Compass World

Wikipedia’s ‘increasing focus on quality and referencing’

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:02:45 -0800

by paulabowles

Many lecturers and teachers will recognise the feeling of disheartenment when confronted by an undergraduate essay containing multiple references to Wikipedia. Despite regular exhortations for students to resist its charms, its appeal seems almost overwhelming. Although the site is loved by many, its major selling point of completely open access (i.e. ‘anyone can contribute to or edit’ its entries) is precisely why academics shake their heads in frustration.

However, in a recent interview with Emma Barnett of The Telegraph, Jimmy Wales (co-founder) appears to suggest that things are about to change at Wikipedia. Most noticeable is the creation of new measures, described as “flagged revisions”. In essence, this will mean that all new submissions and edited content, which relate to a living person, will have to be authenticated by one of Wikipedia’s editors, prior to online publication. Despite criticism that the whole ethos of the Wikipedia site will be degraded by the introduction of pre-publication censorship, Wales is convinced that this is the way forward. He points to a slowing of growth amongst new articles on the English version, suggesting that contributors are now concentrating on ensuring the articles already available are accurate, rather than simply adding more and more new material.

Whether the promise of ‘an increasing focus on quality and referencing’ will be able to sway the academic community, remains to be seen. However, the sheer volume of information and the speed with which it is checked and uploaded, makes it unlikely that Wikipedia is anywhere near reaching the stringent standards required for academia and education.

Allison Cavanagh on ‘From Culture to Connection: Internet Community Studies’

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Noun Incorporation: Essentials and Extensions

