cultural practices of the Yoruba people, an ethnic group in Nigeria that has its own language and spiritual traditions. In addition, Chapter 5 examines the Yiddish virtual community on wikipedia.
Part 3 is entitled Faith, Language and Online Televangelism. It turns attention to televangelism, which has gained huge popularity over the past few decades. In Chapter 7, Omoniyi adopts a sociolinguistic approach to evangelism. Drawing on World Englishes, he shows how 'non-native varieties of English (e.g. of Nigerian English) can 'replace or at least mirror the global reach of standard varieties' (p. 13).
In Chapter 8 'Televangelists as religious celebrities: the changing face of religious discourse', I investigate the online performances of two popular televangelists (i.e. Baba Ali and Hamza Yusuf) and analyse their self-representation strategies. Drawing on Critical Discourse Studies, I show how televangelists construct their online identities, using a variety of discursive and multimodal strategies, for example, the use of formal/informal language, camera shots, and frame size. I show that televangelism represents an example of ‘religio-tainment’ that can be contextualised in the broader genre of info-tainment.
Part 4 Faith, Language and Online Ritual investigates the changes that occur to rituals as they are performed online. In Chapter 9, Rajeshawi, explores online Satsang and online puja. In the language of Sanskrit, Satsang refers to gatherings aimed at meditation and spiritual awakenings, whereas puja refers to devotional worship in Hinduism. In her chapter, she marks the contrast between the flexibility of online practice as opposed to the fixity of offline ones (p. 14). Another chapter in this section is by Andrey Rosowsky on ‘online ‘Baya’a’ Practices within a Worldwide Sufi Order’. Rosowsky reveals that although pledging is traditionally an oral ritual, written text appears 'embodied, visual and shaped to support the ritual'.
I am really delighted that in 2017, my chapter on Muslim televangelists’ online performances came to light among a variety of interesting topics on many religious traditions and employing many approaches and conceptual framework. As such, it offers an important contribution to the domain of online technologies, language practices and faith.
Linguistics books translated into Arabic: Here we talk about Metaphors in Discourse and Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis!
Has it ever happened to you that you visited a bookshop and you almost got lost there, flipping through books and thinking of book titles?
Well, this has happened to me and I am eager as well to read about your experiences?!
The weather was gloomy in Lancaster over the past week and I enjoy remembering this.
It was sunny and bright! Next to me was my father who was similing; walking with his stick which created a rhythm as we went by. We were heading towards Cairo Opera House where the bookshop of the Supreme Cultural Council lies.
Here I am moving around- flipping through translated books of literature, sociology and history translated into Arabic from many different languages: Greek, Japanese, English and German.
In the linguistics section, there were two books that I was super excited to see and get: Metaphors in Discourse (2008) by Elena Semino and Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2009) edited by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer. Both Elena Semino and Ruth Wodak are professors in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University, where I am currently studying. (P. S. Ruth Wodak is my PhD supervisor!). It was impressive to see books for them translated into Arabic in Egypt!
Which book/author would you like me to start with?
Metaphors in Discourse (2008) is one of other five books for Elena Semino. (You are invited to read and explore her books, articles and presentations on her web-page on academia.edu). The book represents an important area of interest for the author among other areas of interest (here are linguistics terms coming!) such as cognitive stylistics; corpus stylistics and mind style in fiction.
The book offers a comprehensive view on “metaphor” which means -and I am quoting her- “the phenomenon whereby we talk and, potentially, think about something in terms of something else” (page 1). An example is when we say that “life is a journey” in which life is conceptually represented as a journey.
As you may guess from the title, Metaphors in Discourse, the book argues that metaphors is “a pervasive linguistic phenomenon” and is “central to many different types of communication, from informal interaction through political speeches to scientific” language.
In fact, the book is divided into six chapters, each appears to be focused on a particular domain; for example, language used in literature, science, politics and blog writing.
Like the English version, the book is written in a clear language that can appeal to a lay reader; it is translated by Emad Abdel Latif and Khaled Tawfiq, who themselves are well-established Egyptian scholars of linguistics.
The second book, I am inviting you to read is, Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2009, 2nd edition), which is an essential read for anyone interested in Critical Discourse Analysis.
