American Research Journal of English and Literature

1* Acheoah John Emike (PhD), 1Williams Ocheme, 2Alonge John Owamerinme

The emergence of pragmatics makes communicative competence a crucial subject in the literature of pragmatics, even though linguistic competence is also instrumental in the effective use of language to communicate messages. To explain the pragmatic underpinnings of an utterance in terms of relevance and meaning within any given context, this study examines the utterance “I have headache in my stomach” alongside other samples of expressions gathered from the Nigerian speech community. When an utterance is uttered, the physical (environmental), psychological, pragmatic or social nuances that generate are inevitable components of the inferential process. A speaker expects the “world spoken-of” – as Allan [1] puts it – to be inferred correctly. This paper is hinged on a bipartite theoretical underpinning: the Pragma-crafting Theory; and the Relevance Theory of Communication. The study concludes that: the communicative value of an utterance is immersed in the ease and possibility of processing it for meaning (its topic relevance).

Md. Harun-Ur-Rashid 1 , Md. Naymul Islam 2 , Mst. Ummay Tohfa 3 , Md. Nazmul Haque 4

This paper’s central concern revolves around the sublime thoughts delivered artistically in the works of William Shakespeare, the tremendously influential playwright and poet of all time. A piece of art particularly speaking literature includes some traits or qualities for which it remains afresh the test of time. Among the qualities, sublimity is one through which a writer may make a space in the reader’s mind. William Shakespeare has been enchanting and entertaining the readers of different languages with his artistic delivery of thoughts of varied fields expressing universal thoughts. These thoughts become the finest pieces of expression when they are shrouded with sublimity. Shakespeare has portrayed his characters with sublime thoughts galore. These sublimes help the readers find the significance of human hearts, the necessity of reading literature, pleasure in discovering inner truth, weighing the greatness of human souls and the supremacy of humans indicating the notion - the aristocratic thought of an aristocratic being- after all, man is the sublime creature having sublime thoughts.

*1Acheoah John Emike (PhD), 1Williams Ocheme, 1Nura Garba Dauran

2Olaleye Joel Iyiola (PhD) 

In this paper, we examine the utterance “Black Lives Matter” from a linguistic purview. A linguistic analysis of the utterance can be explained not only in terms of literal and non-literal propositions, but also in terms of how the arrangement of language expresses meaning(s). This paper explores Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory of Communication, cited in Xinyue Yao [1], and contends that: the figurative potential of the utterance “Black Lives Matter” is a product of how the words are patterned (combined); unintended negative connotations are conveyed about Black because the topic relevance that the decoder works out in processing “Black Lives Matter”, is neither predictable nor limited; the utterance “Lives of Black Matter” is a good substitute for “Black Lives Matter”.

Prof. EA Gamini Fonseka, PhD

The Nightingale in Oscar Wild’s very romantic short story overhears the lamentation of the Student, who is in turmoil without knowing how he, in that wintry weather, provides a red rose for his dream sweetheart, his Professor’s Daughter, who has demanded him to get one for her to match the colour of her ball dress, promising to dance with him if the latter manages. Having assessed the decisiveness of a red rose for the attainment of the Student’s dream, the Nightingale embarks on a project to produce one for him, at the expense of her own life. Finally, she succeeds, but dies on the spot, as the rose blooms, absorbing her heart’s flesh. The red rose equips the Student to go ahead with his plan but the Professor’s Daughter, overjoyed by the jewels she has received from the Chamberlain’s nephew, changes not only her ball dress but also her dance partner. She rejects the red rose along with the Student. Thrown on to the road by the frustrated Student, the red rose gets crushed under a cart wheel, manifesting the indifference of the humans. Wilde exposes through the behaviours of both the Student and the Professor’s Daughter the moral decay of the Victorian society, where material objects gather prominence, undermining the ethical and moral foundations of human relationships.

Milorad [sin Nade Tesla] Ivanković Non-affiliated researcher Vršac (Verschez)

 Ever since the Anglo-Welsh philologist William Jones introduced Sanskrit to the West two centuries ago, various western scholars have been trying relentlessly to decipher the ancient Vedic texts but with poor results. The inadequacy in their achievements is evident in the scholarly disputes that continuously take place between the fundamentally opposed schools engaged in the interpretation of Vedic texts. There are shortcomings in their methodology because the approach they rely on does not take into account the requirement of preserving authenticity in exploring the semantic relations among the Sanskrit words and phrases in the original Vedic texts. Against this background, this paper attempts to present a semantic approach to decoding Vedic texts, where prominence is accorded to faithful interpretation of the original Sanskrit words and phrases with an emphasis on preserving the accuracy of their contextual meanings. Further, the paper demonstrates how the innermost enigmas in Vedic texts are decrypted.

*Acheoah John Emike (PhD),

Hamzah Abdurraheem (PhD),

Shittu Fatai

Beatrice Osaro Oreoluwa

This paper explores a pragmatic approach in the analysis of the English present and past tenses. The paper contends that the English present and past are best interpreted by examining not only the propositions expressed within these tenses, but also the in-built meanings expressed by the pragmatics of the context, world knowledge and word-class combinations that underpin them. Hinging on the Relevance Theory of Communication (cf. Sperber and Wilson cited in Xinyue Yao [1], this paper concludes that the value of a proposition is essentially speaker-hearer driven. From the end of the speaker, processing communication entails knowing the topic-relevance of a speaker’s utterance (message). On the whole, the complexity of the English present and past as well as incompetence in their normative properties culminate into non-pragmatic use of them in discourse.

Milorad sin Nade Tesla Ivanković Vršac [Verschez], Serbia

Bob Dylan is the first and only Noble Prize winner for literature among the rock ’n’ roll folks and its proponents. But a controversy over his adopted artistic name seems to be lasting forever. Dylan himself enwrapped it somehow recently into veils of mystique and mystery. However, it is absolutely essential for everyone to attain the proper insight into the matter. Why is this so vitally important? Because without the attainment of the proper insight into the hidden background behind his name, one can never hope to understand properly his poetry and his engagement as the consciousness of his generation.

Milorad [sin Nade Tesla] Ivanković Vršac (Verschez), Serbia Non-affiliated researcher

 It seems that today everybody writes haiku. Haiku has become a global phenomenon. It seems to be the most democratic means of artistic expression accessible to people worldwide as it has no restriction of race, faith, ideology, etc. Haiku poetry is comparable to Naïve art viz. by ignoring the so-called rules is essential for the art to be considered naive, and being more accessible to everyone with no necessity for institutional learning due to its short form and its relationship with the world of nature which most of the men, women and even children are intimately related to. However, the form of haiku prevailing today rarely represents the authentic zen form of haiku, but is rather composed in a wide variety of forms, as one-liner, three-liner, four liner and even minimalistic style of verse.

Prof. Dr. Luisa Maria Arvide Cambra

Abulcasis Al-Zahrāwī (c.936-c.1013) is a very important physician of Al-Andalus, besides an eminent surgeon, the first one of Medieval Islam. His main work, titled Kitāb al-Taṣrīf (Book of medical arrangement), contains in its 19th treatise, which deals with cosmetics and drugs for health and embellishment of body, interesting recipes of a great value to the diverse scientific fields, such as the pharmacology, dentistry dermatology, cosmetics and aesthetic medicine. This article is an approach to the study of the treatise above mentioned, and includes the translation from Arabic to English of some recipes about toothpastes, according to the 5774th Arab manuscript of the National Library at Paris.

Fatima Aref Msheik