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:21:00 -0800

This guide accompanies the following article: 'Noun Incorporation: Essentials and Extensions'Language and Linguistics Compass 3 (2009): 1076[ndash]1096 DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00171.x Noun incorporation (NI) refers to a family of grammatical constructions that stand at the center of grammar, integrating morpho-phonology and semantics, and crossing the lexical-syntactic divide. It is thus an ideal topic of study, allowing extensions in all directions. In general, a NI structure is one in which a nominal that would canonically (either in the given language, or in languages in general) be expressed as an independent argument or adjunct is instead in some way incorporated into the verbal element of the sentence, forming part of the predicate. The construction raises many issues in empirical and theoretical grammar. At the heart of many of these issues is the question whether NI is a word formation rule or whether it interacts with syntax, manipulating sentential predicates. The study of NI thus raises questions as to whether there is a distinct word-formation component. Empirically, languages exhibit myriad forms of NI, both morpho-syntactically and semantically. In early work, morphology and syntax were the main areas of attention, in particular the role of polysynthesis and compounding in NI, but in recent years, the meanings of both the parts and the whole of incorporation complexes have taken center stage. In some languages, the predicate must denote a customary activity and the object is modificational, whereas in others, the process is fully productive and the incorporated nominal can be referential. Of further interest, there is a close relation between NI and other grammatical phenomena such as possessive, classificatory, complex predicate, and existential constructions, and through its study questions of nominal semantics, transitivity, discourse focus, and sentential aspect arise. The literature on NI is particularly discoursal, from its origins to the present day, which allows as well for close study of styles of linguistic analysis and argumentation. NI can thus be used as a springboard for discussion of many issues in current and historical linguistic theory. Sapir, Edward. 1911. The problem of noun incorporation in American languages. American Anthropologist 13.250[ndash]82. A famous early paper on the topic, addressing the issue of whether NI is a word-forming or predicate forming construction, thus laying the groundwork for a century of work on the topic. Mithun, Marianne. 1984. The evolution of noun incorporation. Language 60.847[ndash]95. Perhaps the most important paper on the topic, as it presents a thorough overview of all the types of NI across a wide range of languages, suggesting an implicational hierarchy between the different types. The paper takes a lexicalist approach to NI. Sadock, Jerrold M. 1986. Some notes on noun incorporation. Language 62.19[ndash]31. A heated reply to Mithun (1984), taking issue with the view of NI as lexical, which he argues is based on the wrong approach of setting aside some types of NI. Baker, Mark C. 1988. Incorporation: a theory of grammatical function changing (in particular, Chapter 3). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A highly influential work on the topic within Government and Binding theory, presenting a structural blueprint for dealing with a wide range of NI phenomena. Rosen, Sarah Thomas. 1989. Two types of noun incorporation: a lexical analysis. Language 65:2.294[ndash]317. An alternative to Baker (1988), which argues that NI should be treated as lexical process, rather than a syntactic one, and which presents an analysis along these lines. Baker, Mark C. 1996. The polysynthesis parameter (in particular, Chapter 7). New York: Oxford University Press. A discussion of NI as found in polysynthetic languages, arguing that true NI is limited to such languages by a macro-parameter. Gerdts, Donna B. 1998. Incorporation. In A. Spencer and A. Zwicky (eds). The handbook of morphology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 84[ndash]100. A useful overview of the NI literature up until 2001, with emphasis on the empirical range of phenomena. Massam, Diane. 2001. Pseudo noun incorporation in Niuean. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19.153[ndash]97. An examination Niuean phrasal incorporation, opening the door to more abstract (or pseudo-) incorporation. Van Geenhoven, Veerle. 2001. Noun incorporation. State of the article. Glot International Vol. 5:8.261[ndash]71. An overview of noun incorporation literature, with emphasis on semantic issues raised by the construction. Farkas, Donka, and Henriëtte de Swart. 2003. The semantics of incorporation: from argument structure to discourse transparency. Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. An in-depth analysis of semantics and pragmatic aspects of incorporation. The introduction gives a good overview of the issues addressed in the book. Gerdts, Donna B. 2003. The morphosyntax of Halkomelem lexical suffixes. International Journal of American Linguistics 69.4.345[ndash]56. An examination of one type of obligatory incorporation in which the nominal cannot stand alone. Chung, Sandra, and William Ladusaw. 2004. Restriction and saturation. MIT Press. A study in the semantics of noun incorporation, arguing for a new type of predicate-argument relation, termed Restrict. (In particular, Chapter 3) Dayal, Veneeta. 