So, what is Critical Discourse Analysis?
CDA is an approach to language that assumes that discourse- language in use- is a social practice. A striking example is the use of the word “nigger” which exemplified an exclusionary practice against blacks in the past, as Ruth Wodak informed us in another important book she co-authored with Martin Reisigl, i.e. Discourse and Discrimination (2001). It is these exclusionary practices that CDA is critical of; for example you may like to explore Ruth Wodak's most recent book The Politics of Fear.
Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis has eight chapters. Chapter 1 by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer discusses the development of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the assumptions and principles underlying it. The book has contributions from many authors, including Norman Fairclough, Teun A. van Dijk, Ruth Wodak, Michael Meyer, Martin Reisigl, Gerlinde Mautner, Siegfried JĂ€ger and Florentine Maier.
One thing I like about the two books, Metaphors in Discourse and Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, is that they can help us better understand language use, as a complex phenomenon that has many dimensions and aspects to it (for example, see chapter 4 by Martin Reisigl and Ruth Wodak on the Discourse Historical Approach).
The books have gained other personal meanings. In my small library at Lancaster, I sometimes revisit them. In a magical link, they take me back to the hums and buzzes of the streets of Cairo, to the Cairo Opera House, re-experiencing this awesome feeling that Cairo Opera House is a meeting place for so many languages and topics!
It is also a great pleasure that the two books are signed by two great scholars who are already celebrities in their fields! Visiting a bookshop can indeed become a remarkable experience!
Well, this has happened to me and I am eager as well to read about your experiences?!
The weather was gloomy in Lancaster over the past week and I enjoy remembering this.
It was sunny and bright! Next to me was my father who was similing; walking with his stick which created a rhythm as we went by. We were heading towards Cairo Opera House where the bookshop of the Supreme Cultural Council lies.
Here I am moving around- flipping through translated books of literature, sociology and history translated into Arabic from many different languages: Greek, Japanese, English and German.
In the linguistics section, there were two books that I was super excited to see and get: Metaphors in Discourse (2008) by Elena Semino and Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2009) edited by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer. Both Elena Semino and Ruth Wodak are professors in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University, where I am currently studying. (P. S. Ruth Wodak is my PhD supervisor!). It was impressive to see books for them translated into Arabic in Egypt!
Which book/author would you like me to start with?
Metaphors in Discourse (2008) is one of other five books for Elena Semino. (You are invited to read and explore her books, articles and presentations on her web-page on academia.edu). The book represents an important area of interest for the author among other areas of interest (here are linguistics terms coming!) such as cognitive stylistics; corpus stylistics and mind style in fiction.
 |
| Professor Elena Semino signing her book at Lancaster University. |
The book offers a comprehensive view on “metaphor” which means -and I am quoting her- “the phenomenon whereby we talk and, potentially, think about something in terms of something else” (page 1). An example is when we say that “life is a journey” in which life is conceptually represented as a journey.
As you may guess from the title, Metaphors in Discourse, the book argues that metaphors is “a pervasive linguistic phenomenon” and is “central to many different types of communication, from informal interaction through political speeches to scientific” language.
In fact, the book is divided into six chapters, each appears to be focused on a particular domain; for example, language used in literature, science, politics and blog writing.
Like the English version, the book is written in a clear language that can appeal to a lay reader; it is translated by Emad Abdel Latif and Khaled Tawfiq, who themselves are well-established Egyptian scholars of linguistics.
The second book, I am inviting you to read is, Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2009, 2nd edition), which is an essential read for anyone interested in Critical Discourse Analysis.
 |
| The Arabic version of Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis translated by Housam Ahmed Farag and Azza Shebl Mohamed |
So, what is Critical Discourse Analysis?
CDA is an approach to language that assumes that discourse- language in use- is a social practice. A striking example is the use of the word “nigger” which exemplified an exclusionary practice against blacks in the past, as Ruth Wodak informed us in another important book she co-authored with Martin Reisigl, i.e. Discourse and Discrimination (2001). It is these exclusionary practices that CDA is critical of; for example you may like to explore Ruth Wodak's most recent book The Politics of Fear.
Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis has eight chapters. Chapter 1 by Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer discusses the development of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the assumptions and principles underlying it. The book has contributions from many authors, including Norman Fairclough, Teun A. van Dijk, Ruth Wodak, Michael Meyer, Martin Reisigl, Gerlinde Mautner, Siegfried JĂ€ger and Florentine Maier.
One thing I like about the two books, Metaphors in Discourse and Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, is that they can help us better understand language use, as a complex phenomenon that has many dimensions and aspects to it (for example, see chapter 4 by Martin Reisigl and Ruth Wodak on the Discourse Historical Approach).
The books have gained other personal meanings. In my small library at Lancaster, I sometimes revisit them. In a magical link, they take me back to the hums and buzzes of the streets of Cairo, to the Cairo Opera House, re-experiencing this awesome feeling that Cairo Opera House is a meeting place for so many languages and topics!
It is also a great pleasure that the two books are signed by two great scholars who are already celebrities in their fields! Visiting a bookshop can indeed become a remarkable experience!
Linguistics on the run
It has been a while since I last wrote on blogspot. I have enjoyed blogging for many years and I never lost hope of writing again.
Let me tell you what this blog is about and what
it aims to achieve.
I graduated from the Department of English Language at Cairo University and I am now at Lancaster to undertake my PhD in the Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University, in England, a great place to be if you are interested in linguistics and literature.
Well, my PhD journey is coming to its destination soon (with an awarded PhD! I hope). But for a couple of weeks or even months, the idea of this blog has been haunting me. I would like to create a blog about linguistics, not aimed at linguists, who are very wonderful people by the way ;) but to readers who may not have read about sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and translation studies; some of the interesting disciplines I have enjoyed so far (trust me!).
So, through this blog, I will share with you some of the interesting things (events, books, topics) I experienced and my reflections on them.
So what this blog post is about?
In this first post, I will talk about “multi-modality” and will celebrate with you my new publication, on the topic!
Multi-modality is an approach “that understands communication and representation to be more than about language”. This means that in analysing interactions and communication, we take into account other elements in addition to verbal language such as image, colour and sound.
Last year, I participated in a conference on multi-modality in Bremen, in Germany.
And a book- that has developed out of the conference- is recently published, edited by Dr Janina Wildfeuer at Bremen University who herself has many publications on multi-modal analysis including a monograph on film discourse interpretation.
The name of the book that is recently published is Building Bridges for Multi-modal Research published by Peter Lang. As the name may suggest, the book provides an understanding of the different perspectives on multi-modality and how to combine the different approaches to multi-modal analysis.
The title of the chapter I wrote in the book is "Multi-modality in Perspective: Towards a Synergy of the Discourse Historical Approach and the framework of Visual Grammar".
I would like to explain what these terms refer to.
The Discourse Historical Approach is an interdisciplinary approach that suggests that “context” is important to language analysis. It proposes a multi-layered concept of "context" that includes: not only the immediate language (for example, the linguistic aspects used to describe particular groups/individuals) but also the situational context (for example, where the speech event takes place and whether it is a formal or an informal event). It also includes examining the social and historical contexts surrounding the language used (for example, the historical and social background of the intended audience).
The theory of Visual Grammar looks into the communicative functions of images. Like verbal language, images can have communicative meanings. An image, for example, may describe an action in what is called by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) a “narrative visual structure”. Or it may describe attributes of a person or object (take a map as an example) in what is named as “analytical structures” (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996: 45-87).
In the chapter I wrote, I propose that a synergy of the Discourse Historical Approach and the theory of Visual Grammar will benefit from the methodological rigour of the two approaches and enable us to analyse both verbal and visual language. I apply the two approaches to televangelism (i.e. preaching religion via the Internet/television) which has become popular over the past few decades.
One reason I am super excited about the book and my contribution to it is that it features writings by well-known scholars in multi-modal research such as Diane Mavers in the UK and Hartmut Stöckl in Austria.
When I received the book in the post, the first thing I did was to take a photo of the book with the lovely postcard I received from the editor. It features a painting by Margaret Sara Carpenter called The Sisters, displayed in Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The photo is taken in my room in Kirkham before moving to my ever cutest city- Lancaster!
