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Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0) 7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0) 7071 97 97 11 info@narr.de \ www.narr.de \ narr.digital Notice to Contributors All articles for submission should be sent to the editor, Bernhard Kettemann, as a WORD document as mail attachment: bernhard.kettemann@uni-graz.at Manuscripts should conform to the AAA style sheet or follow either MHRA or MLA style. (Copies of the MLA Style Sheet may be obtained from the Treasurer of the Modern Language Association of America, 62 Fifth Ave, New York, N. Y., 10011; copies of the MHRA Style Book from W.S. Maney & Son Ltd., Hudson Rd., Leeds LS9 7DL, England.) Documentation can be embodied either in footnotes or in an appended bibliography, with name and date reference enclosed in brackets in the text. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively and listed on a separate page. The footnotes will appear on the bottom of the page where they are mentioned. They should be limited to a minimum. Languages of publication are German and English. Authors are requested to provide an English abstract of their contribution of about 15 lines in a separate document. In the normal procedure first proofs will be sent to the authors and should be returned to the editor within one week. Authors receive one free copy of the issue containing their contribution. It is our policy to publish accepted contributions without delay. Gründer, Eigentümer, Herausgeber und für den Inhalt verantwortlich / founder, owner, editor and responsibility for content: Bernhard Kettemann, Institut für Anglistik, Universität Graz, Heinrichstraße 36, A-8010 Graz. Tel.: +43 / 316 / 380-2488, 2474, Fax: +43 / 316 / 380-9765 Web: https: / / narr.digital/ journal/ aaa Herausgeber / editor Bernhard Kettemann Redaktion / editorial assistants Georg Marko Eva Triebl Mitherausgeber / editorial board Alwin Fill Walter Grünzweig Walter Hölbling Allan James Andreas Mahler Christian Mair Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf Werner Wolf Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Inhaltsverzeichnis Artikel: Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers ............................... 5 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová The Suffix -ation in English ................................................................................... 29 Janko Trupej The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia as a Singer-Songwriter and a Literary Figure ................................................................................................... 59 Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen........................... 89 Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić Selecting ESP Reading Materials: Vocabulary Suitability of Science Magazines for English for Science Teaching and Learning ................................................... 109 Cvetka Sokolov Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing: Praise, Over-Commenting and Appropriation ..............................................................................................125 Rezensionen: Michael Fuchs Richard Fallon. Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature: How the ‘Terrible Lizard’ Became a Transatlantic Cultural Icon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021..........................................................153 Philipp Reisner Brandt, Stefan L. and Michael Fuchs (Eds.). Space Oddities: Difference and Identity in the American City. Wien: Lit Verlag, 2018...........................................159 Sandra Danneil Wells-Lassagne, Shannon and Fiona McMahon (Eds.). Adapting Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. .............163 Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Der gesamte Inhalt der AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Band 1, 1976 - Band 40, 2015 ist nach AutorInnen alphabetisch geordnet abrufbar unter http: / / wwwgewi.uni-graz.at/ staff/ kettemann This journal is abstracted in: ESSE (Norwich), MLA Bibliography (New York, NY), C doc du CNRS (Paris), CCL (Frankfurt), NCELL (Göttingen), JSJ (Philadelphia, PA), ERIC Clearinghouse on Lang and Ling (Washington, DC), LLBA (San Diego), ABELL (London). Anfragen, Kommentare, Kritik, Mitteilungen und Manuskripte werden an den Herausgeber erbeten (Adresse siehe Umschlaginnenseite). Erscheint halbjährlich. Bezugspreis jährlich € 97,- (Vorzugspreis für private Leser € 75,-) zuzügl. Postgebühren. Einzelheft € 56,-. Die Bezugsdauer verlängert sich jeweils um ein Jahr, wenn bis zum 15. November keine Abbestellung vorliegt. © 2022 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5, 72070 Tübingen E-mail: info@narr.de Internet: www.narr.de Die in der Zeitschrift veröffentlichten Beiträge sind urheberrechtlich geschützt. Alle Rechte, insbesondere das der Übersetzung in fremde Sprachen, sind vorbehalten: Kein Teil dieser Zeitschrift darf ohne schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages in irgendeiner Form - durch Fotokopie, Mikrofilm oder andere Verfahren - reproduziert oder in eine von Maschinen, insbesondere von Datenverarbeitungsanlagen, verwendbare Sprache übertragen werden. Printed in Germany ISSN 0171-5410 ISBN 978-3-8233-1000-6 Vorwort Liebe Leserinnen und Leser der Zeitschrift AAA, nach 47 Jahren der Herausgeberschaft der AAA ist es jetzt doch an der Zeit aufzuhören. Vielleicht hätte ich noch auf das 50-Jahr-Jubiläum warten können, aber es wurde mir dann doch zu viel, obwohl mir Eva Triebl die Last der Herstellung der Druckvorlage so hervorragend abgenommen hat. Ich danke auch Gerlinde Trinkl, die mit sehr vielen Autorinnen und Autoren den Kontakt aufrechterhalten hat. Der Band 47 (2022) der Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, dessen erstes Heft Ihnen nun vorliegt, ist also der letzte, den ich herausgebe. Es war mir, während all dieser Jahre, immer eine große Ehre, bei der Gestaltung und Zukunftsentwicklung der Geisteswissenschaften im deutschsprachigen Raum beteiligt zu sein und an der wissenschaftlichen Entwicklung teilnehmen zu dürfen. Ich denke gerne an viele interessante Kontakte mit Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus aller Welt und ihre anregenden Beiträge zurück, die dann in den AAA erschienen sind - eine Bereicherung für mein gesamtes Leben im universitären Bereich. Diese Zeitschrift ist auch ein Leben. Und 47 Jahre sind sicher ein halbes. Natürlich ist der Abschied für mich sehr schwer. Andererseits darf ich mich darüber freuen, dass ein ganz hervorragendes neues Herausgeber-Team für die Weiterführung unserer Zeitschrift gewonnen werden konnte. Hiermit begrüße ich Alexander Onysko (Universität Klagenfurt), Ulla Ratheiser (Universität Innsbruck) und Werner Delanoy (Universität Klagenfurt), die als neue Verantwortliche für die AAA arbeiten werden, zusammen mit dem bewährten Mitherausgeber-Team, das dankenswerterweise weitermachen und für Kontinuität sorgen wird. Ich danke auch sehr dem Narr Verlag für seine Treue zu unserer Zeitschrift und seine kontinuierliche Unterstützung. Er hat viel für die internationale Verbreitung der AAA getan und entscheidend dazu beigetragen, dass sie auch jenseits der österreichischen Grenzen wahrgenommen und rezipiert wurde. An dieser Stelle möchte ich meiner Nachfolgerin und meinen Nachfolgern gutes Gelingen und viel Freude bei dieser verantwortungsvollen Aufgabe wünschen. Ich werde das neue Team im Hintergrund auch gerne beraten, falls ich noch gebraucht werde. Liebe Mitherausgeberin, liebe Mitherausgeber, ich bitte euch nun herzlich, dass ihr alle weitermacht und die Zeitschrift Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik aus Graz zu neuen Höhenflügen führt. Und last but not least: Liebe Abonnentinnen und Abonnenten, liebe Leserinnen und Leser, bitte bleiben Sie unserer Zeitschrift gewogen und halten Sie ihr die Treue. Mit allen guten Wünschen, Bernhard Kettemann Editor, AAA The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck One of the main problems associated with research on discourse markers concerns their meaning. A large body of rich analyses has been presented, based on a range of different frameworks, such as conversation analysis, relevance theory, cognitive linguistics, or grammaticalization theory, to deal with the complexity of functions that discourse markers exhibit. The goal of the present paper is restricted in scope. Based on a comparative survey of 24 English information units that have beeen classified as discourse markers, it uses the framework of Discourse Grammar to relate the functions of these markers to the situation of discourse. The findings presented suggest on the one hand that these functions can be reduced essentially to a network of three components, namely the organization of texts, the attitudes of the speaker, and speaker-hearer interaction. On the other hand, they also suggest that it is the planning and structuring of texts that is the primary concern of speakers when they draw on discourse markers. But designing texts does not appear to be a means to an end; rather it serves the interlocutors to achieve their communicative goals in what they conceive to be the best way possible. 1. Introduction The concern of this paper is with English discourse markers (DMs), also called discourse particles, pragmatic markers, discourse operators, discourse connectives, adverbials, connecting adverbials, conjunctions, etc., or even “vocal hickups” (Croucher 2004). But this does not exhaust the list of terms and classifications that have been proposed. For example, some of the conjuncts and disjuncts of Quirk et al. (1985), stance adverbs (Powell 1992), stance adverbials (Biber et al. 1999), or interjections (Dubois 1989; AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0001 Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 6 Redeker 1990: 373-4; Aijmer 2002; Cuenca 2008) have also been subsumed under the label DM, in accordance with the conventions proposed by the respective authors. DMs have been the subject of many studies (e.g., Schourup 1982, 1999; Schiffrin 1987, 2001; Fraser 1988, 1990, 1999; Hölker 1991; Jucker 1993: 436, 1997; Maschler 1994; Traugott 1995, 2007; Brinton 1996, 2008: 1, 15; Jucker & Ziv 1998: 1-5; Hansen 1998a, 1998b, 2005, 2008; Gohl & Günthner 1999: 59-63; Günthner 1999, 2000; Fox Tree & Schrock 1999; Martín Zorraquino & Portolés 1999; Andersen & Fretheim 2000; Fischer 2000, 2006, 2007; Barth-Weingarten & Couper-Kuhlen 2002: 352; Aijmer 2002, 2013, 2016; Traugott & Dasher 2002: 154-157; Dostie 2004; Auer & Günthner 2005: 334; Günthner & Mutz 2004; Furkó 2005, 2012; Müller 2005; Siepmann 2005; Kaltenböck 2007: 31; Brinton 2008: 1, 15; Dér 2010; Defour et al. 2010; Defour & Simon-Vandenbergen 2010; Degand & Simon-Vandenbergen 2011; Lewis 2011; Simon-Vandenbergen & Willems 2011; Arroyo 2011; Degand et al. 2013; Beeching 2016; Brinton 2017; Crible 2017; Heine et al. 2021). We will be using the term “discourse marker” (DM) in a loose sense based on the prototypical definition to be proposed in (2) below. Our concern will be with the functions of DMs. But no attempt is made to relate the analysis proposed here to taxonomic notions such as polysemy, monosemy, etc. (see, e.g., Hansen 1998a: 85-90). The term “function” subsumes what a number of other authors call meanings or senses (cf. Aijmer 2002: 21-2). That the meaning of DMs is highly complex is well documented. The English items oh and ah are traditionally classified as interjections or exclamations indicating surprise, fear, pain, pleasure, and other emotional states (Ameka 1992; Wharton 2003). But, as we will see below, the discourse functions of these, as well as of other items to be discussed in the paper, go far beyond expressing emotional states (Schiffrin 1987: 73ff.; Aijmer 2002). In a similar fashion, the item no may well be characterized as a negation marker, but once deployed for purposes of discourse organization, it may assume functions that have little in common with negation (Lee-Goldman 2011). We will therefore not aim at a narrow definition of DMs in this paper but rather follow the classification of the various studies consulted as long as it conforms to our definition in (2) below. Rather than presenting a new analysis of DMs, our goal is a narrow one. We will rely on the framework of Discourse Grammar to determine how the functions of DMs relate to the situation of discourse and, more specifically, to whether a study of DMs can contribute toward a better understanding of this framework (Kaltenböck et al. 2011: 860-4; Heine et al. 2013, 2021). The paper is organized as follows. Section 3 is the main part, where a comparative survey of English DMs is discussed. To this end we provide a sketch of the adopted framework of Discourse Grammar in Section 2.1 and relate this framework to the functions of DMs in Section 2.2. Section 4, The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 7 finally, proposes some generalizations and draws attention to questions that could not be addressed or answered in the paper. 2. General issues 2.1. The framework of Discourse Grammar Discourse Grammar, as proposed by Kaltenböck et al. (2011) and Heine et al. (2013), is based on the assumption that there are two domains of discourse organization that need to be distinguished, referred to respectively as Sentence Grammar and Thetical Grammar. An outline of its architecture is provided in Figure 1. Sentence Grammar is well documented; it has been the main or the only subject of theories of mainstream linguistics. It is organized in terms of parts of speech or constituent types such as sentences, clauses, phrases, words, and morphemes, plus the syntactic and morphological machinery to relate constituents to one another. Thetical Grammar consists of a catalog of theticals, that is, formulae and constructions as well as the ability to design new theticals and to deploy them for structuring discourse (see below for their defining properties). The main categories of theticals distinguished so far are illustrated in (1). DMs can be described as a type of “grammaticalized thetical” (Heine 2013; Heine et al. 2021; but see also Section 3). (1) Categories of Thetical Grammar (Kaltenböck et al. 2011; Heine et al. 2013) a. He is very competent, actually. Conceptual thetical b. Good morning! Formula of social exchange c. Today’s topic, ladies and gentlemen, is astrophysics. Vocative 1 d. Hold on, are we late? Imperative e. Damn, we’ve missed the bus. Interjection The defining properties of DMs are listed in (2). Note that this definition is prototypical rather than discrete. With the exception of (e) and (f), DMs share all properties with other kinds of theticals (Kaltenböck et al. 2011: 853). 1 A number of languages, such as Latin, have vocative as a morphological (case) category. This fact is immaterial to the present discussion, which is restricted to “vocative” as a discourse category. Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 8 (2) Properties defining discourse markers (Heine 2013, Heine et al. 2021) a. They are syntactically independent from their environment. b. They are typically set off prosodically from the rest of the utterance. c. Their meaning is non-restrictive. d. They tend to be positionally mobile. e. Their meaning is mainly procedural rather than conceptual-propositional (Blakemore 1987, 2002). f. They are non-compositional and as a rule short. The term “non-restrictive”, taken from Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1352), indicates that non-restrictive meaning is not anchored in the structure of a sentence or its constituents but rather concerns reasoning processes that, as we argue here, are grounded in the situation of discourse (see below). Figure 1. A sketch of the architecture of Discourse Grammar With regard to their internal compositionality, conceptual theticals can be of three different kinds, namely instantaneous, constructional, or formulaic. The items to be discussed below are for the most part formulaic theticals, that is, prefabricated and largely frozen, invariable information units (Kaltenböck et al. 2011). 2 DMs are theticals, that is, they belong to Thetical Grammar, but most of them have homophonous, or nearly homophonous counterparts in Sentence Grammar. The latter are said to carry the source meaning of the unit 2 Instantaneous theticals are fully compositional and can be formed freely any time and anywhere. Constructional theticals, by contrast, are recurrent patterns or constructions of theticals. Unlike formulaic theticals, they are compositional but have some schematic structure and function (see Kaltenböck et al. 2011: 870-1; Heine et al. 2013 for more details). Discourse Grammar Sentence Grammar Thetical Grammar … Conceptual Formulae of Vocatives Imperatives Interjections … theticals social exchange The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 9 concerned (e.g., Bell 2009: 919). Our interest here is exclusively with the functions of DMs, not with those of their Sentence Grammar counterparts. The distinction between DM and Sentence Grammar units is described by Taglicht (2001) with reference to actually as one between marginal (referred by him as actually 1 ) and integral elements (actually 2 ), which, he suggests, are also lexically distinct. Whereas the marginal one is a discourse modifier, the integral one is a propositional modifier. As we argue here, actually 1 , illustrated in (3a), is a DM (i.e. a thetical) while actually 2 is an adverb of Sentence Grammar, cf. (3b). (3) a. This one, actually, I rather like. b. Some of them are actually poisonous. (Taglicht 2001: 4-5) Properties distinguishing the marginal from the integral item actually 2 are found in Table 1. The table provides support for our claim that actually 1 is a DM, that is, a thetical: Not being an immediate constitutent of the utterance to which it is attached, its function and scope are also detached. And it also tends to be prosodically distinguished, though not consistently (Taglicht 2001: 7-8). Note that actually 1 , but not actually 2 , is frequently separated from the rest of the utterance by punctuation marks. Accordingly, if there are punctuation marks setting acually off from the rest of an utterance, we are dealing with the DM rather than the lexical verb. Marginal actually 1 Integral actually 2 Syntax Is not an immediate constituent, is an “adjunct” (or disjunct and conjunct) Can serve as immediate constituent, but not as adjunct of a VP Meaning Is incompatible with some other proposition, is not truth-insistent Is either scalar or truth-insistent 3 Scope Is not in the scope of negation Is in the scope of negation, has local scope Position Free (cf. (2d)) Fixed; it is the initial element of a sentence constituent Table 1. Properties distinguishing the DM actually from its Sentence Grammar counterpart (based on Taglicht 2001) 3 The use of these two terms is described by Taglicht (2001: 2) thus: “When the speaker uses ‘scalar’ actually 2 in some phrase ..., he is envisaging a scale of properties with the content of that phrase at the top, and implying that any property below it on the scale would make the expression too weak. The ‘truth-insistent’ use of actually 2 serves to contrast what is really so with what is only pretended or imagined.” Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 10 According to Kaltenböck et al. (2011), theticals are not anchored in the structure of a sentence or its constituents but rather concern reasoning processes that are anchored in the situation of discourse (see (2c) above). The situation of discourse is composed of a network of the functional components listed in (4). (4) Components of the situation of discourse (Kaltenböck et al. 2011: 861)  Text Organization (TO)  Source of Information (SI)  Attitudes of the Speaker (AS)  Speaker-Hearer Interaction (SH)  Discourse Setting (DS)  World Knowledge (WK) The components distinguished in (4) were reconstructed on the basis of a large body of data on theticals other than DMs (Kaltenböck et al. 2011; Heine et al. 2013). The main goal of the present paper now is to find out how these components relate to the functions of DMs. As we will argue in Section 3, the components are also relevant for describing the behavior of DMs, our goal being, as Aijmer and Simon-Vandenbergen (2004: 1783) put it, “to explain the anchoring of utterances in the discourse context”. 2.2. The functions of DMs As observed by Kaltenböck et al. (2011), the exact nature of the network underlying the situation of discourse is still in need of clarification. We are restricted here to looking into the following interrelated questions: (5) a. Are the functions of DMs shaped by the situation of discourse in the same way as other theticals (see Kaltenböck et al. 2011)? b. If yes, can the study of DMs be of help in understanding the internal structure of the network characterizing the situation of discourse? To answer these questions, we will look at a range of what have been proposed to be English DMs whose functions have been fairly well documented. DMs are theticals (see Section 2.1, see also Heine 2013); hence we expect the answer to question (5a) to be in the affirmative, thereby providing insights into the way meaning is handled in Thetical Grammar. Note, however, that DMs are by no means characteristic of theticals as a whole, for the following interrelated reasons. First, belonging to one specific set of theticals, namely that of formulaic theticals (see Section 2.1), they are not The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 11 really representative of theticals in general (Heine et al. 2013). And second, they do not appear to exploit the entire range of the functions associated with the use of theticals, as we will see in Section 3. Work on the functions of English DMs suggests that there might be some features that distinguish DMs from many other kinds of information units. One possibly specific feature is that, more than other meaningful units, they require quite some amount of inferencing for their decoding (Aijmer 2002: 39). Another feature, one that turns up in many of the accounts of DMs, is that they exhibit an unusual amount of polyfunctionality (or multifunctionality). Polyfunctionality can be contextually determined, in that a given DM has one function in one context and a different function in another context. But it may also mean overlapping, in that two (or more) different functions are simultaneously present in a given utterance and context. For example, Imo (2005) observes that the DM I mean does not seem to have only interpersonal functions but always also aspects of textual functions. In cases of this kind, both functions can be equally salient, or else one of the functions is more salient, dominant, or foregrounded, or “prototypical”. The notion of “function” (or meaning, or sense) stands for a range of different kinds of semantic features in the literature on DMs. Since we will be relying on the descriptions of DMs volunteered by other authors, phrased in a variety of different frameworks, we will use the term in a loose sense. 3. A survey In the present section we will look at 24 English information units that have - at least by some authors - been classified as DMs, even if there is some disagreement on whether they all really qualify as such. These DMs are listed in (6). Most of them have Sentence Grammar counterparts which function as adverbs, verbs, reduced clauses, etc. of Sentence Grammar, all of which are ignored here (see Section 2.1). Our analysis is based exclusively on descriptions that are available in published works (see the References for details). A number of these DMs have been subjected to more than one analysis, and we will treat each analysis separately and in its own right. This means that we will be dealing altogether with 47 different analyses. The choice of these DMs was dictated by the availability of data that were immediately available to us. (6) English DMs analyzed here actually (Lenk 1998; Smith & Jucker 2000; Taglicht 2001; Clift 2001; Aijmer 1988, 1997, 2002), ah (Aijmer 2002), anyway (Ferrara 1997; Park 2010), of course (Wichmann et al. 2010; Furkó 2012), I find (Brinton 2008: 232-4), hey Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 12 (Dubois 1989), incidentally (Lenk 1998; Fraser 2009), you know (Fox Tree & Schrock 2002), look (Brinton 2008: 185-7), I mean (Fox Tree & Schrock 2002; Imo 2005; Brinton 2008: 112-8), mind you (Bell 2009), no (Lee-Goldman 2011), now (Aijmer 1988, 2002; Schourup 2011), oh (Schiffrin 1987: 73-101; Aijmer 2002), okey (Gaines 2011), you see (Brinton 2008: 134-6), so (Schiffrin 1987: 191-227; Howe 1991; Johnson 2002; Bolden 2009), then (Haselow 2011), I think (Kärkkäinen 2003; Kaltenböck 2010), well (Schiffrin 1987: 102-27; Jucker 1993, 1997; Aijmer & Simon-Vandenbergen 2003; González 2004; Cuenca 2008), as it were (Brinton 2008: 167), what else (Lenk 1998: 189-202; Brinton 2008: 205), what’s more (Brinton 2008: 205), if you will (Brinton 2008: 163-6) DMs were characterized in Section 2.1 as grammaticalized theticals, and most of them belong to the category of conceptual theticals (see 2.1, (1)). But some of those listed in (6) relate to other categories of theticals, namely that of formulae of social exchange (okey), imperatives (look, mind you), and interjections (ah, oh) (see Heine et al. 2013). 3.1. Classifying functions The present paper rests on a comparative analysis of functions (or meanings or senses) exhibited by DMs. The functions to be distinguished are essentially those identified by the authors cited. Since there is not always sufficient information in the sources concerned, no distinction is made between overlapping and contextually distinguished functions. This means that different functions of a given DM can either be observed in one and the same utterance and use of a DM or else be associated each with some specific context (see 2.2 above). The functions identified by the authors concerned are classified in accordance with the components of the situation of discourse discussed in Section 2.1. As our analysis suggests, it is essentially only three of the components listed in (4) that surface in the functions of DMs, namely the following: (i) Text organization, (ii) attitudes of the spekaer, (iii) speakerhearer interaction. Text organization (TO). We will say that this component is involved when the DM can be assumed to serve the planning or structuring of the discourse of which the DM is a part. More general clusters of functions to be distinguished are: a. The structure of the text (planning, coherence between text pieces, boundaries between text pieces, repairs), b. the information structure (relating to functions of participants, highlighting or emphasizing, etc.), and c. the content of the text (elaboration, modification of content). The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 13 The following example illustrates the predominantly TO function of the DM as it were (e.g., Brinton 2008: 167), which acts as a temporary gapfiller and thus facilitates online planning and may also signal that the speaker is uncertain whether his choice of words is the most appropriate here: 4 (7) I mean the the way Mr Griffiths fastens on his heroines and the camera from that moment on exploits women in a particular way right the way through the whole of cinema up to this day. Very rarely has that been uh as it were subverted (ICE-GB: s1b-045-084) Similarly in example (8) the DM now functions as a textual organizer, more specifically a topic changer, which marks the introduction of a new main point in the talk. As noted by Aijmer (1988: 22), it “points forward towards an upcoming argument, the main topic or a new development in the conversation”. (8) Uhm the pastoralists are particularly found in Africa <,> uhm there are a few in Asia as well <,> Uhm demographically they’re very interesting because yery little work has been done on pastoralists ,> uhm despite which theories abound <,> uhm but usually with very little evidence <,> Uhm now why is there <,> so little dat such little data on pastoralists <,> Well one of the reasons is that… (ICE-GB: s2a-047- 008) Attitudes of the Speaker (AS). This component is involved when the DM can be assumed to serve the expression of the “inner state” of the speaker. The following functions can be distinguished in particular: a. The speaker’s emotional state (emotions), b. the speaker’s mental state (experiences, conclusions, degree of commitment), and c. the speaker’s stance on the content of the text or other aspects of the situation of discourse. An example of this component is given in (9), where the DM I mean shifts the perspective to a more personal expression of the speaker (e.g., Brinton 2008: 116-7): 5 4 The following examples are taken from ICE-GB, the British component of the International Corpus of English (Nelson et al. 2002). 5 In accordance with the multifunctionality of DMs, (9) can also be interpreted as signaling elaboration, that is, as relating to the component of TO. Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 14 (9) Well the thing was that the whole point was that we were going to have strawberries and cream I mean it’d be left to me to organise it (ICE-GB: s1a-005-220) Another example of a DM marking an utterance as personal opinion is I think, as in (10). Here it co-occurs with another marker of personal opinion, actually, which has been noted as a common pattern of double marking to emphasize the speaker’s position (Lenk 1998: 161; Aijmer 2013: 111). (10) B: It’s quite large quite definitely children too yes A: Uhm yes yes yes it is Uhm <,> and and I think actually it’s quite telling because if you were to do that and add it up at the end of the six months you think oh you know I had to "> That was more than I thought (ICE-GB: s1b-072-132) Speaker-Hearer Interaction (SH). This component is involved when the DM concerns the relationship between speaker (S) and hearer (H). The following main clusters of functions may be distinguished: a. Requests for action (S asks H to act, S asks for H’s attention, S asks H to accept a proposal, S asks H for information, S asks H to yield the turn), b. speaker’s comments on hearer’s stance (S agrees with H, S takes a stance that contrasts with that of H, S conveys his/ her stance to H), and c. the role relations between interlocutors (S asks H to assume speakership, S and H negotiate their social roles, S proposes a change in social conventions). Compare, for instance, the following example, where look has an attentiongetter function (e.g., Brinton 2008: 185-7): (11) No I have enjoyed doing it <,> But the the thing Look the thing is if you’re in this kind of work you’ve to have plenty of other interests on the other side your side of life (ICE-GB: s1b-026-228) In example (12), on the other hand, the DM well is used as a turn-taking device, which allows the speaker to take control in the conversation (Aijmer, 2013: 34). Frequently in this function well is followed by a pause (ibid.). (12) B: So uhm So he’s going to punch the details into a <unclear-word> screen <,> A: Well "> if there’s anything if there’s anything in one of the letters that I think is vaguely chatty I’m obviously David I’m not going to give him any of the personal stuff am I "> (Aijmer 2013: 34; ICE-GB: s1a- 092-323) The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 15 One may wonder what justification there is to distinguish these components. While we have no formal criteria in support of the distinction, it seems to reflect distinctions surfacing from the descriptions provided by the authors cited, who tend to point out whether a given DM relates to the organization and presentation of texts, the status of the speaker, or the relation between speaker and hearer. The distinction of the three components, Text Organization (TO), Attitudes of the Speaker (AS), and Speaker- Hearer Interaction (SH) also relates to what Ljung (2011: 87-88) calls the three main functions of pragmatic markers, namely textuality, subjectivity, and interactivity, respectively. Nevertheless, separating these components neatly from one another is not always easy. When a speaker exposes his/ her intentions, thoughts, feelings, etc. (i.e. functions relating to AS) then s/ he is likely to do so with reference to other interlocutors (SH), and this is likely to have a bearing on the organization of his/ her text (TO). And, conversely, when s/ he addresses the hearer for some purpose (SH) then this is likely to also reflect to some extent his/ her attitudes (AS), and it may also have an impact on the way s/ he organizes his/ her discourse (TO). This means that it is at times hard to decide which of the components is most salient, whether there are two components that are equally salient, or whether a component is salient enough to be represented in our classification. In fact, the components tend to overlap to quite some extent, not only contextually but also within one and the same use of a DM. For example, as the description by Aijmer (2002) suggests, the DM actually serves in final position simultaneously functions of all three components: It can be interpersonal and positively polite (SH), serve to soften what has been said (TO), and foreground a subjective opinion (AS). The quantitative distribution of functions based on the above classifications is found in Table 2. As the figures presented there suggest, DMs can serve a wide range of different functions. Clearly the most salient component involved is TO, which accounts for more than half of all occurrences (55.1 %). Within this component, the following three general functions are most prominent: To establish coherence between text pieces (see, e.g., Östman 1995), to address functions of information structure, and to elaborate on or modify the text. Within the component AS, expressing the speaker’s stance appears to be the function most frequently invoked. The component SH draws on a wide array of functions where none clearly stands out. Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 16 Functions No. of occurrences Percentage Text Organization (TO) 92 55.1 % Attitudes of the Speaker (AS) 33 19.7 % Speaker-Hearer Interaction (SH) 42 25.2 % Total 167 100 % Table 2. Functions of 24 English discourse markers according to components In order to establish that the behavior of these English DMs is not crosslinguistically unusual, we carried out a control survey with a small set of 13 DMs from languages other than English for which appropriate descriptions were available to us. These markers are: Bulgarian xajde (Tchizmarova 2005), French bon (Hansen 1998b), German bloß, nur, jedenfalls, ich meine, obwohl, sag mal, ick=sag=mal=so, und? , weil, and wobei (Auer & Günthner 2005), Portuguese pronto (Soares da Silva 2006), and Turkish yaani (Ruhi 2009). Table 3 lists the functions of the non-English DMs according to components. That the number of functions found in these DMs is generally lower than that found in English is presumably not due to language-specific differences but rather to the fact that many of the English markers have been studied in greater detail than the non-English ones. On the whole, the figures in Table 3 suggest that there are some striking similarities in the frequency of occurrence betwen the English and the non- English DMs. First, the component of TO accounts clearly for the largest number of DM uses, exceeding that of the other two components taken together. Second, the other two components appear to be of equal importance for designing texts, each accounting roughly for one fifth of all uses of DMs. And third, on the basis of these findings it would seem that all three components jointly contribute to shaping the meanings of DMs and to building discourse structures, while the other components of (4) appear to be of secondary import. Functions Number of occurrences Percentage Percentage of English DMs (from Table 2) Text Organization 18 64.2 % 59.0 % Attitudes of the Speaker 5 17.9 % 22.9 % Speaker-Hearer Interaction 5 17.9 % 18.1 % Total 28 100 % 100 % Table 3. Functions of 13 discourse markers of Bulgarian, French, German, Portuguese, and Turkish according to components The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 17 3.2. Combinations of functions We observed in Section 2.1 that the exact nature of the network underlying the situation of discourse is a matter of further research. What appears to surface from the observations made in the preceding section is, first, that the functions of the DMs surveyed differ greatly from those of their Sentence Grammar counterparts, second, that essentially all of the functions exhibited by DMs refer to the situation of discourse, rather than being defined with reference for instance to syntactic or semantic relations within the utterance. And third, these functions appear to be restricted to a specific spectrum of the network underlying the situation of discourse, namely the components TO, AS, SH. The question that will be looked into in the present section is the following: Which of the components are involved in the use of a particular DM? As the literature on DMs suggests, there are a number of DMs that are restricted essentially to one of the three components. For example, the topic orientation markers of Fraser (2009) are largely confined to TO. But according to perhaps the prevailing view expressed in works on this subject matter, DMs are inherently polyfunctional or, in terms of the present framework, involve simultaneously more than one component. We will now look at the DMs mentioned above with a view to determining how they behave with regard to this issue. Table 4 gives an overview of the combinations of functional domains associated with each of the English DMs listed in (6). Once again, we treat each analysis proposed by a given author in its own right, which means that there may be more than one combination associated with one DM in cases where authors disagree in their analyses. Components Number of analyses of English DMs Percentage TO 8 17.0 % AS 1 2.1 % SH 1 2.1 % TO + AS 7 14.9 % TO + SH 11 23.4 % TO + AS + SH 18 38.4 % AS + SH 1 2.1 % Total 47 100 % Table 4. Combinations of functions in 24 English DMs (47 analyses) according to components: Number of occurrences Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 18 The figures presented in Table 4 suggest the following. First, there are both “monofunctional” and “polyfunctional” DMs, where the former are restricted to one of the components and the latter combine functions of more than one component. 6 Second, the number of the former is small (21.2 %) compared to “polyfunctional” DMs (78.8 %). Third, the largest group consists of DMs that combine all three components, i.e. that are maximally polyfunctional. Fourth, AS and SH are fairly insignificant both as part of a combination and as the only components associated with DMs. And finally, if there is a combination of components then it is unlikely to exclude TO. These observations are in accordance with the finding made in Section 3.1 according to which TO is the most salient function of the English DMs surveyed. Compared to this component, AS and SH are fairly insignificant, both in English and in the other languages examined. With reference to the situation of discourse this means that there are three main types of functional conglomerations, differing from one another in their relative degree of complexity and frequency of occurrence: The most complex and most frequent type is TO + AS + SH, accounting for more than one third of all uses, followed by conglomerations combining two components (TO + AS or TO + SH), while uses involving one component only are the least frequent, with the notable exception of TO. Figure 2 is an attempt to visualize what this means with reference to the overall structure of the situation of discourse. Figure 2. The situation of discourse: Functional components involved in 24 English DMs. (No line = below 5 % of occurrences, simple line = 10- 30 %, bold line = more than 30 % of occurrences) 6 The terms “monofunctional” and “polyfunctional” are used here in a specific sense. In this sense, for example, a DM restricted to different functional uses all located within one component would still be defined as “monofunctional”. Speaker-Hearer Interaction Attitudes of Speaker Text Organization Source of information Discourse Setting World Knowledge The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 19 On the basis of these findings, a few generalizations can be proposed, namely the ones in (13). (13) Generalizations on the functional components of 24 English DMs a. The clear majority of DMs is “polyfunctional”, that is, involves more than one component. b. That DMs are restricted in their functions to one component only is exceptional, unless that component is TO. c. If there is a combination of more than one component then this combination is likely to include TO. It would seem safe to conclude on account of these findings that TO is the most salient of all components -in other words, the primary function of DMs appears to be to organize texts. This is also the conclusion reached in some form or other by a number of other researchers (e.g., Aijmer & Simon- Vandenbergen 2004). 4. Conclusions It goes without saying that the findings presented have to be taken with care. First, the sample used in the paper is too small to allow for significant generalizations. Second, what we proposed to call “functions” of DMs is a somewhat disparate group of values proposed by the authors cited. Whether, or to what extent these “functions” can really be classified as conventionalized meanings, polysemes, heterosemes, or represent simply “side-effects” (Waltereit 2002: 1000-1), implicatures, or context-induced reinterpretations of a given DM is open to question. Nevertheless, the quantitative data presented in Section 3 allow for a number of observations on the structure of the situation of discourse. First, as already pointed out in Section 3.1, the DMs looked at do not exploit the whole potential that the situation of discourse provides for expressing meanings: Our data suggest that discourse markers respond essentially to the question of who says what to whom and how -that is, to the components of Text Organization, Attitudes of the Speaker, and Speaker-Hearer Interaction of Discourse Grammar. The remaining components listed in (4), i.e., Source of Information, Discourse Setting, and World Knowledge, appear to be of secondary import in shaping the functions of DMs. To be sure, the latter components may also be present in some form or other. For example, DMs are shaped to a considerable extent by the expectation horizon of speakers (cf. Aijmer & Simon-Vandenbergen 2004), and expectations may be based on the source of information, the discourse setting, and generally the encyclopedic knowledge that is accessible to and can be invoked by the interlocutors in a given situation. But as the descriptions consulted Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck 20 suggest, such expectations do not appear to surface as forgrounded functions of DMs and hence do not figure in the survey data presented above. Second, it would seem that with regard to the range of functions covered, there are on the one hand DMs that are largely confined to one component, and on the other hand markers expressing a spectrum of functions, that is, two or more components. A paradigm instance of the former is I gather, which appears to be confined to the AS component according to the description volunteered by Brinton (2008: 226-8). A typical example of the latter can be seen in the DM you see, which is said to involve all three components (Brinton 2008: 134-6). But the clear majority of English DMs are “polyfunctional”, that is, they express functions of more than one component. This finding is in accordance with what has been observed by a number of other authors (e.g., Schleef 2005; Gaines 2011). Third, the data presented also suggest that TO is the component most frequently involved. What this might indicate is that, more than the roles of interlocutors and their interaction, it is the planning and structuring of texts that is the primary concern of speakers when they draw on DMs. At the same time, the rich descriptions that have become available also suggest that designing texts is not a means to an end but rather serves the interlocutors to achieve their communicative goals in what they conceive to be the best way possible. Fourth, that TO constitutes a major or even the only function of DMs has been argued for in a wide range of publications, in accordance with the classic definition of Schiffrin (1987). 