A Word. Palaver and Its Transferal Residues

The word 'palaver' is colloquially associated with useless verbiage and the nuisance of a tediously long, aimless and superfluous debate. At the same time, it insinuates an uncivilized culture of discourse beyond reason. Thus it appears to be of vaguely exotic origin but still firmly set in the European lexicon. Yet behind this contemporary meaning there lies a long history of linguistic and cultural transfers which is encased in a context of different usages of language and their intersections. By tracing the usage and semantics of 'palaver' in various encyclopaedias, glossaries and dictionaries of English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, the following article explores the rich history of this word. Moreover, it also regards the travelling semantics of the term 'palaver' as a process of cultural transfer that can be likened to the microcellular workings of a (retro)virus. Viral reproduction and evolution work through processes of transfer that enable the alteration of the host to adjust it to the replication and reproduction of the virus. In some cases, these processes also allow for the mutation or modification of the virus, making it suitable for transfer from one host to another. The virus is thus offered here as a vital model for cultural transfer: It not only encompasses the necessary adoption and adaption of contents or objects of cultural transfer in different contexts. It contributes to a conceptual understanding of the transferal residue that the transferred content is endowed with by its diversifying contexts. This model thereby surpasses an understanding of cultural transfer as literal translation or transmission: it conceptualizes cultural transfer as an agent of evolutionary processes, allowing for mutational effects of transfer as endowment.

El mundo lúdico en la literatura de Rabelais: la obra Gargantua y el repertorio de juegos del capítulo XXII de la edición 1542

En el presente estudio de tesis doctoral analizamos un texto literario francés del siglo XVI en el que aparecen 217 juegos. Como valor añadido se trata de parte de un texto reconocido mundialmente por la Literatura Universal como es el Gargantua de François Rabelais. A tenor de la conocida y famosa definición de Gimnasia establecida por Francisco de Amorós y Ondeano allá por 1830 en su Manuel d'éducation physique, gymnastique et morale, uno de los objetos de estudio en nuestra ciencia es la relación de nuestros movimientos con nuestras costumbres. Para ello indudablemente debemos recurrir a todo tipo de fuentes, escritas, orales o de otro tipo, para analizarlas. “La gimnasia es la ciencia razonada de nuestros movimientos, de sus relaciones con nuestros sentidos, nuestra inteligencia, nuestros sentimientos, nuestras costumbres y el desarrollo de todas nuestras facultades...” Costumbres, tradición e historia, en definitiva, que se contrasta con los medios utilizados en su análisis, herramientas TIC como son librerías digitales, buscadores de textos y palabras. A través del análisis de textos de diversa índole hemos ido obteniendo datos sobre los juegos. Estas fuentes han sido novelas, diccionarios, enciclopedias y ensayos desde el siglo XIV hasta obras contemporáneas. Se ha realizado un análisis estadístico de estas fuentes lo que ha dado a este estudio otro valor añadido desde un punto de vista metodológico. El resultado del estudio se ha plasmado en una colección de fichas creadas a partir de un estudio comparativo de diferentes fichas de juegos de autores de relevancia. ABSTRACT Gymnastics is the reasoned science of our movements, of its relations with our senses, our intelligence, our feelings, our customs and the development of all our faculties… In accordance with the all known famous definition of Gymnastics that established Don Francisco de Amorós and Ondeano in 1830 in his Manuel d'éducation physique, gymnastique et morale, one of the objects of study in our science is the relation of our movements with our customs. For it doubtlessly we must resort to all type of sources, written, oral or of another type, to analyze them. In the present doctoral thesis study we analyzed a French literary text of the XVI th century in which they appear 217 games. As added value treats world-wide from a recognized text by Universal Literature as it is the Gargantua of François Rabelais. Customs, tradition and history, really, that are resisted with means used in its analysis, TIC tools as they are digital libraries and tools to seek texts and words. Through text analysis of diverse nature we have been collecting data on the games. These sources have been novels, dictionaries, encyclopedias and tests from century XIV to contemporary works. A statistical analysis of these sources has been made which has given to this study another value added from a methodological point of view. The result of the study has been resumed in index cards created from a comparative cards study from different relevant authors.

Digital Preservation and Web Access to the Konkoly Observatory Schmidt Telescope Plate Archive

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): J.2.

