LRC

  Dr. Mahmoud Radwan made a presentation titled “Madness in Arabic Narratives,” which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University on March 06, 2019.   Dr. Radwan began by defining madness as “the state of having a serious mental illness, or extremely foolish behavior, or a state of wild or chaotic activity.” He tried to relate the concept of madness to literature.   Dr. Radwan reiterated the fact that literature had always been interconnected with madness. He stated that not only is the idea about madness associated with the author; it also has a close association with characters created by him or her. Madness in literature can refer to both writers who are known to have been insane and to abnormal characters in literature. Thus, there are three major definitions of madness in literature; namely, the "mad writer," the "mad characters," and the application of psychological terms to literary madness, said Dr. Radwan.   Dr. Radwan mentioned the names of some writers (Guy de Maupassant, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Swift, Jack London, and Virginia Woolf) who had suffered from mental illness. He also spoke about mad characters created by some authors who were interested in exploring human behavior, contradictions, inner anxiety, and pathological actions.   Dr. Radwan finally showed how madness was involved in Arabic narratives. He mentioned that Mohamed Al-Samman's Madness in Arab Culture is one of the most comprehensive critiques of the discourse of madness. He added that Arab writers utilize the fictional conventions of madness as a textual strategy to break the culture of silence about a discourse evaded on purpose and thus they disinter a world that is mysteriously hidden. Examples of such writers include Khudeir Miri (Iraq), Samiha Khrais (Jordan), Usama Issa (Palestine), Ahmed Yousif Dawood (Syria), Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi (Saudi Arabia), Walid Damag (Yemen), Khairy Shalaby (Egypt), Ihab Adlan (Sudan), and Ismail Yebrir (Algeria).   The seminar was very informative and a great success. Date: 3/8/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Mahmoud Radwan made a presentation titled “Madness in Arabic Narratives,” which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University on March 06, 2019.   Dr. Radwan began by defining madness as “the state of having a serious mental illness, or extremely foolish behavior, or a state of wild or chaotic activity.” He tried to relate the concept of madness to literature.   Dr. Radwan reiterated the fact that literature had always been interconnected with madness. He stated that not only is the idea about madness associated with the author; it also has a close association with characters created by him or her. Madness in literature can refer to both writers who are known to have been insane and to abnormal characters in literature. Thus, there are three major definitions of madness in literature; namely, the "mad writer," the "mad characters," and the application of psychological terms to literary madness, said Dr. Radwan.   Dr. Radwan mentioned the names of some writers (Guy de Maupassant, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Swift, Jack London, and Virginia Woolf) who had suffered from mental illness. He also spoke about mad characters created by some authors who were interested in exploring human behavior, contradictions, inner anxiety, and pathological actions.   Dr. Radwan finally showed how madness was involved in Arabic narratives. He mentioned that Mohamed Al-Samman's Madness in Arab Culture is one of the most comprehensive critiques of the discourse of madness. He added that Arab writers utilize the fictional conventions of madness as a textual strategy to break the culture of silence about a discourse evaded on purpose and thus they disinter a world that is mysteriously hidden. Examples of such writers include Khudeir Miri (Iraq), Samiha Khrais (Jordan), Usama Issa (Palestine), Ahmed Yousif Dawood (Syria), Ghazi Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi (Saudi Arabia), Walid Damag (Yemen), Khairy Shalaby (Egypt), Ihab Adlan (Sudan), and Ismail Yebrir (Algeria).   The seminar was very informative and a great success. Date: 3/8/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Barbara Rumbinas delivered a presentation organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University on February 27, 2019.   Dr. Barbara began her presentation by defining Multimodal Analysis which is actually an inter-disciplinary approach that acknowledges that communicative acts contain more than verbal utterances or written texts. She said communicative acts are meaning-generating events including visual, spoken, gestural, written, and other three-dimensional modes of interaction. The Multimodal Approach to research, she said, examines the communicative interactions of these elements as well as their inter and intra-relationships to reveal, among other things, ideological perspectives and power relations.   The seminar was very informative and a great success. Date: 3/2/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Barbara Rumbinas delivered a presentation organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University on February 27, 2019.   