1. Processing feature assignment in Bulgarian : lecture at the Beyond Agreement Workshop, Geneve, 20. 6. 2024Danil Khristov, Penka Stateva, Julie Franck, Dávid György, Arthur Stepanov, 2024, unpublished conference contribution Keywords: Sentence processing, psycholinguistics, memory, feature assignment, Bulgarian
Published in RUNG: 26.06.2024; Views: 985; Downloads: 2
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2. Placement and ordering of the (en)cliticsFranc Marušič, Petra Mišmaš, Rok Žaucer, 2024, independent scientific component part or a chapter in a monograph Keywords: clitics, enclitics, Slavic, syntax, Slovenian, Slovak, Czech, Bulgarian, Macedonian, BCMS, Polish, clitic cluster, stress
Published in RUNG: 31.05.2024; Views: 972; Downloads: 3
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3. Speakers' errors in the use of the 'count form' in Bulgarian numeral phrases : possible sources of the distance effectPenka Stateva, Julie Franck, Arthur Stepanov, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: In Bulgarian, numerals such as pet ('five') assign a special 'count form' feature to the noun: this assignment takes place across any number of intervening modifier phrases, thus forming a long-distance syntactic dependency. In colloquial speech, speakers often erroneously substitute the count form for regular plurals. Previous corpus and psycholinguistic research established that the ratio of such errors correlates with the distance between numeral and the noun in terms of the number of intervening items. In this note we briefly review this line of inquiry and outline two possible explanations for the distance effect: (i) the cost of maintaining and/or retrieving the numeral in the working memory, and (ii) cumulative activation of the plural markings on the intervening adjectivals.
Keywords: numeral, syntactic dependency, language processing, working memory, activation, Bulgarian
Published in RUNG: 12.02.2024; Views: 1411; Downloads: 5
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6. Language and alphabet in the Armenian diaspora of Plovdiv, Bulgaria: symbolic cultivation and identitary memoryGiustina Selvelli, invited lecture at foreign university Abstract: In this presentation I will focus on the case of the Armenian diaspora of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, describing specific mechanisms of maintenance and reproduction of identitary memory connected to the symbolic use of the community’s language and alphabet made by both cultural elites and individuals. Armenian language and alphabet are functional to the promotion of a particular type of memory, which makes the experience of the diaspora 'transnational' and 'transtemporal' at one time, challenging conventional concepts of belonging based on territoriality. In particular, by virtue of its emotional content linked to a history of distinctiveness, the alphabet becomes part of a process of collective representation, as a key symbol nourishing the links with the spiritual and cultural heritage of the historical Armenian Motherland. The latter can be considered an 'Imaginary Homeland': not corresponding to the restricted borders of contemporary Republic of Armenia, it has acquired a 'mythical value' which constitutes integral part of an emotional geography of the diaspora. Although most members of the community do not have a command of the Armenian language, its alphabet appears to be an essential tool in a process of symbolic cultivation of collective imaginary by virtue of the specific “ethno-history” it contains, and expands its role beyond the technical one becoming an object, a decoration and a distinctive sign displaying identitary memory.
Keywords: Armenian Alphabet, Armenian Diaspora, Bulgarian Armenians, Imaginary Homeland, Symbolic Cultivation
Published in RUNG: 04.01.2021; Views: 3007; Downloads: 0
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7. The role of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) in supporting literacy in the minority language among the Bulgaria diasporaGiustina Selvelli, 2019, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: In this presentation I will illustrate the question of the Armenian language preservation among the diaspora members of the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, where the community counts approximately 3500 members (1% of the total urban population).
To this aim, I will employ data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork as well information emerged from the analysis of the Armenian diaspora media in order to highlight the fundamental role of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), the largest Armenian non-profit organization that operates at a global level. Based in New York, the AGBU embodies the main educational institution across the Armenian diaspora worldwide and supports a number of social activities related the preservation of this minority language. In particular, I will focus the attention on the importance of the (Western) Armenian language classes organized by the AGBU Plovdiv Saturday School (in addition to the ones held at the local Armenian School Tiutiundjian) and the contents and articles published by the AGBU Bulletin (Parekordzagani Tzain), a bi-weekly and bilingual (Bulgarian-Armenian) newspaper.