2007. Hindi pseudo incorporation. Ms. Rutgers University.http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/%7Edayal/Pincorp-07.pdf A study of the semantics of Hindi noun incorporation, with a focus on the role of number and aspect. Johns, Alana. 2007. Restricting noun incorporation: root movement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25.535[ndash]76. A new analysis of one type of obligatory incorporation, found in Inuktitut, in which the verbal element cannot stand alone. Mathieu. Eric. 2009. Introduction to a special volume on noun incorporation and its kind. Lingua 119.141[ndash]7 (and papers therein). This volume contains current papers on many aspects of NI, as well as an introduction to the key issues relevant today. Noun Incorporation could be the key focus of a seminar course, or it could be used as a springboard to explore a variety of other topics. The following suggested curriculum focuses on noun incorporation, but also brings in some other topics, mainly through student projects, involving a presentation and a paper. As well as covering the topics related to the construction, the course can also serve as an introduction to analysis and argumentation, since several of the papers, from 1909 onwards, are overtly arguing against other authors listed for the course. The instructor can thus use the papers to dissect the techniques of linguistic argumentation. An option for weeks 3, 7, and 9 would be, instead of having all students read the key articles for the week, to allow them to read one from the set of related readings, which they can bring to the discussion. In this case, the instructor would present the key readings, and invite discussion of the main theme from the point of view of the readings the students have chosen. 1 Central perspectives Week 1 This session introduces the range of types of NI, examining a broad set of data, as laid out in Mithun (1984). The instructor can foreshadow the coming topics of debate through close study of the data presented. The related reading, Gerdts (2001) provides an overview of the literature on NI up to 2001. Key Reading: Mithun, Marianne. 1984. The evolution of noun incorporation. Language 60.847[ndash]95. Related Readings: Gerdts, Donna B. 1998. Incorporation. In A. Spencer and A. Zwicky (eds). The handbook of morphology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 84[ndash]100. Week 2 This session focuses on the leading structural analysis of noun incorporation, that of Baker (1988). The goal is to understand the motivation for the analysis, and its details, so as to be able to evaluate its effectiveness in accounting for the data, with reference to the material of Week 1. The instructor can foreshadow later views that head movement should not be part of the grammar, and raise the issues discussed in the related reading, Baker (2009), as to whether head movement is truly necessary to account for NI. Key Reading: Baker, Mark C. 1988. Incorporation: a theory of grammatical function changing (Chapter 3). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Related Readings: Baker, Mark C. 2009. Is head movement still needed for noun incorporation? Lingua 119:148[ndash]65. Week 3 So far, a morphological and a syntactic analysis have been examined. This week, the focus is on reactions to these papers. The first paper, Rosen 1989, reacts against Baker's syntactic approach and proposes a lexical approach instead. The second, Sadock (1986) reacts against Mithun's lexical approach and argues for a syntactic approach instead. Related readings also argue for a lexical (Anderson 2001) or syntactic (Haugen 2007) approach, while Johns (2007) presents a syntactic view of Inuit incorporation which differs from Sadock's (1986) view. The instructor can frame the discussion around both the issues and the styles of argumentation. Key Readings: Rosen, Sarah Thomas. 1989. Two types of noun incorporation: a lexical analysis. Language 65:2.294[ndash]317. Sadock, Jerrold M. 1986. Some notes on noun incorporation. Language 62.19[ndash]31. Related Readings: Anderson, Stephen R. 2001. Lexicalism incorporation (or Incorporation lexicalized) Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society. Chicago: University of Chicago. Haugen, Jason D. 2008. Morphology at the interfaces [ndash] reduplication and noun incorporation in Uto-Aztecan (Part III). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Johns, Alana. 2007. Restricting noun incorporation: root movement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25.535[ndash]76. Week 4 Now that the students are informed about relatively current approaches to noun incorporation, it is interesting to go back to the very early papers on this topic and see how the same issues were debated in the early part of the 20th century. A meta-topic here is the history of linguistic thinking. Key Readings: Kroeber, Alfred L. 1910. Noun incorporation in American languages. In F. Heger (Ed.), XVI Internationaler Amerikanisten-Kongress (pp. 569[ndash]576). Vienna: Hartleben. Sapir, Edward. 