7 As the present paper may have shown, however, reducing DMs to functions of TO and ignoring other components of the situation of discourse would not seem to be very helpful. And finally, the data presented also suggest that English DMs do not stand out as being typolologically special in any way. Both the kinds of functions expressed by them and their frequency of use appear to be similar to what can be found in DMs of other European languages and Turkish, as we saw in Section 3.1. In (5) of Section 2.2 we posed the following questions: (a) Are the functions of DMs shaped by the sitution of discourse like other theticals? (b) And if yes, can the study of DMs be of help in understanding the internal structure of the network characterizing the situation of discourse? The findings made in this paper suggest that DMs do not seem to be unusual compared to other kinds of theticals (see Heine et al., 2013): Their functions are not defined with reference to the syntactic or semantic structure of a clause or sentence but rather respond to the frame set by the situation of discourse, like other thetical categories such as formulae of social exchange, vocative expressions, or interjections; accordingly, they have been described as “procedural” (Blakemore 1987), “metalingual” (Maschler 7 Schiffrin (1987: 31) defines discourse markers as “sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk”. The Situation of Discourse: Evidence from Discourse Markers 21 1994), “metacommunicative”, “metatextual”, “metapragmatic”, “metadiscursive”, or “instructional” (e.g., Aijmer 1997: 3; Hansen 1998b: 236; Grenoble 2004: 1953; Furkó 2005; Hyland 2005; Auer & Günthner 2005: 340; Frank-Job 2006: 397; Arroyo 2011: 858; see Heine 2013). It would seem in fact that question (a) can be answered in the affirmative. Question (b) raises some problems that need much further investigation. Most of all, findings such as the ones presented here are so far not available for other thetical categories; hence, there is no real basis for comparison. Furthermore, DMs, forming a small set of formulaic theticals, are not representative of theticals as a whole, and the fact that they are largely restricted in their functions to a spectrum of three of the components of the situation of discourse might be due to their relatively advanced stage of grammaticalization. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank a number of colleagues who in some form or other have been of help in writing this paper, providing many critical comments, most of all to Laurel Brinton, Karin Aijmer, Elizabeth Traugott, Maj- Britt Mosegaard Hansen, and Tania Kuteva, but also to the following: Sasha Aikhenvald, Felix Ameka, Walter Bisang, Ulrike Claudi, Liesbeth Degand, Nicole Dehé, Csilla Ilona Dér, Bob Dixon, Wolfgang Dressler, Jack DuBois, Tom Givón, Martin Haspelmath, Sylvie Hancil, Jack Hawkins, Christa König, Haiping Long, Andrej Malchukov, Britta Mondorf, Aliyah Morgenstern, Maarten Mous, Gábor Nagy, Heiko Narrog, Fritz Newmeyer, Klaus-Uwe Panther, John Joseph Perry, Seongha Rhee, Kyung-An Song, Danjie Su, Arie Verhagen, Barbara Wehr, Björn Wiemer. 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Bernd Heine Linguistik und Afrikanistik Universität Köln Gunther Kaltenböck Institut für Anglistik Karl-Franzens Universität Graz The Suffix -ation in English Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 1 This paper analyses the role of the suffix -ation in English, based on data from the OED. The suffix forms deverbal nouns. Its origin can be traced back to Latin, but French had an important part in it, too. For the analysis, nouns in -ation and their corresponding verbs were retrieved from the OED. The purpose of the analysis was to characterize the position of -ation in the mental lexicon of current speakers of English and to assess the role of the word formation rule in the history of the formation of nouns in -ation. For the analysis, Marchand’s classification of nouns in -ation is used, which distinguishes nouns with verbs ending in -ify, -ize, -ate, and other verbs. This classification is combined with the information about first attestation dates provided by the OED. Cases where more than one verb can underlie a particular noun are studied in detail. Particular attention is paid to the issue of backformation, i.e. cases where the noun has been attested earlier than the verb. In the interpretation of these cases, the perspective of individual speakers is highlighted. 1. The Suffix -ation In English, the suffix -ation can be used to derive a noun from a verb. It is an example of what Bauer et al. (2013: 196) call “non-native affixation”. They call it “the only one of the non-native nominalizing affixes that displays real productivity in modern English” (2013: 201). The English suffix correlates with suffixes in a range of other languages, as illustrated for organization in (1). 1 This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences VEGA under the project No VEGA 1/ 0130/ 21. AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0002 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 30 (1) a. organization EN b. organisation FR, DE, DK c. organización ES d. organizzazione IT e. organizaç-o PT f. organisatie NL g. organizácia SK h. organizacja PL i. организация RU In (1b-i), equivalents in three Germanic, four Romance and three Slavic languages are represented orthographically. In (1b), the same spelling corresponds to different pronunciations in three languages. Words such as the ones in (1) are often called internationalisms. Many words with the suffix -ation fall into this category. The origin of the suffix can be traced back to Latin. However, what appears as -ation in English was the result of a number of separate morphological processes in Latin. The forms in (2) can be used to explain this for the verb laudare (‘praise’). (2) a. laudare infinitive b. laudatus passive participle c. laudatio noun, nominative singular d. laudationem noun, accusative singular The infinitive in (2a) shows the thematic vowel -aof the first conjugation. The -tis added in (2b) as a marker of what Aronoff (1994) calls the “third stem”, which is traditionally indicated with the passive participle. The noun-forming suffix in Latin is -ion. It is attached to the third stem and reduced to -io in the nominative singular (2c). In oblique cases, such as the accusative in (2d), the full form is visible. In Romance languages, nouns were generally adopted in the accusative form, which is reflected in the spelling of (1b-d). The suffix -ation in English and in the other languages illustrated in (1) does not reflect the Latin analysis in (2). It is a combination of elements that in Latin express both inflectional and derivational information. In particular, the thematic vowel marks the first conjugation, which was the largest in Latin, but by no means the only one from which nouns of this type were formed. Some of these other nouns were also borrowed in English, as illustrated in (3). (3) a. definīre definitio ‘delimit’ b. deducĕre deductio ‘deduce’ c. defendĕre defensio ‘defend’ d. complēre completio ‘fulfil’ The Suffix -ation in English 31 In (3), the Latin infinitive is followed by the nominalization in -io and the English translation of the verb. In (3a), we have an example of a verb from the second-largest conjugation class, traditionally the fourth conjugation, which has a thematic vowel -i-. The third conjugation does not have a thematic vowel. Two examples are (3b-c). The consonant marking the third stem, written -tin (2c) and (3a-b), was generally pronounced as an affricative before -io. In (3c), it is reduced to a sibilant. Similar phonological processes can also be observed for some of the forms in (1). The much smaller second conjugation class, which has the thematic vowel -e-, is illustrated in (3d). Forms such as the nouns in (3) were representatives of the same sequence of morphological processes as illustrated in (2) and they were also borrowed by many of the languages in (1), but in smaller numbers. Bauer et al. (2013: 201) recognize “a number of different variants” of the suffix on this basis, but state that the string -ation “is common to all productive variants”. This implies that they assume variants such as -ition in definition are not productive. Semantically, the Latin suffix -io does not necessarily affect the base it attaches to. In English, we can observe the same, as illustrated in (4). (4) a. It took several months to organize the event. b. Organizing the event took several months. c. The organization of the event took several months. The three sentences in (4) express the same meaning. In (4a), an infinitive is used and it is more natural with an extraposition of the infinitival clause. The gerund in (4b) can be recognized as a verb form because it has a direct object and cannot have an article. The nominalization in (4c) requires a preposition and an article. The process forming organization in (4c) is a transposition in the sense of Dokulil (1982), because it changes the syntactic category without changing the meaning. As illustrated in (5), it is also possible for the meaning to shift. (5) a. The temple was at the very centre of the organization of the Minoan economy. b. Each organization or agency has its own lending criteria. The examples in (5) are modified from BNC (2007). In (5a), it is not the process of organizing the economy, but the result of this process that is addressed. This process-result alternation is quite regular with nouns in -ation. A further derived meaning is illustrated in (5b). Here the noun refers to the body that constitutes the result of organizing. Such further derived meanings are not at all uncommon, but slightly less regular than the result reading of the type in (5a). Ten Hacken (2015) proposes a rule-based account of the relationships between these reading types. In this paper we will not be concerned by these semantic alternations. Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 32 Our purpose in this paper is to explore the position of -ation in the English morphological system. We are interested on one hand in its place in the contemporary language, i.e. in the language system of current speakers of English, on the other in its historical development. The data we took as a basis for both aspects of our exploration are taken from the OED. We used a list of nouns in -ation collected and analysed by Thomas (2013) as our starting point. She collected nouns from OED (2000-2012), using as a criterion that the noun and the corresponding verb are both in current use. This excludes cases such as comparation and obstipation, where the noun or the verb are obsolete. She also excluded complex words such as cell degradation and counter-accusation, where there is no full verb cell degrade or counter-accuse in the dictionary. This produced a list of 2941 nouns in -ation. Some further operations were carried out on this list with OED (2000-2020) as a source of information, which reduced the list to 2927 items. 2 In the study of the current place of -ation in the language, we make use of Marchand’s (1969) division into four classes (section 2). Then we turn to the history of -ation on the basis of first attestation dates in OED (section 3). In section 4, we address a number of questions that arise in the interpretation of these data. On this basis, section 5 brings together the insights gained from the analysis Marchand’s classes and first attestation dates. Section 6 summarizes the conclusions. 2. Marchand’s Four Classes Marchand’s (1969: 259-261) discussion of -ation organizes the data into four classes, illustrated in Table 1. Class Noun Verb I modification modify II neutralization neutralize III translation translate IV expectation expect Table 1. Four classes of nouns in -ation distinguished by Marchand (1969: 259) What we present here as classes of nouns in -ation is introduced by Marchand by the phrase “Formally we can distinguish four groups” (1969: 259). The use of group indicates that the division may be intended more as 2 We would like to thank Claire Thomas for allowing us to use her data and Irene Jiménez Alonso for recording further information from OED about the nouns and the verbs. The Suffix -ation in English 33 a presentational device than as a theoretical classification, but we will argue that the distinction is of enough morphological interest to deserve further study. The use of formally may suggest that it is the form of the noun that determines the class, but in fact it is the form of the verb that is crucial. The distinction between Classes III and IV is not visible in the noun. The criterion for the distinction between the classes in Table 1 is the ending of the verb. We use ending rather than suffix for reasons that become obvious when we consider the examples in Table 1 more closely. In neutralize, -ize is a suffix, because it attaches to neutral. In modify, however, -ify cannot be analysed as an English suffix, because it attaches to a base that is not a lexical item in English. Historically, modify and modification are both borrowings from French. In fact, according to OED neutralize is also a borrowing from French, but in this case the existence of neutral as an adjective in English makes a reanalysis possible. Whether neutralize is a borrowing or a verb formation based on neutral depends on the individual speaker. The significance of the classes in Table 1 derives in part from their Latin origin, which determines their role in the etymology of the words in -ation. This etymological basis means that the same classes can be found in different languages. Thus, Panocová (2017) uses them in her analysis of Slovak nouns in -ácia. In Class I, the Latin base of the verb ends in -ficare, which is an intensive form of facĕre (‘make’). Italian has the verb modificare, which preserves the stop. In German, it is modifizieren, where the stop has become an affricative. The form of the English verb shows the influence of French, where the stop was elided in modifier. In Class II, the suffix -ize is of Greek origin, which is also the reason why OED writes it with a <z>. This suffix appears in many languages. For English, Marchand (1969: 318-321) observes that, after a surge in formations between 1580 and 1700, it can be considered an English suffix in the sense that new English verbs in -ize do not depend on borrowing. Durkin (2014: 310-311) identifies the 17 th century as the peak of Latin borrowing. The suffix attaches to adjectives and nouns and has a range of related meanings that can be described as ‘make X, convert into X, adapt to X’. Although there is a sense that the base tends to be [+learned], Marchand (1969: 319) gives several examples with [-learned] bases, e.g. standardize, winterize. The ending -ate in Class III is often not a genuine suffix. Its origin is the Latin passive participle illustrated in (2b). Durkin (2014: 320-323) observes that the pattern of these verbs developed from borrowing of what he calls the Latin past participle. Marchand calls the use of -ate in cases such as translate “adaptational” (1969: 256) and mentions backformation as an important source of these verbs (1969: 256-258). In the case of translate, the actual Latin verb is transferre (‘carry across’), with a prefix attached to ferre (‘carry’), which has an irregular passive participle latus. Although transferre has given rise to English transfer, the link between transfer and Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 34 translate is not generally made by speakers of English. Indeed, the emergence of translate suggests that the speakers involved did not know the Latin verb transferre or did not relate it to the noun translation. From a Latin perspective, Class IV is the unmarked class. The Latin verb corresponding to expect is expectare. When the 2927 pairs of nouns and verbs both of which are in current use are divided up according to the classes in Table 1, we find the distribution in Figure 1. Figure 1. Distribution of Marchand’s (1969) classes of -ation nouns In Figure 1, the absolute number of types is given for each class. From the shape of the noun, it is generally possible to count Classes I and II and distinguish them from the other two classes. We still have to check the actual verb, because the ending -ization is no proof that there is a corresponding verb in -ize. Thus, for solmization, the verb is not *solmize, but solmizate. However, this only concerns a small number of nouns. For the distinction between Classes III and IV, the form of the noun does not provide any guidance. As Figure 1 shows, there are a number of nouns for which OED gives both a verb with and one without -ate. For these nouns, the question arises which class they actually belong to. We will come back to this question in section 4.1. The Suffix -ation in English 35 3. The History of -ation One of the points on which OED generally puts a lot of emphasis is recording the first date of attestation. As described by Gilliver (2016: 271-272), antedatings were regarded as particularly urgent in the revision process, even at the stage of proofreading. Although Durkin (2014: 336-340) emphasizes that the history of a word is also determined by its increase in frequency, which may occur only much later than its first attestation, the first date of attestation of words remains an anchorpoint in their lexicographic description. In interpreting any analysis based on such information, it is important to be aware of what exactly a date of first attestation means. Let us take as an example nationalization. OED (2000-2020 [2003]: nationalization) 3 gives three senses, the second of which is split into two subsenses, as described in (6). (6) a. The action of making national in character, or of making distinctively national. b. The action of forming into a nation or nations; the process of becoming a nation. c. Inclusion or absorption into a nation. d. The action of bringing land, property, an industry, etc., under state ownership or control. Sense 1, described in (6a), is marked obsolete. Sense 2, with the subsenses in (6b-c) is marked rare. Sense 3, defined as in (6d) is unmarked. For each of the senses, a number of dated examples are given. The first example for (6a) is from 1801, the other senses have examples starting from 1813, 1885 and 1847, respectively. The question is, then, what we can say about the date of the formation of nationalization. A first observation is that we can be sure that the word has been used at least from 1801. Whether it was used earlier is not known. Not all occurrences of a word are archived in a way that they can be retrieved. A second point to be made, however, concerns the relationship between the use of a word and the existence of the word. As English does not refer to an empirical entity, there is no purely empirical way to verify the existence of a word in English. 4 Therefore, we must admit that the conclusion that nationalization has existed as a word of English since 1801 is the result of a chain of assumptions. 3 Where relevant, we give in square brackets the year of the last full update of an OED entry. 4 The truth of the statement that nationalization exists as a word of English depends on a range of decisions concerning what constitutes English. When we find a word in a text, we first have to decide whether the text is English, then whether the word is not an error. Even in an English text, not all words are English words. An English text can, for instance, contain a French or Latin quotation. This does not make the Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 36 As we are interested in the date of the formation of the word, we have to make a further step, connecting the existence of nationalization to its formation. As discussed by ten Hacken and Panocová (2011), the formation of a word is something only individual speakers can do. Texts do not record the meaning of a word, so that the existence of a word in a text is only partial. The interpretation depends on a speaker attaching a meaning to the word. In principle, each speaker who knows nationalization has their own meaning attached to it, realized in their mental lexicon. When they come across the word for the first time, they have to form the word as an entry in their mental lexicon. What we usually mean by “the formation of nationalization”, however, is not the extension of one’s mental lexicon by a word on the basis of receptive understanding, but rather setting up the word for use in spoken or written language without hearing or reading it first. This is an action that is much rarer than the reception-based extension of the lexicon, but it must have occurred at least once. It can have occurred multiple times if speakers were not aware of the word having been used by others before. Taking these considerations into account, any analysis of the history of a set of words on the basis of first attestation dates in OED is based on a series of abstractions. Nevertheless, the information about first attestation gives evidence on the degree of prominence of a word formation process among speakers in a particular historical speech community. Bauer et al. (2013: 195-206) discuss a range of competing word formation processes corresponding semantically to -ation, e.g. -al and -ment. Which one is actually used by speakers depends not only on the relative prominence of these word formation processes, which may vary from one century to the next, but also on factors such as which other words had been formed recently or were established in the speaker’s vocabulary. In our calculations, we have assumed that first attestation dates as given in OED are significant. We have taken all senses of a word together and adopted the oldest date as the relevant one for the word. In the case of nationalization, we have used 1801, even though the sense attested in that year, given in (6a), is now obsolete. We have also normalized years. OED uses abbreviations where the year of a text is unsure. As Marsden (2013) describes, for Middle English there is a system using brackets to distinguish date of composition and date of manuscript, combined with abbreviations c for circa and a for ante and question marks where dating is unsure. The use of this system is not restricted to Middle English, as shown by the first attestation date of “? a1793” for recompilation. In a similar vein, sometimes a range of years is given, e.g. 1687-1700 for hibernation, or a decade or century, e.g. “138.” for cavillation, “16..” for disseveration. For our calculations, we have taken words in the quotation English words. The need for such decisions implies that, as Uriagereka (1998: 27) put it, “English does not really exist”. The Suffix -ation in English 37 away the abbreviations and question marks and taken the middle year for any range, decade or century, rounding down if necessary. This means we have adopted 1793 for recompilation, 1693 for hibernation, 1385 for cavillation and 1650 for disseveration. 5 As a result of these operations, we can represent the historical development of the use of -ation as in Figure 2. Figure 2. Distribution of first attestation dates for nouns in -ation The data we used for Figure 2 are not the same set as the one we used for Figure 1. Figure 1 takes a synchronic outlook, including only those verbnoun pairs where both are in current use. This is reasonable if one is interested in the mental lexicon of current speakers, but is problematic if the purpose is to outline the historical development of the word formation process. Therefore, we extended the data set to include those cases where one of the two is now obsolete. We did not include nouns in -ation for which no corresponding verb is recorded in OED. The result is a set of 3947 nouns. As shown in Figure 2, the earliest attested cases of -ation nouns are from the 13 th century, but it is only in the 14 th century that we find a substantial number of them. This is the period when the renewed use of English in legal and administrative domains, previously dominated by French and Latin, led to many loanwords from these languages. As Durkin (2014: 236- 5 In cases where we had to translate “OE” into a year, we have adopted 900. This does not apply to nouns in -ation, but occasionally to verbs from which such nouns have been formed, e.g. starve for starvation. 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 38 240) shows, it is often difficult to distinguish between French and Latin as the source of a loanword. The increase in new nouns in -ation continues rapidly until the 17 th century, then drops suddenly in the 18 th century. In the 19 th century, the formation of new words resumes and for the 20 th century, fewer new words are recorded. An important question is to what extent these fluctuations are due to the way the OED was compiled and to what extent they reflect genuine developments in English usage. In his study of borrowings from French and Latin, Durkin (2014: 310-315) finds similar fluctuations for the period up to the 20 th century as we do here and he argues that they are not due to the OED compilation process. He attributes the rise in the 17 th century and the fall in the 18 th century to a change in writing style. The renewed rise in the 19 th century concerns mainly technical and scientific vocabulary and is caused by significant advances in these domains. 6 The lower number for the 20 th century can be explained by the history of work on OED. As described by Gilliver (2016), the first edition was compiled in the period 1858-1928, with a supplement to update the earliest parts completed in 1933. After the completion of the first edition and the supplement, work on updates was tuned down to such an extent that Gilliver (2016: 453) characterizes Robert Burchfield’s task as a new editor in 1957 as “Learning to swim (again)”. In order to gain an impression of how special the development of -ation as depicted in Figure 3 is, one might compare it to the numbers for -ee in Mühleisen’s (2010) study. Table 2 compares the two suffixes. 6 A different position on this issue is taken by Brewer (2012). She argues that the 18 th century is underrepresented in OED because of “systematic under-reading” (2012: 87), so that first attestations of words would be placed in the 19 th century even though more extensive reading of 18 th century sources would have given earlier attestation dates. In our argumentation we follow Durkin (2014). The Suffix -ation in English 39 Period -ation -ee Proportion 1200 - 1299 10 1300 - 1399 176 4 44.00 1400 - 1499 315 12 26.25 1500 - 1599 527 21 25.10 1600 - 1699 1020 47 21.70 1700 - 1799 300 40 7.50 1800 - 1899 961 152 6.32 1900 - 1999 638 68 9.38 Table 2. Comparison of the number of formations with -ation and -ee Mühleisen’s (2010: 107) figures are used for the third column in Table 2, but for the 20 th century we give the number of OED entries she mentions in the footnote in order to make the data comparable. The last column gives the number of times the -ation nouns exceed the -ee nouns. Obviously, -ation is much more common. However, the reduction of new cases in the 18 th century is far stronger for -ation and the proportion remains similar afterwards. The relative strength of -ation can also be assessed by comparing the number of new formations in -ation with the number of new nouns recorded by OED. Figure 3 gives the proportion as a percentage. Figure 3. Number of new words in -ation as a percentage of new nouns in OED 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5 4 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 40 In line with the data in Table 2, Figure 3 highlights the reduction of the number of new entries with -ation after the 17 th century. This may be connected to Durkin’s (2014: 307-308) observation that the ornate writing style of the 17 th century gave way to a more restrained one in the 18 th century if we assume that nouns in -ation are more typical of this ornate writing style than other nouns. We also see that the drop in numbers for the 20 th century in Figure 2 is a result of the history of the dictionary. In relative numbers, Figure 3 actually shows a slight increase in this period. 4. Questions of Priority One of our main objectives can be formulated as relating the distribution of Figure 1 to the historical development in Figure 2 and Figure 3. This will provide a basis for the evaluation of claims such as Bauer et al.’s (2013: 196) that the productivity of -ation in contemporary English exists only “by virtue of prior affixation”. As Class IV does not involve affixation in the formation of the verb, this would predict that this class is no longer productive. Furthermore, it raises the question of the position of -ate in Class III. If the verb is a backformation, it can hardly count as a case of prior affixation. The questions of priority that arise for nouns in -ation are of two types. One type concerns the case when we have two competing verbs. This is particularly relevant for Classes III and IV. The other type concerns the priority relationship between the verb and the noun. The question is then whether the noun is actually derived from the verb or the verb is a backformation based on the noun. The extensive information about first attestation dates in OED provides a rich source of information for studying these questions, even though the interpretation of this information is subject to the considerations in section 2. On the basis of this information, we will first address the distinction between Classes III and IV in section 4.1, then turn to the issue of backformation in section 4.2. 4.1. The Distinction between Classes III and IV As indicated in Figure 1, we have 247 nouns in our collection for which OED gives both a corresponding verb with -ate and one without. This is the set of nouns for which both the noun and at least one of the verbs are in current use. An example is devaluation, which has both devaluate and devalue as possible verbs. One can then ask the question which class such nouns actually belong to. The central cause of the difficulty in answering such a question is that asking the question of actual class membership implies that words, classes and the language of English are empirical entities for which properties can The Suffix -ation in English 41 be determined observationally. However, as mentioned in section 3, this is not the case. Empirical entities are a speaker’s competence and a speaker’s performance. In the performance, words can be realized, but classes are not. Classes are part of a system. Systems of this type are not realized in performance, but only in a speaker’s competence. Competence is realized in individual speakers and it is not the same for different speakers. Of course speakers are in contact with each other and influence each other’s competence through this contact, but the nature of this influence is not absolute and automatic. Let us assume that Charles and Deborah are both speakers of English. They both know the word devaluation. Charles links it to the verb devaluate, but Deborah to the verb devalue. It is perfectly possible that Charles and Deborah never meet and never read each other’s writings so that they do not come across each other’s use of different verbs corresponding to devaluation. Even if they communicate, it may well be that neither uses either of the verbs. In this case they do not influence each other. For the classification of devaluation in English, this means that both Class III and Class IV are correct, but for different speakers. If Charles and Deborah come across each other’s verbs corresponding to devaluation, they will perceive the other speaker’s verb as unusual. How this perception is subsequently processed depends on their attitudes to language and their relative social position. If Charles is Deborah’s teacher, he may correct her. If they are friends, they may simply add each other’s verb to their mental lexicon as an entry for passive or even active use. This means that devaluation may belong to both classes even for a single speaker. Although it is possible that a word belongs to both classes, many speakers perceive such a situation as undesirable. In language, there is a significant community pressure towards a standard. This means that when a word is less common than a synonym, especially if the two are formally very similar, the less common word will tend to fall out of use. In our data, we found evidence of this phenomenon for many nouns in -ation with both Class III and Class IV verbs. A first example we want to consider is elicitation. OED gives both elicitate and elicit as verbs. For elicitate, there is one example only, dated 1642, and the verb is marked as obsolete. In such a case, we can assume that elicitation belongs to Class IV for present-day speakers of English. A second example is excavation. Again, OED gives both excavate and excave. The latter is a cognate of French excaver, but it is marked as “rare” by OED (2000-2020 [1894]). In view of the compilation date of 1894, the example from 1884 clearly excludes a categorization as obsolete. Nevertheless, we can safely assume that there are few speakers of English for whom excavation will not be Class III. When we extend this type of reasoning to all 247 nouns in this class, we get the distribution in Figure 4. Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 42 Figure 4. Current use of verbs for nouns in -ation for which OED gives verbs according to both Class III and Class IV with absolute numbers Although the class of nouns in -ation for which both the verb with -ate and the one without are in common use is the largest in Figure 4, more than half of the cases can be attributed to either Class III or Class IV, because the other verb is marked as rare or obsolete. In a few individual cases, one of the verbs is regionally marked (mostly Scottish) or both verbs are marked as rare or obsolete. For the nouns that have two corresponding verbs in common use, one of the ways to determine whether they are primarily in Class III or in Class IV is to consider which verb is older. When we consider, for instance, permutation, both permutate and permute have an entry in OED and they are fairly similar in frequency. 7 However, permutate has a first attestation date of 1598 and for permute the oldest example is dated c1400 (OED 2000- 2020 [2005]: permutate and permute). The noun permutation has a first attestation date of a1398. This makes it unlikely that permutation was formed on the basis of permutate. It is important to realize that we are now making a rather different point about class membership than in the classification in Figure 4. In Figure 4, classes were considered properties of current speakers of English. When we consider first attestation dates, we turn our attention to the point where 7 OED assigns permute to Frequency Band 4 (“most words remain recognizable to English-speakers, and are likely be used unproblematically in fiction or journalism”) and permutate to Frequency Band 3 (“These words are not commonly found in general text types like novels and newspapers, but at the same they are not overly opaque or obscure”). Class III only; 58 Both in use; 100 Class IV only; 81 Regional; 5 Neither; 3 The Suffix -ation in English 43 permutation was coined. The question is then whether speakers who did not hear permutation from others used permutate or permute as a basis. 8 The difference of about 200 years in first attestation date makes it likely that the base verb was permute. In order to elaborate this point, we compared first attestation dates for all verbs corresponding to nouns in -ation that have two verbs in current use. The result is represented in Figure 5. Figure 5. Comparison of first attestion dates of verbs for Class III and Class IV Figure 5 uses classes based on the number of years one verb has an earlier first attestation date than the other and gives absolute numbers for each class. In calculating the data for Figure 5, we prepared the OED information about first attestations in the same way as we did for nouns in section 3. As there are exactly 100 nouns in the class covered in Figure 5, the absolute numbers are identical to percentages. Figure 5 shows a clear tendency for the verb without -ate to be earlier than the verb with -ate. For more than 80% of the nouns, the verb making the noun a member of 8 It should be noted here that permutation can also be a borrowing, so that it is not necessary that either verb is the base for the formation of the noun. We return to this issue in section 4.2. IV earlier 101+; 61 IV earlier 31- 100; 16 IV earlier 11- 30; 4 Almost equal; 5 III earlier 11- 30; 5 III earlier 31-100; 6 III earlier 101+; 3 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 44 Class IV is attested more than ten years earlier than the verb in -ate. Moreover, within this set of nouns, the largest group has a difference of more than a century. The data in Figure 4 and those in Figure 5 are of a different kind, so that it is not legitimate to combine them directly. Whereas Figure 4 represents information about the synchronic state of language in modern speakers, Figure 5 targets the historical situation at the point when words were formed. However, both point to a stronger position of the verb which makes the noun a member of Class IV. In relation to Figure 1, we can therefore say that most of the nouns in -ation that are ambiguous between Classes III and IV should rather be attributed to the latter. This does not change the fact that Class III is the largest class, but it is clearly less than half of the total. 4.2. Backformation A word formation rule derives a word from a base. In affixation, the derived form is the result of adding an affix to the base. In backformation, the direction of the formation process is reversed. We still have one form with an affix and one form without, but now the form with the affix is the starting point and the form without the result of the process. A well-known example discussed by Marchand (1969: 391-392) is the case of the verb peddle and the noun peddler. As Marchand notes, there is a difference between the synchronic and the diachronic perspective. Synchronically, for a modern speaker, peddler refers to a type of person and peddle to the corresponding action so that the relation between them is similar to the one between driver and drive. In both cases, the suffix derives the agent noun from the verb. Diachronically, it is unlikely that such a derivation actually took place. OED (2000-2020 [2005]: peddler and peddle) gives 1650 as the first attestation of the verb, 1307 as the first attestation of the noun. 9 As it is unlikely that the verb was used for such a long time without appearing in any of the material covered by OED, we can assume that in an earlier stage only the noun existed. A question raised by these observations is how the diachronic relationship can be accounted for. Marchand (1969: 391) only mentions that peddle is “historically an extraction from peddler”. Štekauer (2015: 342) ascribes to the earlier edition of Marchand’s work the idea that it “is arrived at through zero-derivation and the subsequent dropping of the (pseudo)morpheme”. In our view, a more plausible analysis of the process is that peddler was at some point reanalysed as involving the suffix -er. In fact, Marchand (1969: 392) already refers to “the change from moneme to syntagma”. 9 Marchand (1969: 391) gives different dates, based on an earlier edition of OED. Marchand refers to the process as backderivation. The Suffix -ation in English 45 Kiparsky (1982) discusses this reanalysis process for a number of items. Bauer (2001: 93) links this kind of reanalysis to analogy. In the case of -ation, word formation interacts with borrowing. This means that there are in principle always two possible origins for a noun in -ation. It can be a borrowing from Latin or French or it can be the output of the word formation rule taking a verb as its base and adding the suffix -ation. This constellation increases the potential for backformation. Thus, Marchand (1969: 260) notes that for nouns in -ation “which go with verbs in -ate”, i.e. Class III, the noun is “as a rule, older than the verb”. This implies that there are many verb-noun pairs in which the verb is a backformation. On the basis of the first attestation dates from OED, it is possible to analyse how general the phenomenon of backformation is from a diachronic perspective. Figure 6 divides all -ation nouns we collected according to the difference between the first attestation date for the noun and the verb. Figure 6. Comparison of first attestation dates of nouns in -ation and corresponding verbs The classes in Figure 6 are analogous to the ones in Figure 5, but we divided the class marked Almost equal into three classes, because here the larger number of pairs justifies such a division. In calculating the values Verb > 100 earlier; 815 Verb 31-100 earlier; 699 Verb 11-30 earlier; 411 Verb 1-10 earlier; 334 Verb and noun equal; 387 Noun 1-10 earlier; 287 Noun 11-30 earlier; 285 Noun 31- 100 earlier; 388 Noun > 100 earlier; 345 Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 46 for Figure 6, we took the verb with the earliest attestation date if more than one verb occurs, in particular in the case of ambiguity between Classes III and IV. Because of the historical perspective, we included cases with an obsolete noun or verb. As in the case of Figure 5, the greater the divergence of the dates of first attestation, the more confident we can be that the order of the formation of the words is represented correctly. Figure 6 shows a clear bias towards the verb being earlier, because more than half of the pairs (57.2%) have an earlier first attestation date for the verb, but there is still almost a third of the pairs (33.0%) where the noun is earlier. For a more precise discussion of the interpretation of these data, we will use the examples in (7) and (8), giving dates of first attestation from OED. (7) a. transplant c1440 b. transplantation 1601 (8) a. deviate a1634 b. deviation 1603 In (7) we have an example where the verb is more than 100 years earlier, in (8) one where the noun is in the range of 31-100 years earlier. Both nouns appeared in the first decade of the 17 th century. The words in (7) and (8) are all common words of English, generally known by fluent speakers of the language. OED (2000-2020) assigns them to frequency band 5, which is described as “literate vocabulary associated with educated discourse”, except for (8b), which is in frequency band 6 (i.e. more frequent). Data from COCA (2008-2020) and BNC (2007) indicate that in both pairs the noun is significantly more frequent than the verb, a factor 4-5 in BNC. Let us now consider a child, Helen, growing up in the 21 st century and at an age where a child’s vocabulary is typically expanded with words such as (7) and (8). If Helen comes across the verb in (7a) she will not know what the corresponding noun is until she encounters it. For some other verbs, there is no noun in -ation, e.g. *transferation. Conversely, if she encounters the noun in (7b) first, which is more likely in view of the frequency data, she will not know whether the verb is transplant or *transplantate until she comes across an example. Thus, although she can connect the two as soon as she knows them, she will have to wait for them to appear in her environment or risk producing a word that nobody else uses. In the case of (8), the situation is slightly different. On the basis of the verb in (8a), Helen can predict the noun in (8b), because the verb has -ate in the ending. The years of first attestation in (7) and (8) have nothing to say about the position of these words in the mental lexicon of current speakers. They give information about the considerations of the speakers who first used these words. Let us therefore consider the situation of Isaac, a well-educated English speaker of the early 17 th century who is involved in scientific The Suffix -ation in English 47 activity and for this reason often has to speak and write about concepts for which he does not know a word yet. For such a speaker, it will not be implausible that he comes up with the nouns in (7b) and (8b) at some point. As shown in Figure 2, the 17 th century was a time when many new nouns in -ation were first attested, so that the word formation rule will have been active for many speakers. The question is, then, on what basis Isaac comes up with transplantation and deviation as new words. The first-attestation dates in (7) indicate that it is highly unlikely that Isaac did not know the verb in (7a) when coming up with the noun in (7b) as a new word. In the case of (8), a more plausible scenario is that Isaac used deviation as a borrowing from French or Latin. For (8a), there is no direct parallel in these languages, so that it is most likely a backformation. This presupposes that Isaac already knew enough Class III pairs to create a pattern. When we speak about backformation and use first-attestation dates as evidence, it is the point at which a particular speaker uses a word without having heard or read it first that we address. In (7), we can be confident that there was no backformation at this point. In (8), the difference of 31 years should make us more cautious compared to the much longer distance in (7), but backformation is a plausible hypothesis. The discussion of (7) and (8) suggests that the issue of backformation may also depend on the class from Table 1 a pair belongs to. In order to test this hypothesis, we calculated the proportions for each of the classes separately. The resulting proportions are represented in Figure 7. Figure 7. Proportions of anteriority for each Class 67 175 184 402 46 209 299 183 33 132 159 107 25 123 143 60 29 123 190 58 24 90 151 44 16 46 201 59 25 331 86 10 404 72 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Class I Class II Class III Class IV Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 48 In Figure 7, the colours have the same meaning as in Figure 6. The numbers are the absolute number of words (types) in the relevant class. In cases where two verbs correspond to one noun, both have been counted in the relevant class. For the same reason as in Figure 6, the data set in the calculation includes the cases where one member of the verb-noun pair is obsolete. In the interpretation of Figure 7, the position of the yellow blocks is a central component. In Classes I, II and IV, the 70% mark is in the yellow block. This means that 70% of the pairs have the verb attested earlier than or at the same time as the noun and 30% of the pairs the verb later than or at the same time as the noun. Class III