Magyar tulajdonú vállalatok versenyképessége kínai piacokon = Hungarian Firms’ Competitiveness in China

E kutatás célja áttekinteni, hogy milyen jellegű gazdasági kapcsolatokkal, versenyképességgel, tapasztalatokkal rendelkeznek magyar tulajdonú vállalatok Kínában. Kína gazdasága globálisan meghatározó, s egyúttal Magyarország tíz legnagyobb külkereskedelmi partnere között van. A kutatás kiemelt kérdései (a) milyen okok, motivációk indítják el a hazai cégeket Kína felé; (b) milyen folyamat révén, hogyan, mennyi idő alatt, milyen ráfordításokkal zajlik le a kínai jelenlét előkészítése, megtervezése, majd pedig megvalósítása; (c) hogyan szerzik meg a vezetők a szükséges információkat (pl. lehetséges kínai társasági jogi formákról, lokációkról); (d) milyen eredményekkel zárul ez a folyamat és milyen tanulságokat szűrnek le a vezetők; (e) melyek a kínai piaci jelenlét, működés legfontosabb tapasztalatai. A fenti kérdésekre alapvetően öt hazai vállalati esettanulmány összegzése ad választ. De emellett jelen tanulmány része a releváns elméleti és gyakorlati szakirodalom feldolgozása, a kínai gazdasági környezet sokrétű bemutatása, a kínai és magyar gazdasági kapcsolatok statisztikai elemzése, külföldi benchmark adatok gyűjtése. _______ The goal of this research to review what kind of economic relations, competitiveness and experiences Hungarian-owned firms have in China. Chinese economy is globally determining, and – in addition – China is one of Hungary’s ten biggest foreign trade partners. The main topics and questions of the research are: (a) what causes and motives encourage domestic companies to turn to the Chinese markets; (b) what are the phases of the process, what are the required time and costs of the preparation, planning and realization of establishing the presence in China; (c) how Hungarian managers gather the information needed (concerning e.g. possible Chinese corporate legal forms, locations); (d) what are the typical results of these processes and the lessons learned and emphasized by the managers; (e) what are the most important experiences of the firms’ operation in China. Five case studies on Hungarian firms answer the above-mentioned questions. But moreover the elaboration of the relevant theoretical and practical literature, the detailed description of the Chinese economical environment, the statistical analysis of the Chinese-Hungarian economical relations and the collection of foreign benchmark data are as well parts of this study.

Magyar alkalmazkodás az Európai Unió monetáris együttműködéséhez - tanulságok (Hungarian adaption to the monetary cooperation)

A cikk röviden összefoglalja az optimális valutaövezetek elméletének fejlődési állomásait, miközben felvet néhány kérdést a 2008-ban kezdődött válsággal kapcsolatban. Ezt követően áttekinti az elmélet és a válság által felvetett problémákra a gazdasági és monetáris unió által adott válaszokat. Végül az elmélet, az európai szabályozás aktuális állapota és a hazai tapasztalatok, lehetőségek tükrében megvizsgálja, hogy a jelenlegi helyzetben Magyarországnak milyen érdekei és ellenérdekei fűződhetnek az euró bevezetéséhez. Az írás kísérletet tesz arra, hogy kijelölje a hazai gazdaságpolitika kívánatos irányvonalát. _______ The article briefly summarizes the developments of the optimum currency area (OCA) theory, while states some questions regarding the crises starting in 2008. Secondly, it reviews the solutions given by the economic and monetary union to the problems raised by the OCA theory and the crisis. Thirdly, it evaluates the pros and cons for Hungary to introduce the euro as its own currency in the light of the OCA theory, the state of the European legislation and the Hungarian track record and possibilities. Finally, it shows the desired direction for the official Hungarian economic and financial policy.

Spheres of Influence: A Few Reflections on the Concept

In the frame of the Ukrainian crisis the question of spheres of influence has returned to political discourse. This may be an awkward subject, but what if we only deny the existence of such power constellations as spheres of influence? Do spheres of influence exist, or are they relics of history, and mere rhetoric? And if they exist, where can we find them? The hypothesis in this article is that instead of being a tangible reality, spheres of influence are obscure and contested political constructions, which nevertheless can have an impact on political behaviour. To demonstrate this, the article will first introduce a few examples of the current use of the concept. Secondly, a few remarks follow concerning the different IR schools of thought, and conceptual history as a method. Next, the article turns to discussing a few dictionaries and the empirical material for the present inquiry, which consists of recent textbooks, i.e. the current political science curriculum in one particular university, at the University of Tampere, Finland. More empirical cases deal with the division of Africa, the post-WWII situation, and the Hungarian revolution of 1956.