Freiburg
This week I spent some time looking at my photo
albums. During my PhD studies at Lancaster University, I visited many
cities to present my research on Muslim televangelism.
One city I enjoyed visiting is Freiburg in West Germany. I gave a
presentation on 'the discursive construction of Muslim identities in
televangelists' sermons'. Here I reflect on some of the places I
visited.
My
journey to Freiburg started from Manchester airport where I flew to
Stuttgart. I travelled by car to Freiburg and was impressed by the
mountainous landscape and the pine trees, tall and grand. As I explored
the city, I liked its distinct architecture that combined its old
features with a modern character, for example, its cobbled streets and
graffiti.
In Freiburg, we visited the Black Forest, climbed up a tower and enjoyed a panoramic view of the landscape.
After participating in the school on sociolinguistics and presenting my research, I travelled to Stuttgart, the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden Wurttemberg. Maybe Stuttgart is already famous for being an industrial hub where companies such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz are headquartered. Yet it also has many great museums that feature magnificent work of art.
I visited Kunstmuseum, the museum of modern art that was relatively new as it was opened in 2005. The paintings of Otto Dix really struck me for their unique style. Dix depicted the suffering of war and was critical of the Nazis.
After participating in the school on sociolinguistics and presenting my research, I travelled to Stuttgart, the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden Wurttemberg. Maybe Stuttgart is already famous for being an industrial hub where companies such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz are headquartered. Yet it also has many great museums that feature magnificent work of art.
I visited Kunstmuseum, the museum of modern art that was relatively new as it was opened in 2005. The paintings of Otto Dix really struck me for their unique style. Dix depicted the suffering of war and was critical of the Nazis.
Another museum I stopped at in Stuttgart was the museum of musical instruments. There, I recollected the contributions of African and Islamic music culture to contemporary musical tradition.
From Stuttgart, I travelled to another city, Ludwigsburg. There, I wandered through a park and at a distance, I saw a fairytale like castle called Favorite.
From Stuttgart, I travelled to another city, Ludwigsburg. There, I wandered through a park and at a distance, I saw a fairytale like castle called Favorite.
Ludwigsburg
is also home to Ludwigsburg Residential Palace, which is known for its
Baroque style that can be seen in its architecture, furniture and wall
paintings. It is a complex that has many parks and stunning museums such
as the fashion museum and the ceramics museum.
Visiting the fashion museum was a unique experience to me. The light is dim and there are black walls throughout to preserve clothes.
In Ludwigsburg Palace, I was very lucky to enter a hall of classical sculpture that depicts Greek mythology. I fell in love with the work of Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Beyer who worked in an early Neo-classical style. The sculpture of Apollo and Daphne was very memorable. I liked it so much that I regarded it as a gift for my journey to Freiburg and my participation in the (post-)doctoral school on 'Englishes in a multilingual world: New dynamics of variation, contact and change'.
Visiting the fashion museum was a unique experience to me. The light is dim and there are black walls throughout to preserve clothes.
In Ludwigsburg Palace, I was very lucky to enter a hall of classical sculpture that depicts Greek mythology. I fell in love with the work of Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Beyer who worked in an early Neo-classical style. The sculpture of Apollo and Daphne was very memorable. I liked it so much that I regarded it as a gift for my journey to Freiburg and my participation in the (post-)doctoral school on 'Englishes in a multilingual world: New dynamics of variation, contact and change'.
Portugal 3: My birthday and the coriander!
First it was mint, then watercress… then came the coriander. The mint
lost its glamour when I moved it to a new pot. It became shorter with smaller
leaves. In the corridor, I contemplated ‘watercress’, it had flat leaves
that seemed to spread well on the ground. The coriander was slim and yellowish,
but it happened that most of the time, I stopped to water it, it was looking
towards the sun.
Compared to the watercress, the coriander was not breaking spaces;
it seemed to be rather on its own, yearning for the sun. Worried about the
coriander, I found myself watering it more, touching its leaves.
Of the few things I have planted in England- mint, lilies, cactus-
I said to myself- it is the coriander that I have enjoyed the most.