is an exception. Here the yellow block includes the 40% mark. As is clear from the absolute numbers, Class III is also the largest class. The contrast between Class III and the other classes suggests very strongly that backformation is frequent in the former, much less so in the latter. The reason why we do not make the claim that Figure 7 demonstrates frequent backformation in Class III is that there is always another interpretation of the data about the first attestation dates. Ten Hacken (2019: 81) discusses the Dutch example of ontroostbaar (‘broken-hearted’). The adjective is derived from the verb troosten (‘comfort’) by two processes, one attaching the suffix -baar, the other the prefix on-. The suffix -baar attaches to verbs and is semantically comparable to English -able, the prefix onattaches to adjectives and is semantically comparable to English un-. Because of the categorial restrictions on their application, -baar must have been attached first, resulting in troostbaar. This adjective has a transparent meaning, but it does not occur in Dutch dictionaries nor in the Corpus Hedendaags Nederlands (CHN 2013). The reason for this non-occurrence seems to be that it is not deemed necessary by Dutch speakers for their communication needs. A web search shows some occurrences. It may therefore become established in future. However, troostbaar is not a backformation, but an intermediate result of the derivation of ontroostbaar. The difference of this case to the phenomenon discussed for (7) and (8) can be illustrated by the example in (9). (9) a. casual c1374 b. casualize 1950 c. casualization 1920 The noun in (9c) is the result of two formation steps, starting from the adjective in (9a). One can interpret the appearance of the verb in (9b) as a backformation from (9c). However, one can also see it as the realization of an intermediate stage in the formation of (9c) from (9a). In that case, (9b) is less of a new word than if (9c) had not existed. The appearance of (9b) can be seen as the realization of a word implied by the derivation of (9c). Such an analysis is only possible if the verb is perceived as the result of suffixation. This option is not available for (7) and (8). In transplant, there The Suffix -ation in English 49 is no suffix and in deviate, the ending -ate cannot be analysed as a suffix attached to an attested base. In fact, the pattern in (9) occurs mainly in Class I and Class II. However, as Figure 7 shows, in these classes the verb is usually attested earlier than the noun, so that the number of actual cases is rather limited. In the discussion of backformation, we noted that it is a category that only appears in a historical account of the lexicon. It applies to the context where a speaker adds a word to their mental lexicon without hearing or reading it first. In the case of the V-N pairs we are looking at here, if the V is earlier, the N is the result of regular word formation, but if the N is earlier, the V is the result of backformation. Backformation involves the reanalysis of the N as a complex word. In the case of -ation, this usually means that the N was originally a borrowing from French or Latin. As illustrated also by several of the studies in ten Hacken and Panocová (2020), such a reanalysis is a necessary step in the emergence of a new word formation rule on the basis of another language. The distinction between diachronic and synchronic perspectives is important both in backformation and in the distinction between Class III and Class IV, but not in the same way. In the case of backformation, the significance of the phenomenon depends on the diachronic perspective. Only when we consider the situation of a speaker producing a new word without hearing or reading it first, is backformation distinguished from word formation. For this situation, first attestation dates provide valuable information, because they allow us to assess the likelihood that a speaker would have encountered a particular word before coming up with the one we are studying. In the case of the distinction between Class III and Class IV, this information is crucial. In general, the first attestation date is not a property of the word as a part of the language. Instead, it gives information about the likely input individual speakers have when they start using a word that is new to them. 5. Marchand’s Classes in the History of -ation As a final question, we will now consider how Marchand’s four classes of nouns in -ation, listed in Table 1, developed over the centuries. A crucial type of data here is the date of first attestation of nouns in -ation. We can take Figure 2 as a starting point, but, as we are interested in the individual classes, we should divide the columns. A problem in dividing the set of nouns in -ation according to Marchand’s classes is that there is a non-negligeable degree of ambiguity. The ambiguity between Class III and Class IV was discussed in section 4.1. This ambiguity can be expected because it is not possible to determine from the form of, for instance, devaluation whether the verb should be devalue or devaluate. However, it is in principle possible to construct a Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 50 verb in -ate for every noun in -ation, also for those ending in -ification and in -ization. In the case of nouns in -ification, it is clearly the preferred option to have a corresponding verb in -ify. In Figure 1, we represented these nouns as belonging to Class I. However, of the 240 nouns in this class, 29 (12%) have a corresponding verb in -ate. In two cases, listed with first attestation dates in (10), OED only gives a verb in -ate. (10) a. despecification 1872 despecificate 1873 b. nostrification 1885 nostrificate 1889 Despite the form of the nouns, the cases in (10) belong to Class III. For both pairs, the verb is slightly later than the noun, but the difference is so small that we cannot draw any definite conclusions from it. When we look at the other 27 cases, however, we note that in all but two cases, the verb in -ate has a later first attestation date than the noun in -ation. In many cases there is a significant difference. This suggests that these verbs are generally backformations. Most of the verbs in -ate are obsolete or rare, but there are also cases such as pontificate, which is much more frequent than the expected verb pontify. In the case of nouns in -ization, the situation is somewhat different, because -ize is a productive suffix. Although Marchand (1969: 300-301) treats -ify as a suffix, most of the nouns ending in -ification do not have a corresponding verb where -ify can be analysed as a reflection of a suffixation rule in English. Triples such as (9) are frequent for nouns in -ization, but not for nouns in -ification. This means that there is a stronger pressure to treat any noun in -ization as a Class II noun. For only ten such nouns (1.1%) OED gives a corresponding verb in -izate and in all but two cases, the verb in -izate is obsolete. In section 2, we already mentioned solmization, in which -ize is not a structural component. The other case is more interesting and involves the words in (11). (11) a. recognize 1388-9 b. recognition c1430 c. recognizate 1799 d. recognization 1560 The noun-verb pair (11a-b) is well-established and does not involve -ation. In Latin, it corresponds to recognoscere, an irregular verb of the third conjugation with the passive participle recognitus. OED gives (11b) as a borrowing from French and Latin.For the verb (11a), OED gives an etymology based on French reconnaître with an alignment on -ize to adapt it to English. The Suffix -ation in English 51 The early attestation date is misleading, because it refers to an obsolete meaning restricted to Scottish law. Other senses are attested from 1509 only. (11d) is the regular nominalization based on this verb. OED (2000- 2020 [2009]: recognization) gives it as semantically equivalent to (11b) and qualifies it as “Now rare (chiefly U.S.)”. The verb in (11c) is clearly a backformation based on (11d). OED labels it “rare”. This example shows that backformation is always possible, but the frequency of verbs in -ize makes its use in the case of nouns in -ization vanishingly rare. In view of the discussion in section 4, we argue that it would be inappropriate to divide the full set of -ation nouns into the four classes in Table 1. Instead, we consider each corresponding verb as yielding a pair that can be assigned to one of the classes. Nouns such as devaluation and recognization occur in two such pairs. In Figure 8, we represent the nouns by century and by class. Figure 8. First attestation dates of nouns in -ation sorted by Marchand’s classes When we consider Figure 8, it is obvious that Class III and Class IV were at the origin of the suffix -ation in English. Class III predominates and accounts for roughly twice as many pairs as Class IV. However, for both classes, the peak of their activity lies in the past. About half of the formations are from the 16 th and 17 th centuries, 53.4% for Class III and 49.3% for Class IV. This can be connected with Durkin’s (2014: 307-308) observation about the ornate writing style in this period. 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 Class I Class II Class III Class IV Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 52 The situation for Class I and Class II is quite different. Class I is not large, but it can be observed that more than half of the cases are from the 19 th and 20 th century (53.8%). For Class II, this effect is much stronger. In fact, 85.4% of the formations are from the last two centuries. The relative importance of Class II started growing in the 18 th century already. As Figure 8 shows, whereas all other classes show a sharp decline in that century, Class II has more cases in the 18 th than in the 17 th century. The different fate of the individual classes can also be seen when we consider the proportion of cases that have become obsolete among the overall cases. The development over time is visualized in Figure 9. Figure 9. Proportion of pairs of which the noun or the verb has become obsolete In Figure 9, three of the classes show a peak in the 17 th century. Of the large numbers of Class III and Class IV for this century, more than half of the pairs did not survive as a pair. This suggests that the frequent use of -ation in these classes was driven by a fashion that passed. Class II shows a different pattern. The rise in the 15 th century is caused by the appearance of the class. Before that, there were no pairs that could become obsolete. From the 15 th century, there is a regular and gradual drop. This is what we can expect if we assume a constant rate of obsolescence. Older pairs are more likely to become obsolete. We can summarize the history of -ation as follows. After a number of borrowings of nouns in -ation in the 13 th century, there were enough cases of such nouns with corresponding verbs for a reanalysis of the nouns as the result of a word formation rule in the 14 th century. Many of the verbs were based on the Latin passive participle, either as a borrowing with reanalysis or as a backformation on the basis of a noun in -ation. In the 16 th century, a fashion for an ornate style with synonyms came up, which greatly increased the need for new verbs and nouns with a Latinate appearance. This 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Class I Class II Class III Class IV The Suffix -ation in English 53 fashion favoured the spread of the -ation rule and peaked in the 17 th century. The change of fashion in the 18 th century hit the -ation rule harder than other word formation rules. The number of new formations dropped dramatically and many earlier formations fell out of use. When naming needs increased again in the 19 th century, it was especially to verbs in -ize and, to a lesser extent, -ify that the revival of the -ation rule applied. 6. Conclusion As set out in the introduction, this paper proposes an analysis of the English suffix -ation on the basis of data from OED (2000-2020). The use of a historical dictionary makes it possible to study the emergence and obsolescence of words as documented by lexicographers using corpora. Given the history of the compilation of OED, as described by Gilliver (2016), the data we collected are less homogeneous than one would have desired. Although at each stage, OED has been based on corpus use, work on the first edition drew on citation slips resulting from a reading programme rather than the modern computerized access to the corpus. Nevertheless, we decided to use all data provided in the current state of OED rather than restricting ourselves to the sections updated for the third edition, as Durkin (2014) does. Both approaches are viable, but each has its caveats. Whereas Durkin has to extrapolate from a smaller proportion of the lexicon, we have to make some allowance for the partial coverage of 20 th century data. In our study of -ation, we considered two fundamentally different questions, formulated in (12). (12) a. How is -ation represented in the mental lexicon of current speakers of English? b. What were the considerations of speakers of English when they formed a new noun in -ation? Whereas (12a) is essentially synchronic, (12b) has a diachronic perspective. In the study of these questions, we used different data sets. For (12a), we used the set of noun-verb pairs in which neither the noun nor the verb is marked as obsolete. In this set, there are 2927 nouns. For (12b), we included also those pairs in which the noun or the verb (or both) are now obsolete. For this set, we added 1029 nouns. In some cases, more than one verb is connected to a noun, so that the number of pairs we considered is higher. In our analysis, we used the four classes distinguished by Marchand (1969) and exemplified in Table 1 as a starting point. For (12b), we also used the dates of first attestation of nouns and verbs as recorded by OED. Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 54 The distribution of the set of 2927 nouns over the classes in Table 1 is recorded in Figure 1. In this diagram, there is a significant segment representing nouns that have both a corresponding verb in -ate (Class III) and one without any special marking (Class IV). As we argued in section 4.1, it is not legitimate to divide these nouns into those that are ‘actually’ in Class III and those that are ‘actually’ in Class IV, because this is not a property that can be assigned to nouns as abstractions. It is only the mental lexicon of individual speakers that may assign them to a single class, but in cases such as devaluation with the verbs devaluate and devalue, even individual speakers may know both verbs. Also the set of 2927 nouns we worked with is an abstraction. It is only in the mental lexicon of individual speakers that nouns and corresponding verbs may be realized. As shown in Figure 1, Class III is the largest, accounting for around 40% of the nouns, followed by Class II with 30%. Class I is the smallest, with just over 8%. In the discussion of (12b), we considered three more detailed questions. One question was the historical prominence of -ation over the centuries. For this question, we evaluated the number of newly attested nouns in -ation per century (Figure 2) and the proportion of these nouns as a percentage of all newly attested nouns (Figure 3). The peak in new -ation nouns in the 17 th century is visible both in absolute and in relative numbers, whereas the subsequent development of -ation follows the general rate of new nouns quite closely. A second question concerned the extent to which new nouns in -ation were motivated as deverbal formations or as borrowings. We only considered those nouns in -ation for which a corresponding verb existed at some point, so that if the noun is a borrowing the verb is a backformation. Of course, first attestation dates give only indirect evidence about the probability of deverbal formation, but Figure 6 shows that overall there is a preponderance of verbs appearing before the corresponding nouns. We found a marked difference between the classes in Table 1, with backformation much more frequent in Class III than in the other classes. The third question is about the development of the individual classes distinguished by Marchand (1969) and listed in Table 1. As depicted in Figure 8, Class III shows a quite spectacular rate of new formations in the 17 th century, which was never again attained afterwards. This may be explained by the fashion of doublets and triplets described by Durkin (2014). Class IV follows Class III in its development, but at a markedly lower general rate. As Figure 9 shows, for many 17 th century formations of these classes the noun or the verb is now obsolete. It is rather a different story for Class II, which emerges in the 18 th and peaks in the 19 th century. Given the partial coverage of the 20 th century in the current state of OED, there is no reason to assume that formations of this class have passed their peak. Class I is so small that the effects are more difficult to evaluate, but there is a clear peak in the 19 th century. Here, a corpus-based analysis of the developments in the 20 th century would be of particular interest. The Suffix -ation in English 55 As a final note, we would like to return briefly to the question of the formal variants of -ation. Bauer et al. (2013: 201) give no less than eight variants, including -ition, -tion, and -ion. As we explained in section 1, -ation includes the thematic vowel -aof the Latin first conjugation. For Latin, we gave examples of formations from other conjugation classes in (3). In (13) we give the English verbs and nouns corresponding these Latin examples. (13) a. define definition b. deduce deduction c. defend defense d. complete completion Obviously, English speakers link the nouns in (13) to the corresponding verbs. In the case of (13c), only speakers with etymological knowledge will see the connection to -ation, but for the others, it is clearly visible. However, all nouns and verbs were borrowed from Latin or French. The difference to pairs including -ation is that whereas for -ation, there is a word formation rule that leads to new pairs, for -ition in (13a) and -tion in (13b, d), the only use of the generalization is to connect independently borrowed nouns and verbs. The strong position of the first conjugation in Latin has thus led to a reanalysis of pairs with a noun in -ation to form an English word formation rule which has -ation as a suffix. As there are no conjugation classes marked by thematic vowels in English, the function of the -aas a thematic vowel was lost. There was therefore no reason to use -ition and -tion for nouns corresponding to a particular class of verbs. They were only used in borrowings. The large number of nouns in -ation increased the barrier to reanalysis of nouns such as definition to produce a rule for -ition. The pattern with -ition was less frequent and the rule would compete with the one for -ation. Bauer et al. (2013: 201) give many examples of -ition and -tion as attached to “bound bases”, e.g. diction. In our view, the bound base in diction does not exist in English, but only in Latin. In English, diction is a simple noun. English has a word formation rule marked by -ation. It cannot have been borrowed from Latin, because Latin does not have a corresponding word formation rule. In Latin, there is a suffix -ion, which attaches to the verb stem marked by -t-. The English rule emerged as a consequence of reanalysis. This reanalysis did not take into account the Latin structure of words, but assigned sense to the forms that had been borrowed. This resulted in a rule for -ation, leaving pairs such as the ones in (13) stranded. Word formation rules such as the suffixation with -ation have two functions. One is the formation of new words as additions to the language of the speech community, the other to assign new words a place in a speaker’s mental lexicon. In our study, we showed how both functions can be studied on the basis of the data from OED, provided they are interpreted properly. Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová 56 References Aronoff, Mark H. (1994). Morphology by Itself: Stems and Inflectional Classes. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press. Bauer, Laurie (2001). Morphological Productivity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bauer, Laurie, Rochelle Lieber & Ingo Plag (2013). The Oxford Reference Guide to English Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. BNC (2007). British National Corpus. XML edition, University of Oxford. [online] http: / / www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ [26 November 2021]. Brewer, Charlotte (2012). “‘Happy Copiousness’? OED’s Recording of Female Authors of the Eighteenth Century”. The Review of English Studies 63 (258). 86- 117. CHN (2013). Corpus Hedendaags Nederlands. Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicografie. [online] https: / / portal.clarin.inl.nl/ search/ page/ search [27 August 2021]. COCA (2008-2020). The Corpus of Contemporary American English. Mark Davies (Ed.). [online] http: / / corpus.byu.edu/ coca/ [26 November 2021]. Dokulil, Miloš (1982). “K otázce slovnědruhových převodů a přechodů, zvl. transpozice”. Slovo a slovesnost 43. 257-271. Durkin, Philip (2014). Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ten Hacken, Pius (2015). “Transposition and the Limits of Word Formation”. In: Laurie Bauer, Livia Körtvélyessy & Pavol Štekauer (Eds.). Semantics of Complex Words. Cham: Springer. 187-216. ten Hacken, Pius (2019). Word Formation in Parallel Architecture. Berlin: Springer. ten Hacken, Pius & Renáta Panocová (2011). “Individual and Social Aspects of Word Formation”. Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny 58. 283-300. ten Hacken, Pius & Renáta Panocová (Eds.) (2020). The Interaction of Borrowing and Word Formation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Gilliver, Peter (2016). The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kiparsky, Paul (1982). “Lexical Morphology and Phonology”. In: Linguistics in the Morning Calm: Selected Papers from SICOL 1981. Linguistic Society of Korea. Seoul: Hanshin. Vol. 1. 3-91. Marchand, Hans (1969). The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Wordformation: A Synchronic-Diachronic Approach. 2 nd edition, München: Beck. Marsden, Lloyd (2013). “Dating Middle English evidence in the OED”. OED blog, 8 March 2013. [online] https: / / public.oed.com/ blog/ dating-middle-english-evidence-in-the-oed/ [9 April 2020]. Mühleisen, Susanne (2010). Heterogeneity in Word-Formation Patterns: A corpusbased analysis of suffixation with -ee and its productivity in English. Amsterdam: Benjamins. OED (2000-2020). Oxford English Dictionary. Third edition, edited by John Simpson and Michael Proffitt. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [online] www.oed.com [26 November 2021]. Panocová, Renáta (2017). “Internationalisms with the Suffix -ácia and their Adaptation in Slovak”. In: Eleonora Litta & Marco Passarotti (Eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Resources and Tools for Derivational Morphology (DeriMo), 5-6 October 2017, Milano, Italy. Milano: EDUCatt. 61-72. The Suffix -ation in English 57 Štekauer, Pavol (2015). “Backformation”. In: Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen & Franz Rainer (Eds.). Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. 340-352. Thomas, Claire (2013). Characterizing the polysemy of French and English deverbal nominalization suffixes. PhD thesis, Swansea University. Uriagereka, Juan (1998). Rhyme and Reason: An Introduction to Minimalist Syntax. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press. Pius ten Hacken Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck Renáta Panocová Pavol Jozef Šafárik University Košice The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia as a Singer-Songwriter and a Literary Figure Janko Trupej For the majority of his long career, Leonard Cohen may have been somewhat underappreciated in the United States of America, but he has achieved considerable renown and commercial success in other parts of the world, for instance in his native Canada and in many European countries. The present paper endeavours to establish the extent to which the latter is also true for Cohen’s status in Slovenia - a small country in Central Europe, which until 1991 formed part of socialist Yugoslavia. After an overview of the artist’s reception in North America and Europe, which provides a frame of reference, the perception of Cohen among Slovenians is comprehensively addressed by means of analysing more than one thousand articles in serial publications and online media about him in Slovenia over half a century, i.e. from 1970 to 2020. Cohen’s reputation as a man of letters is discussed first, followed by an analysis of the reception of his work as a recording artist as well as the responses to his live performances - especially to the two concerts he gave in Slovenia towards the end of his life. Lastly, some of the more notable reactions to Cohen’s death in Slovenian media are discussed. 1. Introduction Leonard Cohen began his artistic journey as a poet and novelist and later rose to prominence as a well-respected singer-songwriter, while the series of concert tours he undertook towards the end of his life helped to transform him “from cult favorite to cross-generational icon” (A.G. 2017). Unlike most popular recording artists, he never quite looked the part, i.e. did not dress in au courant outfits . He did not release his first album until he was rather old for someone starting out in the music business and was AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunther Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0003 Janko Trupej 60 widely regarded as not having a particularly good singing voice. Furthermore, he was not very prolific. 1 Throughout his career, he remained a somewhat enigmatic figure; for instance, Ira B. Nadel (1996: 1) described Cohen as “a well-tailored bohemian, an infamous lover who lives alone, a singer whose voice resides in the basement of song, a Jew who practices Zen” (cf. Holt 2014: X). To the general public, Cohen is perhaps best-known for his melancholic songs (Williams [1975] 2014: 86; Magnusson 2014: 15; Gilmore 2016; cf. Graf 2000: 189, 191) and has been dubbed the ‘Doyen of Doom’, ‘Grocer of Despair’, ‘High Priest of Hopelessness’, ‘Magical Master of Monotony’, ‘Spin Doctor of the Apocalypse’, ‘Grand Master of Melancholia’, ‘High Priest of Pathos’, ‘Poet Laureate of Pessimism’, etc. (Nadel 1996: 1; de Young 2000: 127; Graf 2000: 188; Magnusson 2014: 15). Over the years, his work has attracted considerable interest among academics, but as Stephen Scobie (2000: 3) remarked, his reputation has had some ups and downs. However, especially after his triumphant return to the public eye in 2008, a lot of appreciation was shown to his music and his literary opus both in the mainstream media and in scholarly circles. This is also true for some of the countries that once formed Yugoslavia, for instance Croatia (see Sindičić Sabljo & Sapun Kurtin 2019), Serbia (see Lopičić & Ignjatović 2019) and Slovenia (see Mohar & Gadpaille 2019). The latter paper focuses on Cohen’s reception as a man of letters, and furthermore discusses select articles about the albums he released towards the end of his life, as well as several reactions to Cohen’s death. The present paper sets out to comprehensively address Cohen’s Slovenian reception over half a century. In order to have a frame of reference, an overview of Cohen’s reception in North America and Europe will be presented, since that was where he had the greatest commercial success as a writer and a recording artist and where he toured most often. In the empirical part, the perception of Cohen’s literary works will be addressed first, followed by the reception of his output as a recording artist, as well as his reputation as a live performer. Lastly, reactions to his death will be examined. The analysis encompassed more than one thousand print and online pieces of writing in which Cohen is discussed or mentioned - the paper will focus on those in which not merely facts about Cohen are related, but value judgements about him and his body of work are expressed. 2. Cohen’s Reception in North America and Europe Leonard Norman Cohen was born in 1934 into a well-to-do Jewish family in a suburb of Montreal and developed an interest in poetry at a young age; 1 Cohen released only 14 studio albums from 1967 to 2016, while during the same period, Bob Dylan released 30 albums, and Neil Young was even more prolific. The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 61 he published his first collection of poems titled Let Us Compare Mythologies in 1956, and in the ensuing ten years - a large portion of which he spent on the Greek island of Hydra - would go on to publish three more poetry collections (The Spice-Box of Earth, Flowers for Hitler and Parasites of Heaven) and two novels (The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers), becoming a prominent literary figure in Canada (see Simmons 2012: 55-56, 99- 100, 110-111, 115-120, 134-136, 139; Gilmore 2016). 2 He would continue to write for the rest of his life and published several more books of poetry, 3 but eventually decided to turn to songwriting because - as he stated on several occasions - by the time he was in his early thirties, he was unable to earn a living as a littérateur (qtd. in Hafferkamp [1971] 2014: 20-21; Brown [1976] 2014: 102; Gilmore 2016). Cohen signed with Columbia Records and in 1967 he released his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen, which was met with mixed reviews and modest commercial success (see Simmons 2012: 186). 4 He followed it up by the studio albums Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974); these also received mixed reviews (see Simmons 2012: 207, 236, 270) and were not very commercially successful in the United States. 5 However, Cohen soon became a star in Europe - his records sold well there, and he toured across Europe three times in the seven years after releasing his first album, while not undertaking a major tour in the United States until the mid-1970s (Williams [1975] 2014: 82-83; see also ibid. 89-90; Brown [1976] 2014: 98-99; Simmons 2012: 221, 271-274; Greene 2017). The album Death of a Ladies’ Man (1977), produced by famed ‘wall-ofsound’ producer Phil Spector, and the collection of poems Death of a Lady’s Man (1978) were not received particularly well by either critics or fans (de Young 2000: 125, see also Simmons 2012: 293-294, Burger 2014: XVII, Gilmore 2016). The 1979 album Recent Songs was somewhat of a return to form (Wilentz 2012: 227) and fared better critically, although not commercially (see Simmons 2012: 305). Cohen continued to be popular in many European countries (Holden 1985: 20; Arjatsalo 2000: 147; Simmons 2012: 468), but his work was largely neglected in North America for most of the 1980s; Columbia initially even refused to release his 1984 album Various 2 Beautiful Losers, arguably his most important literary work, received a fair share of negative reviews upon publication because of its alleged obscenity (Simmons 2012: 134-136; Gilmore 2016), but by the mid-1970s, it was reportedly already being taught in some modern literature courses (Williams [1975] 2014: 82). 3 The Energy of Slaves (1972), Death of a Lady’s Man (1978), Book of Mercy (1984), Book of Longing (2006), The Flame (2018). 4 Decades later, Anthony DeCurtis (2007: 11) went as far as to claim that “[i]f Leonard Cohen had only recorded this extraordinary debut album and then disappeared, his stature as one of the most gifted songwriters of our time would still be secure” and referred to the record as “an extension of his work as a poet” (ibid.: 12). 5 Because of disappointing sales of Songs of Love and Hate, Cohen’s label reportedly even considered dropping him (Greene 2017). Janko Trupej 62 Positions in the United States (Arjatsalo 2000: 147; Simmons 2012: 323; Burger 2014: XVII; Remnick 2016) - a decision later termed an ‘astonishing misjudgement’ in the authorized monograph about the history of the company (Wilentz 2012: 227). 6 Cohen’s record label put more effort into promoting I’m Your Man, and with this album and the accompanying tour in 1988, the artist achieved a sort of commercial renaissance (Simmons 2012: 341-348; Wilentz 2012: 227). Despite also achieving considerable success with his 1992 album The Future (Simmons 2012: 370; Gilmore 2016) and his 1993 tour (see Graf 2000: 188, 194; Simmons 2012: 372-374), Cohen subsequently decided to retreat to a Buddhist monastery, where he lived for more than five years (Gilmore 2016; Remnick 2016). He returned to music at the turn of the millennium, releasing the albums Ten New Songs (2001) and Dear Heather (2004), which received quite good reviews and were a commercial success in some countries (Simmons 2012: 412, 422). Soon after the latter record came out, Cohen found out that his manager had embezzled the majority of his savings (Gilmore 2016); because of that, he was forced to return to the stage - despite having suffered from stage fright for most of his career (Remnick 2016; see also A.G. 2017). Cohen’s touring comeback was extremely commercially successful and universally acclaimed - even in parts of the world where he had been underappreciated for most of his career (Simmons 2012: 459-474, 477-482; see also Remnick 2016). 7 For instance, Steve Venright (2014: 139) expressed his admiration in the following words: This tour may have been prompted by financial concerns but it’s clearly about more than money. It’s even about more than music. It’s about Art and Life, Truth and Beauty, the Sacred and the Profane, and it’s about communing once 6 Various Positions did receive some acclaim in the United States even initially, after it was eventually released there by a smaller label. In The New York Times, for instance, Stephen Holden (1985: 20) stated that “the new album’s most ambitious songs have the power of Old Testament fables secularized as troubadour song-poetry”. 7 Rolling Stone - arguably the most influential music magazine in the United States - included the series of concerts Cohen undertook from 2008 to 2013 on its list of the greatest tours/ concerts of all time (A.G. 2017). However, this magazine is a prime example of how Cohen has traditionally been somewhat neglected in the USA. For instance - despite Cohen having recorded several bona fide classics - when in 2003 Rolling Stone compiled a list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, none of his records was included; when the list was revised in 2012 and 2020, each version included only one Cohen album, i.e. Songs of Love and Hate and Songs of Leonard Cohen, respectively. For comparison: Bob Dylan had 11 albums on both the 2003 and 2012 list and 8 on the 2020 list, while Neil Young was featured 6 times on both the 2003 and 2012 list and 7 times on the 2020 list (N.N. 2020). The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 63 again with the man who has evoked these in song with tremendous honesty, grace and spirit for over four decades. 8 Cohen was widely considered to be at the height of his artistic powers even in his late 70s and early 80s (Burger 2014: XV; Gilmore 2016, Sheffield 2016); towards the end of his life, completing as much of his work as possible became his raison d’être (Remnick 2016). Cohen, who had enjoyed only modest commercial success for most of his career but received a fair share of critical acclaim, 9 found both critical and commercial success with the last three studio albums released during his lifetime; Old Ideas would turn out to be the most commercially successful record of his career (Wilentz 2012: 316), while You Want it Darker was even proclaimed an instant classic (Kreps 2016; Sheffield 2016). Cohen’s death in 2016 resonated across the globe, and in the years since, his music has continued to play a prominent role in the cultural landscape of many countries - even the United States (see Greene 2020). 3. Cohen’s Reception in Slovenia 3.1. Man of Letters The first recorded reference to Cohen as a literary figure was made in the music magazine Glasbena mladina: Stane Sušnik (1970: 12) described him as a poet who had also released two excellent albums, and Tomaž Kralj (1971a: 12-13) also referred to his literary works. However, for decades, Cohen’s literary endeavours did not receive much attention; a noteworthy 8 Leon Wieseltier (2010: 5) made a similarly positive remark: “The shows were unforgettable. [...] They were elegant, witty, warm, dark, and light. The love with which Cohen was met by his audiences was oceanic.” 9 As early as in the mid-1970s, Cohen was described as “a writer who has touched a great many people in a way that few others have” (Nelson 1975) and referred to as an ‘institution’ (Brown [1976] 2014: 99). In the 1980s, he was cited as an influence by several younger artists (see Holden 1985: 20; DeCurtis 1993; Sheffield 2016), and in the 1990s, he was, for instance, referred to as “one of the most highly regarded, if not commercially successful, singer-songwriters in popular music” (DeCurtis 1993). At the turn of the century, Christof Graf (2000: 191) stated the following: “In any case, there is no longer any reason to fight about Cohen’s work either as a writer or a musician. You can defy him, analyse him, disassemble him as a myth. Yet millions of people whom he has reached throughout the years with poems and songs are still touched.” Towards the end of Cohen’s life, Sean Wilentz (2012: 269) stated that “[n]o cotemporary musical artist, Dylan included, made richer use of religious, and especially Jewish, imagery to explore contemporary tangles of love, infidelity, depression, and endurance”; Jason Holt (2014: X) claimed that Cohen’s songs could be regarded as both popular music and poetry, while Timothy P. Jackson (2014: 217) went as far as asserting that Cohen was “the closest thing we have today to a Biblical prophet”. Janko Trupej 64 exception from the 1980s is an article in the magazine Problemi, where Andrej Blatnik (1986: 141) describes Beautiful Losers as a poetically and imaginatively written book, as well as a challenging read even for readers of modernist literature. Two years later, Delo (N.N. 1988: 10), the most widely read Slovenian daily newspaper, announced that some of Cohen’s poems from the collection The Energy of Slaves would be read on the radio; this indicates that he had admirers among the Slovenian literati. It took until 1996, when Mladinska knjiga published Jure Potokar’s translation of Beautiful Losers, for the first of Cohen’s full-length literary works to become available in Slovenian. In a short article in Delo (I.B. 1996: 8), it is described as an experimental novel with rich wordplay and witty irony, as well as a literary work proving that its author is first and foremost a poet. In the same newspaper, Jurij Hudolin (1997: 49) praises several aspects of the narrative and laments that it took so long for this novel to be translated into Slovenian. In the literary magazine Literatura, Blatnik (1997: 205) remarks that Cohen is regarded as one of the more interesting writers in modern literature and that Beautiful Losers is one of the best modern Canadian novels; furthermore, the reviewer claims that this was one of the literary works that helped to establish meta-fictional narrative strategies. A further appreciative review appeared in the magazine Razgledi (Resinovič 1997: 30), where the following is stated: Cohen created a technical masterpiece, ennobled with rich language and metaphors, literary innovations and eroticism. [...] Due to the daring homoand heterosexual eroticism and the explicit, vulgar language (according to conservative standards), the novel was initially met with disapproval from many critics - they proclaimed it pornographic. 10 When Potokar’s translation was re-published in the new millennium, its publisher claimed that the novel remained one of the most exciting and important books of the 20 th century (Modrijan 2009). On the publishing house’s website, Cohen was described as both one of the most respected popular recording artists and one of the most important Canadian literary figures, whose novel Beautiful Losers is among the very pinnacles of both Canadian and world postmodernist literature (Modrijan: n.d.). In the regional weekly Novi tednik, Janja Intihar (2015: 34), who describes the novel as a demanding read because of its rich symbolism, mentions critics’ negative reaction to it because of its sexual theme, but she interprets the text as a condemnation of the constant violations committed by economic and cultural imperialists across the world. In an article published in the daily Večer discussing the themes of some of Cohen’s literary works, Melita Forstnerič Hajnšek (2016) proclaims Beautiful Losers to be the most important among them, and lauds Cohen as one of the most important figures 10 All quotations originally in Slovenian were translated by the author. The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 65 on the Canadian literary scene. On SIGIC, Matej Kranjc (2016c) praises this literary work as not merely one of the greatest Canadian novels but one of the greatest modern novels, while on the website Nova muska, the same writer (2016b) claims that Beautiful Losers made Cohen into one of the most prominent modern prose writers. In a later article, published on Kulturni medijski center Slovenija, Kranjc (2018) states that in Canada and North America, Beautiful Losers shook up the perception of what a novel could be, as well as that it is one of the more groundbreaking novels ever written; he even goes so far as to assert that it would have been deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Modrijan published Kranjc’s translation of The Favorite Game in 2008. In the widely-read daily Dnevnik, Robi Šabec (2008) describes it as fragmented, postmodernist and lyrical, and remarks that through the theme of eroticism, Cohen touches upon religion and social status. Discussing the novel in Slamnik, Tatjana Kokalj (2008: 14) mentions the themes of black humour, eroticism, mysticism and religious meditation, proclaiming the text “a beautiful, somewhat melancholic, but lyrical novel”. In the literary magazine Bukla (Ogrizek 2008), the novel is described as a melancholic, a pessimistic work, and a story of youthful distress; its purified, melodic language is also praised. The reviewer goes on to state that both this novel and Beautiful Losers are characterized by bold eroticism, imbued with religious meditation, mysticism and (black) humour, as well as an original fragmentary writing style, which in Beautiful Losers approaches postmodernism. Both novels are furthermore characterized by a pronounced social tone that severely comments on the contemporary Canadian socio-political reality, including the Jewish community, which is enveloped in ceremonial. A few years after its publication, Adela Vuković (2010) reviewed The Favorite Game on Žurnal24, describing it as a bildungsroman which impresses readers with “the beauty of the word”. In 2008, Modrijan also published Potokar’s translation of Book of Mercy. In an interview, the translator (2008) stated that he was not thrilled with most of Cohen’s poetry, but that Book of Mercy was an exception and that he very much enjoyed translating it; Potokar also revealed that he had translated the collection more than a decade ago, but that for a long time he could not find a publisher for it, despite having offered it to four or five publishing houses. In the Catholic weekly Novi glas, Peter Kuhar (2008: 8) describes this collection as ‘high-quality literature’, and states that although Cohen is primarily known as a singer, many people value his literary output more. In a lengthy review published in the magazine Apokalipsa, Mare Cestnik (2008: 410) is rather critical of Book of Mercy, and in the concluding remarks even reproaches Cohen for allegedly implying that ‘mercy’ is a privilege reserved for the orthodox. According to an article by Janko Trupej 66 Mojca Pišek (2008) in Dnevnik, this is Cohen’s most personal and unusual book, because it is neither dramatic nor lyrical, but instead dominated by mystical and religious themes. In a review published in the regional weekly Štajerski tednik, Vladimir Kajzovar (2009: 10) - who erroneously remarks that it was with this collection that Cohen established himself as a great poet - states that this is one of the books which helps us to grasp the ultimate truth. On Siol, Danaja Vegelj (2010) describes Book of Mercy as “a book of gentle spiritual poetry, which is mature enough and at the same time provocative enough”. Kranjc’s translation of Book of Longing was also published in 2008. 