China's Involvement in the Hungarian Revolution, October-November 1956

The 1956 crises in the Soviet Bloc states, and the Hungarian October events in particular, had a profound impact on China's international and domestic policies. The Chinese Communist Party leadership – party chairman Mao Zedong in particular – had by the end of mid-1950s begun to conceive of "a great Chinese revolution," which would largely take the form of large-scale industrial modernization. At the same time, China's awareness that it could develop into a leading player in the international socialist camp led Mao and his colleagues to actively intervene on the East European scene, posing an implicit challenge to the Soviet dominance in the bloc. The apparent desire of the Hungarian and Polish people to break free from Stalinist socialism, and the real risk, as Mao saw it, of the bloc foundering, convinced the Chinese Party that only reforming institutional socialism and revising the Stalinist pattern of inter-state relations could keep the camp intact.

Die Personennamen und Titel der mittelmongolischen Dokumente : Eine lexikalische Untersuchung

The present research is an investigation into the corpus of personal names and titles that are found in sources from the Middle Mongolian period, that is the time from the 13th to the beginning of the 15th century. The entry for every name or title has been divided into three parts: occurence(s) of a given name in Middle Mongolian sources (primary sources), etymology, and occurence(s) in sources other than Middle Mongolian (secondary sources). Culturally and lingistically the corpus can be divided into six sub-groups: Mongolian, Turkic (Old, Middle and Modern), Arabo-Persian (Islamic), Indo-Iranian and Tibetan (Buddhist), as well as Chinese. Among these, the largest group is formed by Mongolian and Turkic, followed by Chinese (mostly titles), Indo-Iranian, Arabo-Persian and Tibetan. With regard to the primary and secondary occurences the research is based mainly on primary sources including text-publications and dictionaries. Every name or title is documented as completely as possible within a Central Asian framework. However, due to the divergency of the sources available as well as diachronical importance, each sub-group has been dealt with slightly differently, but consistently. The corpus of investigated names and titles gives a fairly correct picture of the multi-ethnical composition of the Mongolian world-empire. It also shows the foreign influences on Mongolian names and titles, being in this respect a mirror of the influences that are visible in other parts of the Middle Mongolian culture too. Furthermore, the investigated corpus reflects the transitory stage of the 13th to 15th century in Central Asian history, and includes thus material from the past (Indo-Iranian, Old and Middle Turkic), and material that points to the future (Arabo-Persian, Tibetan, Modern Turkic).

THE PERFORMER’S INFLUENCE ON FRANCO-BELGIAN COMPOSITIONS FROM 1870 TO 1930

The turn of the 20th century marked an ascendancy of the Franco-Belgian school of composers. French composers were inspired by the great German composers of the Romantic era, and they created their own defined national style that emerged toward the end of the 19th century. The Franco-Belgian composers’ special emphasis on tone, timbre and color encouraged a more individual, personally interpretative approach. These devices underscore the importance and influence a performer can have on the outcome of a piece. I researched the relationship between composers and violinists at a time when the Franco-Belgian style developed and flourished. The Franco-Belgian school of violin playing emerged from the Paris and Brussels conservatories as well as the symbiotic relationship between the performers and composers. Three recitals in collaboration with pianist David Ballena, which comprise this dissertation project, were performed at the University of Maryland. Each recital featured music for violin and piano from 1870 through 1930. The repertoire was chosen to reflect a performer’s influence on a composer. I examined specific composer/performer relationships that helped shape the birth of a newly defined “French” style of playing. My research focused on the stylistic interactions composers, such as César Franck, his disciple Guillaume Lekeu had with the leading prominent Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaye and between Maurice Ravel and the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi. I also looked into the personal relationship between friends who inspired each other: Gabriel Fauré and Paul Viardot, Edouard Lalo and Pablo de Sarasate, Claude Debussy and Arthur Hartmann, and the young Lili Boulanger and Yvonne Astruc. Furthermore, I looked into the unfulfilled love between Maurice Ravel and Hélène Jourdan-Morhange, as well as the marriage of Olivier Messiaen with Claire Delbos, both relationships resulting in masterpieces for violin that have remained a part of the standard violin repertoire. My research led me to understand what type of violin playing each composer had in mind while composing, all of which led me to understand the importance a performer has in preserving national styles. The recitals were recorded on compact discs and archived within the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM).

Le livre sous la loupe : Nouvelles formes d’écriture électronique

Les fichiers qui accompagnent le document incluent une archive .jar du zoom-éditeur (qui peut être lancé via un browser) et des exemples de z-textes réalisés avec ce logiciel.