Furthermore, I will treat the topic of the recent creation of the AGBU Armenian virtual college, an advanced online platform for learning the Armenian language, in line with the most modern technologies in language teaching, that has been employed in the last years during the classes at the AGBU Saturday School and which represents a significant innovation in the promotion of literacy in the mother tongue.
Finally, I will consider the importance of diaspora institutions such as the AGBU in fostering a specific language ideology that is inscribed in a discourse on ethnic identity and community’s survival in the context of globalization and which proves crucial in the improvement of the minority’s relationships with the Republic of Armenia.
Keywords: Armenian Diaspora, Literacy, Bulgarian Armenians, Armenian Minority, Minority Media, Plovdiv
Published in RUNG: 22.12.2020; Views: 3385; Downloads: 0
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8. ALPHABET AND WRITING IN THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA OF PLOVDIV: ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVESGiustina Selvelli, 2015, original scientific article Abstract: This work investigates the relation between the maintenance of Armenian identity and language and the multifunctional employment of the Armenian writing system in the diasporic context of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Departing from the assumption that a writing system’s cultural meaning goes far beyond its technical function, the aim is to demonstrate how the Armenian alphabet becomes a fundamental component of a process of symbolic cultivation of collective imagery, employed by the local intelligentsia in different writing settings in order to keep the link with the
cultural and spiritual legacy of the historic Armenian motherland alive. In this vision, I integrate the analysis of ethnic identity with the study of the representational factors that allow a group to exist in the symbolic horizon of its members, with
the purpose of underlining the symbolic aspect of ethnicity and identifying the mechanisms active in its persistence in time as a historic and cultural construction.
Keywords: Armenian Diaspora, Armenian Alphabet, Bulgarian Armenians, Plovdiv, Armenian Language
Published in RUNG: 24.08.2020; Views: 3195; Downloads: 0
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9. IDENTITY AND MULTIPLICITY IN CANETTI'S AND WAGENSTEIN'S BIRTHPLACES : EXPLORING THE RHIZOMATIC ROOTS OF EUROPEGiustina Selvelli, 2017, original scientific article Abstract: The aim of this article is to present some commonalities between the works of two writers who share the same Bulgarian and Jewish origin: Elias Canetti (1905–1994) and Angel Wagenstein (1922–). Both writers can be considered as highly multicultural personalities: they both came from Sephardic Jewish backgrounds, and were influenced and fascinated by different cultural worlds such as the Bulgarian one, the Jewish one, the Central- European one, and even more.
This paper will explore the contribution of their birthplaces, respectively, Rustschuk (today, Ruse) and Plovdiv, to the development of what I will define as a particular kind of sensibility for multiplicity which was central to their subsequent cultural and social undertakings.
Keywords: Angel Wagenstein, Elias Canetti, Bulgaria, Bulgarian Sephardic Jews, Plovdiv, Ruse, Multiethnic Cities, Post-Ottoman Bulgaria
Published in RUNG: 22.06.2020; Views: 3199; Downloads: 0
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10. THE ROLE OF THE NEWSPAPER PAREKORDZAGANI TZAIN AND ITS RELATED INSTITUTIONS IN THE PRESERVATION OF LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY IN THE ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF PLOVDIVGiustina Selvelli, 2018, original scientific article Abstract: This paper describes the linguistic and identitary challenges faced by the members of the Armenian diaspora of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in relation to what can be viewed as an irreducible multicultural context. Through the consideration of the community’s main cultural
institutions embodied by the AGBU organization, the related press organ Parekordzagani Tzain and publishing house Armen Tur, I highlight the Armenian diaspora’s ability of combining different resources from a transnational perspective, while keeping alive a fixed sense of collective identity. In such process, I show how language reveals itself as the main chore of the community’s value systems, embracing different domains of the diaspora social
and cultural life.
Keywords: Armenian diaspora, Multilingualism in Bulgaria, Armenians
in Plovdiv, Armenian institutions, Bulgarian Armenians.
Published in RUNG: 19.06.2020; Views: 3610; Downloads: 0
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