11 Cohen is lauded as one of the most respected personalities in the history of music and an excellent poet on the website of its publisher, Miš založba (n.d.). The interdisciplinarity of this poetry collection is also praised on the publishing house’s website, and it is stated that this work reaffirms Cohen as an artist who thinks outside of the box (Miš založba 2008). In a review of the collection in Bukla, Tina Škrajnar (2008) states the following: “With Cohen there is an ever-present melancholy and sense of doubt, but it seems that he is increasingly successful in coping with them and also knows how to enjoy the positive aspects of life, which he showcases in his poems.” Cohen’s literary work continued to be discussed sporadically in the second decade of the new millennium. In Dnevnik, Katja Utroša (2010) states that by the early 1960s, Cohen had established himself as one of the more influential Canadian poets of the younger generation, while an anonymous writer on RockOnNet (N.N. 2010c) goes as far as putting Cohen’s poetry on the level of that of Emily Dickinson. An article in Štajerski tednik (Bedrač 2011: 27) discusses the themes that Cohen writes about, focusing more on his literary work, but remarking that the lines between his prose, poetry and songs are fluid. In Delo, Jožica Grgič (2012: 19) reports on Cohen’s increasing reputation as a man of letters, i.e. that he has received awards for his œuvre littéraire and that a selection of his poems is being published by Random House in a series devoted to classic authors. In Večer (N.N. 2016e), it is stated that Cohen probably would have deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature just as much as Bob Dylan, while in an interview published in the same newspaper, Kranjc (2016d) made the following comparison between the two artists: Cohen is a somewhat more classical poet than Dylan, less inter-textual, more intimate, introverted, while Dylan is more extroverted, referring to himself as a song and dance man. [...] Dylan and Cohen stood at the beginning of new currents in culture and society: Dylan as one of the initiators of protest poetry at first, which he later managed to transcend by inserting surrealist, symbolic and 11 Kranjc had previously translated a selection of Cohen’s poems entitled Stolp pesmi [Tower of Song], which was published by KUD France Prešeren but remained largely critically unnoticed; according to the COBISS database, a review of it was published in Mentor, but the article is not to be found in the issue indicated. The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 67 other elements, and Cohen with his intimism at the end of the first wave of psychedelia, when the scene was reverting to minimalism. Kranjc (2018) also wrote a lengthy review of Cohen’s posthumously published The Flame (which to date has not been translated into Slovenian), concluding that this poetry collection is worthy of being read many times and of being contemplated. 3.2. Singer-Songwriter Cohen’s music did not receive attention in the Slovenian press until the 1970s, and even then the only notable articles about it were published in the music magazine Glasbena mladina, which suggests that at the time Cohen enjoyed no more than a cult following. In a portrait, Kralj (1971a: 12- 13) likens Cohen’s life to that of troubadours in the Middle Ages and states that his lyrics are on the same level as those of The Beatles, Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as that Cohen’s songs ‘Suzanne’ and ‘Sisters of Mercy’ are more reminiscent of poetry than rock lyrics. The author of the article even claims that Cohen’s songs are characterized by a sort of Socratic wisdom. In the second part of the portrait, Kralj (1971b: 11) gives a very positive review of the recently released Songs of Love and Hate, asserts that Cohen’s songs are never one-dimensional and that some writers would need to write a thousand-page novel to express as many human destinies as Cohen does in three minutes. In yet another extremely positive article in the same music magazine, Kralj (1972: 12-13) claims that Songs of Love and Hate is a perfect record in terms of both message and music; he even proclaims the eight songs on the album to be worth as much as eight books of poetry or as many full-length albums. A markedly different sentiment about one of Cohen’s albums is expressed in Glasbena mladina years later: Miloš Bašin (1978: 19) gives a none too favourable review of Death of a Ladies’ Man, and criticizes Spector’s overproduction in particular. Similarly to what is true for Cohen’s reception in the United States, the late 1970s marked the beginning of a period during which his music was largely neglected by the Slovenian media - no significant contemporary writing about his albums Recent Songs, Various Positions or even the quite successful and critically acclaimed I’m Your Man could be found in Slovenian serial publications. Since Cohen spent a large part of the 1990s in a Zen monastery (releasing only one studio album during that decade), it is not surprising that his music did not receive much attention during that period either. However, The Future was reviewed in Delo; Zdenko Matoz (1993: 8) remarks that this album is hard to find in Slovenia, since it is flying off the shelves. The reviewer asserts that in this follow-up to the excellent I’m Your Man, Cohen - whom Matoz hails as one of the best songwriters in modern music - shows himself as textually and musically mature, and that he looks ahead Janko Trupej 68 without forgetting his past. In an article also published in Delo, prominent poet Uroš Zupan (1999: 7) states that Cohen is first and foremost a poet and writer, who managed to reach a wider audience by singing the words that he wrote; the author of the article goes as far as likening Cohen to a biblical prophet. Cohen received considerable attention early in the new millennium, i.e. from the release of Ten New Songs onwards. A reviewer in Slovenske novice (N.N. 2001: 21) remarks that on this album, Cohen’s voice is still raspy and his lyrics still deep, while in Delo, Jane Weber (2001: 8) similarly states that with advancing years, Cohen’s voice is becoming even deeper and more charming, and that throughout his career, he has been setting the standard for the quality of lyrics in popular music. The reviewer further asserts that it was worth waiting nine years for these masterful new songs and that the album was perfect in its simplicity. In Vikend magazin, Terens Štader (2001: 59) poetically describes Ten New Songs as ‘time-stopping music of tranquillity’ that seems to exist in a parallel dimension. This reviewer hails Cohen’s vocals as ‘monumental’, remarks that ever since he released his first album, the artist has been aware of the weight of words, and claims that - apart from the disastrous Death of a Ladies’ Man - all of Cohen’s albums put more emphasis on lyrics than on production. In Mladina, Max Modic (2001) praises Cohen’s voice on Ten New Songs, but states that album is not his best work as far as the arrangements and the quality of lyrics are concerned; he claims that the record is Cohen’s most monotonous album. Miha Mazzini (2003: 13) begins his review in Nedelo by remarking that Cohen set high standards for the quality of lyrics in pop music but is critical of both the musical arrangements and Cohen’s monotonous singing on the new album - he proclaims it the singer-songwriter’s second terrible record after Death of a Ladies’ Man. This reviewer goes as far as proclaiming the album so boring that he could not even pay attention to the words, but that his thoughts simply kept drifting away. In a review of the collection The Essential Leonard Cohen, also published in Nedelo, Mazzini (2001: 27) reiterates his opinion about the only two bad albums that Cohen ever released but is generally full of praise for Cohen’s body of work, stating that the artist knew how to capture the zeitgeist of a certain era in his songs, and even lauding him as arguably the only poet among the songwriters. In the same newspaper, Mazzini (2005: 27) also reviewed Dear Heather, proclaiming it a fine album and better than Ten New Songs, but remarking that it probably would not gain Cohen any new fans, which - according to the reviewer - he did not really need, since several of his great songs, for instance “Hallelujah”, had been covered by other artists and heard by many people who were not even aware of Cohen’s existence. Mazzini also remarks that he measures the lyrics of other supposedly great lyricists against Cohen’s lyrics. In a review in Slovenske novice (N.N. 2004: 21), it is stated that the new record is not quite on the level of the ‘groundbreaking’ I’m The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 69 Your Man, but that Cohen’s voice sounds raspy and charming. In Mladina, Modic (2004) remarks that while Ten New Songs was reminiscent of chamber music and made it seem that Cohen would prefer to simply disappear, the new album was melodic and incredibly rich despite its musical minimalism. In a review published on Rock obrobje, Janez Golič (2004) is highly critical of the album’s musical arrangements, but states that Cohen’s lyrics and voice are still impressive, as well as that he seems more at peace with himself. In Delo, Gregor Bauman (2004: 10) states that Dear Heather feels as if it could be the last act of Cohen’s artistic career, while describing the record’s sound as “at times ascetically regressive” and the singing as monotonous. The reviewer further remarks that although the record has a specific charm, it will probably take time for its messages to be fully appreciated. Not much significant writing on Cohen was published from the release of Dear Heather until the announcement of his touring comeback - an exception is a review of the film Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man on Diva.si (iTIVI 2007), stating that the only other artists of similar creative stature are Dylan and, arguably, Paul Simon. However, since 2008 Cohen has often been discussed in both print and online media; in one of the earliest noteworthy articles, published on lifeSTYLEenaA (N.N. 2008), he is characterized as follows: Leonard Cohen, one of the most well-known and respected personalities in contemporary popular music, emerged on the music scene at the same time as rock, although he never had much in common with it; his songs are closer to chanson than rock, the lyrics are always more important than everything else and are performed in a unique way. In Štajerski tednik (Kajzovar 2009: 10), Cohen is described as one of the most mystical and fascinating musicians of all time, one whose songs are supposedly as powerful as the poetry found in the Bible, the Torah or the Tibetan Book of the Dead, while on Siol (M.P. 2009), he is lauded with the following words: He is an incorrigible protester, a ‘partisan’, an astute observer of social and political events, a prophet, a visionary and a unique explorer of the human soul. And above all, he is a poet who is much more similar to literary poets than to songwriters in popular music in terms of his sophistication and the complexity of his messages. In 2010, the year of Cohen’s first ever concert in Slovenia, various media outlets heaped high praise upon him. For instance, in Primorski dnevnik (N.N. 2010a: 26) and Dnevnik (STA 2010), Cohen is referred to as one of the most influential musicians of all time, in Slovenske novice (S.N. 2010) as one of the most remarkable artists ever, and in Delo (Matoz 2010b) as a Janko Trupej 70 musician with ‘biblical gravitas’. In Štajerski tednik (Bezjak 2010: 19), Cohen is described as “a walking cultural institution” who has been creating influential music and poetry for years, while on RockOnNet (N.N. 2010c), he is lauded as one of the greatest modern artists and one that transcends genres; his lyrics are described as a combination of Dylan’s and Georges Moustaki’s lyrics. On Seniorji.info, Manca Košir (2010) states that Cohen is “one of the beacons of hope, […] upstanding, vulnerable, fragile, but so very beautiful in his human grace”. On 24ur.com, Boštjan Tušek (2010) describes Cohen as a songwriter extraordinaire with a rich vocabulary, but repeats some factual misinformation about him, including that he always had ‘hordes’ of fans and was always held in high regard by critics. Old Ideas, Cohen’s first studio album in eight years, received numerous reviews. In Delo (Grgič 2012: 19), it is stated that it is an excellent album and if it turns out to be Cohen’s swan song, he could not have taken his farewell from recorded music in a better way. Another review in the same daily (Jč. K. 2012: 19) describes it as an album “reflecting on love, death, suffering and forgiveness” and further states that because of Cohen’s eventful life, his songs are imbued with a certain integrity. In Nedelo (Matoz 2012: 37), it is remarked that Cohen is getting better with age and has delivered another album of the highest quality - perhaps one of his best ever. In Vikend magazin (Milosavljević 2012: 14), Old Ideas is described as fresh-sounding, introspective, and vital and as an album that gets better with every listen, while on Rockline (N.N. 2012), the album is deemed Cohen’s most spiritually mature work, which focuses on the virtues of compassion and honesty. In Mladina, Veljko Njegovan (2012) claims that alongside Dylan, Cohen defined the importance of lyrics in modern popular music and substantially influenced the artistic spirit of the 20 th century. The reviewer further states that Old Ideas does not bring anything new to the table but remarks that the subject matter of the lyrics is timeless. A review in Pogledi (Potokar 2012: 6) asserts that Cohen always maintained his personal or professional integrity and that the simple arrangements of the new album work well with the complex lyrics, as has been the case with Cohen for over 40 years. In Novi Glas, Jernej Šček (2012: 8) refers to Cohen as a giant of American [sic] music, but in the same breath claims that he has not released a good album since the 1960s and particularly criticizes his recordings from the 1980s; however, in the continuation of the article, the reviewer praises Patrick Leonard’s production on the new album and the diversity of the songs, and concludes by stating the following: “The atmosphere of Old Ideas is one of reverie and contemplation, it is almost angelic, but not idyllic. Leonard Cohen invites us to ponder human existence, its bright and dark moments, and I cannot resist him.” Reviewing the album on MMC, Dušan Jesih (2012) states that “it seldom happens that in such a condensed form we encounter so many emotions, exceptional personal testimonies, deep insights and self-ironic confessions, in which The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 71 depression holds out its hand to love, death to the joy of life, desire to disappointment, and God to the Devil”. Popular Problems, which would prove to be the penultimate studio album released during Cohen’s lifetime, also received attention but was not reviewed nearly as often as its predecessor. In Mladina (Njegovan 2014), the new album’s quality is compared to that of I’m Your Man and The Future, and it is stated that although the lyrics are at times somewhat predictable, Cohen has once again delivered a masterpiece. On Koridor (J.P. 2014), a claim is made that despite Cohen always sticking to the same formula, his newer music is neither old fashioned nor passé. On Nova muska, Kranjc (2014b) notes that Popular Problems is not as coherent as its predecessor and contains filler songs, but that certain songs are an important addition to Cohen’s canon. In a favourable review published on the website of Radio Center (N.N. 2014), an anonymous author asserts that Cohen has created a work of art worthy of an artist of his calibre and that his voice has never sounded quite like this. As a testament to Cohen’s popularity, even the Slovenian translation of Sylvie Simmons’ definitive biography entitled I’m Your Man was reviewed several times. In a review published in Slovenske novice (Sarvan 2014: 13), its subject is described in the following terms: “Leonard Cohen is a poet, a writer and a musician, but first and foremost an extraordinary human being, who has the ability to touch people with his life and work.” In Slamnik (Dolinšek 2015: 23), Cohen is referred to as one of the most influential and important musicians of the last 50 years and a creative genius. In Delo, Peter Rak (2015: 18) claims that unlike what is true for many other artists of Cohen’s generation, his music never got repetitive; the reviewer even goes as far as asserting that each of the artist’s albums is equal to the previous one or even better. He concludes by claiming that “Cohen is at the same time sufficiently subjective and universal, mystical and concrete, sacred and vulgar that almost anyone can identify with him”. In a further review of the biography in Delo, Grgič (2015: 13) asserts that not many artists are as respected as Cohen and that despite his advanced age, he is full of creative vigour; in the continuation of the article, she remarks that more than any popular recording artist, Cohen resembles a preacher who delivers his pensées as if they were prayers. In Večer, Bojan Tomažič (2016) wrote the following about Cohen a few weeks before the album You Want it Darker was released: He is confessional and full of life’s wisdom, his music is often described as predominantly soothing, melancholic, sensual and atmospheric. The lyrics are preachy, but always do one some good, even when one is not in the mood for teachings. [...] The fact of the matter is that he cannot live without expressing his thoughts and feelings. And so it will remain until the end. Until the end? ! After all, his songs are timeless. Janko Trupej 72 The reviews of the album were overwhelmingly positive. On Planet (N.H./ U.F./ STA 2016), a claim is made that You Want It Darker would go down in history because of its quality. In Vestnik (T.K. 2016), it is stated that the album is a masterpiece, although according to the reviewer, it is too vital to feel quite like a farewell album. A review on the website of Radio Terminal (N.N. 2016b) states that Cohen is a musical institution, who is still able to explore, evolve and even surprise his audience. An article published in Delo (Grgič 2016a: 19) a few days before Cohen’s death focuses on the artist’s work in the new millennium and relates the background of recording his latest album - it is remarked that if it indeed turns out to be his swan song, it could hardly be more majestic. In Mladina (Njegovan 2016), Cohen is hailed as the greatest living singer-songwriter alongside Dylan, and it is stated that on You Want It Darker, he contemplates life and death, and that one last time he confronts God, the important people in his life and himself. On Nova muska, Kranjc (2016a) claims that the new album represents the pinnacle of Cohen’s opus and is the ultimate ‘farewell’ album, perhaps comparable only to Dylan’s masterpiece Time out of Mind. One of the few slightly critical opinions is expressed in Dnevnik (Bauman 2016): You Want it Darker is an album that is not imbued with an attitude towards life, but with an attitude towards death. Cohen does not significantly differentiate between them. He interprets both the same way, with similar metaphors, only with the knowledge of someone who may not wake up the next morning. Approximately since the album Dear Heather (2004) or even the song “Tower of Song” (1988) he has been telling us that aging is not for wimps, but this time he is more conciliatory - at times perhaps even too much. This is the only real reproach against this elegant album: excessive humility, which is unbecoming to him with regard to the afterlife. Why? Simply because Leonard is bigger than life, bigger than all the religions he combined into his universal prayer book of timelessness and dignity. It seems that Cohen’s posthumous album Thanks for the Dance was perceived merely as an artistic afterthought by the Slovenian media. The only noteworthy review of it was published on Kulturni medijski center Slovenija by Kranjc (2019), who states that perhaps too many people were involved in making the record, but that in spite of this, the result is not disappointing: the artist’s voice is in the foreground, which proves that Cohen retained his artistic powers until the end. The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 73 3.3. Live Performer Until 2008, Cohen had only released three live albums and had never performed in Slovenia, while from his triumphant return to the stage until his death, he released five live albums and appeared twice in concert in Slovenia. Therefore, it is of no surprise that the only notable article focusing on Cohen as a live performer before his touring comeback is a review of Cohen Live in Delo, in which Rok Vevar (1994: 7) recommends the album to everyone who likes good poetry and sophisticated music, and describes Cohen as first and foremost a poet, who uses music as one of the ways to present his poetry to audiences. Cohen’s first concert in Ljubljana was announced on several news outlets; for instance, on RockOnNet (N.N. 2010c) it was stated that his concerts were full of love and passion for music, on MMC (A.H. 2010) it was asserted that Cohen always managed to enchant concertgoers with his melancholic voice, while on Siol (N.N. 2010b) it was remarked that because of Cohen’s humour and subtlety, the atmosphere at his concerts was grandiose. A few days before the concert in the Slovenian capital, Dnevnik published an article in which Bauman (2010) reminisces about Cohen and his 2008 concert in Milan in a very poetic way. On his blog, the prominent economist Jože P. Damijan (2010), who attended both Cohen’s 2008 concert in Munich and his 2010 concert in Zagreb, stated that while at the former concert Cohen appeared fragile and simply thankful for the opportunity to perform, two years later he seemed more lively, and the concert itself was reportedly more polished and virtuosic. The latter concert was also reviewed in more depth on Rockline (Podbrežnik 2010) - in part, the review reads as follows: A Leonard Cohen concert is a unique marathon spectacle which passes in the blink of an eye. A marathon spectacle, which for three-and-a-half hours soaks one up into its world, hypnotizes, enchants and fulfils one. In short, after the concert one definitely feels transformed and in a sort of new psycho-physical state. [...] Cohen remains one of the greatest masters in the artistic delivery of his musical message. His voice is not merely mature, but gold-plated and increasing in carats. It is as if the years cannot touch him - and they never will. The above website (Jurca 2010) also published a shorter, but similarly positive review of Cohen’s concert in Ljubljana; the same is true for the review in Delo (Matoz 2010a), which states that Cohen enchanted his audience, while on The L Files, Domen Savič (2010) likens the concert to a religious experience. Shortly after this concert, an article published in Pogledi was devoted to Cohen’s career as a live performer; Vojko Flegar (2010: 11) claims that there is something consecrated about Cohen’s concerts and that the one in Ljubljana was no different. In Nedelo, the anthropologist Mare Lakovič (2012: 36) stated this was his all-time favourite concert and had the following to say about the performance: Janko Trupej 74 His music is simple at first glance, but is deeply confessional and has a profound meaning; over the years, it has acquired a precious patina, which gives Cohen timelessness. The poetry, in unison with his smooth voice, charisma and excellent musicians, has gained a totally new dimension. Calm, full of life’s wisdom and serenity, Leonard Cohen is better in the sunset of his life than he has ever been. A few notable newspapers announced Cohen’s second concert in Ljubljana in 2013. An article in Dnevnik (nr 2013) claims that his ‘Grand Tour’ was already regarded as an important part of music history. In Delo (Matoz 2013), Cohen is referred to as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time, and it is stated that during the 15-year absence from the stage he has lost nothing. In Slovenske novice (Predin 2013), it is asserted that Cohen “is still able to reach listeners and transport them into a trance-like mixture of sadness, nostalgia and romance with his routine sincerity and while remaining true to his own style”. Unlike the previous concert, Cohen’s second outing in Slovenia was not sold out, as Nina Krajčinović (2013) notes in Delo, while being full of praise of the organizational aspects and the concert itself. MMC (Jurc 2013) also published an extremely positive review, towards the end of which it is stated that Cohen does not aspire to be a frontman or a star, but simply a troubadour patiently working on his craft. On RockOnNet, Anže Zorman (2013) states that after seeing Cohen in concert for the first time, he started to consider him as something beyond a musician, but rather as a ‘persona’ who leaves a mark on the world. In a review on Žurnal24, Izak Košir (2013) speaks of an unforgettable concert by an artist unlike any other in the history of modern music, while on Rockline, Urban Bolta (2013) gives the following verdict: [F]or three hours, Cohen transformed Stožice into a world of higher physical and spiritual meditation with his deep, intimate vocals. [...] Even long after the legend is gone and only his music remains, those of us who were present will be able to say that we captured a moment in time when a velvet voice sang to us about some of the most emotional stories on this planet. All of Cohen’s live albums from this series of tours also received at least one review. On Siol (M.P. 2009), the album Live in London is described as “a concert gem, pure magic and also a brilliant memory of a time when questions and reflections on justice, honest relationships, beauty, art, sex, religion and emotions [...] were the most important things in life”. On Nova muska, Kranjc (2010) remarks that Songs from the Road cannot be reproached with anything except maybe with not offering anything new, and he laments the fact that live albums by Cohen are being released instead of a new studio album. On RockOnNet, Jurij Bizjak (2011) claims that this live album has its ups and downs but that it is ‘from the soul and for the soul’. On Nova muska, Kranjc (2014a) praises Live in Dublin, but states that The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 75 it seems to be more a money-making scheme than anything else, since the tracklist is almost identical to that of Live in London. On the same platform, Kranjc (2015b) welcomes the inclusion of some of Cohen’s more obscure tracks on the album Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour, but claims that the album lacks coherence and expresses disappointment about the inclusion of only ten songs. On Rocker.si, Špela Macuh (2015) is more complimentary, stating that the songs have a spontaneity and intimacy about them and that they showcase the versatility and harmony of Cohen and his band. As if sensing that Can’t Forget would bring the series of recent live releases to a conclusion, in Pogledi, Kranjc (2015a: 6-7) offers a quite detailed overview of Cohen’s path as a live performer, particularly by discussing all of his live albums; in this article, Kranjc is not critical of the fact that so many concert recordings were released in such a short time. 3.4. Reactions to Cohen’s Death Numerous serial publications and online platforms reported on Cohen’s passing. By far the most in-depth obituary was written on one of the latter by Kranjc - cognoscente of all things Cohen. After discussing his literary influences and the beginning of his career as a man of letters, Kranjc focuses on Cohen’s recording career, moving from album to album while illuminating their strengths and shortcomings in the context of the artist’s life and the wider developments on the contemporary music scene. The obituary concludes by examining Cohen’s influence on prominent Slovenian singer-songwriters, including Tomaž Pengov, Jani Kovačič, Tomaž Domicelj and Vlado Kreslin (2016c). In an obituary on another website, Krajnc (2016b) first focuses on Cohen’s transition from writer to recording artist, while the second part of the text is devoted to the question of where Cohen ranks in the pantheon of songwriters; Kranjc asserts that Cohen left behind a body of work that is among the most respected in the 20 th century. For the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), Kranjc (qtd. in N.N. 2016c) stated the following: An eternal prisoner in the tower of song and an untiring traveller through its most secret lands has created a magnificent opus of poetry and prose which is based on respecting and exploring the Word; his melodies time and again prove the inseparability of words and music and vice versa. STA also asked Cohen aficionado Potokar (qtd. in N.N. 2016c) to provide a statement - in part, it reads as follows: Especially on his records he is a poet of exceptional density and precision, as well as sonority and rhythmicity. And of course a poet of such a characteristic unsurpassed (self)irony. […] I have long claimed that being acquainted with Janko Trupej 76 Leonard Cohen and listening to his music comes closest to a profound religious experience. Potokar (2016: 17) himself wrote a short obituary for Delo, expressing his thoughts about Cohen’s artistry in the following words: First and foremost, Cohen was and remained a poet, and his performances were not merely concerts, but festivals of the Word, which is so moving precisely because - like the psalms of old that were meant to be sung and not read - we listen [sic] to it accompanied by unobtrusive musical instruments and female voices, perhaps similar to the way we once listened to words in temples, synagogues and churches. In Dnevnik, Borut Mehle (2016) claims that only Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Dylan had a greater influence on his generation than Cohen, while MMC (G.K. & P.G. 2016) lauds Cohen as not only a legendary singer-songwriter, but also one of the leading literary figures in Canada and an influential representative of modern literature. An obituary on the website of Radio Terminal (N.N. 2016a) heaps high praise on Cohen’s achievements, concluding by stating that he gave his listeners the greatest parting gift by releasing his final album, and that as long as music exists, Cohen will be remembered. An obituary on Nova24TV (D.M. 2016) refers to Cohen as ‘one of the most magnificent kings of music’; on Rockline (Jurca 2016), he and his work are characterized as immortal, while in Slovenske novice (T.P. 2016: 32), it is stated that Cohen was a unique talent who only appears once in a generation and that he addressed timeless topics of the human condition. In a very personal obituary on Portal plus, publicist Dejan Steinbuch (2016) barely refers to Cohen’s life or career, instead focusing on what the artist meant to him and his generation - he concludes as follows: Gone are the years during which we seemed to have grown old alongside Leonard Cohen, attended his concerts and were carried away by his vitality and energy. Perhaps somewhere in the back of our heads there already loomed the fear of the moment when we would lose him. […] In these memories that define some other life, Leonard Cohen is eternal and immortal . In Večer (N.N. 2016d), it is stated that Cohen probably would have been worthy of the Nobel Prize for Literature and that just before he died he recorded one of his greatest albums; furthermore, Vlado Kreslin, one of the most influential Slovenian singer-songwriters, is quoted as saying that Cohen’s music was spiritual and the type of music one would listen to alone. On Svet24, Kreslin (qtd. in D.B. 2016) described his experience when first hearing Cohen’s album Songs from a Room as follows: “[T]his record was like some kind of Holy Bible and went from hand to hand. We borrowed it, considered it something sacred and it was as if a new world had opened The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 77 up to us.” In a lengthy article on Cohen’s life and career published on Govori.se, Tina Ambrožič (2016) asserts that his songs are works of art and that they made their mark on history. An article recounting his life was also published in Delo; Grgič (2016b) hails Cohen as one of the greatest visionaries among contemporary artists, and in the same newspaper she repeats this statement less than two months later in an article about artists who passed away in the previous year (Grgič 2017). Some weeks after his death, a profile on Cohen even appeared in Pil, a monthly for primary school children; Nika Osredkar (2017) concludes the article by stating that Cohen released his last album just weeks before his death and left a great legacy. 4. Conclusion Ever since Cohen’s name first appeared in Slovenian serial publications at the beginning of the 1970s, he has not only been referred to as a singer, but also a literary figure. While select articles from the 1970s in 1980s indicate that Cohen was not unknown among some Slovenian literati, it took until 1996 for the first of his full-length literary works, the novel Beautiful Losers, to be translated into Slovenian - it received a limited but largely positive reception. Cohen began to be discussed more often as a literary figure in the years after his 2008 return to the public eye, when several translations 12 of his books were published within the span of only a few years. While reviews were not plentiful, they were largely positive and helped to establish Cohen’s image in Slovenia as not merely a recording artist but also a man of letters. Cohen’s work as a singer-songwriter received some attention in Slovenia in the 1970s, but noteworthy articles about it were limited to the music magazine Glasbena mladina; most of the writing was extremely positive, which suggests that he enjoyed a cult following. From the late 1970s to the late 1980s - when Cohen was also not in vogue in some other parts of the world - very little was written about him in the Slovenian press; no contemporary reviews of his albums from that period could be found. Not much substantial writing on Cohen’s music was published in the 1990s either, although select articles from that decade indicate that he was quite respected. His albums from the beginning of the new millennium were reviewed in several notable serial publications, although their reception was mixed. However, after Cohen’s touring comeback, discussions about his 12 All the translations are by either Kranjc or Potokar - probably the two individuals who did more than anyone else in Slovenia to bring attention to Cohen’s literary work. Janko Trupej 78 music began to be ever-present in the media, 13 and the studio albums he released towards the end of his life enjoyed a lively and very positive reception; Cohen was frequently hailed as one of the greatest songwriters ever. 14 Not much was written about Cohen as a live performer until the very last decade of his life, but after he commenced his ‘Grand Tour’ - which would eventually include two concerts in Slovenia - Cohen’s live performances were frequently written about, and his concerts were received with universal approval. Even the live albums released from this tour received reviews, which were also mostly positive - apart from some criticism about the material being repetitive. Cohen’s death was covered by virtually all the major Slovenian serial publications and numerous online platforms. Some of the statements by prominent public figures indicate that Cohen was important to some Slovenians on a very personal level, and the praise that he received was similar to that from the last years of his life - one could almost speak of an act of ‘hyper-canonization’. Since the Slovenian reception of Cohen’s work spanned two political systems, we shall also look at the responses to his opus from an ideological standpoint, i.e., address whether there existed an ideological background to the facts that, for decades, his music was not prominently featured in the media, and that it took a long time for his first literary work to be translated into Slovenian. 15 The reception of Cohen’s œuvre was similar in several other European (post-)socialist countries. Soon after he started to release music, Cohen began to have quite a strong following among Czechs, and he remained popular after the Iron Curtain fell; nevertheless, it took until 1996 for the first literary work of his to be translated into Czech. However, by the time Cohen returned to the spotlight in 2008, six more translations had been published (Sparling 2019: 166-172). It was reportedly difficult to obtain copies of Cohen’s records in communist Romania, but he nevertheless developed a cult following as a singer-songwriter and remained popular after the country transitioned into a democracy; however, it was not until the new millennium that he gained more recognition as a literary figure, and Romanian translations of his works began to be published (Bottez & Catană 13 A search in the Digital Library of Slovenia conducted on 19 November 2020 revealed that from 2008 to 2017, the name “Leonard Cohen” appeared 508 times in the corpus of digitized publications, while from 1998 to 2007, it appeared 182 times. 14 The only songwriter consistently referred to as Cohen’s equal is Dylan, while other songwriting greats like Lennon/ McCartney, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young seem to be regarded as children of a lesser god. 15 The Slovenian reception of some North American literary figures was substantially affected by the contemporary socio-political situation (see, e.g., Trupej 2015; Potočnik Topler 2017; Čerče 2018; Mrđenović 2020; Trupej 2021), while this is less true for other writers (see, e.g., Maver 1990; Blake 2003; Intihar Klančar 2004; Klanjšček 2004; Zupan 2015). The Perception of Leonard Cohen in Slovenia 79 2019: 196-202). Only Beautiful Losers has been published in Bulgarian so far, despite Cohen’s popularity as a musician in the country (Andreev & Jankova 2019: 21). Similarly, in spite of Cohen’s considerable prominence as a recording artist in Croatia, it took almost until the end of the previous century for Beautiful Losers to be published in Croatian and even longer for its author to gain greater recognition as a man of letters in that country (Sindičić Sabljo & Sapun Kurtin 2019: 148-152). For decades, Cohen has also been a popular singer-songwriter in Serbia, and three collections of his translated poetry appeared in Serbian in the 1980s, but both his novels were only published in this language after he began his ‘Grand Tour’ and became an international superstar (Lopičić & Ignjatović 2019: 210-213). None of the above scholars claim that Cohen’s writing was considered particularly ideologically problematic during their countries’ socialist eras, and translations of Cohen’s works did not begin to be published en masse in the few years immediately after the end of socialism; it took until the new millennium for Cohen to gain wider recognition as a literary figure in most of these nations - as was the case in Slovenia. 16 The few noteworthy responses to Cohen’s literary output during Slovenia’s socialist era were positive, and after his literary works began to be published in Slovenian, they were praised in publications from different sides of the ideological spectrum, which further indicates that ideology did not play a major role in his reception. Rather, part of the reason for any delay in the recognition of Cohen’s literary works may have been the status that Canadian literature occupies in the Slovenian literary polysystem. While for decades, American culture and literature were influential in Slovenia, even during much of the socialist era (and thus, as Meta Grosman (1988: 350) notes, many Slovenian readers have little difficulty understanding characteristically American elements of literary texts), “Canadian culture occupies a deprivileged position: Canadian literature is frequently overwhelmed by American productivity, occasionally even mistaken for American” (Onič, Mohar & Gadpaille 2019: 142). 17 As for ideology playing a role in the reception of Cohen’s music in Slovenia, while it is true that even for much of the 1960s, the socialist regime still perceived some popular Western artists, for instance The Beatles (see Trupej 2017: 193-195), as a threat for corrupting Slovenian youth with Western values, Marta Rendla (2011: 94) notes that by the late 1960s, the influence of Western music on Slovenian culture was no longer seen as problematic. Furthermore, Cohen had only a small following among Slovenians, and thus the powers that be could not have perceived him as a particularly problematic influence despite the fact that religion (which was 16 The fact that all the poetry collections Cohen published up to Book of Mercy have yet to be translated suggests that he is still considered a minor poet in Slovenia. 17 In our analysis of Cohen’s reception, we also noted that he is occasionally mistakenly referred to as an American artist. Janko Trupej 80 not looked upon favourably by the socialist regime) featured prominently in his songs and despite his capitalist, North American origins. Similarly to what is true for his literary work, after Slovenia declared independence, there was no immediate marked change in the popularity of his music, and he did not gain significantly more presence in the Slovenian media straight away; he remained a well-respected and popular singer-songwriter, but only reached superstar status after his return to the stage in 2008. It can thus be concluded that the responses to Cohen’s work were not substantially influenced by either the socio-political situation in Slovenia, or its relations with Canada (or the West in general) at a certain point in time: the reception of both his music and literary work was similar during the socialist period and much of the post-socialist period. Instead, Cohen’s heightened popularity and presence in the Slovenian media towards the end of his life may be attributed to the general commercial renaissance he enjoyed across much of the world during those years. References A.G. 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Zupan, Uroš (1999). “Pesem ostaja ista.” Delo, 25 August. 7. Janko Trupej Independent researcher Slovenia Matthew C. Jones University Writing Program University of Florida Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan This article examines lost voices in Louise Erdrich’s novel The Beet Queen. Impacted by the white-male-elite values, white woman Sita Kozka and Native American man Russell Kashpaw, in their endeavor to forge ultimate femininity and masculinity, experience downward trajectory phases marked by loud voices, objectification, oppression, voice loss, and death. By comparing Sita’s death and Russell’s rebirth, it unfolds that the pursuit of femininity and masculinity, within the patriarchal and racial conceptual framework, results in voicelessness and disempowerment. It also contends that only by forging independent identity and preserving indigenous culture can women and Native American men make their voices heard. Introduction Louise Erdrich (1954- ), the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, is renowned for multi-vocal narration in her postcolonial American sagas. According to Cambridge International Dictionary of English, “voice” is defined as “the sounds that are made when people speak or sing” and “(the right to) an expression of opinion” (1629). The polyvocality in Erdrich’s fictions demonstrates that the sounds her characters make are integral to their attempts to tell their stories and express their opinions. From Mikhail Bakhtin’s perspective, the polyphony of voices manifests the “social, political, ideological” conflicts of “the epoch” in works of literature (Bakhtin 1984: 38). In Erdrich’s novel The Beet Queen (1998), not only do the multiple AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0004 Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 90 voices convey such clashes from 1932 to 1972, but some gradually lost voices also reveal the gender and racial oppression and objectification brought by the dominant ideology of “dictatorships” built upon the “latecolonial male elites” (Connell 2016: 11). Certainly, there is a “mutually reinforcing dialectical relationship between capitalist class structure and hierarchical sexual structuring” in a postcolonial society (Eisenstein 1979: 5), which “as a hierarchical, exploitative, oppressive system requires racial oppression alongside sexual and class oppression” (Eisenstein 1979: 46). Overwhelmed by the white-male-elite ideology, white woman Sita Kozka and Native American man Russell Kashpaw, in their endeavor to forge ultimate femininity and masculinity, both lose their voices and fall as victims of the gender and racial hierarchy (Meisenhelder 1994: 46). This article further analyzes the underlying causes for Sita and Russell’s downward trajectory phases marked by loud voices, objectification, oppression, voice loss and death. By comparing the white woman’s death and the Indian man’s rebirth, this article sheds light on the trajectory whereby the pursuit of femininity and masculinity, within the patriarchal and racial conceptual framework, results in voicelessness and disempowerment rather than assimilation into the elite world. It also contends that only by forging independent identity and returning to indigenous cultural roots can women and Native American men raise their voices to the world. 