I was not sure if such a ‘revelation’ had anything to do with me going
up that hill. I was looking a lot to the weeds, small bushes and inspecting the
grass. Was I looking for ‘a revelation’, something like a lost coin, a plant
‘that is the most beautiful of all’, an extraordinary precious stone? I still
don’t know what exactly I was doing there. I was listening to that song.
It was about two lovers who separated and became friends. It was
dark and bitter- let us say 70% cocoa. It was in my playlist; and when I
listened to it on the way to Bom Jesus, I could not let it go. Each time, I would
listen to a part of another song, get the mobile out of my pocket and select
the song again. But after a while, I submitted, I selected; ‘play current song
only’.
As I reached the top, where the church was, one thing I was curious
to know if I was the only person who was here alone; all around, there were friends
and a few couples. I got relief in seeing a man-his back to me- taking
photographs of the church. He would soon be joined by another man. I said I
would celebrate coming here alone. I left my backpack on a bench; and took a
photo of it, the caption in my mind read ‘at the highest point of Braga’. I
discovered a garden next to the church. In front of me a woman holding a broom,
and at a distance, there was a fountain that was not working. I was still
listening to the same song.
On my way back, it was the Beatles song (things changed, you know!)-
this song where a man is surrounded by a crowd, I woud
imagine a clown, blindfold, in a circle.
Had I said before that ‘I am weak in front of the tambourine’? As I
walked, ‘two-foot small’ would rhyme as ‘fruit’ (please, do not ask how); I
remembered plastic fruit that we used to have; women in belly
dancing suits were tapping their feet-with bangles- on the floor; making the sound
of the tambourine. I am sure, if I just carried on something would show up
eventually. ‘Excuse me, excuse me, I would like to go to Giza Square? Yeah the
Pyramids, making a triangle with my hands’. I crossed the road.
When I came back from the hostel, the
secretary knocked on my door and handed me the flowers and an envelope. I felt
like a man handed in a baby for the first time. I told her ‘I don’t think I
need a vase’. But she brought one. With a bashful smile, I stood beside the
window; my eyes fell upon the fence of the nursery opposite the hostel. ‘I
would like to talk to my mother now’. I remembered I cannot use my British
number. I dreamt if I can draw a path that would take me directly to the ramp
in our house- just to have a cup of tea with her, tell her that I got flowers for my birthday, and come back to work on my
presentation.
This was the first international
conference I would present at. It is (and stay away please) C.A.D.A.D. I had to do
well in it- build a path to the pyramids in our house in Portugal. I contemplated the flowers.
To skip forward, the conference would eventually
end, and I would leave the flowers behind (and was there a way that I could
carry them back or make them live longer?).
Portugal 2: On the way to Bom Jesus
Had it not been for that child, nothing would have been unusual: a
father and a child having their lunch on a bench in MacDonald's on one sunny day in
Portugal. The father took the child and went inside, soon the potato chips
would be scattered; I would see pigeons and hear the monotonous
sound of their beaks hitting the table. I took a bite of the sandwich, looked
to the young ladies wearing the same style of blouse.
I must have moved the falling strips of my hair behind my ears, covered my sandwich and sank in the bench. The boy, would come now and find his potato chips gone. I was still contemplating the shoulderless blouse of the young lady opposite me. Looking towards the sun, I was free of my clothes; I became an X-Ray skeleton, shooting the birds. In a book, one bird was fluttering and turned into a giant creature with wings. I put my hands on my cheek. Why would bats appear in daylight? I turned my eyes towards the shade. The man and the boy appeared, passed indifferently by the table, and left. I put the sandwich and the bottle of water in my bag; I would move along, I said.
I was climbing the hill. Before coming here, I knew the hostel was close to university and I would go on foot. A year and seven months, I became an explorer (not the Internet one!), a human with shoe skates, going from Greaves to Alexandra Park, from Scotforth to town, from Dr Michael Owen Street to Minho University, from Minho University to Bom Jesus on foot.
I put on my shoe skates, tightened them and started smoothly from the
beginning of the road; I took a picture of a house covered with tiles; the
other house had a checked fence with a fountain
and a bare child.
