Ron Kuzar

Sentence patterns in English and Hebrew

Sentence Patterns in English and Hebrew offers an innovative perspective on sentential syntax, in which sentence patterns are introduced as constructions within the general framework of Construction Grammar. Drawing on naturally occurring data collected from the Internet, the study challenges the prevailing view of predication as the sole mechanism of sentence formation, and introduces the idea of patterning as a complementary, sometimes even alternative mechanism. Major sentence patterns of English and Hebrew are systematically presented, targeting both their form and their function. A contrastive analysis of the sentence patterns in these two languages results in postulating a typological group, in which cognitive motivations are shown to account for both similarities and differences within the typology. Sentence Patterns in English and Hebrew will appeal to scholars of constructional approaches, cognitive linguistics, typology, syntax, as well as anyone interested in English and Hebrew.

The term return in the Palestinian discourse on the Right of Return

The term return is used in the English texts of contemporary Palestinian political authors writing on the Right of Return of Palestinians to their homes and homeland. The first part of this article is dedicated to a semantic analysis of return as a radial category with a core meaning and extensions. The meanings of return in these texts as used in the discourse of Palestinian maximalists versus pragmatists are then discussed. It is shown that: (1) different meanings of return are selected according to whether the writer is a maximalist or a pragmatist, and (2) a reality that harmonizes with these meanings is narratively constructed.

Do Marked Topics Enhance Memory

Do Marked Topics Enhance Memory? We examined the effects of markedness, the deviation from the canonical Subject-Verb-Object structure in English, on the memory of listeners for the topic of the sentence. We used three marked topic constructions: Left-Dislocation, Object-Fronting, and Subject-Marking. Sentences with these structures were inserted as the 6th item in lists of 12 canonical sentences. In all sentences the topic was the name of a man. We measured recall of the critical name. The results revealed that topics of Left-Dislocated sentences were recalled more than topics of the other constructions, with topics of Object-Fronting sentences recalled the least. We briefly discuss how sentence processing procedures might give rise to these effects.

Translating the Internationale: Unity and dissent in the encoding of proletarian solidarity

Abstract In order to symbolize solidarity between all proletarians of the world. The Internationale, the socialist anthem, has been translated into numerous languages as uniformly as possible, allowing for variation due to only rhyme and meter. This practice has suffered two exceptions: the covert encoding of a different ideology or the pronounced decision to update old contents so as to adapt the anthem to relevant issues. Following the presentation of the original French text, both exceptional practices are exemplified in the English and Hebrew translations, accompanied by a discussion of the motivating ideological grounds leading to the change and the discursive strategies used to achieve the desired ideological effects.