1911. The problem of noun incorporation in American languages. American Anthropologist 13.250[ndash]82. Related Readings: Kroeber, Alfred L. 1911. Incorporation as a linguistic process. American Anthropologist 13.577[ndash]84. Weeks 5 and 6 These two weeks are devoted to student presentations. Each student will present a paper they have read, with critique and commentary, on an empirically or theoretically different aspect of noun incorporation. Examples include incorporation of subjects and adjuncts, possessive incorporation, obligatory NI, incorporation of other categories (PPs, Vs, etc.), or Lexical Functional Grammar approaches to NI. Depending on the session length and the number of students, the presentations might range from brief overviews of ten minutes each to longer presentations up to half an hour each. The next two weeks will explore two fairly recent views of noun incorporation that study the phenomenon in two very diverse types of language. Baker (1996) argues that true noun incorporation occurs only in polysynthetic languages, where the incorporated noun is referential. Massam (2001) examines noun incorporation in an isolating language, in which the incorporated noun generally is non-referential and modificational. A question arising is whether the two types of noun incorporation are completely separate, or related in some way, and if the latter, exactly how they can be related so as to capture both similarities and differences. Week 7 This week's reading looks at a polysynthetic language, in which the incorporated noun is referential. In related papers, Jelinek (1984) lays relevant groundwork for the understanding of polysynthetic languages, while Gerdts and Marlett (2008) look at obligatory incorporation of reduced nominals. Key Reading: Baker, Mark C. 1996. The polysynthesis parameter (Chapter 7). New York: Oxford University Press. Related Readings: Jelinek, Eloise: 1984. Empty categories, case and non-configurationality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 2.39[ndash]76. Gerdts, Donna B. and Stephen A. Marlett. 2008. Introduction: the form and function of denominal verb constructions. International Journal of American Linguistics 74:4.409[ndash]22. Week 8 This week's reading looks at an isolating language, in which the incorporated noun is non-nonreferential. In a related paper, Massam (2009) examines a different type of NI in the same language, in which the incorporated nominal is referential. Key Reading: Massam, Diane. 2001. Pseudo noun incorporation in Niuean. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19.153[ndash]97. Related Reading: Massam, Diane. 2009. Existential incorporation constructions. Lingua 119.166[ndash]84. The next two weeks focus on recent literature on the semantics of NI, which is often non-referential, modificational, and in some cases classificatory. Core debates are how to formalize the existential force of the nominal, whether narrow scope indefinites are incorporated, and whether incorporated nouns are number neutral. The role of pragmatics is also examined. Week 9 This week explores the concept of semantic incorporation, which posits that incorporated nominals are not arguments, and that narrow scope indefinites are semantically incorporated, by reading the early work on this topic by Van Geenhoven (1988a). The related readings (Van Geenhoven 1998b, Chung and Ladusaw 2004, Farkas and de Swart 2003) discuss this and related issues further, while Van Geenhoven (2001) provides an overview of the semantics of NI. Key Reading: Van Geenhoven, Veerle. 1998a. On the argument structure of some noun incorporating verbs in West Greenlandic. In Miriam Butt and Wilhelm Geuder (eds). The projection of arguments: lexical and compositional factors. Stanford: CSLI Publications. 225[ndash]63. Related Readings: Chung, Sandra, and William Ladusaw. 2004. Restriction and saturation. MIT Press. Farkas, Donka, and Henriëtte de Swart. 2003. The semantics of incorporation: from argument structure to discourse transparency. Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford University. Van Geenhoven, Veerle. 1998b. Semantic incorporation and indefinite descriptions: semantic and syntactic aspects of noun incorporation in West Greenlandic. Dissertations in Linguistics. Stanford: CSLI Publications. (Introduction) Van Geenhoven, Veerle. 2001. Noun incorporation: State of the article. Glot International Vol. 5:8.261[ndash]71. Week 10 This week explores issues related to number and aspect in the semantics of NI. A related older paper (Hopper and Thompson, 1980) looks at the broader issue of degrees of transitivity. Key Reading: Dayal, Veneeta, 2007. Hindi pseudo incorporation. Ms. Rutgers University. http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/%7Edayal/Pincorp-07.pdf Related Reading: Hopper, Paul and Sandra Thompson. 1980. Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 56.251[ndash]99. Weeks 11 and 12 Students will present original research orally, based on their final papers. The paper can focus on NI or, particularly if a student wants to work on a language that does not exhibit NI, other topics can be explored, such as bare/reduced NPs, transitivity, modification, serial verbs, polysynthesis, locatives, existentials, possessors, or classification. Is noun incorporation a distinct grammatical phenomenon, or should it be folded into other constructions, such as compounding or polysynthesis? Is the mental grammar divided into a Lexical and a Syntactic component? What makes the difference between a language in which incorporated nouns are referential vs a language in which they are modificational? What is the relation between NI and other types of incorporation of material into verbs, such as clitics, secondary predicates, modifiers, prepositions, etc.? Is incorporation properly restricted to complements, and if so, how do we treat the apparent exceptions? If not, why are there overwhelmingly more cases of complement incorporation? What are the limits of what we want to call noun incorporation? Are narrow scope indefinites incorporated? What is at the heart of the connection between noun incorporation and possessors, classification, existential, complex predicate and locative constructions? To what extent are constructions a legitimate object of study in theoretical syntax? Should they be defined semantically or morpho-syntactically?