My right knee hurts a couple of days before my cycle. Towards the
middle, I was tired, checking the ground as if looking for a lost treasure. I saw paintings for Jesus, the suffering of black
men; candles that are not yet lit behind a metal frame.
Three months later at Lancaster, I would pay the money to the young lady in return for a small card that I would show the
driver each time I got on, an Id that I have to show to cross from border to
border, from Scotforth to town, from town to university, in the same destiny
with young men and women sitting on chairs, or clinging to yellow stands with small
red buttons. Gone were the days of shoe skating. In the last time I was in Cairo, I proudly
told my niece that I went to university on foot three days a week. What would I
tell her now?
Climbing those zigzag stairs, I saw them, their backs towards the Church, their faces towards town, like gods contemplating the world from above, overlooking the creamy church, I took my camera out, I stood still trying to comprehend the scenery… confused where to put the cover, thinking from where and how can I find the cadre, and press the button…
Portugal 1: My name is Red!
As
for my umbrella, I got it from One Pound World in Manchester; I was on
my way to Portland Street for the VISA interview when it started to rain
heavily. The first thing I thought about was taking the bus… but when I
saw One Pound World an advertisement moved like a banner in my head:
‘With a pound or more you can get an umbrella for life, for life, and
enjoy walking… enjoy walking in the rain..’ I went inside, had a look
around and did not see umbrellas. I asked the shop assistant; he pointed
to a stall: red and black umbrellas were lying in a cardboard box; I
quickly grabbed the red one, paid the money (a pound and half by the
way!) and walked –diligently- figuring out my way to Portland street! I
finished my VISA errand and in a matter of two days, this red crab
became my favorite Hunny Bunny; the new umbrella!
But
it broke in one windy day at Lancaster; it was exactly when I was past
the bus stop; it turned inside out and while pulling the umbrella up
towards the sky, its junctures were torn leaving one of its steel
metal bare without a cloth; I inadvertently tried to pull the cloth to
cover it but it obviously needed to be stitched. In the next day, my old
umbrella- that my father gave me- broke too; I threw it in the bin at
university and for seconds afterwards I thought if my father would be
cross if he saw me throwing his umbrella. I obviously needed a new one.
In
New Look, I looked anxiously at the umbrellas on the stall: brown with
some yellow dots. I was willing to pay eight pounds (with some thinking
really :)) but the red colour of my umbrella kept flagging in my mind: it
is red, clear red like the Egyptian cotton t-shirt I bought from
downtown Cairo and like the coral pendent I had from Khan El Khalili
when my mother was with me. ‘I will think about it’, I told my friend.
In
the morning, I put my accessories in my bag and remembered to put red
thread and a needle; I was in John Lennon’s airport four hours ahead;
and what good circumstances like these to fix my great fantastic red
project?! I put the thread in the needle’s eye, asking myself if I have
ever seen a human stitching something in an airport. The café and the
policewoman were the last thing I saw before my eyes would be blocked by
waves of red color; if I know how the stitches are done in the old
junctures, I can fix the torn ones… In the swimming pool in Cairo, going
from line to line, I moved through one light hazy blue colour,
everything was smooth till I got to that plucked ceramic towards the
middle, a dark spot, a deep whole, a whirling centre of a hurricane, I
took my head out; the policewoman was looking at me.
When
I reached Portugal, it crossed my mind that fixing the umbrella was a
sign that things would be fine. It was 9.30 in the evening; the bus
would come after an hour and half and when I would get to Braga, it
would be almost twelve. This is ‘45 Dr. Michael Owen’, the taxi driver
said as he parked the car; he gestured that he would wait for me till I
got there; I passed the small gate, talked to someone over the phone,
and went back to the main entrance, ‘all is fine, thank you’ I waved to
him.
A
Portuguese man showed me around the house. The lights of the stairs
turned out automatically like those towards the gate at the the house
of my brother in New Cairo. The two-level bed reminded me of the room in
a camp I went to in Sinai. In bed, I stared at the chair. I moved my
hand slowly to switch off the lamp as if I am having difficulty reaching
it: ‘earth is really small and boring, and they keep saying oh I have
been to this country or that country when it is really a matter of tiny
small cities’. That was my confession- to a secret audience- at night,
but in the morning, things seemed to change…
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