1. “Perfect”Woman and Man with Femininity and Masculinity In Simone de Beauvoir’s view, “Woman herself recognizes that the world is masculine on the whole; those who fashioned it, ruled it, and still dominate it today are men. As for her, she does not consider herself responsible for it; it is understood that she is inferior and dependent” (Beauvoir [1953] 1956: 567-68). This might be taken as a norm for a “perfect” woman in the patriarchal society. In The Beet Queen, Sita is unambiguously portrayed as an inferior and dependent woman living up to the standards set for women by men. With “a stick figure, cartoon thin,” she looks like “the same frail kind of beauty that could be broken off a tree by any passing boy and discarded, cast away when the fragrance died” (Erdrich 2006: 68, 21). It is self-evident that this “beautiful” and “perfect” female image is based on a patriarchal criterion (Erdrich 2006: 17-18). The physical charm out of such an easily broken body and quickly dying vitality constitute a “subtle pleasure” and evoke a “pity for the wretched” in men’s eyes (Beauvoir [1953] 1956: 218-19). In the patriarchal thinking, one tends to embrace the idea that “it may provide a way for women to make their lives easier by conforming to assumptions about women’s behaviour” (Dawson 2018: 29). Being fully aware of the importance of her sexual power, Sita goes to great lengths to maintain her man-pleasing appearance by extreme methods, such as taping a Band-Aid tightly across her forehead to prevent wrinkles Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 91 from growing, washing her hair with beer and eggs, doing no manual labor, and even stealing her cousin Mary Adare’s jewelry box because it is from her icon Aunt Adelaide Adare, a charming and frail mistress of a rich man. All the measures she takes seem to be designed to preserve her charisma in order that one day she will become a woman like Adelaide kept by a wealthy man. While reading the novel, readers can clearly discern that “[t]he author’s design for a character is a design for discourse” (Bakhtin 1984: 63). For example, in a conversation with Mary, Sita is depicted by Erdrich as a vain and materialistic girl utterly influenced by the male-dominated ideology: “she would meet a young rising professional. They would marry. He would buy her a house near the county courthouse, on the street of railroad mansions not far from Island Park. Every winter she would walk down the hill to skate. She would wear . . . a short dress with puffs of rabbit fur” (Erdrich 2006: 76). Curiously, in her imagination, there is nothing about “love” being the premise of marriage, whereas there is a variety of standards related to wealth, “rising professional,” “county courthouse,” “mansions not far from Island Park,” and “short dress with puffs of rabbit fur.” Under the sway of the commodity culture, what Sita needs is not a marriage with understanding and support, but the satisfaction of her vanity in the shape of luxurious and exquisite possessions. As Beauvoir pertinently explains, “[t]hese contradictions indicate the worth of a pride that is only vanity” (Beauvoir [1953] 1956: 218). In the patriarchal society, for a submissive woman, “[i]nferior, pitiful - this is not enough,” because a man also “wishes woman to be contemptible,” with a lust for “wealth and refinement” (ibid: 219). In this respect, “[h]e asserts sometimes that the conflict between desire and contempt is a drama of pathos” (ibid: 219). In The Beet Queen, it is salient that the author Erdrich perfectly molds Sita into such a stereotyped female in the male-dominated context who has been intentionally developing her identity as an ideal woman for any man, alluring and delightful in appearance, inferior and pitiful in physical condition, shallow and abject in character. Analogously, a “perfect” male image is also created in the novel - Russell, a full-blood Chippewa veteran of World War I with desirable masculine power, who “represents the extreme construction of masculine gender” (Flavin 1995: 20). From his admirer Mary’s account, Russell is a “bull-chest boy with the soft voice, teasing eyes, the shaggy hair” (Erdrich 2006: 70). Particularly, with the scars and wounds from the battlefield, he “took on an unsettling dark grandeur,” not “ugly,” but “just the opposite” (Erdrich 2006: 70). Similar to Sita, Russell also purposefully forges his masculinity so as to assimilate himself into the white-dominated society. To achieve his goal, Russell, like other ethnic minority men, attempts to “adapt to social norms by developing an exaggerated masculine style” (Chae [2001] 2002: 21). In light of the slight possibility for a Native American to be readily acknowledged by the white society, Russell’s first move is following the Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 92 indigenous athletes who managed to attain fame and fortune and becoming a prominent sports star in his high school football team (Erdrich 2006: 70). His second move is heeding the state’s call, going to war, and returning as a war hero (Erdrich 2006: 70). In hopes of being treated equally and fairly, the Indian man chooses to contribute his physical force, his body, and even his life to the highly valued war for the white government. As a matter of fact, the historical data show that “[m]ore than 12,000 Indians served in the armed forces during the First World War,” which is interpreted as “evidence of their assimilation” (Calloway 2016: 411). Undoubtedly, this might be the best solution for the Native American man to overcome his inferiority complex and obtain a quick pass to enter the white-elite world. Accordingly, in such a way Russell has fulfilled his perfect masculinity. 2. Voices Given by Femininity and Masculinity In the Model of Gendered Power, sexual power, namely, femininity and masculinity, is one of the resources of an individual to develop a loud voice and “control patterns of social interaction” (Bradley 1999: 33). With the femininity and masculinity being well-acknowledged, one is inclined to use his or her voice as “dispositions, maneuvers, tactics, techniques, functionings” to exert an influence on other people (Foucault [1979] 1995: 26). This refers to gendered power, “the capacity of one sex to control the behaviour of the other” in varied forms, such as “class power, racial power, state power” (Bradley 1999: 33). Knowing her extraordinary strengths in femininity, firstly, Sita uses her voice to satiate her lust. At home, she unapologetically asks her parents for any object she desires, and then it is “handed right over” (Erdrich 2006: 30). Melted by her sweet voice, her parents treat her as a precious “baby” and deny her nothing (Erdrich 2006: 28). In class, she tells her teachers that she is glad to help collect erasers or copy poems. Touched by her generous voice, her teachers adore her and move her position up to the front. After school, her idle gossip attracts all girls in her class and all boys in the upper grade. Lured by her cute voice, her schoolmates deem her as a queen, which to a large extent gratifies her vanity. Moreover, Sita uses her voice to condescend to those “inferior” to her. Unsatisfied with her husband Jimmy Bohl who is an ordinary middle-class restaurant owner, Sita constantly blames him for his vulgar taste and is seen to taunt him with her harsh voice. Besides Jimmy, her childhood friends Mary, Celestine James and Russell also feel her contempt through her hand-written note of invitation to her new restaurant reminding them that “[t]ies and suitcoats are required wearing for men, and also that ladies must dress in appropriate fashion.” (Erdrich 2006: 115). By the words “are required” and “must” in her note, Sita sends a clear message with an Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 93 overtly condescending tone in her voice that her poor relatives do not belong to her superior social class, and they are literally uninvited. Next, Sita also uses her voice to manipulate people. When the unwelcome friends show up at her restaurant as guests, Sita immediately orders them in an authoritarian voice to work in the kitchen. After hours of hard labor, the only reward “her low-class former friends and relatives” receive from her is not sincere thanks, but her icy voice telling them “I suppose I should thank you” and a view of her back when she turns around and walks out of the kitchen (Erdrich 2006: 115, 123). The goal towards which Sita has striven for years is the upgrade of her social status, from the daughter of a butcher to the wife of a respected member of the elite. Marrying the distasteful restaurant owner and meeting her unpresentable friends are an unbearable reminding of her inferior birth. With an arrogant voice, she dissociates herself from her former social status and moves herself up to a higher level in the social hierarchy. In a word, Sita’s femininity is the tool she uses to develop her voice, seize her power, and ultimately insinuate herself into the elite world. Different from Sita’s controlling voice, Russell’s voice is characterized by silence. Trinh T. Minh-ha stresses that silence is “a will not to say or a will to unsay, a language of its own” (1991: 151). As a way of empowerment and defense mechanism, Russell exercises his will of silence to hide his inferiority complex. The quick success and fame brought by his excessive masculinity embedded in his scars and wounds, along with the decent bank-clerk job offered by the government, puff the Native American “returning home-town hero” (Erdrich 2006: 70) up with pride, who assumes himself completely assimilated into the upper class as a member of the elite. In social gatherings, his deliberate reticence is “hardly even civil,” showing “no manners or consideration,” making people around him feel uncomfortable and humiliated (Erdrich 2006: 70-71). When receiving Mary’s get-well letter with apparent love, he remains rude and “unaffected,” giving Mary no reply, “nothing, not a word, not a hello” (Erdrich 2006: 70). Russell’s silence, to Mary and the people around him, is even more hurtful and powerful than any criticizing or patronizing voice. Preoccupied with the mainstream male-superior values, Russell has no interest in Mary, the short and stout girl without any femininity. Instead, he has a far more desirable target, the beautiful Sita who is reputable for her perfect femininity. With his masculinity and his title and his promising future, Russell has full confidence that he can possess this pretty and lovable creature. However, in the white-dominated society, his presumed social status and success, remain negligible in the woman’s eyes. Facing the Native American’s burning love, Sita does not even bother to speak, but simply shows her scorn with total silence and distant body language. She “tipped her head away and her red lips tightened. She pulled a white hankie from her sleeve, turned a cold cheek, and let him know that Sita Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 94 Kozka was off limits to his type” (Erdrich 2006: 72). The white handkerchief she pulls symbolizes her white race, indicating the vast barrier between white women and red men. The white woman’s voiceless rejection and her proud gesture with the white handkerchief are the loudest voice to awaken this self-content Indian man, smashing his confidence that a single man like himself, in possession of good fortune and elite status, must deserve a perfect wife. In the face of such a woman full of ambition and arrogance, Russell comes to discern his marginalized position as the Other and the inferior, no matter how much he has done to achieve his assimilation. 3. Objectification of the Woman and Man with Perfect Femininity and Masculinity In the context of gender study and social psychology, “objectification” refers to “an instrument of subjugation whereby the needs, interests, and experiences of those with less power are subordinated to those of the powerful” (Gruenfeld et al. 111). Objectified women strive for perfect femininity to please the men in power, whereas objectified Native American men struggle for perfect masculinity to assimilate themselves into the whites in power. As a typical example of the submissive women in The Beet Queen, Sita’s efforts to develop her beauty, frailty, and vanity pave the way for her objectification. Ironically, brought up in the patriarchal surroundings, Sita is the first one to regard herself as an object from an Other perspective. To prove she has something that Mary does not, teenage Sita takes off her undervest and “cupped [her] breasts in [her] hands” to show to Celestine, wishing to defeat unfeminine Mary and win Celestine (Erdrich 2006: 35). Her behavior of taking advantage of her physical features as an object to reach her goal signifies her self-objectification. Upholding male-dominant values, Sita does not even have the slightest awareness that she has deemed herself as a tool or a gadget. Instead, she grows more accustomed to trading her body for profits after realizing that “personal or sexual power resources by women” can be used as “a survival strategy for ‘getting on’ with men” and “receiv[ing] some material benefit” (Dawson 2018: 140). For instance, despite her disgust at Jimmy, she dates him to recover from a three-year affair with a married doctor. And to cover her restaurant food poisoning scandal, she seduces Louis Tappe, the state health inspector, and turns him into her second husband. As marketable merchandise, the woman sells her alluring femininity to the male customers who crave her body. As a result, at the buyer’s market, the men in power evaluate her, price her, purchase her, return her, and destroy her. For example, Jimmy evaluates Sita as a sex toy; Jimmy’s relatives regard her as overpriced; Louis purchases her as a profitable asset; Jimmy returns her for he is displeased; and finally, Jimmy’s relatives and Louis destroy her and discard Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 95 her as a piece of garbage. In a word, the white woman’s self-objectification goes hand in hand with men’s objectification of her. Sita is objectified by her first husband. Firstly, she is deemed as an image of sexuality. Jimmy loves Sita’s modeling silhouette and her “fuzzy” newsprints in which she poses in ballgowns and swimming suits (Erdrich 2006: 83). In the eyes of the man, Sita is no more than a nude female body to give him sensual pleasures, and it makes no difference to him who the model is in his pictures. What he cares for is not Sita as a lively human being with soul or identity, but the sexuality and appealing appearance of any woman. As long as the woman is a sex-appealing creature under his ownership, he is satisfied. Besides, she is regarded as food. Jimmy never calls Sita by her name. Instead, the chef calls her by terms of his favorite desserts, like “[c]akes,” “[s]weetpie,” “[m]uffin,” and “[s]ugardonut” which are sweet, edible, passive, manmade food (Erdrich 2006: 86). From the nicknames, it is evident that Sita in the man’s mind is nothing but some dough or some raw material that can be easily shaped, burned, deep-fried, ready to be cut, or devoured at his free will. For the man, his wife is nothing but food and sex to meet his basic physical desires. Who she is, what she is thinking, and how she is distinctive from other women, are never under the man’s consideration, which is naturally reflected by his disrespect for the woman. For instance, when dating, he never gets out of his car to ring Sita’s doorbell, but he just pulls up “outside” and sits “on his horn” (Erdrich 2006: 85-86). His rude behavior is precisely the way to train an animal who would respond to the whistling of her trainer or master. Without any courtesy, Jimmy objectifies Sita as an easily manipulated lowly animal, coming at his call and ready to be used. Sita is also objectified by her second husband. Louis is Sita’s ideal spouse she has been looking for, a knowledgeable, intelligent, gentle professional who could help her to improve her social status. Facing such an “upper-class” man, Sita, the daughter of a butcher and the ex-wife of a restaurant’s owner, puts herself in an inferior position, which in turn aggravates Louis’s objectification of her. On the one hand, Louis further spurs Sita’s self-abasement. For instance, she is encouraged to grow “ornamental shrubs, perennials, and climbing vines” in her backyard (Erdrich 2006: 144). These plants share a common feature: low and dependent. Louis’s plan symbolizes his objectifying opinion of Sita: a subordinate and reliant entity. As a docile woman in the male-dominated society, Sita, from her looks, her fragility, to her snob value, has purposefully cultivated herself “to accept masculine authority” (Beauvoir [1953] 1956: 569). When tending the low plants in her “large backyard,” she has little knowledge that she is like a yardbird confined to Louis’s yard-like prison, nor does she feel inferior to her upper-class husband. Instead, she delightfully accepts his arrangement and considers it as Louis’s kindness. On the other hand, Louis objectifies Sita. Naturally, as an expert, he does his research by observing plants and worms and keeping an archive about them. But it is more than Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 96 whimsical that he records all his wife does in his notebook as well. In Louis’s scientific studies, the plants, worms, and Sita all belong to his “specimens,” about which Sita has no complaints (Erdrich 2006: 153). In other words, she is completely satiated with her specially created identity, the beautiful, frail, vain, inferior self, and she is even more pleased to see that this self has been accepted and appreciated by men. To sum up, Sita is objectified, and she enjoys being a submissive object. As for objectification, Sita does not stand alone. Russell is also “dehumanized” and “reduced to objects” (Meisenhelder 46). After Sita’s contempt and rejection, Russell’s dream of assimilating himself into the elite society is shattered. “For the Indian male,” however, “the only route to be successful, to be good, to be right, and to have an identity was to be as much like the white man as he could” (qtd. Old Dog Cross 20). Russell’s way of establishing his identity as an elite is to develop more masculinity, which to him, in light of his former experience of achieving fame, popularity, and a nice job after being a war hero, means to go to war again. When he comes home from Korea, Russell seems to obtain what he wants - the title of “North Dakota’s most-decorated hero” (Erdrich 2006: 111). Nevertheless, this honor is at the sacrifice of his startling face “all sewn together” with “ravaged cheeks” and “even more wounds than before,” and especially his left leg, “the one with the old spiral fracture and shrapnel wounds” that “ache[s] from the fall he’d taken coming down the bank.” (Erdrich 2006: 111, 118, 155, 196). What is preposterous about his award and his contribution can be clearly seen from the irony in his younger sister Celestine’s words, “I think it’s stupid, that this getting shot apart is what he’s lived for all his life. Now he must wait until some statehouse official scores the other veterans, counting up their wounds on a paper tablet, and figures out who gave away the most flesh” (Erdrich 2006: 111). Since in her occupation as a butcher Celestine is involved in the meat business, her remarks can be understood in this way: the word “statehouse” sounds very much like “steakhouse,” and the phrase “counting up their wounds on a paper tablet” is analogous to “weighing the beef on a scale.” Thereupon, the official, or the state behind him, is the butcher, and the veterans are cattle or pigs or sheep. As the process of objectification is thought to “involve a kind of instrumental fragmentation in social perception, the splitting of a whole person into parts that serve specific goals and functions for the observer” (Gruenfeld et al. 2008: 111), Russell and his fellow veterans are cut into pieces as steak. These livestock-like former soldiers have contributed their flesh and blood to the country and then receive some titles and medals in return. And even more absurdly, their sacrifice is measured by the number of their physical wounds. If the scars and wounds Russel obtains from the first war are the gilding on his identity, then his wounds from the second war are devastating: he becomes disabled and loses his bank job. The result of his second tour of military service is far from Russell’s expectation: he is not admitted to the superior Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 97 white society; on the contrary, losing his physical masculinity, he is Othered and marginalized even further. Russell is also objectified as museum exhibits. His experience of objectification is recounted by Celestine again, “his two dress uniforms were asked for by the county museum. They now hang off a tailor’s dummy in a display case along with a list of Russell’s medals and a photograph. That picture shows him as he was when he came back from Germany, before Korea, when his scars were more attractive than now” (Erdrich 2006: 117). Whether it be his flesh, his wounds, his outfits, his photo, or his medals, every fragmented piece of Russell is usable. Museum visitors can appreciate the war hero’s parts, his uniforms and his image, or count how many medals he has earned. What the museum and the visitors value are the items sealed in the glass chests rather than the Native American in person or his Indian soul, which is useless and pointless to the country and the white citizens. Along with other exhibits in the museum, objectified Russell is dead, mute, dehumanized, and spiritless, who, in pursuit of ultimate masculinity, ends up in the cold display case. In this respect, through Russell’s experience of climbing to a higher social class, Erdrich exemplifies “objectification” as “a normative and functional concomitant of social hierarchy” (Gruenfeld et al. 2008: 124-25). 4. Voices Lost under Gender and Racial Oppression Aside from objectification, Sita and Russell are oppressed, which directly brings about their loss of voice. Sita becomes voiceless twice due to her “marginality and powerlessness” (Lakoff 1973: 45), which is how her oppressors expect her not to speak. For the first time, Sita is verbally and sexually oppressed and muted on her wedding day. Kidnapped by Jimmy’s brother and cousins who hate the way she criticizes Jimmy, Sita is flung to the backseat of a car, wedged between two men whose ceaseless deafening sex jokes threw her “into a state of repulsion that she lost her voice” (Erdrich 2006: 98). The abduction, confinement, and coercion of Sita is far more than a prank, but severe violence, which, according to The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women adopted by the United Nations in 1993, is defined as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, encompassing threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life” (World Health Organization 1997: n.p.). Being greatly frightened, disgusted, and humiliated by these men’s violence, Sita is terribly strained: her voiceless “hoarse croak” (Erdrich 2006: 98) is drowned out by the men’s roaring and thundering voices. This voice loss signifies her loss of power, freedom, and dignity. The car setting is precisely a miniature of the male-dominated society in reality where voiceless women are abused by voiced men, ending up Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 98 with the same result Sita experiences: being dumped like a piece of trash “onto reservation land, unfenced, fallow, deserted” (Erdrich 2006: 99). In these white men’s patriarchal mindset, women such as Sita are useless and lowly and deserve to be cast away as trash on the filthiest garbage dump, the Indian reservation. Finding herself at such a forbidding place, Sita “tries to scream,” but the only sound she can make is to faintly whisper “jackass” (Erdrich 2006: 99). From the moment her voiceless situation and her powerless status overlap, Sita’s fate begins to go downhill. Metaphorically, the woman is also sexually oppressed and silenced in the abduction. When Sita stands in the storm, the harsh and freezing wind “tore at her veil,” and “opened her dress suddenly from behind, turned it inside out” (Erdrich 2006: 99-100). And then, she is seen in the close-by Indian bar with her “[t]wo bare spike-heeled legs scissored,” “slashing lethal arcs,” “tearing one old man’s jacket,” and keeping up a “muffled and inhuman croaking” (Erdrich 2006: 100). Here, the “wind” symbolizes the men abducting Sita, the rapists; Sita’s “torn veil,” “opened gown,” and “scissored legs slashing lethal arcs” refer to the sexual assault; her “tearing the old man’s jacket” suggests her resistance to the rape and her wrath towards the violent rapists and indifferent onlookers; her “muffled and inhuman croak” implies her disempowerment and objectification under the circumstance of sexual oppression. The whole scene is an authentic revelation of a woman being gang-raped in public, which is brutal, vicious, ferocious, and inhuman. According to the official report, “the likelihood of a woman being raped or having to fight off an attempted rape is high” in industrialized countries, and, even worse, in developing countries, rape is “an ever-present threat and reality for millions of women” (World Health Organization 1997: n.p.). Erdrich, through the metaphoric portrayal of Sita’s being raped by her groom’s relatives, uncovers a bloody fact of sexual oppression: “[A] high percentage of rapists are acquaintances, ‘friends,’ relatives and those in positions of trust or power,” and many sexual assaults “are perpetrated by more than one attacker” (ibid.). Erdrich’s narration of the mass rape is her serious accusation of the rapists, the indifferent watchers, and most essentially, the patriarchal oppression of women. Based on Tamsin Bradley’s study, “43% of GBV (gender-based violence) survivors said they decided to keep quiet out of fear” (Bradley 2020: 197). In a similar way, Sita is also mute, partly out of fear and indignity, but mainly due to disempowerment. Apart from silence, one of the most severe consequences of sexual assault is the survivor’s “disintegration of the self” and destruction of “personal identity” (Brison 2019: 13). This is what happens to Sita: her face is “loose and raging, distorted, working horribly in silence” (Erdrich 2006: 100). After being raped, Sita’s physical self, signified by her deformed face, is destroyed, and worse still, her psychological self, symbolized by her silence and inability to express her fury and outrage, is devastated. She is no longer the beautiful, confident, powerful woman with perfect femininity, but a men’s broken sex toy, speechless and selfless. Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 99 Sita is oppressed in her second marriage and loses her voice again. This time, her disempowerment is not attributed to sexual violence or verbal abuse, but more horridly, a crime, or a well-planned murder. After the abduction and restaurant poisoning scandal, Louis claims Sita has a nervous breakdown and gives her professional medical treatment. Behind his kindness lies Louis’s scheme of murdering the rich woman and seizing her property. The man’s first step is locking Sita up and keeping her under control by advising her to sell her restaurant and stay at home. Then he moves into Sita’s mansion and keeps a record of her daily behavior. Next, he severs her bond with the community, especially the church, hence he becomes the exclusive master of her mind as well as her body. The fourth step is his subconscious implantation into Sita’s mind of the dominant idea of inferiority and dependence, such as advising her to grow the low plants. With all this done, Sita is alienated from the real world and merely relies on him, which is the appropriate timing for him to play his trump card in this murder plan - persuasion and medication - the privilege of a licensed health inspector, to drive the woman insane. Being fully aware of the symptoms of sexual victims who tend to suffer from “seemingly justified skepticism about everyone and everything” (Brison 2019: 13), Louis lures Sita into a state of hallucination with his persuasive words. One of the most malicious examples is his instigation of Sita’s skepticism. When her cousin Karl Adare visits Sita, Louis uses his “earnest voice” to arouse Sita’s doubt: “Remember how the little scissors used to vanish from the dissecting kits? ” (Erdrich 2006: 151). After this thought-provoking question, he pushes Sita to further link Karl with theft, “Girls stole them to manicure their nails? ” (Erdrich 2006: 151). Stimulated by Louis’s emphasis on “stole” and seeing the evidence that Karl has taken Celestine’s Bible, Sita reports to the police about Karl’s “theft,” accusing him of stealing her expensive jewelry. Naturally the sheriff becomes a witness of Sita’s mental illness. In addition to his reinforcing voice, Louis also uses painkillers to aggravate Sita’s posttraumatic syndrome. With his easy access to prescribed drugs, he offers Sita painkillers enough to make her addicted and thus to worsen her hallucinations. As expected, after taking excessive dose of tranquilizers, Sita envisions herself walking over the dead on the Day of Judgement. “Paralyzed with fear,” she confesses her sins by repetitively gasping, “Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa,” 1 and “We wake when we die. We are all judged” (Erdrich 2006: 153). From her words “Mea culpa, Mea maxima culpa,” it is salient that the perfect woman has wholly surrendered to men and the male-dominated society, and held herself responsible for all mistakes and misfortunes in her life. And the words, “We wake when we die” and “We are all judged,” are Erdrich’s omen to foretell Sita’s destiny: she is going to die, and she will not be released from her perpetually drugged state until the day she dies, and she will be judged by others, alive and dead both. In light of her hallucinations and mad ravings, it is manifest Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 100 that Sita has followed Louis’s plan, losing her senses, suffering the patriarchal oppression, heading for destruction due to her pursuit of perfect femininity. The woman is the voiceless victim of patriarchal dualism. As Alison Data Gallant pertinently observes, “traits are assigned (strength and weakness) that define the relationships (domination and submission) between categories. Subsequently the male locus becomes centralized and the female locus marginalized, the male the norm, the female the deviant, the male the self, the woman the other” (Gallant 1993: 66). So is the case of Sita. Getting accustomed to Louis’s centralized status, Sita is willing to be othered and marginalized, and she even chooses to be submissive. For four months, she has pretended that she has lost her voice, enjoying the utter dependence on Louis for everything until the moment she is sent to a ward, and Louis presents to the psychiatrist all of the years of archives of her eccentric behavior he has built up. This time, Sita is panicked. She “opened her mouth to try and say something in an ordinary tone,” but “nothing happened” (Erdrich 2006: 205). Louis’s encouragement of her voice loss and her reliance on him results in Sita’s authentic aphasia. When Sita pleads with him using facial expressions not to leave her in the mental institution, her voice of “the Other” is “simply silenced, not to be heard” (Krupat 1989: 3). Louis “took her hand off of his arm,” “sat her down” in her room, and firmly rejects her, “I can’t, I’m not even supposed to try and understand you unless you verbalize your thoughts” (Erdrich 2006: 206- 07). As a professional, the man is fully aware of the effects of his language and painkillers on the woman and is sure that Sita has been half crazy and she does not stand a chance of voicing her ideas. Louis’s bodily refusal and verbal rejection both cut off his bond with Sita and extinguish her hope of returning to normality. Following the nurse, “Mrs. Tappe” finds the green hallway like “an aquarium,” “a glass tank lined with algae” (Erdrich 2006: 206). Here, similar to the objectified names Jimmy calls her, Sita loses her name again. The woman is nothing but the attachment to Louis Tappe, and without the man, she does not even exist. Besides, Erdrich’s metaphor of the “aquarium” and “a glass tank lined with algae” compares the ward to a prison, and voiceless Sita in the ward to silent fish in the aquarium, both confined and restricted in a sealed place without freedom. As stated above, “arbitrary deprivation of liberty” (World Health Organization 1997: n.p.) is considered sexual violence, and this violence is committed by her “trustworthy” husband. Though aware of the conspiracy of Louis and trying hard to get out of the asylum, Sita “opened her mouth, moved muscles in her throat, but no sound came out” (Erdrich 2006: 209). Eventually, her pretended muteness becomes real voicelessness, and she is literally disempowered. Losing her name, her voice, and her freedom, Sita loses her identity. Ironically, Sita still keeps her perfect femininity even when she is dead. Taking the rest of her pills, she deliberately plans her death to keep an Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 101 ideal appearance. To avoid being seen to die on the bed, she poses herself standing among her favorite bushes, wearing Adelaide’s ruby necklace, carefully dressed, eyes wide open, lips “in exasperation, as if she has just been about to say something and found out her voice was snatched in death” (Erdrich 2006: 291). In response to her previous omen, “We wake when we die,” at the last moment of her life, she is finally awake, trying to see more clearly the abominable world, attempting to speak out the truth of gender oppression. Sadly, however, her voice is sealed permanently by men and the society she did her utmost to please. Simultaneously, as for the other omen, “We are all judged,” dead Sita is still favorably judged by two men on her well-preserved femininity who exclaim with admiration that “age had made her more attractive by refining her features to the bare minimum” (Erdrich 2006: 321). From the men’s perspective, as long as “the mere presence of [a woman’s] flesh swells and erects the male’s sex” (Beauvoir [1953] 1956: 568), they do not bother to care who the woman is and what she is. It is even more hilarious that they are not even interested in whether the woman is alive or lifeless. The muted and deceased Sita being judged by the talkative and vigorous men manifests women’s repressed status in the male-dominated world - women are rated, manipulated, toyed, raped, and even murdered. Though women look alive physically, their minds and their self have long been dead. Women like Sita, though maintaining flawless femininity till death and conforming to the patriarchal social norms set by men, gradually lose their voice, identity, and life, wholly devoured by the gigantic binary oppressive conceptual framework. Analogous to the white woman Sita, the Native American man Russell loses his voice soon after his return from the Korean War. Far beyond his expectation of becoming the elite of the society, the Korean War he has committed to is publicly unnoticed. Two reasons can account for the public indifference towards the war. For one thing, having no confidence in the justice and rightness of the war, bearing more scars and wounds in their minds than in their bodies, the veterans chose to be silent about their formidable and ferocious war experience “with feelings of shame and humiliation” (Keene 2011: 1098). For another, American civilians were greatly concerned with the domestic economy and their livelihood, aggravated by the enormous cost of military spending (Pierpaoli 234). Thus, when coming home, the veterans realized that a sense of inadaptability and displacement insulated and alienated them from the world they had been familiar with. This is what happens to Russell, the representative of Indian veterans of the Korean War. The pride in his masculinity and past achievements makes him a man of few words, but the loss of his masculinity and glory makes him a man of no words. In addition to his posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a paralyzing stroke deprives him of his masculinity, which deals him a severe blow and brings about his “silence, or maybe even worse, his speech” (Erdrich 2006: 196). Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 102 There is a vast difference between “silence” and “speech.” In Cambridge International Dictionary of English, “silence” is defined as “a state of not speaking or writing or making a noise,” which is the choice one positively makes not to speak; conversely, “speech” is “the ability to talk, the activity of talking.” Russell’s loss of speech indicates, rather than his unwillingness to speak, his inability to give voice to his thoughts. When Mary visits him in the hospital, she is panicked to see that Russell “opened his mouth and huge shattered vowels poured out,” which are “urgent sounds” that she “tried to understand” (Erdrich 2006: 196). Here, it can be seen that Russell has a strong will to speak: “open” is an active behavior meaning he is ready to talk, and “huge” implies that he has a great deal to express. But his “shattered” language suggests his impotent speech, his broken body, and his smashed masculinity. In panic, he makes “urgent sounds,” trying to make himself heard. However, Mary, the representative of the white society that he has done his utmost to enter, fails to understand him. Realizing that he has lost his voice and he is misunderstood by the white girl, Russell goes “dim and silent once more,” and this silence falls into “a quiet that [Mary] could not crack” (Erdrich 2006: 196). His “dim” reaction stands for his vanished hope of assimilation, which has gone along with his masculinity and his voice. Meanwhile, his “silen[ce]” and “quiet” show his acceptance of voicelessness and powerlessness. Russell’s despair at his personal development in social hierarchy indicates that he is no longer the promising war hero, but a hopeless fragmented Indian. His flesh has been taken away by the state. His uniforms, medals and photo have been taken away by the museum. And now, it is time for his speech and voice to be taken away. With the disappearance of all his masculine features, his power and spirit to support his body are also gone. Piece by piece, part by part, Russell is losing every bit of his self. Therefore, muscular Russell, shrinking and sinking, is gone. With the loss of their voices, the perfect woman and man “immediately turn to us their objectivized side: they fall silent, close up, and congeal into finished, objectivized images” (Bakhtin 68). Russell’s last hope of assimilation is wrecked by the final scene at the Beet Festival parade. Transported by a windowless van as some sort of goods, knocked over and left ignored and helpless when hundreds of marchers pass by, Russell, decorated with all his medals, is positioned on a float of a graveyard surrounded by a white cross, plastic grass, and red poppies (Erdrich 2006: 299). As the float moves and people cheer in the parade, no one cares about the most-decorated war hero sitting in the burial ground. What makes the scene preposterous is that Russell, a lively human, is placed in the middle of tombs alongside the white cross and red poppies, the symbol of honoring dead veterans. This scenario gives a strong suggestion that Russell has already been deemed a dead man. Devastated by his invisibility and the man-made death at the banquet of honor, Russell sees his dead sister Isabel Kashpaw and follows her on old Chippewa’s Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 103 “four-day road, the road of death,” speaking in a voiceless way, “I’m dead now” (Erdrich 2006: 300). This is the only utterance of Russell with the first person “I” in The Beet Queen which is overwhelmed by the chaos of the parade. Beginning with “I’m,” the sentence structure reveals who he is, namely, his identity. In the last episode of Russell in the novel, his identity is concluded by one word, “dead.” As ridiculed by Erdrich, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” (2009: 91). In other words, if an Indian is dead, he would not speak, nor think, nor resist, nor rise. In his subconsciousness, Russell realizes that this is the moment of his death, his voice sealed, his body paralyzed, his identity lost, and his life pushed to an end. The American Indian who has gone out of his way to fit into the mainstream society through his masculinity, at last meets the expectation of this community with his death and ultimate silence. 5. Voices Found in Resistance to Objectification and Oppression After demonstrating Sita and Russell’s failure to fit into the white-maleelite society with femininity and masculinity, Erdrich points a way out of these dead ends to women and Native Americans by illustrating Russell, Mary, Celestine and Dot Adare’s successful experience of gaining their voices. For instance, Russell’s construction of his voice and identity comes after his destruction: At first he was sorry that it had happened in public, instead of some private place. Then he was glad, and he was also glad to see he hadn’t lost his sense of humor even now. It struck him as so funny that the town he’d lived in and the members of the American Legion were solemnly saluting a dead Indian, that he started to shake with laughter. (Erdrich 2006: 300) What makes dying Russel amused is the ridicule of the scene that the American Legion in the town is “solemnly saluting a dead Indian.” Their celebration is not to honor his contributions to the country, but to cheer for his death. Russell finally wins respect and gets accepted by the white world as a good, dead Indian. Realizing that he has attained the goal he has been striving for all his life in such an absurd way, Russell cannot help laughing out loud. “Laughter,” as argued by Bakhtin, “embraces both poles of change” and “deals with the very process of change” (Bakthin 1984: 127). Russel’s laughter, on the one hand, signifies the relinquishment of his former pursuit of vanity. Now he comes to discern that no matter how hard he has strayed from his indigenous identity to satisfy his craving for access to the “superior” hierarchy, he is still utterly rejected by the “white elites.” Recognizing this brute fact, Russell understands his social-climbing has been nothing but a joke, and his most-decorated-hero title is nothing but a trick. Thereupon, by announcing “I’m dead now,” Russell renounces his old Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 104 identity as a soldier, as a veteran, as a war hero. On the other hand, his laughter symbolizes his new change, giving him “voices of an unfinalized and open dialogue” (Bakhtin 1984: 166). Russell is not a dead man. Instead, after discarding his false identity that has spawned his voice loss, he revives his voice again by laughing out so loud with the indigenous sense of humor that he “fell off the road, opened his eyes before he’d gone past the point of no return and found himself only at the end of the parade” (Erdrich 2006: 300). At this moment, he is reborn in his long-abandoned identity, a Chippewa. With this newly regained identity, Russell relinquishes the idea of joining the parade and assimilating into the white world with his muted voice and fragmented body, and he returns to his own roots and goes down his own road. Since Russell is alive, the four-day road does not refer to the road of death, but the way for living Chippewas to preserve old culture and customs and to develop the unique ethnicity of the Indian nation. In the face of the “too narrow” road, Russell is determined to stumble on and follow Isabel, who “continued forward and wouldn’t double back to help” (Erdrich 2006: 300). The way to foster the traditional Indian culture in such a context of racial barriers is so bumpy and rough that the predecessors are no longer able to assist the contemporary Native Americans. Still, Russell’s resolute laughter shows that Russell-like Indians will struggle and go on persistently and perseveringly however difficult the way is. Erdrich also guides women to offer up their voices. Interestingly, unlike Sita, the successful females including Mary, Celestine and Dot, the narrators in ten out of the sixteen chapters in the novel, are all devoid of femininity. Mary is never known as a woman, but is “opposite” of “delicate,” and is “built like a cement root cellar” (Erdrich 2006: 5, 333). Celestine is tall and “monumental,” with her body “more solid than the tree” (Erdrich 2006: 166, 143). Dot is “broad” and “solid,” using “loud volume of her voice” (Erdrich 2006: 181) to convey her “repressed rage and fantasies of revenge” (Farry 2006: 7). Without any aspiration to adjust themselves to the expectations of men, these women manage to resist gender objectification and oppression, establish their identity as masters of their own destiny, and speak loudly in confident voices. In The Beet Queen, the multiple voices of Mary, Celestine and Dot demonstrate Erdrich’s belief that women deserve a right to express themselves freely. In Bakhtin’s view, the characters’ voices “sometimes almost merge with the author’s voice” (Bakthin 1984: 72). Erdrich, in the interview by Eithne Farry, asserts that “Dot is definitely me, for sure” (Farry 2006: 7). In Erdrich’s biographical narration, Dot uses her “loud booming voice” to challenge the norms of male-elite supremacy in a “wild and unruly” way (Erdrich 2006: 215, 220). For example, knocking schoolboys down and grinding their faces in the dirt, she makes them her boyfriends; facing the defiance from the boy she has a crush on, she smashes the boy’s costume and openly disobeys the school play rules; screaming “I’ll kill you,” she Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 105 opposes her godfather’s arrangement of being elected as the Beet Queen (Erdrich 2006: 333). Through the rebellious behavior of her alter ego to confront the male-elite ideology in her fiction, Erdrich “allow[s] her true nature to show” (Farry 2006: 6). By protesting against authorities without compromises and showing a true self, Erdrich uses Dot’s voice and her own voice to prove to men that women are able to be independent and successful. With her characters’ and her own loud voice, Erdrich illuminates the way forward for all women in the world of objectification and oppression - to be who they truly are and never stoop to please men with femininity. Conclusion In The Beet Queen, it seems on the surface that Erdrich is telling the stories of Sita and Russell, but in truth, she exposes the tragedy of white women and Native American men who have been impacted by the white-male-elite ideology and are committed to developing their sexuality to assimilate themselves into the so-called superior social class in postcolonial America. By building up their femininity and masculinity, they manage to exert influences over others and satiate their lusts. However, under the patriarchal and racial oppression, they lose their voices, their power, and their identity. The white woman, though maintaining perfect femininity, dies voicelessly in the male-dominated world. Conversely, the Native American man, though losing masculinity, by relinquishing his vain desire and returning to the Chippewa culture, is reborn with a loud voice that asserts its independence from the white-dominated world. In the meantime, other women’s experiences of making their loud voices heard manifest that women, whether white or of color, can be successful if they forge their true self without conforming to the men-set norms. The voices lost and found in The Beet Queen articulate Erdrich’s condemnation of the binary conceptual framework of gender and race, her opposition to fitting into the upper class with femininity and masculinity, and her fervent belief that “a word is spoken, or a song is sung not against, but within the silence” (Momaday 808). Notes 1. “Mea culpa” is from Latin used as an interjection, meaning “my fault,” or as a noun, defined as “an acknowledgement of one’s responsibility for a fault or error.” “Mea cupla, Mea maxima culpa” is an expression “from Catholic ritual that assigns blame to oneself” which means “through my most grievous fault.” (dictionary.com: online). Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan 106 Funding We are grateful to the National Social Science Foundation of China for supporting the project of “Absorption, Adaptation and Acculturation of Chinese Discourse in the Process of American Ecoliterature” (No. 19BWW010) and the Social Science Foundation of Hunan Province in China for supporting a key provincial project “A Study of the Soundscape in Contemporary American Eco-literature” (No. 17ZDB004) from which this article arises. Works Cited Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Ed. and Trans. Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Beauvoir, Simone de ([1953] 1956). The Second Sex. Trans. and Ed. Howard M. Parshley. London: Jonathan Cape. Bradley, Harriet (1999). Gender and Power in the Workplace: Analysing the Impact of Economic Change. Houndmills: Macmillan Press Ltd. Bradley, Tamsin (2020). Global Perspectives on Violence against Women and Girls. London: Zed Books. Brison, Susan J. (2019). “Surviving Sexual Violence: A Philosophical Perspective.” In: Wanda Teays (Ed.). Analyzing Violence against Women. Cham: Springer. 11- 26. Calloway, Colin G. (2016). First People: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History. Fifth Edition. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s. Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. s. v. silence, speech, voice. Chae, Mark H. ([2001] 2002). “Gender and Ethnicity in Identity Formation.” The New Jersey Journal of Professional Counseling, 56. 17-23. Connell, Raewyn (2016). “100 Million Kalashnikovs: Gendered Power on a World Scale.” Debate Feminista 51. 3-17. Dawson, Tricia (2018). Gender, Class and Power: An Analysis of Pay Inequalities in the Workplace. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Dictionary.com. “mea culpa”. [online] https: / / www.dictionary.com/ browse/ meaculpa. [13 January 2021]. Eisenstein, Zillah (1979). “Developing a Theory of Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism”. “Some Notes on the Relations of Capitalist Patriarchy”. In: Zillah R. Eisenstein (Ed.). Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism. New York: Monthly Review Press. 5-40, 41-55. Eithne Farry (2006). “The Beet Queen Generation: Louise Erdrich on Farming, Dating Bad Boys, and Creating Her Alter Ego.” In: Louise Erdich. The Beet Queen. New York: HarperCollins Press. 5-7. Erdrich, Louise ([1998] 2006). The Beet Queen. New York: HarperCollins Press. Erdrich, Louise ([1993] 2009). Love Medicine. New York: Harper Perennial. Flavin, Louise (1995). “Gender Construction Amid Family Dissolution in Louise Erdrich’s The Beet Queen”. Studies in American Indian Literatures 7 (2). 17-24. Foucault, Michel ([1979] 1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. Second Edition. New York: Vintage Books. Voices Lost with Femininity and Masculinity in The Beet Queen 107 Gallant, Alison Data (1993). “‘The Story Comes Up Different Every Time’: Louise Erdrich and the Emerging Aesthetic of the Minority Woman Writer”. Dissertation, Columbus: The Ohio State University. Gruenfeld, Deborah H. et al. (2008). “Power and the Objectification of Social Targets”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95 (1). 111-27. Keene, Judith (2011). “Lost to Public Commemoration: American Veterans of the ‘Forgotten’ Korean War”. Journal of Social History 44 (4). 1095-113. Krupat, Arnold (1989). The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon. Berkeley: University of California Press. Lakoff, Robin (1973). “Language and Woman’s Place”. Language in Society 2 (1). 45-80. Meisenhelder, Susan (1994). “Race and Gender in Louise Erdrich’s ‘The Beet Queen’”. A Review of International English Literature 25 (1). 45-57. Minh-ha, Trinh T (1991). When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics. New York: Routledge. Momaday, N. Scott (2020). “The Native Voice in American Literature”. In: Phillip Lopate (Ed.). The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Pantheon Books. 805-11. Old Dog Cross, Phyllis (1982). “Sexual Abuse, a New Threat to the Native American Woman: An Overview”. Listening Post: A Periodical of the Mental Health Programs of Indian Health Services 6 (2). 18-20. Pierpaoli, Paul G. (1999). Truman and Korea: The Political Culture of the Early Cold War. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. World Health Organization (1997). “Violence against Women: A Priority Health Issue”. [online] https: / / apps.who.int/ iris/ bitstream/ hadle/ 10665/ 63553/ WH O_FRH_WHD_97.8.pdf [29 December 2020]. Qianqian Chen Hunan University Joan Qionglin Tan Shanghai University of Finance and Economics . Michael Fuchs University of Oldenb Selecting ESP reading materials Vocabulary suitability of science magazines for English for Science teaching and learning Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić Bearing in mind that teachers often find themselves in a position where they have to produce their own teaching materials for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes, vocabulary profiling studies of certain genres may be of help in such situations. English for Science is an ESP field commonly taught around the world; however, despite this, the teaching resources for it are not as plentiful as the ESP teachers would like them to be. With this in mind, in this paper we study the vocabulary profile of science magazines, a genre that is generally written for non-expert audience and includes reports, news and opinions about science. We determine how complex the vocabulary of this genre is, using a corpus of approximately 230,000 running words, and define how many words are needed to reach the minimum reading comprehension level. We also determine how much high-frequency general, academic and scientific vocabulary this genre contains. Based on this, we draw conclusions on the target ESP audience these texts would be most useful for. 1. Introduction Increasingly, English is considered as the lingua franca of science and university studies - it dominates the world’s scientific, academic and technological communication (Gibson 2007; Tardy 2004; Dimova et al. 2015). Moreover, on account of the massive technological and scientific innovations introduced recently, the number of STEM 1 graduates has been on the 1 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0005 Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 110 rise, whereas the demands for them have been increasing even faster 2 . In this context, English for Science (ES) has gained particular prominence, and along with English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses (Parkinson 2013; Charles 2013), it is widely taught as part of university science curricula to non-native speakers of English. As one of the branches of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Science is taught separately from General English due to the fact that it has its own distinct methodology, a research agenda related to the disciplines that inform it, as well as a focus on practical outcomes (cf. Miller 2014). English for Science may subsume a number of more specific courses, such as courses for medical purposes, physical sciences, life science, etc., but it is sometimes taught as a whole, generally for groups of students with different majors. While some of the individual disciplines are well or at least modestly resourced with textbooks and other teaching and learning materials (e.g. English for Medicine), for many of them there are still insufficient up-to-date resources (e.g. for English for Mathematics or English for Physics), and that is also the case for English for Science taught as a whole. Moreover, the existing resources have primarily focused on prototypical scientific genres, such as research articles and lab reports, while a further incorporation and investigation of other genres related to science would be of value (Parkinson 2013). In the light of the above, this study seeks to explore the vocabulary value of including the genre of science magazines in English for Science resources, a genre comprising reports, news and opinions on science, intended mostly for “lay persons”, i.e. non-expert audience but also for scientists who wish to keep up-to-date with the advances from other scientific disciplines. Another feature of science magazine articles is that they are chiefly written by scientists themselves. This genre is, therefore, at least tangentially of value for real scientists and more so for science students, who still have not truly entered the world of science or settled on their majors. The content of science magazines is generally more interesting than that of scientific genres such as research articles, as it is written to both inform and entertain the scientific curiosity, and is richly illustrated with photos. The appeal of this genre could certainly recommend it for use in ESP resources. In addition, as English for Science teachers are generally disciplinary outsiders (they are not scientists) (Miller 2014), science magazines would certainly be more accessible to them contents-wise. These two arguments speak in favour of using science magazines in English for Science courses; however, before doing that, it is worth exploring just how valuable this genre is vocabulary-wise and which groups of English for Science students it would benefit the most. 2 See, for instance, the 2018 report of the UK’s Institute of Physics and the 2012 report of the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Selecting ESP reading materials 111 Bearing in mind the above, this paper examines the lexical profile of science magazines, i.e. the complexity of its vocabulary and the number of words needed to cross the comprehension thresholds as defined in the literature. A corpus of around 230,000 running words from this genre is also checked for the presence of general, academic and scientific vocabulary, as represented by the word lists of these types of vocabulary already established in the literature. Based on this, we draw pedagogy-related conclusions in terms of the value of this genre in English for Science courses, as well as the target audience that may benefit most from reading such texts. 2. Theoetical background In this section we will discuss the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension and go on to provide a brief review of some of the word lists produced for ESL and ESP purposes so far. We will also review the methodology used for lexical profiling that will be employed in this paper, as well as relate vocabulary sizes to various levels of ESL knowledge. 2.1. Vocabulary proficiency and reading comprehension That vocabulary knowledge can predict the level of reading comprehension is a generally accepted notion (Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski 2010). According to Nagy (1988), the knowledge of vocabulary is the single best predictor of a reader’s level of understanding a text. Having this in mind, a number of scholars have tried to find out how many words a reader should be familiar with in order to understand certain types of texts at certain levels. In her seminal study, Laufer (1989) determined that it is a 95%-vocabulary coverage threshold that would be needed to achieve a “reasonable” or “optimal” level of reading comprehension of a text, with the 5% remaining words assumed to be guessed from the context. Another study, that of Nation (2006), raised the threshold coverage, which should ensure an “optimum” reading of texts, achieved if a reader knows 98% of the words used in a text. Nation (2006) maintains that this 98%-threshold typically means the knowledge of approximately 9,000 word families. One word family comprises the root wood and all the words derived and inflected from it (for instance, maintain, maintains, maintained, maintaining, maintenance, maintenances…). Both the cited thresholds seem quite high for non-native English speakers, for many of them virtually beyond reach. Nevertheless, some scholars have shown that the count of the words needed depends on the type of text and proven that a good selection of words for certain purposes may substantially reduce the number of the words needed. This insight inspired the Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 112 birth of word lists, created for many different purposes, and subsequently the lexical profiling of various texts against these word lists. 2.2. Measuring vocabulary load and word lists The Lexical Frequency Profiling (LFP) method, developed in 1995 by Laufer and Nation, is one of the widely used methods for quantifying the lexical complexity of a text and the receptive size of a learner’s vocabulary. It relies on the following procedure: a corpus is loaded into a specialized programme, alongside one or more word lists (e.g. these lists could be those of the most frequent vocabulary, academic vocabulary, technical vocabulary, etc.). The programme then calculates the amount of coverage of each of the loaded lists in the corpus. The results can be compared to those for other corpora, which reveals the lexical richness and profile of a certain corpus when compared to others. As one of the best-known frequency-based measures of vocabulary, LFP is very often used in ESL/ EFL research and instruction. Even though this is not the only method for calculating lexical richness, the LFP method produces results that to a great extent match those obtained using the other methods (Lindqvist et al. 2013). The results obtained are quantitative, which contributes to their clarity and verifiability, but the method has still been criticized. The greatest fault found with it is its alleged bias to receptive knowledge of vocabulary. Also, when the lexical profile is “narrowed down” to just word frequencies, i.e. numbers, some “information” seems to be inevitably lost (Crossley et al. 2013). Nevertheless, this method has been widely used in the last twenty years, which corroborates its value (Morris and Cobb 2004; Read and Nation 2006; Douglas 2015, etc.). There are a number of word lists available now but, in this paper, we will present only those that are applicable to our present study. Word lists containing the most frequent general-purpose vocabulary are most typically used for the purpose of assisting General English instruction. Others are closely specialized for certain areas, i.e. specialized purposes, such as academic word lists for higher education students or ESP learners’ lists. They are normally used as teaching and learning resources (Khani and Tazik 2013), but they are also useful as guidelines for developing textbooks and courses in the domain of EFL and ESP instruction (Wang et al. 2008; Jin et al. 2013). The “pioneering” General Service List (GSL), developed by West in 1953, was influential for decades. This list was made before the invention of software and was taken out from a corpus manually. The GSL contains the most frequent 2,000 word families of English and was in wide use until quite recently, its updated replacements having been introduced only sixty years later. These GSLs are known as the NGSLs - the New General Service Lists (Brezina and Gablasova 2013, and Browne et al. 2013a) and they outdo the old GSL to a certain degree in modern corpora. Selecting ESP reading materials 113 A very well-known word list is the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead 2000). Coxhead generated it from a balanced academic corpus of 3.5 million words, after disregarding the words already contained in the GSL. With its 570 word families, the AWL generally accounts for about 10% of the words in most academic written corpora. Coxhead and Hirsh (2007) went one step further and used the GSL and the AWL to develop the Science List (SL), from the science subsection of Coxhead’s original academic corpus, after excluding the word families found in those two lists. The SL covers 3.79% of the words in their science corpus and it contains 388 word families. We could say that this is an academic science list - it is still academic as it was developed from an academic corpus, but it is more specialized towards science than the AWL. Analogously to the AWL being built on the basis of the original 1953 GSL, the NAWL (New Academic Word List) was developed on top of the NGSL (Browne et al. 2013). These authors used a 288-million-word academic corpus to produce this list - this corpus is substantially larger than that used by Coxhead (2000), but it is not as balanced. In the newest studies, both pairs of the lists are used (the GSL + the AWL, and the NGSL + the NAWL), the upgraded lists having the advantage of being more representative of modern authentic language and enabling a wider coverage in general, as they were extracted from larger corpora than the original lists. On the other hand, much of the data from the literature pre-dates the new lists and very often it comes in quite useful to compare the new results with the results from the earlier research using the earlier sets of word lists. Another set of word lists that is widely used in lexical profiling is Nation’s set (2012). A giant 450-million word corpus combining the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), was used to develop this set of frequency-based word lists. It comprises 25 word lists, each of them having 1,000 word families. This set also contains four additional word lists with proper names, marginal words, non-hyphenated compounds and abbreviations. It is normally used to determine the lexical richness of a corpus and it is the largest word list set to date. 2.3. Vocabulary size and the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) Milton (2010) attempts at correlating vocabulary sizes and the different levels of knowing a foreign language according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2001). The author finds that to progress from A levels into B levels, according to the CEFR, students need around 3,000 words. For the B2 level, which presupposes reading with a substantial degree of independence, it is estimated that up Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 114 to 5,000 words are needed. “For the highest level of fluency and understanding,” Milton (2010: 202) concludes 3 , the knowledge of 98% of the words used in a text would be necessary, which typically corresponds to 8,000-9,000 words for most genres, as Nation calculates (2013). The most advanced L2 speakers, such as those undergoing doctoral studies taught in English, will know about 9,000 word families of English (Nation 2013: 26). In this study, we will calculate how many words are needed for reading science magazines and what level of the English language knowledge, according to CEFR, is required for this effort. 3. Corpus and methodology The corpus employed in this study consists of 7 full issues of two reputable and very popular science magazines published in English - 4 issues of New Scientist, as well as 3 issues of Scientific American, published between February and June 2018. Both these subsets of our corpus contain a similar number of total running words (Table 1). New Scientist is based in London, whereas Scientific American is based in the USA. Both the magazines publish articles on a wide range of scientific topics and are sold globally. The pdf files were converted into plain text files (.txt) by means of the programme AntFileConverter 1.2.1 (Anthony 2017). The corpus so obtained was “cleaned”, meaning that formulas and tables were removed, and that the conversion errors were addressed (most resulting from the words split at the end of a line, which were made whole again manually). This procedure generated a corpus whose details are presented below: Science magazines No. of issues No. of tokens New Scientist 4 118,400 Scientific American 3 108,068 Table 1. Details of the corpus We then used AntWordProfiler 1.4.0w (Anthony 2014), a vocabulary profiling programme, which allows for corpora to be compared against the loaded word lists. We calculated the coverage of each of the loaded lists (the lists are those from the theoretical review), the results of which were compared against the other available data from the literature. 3 The author, however, does not make a distinction between the C1 and the C2 levels, respectively. Selecting ESP reading materials 115 4. Results and analysis We first used the NGSL 1.01 (Browne et al. 2013a), containing 2,818 lemmas (corresponding to 2,368 word families), as well as the NAWL 1.0 (Browne et al. 2013b), containing 960 lemmas. As explained before, the NAWL was built on top of the NGSL, and so the two word lists are complementary (i.e. there are no overlaps) and can be used in conjunction. Their coverages in the corpus are presented in Table 2: Word list Token % Cumulative % Word list NGSL 80.2 80.2 NGSL NAWL 3.09 83.29 NAWL Table 2. Coverage of the NGSL and the NAWL in the Science Magazine Corpus The NGSL and the NAWL reach a combined average of 83.29% in our Science Magazine Corpus, leaving another 16.71%, or fewer than 3 in every 20 words (typically, two lines of a text), uncovered in the corpus. For an unassisted reading, students would need to know two more words in every 20 words of a text, if they were to rely solely on the NGSL and the NAWL. These two word lists are recent, which means that not much research has been conducted using them and that there are not many data available regarding their coverage in various corpora, and so these results cannot be compared with those for other corpora (but might with some future findings). Bearing this in mind, we additionally calculated the coverage of the two older corresponding lists - the GSL and the AWL, for which there are extensive data available in the literature. As explained earlier, these two were also built in conjunction, i.e. on top of each other, and on top of the two, the Science List (SL) was also derived. The results presented in Table 3 include the coverages of these three complementary word lists: Word list Token % Cumulative % Word list Token % GSL 75.08 75.08 GSL 75.08 AWL 6.62 81.7 AWL 6.62 Table 3. Coverage of the GSL, the AWL and the SL in the Science Magazine Corpus The combined coverage of the GSL and the AWL is 81.7%, which is somewhat lower than that obtained by the newer corresponding word lists (83.29% for the NGSL + the NAWL), which is understandable, given that the newer lists perform better in modern corpora. The coverage of the GSL in our corpus (75.08%) is comparable to that found by Coxhead (2000) for her mixed academic corpus (76.1%). However, the GSL covered just 72.9% Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 116 in Coxhead’s science subsection of the corpus. As expected, we can see that our science magazine corpus contains more general-purpose words than it is the case with Coxhead’s academic science corpus, which shows that the language of science magazines is less specialised than that of academic science. The coverage of frequent academic words (as represented by the AWL) was 6.62% in our science magazine corpus, which is considerably lower than that found for Coxhead’s academic corpus (2000), where its coverage was 10%, and for her science subsection, where its coverage was 9.1%. This, too, might have been expected but it needed an empirical confirmation and precise results - when compared to Coxhead’s results for her academic science corpus, our Science Magazine Corpus features 27.26% less academic vocabulary. Therefore, for the students aiming at learning academic scientific English, the genre of science magazines as a source of vocabulary would not be fully appropriate. However, the level of academic vocabulary in science magazines is certainly not negligible and this finding does not exclude them as a genre to be incorporated, to some degree, in English for Science resources. Our using the GSL and the AWL is also justified by the fact that the Science List - the SL, was built on top of them, i.e. in conjunction with them. In our Science Magazine Corpus, the SL covers almost 2%, i.e. one in every 50 words. For comparison, in the academic science corpus used by Coxhead and Hirsh (2007), its coverage was 3.79%. For the sake of precision, this means that we found 48.26% fewer scientific words in our Science Magazines Corpus than Coxhead and Hirsh found in their academic science corpus, which is a substantial difference. Still, science magazines do feature scientific words to some extent, and so the results do not point to their complete exclusion as a genre when considering sources for English for Science texts. Bearing in mind that the target readers of science magazines are not exclusively scientists, it is expected that their vocabulary will contain fewer academic and technical words, as our results have corroborated. Having conducted this study, we know exactly how many fewer - the science magazine articles contained less academic vocabulary by about a third, and less scientific-technical words by about a half, in comparison to academic science texts. In addition, the selected science magazines also contained a somewhat simpler general vocabulary, making them more readable for L2 students. The LFP method produces numerical results, for which it has sometimes been criticised, as suggested in the theoretical section of this paper. In order to overcome this disadvantage, we will illustrate what the texts of science magazine articles look like and show what words fall under the scope of the word lists referred to above. To this end, we will quote an extract from our corpus and mark the academic and the scientific words (the bold marks the words from the AWL and the underlined items are from the SL): Selecting ESP reading materials 117 “This discovery triggered multiple campaigns of follow-up observations with radio telescopes worldwide. One of these used the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, a collection of 27 radio antennas observing in tandem, to regularly search for events on millisecond timescales in the same area of the sky as FRB 121102. This survey had the unique capability to pinpoint radio bursts’ locations on the sky several orders of magnitude better than a single radio dish could. After roughly six months of observations, the team - led by Shami Chatterjee of Cornell University - discovered and localized a burst. Soon an even more precise location for this FRB came through the technique of very long baseline interferometry, where signals from multiple telescopes around the world are combined to synthesize a much larger virtual telescope with exquisite resolution on the sky. The finding, led by Benito Marcote of the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE) in the Netherlands and his colleagues, pinpointed the repeated bursts from FRB 121102 with an uncertainty of less than one arc second (1⁄3,600 of a degree)” (Lorimer and McLaughlin, 2018: 46). In this extract, there are four words from the Science List: array, magnitude, synthesize and arc, whereas the academic words (the AWL), naturally, were more frequent - they included nine words: multiple, radio, collection, burst, search, dish, signal, combined and repeated. Most of the other words from the extract were frequent general-purpose words, which is why we decided not to mark them. If we apply the word lists which Nation (2012) produced based on their frequency in the BNC and COCA corpora, we can calculate the vocabulary load of our Science Magazine Corpus and determine the target group of English for Science learners for whom they will work best. We present these results in Table 4: BNC / COCA WORD LISTS SCIENCE MAGAZINES TOKEN % CUMULATIVE % Proper nouns 3.25 3.25 Marginal words and letters of the alphabet 0.74 3.99 Transparent compounds 0.45 4.44 Abbreviations 0.4 4.84 1 st 1,000 word families 67.01 71.85 2 nd 1,000 word families 10.77 82.62 3 rd 1,000 word families 6.97 89.59 4 th 1,000 word families 2.23 91.82 5 th 1,000 word families 1.34 93.16 6 th 1,000 word families 0.77 93.93 Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 118 7 th 1,000 word families 0.58 94.51 8 th 1,000 word families 0.55 95.06 Table 4. Coverage of Nation’s word lists in the Science Magazine Corpus Considering the results presented in Table 4, we find that the coverage of 95%, needed for the minimum comprehension threshold (Laufer 1989), is reached at 8,000 most frequent word families of English. For comparison, we will note that Hirsh and Nation (1992) find that 5,000 words are needed to read novels for teenagers; in addition, Nation (2006) calculates that 4,000 words are required to read some novels and newspapers, as well as watch children’s movies, whereas about 3,000 words are necessary to understand spoken English. Moreover, Coxhead and Walls (2012) calculate that 5,000 words are needed to listen to TED talks. In comparison with all these different genres, we may say that the genre of science magazines is substantially more demanding vocabulary-wise. As suggested earlier, Milton (2010) establishes that the knowledge of 98% of the words used in a text would be necessary for the C levels, which typically corresponds to 8,000-9,000 words for most genres, as Nation calculates (2013). Bearing this in mind, we can conclude that the lexical demand of science magazines is rather high and that a strong vocabulary is needed to read them, one typically held by those at the C levels of mastery (according to the CEFR). Therefore, unadapted, the texts belonging to the genre of science magazines could only be read by the already very advanced and fluent learners, which certainly reduces the pool of the possible target learners for whom we might use this genre. Such learners will have to know the most frequent general-purpose, academic and scientific-technical vocabulary. Therefore, a safe conclusion is that unadapted texts of science magazines are accessible to C-level students. B2-level students, with their assumed knowledge of up to 5,000 words (Milton 2010), will know up to 93% of the words of our corpus (Table 4 - with 5,000 word families, a coverage of 93.16% is attained). To reach Laufer’s comprehension threshold (met at a 95%-coverage), at least 2% of the remaining words in science magazine articles would need to be adapted, i.e. replaced by some more common words, in order to make them more readable for B2 students. This means that 1 in every 50 words (or five lines of a text) would need to be simplified, explained or substituted. On the other hand, for a B2 student to reach the ideal reading level (for which he/ she should know 98% of the words used in the text, as per Nation (2006)), a teacher or a teaching material producer would need to adapt 5% of the uncovered words, i.e. 1 in every 20 words (or every two lines of a text). Though technically demanding, this still sounds feasible, and our conclusion is that, with some adaptation, the texts from science magazines can be used as supplementary teaching and learning resources for both Selecting ESP reading materials 119 upper-intermediate and advanced students, granted, though, that they would likely be more useful for the latter group. To illustrate the vocabulary level of science magazine articles, we will quote another extract from our corpus and mark the level of words 4 : “WASPS 6 literally 3 drum 2 up 1 interest 1 in 1 food 1 , banging 2 their 1 abdomens 5 against 1 the 1 walls 1 of 1 their 1 nest 2 to 1 inform 1 their 1 nestmates that 1 food 1 is 1 available 2 . We 1 have 1 known 1 since 1 the 1 1960s that 1 several 1 species 2 of 1 wasp 6 perform 2 gastral drumming 2 from 1 time 1 to 1 time 1 banging 2 their 1 abdomens 5 against 1 their 1 nest 2 walls 1 in 1 a 1 series 2 of 1 short 1 bursts 2 . The 1 scientists 1 who 1 first 1 reported 1 this 1 behaviour 3 thought 1 it 1 may 1 be 1 a 1 signal 2 that 1 the 1 wasps 6 were 1 hungry 1 . Meanwhile 3 , other 1 researchers 2 suggested 1 the 1 wasps 6 might 1 be 1 telling 1 nestmates about 1 food 1 sources 3 . Such 1 recruitment 3 behaviour 3 is 1 common 2 in 1 social 2 animals 1 , from 1 house 1 sparrows 9 to 1 naked 3 mole 6 rats 2 . Benjamin PW Taylor PW at 1 the 1 City 1 University 2 of 1 New 1 York PN and 1 his 1 colleagues 3 have 1 now 1 put 1 the 1 two 1 ideas 1 to 1 the 1 test 1 . The 1 team 1 took 1 six 1 colonies 3 of 1 German PW yellowjacket wasps 6 (Vespula germanica) and 1 housed 1 them 1 in 1 artificial 4 nests 2 . The 1 wasps 6 were 1 allowed 1 to 1 freely 1 forage 7 for 1 a 1 day 1 , but 1 the 1 next 1 day 1 they 1 were 1 shut 1 in 1 and 1 given 1 only 1 water 1 , or 1 a 1 sucrose 18 solution 3 . On 1 the 1 third 1 day 1 , the 1 exit 4 was 1 opened 1 again 1 . Drumming 2 declined 3 when 1 the 1 wasps 6 were 1 given 1 only 1 water 1 , suggesting 1 it 1 was 1 not 1 a 1 signal 2 of 1 hunger 1 . The 1 wasps 6 drummed 2 more 1 when 1 sucrose 18 was 1 offered 1 , and 1 the 1 levels 1 of 1 drumming 2 consistently 3 returned 1 to 1 a 1 baseline TC level 1 on 1 the 1 third 1 day 1 . This 1 suggests 1 that 1 the 1 wasps 6 drum 2 to 1 alert 3 each 1 other 1 to 1 the 1 presence 3 of 1 food 1 (The 1 Science 1 of 1 Nature 1 , doi PW .org ABR / cm4d)” (Kemmeny 2018). As can be seen, most of the words from this extract belong to the first 2,000 words of English (marked with the superscripts 1 and 2). In fact, the vast majority of them comes from the first frequency band (1 st 1,000 words in the BNC/ COCA). A smaller group of words comes from the third band (literally, meanwhile, behaviour, recruitment, naked, solution, declined, source). Significantly fewer words are used from the higher frequency bands. For instance, there is just one word from the 18 th 1,000 words - sucrose, which is a rather specialised and technical word; sparrow comes from the ninth band; forage is from the seventh, while mole and wasp are from the sixth band. The general knowledge of the words up to the ninth frequency band may be expected from an advanced student (of course, students of any level might know some individual words from the higher bands as well). 4 The legend: 1, 2, 3… mark the frequency band to which a word belongs, i.e. the 1st 1,000, the 2nd 1,000, the 3rd 1,000, etc.; ABR. stands for abbreviation, PW stands for proper word, while TC stands for a transparent (non-hyphenated) compound. Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić 120 5. Pedagogical implications and recommendations Based on the findings of the study, the following pedagogical implications and recommendations can be made: - The target students’ vocabulary size should first be tested (this is possible by means various Vocabulary Size Tests, some of which are available online). Those designing teaching materials who cannot test their target students, may follow the general guideline that they can include unadapted texts from science magazines for the target C-level groups, as well as adapted texts from science magazines for the target B2-level groups. - Texts from science magazines contain less academic vocabulary than science genres but still sufficient to allow for the learning of some academic vocabulary in the ES and the EAP courses. - Texts from science magazines contain 50% fewer scientific words than science genres, which means that they can only occasionally be used as a source of this type of vocabulary for English for Science students. Overall, we recommend including texts from science magazines for the B2and the C-level English learners on an occasional basis, preferably in an adapted, i.e. simplified form. The appeal of this genre, as suggested in the introduction, would be motivating for the students, while the teachers who are typically disciplinary outsiders should find it easier to teach such texts. However, as suggested, this will only work under the conditions presented above. 6. Limitations of the study A limitation of this study lies in its somewhat limited corpus - for future research, we suggest employing a larger corpus containing a wider variety of science magazines. Also, the more specialised science magazines (Vuković-Stamatović 2020), i.e. those intended for a narrower field such as one discipline (i.e. physics, chemistry…), may be more lexically demanding and contain more academic and specialised vocabulary than is found in general science magazines, covering a wide variety of topics, such as the two selected for the purpose of this study. This means that, if they decide to use science magazines for their sources of materials, teachers and teaching materials producers should bear this consideration in mind - science magazines may vary vocabulary-wise according to how specialised they are. The more specialised magazines should be used for sources for the more specific English for Science branches (e.g. English for Physics or Selecting ESP reading materials 121 English for Chemistry, etc.), while the broader, multidisciplinary ones are recommended for general English for Science courses. 7. Conclusion In this paper we studied whether and how texts from science magazines can be used for English for Science classes. Our corpus contained about 230,000 running words coming from two science magazines - New Scientist and Scientific American. We calculated the vocabulary load of the texts published in these two magazines. It turned out that the coverage of 95% of the words, needed for minimum comprehension (Laufer 1989), may require the knowledge of as many as 8,000 words. This means that the language of science magazines is rather lexically demanding and that the articles published in them may be used for advanced learners and, with some more adaptations, for upperintermediate learners as well. Although rather lexically dense, the vocabulary of science magazines proved not to be as dense as that of academic scientific English. Naturally, it contained fewer academic and substantially fewer specialised, i.e. scientific-technical words. 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Milica Vuković-Stamatović Vesna Bratić University of Montenegro Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing: Praise, Over-Commenting and Appropriation Cvetka Sokolov Teachers’ marginal and end comments are an essential part of teaching and evaluating students’ written work. However, the method can backfire when teachers resort to insincere formulaic praise, fall into the trap of over-commenting, and lose sight of the actual author of the text, appropriating it in the process. The challenges of providing effective written feedback require an examination of students’ attitudes toward it, both to reassure teachers that they are doing better than they think they are, but also to make them aware that there is much room for improvement. For one thing, the remaining weaknesses can be addressed in systematic teacher training on written feedback, which has been lacking. Second, these same teachers should then teach their students how to interpret marginal and final comments and use them to revise their work. The article reviews the research to date in this area and presents a case study that sheds more light on the topic, making it clear that more systematic and holistic research and training would be needed in this area. 1. Introduction Written feedback on student work represents one of the most challenging and valuable forms of teacher feedback on student written performance and covers an impressive range of instructional goals. Aside from motivating students to revise their drafts by showing interest in what they are communicating through writing, giving detailed information about the strengths and weaknesses of their work provides writing instruction tailored to each particular student’s specific needs. In addition, since the teacher also functions as a reader, students are encouraged to engage in AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0006 Cvetka Sokolov 126 dialogue with their reader/ teacher (cf. Kang & Dykema 2017), developing awareness of the importance and value of reader feedback, an indispensable tool for improving one’s writing in all situational contexts, not just ‘at school’. “Appropriate feedback helps students develop sufficient insights into their own learning and become self-critical, self-reflective, and selfdirected” (Ruiz-Primo & Li 2013: 220). Teachers who provide marginal and end comments on students’ written work can take more time to think about what they are commenting on and in what way than when they provide off-the-cuff feedback on their students’ oral performance. Similarly, students have more time to think about their writing teachers’ suggestions for improvement and possible ways to use them in their next drafts or/ and in their further writing, hopefully utilizing them in other courses and in ‘real life’ as well (cf. Butt 2010: 76; Sommers 1982: 333). The formative nature of the type of assessment, which goes far beyond justifying numerical or letter grades, is another feature that makes it indispensable. Or does it? Research on the effectiveness of feedback reveals that “only half of the revisions in response to (substantive teachers’ comments on drafts) could be considered as improvements and a third actually made matters worse” (Hyland & Hyland 2006: 3; cf. Bowden 2018). Oh dear. Why is that? Of course, the method can backfire if not used appropriately. Overly directive, disrespectful or even hostile comments, failing to balance criticism with praise and leave sufficient room for dialogue and negotiation, are bound to seriously damage students’ confidence, motivation and “capacity to think” (Treglia 2019: 1298). Another pitfall is that the teacher takes on the role of author of the text by over-commenting, which can lead to “appropriating the text” (Knoblauch & Brannon 1984), undermining the reliability and validity of the assessment of the final revised product: to what extent is it still a reliable reflection of an individual student’s knowledge and effort? (cf. Cushing Weigle 2002: 216; Sokolov 2014: 140). Moreover, it is likely to reduce the effect of individual instruction by overburdening and demotivating the student (cf. Raimes 1983: 141; Sommers 2013: 4; Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 87). So are overly generic vague statements (Butt 2010: 76; Clark & Ivanič 1997: 234; Raimes 1983: 143; Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 84-85; Treglia 2019: 119) and those that lack clarity about which weaknesses in the text need to be addressed first (Center 2020; Sommers 2013: 18). Moreover, teachers tend to be discouraged from providing time-consuming individualised feedback beyond occasional vague and formulaic phrases and the assignment of letter or number grades. One teacher quoted in Ivana Cindrić and Snježana Pavić’s (2017: 93) article on typical feedback from Croatian primary language teachers says: “I don’t want to use stock Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 127 phrases, but thinking of different feedback for 30-40 students in 3-5 different courses during one teaching module just feels beyond me.” The lack of immediate feedback on students’ attitudes to this arduous method of teaching and assessing student writing is also unhelpful. Would they even read the comments and think about them in depth if they were not asked to reflect on them and base their revisions on them? There are young writers who do give the impression of only skimming the comments (if at all), an impression supported by research that “suggests that students rarely ‘take in’ the written comments teachers add to their work” (Butt 2010: 75; cf. Ruiz-Primo & Li 2013: 225). If this is so, why bother at all? Are writing teachers not just wasting their time, then? If teaching involves leaps of faith, responding is one of the greatest leaps because we have so little direct evidence of what students actually do with our comments, or why they find some useful and others not. (…) After spending long nights and weekends with students’ drafts, I watch students walk out of the classroom, sometimes glancing at my comments, but most often not. I wonder if these comments will go unread and unused, and I wonder what happens between drafts, between the moments when drafts are handed back and when students submit their revisions (Sommers 2013: x-xi; cf. Carless 2020: 3; Gravett 2020: 152; Lindeman et al. 2018: 592; Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 84; Treglia 2019: 124). Clearly, we need more information about students’ general attitudes toward written comments from their writing teachers and about their influence on the development of learning writers. Originally neglected by researchers, students’ responses to teachers’ written feedback have recently received more attention. This paper reviews the main research findings to date, which confirm that both training in giving and using written feedback and more systematic and holistic research would be needed to promote feedback literacy. As Lynn Goldstein (2001: 77) points out, “Without examining the same questions with comparable research methodology across different contexts, it is difficult to create a comprehensive picture of the relationship between teacher-written commentary and student revision” (cf. Ruiz-Primo & Li 2013: 224). Nevertheless, the findings so far provide valuable insights and much food for thought. A short case study conducted in three groups of university students educated in a cultural context where the method has a short tradition and has attracted little research interest, is intended as a modest contribution to the effort. Cvetka Sokolov 128 2. Challenges of written response to student writing 2.1. Praise: Can it be trusted? All guidelines for responding to student work point to the importance of praise. Positive evaluations that open end comments on student work have been recognized as a “generic convention of including positive evaluations in end comments even when the student’s paper is poor. These evaluations of topic could also provide encouragement for revision efforts” (Smith 1997: 255; cf. Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 87). Praise, as a counterbalance to criticism, is thought to prevent or at least mitigate demotivation. It is more likely that the entire feedback will be received positively if a positive tone is established at the very beginning (cf. Raimes 1983: 143; Treglia 2009: 128). On the other hand, the impact of positive comments is reduced or lost altogether if they are given in a predictable, formulaic manner, only to “follow the generic rule, perhaps even expressing insincere or exaggerated praise in order to fulfil expectations (Smith 1997: 260-261)”. It is therefore very important that teachers are honest in their praise and support their evaluation of the quality of students’ writing with text-specific comments (cf. Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 87), even when praising a fresh supporting point, a distinctive voice, a creative way of expressing an idea, and the like. False complements are bound to be seen through by students, which can lead to a loss of confidence that also negatively affects students’ attitudes toward other, more realistic comments on their work. Bruce Randel and Tedra Clark (2013: 148) point out that the common vagueness of praise (or criticism) can be avoided if instructors keep standards and learning objectives in mind when providing feedback. This task-oriented emphasis is advantageous over nonspecific evaluation (e.g., praise or criticism) or normative comparisons because it helps students become aware of misconceptions or gaps between desired goals and current knowledge, understanding, and skills and then helps guide students through the process of obtaining those goals. 2.2. Over-commenting: Less is more The chapter on teachers’ marginal comments referring to specific elements of student essays in The St Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing (Glenn & Goldthwaite 2014) highlights the importance of a limited number of comments. If you write a response to every feature of an essay (from punctuation and usage to logic and style), you will put in a tremendous amount of work and your students are likely to be put off. For many good reasons, students tend to believe Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 129 that the more a teacher comments on their work (even when the commentary is in the form of praise), the worse the work is. So consider three or four marginal comments per page an upper limit, at least for substantive comments. (Glenn & Goldthwaite 2014: 134) Apart from undermining motivation and self-confidence (cf. Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 87), trying to teach too many lessons at once simply leads to cognitive overload, which means that the student learns less than they could if given a manageable amount of feedback - another reason why experts in writing instruction advise teachers against pointing out more than “one or two major problems and maybe one minor one” (Curzan & Damour 2011: 133; cf. Center for T and L; Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 175, Farthman & Whalley 1990: 179; Sokolov 2002: 164-165) when giving a general end comment on the essay as a whole. One of the major challenges of responding is that there are an infinite number of lessons we might want our comments to teach, but a finite number of lessons students can learn in writing and revising a single paper. (…) Teach one lesson at a time. Reading an entire draft, quickly, before commenting may actually save time. Ask: What single lesson (or two) do I want to teach here? And how will my comments teach this lesson? (Sommers 2013: 4, 44; cf. Raimes 1983: 143) Furthermore, teachers over-commenting in an early draft fail to take the characteristics of the writing process into account by giving the message that surface errors and other weaknesses in an early draft have to be mended at all costs although parts of the text still have to be restructured and developed further, or may even be discarded in the subsequent draft(s). In such cases, “students are commanded to edit and develop at the same time” (Sommers 2014: 335). What is more, the editing and proofreading are often taken over by teachers themselves; instead, “(focusing) on one significant usage problem at a time” by pointing it out (and, possibly but not necessarily, correcting it) once and expecting the student to fix it in other parts of the text on their own would be not only enough but also preferable (Curzan & Damour 2011: 132; cf. Sommers 2013: 27). 2.3. Appropriating the text: Who is actually the author? The tendency to over-comment brings with it another drawback, that of “appropriating the text” (Knoblauch & Brannon 1984; cf. Glenn & Goldthwaite 2014: 136; Hyland & Hyland 2006: 2, 12; Leki 1990: 64; Sokolov 2002: 162; Sommers 1982: 334; Straub 1996: 223-224; Spencer 1998: 71-75). “Generally speaking, the more comments a teacher makes on a piece of writing, the more controlling he or she will likely be” (Straub 1996: 233). Cvetka Sokolov 130 Most students inevitably adapt their writing to what they think the teacher wants them to do - even more so if the teacher does not frame his or her comments in a way that shows respect for what the developing writers want to express and in what way, and is not open to dialogue promoting the learners’ autonomy and authority as writers (cf. Bowden 2018; Sommers 2013: 4; Scrocco 2012; Straub 1996: 246). In other words, “students adapt their papers in accordance with the theoretical biases they have identified in a specific teacher/ reader”. (Spencer 1998: 56; cf. Bowden 2018; Clark & Ivanič 1997: 164; Elbow 1973 & 1981; Fanselow 1987: 461; Sokolov 2013: 46-47). Teachers’ theoretical knowledge, experience and the nature of their position of power make their comments “evaluative and authoritative” (Straub 1996: 247), even when they praise the strengths of a piece of writing: Praise comments are less controlling than criticism or commands because they place the teacher in the role of an appreciative reader or satisfied critic and obviate the need for revision. Nevertheless, they underscore the teacher’s values and agendas and exert a certain degree of control over the way the student views the text before her and the way she likely looks at subsequent writing (Straub 1996: 234). Since the ultimate goal of writing instruction is to help students develop into independent writers, writing teachers should do their best to reduce “the constraints of unequal teacher-student power relationships” by finding ways to encourage students to respond to their comments. This is about creating a respectful and trusting learning environment that encourages dialogue with novice writers (Kang & Dykema 2017: 248; cf. Tierney 2013: 138). Such an approach uncovers instances where writing teachers fail to understand their students’ arguments, admittedly sometimes due to young writers’ awkward ways of communicating their ideas but also due to teachers’ misinterpretation of them (cf. Clark & Ivanič 1997: 180). Unfortunately, there are teachers who are not open enough to invite students to negotiate their ideas for improvement with them. Instead of acknowledging that “in addition to being recipients of feedback, the students have a role as partners in each of the formative feedback activities” (Ruiz-Primo & Li 2013: 220), they see no harm in using “intellectual violence” against students who express “inappropriate” ideas or resort to genres clashing with the conventions of academic writing, such as “religious discourse” (Ringer 2017: 630), for example, or simply with the writing instructor’s worldview/ opinion on controversial topics (cf. Sokolov: 2002). Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 131 3.1. Research Review 3.1.1. Students’ General Attitude Most of the research results show a positive attitude of students towards their writing teachers’ written comments. Early researchers in the field (Cohen & Cavalcani 1990; Fathman & Whalley 1990; Ferris 1995; Lynch & Klemans 1978; Radecki & Swales 1988: 357; Straub 1997) report students’ appreciation of teachers’ written responses, although some miss praise (Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 174), comments on the content of their papers (Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 165), and more personal reader responses (Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 167). However, the drawbacks of teachers’ individual commenting styles do not detract from the value of the method when used thoughtfully. Nancy Sommers (2013: xii-xiii) and her colleagues, who studied the response of 400 students to teachers’ written comments on their written work during their studies from 1997 to 2001, established that students, as learning writers, found teachers’ written feedback to be immensely important. “What became clear from students’ testimonials is that teachers’ comments play a much larger role than we might expect from scribbled words in the margins or at the end of a draft” (xiii). More recent studies confirm the early research in this area. The conclusion arrived at by Ken Hyland and Fiona Hyland (2006: 3), which states that “ESL students value teacher written feedback greatly and constantly rate it more highly than alternative forms, such as peer feedback and oral feedback in writing conferences”, has since been confirmed by other researchers. For example, Carolyn Calhoon-Dillahunt and Dodie Forrest (2013: 233) found that “the developmental writers (they) surveyed (...) read and valued teacher comments and found ‘suggestions/ constructive criticism’ to be the most helpful”, meaning that they not only read it (96.5 percent) but also used it (93 percent) (2013: 235). Admittedly, the results become less encouraging when one considers that “students only used global commentary about half the time” when it came to “the textual reality of their revisions” (240). Nonetheless, positive attitudes toward written feedback should not be underestimated as a prerequisite for good use of teacher feedback. Heartening results can be observed in the study by Darsle Bowden (2018): “Students welcomed comments; they were eager to figure out what to do with them, and most students were especially grateful for substantive comments”. Similarly, Maria Ornella Treglia (2019: 218) observed in her study that 97% of participants indicated that teacher comments were helpful. The participants in Bruce Ballenger and Kelly Myers’s (2019) research into “The Emotional Work of Revision”, which included 17 undergraduate writing majors, MA English language students, and MFA students in creative writing programmes, expressed a deep understanding of the need to revise their early drafts and used their teachers’/ readers’ suggestions for Cvetka Sokolov 132 improvement, but they also “reported that they were rarely taught revision strategies and felt unprepared for the actual work of revision”, which led to their negative emotional reactions. Another reason for their revisionrelated frustration was the vulnerability created by sharing their imperfect drafts with others, often exposing their most personal views and feelings. “This exposure creates dissonance between (the) intellectual understanding of revision theory and the emotional experience of sharing unfinished work” (Ballenger & Myers 2019: 599-601). 3.1.2. The Role of Praise Despite the general consensus among experts in writing instruction that it is just as important to comment on the strengths of student work as it is to point out what needs improvement, not all research on student attitudes toward praise confirms their appreciation for positive teacher comments. Participants in the study by Calhoon-Dillahunt and Forrest (2013) expressed their need to be praised, but in their view, praise seemed to serve more as a relationship builder with their instructor, a self-esteem booster (‘It made me feel more confident about my writing’; ‘I felt a sense of accomplishment’), or a motivator (‘It made me want to keep writing’) than a tool to help students improve their written products (Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 234; cf. Burkland & Grimm 1984: 12). Since self-confidence and motivation are crucial, praise does have a positive effect on student achievement; research findings reported by Treglia (2019: 122) “leave no doubt that teacher feedback is more effective when embedded in words of encouragement” (cf. Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 87). Not surprisingly, they appreciate praise more when teachers personalise their encouragement (Treglia 2019: 125). 3.1.3. The Number of Comments and Substantive Comments Experts agree that commenting on every weakness and error is not only unnecessary but even harmful, however, “there is a tendency among teachers, particularly when dealing with written tasks, that they should inform students (highlight or underline) of everything that is not correct in the text” (Cindrić & Pavić 2017: 94). The majority feel that if they do not do this, they are not doing their job properly. “After all, as writing teachers we are trained to recognize and remedy such errors” (Sommers 2013: 32; cf. Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 90). If they did not, many teachers also fear that their students would be led to believe that there were no weaknesses in the work other than those actually marked by the teacher or, conversely, that they would feel insecure about the quality of their essays - are they Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 133 good enough to be commented on at all? One teacher expresses this concern by saying, “I worry they are going to think either nothing is wrong or everything is wrong” (Treglia 2019: 123). In addition, teachers are under pressure from their students’ expectations: the latter usually express a desire for more rather than less correction and suggestions for improvement (cf. Bowden 2018; Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242; Leki 1990: 62; Sommers 2013: 32). Also, teachers tend to believe that their numerous and detailed comments show their interest in and appreciation of their students’ work and ideas (cf. Center 2020). For many students, however, it is probably the other way around, as Maxine Hairston points out (1986: 121): “Teachers who habitually try to mark every error in a paper (...) may wind up unintentionally giving their students a very negative message: that they really do not care what students say, they only care that they say it correctly.” To make matters worse, some teachers even interfere with their students’ perfectly acceptable writing style, justifying this with the aim of helping novice writers to make their expression “less awkward”/ ”more pleasing”, when in fact they have fallen victim to the bias of their personal taste (see, for example, Stritar & Može 2012: 101). Understandably, it is difficult to resist students’ insistence on having every error and every other aspect of their writing that needs improvement identified, pointed out, and corrected. After all, much of the research suggests that students generally feel that substantive comments help them develop as writers and critical thinkers (Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242), and encourage them to try harder and go deeper in revising their work, which was confirmed by the study of Joel Wingard and Angela Geosits (2014: 7-8 ): “The most interesting finding is the evident correlation between the prevalence of deep (i.e., substantive rather than surface matters) comments provided by instructors and the prevalence of deep revisions” (cf. Bowden 2018). In fact, the majority of students seem to cope quite well with teacher feedback on their written assignments. Few (first-year college) students indicated that they felt overwhelmed by corrections, even the student (…) who received 48 corrections on his draft. One student did say that she was aghast when she saw the number of comments (this included in-draft and marginal) - that is, until she started reading them (Bowden 2018). 3.1.3. Authorship Most students trust their teachers as experts and do not mind rewriting their work according to their suggestions for improvement (Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 155; cf. Bowden 2018), although they “sometimes perceive Cvetka Sokolov 134 teacher feedback to be controlling or regulating their voice as (authors)” (Kang & Dykema 2017: 248). Indeed, there are students who dislike being bossed around in relation to their writing, as in the study of students’ response to teacher comments by Calhoon-Dillahunt and Forrest (2013: 234): “I find that directions telling me how to change my writing are the least helpful because they take away my freedom in my own writing” (cf. Cohen & Cavalcanti 1990: 168). The research suggests that some students felt so strongly about their voice that they “expressed unwillingness to surrender the content of their paper to the teacher. They spoke of resenting the teachers’ suggestions that the content of a paper was weak, immature, or superficial; they expressed hostility to the idea that someone else had the right to put a grade on their thoughts” (Leki 1990: 62; cf. Lynch & Klemans 1978: 170; Sperling & Freedman 1987: 357). Who can blame them? Of course, writing instructors should and do encourage students to write about what they think is important, and to develop their own voice. Clearly, aligning with their teachers’ preferences and even values does not help achieve this goal, whereas sharing and negotiating intended meaning with them does. However, Calhoom-Dillahunt and Forrest (2013: 242) state in their research “that students do not intuitively see marginal comments as ‘conversation’ on the page”, which is confirmed by Lindenman et al.’s (2018: 592) study. 3.2. A Case Study 3.2.1. Basic Data and Methodology The aim of the case study, conducted in the spring semester of 2019/ 20 and the winter semester of 2020/ 21, was to gain insight into the attitudes of three groups of Slovene students towards written responses to their writing, to determine the extent to which they overlap with trends in other cultures, to at least partially fill the research gap in this area in Slovenia, and to stimulate further and more extensive research on this method in the Slovene educational context. While Slovene researchers Karmen Pižorn (2013, 2014), Gabrijela Petra Nagode and Mojca Juriševič (2014) have conducted some research on written corrective feedback, their focus was limited to grammar/ error correction. Since teachers’ written response to students’ writing is meant to stimulate deep revision, which is to be distinguished from mere editing (cf. Ballenger & Myers 2019: 609), research on feedback focusing on the content and coherence of students’ essays is of utmost importance in the Slovene educational context. The participant sample included 40 first-year students BA, who took a two-semester course in practical English classes (Language in Use I) in 2019/ 20 and 2020/ 21, and 5 first-year students MA in the 2019/ 20 Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 135 teacher training programme, all studying English at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. The research was conducted using the survey method based on a questionnaire 1 consisting of a series of 26 statements for the students of BA and 37 statements for the students of MA, who were additionally asked to answer 11 questions regarding their future work as teachers. The students had been given two versions of their marked paragraphs/ essays before completing the questionnaire: one with more detailed comments from their teacher, the author of this paper, the other with fewer and less detailed comments. 2 They were asked to look at both and indicate, using a Likert scale, the extent to which they agreed with each of the given statements (1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree). The statements focused on the participants’ general attitudes toward teacher comments, the importance of praise, the amount and volume of comments, and the appropriation of their text by the teacher. They were also invited to add their own comments if they wished. The main limitations of the study are a small sample of students who participated in the survey and the fact that the researcher was involved in the study. As the research findings do not provide statistically representative results, no conclusions can be drawn that are relevant to a broader Slovene context of the situation, let alone wider contexts. However, this is also true of many other studies - in the words by Lynn Goldstein (2001: 77), “Without examining the same questions with comparable research methodology across different contexts, it is difficult to create a comprehensive picture of the relationship between teacher-written commentary and student revision” (cf. Ruiz-Primo & Li 2013: 224). In other words, largescale research in this particular area is too fragmented to draw generally reliable and applicable conclusions. Another drawback of the present study is the possibility that students’ responses were influenced by the fact that the same teacher who commented on their papers also analysed their responses to the questionnaire statements. On the other hand, a researcher who collects data in the authentic work environment gains a more nuanced insight (Vogrinc 2008: 49). Moreover, although a case study focuses on a single case, it sheds light on characteristics of other similar cases in the field it studies (Richards 2011: 209; cf. Vogrinc 2008: 76-77; Weir & Roberts 1994: 62), which means that it provides food for thought that goes beyond an individual teacher’s experience and need for self-reflection. Finally, survey statements are bound to simplify research topics. For example, asking students to decide whether or not they approve of extensive commentary does not take into account the specific characteristics of such commentary. This inevitably distorts the research findings to some 1 See Appendix 2 2 See Appendix 1. Cvetka Sokolov 136 extent. This drawback is illustrated by the following comment from a student at MA (2019/ 20) 3 : I don’t think that longer comments are inherently good or bad - it all depends on the quality of the specific comment in question. A long comment, if structured well, can provide depth and support to the suggestions and/ or criticisms it presents. On the other hand, undue verbosity can prove frustrating and discombobulating for the reader. A student thinking along these lines will have a hard time responding to statements that ignore the complexity addressed in the quote, because none of the choices given quite fit the fact that “circumstances alter cases”. Therefore, they are likely to choose “undecided”. It would be inaccurate to claim that the response sheds no light on their attitudes towards teacher comments, but the measurement tool used is rather imprecise. That is why, respondents were also given the opportunity to provide detailed comments. 3.2.2. Results and discussion 3.2.2.1. The respondents’ general attitude to teachers’ comments All the participants in the case study agreed that the teachers’ comments were useful and only one of them (2%) said that they did not pay much attention to them. Similarly, only one student remained undecided as to whether teachers should also justify their numerical grades through narrative feedback. The majority of students (73%) would not be happy with end comments and numerical marks only, let alone receiving numerical marks that were not supplemented by written feedback - indeed, all of them expected teachers to comment at least briefly on their work. I really dislike getting only a grade with just a short comment or no comment at all, which has unfortunately happened many times. Especially with essays, it is impossible to know how to correct something, if you do not get a more elaborate comment on it (especially when it comes to coherence and content). Getting no feedback is much worse than getting negative feedback (MA student 2019/ 20). Not surprisingly, all students who participated in the teacher training programme plan to provide written feedback to their students once they become teachers. The research findings confirm the findings discussed in 3.1.1. of this paper - students expect and value their teachers’ marginal and end comments. Nonetheless, many teachers, including experts in the field (e.g. Sommers 2013: x-xi; Lindenman et al. 2018: 592; Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 84; Treglia 2019: 124) have doubted whether students really value and use the 3 For authenticity, students’ comments have not been edited. Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 137 tedious and time-consuming work invested in marginal and end comments. Terglia (2019: 124) quotes a teacher who participated in her research as saying, “I tell them, I spend hours reading your papers. I really want you to read them ... but who knows, do they look at them? ” When we ask them about it, they assure us that they do. If we still feel they don’t get enough out of the method, perhaps we should rethink the way we make marginal and end-comments: are they clear and specific enough to be helpful? Why not check with a colleague? “Teachers do not usually receive formal training in commenting and rarely share their written comments with each other” (Smith 1997: 249). There is certainly room for improvement in this regard. Another relevant question is whether we have taught our students how to interpret and use our recommendations. As the student responses suggest, failure to address teacher commentary is most likely a result of the analytical challenges the tasks entail rather than lack of interest in feedback. This points to the usefulness of dedicating class time to discuss the revision process and focus on those types of revision requests that students either fail to address or do a poor job (Treglia 2019: 124). Heather Lindenman, Martin Camper, Lindsay Dunne Jacoby and Jessica Enoch (2018: 592) recommend the method of students writing “reflectionsin-action” (585) on their teachers’ comments to facilitate students’ understanding of them. In addition, such “reflective memos” provide the teacher with valuable information about the students’ interpretation of the written feedback and reveal the areas that are difficult to understand and would require more attention, as well as weaknesses in the teacher’s comments such as vagueness, lack of clarity, and the like. Importantly, they make clear the extent to which students view their teacher’s comments as “an invitation to reconsider their previous writing choices and to decide on their own how to carry out their revisions” (593) and the extent to which they view them as instructions to follow (595). Of course, “for comments to become feedback, students need to be prompted to act upon them” (Carless 2020: 7) without unconditionally accepting their teachers’ suggestions. Writing instructors need to “understand how students engage with and learn from feedback and what skills they require to do this” (Gravett 2020: 152) in order to help them develop feedback literacy. 3.2.2.2. Praise and Criticism It is encouraging that 93% of the questionnaire participants felt that their teachers’ marginal and end comments were friendly and well-meaning with only 1 participant stating that this was not the case, and 2 remaining undecided. 80% of the students also thought that, generally, teachers struck a good balance between positive and negative comments. 7% of students disagreed and 13% had difficulty deciding. 22% of respondents could not Cvetka Sokolov 138 clearly say whether teachers’ comments were generally too kind and considerate, while 4% felt that they were. The comments that accompanied the respondents’ answers were similar to those found in other research in this area. Students appreciated the reassurance “(that they) didn’t do everything wrong” and found the “lack of positive comments (to be) discouraging” (cf. Treglia 2019: 122). On the other hand, they do not want to be “lied to” by teachers who praise them (cf. Smith 1997: 260-61) when they need direct and honest advice on how to improve their writing (BA student 2019/ 20). Another BA student (2019/ 20) stated that the right balance between praise and criticism triggered her motivation to revise. “After reading the comments, I feel the urge to sit down and rewrite my paper on the spot” (cf. Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 234). 5 out of 5 students studying to become teachers at the Department of English at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana agree that both positive comments and suggestions for improvement are necessary (MA students 2019/ 20). On the other hand, only one is sure that they will formulate their comments thoughtfully, while the rest cannot decide which approach they will take when they become teachers. Understandably so. Still, their responses give me pause. After all, they are still students who are also exposed to insensitive feedback they sometimes receive from their teachers. 3.2.2.3. More or Fewer Comments? The survey results confirm what other researchers have already pointed out: the majority of students prefer more comments to fewer comments (cf. Bowden 2018; Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242; Leki 1990: 62; Sommers 2013: 32): 96% believe they learn more when they receive more comments (cf. Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242; Wingard & Geosits 2014: 7-8). “I prefer the version with lots of comments because the one with fewer comments makes me think my writing is better than it is, and then I can’t improve it” (BA student 2019/ 20). In the words of a MA student (2019/ 20), a future teacher, “I prefer detailed comments because I learn the most from them. I take them as a chance to improve my writing next time, which also motivates me”. In addition, 83% of respondents understand the numerical grade better when it is supplemented by more (detailed) comments, and 73% find more (detailed) comments more useful in revising their papers. “Fewer and shorter comments make it harder to tackle the revision; they offer little guidance and leave the students to interpret the corrections in their own way; if the interpretation is wrong, this just prolongs the revision process” (BA student 2019/ 20). It is not surprising, then, that fewer comments do not lead students to believe that their writing is good. “Fewer and less detailed comments do Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 139 not equate to better work, even though it may appear that the work contains fewer mistakes” (BA student 2019/ 20). Nevertheless, 18% of the respondents think that fewer comments could be more helpful in revising, 9% are sure about it. In the words of a BA student (2019/ 20), “I like elaborate comments more, but I think fewer and less detailed comments are sometimes easier to interpret. They mainly focus on one main point per paragraph, and are therefore easier to handle”. However, it is also true that more extensive comments become more manageable once the student sets out to revise: “Although elaborate comments can sometimes be difficult to grasp, their value shows once you begin to revise the essay. I think that a thorough explanation of mistakes is very beneficial, even if it requires more attention from the student” (MA student 2019/ 20; cf. Bowden 2018). Finally, students’ responses substantiate teachers’ fears that they will be perceived by students as indifferent or even lazy if they do not grade papers thoroughly and comment on every possible aspect of the paper and every mistake (cf. Center 2020): only 38% of respondents think that this is not the case, while 40% suspect that it might be, and 22% are convinced that the statement is true. The following observation from a student at MA (2019/ 20) reinforces the idea: “More comments and detailed comments make me feel that the teacher cares about my progress and not just my grade.” How can a teacher confronted with the data resist the temptation to over-comment on their students’ writing? 3 out of 5 prospective teachers from the survey think they can, 1 cannot tell yet, and 1 has no intention of even trying. Despite the latter, no respondent seems to categorically reject the decision to comment less: 4 think they might limit the number of comments so as not to overwhelm their students, while 2 might do so so as not to overwhelm themselves. 3.2.2.4. Teachers’ Interference with Students’ Ideas When I discuss their written work with students who are still struggling with their writing skills, I am occasionally asked, “Could you tell me what exactly you want me to do? ” Naturally, I am not thrilled with the question and its implication, but students adjusting their writing to meet their writing instructors’ expectations once they have determined what the teachers (do not) approve of in their essays is understandably part of their survival kit. The survey results confirm that 58% of the students who responded to the questionnaire do just that, 27% are not sure, and only 15%, or 7 out of 45 students, stick to their ways. Of course, we want students to write about what they think is important, not what we do, and to develop their own voice. We want them to become “successful substantive revisers (who) treat their teachers’ commentary as a metacognitive tool to determine what Cvetka Sokolov 140 issues they might address, and they see themselves in a position to prioritise some comments over others, to agree or disagree, and to speak back to their instructors” (Lindenman et al. 2018: 594). Obviously, adopting teacher commentary as direction (Lindenman et al. 2018: 504) and conforming to teachers’ preferences or even values does not contribute to achieving this goal. Therefore, the survey’s affirmation that students recognize the benefits of teacher feedback - 100% of respondents said they trusted their teachers’ expertise - should be taken with a grain of salt. Unconditional trust is reflected in the following explanation by student BA (2019/ 20) as to why they prefer more detailed comments from their teachers: I very much prefer longer and more elaborate comments since I think they give the writer more information on what they can improve on and what specifically they did right and should be replicated in future papers. Unfortunately, the above quotation implies that this particular student is probably unable to take ownership of the text they have written, as they are unable to “(identify) the heuristic value of teacher commentary and (carry) out (their) revision” (Lindenman et al. 2018: 593). This does not mean that (all) students who accept teacher commentary as guidance find this approach to be a good one: 27% of respondents feel frustrated when they are expected to change their writing according to their teachers’ recommendations, 27% are undecided, and 46% indicate that they do not mind following their teachers’ marginal and end comments. Regardless of their students’ seemingly positive response to their feedback, teachers need to tread carefully and make sure they respect their students’ ideas. It is heartening that 89% of respondents feel they do, and only 11% are not quite sure, while none of the students perceive their teachers’ written comments as disrespectful. A word of warning, though: only 58% of respondents think that their teachers do not interfere too much with what they want to express and in what way; 20% remain undecided, and 22% feel that interference is excessive. This should give us pause for thought, especially as some students feel that most essays are (11%) or could be (13%) too personal to be graded (cf. Ballenger & Mayers 2019: 599-601). While the majority of respondents (76%) disagree, this does not necessarily mean that they find it easy to deal with feedback from their teachers. A student’s statement from BA (2019/ 20) illustrates this: It can be difficult to receive comments on your work, especially if the writing comes from a personal experience and you have some emotional attachment to it. Nevertheless, I think the comments on my paper were very helpful for understanding the grade I was given now and also for (hopefully) preventing me to make the same mistakes in the future. Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 141 To continue on the bright side, teachers’ respect for their students’ ideas is reflected in the fact that 76% of respondents perceive them as being open to dialog about their students’ intended meaning, while the remaining 24% feel uncertain about this. It is likely that these are also the ones who would be more hesitant (18%) or would not approach their teachers at all (7%) to seek clarification if their intended meaning had been misinterpreted. Apart from not feeling confident enough to do so (which is not necessarily due to the attitude of their teachers), this can be attributed to their lack of awareness of this possibility. Calhoom-Dillahunt and Forrest (2013: 242) state in their research “that students do not intuitively see marginal comments as ‘conversation’ on the page”, which is confirmed by Lindenman et al.’s (2018: 592) study: “The majority of students (...) responded to teacher commentary as a set of directions to follow.” Apparently, “reading comments and using them to revise must be taught (...), like other aspects of the writing process” (Calhoom-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242). David Carless (2020: 6) also points out that “the interplay between teacher and student feedback literacy” and “teachers (designing) opportunities for students to appreciate and use feedback” are essential to ensuring feedback literacy. Of course, the “conversation on page” can be extended to teacher-student one-on-one conferences. The statement below affirming the need for oral discussions about student performance and the feedback they receive was made by a BA student (2019/ 20): The only problem I may have with these comments is that sometimes the written word gets misunderstood and I am therefore of the opinion that these longer comments (or any criticism/ hints) should be accompanied with the spoken word, i.e. with a 1 on 1 talk. An opportunity to clarify possible misunderstandings and encourage students to voice any doubts or disagreements they may have with their teacher’s feedback means giving young writers back what is rightfully theirs - the ownership of their own work. It is also an opportunity to set a good example for future teachers. One of them says, “Students’ personal opinions and outlook on the topic of a piece of writing should be accepted and considered, even if they clash with the beliefs and expectations of the teachers” (MA student 2019/ 20). We must be on the right track by encouraging students’ engagement in an interactive feedback process and their self-awareness as independent writers “(who) are able to see and to believe in their own truth, (...) and (...) to say, ‘I will listen to you and weigh your opinion in balance with my own; but, ultimately, I will trust my own voice.’” (Spandel & Stiggins 1990: 112). Cvetka Sokolov 142 4. Conclusion Teachers’ marginal and end comments are an essential part of teaching and evaluating writing. Although teachers sometimes feel that students do not take their written feedback seriously enough, the case study presented in this article and general research have shown that, by and large, they do appreciate it. If it takes some time for their writing skills to improve noticeably, it is more because of the complexity of the writing process, which makes developing writing skills at least a long-term, if not lifelong, project, than because of their indifference to the time-consuming effort their teachers put into marginal and final comments. Moreover, prospective teachers should be trained in skills that have been largely neglected, namely how to make effective comments (Teglia 2019: 122) and how to teach students to use them wisely. To achieve long-term improvement in learning outcomes, feedback is needed that “(focuses) not only on reducing the difference between a current understanding or performance level and what is expected but also on improving students’ learning strategies, helping them to monitor their own learning, and strengthening their belief in their ability to improve and learn”, as Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo and Min Li (2013: 220) point out. Giving and understanding such feedback should not be taken for granted - both need to be learned. “For progress to transpire, we need both teacher and student feedback literacy: the capacities to engineer and take advantage of feedback possibilities” (Carless 2020: 7). Research has shown that students are dissatisfied with formulaic, empty praise and expect their teachers to provide “specific, structured and argumentative comments that explain why something needs to be improved, as opposed to short, vague comments that leave (them) puzzling over what the teacher intended to address” (MA student 2019/ 20). However, this does not preclude genuine interest in what students have to say, nor sincere praise for what they are good at and the progress they have made. While our students did not seem as fragile as we imagined, many of them preferring suggestions and constructive criticism to praise, our comments do more than simply provide guidance for improvement; our comments can promote confidence and may even communicate to students that they ‘belong’ in college. Given the vulnerability of this student population, we instructors should choose our words thoughtfully (Calhoon-Dillahunt & Forrest 2013: 242). The majority perceive their writing instructors as well-meaning authorities in their field and feel that they can and should represent their own voice in writing when misunderstood (though some do not). One MA student (2019/ 20), a future teacher, sums this up aptly: Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 143 Generally speaking, I trust my teachers’ abilities to assess my writing and provide valuable feedback. That being said, writing is such a complicated (and, to a large extent, subjective) process that certain suggestions for improvement will inevitably clash with a given student’s internal sense of style or personal expression. Because of this, I think it is imperative that students feel relaxed when discussing their style and ideas with their teachers, meaning that a good teacher should strive to cultivate a comfortable learning environment. The student continues: “Sadly, this is not something that all teachers are able to accomplish.” On the positive side, there are also those who “emphasize the importance of being proactive in the development of a constructive environment for assessment to be fair and support learning” (Tierney 2010 in Tierney 2013: 138). As giving feedback can also become very personal and emotional, common ground could be used by teachers to “(build) relationships with students through a shared recognition of the often emotive nature of feedback practices”, as Karen Gravett (2020: 154) notes, suggesting that sharing our own experiences of feedback with our students can help develop a dialogic approach to feedback. Such favourable conditions allow teachers and learners to determine together what kind of feedback works in their context of education. References Ballenger, Bruce & Kelly Myers (2019). “The Emotional Work of Revision”. College Composition and Communication 70 (4). 