New Resources Online

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:22:26 -0800

Holinshed’s Chronicles: The Crowning Achievement of Tudor Historiography

I am constantly surprised by the number of great resources for medievalists and early modernists that sneak up online. The Holinshed project is one of these. Launched a few months back, Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland are a new, freely available, resource for all interested in historical writing in the early modern period. Two differing editions of 1577 and 1587 are provided alongside each other here for the first time.

This parallel electronic edition, funded by Oxford University’s Fell Fund, has been compiled by an Oxford based team comprising Dr Ian W. Archer (History, Oxford), Dr Felicity Heal (History, Oxford), Dr Paulina Kewes (English, Oxford), and Dr Henry Summerson (The Oxford Holinshed Project Research Assistant).

The Chronicles are perhaps best known as the source text for many of Shakespeare’s plays, but they were also a rich source for poets, lawyers, politicians, and general readers. The Chronicles provide a fascinating insight into Elizabethan literature, history and politics with authors including both moderate and militant Protestants and Catholics including Richard Stanihurst and Edmund Campion.

Image courtesy of the the Holinshed Project

The electronic edition is easy to use and importantly, for scholar or student, word searchable. I had never used the Chronicles before as I am a medievalist by trade, so decided to try out the site by searching for Macbeth. I easily came to a section that I recognised from the Scottish Play, Macbeth’s encounter with the witches:

(Holinshed 1577, Vol. I: The Historie of Scotland, 243-4)

…Shortly after happened a straunge and vncouth wonder, which afterwarde was the cause of muche trouble in the realme of Scotlande as ye shall after heare. It fortuned as Makbeth & Banquho iourneyed towarde Fores, where the king as then lay, they went sporting by the way togither without other companie, saue only the(m)selues, passing through the woodes and fieldes, when sodenly in the middes of a lau(n)de, there met them .iij. women in straunge & ferly apparell, resembling creatures of an elder worlde, whom when they attentiuely behelde, wondering much at the sight, The first of them spake & sayde: All hayle Makbeth Thane of Glammis (for he had lately entred into that dignitie and office by the death of his father Synel.) The .ij. of them said: Hayle Makbeth Thane of Cawder: but the third sayde: All hayle Makbeth that hereafter shall be king of Scotland. The prophesie of three wome(n) supposing to be the weird sisters or feiries.

In addition to the Chronicle itself, the project site offers a wealth of additional content, including a comprehensive analysis of the sources behind the Chronicles, a broad bibliography and a number of working papers.
Technophiles can also explore a blog on the use of a TEI-Comparator for the project. The launch of this site is by no means the end of this project. An Oxford Holinshed Handbook is in the making and funding is being sought to add scholarly annotation to the electronic edition.

COMMENT: What is Islamism? A Muslim Replies

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:00:54 -0800

By Ishtiaq Hussain The Quilliam Foundation Download full PDF version Background Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is an Abrahamic faith and a Monotheistic religion. Its followers are called Muslims. Islam was founded in Arabia in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad fought against oppression, injustice and corruption. During his lifetime he was [...]

Accounting for the Unaccountable: Lesbianism and the History of Sexuality in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:41:00 -0800

What is the history of sexuality a history of? This article provides an overview of scholarship in the field of 18th-century studies and the history of sexuality, paying particular attention to the exemplary case of female same sex desire in order to explore the hermeneutical problems faced by this area of study. Unlike, for example, the history of women which has its object of study defined within its title, the history of sexuality is, in many ways, a history without a proper object. Is it a history of sexual practices such as prostitution, homosexuality or adultery? Is it a history of sexual identities like the sodomite, the sadist or the virgin? This essay argues that it is a history of ideas and ideologies surrounding sexuality's discursive significance and reads how what we know about the past is grounded in our present cultural understandings of sexuality. Concentrating on the history of lesbianism and the emergence of a bourgeois discourse of heteronormativity in the 18th century, the article demonstrates how what we know about sex in the past is determined by who speaks, from where, and when.