Dr. Barbara began her presentation by defining Multimodal Analysis which is actually an inter-disciplinary approach that acknowledges that communicative acts contain more than verbal utterances or written texts. She said communicative acts are meaning-generating events including visual, spoken, gestural, written, and other three-dimensional modes of interaction. The Multimodal Approach to research, she said, examines the communicative interactions of these elements as well as their inter and intra-relationships to reveal, among other things, ideological perspectives and power relations.   The seminar was very informative and a great success. Date: 3/2/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  On February 19, 2019, the Faculty of Languages and Translation held a seminar titled 'Translator's Message'. The seminar was organized by the Language Research Center, and the presenters were Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. The presenters are MA students and volunteers for a program also named 'Translator's Message'. The purpose of the seminar was to raise awareness of the group's goals and objectives within the FLT community.   Translator's Message is an initiative organized by Master degree students in Translation at the FLT female campus. It is an all-volunteer group, which is dedicated to providing in-demand translation services to the community. The participants' motivation is based on their deep passion for translation and commitment to civic improvement.  'Translator's Message is primarily a community service volunteer effort. We are an all-volunteer group of specialized translators who have a message to deliver to non-specialists. In short, we are messengers of translation. The objective is to educate communities about the importance of translation services in daily life. In addition, this translation initiative helps the volunteers improve and sharpen their translation skills. Our initiative supports national objectives as set forth in Vision 2030', said Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. In addition, the translation initiative serves as a conduit between various communities and King Khalid University. This is important as there are many other initiatives involving the university and the public stakeholders in the region.   'Our volunteers visit a variety of different people both within and among different communities. Volunteers often visit secondary schools and high schools. In these settings, the volunteers can encourage young people in their international language studies, and convey both the importance and potential career opportunities involving language', said Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani.   The 'Translator's Message' seminar also focused on the program outcomes they have experienced to date. The presenters expressed that their group is passionate about the benefits of real-world translation. Also, they find that constructive experiences from their volunteer work have made them more confident in practicing their craft. They also expressed their satisfaction in serving members of the public. The presenters made a call to action for additional volunteers in the program. As part of this request, Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani shared the group's current work plan with the attendees.   Please note that this is a follow-up regarding the 'Translator's Message' initiative. For more information, please click here. Volunteers are very much needed, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Please contact 'Translator's Message' on their Twitter handle @translatorsKKU. Date: 2/25/2019 Source:  Amal Metwally & Tanzina Halim, Scientific Research Committee – Female Campus

  On February 19, 2019, the Faculty of Languages and Translation held a seminar titled 'Translator's Message'. The seminar was organized by the Language Research Center, and the presenters were Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. The presenters are MA students and volunteers for a program also named 'Translator's Message'. The purpose of the seminar was to raise awareness of the group's goals and objectives within the FLT community.   Translator's Message is an initiative organized by Master degree students in Translation at the FLT female campus. It is an all-volunteer group, which is dedicated to providing in-demand translation services to the community. The participants' motivation is based on their deep passion for translation and commitment to civic improvement.  'Translator's Message is primarily a community service volunteer effort. We are an all-volunteer group of specialized translators who have a message to deliver to non-specialists. In short, we are messengers of translation. The objective is to educate communities about the importance of translation services in daily life. In addition, this translation initiative helps the volunteers improve and sharpen their translation skills. Our initiative supports national objectives as set forth in Vision 2030', said Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani. In addition, the translation initiative serves as a conduit between various communities and King Khalid University. This is important as there are many other initiatives involving the university and the public stakeholders in the region.   'Our volunteers visit a variety of different people both within and among different communities. Volunteers often visit secondary schools and high schools. In these settings, the volunteers can encourage young people in their international language studies, and convey both the importance and potential career opportunities involving language', said Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani.   