590-614. Baughan, Patrick (Ed.) (2020). On Your Marks: Learner-Focused Feedback Practices and Feedback Literacy. UK: AdvanceHE. Bowden, Darsle (2018). “Comments on Student Papers: Student Perspectives”. The Journal of Writing Assessment 11 (2). http: / / journalofwritingassessment.org/ article.php? article=121 [19 August 2020]. 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[online] https: / / wac.colostate.edu/ docs/ atd/ articles/ wingard_geosits2014.pdf [8 September 2020]. Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 147 Appendix 1. The Starting Point: Fewer and More Teacher’s Comments 1.1. A film review paragraph commented upon - fewer comments XY, this is a nice paragraph I enjoyed reading a lot. It is well-developed and thought-provoking. There is some undue repetition in it, tough, and some of the cohesive ties could be strengthened. The difference between its and it’s? Be consistent. CvS Cvetka Sokolov 148 1.2. A film review paragraph commented upon - more comments XY, this is a nice paragraph I enjoyed reading a lot. It is well-developed and thought-provoking. There is some undue repetition in it, though, and some of the cohesive ties could be strengthened. In addition, it could be split into two body paragraphs. The difference between its and it’s? Be consistent. Revise the use of commas in relative clauses. Some good vocabulary. CvS 2. Questionnaire Questionnaire on Marginal and End-of-Text Comments: How helpful are they? You have been given two versions of your graded essay: one with more detailed comments from your teacher, the other with fewer and less detailed comments. Please look at both and think about the following statements by marking the extent to which you (dis)agree with them (1 - strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - undecided, 4 - agree, 5 - strongly agree). Statements on teachers’ comments in general strongly disagree disagree undecided agree strongly agree I find teachers’ comments useful and can make good use of them. 1 2 3 4 5 I don’t pay much attention to teachers’ comments. 1 2 3 4 5 Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 149 I expect my teacher to justify their grades. 1 2 3 4 5 I would be satisfied with just getting short end comments and the grades. 1 2 3 4 5 I would be satisfied with just getting impressionistic grades without any comments from my teacher. 1 2 3 4 5 I would like to receive suggestions for improvement from my peers from time to time. 1 2 3 4 5 Your comment: Statements on positive and negative teachers’ comments strongly disagree disagree undecided agree strongly agree Generally, teachers balance out positive and negative comments. 1 2 3 4 5 Generally, teachers’ comments are negative, mean and/ or rude. 1 2 3 4 5 Generally, teachers’ comments are kind and wellmeaning. 1 2 3 4 5 Generally, teachers’ comments are too kind and considerate. 1 2 3 4 5 Your comment: Statements on fewer and less detailed comments totally disagree disagree cannot decide agree entirely agree I prefer fewer comments because they make me feel my writing is OK. 1 2 3 4 5 I prefer fewer comments because they make me feel I am quite a good student. 1 2 3 4 5 I prefer fewer comments because they make the revision more manageable. 1 2 3 4 5 Cvetka Sokolov 150 I prefer less detailed and simple comments because they are easier to understand. 1 2 3 4 5 I dislike fewer and less detailed comments because I want to learn as much as I can. 1 2 3 4 5 I dislike fewer and less detailed comments because they don’t help me enough to understand my grade. 1 2 3 4 5 I dislike fewer and less detailed comments because they are not of much help with my revision. 1 2 3 4 5 I dislike fewer and less detailed comments because they make me feel that my teacher doesn’t care about my work (and/ or that they could be lazy). 1 2 3 4 5 Your comment: Statements on the extent of teachers’ interference with students’ ideas strongly disagree disagree cannot decide agree strongly agree I trust my teachers’ knowledge and their suggestions for improvement. 1 2 3 4 5 When I have worked out my writing teachers’ expectations, I adjust my writing to them. 1 2 3 4 5 Most teachers respect what I want to say. 1 2 3 4 5 If a teacher misinterprets my point(s), I let them know about it. 1 2 3 4 5 Most teachers are open to dialogue about my intended meaning. 1 2 3 4 5 Challenges of Written Response to Student Writing 151 Teachers’ comments interfere with I want to express and how I want to express it too much. 1 2 3 4 5 It is frustrating for me to have to change my writing according to my teachers’ ideas. 1 2 3 4 5 Most essays are too personal to be graded at all. 1 2 3 4 5 Your comment: A shift of perspective - you as a (future) teacher (MA students only) Please read the following statements and choose one of the answers. Of course, things may turn out differently when you actually start teaching and even more so when you have been teaching for a while. Nonetheless, the fact that you have studied for so long and plan to become an English teacher can help you predict the way you will handle your students' writing. 1. I will give my students verbal feedback on their essays because it is useful. Yes. No. I don’t know. 2. I will give my students verbal feedback on their essays because they have the right to grade justification. Yes. No. I don’t know. 3. I will make sure to comment on both the strengths and weaknesses of my students’ writing. Yes. No. I don’t know. 4. I will word my comments very carefully, avoiding straightforward formulations, so as not to demotivate my students. Yes. No. I don’t know. 5. I will restrict my comments to 3 positive and 3 negative comments so as not to overwhelm my students. Yes. No. I don’t know. Cvetka Sokolov 152 6. I will restrict my comments to 3 positive and 3 negative comments so as not to overburden myself with work. Yes. No. I don’t know. 7. I will not restrict the number of my comments and corrections because I think all mistakes need to be corrected. Yes. No. I don’t know. 8. I will give written feedback on a selected number of papers, for example on five random papers per assignment. Yes. No. I don’t know. 9. I will give written feedback on papers written by students who show genuine interest in my suggestions for improvement. Yes. No. I don’t know. 10. I will give my students no written feedback on their essays because this would be a waste of time - most of them are likely to ignore it. Yes. No. I don’t know. 11. I will give my students no written feedback on their essays because my job will require so much from me that I will lack time and energy for that. Yes. No. I don’t know Your comment: Cvetka Sokolov Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ljubljana Rezensionen Richard Fallon, Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature: How the ‘Terrible Lizard’ Became a Transatlantic Cultural Icon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. Michael Fuchs The standard history of the emergence of dinosaurs - as both a word and a concept - begins with British scientist Richard Owen, who noticed shared traits in the anatomies of a group of extinct creatures and reported on these findings in a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1841. The anatomical characteristics provided “sufficient ground for establishing a distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles,” for which Owen “propose[d] the name of Dinosauria” (1842: 103). For Owen, three species typified this group of reptiles: Megalosaurus (discovered and named by William Buckland in 1824), Iguanodon (named by Gideon Mantell in 1825), and Hylaeosaurus (named by Mantell in 1833), all of which were discovered in southern England. In 1854, sculptures of these three species were unveiled in Crystal Palace Park and drew massive crowds. The success of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs testified to a larger fascination with these prehistoric lifeforms in nineteenth-century England. As early as 1853, Charles Dickens’s novel Bleak House referred to one of the ‘terrible lizards’ in its opening paragraph (“it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill” [[1853] 1996: 13]). Two years prior to Bleak House, the narrative “Our Phantom Ship on an Antediluvian Cruise” (“ostensibly a work of scientific nonfiction” [Fallon 2021: 13]) was published and imagined a world in which a group travels through deep time and encounters a variety of prehistoric animals, including a “sort of crocodile, thirty feet long, with a big body, mounted on high thick legs” that “is not likely to be friendly with our legs and bodies. Megalosaurus is his name” (Morley 1851: 494). By the time the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs were publicly displayed and British writers could expect their readers to understand the references to Mesozoic- Era lifeforms, dinosaur fossils had also been discovered on the other side of the Atlantic. As the United States expanded toward the West, fossils were uncovered along the way, and the westward movement became entangled with a AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0007 Rezensionen 154 journey into the past of the North American continent and the history of life. Expeditions looking for fossils were complicit in the settler-colonialist mentality of the westward expansion and exploited the knowledge of, and took land from, Indigenous populations. Both the scientific prestige associated with discovering and naming new species and the income that could (theoretically) be generated from fossils (and personal animosities) led to the ‘Bone Wars’ between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh during which Marsh described and named iconic genera such as Stegosaurus (1877), Allosaurus (1877), Apatosaurus (1877), and Triceratops (1889). Initially, the term ‘dinosaur’ was not even accepted in the scientific community, much less able to get a foothold in popular discourse; however, in particular visual arts and museums helped bring these prehistoric animals to the masses. By the 1910s, ‘dinosaurs’ was a household word and by the 1920s, dinosaurs had become mainstays in popular culture. While scholars have, in particular, explored the role of museums in popularizing dinosaurs at the turn of the century, Richard Fallon’s book Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature: How the ‘Terrible Lizard’ Became a Transatlantic Cultural Icon sets out to examine how “an array of writing on dinosaurs - fiction and non-fiction, scholarly and popular” (2) contributed to the transformation of dinosaurs from “British lizards to multiform American monsters” (7) between the 1880s and 1910s. Along the way, Fallon shows how, “from [Henry Neville] Hutchinson to New York millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and novelist Arthur Conan Doyle […],writing on dinosaurs was regularly characterised by populist and even downright heterodox attitudes towards science” (3). Hutchinson plays a prominent role in Fallon’s argument and is thus the focal point of the opening chapter. Hutchinson was an Anglican clergyman who thought that the language of scientific writing alienated the public and that science had become too secular in the second half of the nineteenth century. While scientists wrinkled their noses at Hutchinson’s attempts at dabbling in their fields of expertise, the popular appeal of his books allowed him to participate in science discourses and shape the image of dinosaurs. Fallon shows in this chapter that Hutchinson continued a literary tradition in the geosciences that was typified by Charles Lyell and William Buckland, whose “romanticism, poetry, and finely honed prose about deep time and prehistoric monsters” (32) helped establish the prestige of geology and paleontology, in no small part because their publications were widely read. This type of writing came out of style in the latter decades of the nineteenth century and was replaced by increasingly specialized writing. In an attempt to communicate science to the masses, Hutchinson frequently referred to works of literature. For example, in the preface to Extinct Monsters (1892), Hutchinson evokes William Shakespeare, while the book’s introduction opens: “Let us see if we can get some glimpses of the primæval inhabitants of the world, that lived and died while as yet there were no men and women having authority over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air.” Hutchinson speculates that “this antique world” might appear “as strange as the fairy-land of Grimm or Lewis Carroll.” However, this past world “was not inhabited by ‘slithy toves’ or ‘jabber-wocks,’ but by real Rezensionen 155 beasts, of whose shapes, sizes, and habits much is already known” ([1892] 1893: 1). Although Hutchinson wrote popular books on various earth sciences, his books on paleontology were particularly well-received. Importantly, he did not shy away from “enter[ing] debates on controverted issues, sometimes taking a combative tone against the theories of authorities, living and dead” (42): for example, he questioned the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. Besides his books being easy to read, what made Hutchinson key to introducing the masses to dinosaurs was the simple fact that he employed the term ‘dinosaurs’ rather than ‘saurians’ (which was still more frequently used in the early 1980s). As Fallon points out, “three chapters [in Extinct Monsters] included the word ‘Dinosaurs’ […] in their titles, as did two chapters in Creatures of Other Days [1894]” (45). Hutchinson’s enormous influence on the popularization of dinosaurs (and, in particular, discoveries made in the United States) was felt quickly: when the curator of comparative anatomy at the United States National Museum, Frederic Augustus Lucas, set out to write a popular book on prehistoric creatures, “he felt obliged to admit that it was ‘somewhat on the lines’ of Hutchinson’s exemplar” (49). The second chapter picks up on how Hutchinson’s introduction likens dinosaurs to Lewis Carroll’s fantastic bestiary and explores images associated with grotesqueness, monstrosity, clumsiness, and stupidity that were applied to dinosaurs at the turn of the century. This rather negative imagery suggested that dinosaurs went extinct because they could not adapt to their changing environments: “dinosaurs were […] perceived as the emblematic examples of selfdestructive monstrosity” (66). While considered the pinnacle of reptilian evolution in the mid-nineteenth century, dinosaurs’ role had to be reconsidered in view of the teleological understanding of evolution that would find its endpoint in (white) humans a few decades later. The chapter starts by discussing how American dinosaurs were connected to Carroll’s fantastic worlds in texts including an 1885 article that tried to describe Atlantosaurus to a general audience and a review of Marsh’s The Dinosaurs of North America (1896). Fallon observes that whereas writers such as Hutchinson evoked Carroll’s fantastic creatures to highlight the differences between these imaginary beasts and dinosaurs, journalists “were more likely to suggest that prehistoric animals and their polysyllabic names revealed the absurdity latent in palaeontological science” (72). Fallon traces the idea of dinosaurs’ inability to keep up with evolution, illustrated by their curious anatomy, through a set of texts that (more or less) explicitly reference Hutchinson’s Extinct Monsters and use the malformed prehistoric creatures for amusement or education: Eugene Field’s poem “Extinct Monsters” (1893), Edward W. D. Cuming’s children’s fiction Wonders in Monsterland (1901), and Emily Octavia Bray’s work of children’s literature Old Time and the Boy; or, Prehistoric Wonderland (1921). As Fallon demonstrates, by the time Bray’s book was published, “dinosaurs and other ‘Extinct Monsters’ were no longer shockingly new and strange” (96). The idea of human progress, both on an individual level in the didactic children’s fictions by Cuming and Bray and on a more general level as the Rezensionen 156 pinnacle of evolution, sets up the topic of Chapter 3: the symbolic use of dinosaurs in narratives of imperialism and the negotiation of national identities. Accordingly, John Jacob Astor’s A Journey in Other Worlds (1894) and Gustavus W. Pope’s Journey to Venus (1895) extended fantasies of Manifest Destiny “to outer space and to deep time itself, depicting an expansion that could continue infinitely” (103) and “established conventions for fiction about dinosaurs on other planets that have inspired authors to the present day” (134). Henry Augustus Hering’s short story “Silas P. Cornu’s Divining-Rod” (1899), on the other hand, mocked the idea of American expansionism and dinosaur fossils’ role in it. On the British side, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne’s The Lost Continent (1900) and Frank Savile’s Beyond the Great South Wall (1899) stage encounters with sauropods in faraway lands that the book’s protagonists cannot kill, “growing stronger and more resourceful in the process” (134), and reflected the era’s anxiety about decadent masculinity. Savile’s novel, Fallon remarks, “helped to establish dinosaurs and other eldritch prehistoric horrors as appropriate adversaries in polar adventures,” while Hyne’s “prehistoric myth-making […] almost certainly” influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs’s sagas (134-35). When mentioning Burroughs’s paleofictions, Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) is never far away. Thus, the book’s final chapter studies the original manuscript of the novel alongside its genesis (e.g. Conan Doyle’s experiments with faux-documentary images) to suggest that Conan Doyle thought that empirical science “ought to make the world more deeply wonderful” (171). However, the academic establishment at the turn of the century made this practically impossible (even if “the concept that certain species might have persisted in remote areas was becoming more scientifically credible” [153]), turning The Lost World into “a site for whimsical speculations on the possibilities of a scientific community unfettered by specialist protocols that limited not only what could be discovered but also what could be sought” (172). In a way, this notion of limitless possibilities echoes in the conclusion to Reimagining Dinosaurs, which elegantly summarizes the main findings and also connects them to more recent developments, as Fallon remarks that dinosaurs “appear capable of weathering whatever else human society can make of them” (184). To be sure, for readers versed in the cultural formation of dinosaurs, much of what they will find in Reimagining Dinosaurs will not necessarily sound new: from the change of the image of dinosaurs as the culmination of reptilian evolution to creatures that vanished from the face of the planet because they were too stupid, slow, malformed, etc. to survive to the entanglements between the colonial imagination and prehistoric narratives, these are all contexts that these readers will be aware of. However, Fallon’s discussions of select pieces of fiction and nonfiction produce a more nuanced understanding of dinosaurs’ (trans)cultural functions and their meanings in the Anglophone world of the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century. The author packages his explorations of literary examples in expertly conceived narratives about, among others, changing conceptions of dinosaurs and science’s struggle with (and for) its selfdefinition. In addition, Fallon constantly succeeds in presenting novel pieces of information that will be of interest to various types of readers, from the indepth discussion of paleontologists’ reactions to Hutchinson’s popularization Rezensionen 157 of their insights and the tidbit that Maxim Gorky and Leonid Andreyev exchanged notes on Extinct Monsters to the details about the genesis of The Lost World and the remarks on Conan Doyle’s cryptozoological beliefs. In addition to being incredibly well-researched and well-written, Reimagining Dinosaurs includes a little over a dozen greyscale illustrations, most of which - unsurprisingly - focus on dinosaurs. While these illustrations are wellchosen, there are a few sections where I would have appreciated some visualizations, for example in the brief discussion of Tennyson Reed’s “proto-Flintstones [series] ‘Peeps’” (84) - but this is more of a remark than an actual point of criticism. Reimagining Dinosaurs should be of particular interest to scholars working in the fields of literature and science and the popularization of science, but the book also provides useful insights for scholars of late nineteenthand early twentieth-century Anglophone literature and scholars working on transatlantic knowledge exchange and (popular) culture’s role in it. Conveniently, Fallon also edited the anthology Creatures of Another Age: Classic Visions of Prehistoric Monsters (2021), which may well be considered a compendium volume for anyone who would like to dig deeper into some texts from 1830 to World War I that imagine prehistoric life. I would recommend anyone who might be remotely intrigued by Reimagining Dinosaurs to pick up the book, since they will not be disappointed - in short, this is an excellent study about the transatlantic formation of dinosaurs at the fin de siècle. ‘Would recommend’ because there is a catch: the monograph (184 pages of main text, 62 pages of notes, a bibliography of 31 pages, and a sixpage index) sells for €98.90/ £75.00/ US-$99.99 (as a hardcover), which is clearly priced for institutions. The Kindle edition is about half the price of the hardcover, which seems borderline justifiable for an individual, while the eBook edition available in the Google Play Store is priced between the Kindle and hardcover. Accordingly, for the moment, if you cannot get your institution to acquire the book (or get the book via interlibrary loan), you may want to get the Kindle edition (if you can justify buying from Amazon), wait for the paperback edition, which Cambridge University Press usually publishes two years after the hardcover release, or bite the bullet and pay the hefty price for the hardcover edition. In view of shrinking library budgets and an increasing number of scholars in various types of precarious contracts, Cambridge UP would be well-advised to reconsider its pricing strategy. After all, even smaller university presses such as UP Mississippi have recently started to publish their books in both hardcover and paperback editions from day one. References Dickens, Charles ([1853] 1996). Bleak House. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Nicola Bradbury. London: Penguin. Fallon, Richard (2021). “Introduction.” In: Fallon, Richard (Ed.). Creatures of Another Age: Classic Visions of Prehistoric Monsters. Richmond, VA: Valancourt Books. 7-16. Rezensionen 158 Hutchinson, H. N. ([1892] 1893). Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life. Second Edition. London: Chapman & Hall. Morley, Henry (1851). “Our Phantom Ship on an Antediluvian Cruise.” Household Words 3. 492-496. Owen, Richard (1842). “Report on British Fossil Reptiles.” In: Report of the Eleventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science: Held at Plymouth in July 1841. London: John Murray. 60-204. Michael Fuchs Institut für Anglistik & Amerikanistik Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg Stefan L. Brandt and Michael Fuchs (Eds.). Space Oddities: Difference and Identity in the American City. American Studies in Austria 16. Wien: Lit Verlag, 2018. Philipp Reisner The twelve essays assembled in this volume emerged from the 2014 conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies in Graz, Austria (“Space Oddities. Urbanity, American Identity, and Cultural Exchange”). The title of this anthology of essays, “Space Oddities,” derives from David Bowie’s eponymous iconic song from 1969 about an astronaut leaving the world and floating among the stars. The liminal space, in both a temporal and a spatial sense, that is described in the lyrics, served as inspiration for the conference. In their introduction entitled “Space Oddities and American Cities,” the editors Stefan L. Brandt and Michael Fuchs contextualize Bowie’s song for the purposes of the conference, pointing out that “the American city (and America) was, conceptually, founded outside the geographic borders of the United States of America” (22) and that the defining spatial oddity of our time is the fact that “our daily urban - that is, inevitably local - activities have global effects” (23). They offer a useful spectrum of related tropes from American culture such as the famous statement on SPACE by Charles Olson (1910-70), namely, “the central fact to man born in America” and John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill,” which they see as anticipating the ‘Open City’ of the Early Republic, an ideal that was never fully realized, but supplanted by the reality of contested spaces (10-11). In the first essay, “Of Other American Spaces: The Alterity of the Urban in the U.S. National Imaginary,” Robert T. Tally, jr., drawing upon Edgar Allan Poe, examines the subordinate role of urban spaces in conceptualizations of ‘Americanness,’ detecting an awkward correspondence between the growing urban populations and the ideal of settling open rural spaces, a topic he further explores in his essay collection on different aspects of the spatial humanities (Topophrenia: Place, Narrative, and the Spatial Imagination, Indiana University Press, 2018). Markku Salmela next turns to the roles of peripheries in American literary urbanism, demonstrating their central role in the American imagination. Both Tally and Salmela offer a wide theoretical and textual framework, which helps to put the subsequent more specialized essays into perspective. AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0008 Rezensionen 160 The next two essays address questions of ethnicity in relation to American cities: in “The White Space of the Metropolitan Battlefield,” Johan Höglund discusses the restoration of white masculinity in the urban battlefields of recent alien invasion movies in reference to The Avengers (2012). In “The Last of the Skyscrapers: Urban Myths and Dystopian Realism in Indian Killer’s Seattle,” Fiorenzo Iuliano reads Sherman Alexie’s 1996 novel Indian Killer as a work of dystopian realism, addressing its use of urban myths. The next three contributions focus on queer spaces in American cities: In “Mapping the Ephemeral Community in Larry Kramer’s Faggots and Andrew Holleran’s Dancer from the Dance,” Linda Heß discusses two novels published in 1978 anticipating queer theory and the ephemerality of space. She also examines representations of the divisions within the gay community. In “‘The ghetto is coming out’: Charles Rice-Gonzáles’ Chulito and the Emergence of Queer Puerto Rican Fiction in The Bronx,” Sina A. Nitzsche examines the Puerto Rican gay community in New York City in the Hispanic ‘ghetto’ of Hunts Point, in the Bronx. Eric C. Erbacher discusses the short-lived TV series Looking (HBO, 2014-15) in his contribution entitled “Post-Gay San Francisco? The Queering of Urban Space in the TV Series Looking.” He suggests that the series risks becoming an active agent in the whitewashing of problems of real-life gays and thus in the commodification and “neoliberal commercialization” of gay history and identities (158). Similar questions turn up in Sarah Lahm’s contribution “‘Yas Queen’: Postfeminism and Urban Space Oddities in Broad City,” where she identifies the capitalist critique lurking behind this television series’ feminist engagement. In “Of Roaches, Rats, and Man: Pest Species and Naturecultures in New York Horror Movies,” editor Michael Fuchs examines the representation of rats and cockroaches in horror movies that are set in New York City, arguing that the use of such images even within popular cinematic culture is a particularly complex matter (195). The final two contributions move from the academic to the experiential sphere. In “Invading Amerika: Why Not? The Werkbundsiedlung,” William Tate offers a meditative manifesto for more sustainable home design in the United States in the form of a broad textual collage, delineating his attempt to transfer the spirit of the modernist Viennese Werkbundsiedlung to Virginia in his design school. Continuing in the spirit of collage, Peter Chanthanakone in his contribution entitled “The Virtual Reality of America” relates his experience as a producer of 3D animated short films, explaining how his work draws on the built environment of cities by using mashups of places and objects. Though the title and introduction may lead the reader to expect a more thorough treatment of music in relation to the topic of the (American) city, the emphasis is on novels, film and TV series (four of the ten academic contributions deal with novels, two with film and two with TV series). In their brevity, these essays offer important snapshots of the manifold facets of the American city with a strong focus on its cultural imaginary. In general, one may hope that the field moves beyond its engrained focus on the larger American cities while becoming more aware of the burgeoning historical research especially on ethnic aspects of American cities in recent years. Since the publication of Rezensionen 161 this volume, many studies on the American city and American identity have been published, both along the general thematic line of this volume (such as Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts: Narrating Spaces, Reading Urbanity, edited by Martin Kindermann and Rebekka Rohleder, Springer 2020; Sean W. Maher, Film Noir and Los Angeles: Urban History and the Dark Imaginary, Routledge 2020), and notably on John Winthrop’s “City Upon a Hill” (Daniel T. Rodgers’s seminal As a City on a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon, Princeton University Press 2018, followed by Abram C. Van Engen, City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism, Yale University Press, 2020). It is together with these more recent volumes that this collection is best read. Philipp Reisner Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Wells-Lassagne, Shannon & Fiona McMahon (Eds.). Adapting Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, 2021. Sandra Danneil Since the 1970s, much has been written about Canada’s premier literary figure Margaret Atwood. But most research is about her literary production, and not her practice of adapting. Literary companions discuss her poetry, international literary scholars introduce readers to the dystopian visions in her speculative fiction, Atwood’s biographers trace her stations in life, dozens of scholars seek to uncover the dimensions of her female Gothic - and all them teach their readers how to intellectually adapt to Atwood texts, but tend to overlook the creative potential for artists to take her texts and show instead of only tell what is in it. Since her most acclaimed sixth novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, was rediscovered by a new generation of 21 st -century readers, we have seen that the 1985 book spoke precisely to people’s feelings about President Trump and how his Twitter-channeled postfactual politics began to crucially influence Americans’ conceptions of right and wrong. When the feminist classic again topped the world’s bestseller lists in the moment of Donald Trump’s election as 45 th US president in 2017, the text went through an extensive transformative process. Suddenly, the novel inspired a wave of creative reactions drawing on the instructive function of Offred’s story of oppression for new audiences. Auteurs from various genres re-imagined the novel The Handmaid’s Tale for television, re-wrote it for the stage, re-translated it into the complex language of the opera, re-drew language into illustrations boxed into panels of a graphic novel, and even transferred it from the page to the streets by re-interpreting its most iconic markers, the maiden’s red coat and white wings, as symbols of female empowerment. The great success of Bruce Miller’s TV adaptation, Hulu’s signature format The Handmaid’s Tale (since 2017), seems not only to have inspired Margaret Atwood herself to respond to such fame by turning Offred’s story from a narrative of repression into a narrative of rebellion with her 2019 sequel novel The Testaments. Such fame moreover elicited new thinking about how much Atwood’s practice of exploring what has been defined as “the blueprint of the AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 47 · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.24053/ AAA-2022-0009 Rezensionen 164 literary imagination” would lead back to a novel that was written in the mid- 1980s. Atwood’s lasting success might in large parts be based on her talent to create dystopian worlds and relatable characters. But the booming hype of The Handmaid’s Tale leads us far beyond the novel itself: Atwood is an alchemist who catches up on the changing nature of media consumption and distribution in the 21 st century - a statement which is key to the critical essays in the new volume Adapting Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid’s Tale and Beyond. What this book convincingly argues is that the various options to view Margaret Atwood as a writer of The Handmaid’s Tale opens up new possibilities to experience her also as a reader, as Jekyll and Hyde, who is caught between authorship and re-immersing into the psyche of much formative canonical literature - from Homer to Shakespeare to Shelley to Milton and back. The essay collection Adapting Margaret Atwood, edited by Fiona McMahon, professor of American literature at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, and Shannon Wells-Lassagne, professor of film and television at Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, is published as part of the Macmillan series of Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. As the selection of essays shows, the editors have paid particular attention to the changing objects or, in today’s language, the “Easter Eggs” Atwood has incorporated also in the texts that came after The Handmaid’s Tale. Although or even because Atwood’s corpus includes 50+ books, essays, cartoons, poetry and much more on offer, the volume manages to strategically structure its critical contributions in the “ongoing whirl of intertextual reference and transformation,” to quote from adaptation theorist Robert Stam. “Part I: Atwood Adapts” thus starts with Atwood’s undercutting of any hierarchical order between originator and adaptor by shedding light on her own adaptation practices particularly elaborated in her rewritings of Shakespeare’s Tempest (in Hag-Seed, 2016), Milton’s Paradise Lost (in The Heart Goes Last, 2015), and Homer’s Odyssey (in The Penelopiad, 2005). The essays in “Part II: Atwood Adapted” focus on the acclaimed adaptations of the novels Alias Grace and The Handmaid’s Tale for television, graphic novel, the opera as well as the wider public. Part III, “Atwood in the World”, offers insights into the purely practical questions of how to stage and to film Atwood’s most renowned narratives within three interviews. What stands out here is that stage directors and different cinematographers define their search for compositing a “photographic vocabulary from first-person retrospective narration, interior monologue, [and] dream” (Steacy) as a piece of hard work “to get people to […] watch your stories” (Watkinson). The practice of creating a “visual storytelling” to find a “dramatic and uplifting action” not only affected the filming, but moreover the staging of the originally non-dramatic text The Penelopiad (cf. Thornton). The interviews show how today’s creative industry indulges in the pleasure of reinventing the written word and transforming it into a vocabulary for the senses. Canada’s internationally acclaimed critical theorist of postmodern culture Linda Hutcheon has contributed an afterword in which she not only honors Atwood from her position as a literary scholar. She also praises Atwood from Rezensionen 165 the perspective of a fan. In Atwood, her compatriot sees a writer who has perfected the postmodern technique of adaptation, given that Atwood’s literary work has productively informed much of Hutcheon’s theoretical insights about adaptation itself. On a formal rather than content-based level, Hutcheon resumes Atwood’s writing technique in her commonly shrewd and trenchant manner: Atwood would have managed to “write back” to the classics of Western literature, to “write alongside” other oppositional rewritings and, by doing so, offer her readers “women’s versions of familiar stories”, and finally to please her audience with texts that are “written into (and out of)” an array of popular genres. In their introduction, the editors not only point to Atwood’s “very identity as a poet, essayist, cartoonist, environmentalist, and overall cultural figurehead” whose intertextuality and cultural recycling within innumerable genres and media have shaped her “lively presence on digital and social platforms since the 2000s” (4). Wells-Lassagne and McMahon’s unique idea is to further unravel how much Atwood has inscribed herself in the evolving landscape of new media production, distribution, and consumption. The editors are convinced that her writing against, alongside and into (or out of) literary conventions have inspired new ways of dealing with gendered narrative perspectives in much contemporary (dystopian) storytelling. This reminds me of a remark about complex television in the digital age by television scholar Jason Mittell; an observation that seems to speak to Atwood’s literary strategy. Atwood’s style parallels many of today’s complex TV narratives as they blur “the experiential borders between watching a program and engaging with its paratexts” (2015: 7). The Handmaid’s Tale as Atwood’s most adapted text is a proper example to prove this. The practice of adaptation as explored within the corpus of works by Margaret Atwood receives many different names the authors have borrowed from postmodern critical theory. The literary analyses in the first section, “Atwood Adapts,” for example, are discussing adaptation by ways of Genette’s “palimpsest” (Dvorak); explain Atwood’s approach to adaptation with “ghostly voices” from past literary influences that “haunt her writing” (Niemann); highlight various moments of “transformation” as an effect of post-human resilience within the post-apocalyptic worlds constituted in Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy (Crucitti); a theme which is further extended in the subsequent analysis that defines adaptation as an “ongoing act of biological survival” when looking at MaddAddam’s protean poetics (Coté); and finally view Atwood’s “mutation” of her own stage adaptation of the The Penelopiad as an act of “liberation” that freed a text from its generic hold. Bridging the gap between practice and theory has become a common method of much current popular cultural studies research which clearly identifies the contributors in the second part as ACAfans. The label was coined by the renowned cultural studies scholar Henry Jenkins. He invented the ACAfan category to refer to himself as an academically educated aficionado; as someone who indulges in recognition; and as someone whose active voice participates in what Stephen King once defined as the “cultural echo chambers” for which the practice of adaptation, to dwell upon the same musical metaphor, Rezensionen 166 provides the most sustainable instruments. Whereas the contributors of “Atwood Adapts” offer their readers oftentimes meticulous literary re-readings of many of Atwood’s more (or less) recent publications, “Atwood Adapted” follows a different approach. Here, six different ACAfans pay close attention to the benefits of audiovisual media in the process of updating Atwood’s feminist viewpoints in The Handmaid’s Tale and Alias Grace for mass media entertainment. That being said, “Part II: Atwood Adapted” focuses on the realization of formal techniques such as the voicing of the “unreliable narrator” in Alias Grace or the conscious use of “shallow focus composition” in the awarded cinematography of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In such complex TV formats, the transformation of the written texts benefit from the very structure of a mix of serial openness and episodic closure as well as the visual and acoustic layers that guide the emotional nuances in the reception. Through the intersection of contemporary politics and the ongoing gender wars, the contribution by Elizabeth Mullen writes the TV series The Handmaid’s Tale “out of” the limits of mass entertainment and “into” the current sociopolitical climate. The series’ “impact on the larger world” not only shows the avenues for new forms of adaptation; an approach that Joyce Goggins sees evident when immersing into Renée Nault’s graphic novel. As Mullen points out, the story’s impact is even more manifest in the semiotic renderings of having transformed specific motifs from the novel into symbols of feminist empowerment that today emerge as forming the backbone of much #MeToo activism. Two essays of the “Atwood Adapted” section are little treasure troves as they shed light on the interdisciplinarity of adaptation and make understandable why this book needed to be written. By taking the artistic practice literally, these essays make clear that adaptation not only links literary and (popular) cultural studies or tries to find a place in film analysis, television theory, and semiotic musicology. What David Roche’s article “Shallow Focus Composition and the Poetics of Blur” and Helmut Reichenbächer’s “Offred at the Opera: Dimensions of Adaptation” accomplish is, even more importantly, to tie the reader in with the practical aspects of cinematography and libretto composition. The question what steps are necessary “to arrive at the opera” is skillfully answered by Helmut Reichenbächer. His contribution offers a comprehensive introduction to Poul Ruders and Paul Bentley’s complex linguistic system in their opera interpretation of The Handmaid’s Tale. In the same vein, David Roche investigates the ramifications of the cinephile technique of “shallow focus composition” in the TV series. Although the technique of the aesthetic blur - known from the Japanese “bokeh” photography that stylizes out-of-focus points of light - has become a cliché of much contemporary complex TV series to ensure the best possible cinephile experience, Roche argues into a different direction. To him, the blur in the otherwise deep-focused mise-en-scène compensates a lot for the novel’s visual language. According to Roche, the shallow focus composition becomes a marker of Offred’s subjectivity, her intimacy, and memory on the one hand. But on the other hand, the blur operates almost Rezensionen 167 allegorically as it visualizes the vertigo of an unstable homogeneity of the fundamentalist regime. It is a visual fulfilment of the perspective which Offred longs for in the novel, but only has words to do so. Roche delivers remarkable observations about the aesthetic quality of the blur which expresses the tension in the moment when it seems as if losing touch with reality; a nebulous feeling that viewers might know from the short moment before fainting, or when they try to remember a dream from last night. Taken together, the sixteen pieces in this volume, partly illustrated with colored stills and screenshots, photographs, diagrams, or musical scores, build a comprehensive piece of conducted research about the texts of Margaret Atwood and the art of adaptation that accompanies her and many other artists’ creative work. In the afterword, Linda Hutcheon once more finds the right words to explain what has happened to the art of adaptation: On roughly 250 pages, this volume shows how the mode of telling has been increasingly replaced by the mode of showing; a development which Atwood values time and again as a must if you want to have your finger on the pulse of the Zeitgeist (cf. 252). The fact that a great number of fans, academics, readers, or artists keep returning to the creative output of Margaret Atwood, or perhaps have first turned to her tellings by way of the showings, Atwood’s alchemy leaves no doubt that her magic “has to do, in one word, with relevance” (252). Sandra Danneil TU Dortmund University BUCHTIPP Christian Mair English Linguistics An Introduction 4., aktualisierte und überarbeitete Au age 2022, 282 Seiten €[D] 21,99 ISBN 978-3-8233-8448-9 eISBN 978-3-8233-9448-8 „English Linguistics“ is a compact and easy-to-use introduction to English linguistics which is tailored to the needs of students of English at German, Austrian and Swiss universities, contains graded exercises to motivate students to carry out independent research, and bridges the gap between linguistics and the literary and cultural-studies components of the typical BA in English Studies. Bachelor-wissen „English Linguistics“ goes beyond the usual introduction in offering accompanying web resources which provide additional material and multi-media illustration. The new edition includes current theoretical approaches in the elds of sociolinguistics and World Englishes. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG \ Dischingerweg 5 \ 72070 Tübingen \ Germany Tel. +49 (0)7071 97 97 0 \ Fax +49 (0)7071 97 97 11 \ info@narr.de \ www.narr.de narr.digital ISBN 978-3-8233-1000-6 ISSN 0171 - 5410 Mit Beiträgen von: Bernd Heine and Gunther Kaltenböck Pius ten Hacken and Renáta Panocová Janko Trupej Qianqian Chen and Joan Qionglin Tan Milica Vuković-Stamatović and Vesna Bratić Cvetka Sokolov