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SUMMARY:DEIFYING Zionism and DEFYING Religion: DEFINING Ideological Secula
 rization of HEBREW Terms within the ISRAELI Language - Assoc Prof Ghil'ad 
 Zuckermann\, The University of Queensland\, Australia
DTSTART:20081030T170000Z
DTEND:20081030T180000Z
UID:TALK13528@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Geoffrey Khan
DESCRIPTION:ABSTRACT**********\n\n"The greatest virtue of a new word is th
 at it is not new." (Yechiel Michal Pínes\, 1893) \n\nversus\n\n"It is abs
 olutely impossible to empty out\nwords filled to bursting\, unless one doe
 s so at the expense of language itself." (Gershom Scholem\, 26 December 19
 26)\n\nOne of the problems facing those attempting to revive Hebrew as the
  national language of the emerging State of Israel was that of Hebrew lexi
 cal voids. The 'revivalists' attempted to use mainly internal sources of l
 exical enrichment but were faced with a paucity of roots. They changed the
  meanings of obsolete Hebrew terms to fit the modern world. This infusion 
 often entailed the secularization of religious terms. This lecture will ex
 plore the phenomenon of semantic secularization\, as in the politically-ne
 utral process visible in English cell 'monk's living place' > 'autonomous 
 self-replicating unit from which tissues of the body are formed'. The main
  focus\, however\, is on secularizations involving ideological 'lexical en
 gineering'\, as often exemplified by - either\nconscious or subconscious\,
  either top-down or bottom-up - manipulative\, subversive processes of ext
 reme semantic shifting\, pejoration\, amelioration\, trivialization\, allu
 sion and echoing.\n\nAn example of defying religion is blorít. Mishnaic H
 ebrew [b'lorit] is 'Mohawk\, an upright strip of hair that runs across the
  crown of the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck'\, characteri
 stic of the\nabominable pagan and not to be touched by the Jewish barber. 
 But defying religious values\, secular Socialist Zionists use blorít with
  the meaning 'forelock\, hair above the forehead'\, which becomes one of t
 he defining\ncharacteristics of the Sabra ('prickly pear'\, a nickname for
  native Israelis\, allegedly thorny on the outside and sweet inside). Is t
 he 'new Jew' ultimately a pagan?\n\nThis negation of religion fascinatingl
 y adds to the phenomenon of negation of the Diaspora\, exemplified in the 
 blorít itself by Zionists expecting the Sabra to have dishevelled hair\, 
 as opposed to the orderly\ndiasporic Jew\, who was considered by Zionists 
 to be weak and persecuted.\n\nAn example of the complementary phenomenon\,
  deifying Zionism\, is mishkán. Biblical Hebrew [mishkån] means 'Taberna
 cle of the Congregation' (where Moses kept the Ark in the wilderness)\, 'i
 nner\nsanctum' (known as ['ohel mo`ed]). Israeli mishkán aknéset\, howev
 er\, refers to 'the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) building'. Translating mi
 shkán haknéset as 'The Knesset Building' (as in the official\nKnesset we
 bsite) is lacking. The word mishkán is loaded with holiness and evokes sa
 nctity\, as if MKs (Members of Knesset\, i.e. MPs) were at the very least 
 angels or seraphs.\n\nIn line with the prediction made by the Kabbalah-sch
 olar Gershom Scholem in a letter to Franz Rosenzweig (Bekenntnis über uns
 ere Sprache\, 1926)\, some ultra-orthodox Jews have tried to launch a 'lex
 ical vendetta': using secularized terms like 'dormant agents'\, as a short
 cut to religious\nconcepts\, thus trying to convince secular Jews to go ba
 ck to their religious roots.\n\nThe study of Israeli cultural linguistics 
 and socio-philology casts light on the dynamics between language\, religio
 n and identity in a land where fierce military battles with external enemi
 es are accompanied by internal Kulturkämpfe.\n\n\n\nABOUT THE SPEAKER****
 ******\n\nGhil'ad ZUCKERMANN\, D.Phil. (Oxon.)\, M.A. (Tel Aviv) (summa cu
 m laude)\, is Associate Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Di
 scovery\nFellow in Linguistics at The University of Queensland\, Brisbane\
 , Australia. He has been Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Churchill College\,
  Cambridge\, has taught in Israel\, Singapore\, England and USA\, and has 
 held\nresearch posts in Bellagio (Italy)\, Austin (Texas)\, Melbourne and 
 Tokyo. His publications - in English\, Israeli\, Italian\, Yiddish\, Spani
 sh\, German\, Russian and Chinese - include the books Language Contact and
 \nLexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (Palgrave Macmillan\, 2003) and Isr
 aelit Safa Yafa (Israeli\, a Beautiful Language\, Am Oved\, 2008). He is c
 urrently working on two further books: (1) Language Genesis and Multiple C
 ausation\, and (2) Language\, Religion and Identity. His website is http:/
 /www.zuckermann.org/
LOCATION:Room 9\, Faculty of Asian &amp\; Middle Eastern Studies\, Sidgwic
 k Avenue
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