Faculty of Letters

In proposing an interpretation of money and language as overlapping sign systems, we have in view the metaphorical language of finance/commerce that permeates Dickens’s novels. The two novels that we consider as representative for the way in which metaphors from the financial system slip into other systems are Our Mutual Friend and Dombey and Son.
The method that we use consists of approaching the two novels from the perspectives of semiotics and stylistics, with particular reference to the economic isotopies represented in the semiotic square and the economic/financial metaphors in different types of discourses.

Considering that the interpretation of proper names as verbal signs in terms of John Lyons’s “triangle of signification” (1968) is open to criticism, the first part of this paper brings to attention an improved model of the semiotic triangle, designed by Norbert Poruciuc (2005). We further apply his model of the shadow triangle in identifying the appellative usage behind a series of denominative signs selected from Dickens's novels.
In the tradition imposed by Umberto Eco (1982) and Roland Barthes (1964, 1967), we shall examine the relationship between linguistic and iconic signifiers in the semiotic system of characters, by decomposing texts and illustrations from Martin Chuzzlewit into different layers of signification.

In positioning the literary work in a complex web of intertextual relations, we practically achieve the contextualization of this type of cultural product. If the text represents a network of references to other texts that condition its significance or an intervention in the cultural system, the study of intertextuality becomes the study of the system of cultural signs (Allen, 2003).
Our paper aims at exploring the functions of paintings as cultural signs and unifying bonds for the events from Margaret Atwood’s "Cat’s Eye", on the one hand, and at illustrating the special relations of verbal and pictorial signs to their referents, on the other hand. The analysis of interdependent signs comes to be largely influenced by the fact that these paintings contain symbols whose referents are rooted in the rest of the narrative and are made meaningful due to their ekphrastic description (Clüver, 1993:13).

In the light of theories from different fields of linguistics (etymology, lexicology, cognitive linguistics and semantics), as well as from rhetoric and stylistics, similes can be approached either as phrasemes (with literal or metaphorical meanings) or as tropes (whose usage is poetic and context-dependent).
“Formulaic similes” (Veale & Hao, 2009), “stock similes” (Norrick, 1986), as well as “non-poetic similes” (Fishelov, 2007), are all terms that may be used in reference to the category of conventional similes whose linguistic expression, patterns and semantic features we propose to analyse in our paper.

Similes represent “containers of culturally received knowledge” (Veale, Hao and Li, 2008) and a part of the linguistic currency of a culture. However revealing about the stereotypical projections of concepts they may be, some similes remain opaque even to the native speakers.
Conceptual descriptions that are derived from commonplace similes and clichéd similes are “predictive of ontological structure” (Veale and Hao, 2007). Moreover, depending on the cognitive criteria which account for category membership of noun vehicles, there are several identity projections of objects and of people, whose salient properties are universally, regionally or locally acknowledged.

The main purpose throughout our study is that of establishing to what extent the values attributed to the Green Man turn it from a complex sign-name into an extremely potent cultural sign. The concept of “sign-name” (Cmeciu, 2001) has been used in the interpretation of complex characters/personalities as unique meaningful signs to be decoded by their contemporaries and successors.
Our intention is that to prove that, despite some representations as a grotesque, haunting, even scary presence, the “serenely beautiful, protective or impassive” Green Man refuses to submit to simple decoding.

Considering that conventionalized similes “allow little or no variation in form, encapsulate stereotyped aspects of experience and can be culture-specific” (Baker, 1992:63), we face several problems in the interpretation and translation of such patterns. After identifying different translation strategies for idiomatic expressions, we reach the conclusion that finding an expression of similar meaning and form in the target language is effective only when stereotyped and clichéd similes are treated paradigmatically; hence, we definitely need to consider the rhetorical effect of their contextual spread.

The survey of the concepts of name and naming reflects the fact that they are the object of study of several interrelated disciplines. My approach enables setting a solid basis for the use of the basic categories of these domains in the process of English language acquisition.

This course aims at providing the conceptual framework that students may use in describing and explaining syntactic categories, relations, functions and roles, with particular focus on the constituents and patterns of English simple sentences.
In acquiring good knowledge of syntactic functions and semantic roles of clause elements, students will be able to analyse the simple sentence in terms of both its form (morpho-syntactic aspects) and meaning (semantic aspects).
In addition to the preliminary theoretical notions and illustrations of basic syntactic structures, the tasks proposed for seminar activities will help them with the practical use of sentence constituents.

The structure of this book consists of five chapters, gradually revealing the implications of conceiving narrative as a construction built upon acts of naming. The stages in the metaphorical building of narrative identity are indicated by means of the following key paradigms: “the prism” which turns into a metaphor of the human mind through which each of the two concepts get as dispersed as the beam of light, filtered through the rain drops and split into spectral colours; “the maze” which stands for the intricate realities reflected by Victorian society; the narrative edifice sustained by the pillars of narrative participants’ identity and plot identity and, finally, the name seen as a “metaphor for the self” (Melnyk, 2003).

This book is meant to cover the most important aspects of English similes, treated as multi-faceted comparison patterns.
I chose the form of a dictionary in order to smoothly glide from phrasemes to tropes in studying similes, as the material I compiled was so vast that it definitely needed the structural backbone which a lexicographic study can provide. However, every set of dictionary entries is introduced through some theoretical chapters which outline the main characteristics of each type of simile.

The commercialization of culture largely contributes to the degeneration of Western cultural values. On the one hand, consumerism, viewed as “the myth that the individual will be gratified and integrated by consuming”, has become “an incomplete system of values substituted for a waning cultural heritage” (Cronk, 1996). On the other hand, even if social cannibalism means the members’ feeding off other members of the same society, it can also serve as “a metaphor for the humans’ primitive interconnection to others” (Rawson, 1999).
As these two concepts have been mitigated in social practice into subsequent metaphors and even terms of endearment, our paper will attempt to draw a map of food-based metaphors and similes from Atwood’s "The Edible Woman" and to examine their significance and functions not as mere figures of speech, but as expressions of transformative cultural experiences. Moreover, we intend to prove that both food idioms acting as metaphors in everyday life and conceptual metaphors beautifully exploit the resourcefulness of language.

Our inquiry into the prevailing signifying values (metaphorical, metonymic and ironic) of additional and substitute names for “celebrities”/”public figures” is meant to indicate their enforcement as social codes, used to communicate social identity and as public codes, known and shared by the members of the whole community (Cmeciu 2003:51-52). The way in which society establishes and imposes such codes is rendered through varied forms of bynames and nicknames, appended to or replacing the official ones and whose significance is shifting with their bearers and users.
In approaching the topic of contemporary celebrity culture in Romania, we do not simply build on concepts such as fame, celebrity, stardom, fandom, cultural icon etc., as most cultural historians, anthropologists and analysts do, but underline the “string of antinomies” they are composed of: “public roles opposing private selves, artificial opposing natural, image opposing reality, ideal opposing typical, special opposing ordinary, hierarchy opposing equality” (Gamson, 1994:195), acceptance (supportive attitude) vs. rejection (subversive and undermining attitudes).

Construcţiile verbale şi nominale care reflectă stările, sentimentele şi atitudinile asociate condiţiei/ statutului/ calităţii de român (cetăţean român, etnic român) comportă o dinamică remarcabilă şi o evoluţie pe care o putem analiza, diacronic şi sincronic, în funcţie de contextualizările relaţionale şi socio-culturale.