Political Culture in the 1590s: The 'Second Reign of Elizabeth'

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:40:00 -0800

In the mid-1990s, John Guy argued that Elizabethan political culture was transformed in the late 1580s, as the regime increasingly endorsed authoritarian definitions of monarchical power. This article reconsiders the foundations of Guy's hypothesis, analysing some of the key political and intellectual and literary contexts that conditioned the expression of political ideas in the final years of Elizabethan England.

The Devolution of Peru's Sendero Luminoso: From Hybrid Maoists to Narco-Traffickers?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:40:00 -0800

This History Compass article examines the ideological transformation of Peru's Sendero Luminoso insurgency from its immediate origins in the 1960s in the remote province of Ayacucho to its devolution to small armed bands of drug traffickers in the nation's remote central Andean regions. Originally, Sendero claimed allegiance to the peasant-based Marxism of José Carlos Mariátegui, the founder of Peru's Socialist Party. In reality, however, much of its ideology and revolutionary strategy was based on Maoist theory. As, Sendero's Maoism was largely based on its leader's experience in China in the mid-1960s, the party felt compelled to rabidly defend 'orthodox' Maoism as China moved away this ideology in the late 1970s. Maoism with a Peruvian radical stamp, nevertheless, failed to win over the peasantry in the 1980s. Sendero's leadership then violated basic Maoist strategy and began an urban terror campaign which exposed its leadership to eventual capture in late 1992. Since then, Sendero has survived only as a force fortified by drug revenues and isolated by rugged mountain terrain. We can only speculate about its future. But an estimated 66,000 deaths caused by its insurgency are stark evidence of its destructive potential.

'Outlandish Love': Marriage and Immigration in City Comedies

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:40:00 -0800

This article questions the orthodox reading of early English city comedies that such plays exhibit intense national or proto-national fervor, especially articulated in terms of anti-alien sentiment. A close examination of The Dutch Courtesan and Englishmen for My Money shows that English playgoers were keen to see their cosmopolitan city staged. Moreover, these plays suggest that when it came to European immigrants to England, status and wealth were far more important to the English than considerations of birthplace and ethnicity.

Home, Colonial and Foreign: Europe, Empire and the History of Migration in 20th-century Britain

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:39:00 -0800

This essay reviews the increasingly rich recent literature on 20th-century transnational movements from empire and Europe to Britain and in the opposite directions, particularly on migration. It suggests that this work offers a way of thinking about British-empire and British-European relations [ndash] themes that have been comparatively neglected in 20th-century social and cultural history, especially in the period of decolonisation. While much of the literature on migration treats empire and Europe separately, as well as immigration and emigration, the essay makes connections between them, looking at changing British perceptions of Europe and the world beyond Europe: of home, colonial and foreign. It argues that the second half of the century saw an increasing erosion of distinctions between 'colonial' and 'foreign' and a reorientation of British world views towards Europe that owed little to its membership of the EU.

Medieval Sicily and Southern Italy in Recent Historiographical Perspective

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:39:00 -0800

Sicily and southern Italy during the Middle Ages have been a neglected area of study for many years, primarily due to the general belief that the area fell into decline after the 'fall' of Rome. Recently, however, there has been growing interest in the Muslims of medieval Sicily and Italy, as well as the Jewish and Greek populations that lived under Latin Christian rule for many centuries. There has also been a rise in scholarship on the medieval Mediterranean region as a whole, which has caused a re-evaluation not only of the role and importance of the Mediterranean world, but also of how the medieval European system worked, how Latin Christendom related to the Muslim states on its southern borders, and what roles Muslim cultures and settlements played in the development of Italy's society.