"Ungerska för rötternas skull" : Språkval och identitet bland andragenerationens ungrare i Sverige och Finland

This thesis is a comparative sociolinguistic study which describes and compares language choice among people with Hungarian background in Sweden and Finland and studies their views on the importance of the Hungarian language and Hungarian cultural heritage for identity. The future prospects of language maintenance and language shift and differences between the Swedish-Hungarians and the Finnish-Hungarians are discussed. A survey was completed among 50 Swedish-Hungarian informants and 38 Finnish-Hungarian informants during 2006. The survey was supplemented by in-depth interviews with 15 informants during 2007. The majority language, either Swedish or Finnish, is much more active in the second-generation Hungarians’ lives than Hungarian is. Hungarian is mostly used in the domain of family relations. The language choices made today are dependent on the informant’s situation during childhood, particularly the parents’ usage of the language and the ability to learn and use Hungarian, chiefly gained through contact with the parents’ mother country and other Hungarian speakers. For some informants, having Hungarian roots forms the sole foundation for belonging, while for others it is this heritage combined with the culture, the ability to use the language or specific character traits. The Hungarian background is most often seen as a treasure offering diversity in life. Finnish-Hungarians are generally more positive about their Hungarian background, have better competence in the language and a greater awareness of the culture than Swedish-Hungarians. The Hungarian language plays a central though often symbolic role. The most important conditions for minority language preservation are language competence together with the desire and opportunity to use it; whereof the largest deficit among second-generation Hungarians is knowledge of the Hungarian language. Only one-fourth of the informants have all of the conditions necessary to be able to maintain the language, which means that Hungarian is an endangered minority language in Sweden and Finland.

As ticas de matema dos índios Kalapalo: uma interpretação de estudos etnográficos

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Las lenguas de extremo oriente y el español: los diccionarios y gramáticas como primeros instrumentos para la comunicación en Filipinas y China

[ES]En este trabajo mostraremos cómo desde los inicios de la Edad Moderna la lexicografía española se constituyó en uno de los vínculos que unían Europa, América y el Extremo Oriente. La modernización de la lexicografía en el continente europeo vino de la mano de Nebrija. Y, así, las nuevas gramáticas y diccionarios escritos para favorecer la comunicación entre los españoles y los pueblos del Extremo Oriente (Filipinas y China) llevaron más allá de las fronteras de España el modelo de Nebrija. Asimismo, ofrecemos un panorama de estas obras desde el siglo XVI hasta comienzos del siglo XX.

Italia e Francia nell'Ungheria di Trianon (1919-1939): due modelli di penetrazione politico-culturale

Italy and France in Trianon’s Hungary: two political and cultural penetration models During the first post-war, the Danubian Europe was the theatre of an Italian-French diplomatic challenge to gain hegemony in that part of the continent. Because of his geographical position, Hungary had a decisive strategic importance for the ambitions of French and Italian foreign politics. Since in the 1920s culture and propaganda became the fourth dimension of international relations, Rome and Paris developed their diplomatic action in Hungary to affirm not only political and economic influence, but also cultural supremacy. In the 1930, after Hitler’s rise to power, the unstoppable comeback of German political influence in central-eastern Europe determined the progressive decline of Italian and French political and economic positions in Hungary: only the cultural field allowed a survey of Italian-Hungarian and French-Hungarian relations in the contest of a Europe dominated by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Nevertheless, the radical geopolitical changes in second post-war Europe did not compromise Italian and French cultural presence in the new communist Hungary. Although cultural diplomacy is originally motivated by contingent political targets, it doesn’t respect the short time of politics, but it’s the only foreign politics tool that guarantees preservations of bilateral relations in the long run.

Industrial Restructuring in the Budapest agglomeration

The major 'motor' of the recent Hungarian industrial development has been foreign direct investment, particularly by multinational companies. This has stimulated the development process, as shown by the dynamism of production, exports and profitability of industry in Budapest. On the other hand, this has also led to a split of the industrial sphere into its foreign and domestic sections, or into foreign-owned companies and domestic SMEs. The major question asked in this project is where is Hungarian industry heading and will the gap between the contracting domestic part and the foreign multinationals continue to widen or will they be joined in a much more favourable scenario. Barta sees this as a question of whether Hungary can avoid the 'dead-end street' of South Asian industrialising countries, and instead move towards a new Eastern European or Hungarian model. He concludes that Budapest industry does not follow any given model and indeed its development probably cannot be seen as a 'model' proper in itself, but is, or will be, a mixture of different elements. This would be a welcome fusion of Hungary's rich human resources of accumulated knowledge with foreign direct investment. Budapest would play an exceptional role in such a process, as the gateway for foreign output to the rest of the country. The share of industry in the Budapest economy will continue to decrease, but it will become a more modern and profitable sector. It will also fulfil a technological transfer role between the developed world and the Hungarian countryside (or even a larger region of central and eastern Europe). Barta predicts that Budapest industry will develop a special structure, with a large subcontractor network supporting the large foreign enterprises, and alongside this industrial districts formed by SMEs.