History, Novelty, and Progress in Scholastic Medicine

Theaterwala, 2000

An old Bangla piece on how I attempted to 'read' Peter Bichsel and stage one of his stories.

2011

Art magazin Kontura 164, 2024

Tema broja: Kič u umjetnosti - kao inspiracija, strategija ili laž?

Functional Linguistics, 2018

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a leading scholar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Together with William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson, he developed Rhetorical Structure Theory, a discourse analytical framework which he has continued to expand and extend using insights from the architecture of SFL. Some of his other contributions are in the area of functional language typology, theoretical modelling of the dimensions of language and comprehensive paradigmatic description of English lexicogrammatical systems. In this interview, he discusses his early experience in linguistics and his motivations for working with Systemic Functional Linguistics. The interview also sheds light on the interaction between SFL and other linguistic schools in the European and American linguistic traditions, and indicates the distinctive contributions of SFL to linguistic science. The discussion contributes to the history of linguistics and the debates on the meta-theory of language.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGY IN GALWAY 1924-2024 is a brief account of the work done in Archaeology in the University of Galway over the past century. It was primarily written to mark the centenary of the appointment of the first Professor of Archaeology in 1924 but also to emphasize the important contribution the subject has made to the cultural capital of country and community over this long timespan.

Gneralship in Ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium, 2022

For you the inhabitants of the broad plains of Sparta Either your great and glorious name will be destroyed by the men of Persia Or, if that is avoided, instead Sparta up to its frontiers will mourn for a dead king, A descendant of the Heraclidae. (Herodotus 7.220) Leonidas said that the Spartans must stay behind and not leave their defence of the ‘Gates’ since it was fitting that the leaders of Hellas should be prepared to die when toiling for the prize of honour. So the rest retreated at once, leaving Leonidas and his fellow citizens to perform heroic and incredible deeds. (Diodorus 11.9.1-2) At Thermopylae in early August 480 BC, after a brief stalemate lasting roughly four days (Hdt. 7.210), the Persians in the next two to three days overcame the Spartan led defence of the narrow coastal link that joined Thessaly to Boeotia and Attica. The defenders were mostly killed but the greater part of the army of the Peloponnesian city-states, members by then of a Hellenic League, retreated in good order to the Isthmus. When news of the defeat at Thermopylae was related to the accompanying fleet stationed further along the coast opposite Euboea it also retired, and the way was left open for a Persian advance into Attica and the capture of Athens, all within a fortnight. This was the darkest hour for the Greek poleis that had decided to oppose any form of rapprochement with the Persians and Xerxes, their king: it was Hellenic independence or death. As Herodotus describes, and what is thoroughly familiar to most, the Greek fleet went on to win an unexpected victory over the Persians at Salamis. Moreover, in the next summer the combined armies of the mostly southern Greek city-states routed the Persians at Plataea. Xerxes’ ambitions to extend his empire westward were ended. Thermopylae was, in practical terms, not at all a contributing factor to the victory of the Greeks over Persia rather the opposite since the Boeotian League, politically lukewarm to both Athens and Sparta, the leaders of the Hellenic League, turned instead to Persia for an alliance in order to save its cities from destruction. However, Thermopylae served another purpose: indicating bravery in the face of adversity, selflessness for the good of fellow Greeks, and a devotion to duty against all the odds. All these factors contributed to the confident mood that ushered in the Greek civilisation of the Classical period.

The present study is an investigation into translation accuracy in terms of pragmatic and lexico-syntactic features of translators who know English and have specialized in translation studies as their major and those who studied chemistry but know English well. Based on an Oxford Placement Test (OPT), thirty homogenized participants were selected with regard to their language proficiency. Both groups of participants i.e., translation specialized and chemistry students, were asked to translate a chemistry text. Afterwards, their productions were assessed with respect to the accuracy of the translations in terms of lexical and pragmatic features. Results showed that there were significant differences between the translation accuracy of lexical and pragmatic features in the two groups and chemistry students outperformed translation students. However, translation students were shown to be better translators in terms of syntactic features.