No abstract

Background and Purpose: Cross-cultural studies help to reduce linguistic misunderstandings. Owing to the mastery of the grammar and vocabulary of any language, speakers who may be fluent in a second language, may still be unable to produce language that is socially and culturally acceptable, thus indicates the importance of pragmatics in general and cross-cultural pragmatics in particular. The development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) creates urgency for the Baloch and the Chinese people to know each other's language and culture, as the project is located in 'Gwadar', a Baloch region, where Balochi is widely spoken. The purpose of this paper is to explore apology strategies used in the Balochi language spoken in Balochistan, Pakistan with reference to Chinese, including Baloch cultural values which influence language.   Methodology: The data were collected through Discourse Completion Test from 30 native speakers of Balochi language enrolled in various departments at International Islamic University Islamabad Pakistan. On the other hand, the Chinese language data were adopted as a reference from a research study conducted by Chang (2016). The Balochi data were analyzed by employing the framework presented by Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper (1989).   Findings: The findings show that the Baloch native speakers use indirect strategies of apology, explanation strategy, and taking and denying responsibility which are similar to the Chinese language.   Contribution: The paper may help to expand the scope of cross-cultural pragmatics to non-western languages. The paper may also be significant in the teaching curricula to design comparative courses in Chinese and Balochi.   Keywords: Apology, Balochi, Chinese, cross-cultural pragmatics, strategies.   Cite as: Hussain, M., & Aziz, A. (2020). Cross-cultural pragmatic study of apology strategies in Balochi with reference to Chinese language. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(2), 152-169. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss2pp152-169

No abstract

This article engages with alternative understandings of psychic transmission of experience from the first to the second generation of diaspora, conventionally seen as a transfer of pathologies and traumas. By drawing on Jacques Lacan’s concept of lack and subjectivation, the article argues that this transfer is a transmission of diaspora’s lack of home—home here is taken as a Lacanian lack which is provisional, multiple and in flux. The article proposes that this transmission is an inevitable structural necessity which takes place during the intergenerational Oedipal encounters between the first and the second generation. The second-generation character Gogol in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake has been taken as a case in point whose subjectivation reveals the complex dynamics of interaction between the first and the second-generation diaspora, leading to the formation of a pastiched second-generation subjectivity.

Abstract  The study traces the evolution of the concept of time from ancient to postmodern times. It explores how great philosophers, theoreticians and scientists have treated the idea of time during different periods. The research finds out that despite the variegated nature of the development of the concept of time, much of human history has observed alternate periods of the linear, teleological and cyclical, non-teleological conceptions of time. The study has established that the same alternating trends mainly influence the human perception of time during the modern and postmodern eras. It also indicates that the progressive and teleological view of time resonates well with the spirit of the modern age. On the other hand, the research argues that the perpetual present, as a non-teleological notion of time, predominates the postmodern time-world.