The 'Translator's Message' seminar also focused on the program outcomes they have experienced to date. The presenters expressed that their group is passionate about the benefits of real-world translation. Also, they find that constructive experiences from their volunteer work have made them more confident in practicing their craft. They also expressed their satisfaction in serving members of the public. The presenters made a call to action for additional volunteers in the program. As part of this request, Hanan Saeed Al-Shahrani and Maryam Faisal Al-Shamrani shared the group's current work plan with the attendees.   Please note that this is a follow-up regarding the 'Translator's Message' initiative. For more information, please click here. Volunteers are very much needed, and any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Please contact 'Translator's Message' on their Twitter handle @translatorsKKU. Date: 2/25/2019 Source:  Amal Metwally & Tanzina Halim, Scientific Research Committee – Female Campus

  Dr. Hasan Jaashan introduced his book about Stylistics at the seminar held on February 13, 2019, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University. He started his presentation by showing the content of his book.   Dr. Jaashan, while highlighting the content of the book, spoke in detail about the relation between linguistics and literature, and what function stylistics has in understanding literature. He emphasized the significance of clear understanding of linguistics in appreciating literature, which, he added, involves perceiving the beauty of thoughts and expressions. He highlighted the fact that every writer has his or her honest and unique style of writing.   Dr. Jaashan also explained the features of the language of literature. Dr. Jaashan focused on his phonological and stylistic analysis of various literary texts.   The seminar was informative, interactive and a great success. Date: 2/13/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Hasan Jaashan introduced his book about Stylistics at the seminar held on February 13, 2019, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University. He started his presentation by showing the content of his book.   Dr. Jaashan, while highlighting the content of the book, spoke in detail about the relation between linguistics and literature, and what function stylistics has in understanding literature. He emphasized the significance of clear understanding of linguistics in appreciating literature, which, he added, involves perceiving the beauty of thoughts and expressions. He highlighted the fact that every writer has his or her honest and unique style of writing.   Dr. Jaashan also explained the features of the language of literature. Dr. Jaashan focused on his phonological and stylistic analysis of various literary texts.   The seminar was informative, interactive and a great success. Date: 2/13/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Associate Professor Michael Hadzantonis conducted a workshop on Linguistic Anthropological facets of language selection, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University, on January 16, 2019. Here, the language of study was Greek, following a study and data collection in Athens, Greece in 2012.    The central premise of the study followed on from work by Duranti, which exposed that, in Italian, the act of dropping or including a subject pronoun constituent in/from any spoken construction, will alter the pragmatics of the sentence. In the Italian case, including the unnecessary subject pronoun will effect positive conceptions by speakers toward the referent. However, in the case of the Greek context, Hadzantonis argues that the opposite was found to be true. This metapragmatic conditioning of syntax aligns with work by Michael Silverstein in the 1980s, who discusses the importance of 'reference' in syntactic constituents, so to effect either deliberate or nondeliberate positioning of the subject referent, by the speaker.        This work constitutes the first part in introducing discourse analytic techniques in Linguistic Anthropology, and sits within a continual line of talks in the area of Research methods in Linguistic Anthropology, by Hadzantonis. Date: 1/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Associate Professor Michael Hadzantonis conducted a workshop on Linguistic Anthropological facets of language selection, which was organized by the Language Research Center of King Khalid University, on January 16, 2019. Here, the language of study was Greek, following a study and data collection in Athens, Greece in 2012.    The central premise of the study followed on from work by Duranti, which exposed that, in Italian, the act of dropping or including a subject pronoun constituent in/from any spoken construction, will alter the pragmatics of the sentence. In the Italian case, including the unnecessary subject pronoun will effect positive conceptions by speakers toward the referent. However, in the case of the Greek context, Hadzantonis argues that the opposite was found to be true. This metapragmatic conditioning of syntax aligns with work by Michael Silverstein in the 1980s, who discusses the importance of 'reference' in syntactic constituents, so to effect either deliberate or nondeliberate positioning of the subject referent, by the speaker.        This work constitutes the first part in introducing discourse analytic techniques in Linguistic Anthropology, and sits within a continual line of talks in the area of Research methods in Linguistic Anthropology, by Hadzantonis. Date: 1/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique