#Professor Trager

[naerwenia]

Me: I do not have a type!

Me:

I may like old men with high cheekbones....

[orsinist]

Economics professor Trager and Walrider!Miles

Btw I have 3 headcanons about Walrider!Miles and I can’t choose which one I like more: collective mind (Walrider and Miles became one entity which refers to itself as “we”), split personality and “Venom like”. What do you think about Walrider!Miles in general? 🤔

[justanotheroutlastfanblog]

The Outlast College AU: the cast

Eddie Gluskin:

Eddie Gluskin (also known as "Ed" or "the groom" in a mocking way) is a failed pre-med student who switched over to fashion design and merchandising and is known for his "retro" style of dress along with his misogynistic behavior. He is a social outcast due to how he acts so despite his good looks and "charming" personality, he seldom ever gets dates or even respect from his other peers (functionally making him an incel). He is "friends" with Frank (although this is mostly just because Frank also happens to live with him) and that is really about it. And despite his bizarre standards for women and beliefs surrounding sexuality: he is dating Val who is the polar opposite of all of what he holds dear.

Frank Manera:

Frank Manera is Eddie's weed-smoking, whisky-drinking, grunge music-loving culinary school dropout roommate. Unlike Eddie, he is a social outcast by choice and actively chooses not to socially engage with other people or things. Frank is probably the most easy-going person you might meet partly due to the fact he is high all the time but also due to his "I really do not give a shit" attitude he has about practically everything. If it is not about his pickup truck, guns, food, weed, or the bands he likes he could care less. Frank is also occasionally seen at Crust-punk bars and other hole-in-the-wall places around MMU despite not being a student.

Val:

Val is a former member of the hyper-religious cult Temple Gate who once held the role of being the "mother" of all of the bastard children of its leader, Knoth, along with the orphans. She was unable to biologically produce children (functionally be a broodmare) so she took on the role of raising them instead. Val escaped the cult when she was 17 and attempted to bring others with her but was unable to. After her escape, she began to hyper-indulge in sex, drugs, body mods, and all of the other things she was never allowed to even talk about while living on the commune. She never got an education and instead opted to continue partying while also taking a job at a Spencers near MMU. She is dating Eddie Gluskin for reasons not fully understood. And despite her new life of freedom and indulgence, she is still on the run from the cult who does periodically attempt to drag her back. She still misses some members of the cult, specifically the children she cared for and wanted to take with her, but also deeply fears being dragged back too much to do anything.

Miles Upshur:

Miles is a journalism student at MMU who also works at the Spencers with Val. He is yet another stoner similar to the likes of Frank only with a significantly more conspiratorial slant. He is best friends with Waylon Park and frequently pulls him into his strange schemes and ventures (like when he goes ghost hunting in abandoned asylums or attempts to prove aliens exist). And much to his friend's horror: he overall lacks a sense of self-preservation and self-control which frequently results in him getting into a lot of dangerous situations.

Waylon Park:

Waylon Park is a computer science major at MMU and the unwitting best friend/accomplice of Miles. He is a lot more timid than his best friend and spends most of his time locked in his apartment streaming video games or working on various coding projects and actively avoids danger/confrontation. He is dating Lisa, a literature major, and is in a pretty steady relationship with her. Due to his more ambiguous appearance, he was mistaken for a woman and thus pursued by Eddie but that was quickly shut down when the truth was revealed and a restraining order was filed.

Rick Trager:

Rick Trager is an extremely shifty business professor teaching at MMU who may or may not be addicted to cocaine. The only reason he has not been fired is due to his tenure at the university.

Jermey Blaire:

Trager's equally as shifty/douchy TA who practically models himself after Patrick bateman.

Chris Walker:

Chris Walker is a former combat veteran going back to school after his time in the service. His exact major is unclear as it has changed several times. But due to his emence size and overall strength he is also a coveted member of the MMU football team. Chris does not have a particularly close relationship with anybody and only happens to know Miles because he had a class with him once (and in turn grew to dislike him as he came off extremely annoying).

Blake Langermann:

Blake is a fellow jornalisim major along with Miles and is a catholic school survivee. Blake is only mildly acquainted with the likes of Miles and Waylon and instead focuses a majority of his time on working on projects with his girlfriend Lynn who is also a journalism major. These projects are usually Exposes regarding local controversies or drama going on (along with the periodic serious human rights/civil rights violation). However, he will join Waylon and Miles on their bullshit adventures from time to time.

Father Martin:

He is the weird guy standing outside of MMU with a large sign only instead of telling people they are going to hell, he warns of the end times and weird ghost demons coming but it is unclear if he is for or against them.

Sullivan Knoth:

Is the leader of the Cult Val escaped from and one of the main antagonists in Val's life. He is functionally the same compared to how he is in the game minus the radio tower frequencies: he is just crazy naturally.

Marta:

Is funtionally the "Sister Cindy" of MMU. She, unlike Father Martin, does accuse all of the students of being whores and tells them they will burn in hell if they don't repent (and do so to Knoth's teachings). She is also the closest immediate threat to Val's freedom and safety outside of the cult given she is still actively looking for her (dubbing her "the Heretic").

Ethan:

The only person from the cult Val is still somewhat in contact with. He is too attempting to escape given his fading faith had the fact Knoth sexually assaulted his daughter and is denying his wife the ability to get cancer treatments as "only god can decide if she lives". He tried to leave with Val initially but had to stay behind in order to at least allow Val to escape and to protect his family.

Billy Hope:

Billy is a highschooler who has functionally adopted by the MMU football team and is "enrolled" at the school a year early so he can play football. His mother, Tiffany, more or less signed off on it due to the hefty sum of money she was offered to allow her son to play.

"The Twins":

Really creepy townies everybody avoids and can usually be spotted with Martin

Pauline Glick:

The asshole president of MMU who may or may not be taking bribes and doing a bunch of illegal shit along with Blaire and Trager

"Mother Gooseberry (Phyllis Futterman)":

Is a washed-up former children's TV host who later became an art teacher at MMU. She teaches several of the more "technical" arts classes such as sewing and technical drawing. However, she also teaches dental classes at MMU although not that many. It is unclear when or if she even got a degree in dental medicine. But given she is only teaching more "anatomy" based lessons and is not actually practicing medicine: it is looked over by MMU administration.

Leland Coyle:

The campus cop who is activly on a power trip, all of the time.

"The Pusher":

The guy who sells literally everybody drugs. Weed, coke, you name it, he has it.

[creativemorningstrn]

CLAUDIO MICALIZZI on Pain

Claudio Micalizzi è professionista e insegnante di shiatsu con riconoscimento della FISIEO, iscritto al registro operatori e insegnanti. È direttore didattico della Scuola AnMa e ha una vasta formazione professionale che spazia dalla medicina tradizionale cinese al Tui-Na, dal metodo Trager alle tecniche di presenza corporea sensibile. Uno dei suoi contributi più significativi è l'ideazione della tecnica di shiatsu sul lettino chiamata "MaKeShi"®, che rappresenta l'evoluzione dello studio e della ricerca continua sullo "Shiatsu-Spontaneo" e sulla manualità intuitiva. Le sue altre attività e interessi includono la psicomotricità espressionale del professor M. Marteau, il massaggio sonoro con le campane tibetane di Albert Rabestain, la ricerca costante sul lavoro corporeo, espressivo e spontaneo, la pratica della meditazione naturale come ricerca personale di una spiritualità nel quotidiano. La sua variegata formazione e la sua costante e curiosa attenzione nel campo del benessere e della spiritualità sono i pilastri su cui si basa il suo lavoro e la sua pratica.

[vulgar-display-of-escapism]

Don't mind me, I'm just leaving myself some inspo and notes to myself:

Tig Trager

As a college professor

Teaching English lit { After the lava incident nobody dares to be late for his class, nobody. And the discussions are marvelous train wrecks}

AND creative writing {"Ok, you little ducklings. Writing a sensual love scene has nothing to do with repeating the words -hot- and -cum- a million times."}

Enter a snarky student and wait for the cliche yet very satisfying shenanigans to commence {“Christ, what a cliche. College professor getting blown in his office by a student.” "Do you want me to stop?" "Only if it's too much for you, Clever Girl" }

[shirtoid]

I Don't Want To Live On This Planet Anymore by Tom Trager

[achillesselfshipsalot]

F/O LIST (REDONE)

Those who are in bold are VERY close to me, meaning i think about them a lot and get happy seeing them! I’ll be sure to put those at the top.

ROMANTIC F/OS (Characters i’m romantic interested in & self ship with myself);

Wilhelm (Borderlands pre sequel/Borderlands 2),

Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2/Borderlands Pre sequel),

Dr. Habit (Smile For Me),

Mettaton (Undertale),

Karl Heisenberg (Resident Evil),

Skull/Bear/Sans (Horrortale),

Sniper (Tf4),

Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow (Batman),

Rick Trager (Outlast),

SCP-035 (SCP),

Pyramid Head (Silent Hill),

Arthur Hastings (We Happy Few),

Beelzebub (Obey Me!).

PLATONIC F/OS (Characters i see as friends/best buds! We just vibing);

Timothy Lawrence (Borderlands 3),

Blade (Puppet Master),

Spy (TF2),

Sir Didymus (Labyrinth),

Rhys Strongfork (Borderlands 3/TFTB),

Vaughn (Borderlands 3/TFTB),

SCP-049 (SCP).

FAMILIAL F/OS (Characters i see as family! Bc comfort);

Sir Hammerlock & Wainwright Jakobs (Borderlands 3) - Fathers

Mordecai (Borderlands 2) - oldest Brother.

Elric Brothers (Edward & Al) - Oldest brothers.

Henry Emily (Blueycapsules) - Father.

Professor Venomous (OK K.O) - Father.

Fink (OK K.O) - Youngest sister.

[queenofbaws]

Just because we've both got outlast brain-rot going on and, let's be real, VA jokes are always hilarious, can I get either Rick Trager leading the charge in Little Hope, or John littlehope as the 'boss' variant in the male ward? Your choice.

“Andrew, Andrew, I - whoop, there you are...heyyy buddy, how you feeling?”

In the darkness behind his eyes, Andrew felt the cozening voice swirl around and around like snow in a snow globe, taking twice as long to make sense as it normally would’ve; he could remember...he could remember an awful dream, an unbearable heat on his face, and then...and then blackness. He opened his eyes with a grunt of pain and then just as quickly reeled back in surprise, pulling in a sharp breath. “Wh...who are you?” 

There was a chuckle, nasally and not altogether friendly as the man (or thing that had once been a man) in front of him squatted down on his haunches, the ruin of his face made somehow infinitely worse by the magnifying lenses of his glasses, making his eyes look very much like the dark, soulless eyes of an undiscovered deep-sea species. “Aw, sounds to me like someone went and bumped their head, eh...” he chuckled, and maybe he was concussed but all doubt fled Andrew’s mind that it was not in any way, shape, or form a friendly sound, “I’m Rick, your professor, and you, pal, have lost a lot of blood.”

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

[fuyuoh3]

F/o list

since I moved from quickly-sketched I don't have a list anymore here’s a new one ! 

Main baes

Pickles the drummer (metalocalypse)

Brook (soul king)

Varric Tethras (DA inquisition)

Antagonists

Ardyn izunia (ffxv)

Berkeley beetle (thumbelina)

Doflamingo (one piece)

general klytus (flash gordon)

Mr wheezy (cuphead)

Rothbart (swan princess)

Nnoitra (bleach)

lucas baker (re biohazard)

Scaramouch (samurai jack)

Professor Pester (viva pinata)

Balthazar Bratt (despicable me 3)

Ganondorf (oot)

en (dorohedoro)

Slashers/murderers in general

Michael Meyers (halloween)

Jason Voorhees(friday the 13th)

Pyramid head (silent hill)

Eddie gluskin (outlast)

Frank manera (outlast)

Kamui (b the beginning)

Jake Martinez (tiger and bunny)

Godbrand (castlevania)

Poly

Mayuri/me/Kenpachi (bleach)

Stronk

zebra (toriko)

The admiral (mhw)

Uvogin (hxh)

yami sukehiro(black clover)

alex louis Armstrong (fma)

Robot/monster/skeleton/etc

Beetlejuice

Cactus gunman (gregory horror show)

Six shooter (puppet master)

Gregory(gregory horror show)

Kululu (sgt frog)

Dedan (off)

pennywise 90s (it)

Draal (trollhunters)

Snow miser(ywasc)

Itward (fran bow)

Master joris (wakfu)

BOB (overwatch)

general grievous (star wars)

Crazy/smart/scientist/wizard

Dr Orpheus (venture bros)

algernop Krieger (archer)

M rasmodius (stardew valley)

rick sanchez (rick and morty)

Dr. F (my sims)

Richard trager (outlast)

The rest

Jiraiya (naruto)

Shane(stardew valley)

Iyami (osomatsu-san)

Cardinal Copia (ghost bc)

Papa emeritus II (ghost bc)

Nanu (pokemon sumo)

ace (gorillaz version)

sniper (tf2)

spiderman noir (spiderverse)

Ooshima kyotaro (gokusen)

Waluigi (mario franchise)

Yondu Udonta (gotg)

Az (pokemon)

Shadowsan (carmen sandiego)

Unsure of relationship

Hidan (naruto)

Kakuzu  (also naruto)

Platonic

Guzma (pokemon sumo)

Rouxls kaard (deltarune)

Judgement boy (ghs)

Hell’s chef (ghs)

Buggy the clown (one piece)

Junkrat (overwatch)

Blade (puppet master)

Piers (pokemon swsh)

[redwoodoriginalfirstnine]

I'm 5'7" with medium brown hair and green eyes. I have anxiety, depression, Graves Disease, and ADHD. I love animals more than anything. I have a cat, two pit bulls, and would LOVE to foster. I am the mom friend. I am very honest - my face betrays any thought/feeling I ever have, so I have to be. I love video and board games, watching movies/TV shows (mostly sci-fi with a dash of cop and some reality), yoga, sketching, and painting. I'm studying to become an art professor.

Hello and welcome to the SHIP! So for you my lovely, I am going to hook you up with the one and only Tig Trager. I feel like Tig would understand and embrace your anxiety and depression while trying to learn everything he can about Graves Disease and ADHD so that he can help out when needed. He also has a love for animals so it’s safe to assume that you guys would have a house full and you’d give them all lots of love. When it comes to the rest of the club or to friends you offer loads of motherly advice and sometimes guide them out through their troubles. Your honesty is what draws Gemma and others in because they sometimes need it. Tig would enjoy playing video games and board games with you as well as watching movies and tv shows. He wouldn’t necessarily be into yoga, but he’d love watching you do yoga. In return you’d end up sketching him at random times mostly when he’s sleeping or working on his motorcycle.  Tig would also be a huge supporter for your school work and education.

[vulgar-display-of-escapism]

... 3am

Today was a good writing day; for both SOA fanfic and Chaos worlds. Professor Trager is coming along nicely (and filthy at over 3,5k). Although he got kind of tied up for the time being as I played with combining some very potent requests I found in my ask box this morning (total word count ~3k).

And let me tease you just a bit 😉 Samcro party night, boys having sweaty, violent fun in the ring, Chibs' clever fingers at the picnic table, sweaty shirtless Tig, "It's gonna be that kinda night, huh?", "Lass is very adamant", "Hell, Doll, we could do this right here but I don't think you'd still like us in the morning", "Sshhh, Pet. Just feel us"

Now if only descriptions would start playing along...

Taking breaks from all the smut, I transcribed over 9k of handwritten notes for my original project. My fingers are about to fall off. Hope I'm gonna be at least half as giddy about it all in the daylight.

[leticiananesrosa]

Esses Hormônios  Interativa

♠ Nome e sobrenome:

Kim  Jaehyun

♠ Apelido:

Hyun

♠ Idade:

18 Anos

♠ Aparência:

Jaehyun possui cabelos negros seus olhos são coloração de preto escuro sua pele é pálida tendo um altura baixo em media de 1.69cm seu físico magro pesando exatamente 49kg possuindo pouca massa muscular esta na forma certa para sua idade lábios rosados é nariz fino é rebitado . 

♠ Photoplayer: Min Yoongi - bts 

♠ Nacionalidade: Coreano

♠ Orientação sexual: Bissexual

♠ Personalidade: Jaehyun possui uma personalidade bastante calmo ele sempre visto com olhar sereno sendo uma pessoa reservado é tímido o mesmo não é muito de conversa com outras pessoas ao seu redor ele realmente só vai falar se alguém puxar assunto com ele muitos podem acabar entendo errado esse seu silencio achando que ele é arrogante é frio mas Jaehyunnão é ele só é pessoa quieta é tímido o mesmo só consegue realmente conversa se alguém puxar assunto com ele vai se  sentir mas seguro é confortável para conversa com outros , sendo bem observador Jaehyun sempre esta em alerta com tudo que acontece ao seu redor nada passa de seus olhos sendo sincero ele sempre vai falar que pensa muitas vezes o mesmo acaba falando algo que possa magoar alguém quando isso acontece ele vai pedir desculpa por ter magoado não era sua intenção dizer algo ruim Jaehyun  possui um lado bastante preguiçoso também o mesmo não gosta muito de atividades que envolve corridas ou caminhas ele tem grande preguiça que o impede de sair de sua areá de conforto tem que acontecer um milagre para Jaehyun realmente  se interessar por algo ou chamar sua atenção ai o mesmo vai lá é faz Jaehyun  possui um lado bem protetor em relação com suas amizades ele sempre esta disposto para proteger aqueles que ama ele não tem medo de sair com alguns arranhão para proteger aqueles que são importante para ele pode não parecer mas Jaehyun é bem ciumento em relação com quem ele gosta sendo tanto quanto grudento sempre querendo saber onde a pessoa vai com quem ele esta isso pode trager pequenas brigas Jaehyun já tentou mudar mas isso faz parte dele Jaehyun é bom amigo se conhecer ainda mas vera que ele é boa pessoa para todos os momentos sendo eles bons é ruins .

♠ História: Jaehyun veio de uma família de classe media deixe de pequeno ele teve uma infância normal todos os dias ele ia a escola com seu irmão mas velho Sook eles iam de mãos dadas para o mas novo não se perder do mas velho na escola Jaehyun tinha poucos amigos por ser um garoto quieto mas ele era bem inteligente tinha boas notas por causa disso isso foi atraindo pessoas ruim como valentão de sua escola que sempre ficava no pê do garoto fazendo bully Jaehyun sofria em silêncio porque tinha medo de apanhar , mas um dia esses garotos foram descoberto pelos professores por causa dos problemas que veio causando na escola assim sendo expulso Jaehyun nunca mas sobre Bully assim  estudando normalmente quando Jaehyun foi crescendo ele foi para  colegial escola um pouco melhor o mesmo não mudou muito ainda continuava sendo ele todos os dias Jaehyun se esforça para ser um lado ainda melhor quando o mesmo terminou a escola Jaehyun decidiu fazer um curso de informática é seguir o ramo de computadores já que esse seu maior sonho com isso ajudar também em casa  é trager uma vida melhor para sua família. 

.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

♠ Família:

Nome :  Kim Geum 37 Anos professora

Geum é mulher de personalidade bastante gentil a mesma sempre vista com sorriso no rosto sendo uma boa mãe para seus filhos amigável com seus amigos   Jaehyun possui uma boa relação com sua mãe ambos sempre visto conversa sobre diversos assunto ele sempre ajuda em casa quanto sua mãe esta trabalhando 

♠ Photoplayer:  Hyuna 

Kim  Daejung 38 Anos Policial 

Daejung  possui uma personalidade bem brincalhão o mesmo bem tranquilo ele bem mente aberta para as coisas mas também  Daejung  sabe ser serio como precisa  Jaehyun é seu pai possui uma ótima relação ambos sempre saim juntos é falam sobre tudo um com outro  Jaehyun gosta da companhia de seu pai sabe como o mesmo se esforça para fazer sua família feliz. 

♠ Photoplayer:  G- Dragon Big Bang

Kim Sook 21 Anos esta fazendo faculdade medicina 

Sook sempre demostrou ser uma pessoa bem mas tranquilo é mas responsável sendo bem inteligente é amigável com pessoas mas próximas é protetor um pouco tímido  Jaehyun é tem uma relação boa com seu irmão mas velhos ambos são bem unidos Sook sempre esta apoiando seu irmão mas novo deixe que ele era ainda pequeno Sook se sente um pouco culpado por não ter conseguido proteger na epoca de escola já que ambos estudava em escola diferente  Jaehyun sempre fala para Sook esquecer já que aquilo já acabou é as coisas são diferente agora.

Photoplayer: hyunseong boyfriend

♠ Deseja par: Sim 

♠ Gostos e Desgosto:

- ele gosta de ouvir música 

- dias de frio 

- de dormir atê tarde 

- de assistir animes é doramas 

- lugares com pouco barulho 

- tocar violão 

- torta morango

-  ler livros 

- ele não gosta violência 

- de preconceito 

- de ver seus amigos triste 

- comida apimentada

- ele odeia verão 

- tomate seco 

- lugares muito escuro

- de ver animais sendo agredidos 

♠ Manias: ele tem grande mania de morde os lábios quando esta nervoso 

♠ Medos: ele tem medo de aranhas é bonecos 

.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

♠ qual foi a reação do seu personagem ao saber que caiu no golpe? ele ficou bem espanto no começo demorou um pouco para reagir muito bem mas depois o mesmo ficou com raiva de ter caido no golpe 

♠ o que ele pensa sobre morar com pessoas do sexo oposto? se ele for morar com Sexo oposto ele ficaria um pouco nervoso com isso 

♠ Conseguirá esconder o segredo? sim conseguirá esconder o segredo

.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

♠Relações 

♠ Kwan : No começou  Jaehyun não conversa muito com Kwan era poucos diálogos que ele tinham no dia a dia com tempo  Jaehyun foi se abrindo mas com Kwan assim se tornando um pouco mas social com ele se tornando um mas brincalhão é mas comunicativo com o Kwan.

♠ com outros moradores :  Jaehyun por ser uma pessoa tímido ele não era muito de falar com os outros moradores ele só falava mesmo quando alguém o chamava mas com passar do tempo de convimento  Jaehyun vai aprender a ser mas falante é atê mesmo mas brincalhão  com os outros moradores .

♠ Par : ele bem carinhoso com par sendo bem protetor sempre esta se esforçando para fazer seu par feliz tanto quanto ciumento também  Jaehyun mesmo tentando mudar esse seu lado ele não consegue por causa disso pode trager pequenas brigas entre ele é par mas Jaehyun ira se esforçar mas é mas se for para ver seu par sorrindo ele ira se esforçar para tira esse seu lado ciumento  custe que custar.

♠ Inimigos: ele não liga muitos para seus inimigos sempre sendo bem frio em relação a eles .

♠ Vizinhos: ele tenta ser bem amigável com os Vizinhos é trata com respeito é gentileza .

♠ Desconhecidos:  Jaehyun não é muito em confiar em Desconhecidos o mesmo sempre fica com um pé a trais como vai falar com um.

.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

♠ Favoritou ? sim favoritei

♠ Irá comentar em todos os capítulos ? irei comentar em todos os capitulos 

♠ Está ciente que seu personagem pode não ser escolhido ? sim estou

♠ Algo Mais ? Nop 

[anundergraduateattempt-blog]

Chapter Five: Libel

For my attempt at communication law, I will be utilizing a book titled “The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication” in order to complete chapter outlines.

Topic Overview:

The defense of libel can come in several different forms and varies throughout the United States of America. There are some states which have implemented anti-SLAPP legislature to protect against inhibiting speech through libel claims. Journalists often exercise greater rights to report on government functions, and greater leeway for their opinions. However, the defense of opinion must pass the four step Ollman test to be considered non-libelous. For defending libel in a general sense, the principal idea used is the concept of believably. If the statement cannot be proven as both true and believable, there cannot be a charge. This often protects satire, hyperbole, and even private blogs. Various states do have limits to jurisdiction, statute of limitations, and retractions which potentially assist a defendant accused of libel.  

Defining key terms: Considering that this is an outline rather than a complete summarization of chapter five, I have strictly selected key terms I had not encountered prior to reading. These key terms include:

SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation): A lawsuit whose purpose is to harass critics into silence, often to suppress those critics’ First Amendment rights. 

Fair comment and criticism: A common law privilege that protects critics from lawsuits brought by individuals in the public eye.

Neutral reportage: In libel law, a defense accepted in some jurisdictions that says that when an accusation is made by a responsible and prominent organization, reporting that accusation is protected by the First Amendment even when it turns out the accusation was false and libelous. 

Retraction statutes: In libel law, state laws that limit the damages a plaintiff may receive if the defendant had issued a retraction of the material at issue. Retraction statutes are meant to discourage the punishment of any good-faith effort of making a mistake. 

Important cases:

Ollman v. Evans (1984): This is a case regarding libel, where professor Bertell Ollman was offered a new position at the University of Maryland. However, two journalists published an article regarding Ollman, which led to his position offer being withdrawn by the university. Ollman then sued the journalists for libel, claiming that it damaged his reputation and caused him distress. The Court ruled in favor of Ollman, stating that the article written by the journalists were not of pure opinion. Of this ruling came the ‘Ollman Test’ for opinion. 

Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990): Another libel case, a wrestling coach (Michael Milkovich) was accused of lying at a hearing he attended in an article written by journalist Theodore Daidium. Milkovich then sued Daidium for libel, claiming that the article accused him of false claims. The Court ruled in favor of of Lorain Journal Co. (Daidium’s employer), stating that there was a failure to show malice in the case, and was therefore protected under the First Amendment. However, the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed and remanded prior decisions, stating that the statements were not protected opinions based on Milkovich’s lack of public recognition. Overall, the Court ruled in favor of Milkovich. 

Relevant Doctrine:

Chapter one defines doctrine as “principle or theories of law that shape judicial decision making.”

Libel Defenses: A libel defendant wants to strengthen his or her position by showing as many of the following as possible: 

1) the story was investigated thoroughly 

2) interviews were conducted with people who had knowledge of facts related to the story, including the subject of the report

3) previously published material was not relied on

4) biased stories were not relied on

5) the reporting was careful, systematic and painstaking 

5) multiple viewpoints were sought and, when possible, included in the report

6) there was a willingness to retract or correct if facts warranted such action

7) if applicable, there was a demonstrable deadline

8) there was no ill will or hatred toward the plaintiff 

In addition to defending a libel case on the elements, those accused of libel have several defenses at their disposal that may not directly correspond with any element of the plaintiff's case.

The Ollman Test for Opinion: 

1) verifiability 

2) common meaning

3) journalistic context

4) social context 

Current Issues or Controversies:

If anyone has been watching the USA news recently, they may recall the story that broke out and eventually went viral regarding a group of Convington High School students at the Lincoln Memorial. Several media outlets claimed that he and other students in the group were taunting a Native American man. More specifically, articles called the star of the incident (who was filmed), Nicholas Sandmann, a racist who started the encounter with the man (arguably due to the MAGA hat he and the students were wearing). As a result, he and his family hired Georgia attorney Lin Wood to sue the media for libel. Considering what I have learned in this chapter, perhaps he does have a case. 

My Questions / Concerns:

1) Does Washington State use the term ‘libel’, or a different term? I did not encounter the same terminology while studying local cases. If it is a different term, why is that?

2) How long does it typically take to settle a libel case in court, for both the typical cases and those which rarely make it to the US Supreme Court?

3) For those like Nicholas Sandmann, how does one approach desiring to sue different media outlets? Is it all in one suit, or will they need to file separate suits?

References:

Trager, Robert F., et al. The Law of Journalism and Mass Communication. CQ Press, 2018.  

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk!

[southeastasianists]

Andrew Selth outlines why past generations’ accumulated literary and scholarly work on Myanmar is at risk of being lost — and what this might mean for the country’s future.

There is an old Myanmar saying that ‘wisdom is in the literature’.[1] This was particularly the case before 1988, when the country was virtually closed to foreigners and fieldwork of any kind was very difficult. The Internet was still in its infancy and Myanmar-watchers of all kinds were heavily reliant on books, serials and other documentary sources, both to acquire information and to present their findings to a wider audience.

Access to Myanmar is now much easier and the past few decades have seen a flood of foreign officials, scholars and others intent on conducting primary research. As noted on New Mandala, this has contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of books, reports and articles written about the country. A new Griffith Asia Institute study lists over 1,800 monographs published in English alone, and in hard copy, over the past 25 years.[2]

At the same time, however, there is an increasing danger that the accumulated knowledge of earlier generations of Myanmar-watchers will become dispersed, if not actually lost.

In the past, it was common practice for the personal libraries of major figures in Myanmar studies to be purchased by institutions. The British Library, the University of London, Cornell University and Princeton University, among others, acquired large collections of books, manuscripts and ephemera from former officials, academics and others with close connections to Myanmar.[3] Even before the country became fashionable in the West, there was a wish to preserve its scholarly and literary heritage.

Albeit at a slower pace, this practice continued into the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1974, for example, the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg purchased the extensive Myanmar collection of Frank Trager, for many years a professor of international affairs at New York University, and a noted Southeast Asia specialist, who died in 1984. The German Research Council sponsored the acquisition of his collection on condition that it was catalogued and made available to the international scholarly community. It also prompted a major bibliographic project.[4]

As early as 1963, the National Library of Australia (NLA) had expressed an interest in the collection of Gordon Luce, once considered the foremost European scholar on Myanmar. However, it was not until after Luce’s death in 1979 that his family decided that the collection, including all his manuscripts and personal papers, should go to Canberra. Over 2000 books, pamphlets, maps and serials were purchased in 1980 and now form the Luce Collection at the NLA.[5]

The Myanmar collections at Northern Illinois University have quadrupled since their inception in 1986, most recently with a bequest from the private collection of the diplomat and scholar Jerry Bennett.[6] Among the more than 10,000 items relating to Myanmar, extensive bibliographic holdings are conserved in the Founders Memorial Library, including several donations of publications by the doyen of modern Myanmar studies, Georgetown University’s David Steinberg.

More recently, however, institutions like national libraries, universities and research institutes seem to be reluctant to acquire such collections.

The reasons given for this change of heart vary between institutions, but usually start with a lack of funds. Even when personal libraries are offered as gifts, or are the subject of posthumous bequests, the question inevitably arises whether the receiving institution can pay for the costs of transporting, cataloguing and storing them. And that is quite apart from the problems of potential duplication, and the need to find additional shelf space.

Occasionally, there are specific factors behind the reluctance of libraries to accept large donations. For example, the library of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC is housed on the top floor of a multi-story building. The load-bearing capacity of the floor has been reached, which means that no new books can be added to the library’s holdings unless the same number is removed.

At the Myanmar Update Conference held at the Australian National University (ANU) last month, this rather sad state of affairs was the subject of a side discussion between a small group of dedicated Myanmar-watchers. They shared a number of anecdotes.

According to one of those present, when the noted Myanmar scholar G.E. Harvey died in 1962, he made a bequest of his books and research materials to St Antony’s College, Oxford. The books went into the greater Bodleian Library system and a small collection of correspondence stayed at St Antony’s. Efforts have been made to curate the letters, but Harvey’s other personal papers have never been catalogued, apparently because of a lack of funds. They are still stored in boxes.

In 2015, Matthew Walton of St Antony’s College was approached by a housemate of Manuel Sarkisyanz, who died in March that year. She was contacting Southeast Asia specialists to see if there was any interest in acquiring the famous historian’s extensive collection of books on the region. It included several hundred English language books on Myanmar and 470 books in the Myanmar language. Some of the latter were quite rare.

Dr Walton advised librarians at St Antony’s and the Bodleian of this potential treasure trove, but was told the standard collection protocol was for libraries at Oxford to accept new collections only if they were accompanied by gifts to pay for the costs of cataloguing and maintenance. In the event, Professor Sarkisyanz’s house in Mexico was sold and title to all of the books it contained was transferred to the new owners. It is not known what they did with them, or where this remarkable collection of Myanmar works ended up.

Another member of the group offered a similar story. David Pfanner, an anthropologist who conducted field work in Myanmar in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and was attached to the Johns Hopkins Centre in Yangon, left a collection of Myanmar-related publications to the ANU.[7] The university library accepted the bequest but it was some time before it could be made available to staff and students. The main reason for the delay was a lack of funds to hire a Myanmar-speaking librarian able to catalogue them.

An Australian present at this discussion recounted his experience. He said that he had approached a number of local institutions, with a view to leaving them his own library of Myanmar-related books and other publications – probably the largest private collection of such works in Australia. However, he was repeatedly told that, due to a shortage of funds and lack of shelf space it was very difficult to accept such a bequest. A few libraries were prepared, however, to pick out individual works to fill gaps in their own holdings.

Increasingly, Western libraries are turning to digital means to access books and serials. This is cheaper, easier to manage and more popular with students and the wider public. Not all Myanmar-related works can be digitised, of course, but online research is rapidly replacing the old practice of looking through hard copies of books and journals. There is also a movement to rationalise the Asian studies holdings of major libraries in Australia so that their resources (and related costs) can be better shared between institutions.[8]

One possible solution canvassed by the group at the Update Conference was the donation of private collections of Myanmar-related publications to libraries and universities in Myanmar itself. For decades, these institutions have been starved of resources and are desperately short of teaching materials. Also, when Myanmar was under military rule, some private collections were destroyed, and official collections pruned of politically sensitive works, for fear of attracting unwelcome attention from the authorities.

Shipping books and other research materials to Myanmar was certainly an option, but institutions there also lacked the funds needed properly to house such collections and to protect them from damage or loss.

Whatever the reason for the current state of affairs, it needs to be understood that these private libraries are sometimes unique. In most cases, they have been painstakingly compiled over decades. Many include items not easily found elsewhere – either in hard copy or online. It would be a tragedy for future Myanmar studies if such specialised collections were broken up and their contents scattered because no institution could give them a home, or no philanthropists could be found to help libraries do so. Andrew Selth is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University, and the Coral Bell School, Australian National University.

End notes

[1] I am indebted to John Badgley, Sally Burdon, Amelia McKenzie, David Steinberg, Sean Turnell and Matthew Walton, among others, for their help with this article. However, I am responsible for its content.

[2] Andrew Selth, Burma (Myanmar) Since the 1988 Uprising: A Select Bibliography, 3rd edition (Brisbane: Griffith Asia Institute, forthcoming).

[3] See, for example, Patricia Herbert, ‘The Making of a Collection: Burmese Manuscripts in the British Library’, British Library Journal, Vol.15, No.1, Spring 1989, pp.59-70, at https://www.bl.uk/eblj/1989articles/pdf/article5.pdf

[4] Schwertner, S.M., ‘Burma/Myanmar Bibliographic Project: A Collection of Publications in West-European Languages for Preparation a Burma/Myanmar Bibliography’, Xasia Repository, at http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/254/

[5] Andrew Gosling, ‘Burma and Beyond’, National Library of Australia News, October 1996, pp.3-5, at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/131760/20120120-0944/www.nla.gov.au/pub/nlanews/1996/oct96/story-1.pdf.

[6] Northern Illinois University, ‘Centre for Burma Studies: Collections’, at http://www.burma.niu.edu/burma/collections/index.shtml

[7] Charlotte Galloway, ‘Researching Burma: The Australian National University Library’, TAASA Review, (The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia), Vol.21, No.3, September 2012, pp.18-19, at http://www.taasa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Review_21_3_2012_September.pdf.

[8] Amy Chan, ‘National approach urged to develop Asia-related collection’, Asian Currents, 22 February 2016, at http://asaa.asn.au/national-approach-urged-develop-asia-related-collection/

[stefselfslagh]

Het Huis van Hiele: Anne De Paepe.

Het Huis van Hiele, dat zijn acht zomerse gesprekken met bekende smaakmakers in het vissershuis van Willem Hiele in Oostduinkerke. Slow food meets slow journalism. Het Huis van Hiele verschijnt elke zaterdag van juli en augustus in Zomeruur, de zomerbijlage van De Morgen. (Foto’s: Bob Van Mol en Wouter Van Vooren)

Het leven van Anne De Paepe (61) veranderde het voorbije academiejaar ingrijpend: haar enige dochter ging in Texas wonen, haar man overleed aan kanker en als rector van de UGent beleefde ze de moeilijkste maanden van haar ambtstermijn. Met dank aan - jawel - de vermaledijde rectorverkiezingen.

"Jullie gaan er toch geen zevengangenmenu doorjagen?", had de woordvoerder van Anne De Paepe een week voor onze afspraak gevraagd. "De rector is wel een fijnproever, maar alles behalve een veeleter."

Behalve gastronomische terughoudendheid legt de aanvoerster van de UGent ook een zekere sportieve discipline aan de dag, vernemen we wanneer ze een paar dagen later haar opwachting maakt in de tuin van Willem Hiele: ze gaat elke dinsdagmiddag plichtsbewust baantjes trekken in een Gents bassin. "Zwemmen verstevigt je spieren maar belast je gewrichten niet", licht de arts in haar toe. Een mens vraagt zich af waarom Evy Gruyaert nog geen 'Start To Swim'-franchise heeft opgestart.

Prélude à l'été heet één van de gerechten die Willem Hiele ons zal serveren. Maar de zomer heeft allang geen zin meer in voorspel: de zon giet uitzinnige hoeveelheden goudgeel licht over het Hiele-territorium. Wanneer we onze verbeelding vragen om de lindebomen even te vervangen door olijfbomen wanen we ons niet langer op een landgoed in een Oostduinkerkse verkavelingswijk maar op een domein in het Provençaalse Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

Anne De Paepe bracht in Oostduinkerke vele zomerse dagen met haar man door, zegt ze. "Wij hebben hier uren gefietst en ontelbare strandwandelingen gemaakt. Zou het kunnen dat het geen toeval is dat dit interview uitgerekend in Oostduinkerke plaatsvindt? (glimlacht) Ik weet het niet. Ik ben niet bijgelovig, maar ik geloof wel in een zekere voorbestemdheid. Vraag me niet waarom. Ik voel het gewoon zo aan."

Fotograaf Wouter Van Vooren komt erbij zitten. Hij fotografeerde De Paepe vorig jaar al eens. Op een podium in Brussel, toen ze samen met Rik Torfs een eredoctoraat uitreikte aan Angela Merkel. Haar ogen beginnen te blinken bij de herinnering. "Angela Merkel is een fantastische vrouw. Ik wilde haar een eredoctoraat geven omdat ze de wereld tot de orde geroepen heeft. Op een moment dat iedereen zijn grenzen wilde sluiten, beklemtoonde zij dat vluchtelingen mensen zijn. Dat was toen hard nodig."

Waarom heeft u dat eredoctoraat samen met de KU Leuven uitgereikt?

"Toen ze in Leuven hoorden dat ik Angela Merkel een eredoctoraat wilde geven, hebben ze mij gebeld: 'Anne, wij hadden precies hetzelfde idee.' Ik weet natuurlijk niet of dat waar is. (lacht) Maar ik heb meteen gezegd: 'Geen probleem, dan ontvangen we haar samen.' Later vernam ik dat het de allereerste keer was dat de UGent en de KU Leuven samen een eredoctoraat hebben uitgereikt. Het heeft die dag in januari alleen maar meer glans gegeven."

U hield er ook een hechte vriendschap met Rik Torfs aan over.

"Die was er voordien al. Rik en ik hebben elkaar de voorbije jaren niet alleen als rectors, maar ook als mensen leren kennen. We gaan elkaar ook in de toekomst blijven zien."

Waarin lijken jullie op elkaar?

"We kunnen allebei nogal goed relativeren. En we zijn geen academische nerds: we hebben ook interesses die zich buiten de universitaire wereld situeren."

Er is ook een groot verschil tussen u beiden: Rik Torfs fleurt op wanneer de media verschijnen, u blijft liever op de achtergrond.

"Dat is te sterk uitgedrukt. Maar het klopt dat ik minder dan Rik de behoefte voel om in de media voortdurend verklaringen af te leggen. Rik is een humane wetenschapper, ik een exacte. Misschien heeft het daar iets mee te maken." (lacht)

U kreeg als rector weleens het verwijt dat u de media te weinig opzocht. Dat u onvoldoende op het maatschappelijke debat woog.

"En Rik kreeg dan weer het verwijt dat hij te veel in de media kwam. Als rector kan je nooit voor iedereen goed doen. Maar dat de UGent niet op het maatschappelijke debat heeft gewogen, is onjuist. Sla er de opiniestukken van de voorbije jaren maar op na: die zijn minstens even vaak geschreven door mensen van de UGent als door mensen van de KU Leuven."

Anne De Paepe werd de eerste vrouwelijke rector van de UGent op 1 oktober 2013. Bijna vier jaar later onderwerpen we haar beleid - een glas wijn binnen handbereik, een kolonne krekels binnen oorbereik - aan een tegensprekelijke evaluatie. Die begint met de vraag: wat heeft u de voorbije vier jaar over uzelf geleerd? "Dat ik veerkrachtiger ben dan ik dacht. Als rector heb je een grote verantwoordelijkheid: zodra er iets verkeerds gaat, kijkt iedereen naar jou. Maar ik ben mijn job altijd graag blijven doen. Ook in moeilijke omstandigheden."

In Veto, het studentenblad van de KU Leuven, zei u: 'Ik ben te ambitieus geweest.' Dat is een andere manier om te zeggen: de rest van de universiteit is niet ambitieus genoeg geweest.

"Ik bedoelde dat het tijd kost om een tanker als de UGent in beweging te krijgen. Onze raad van bestuur telt 35 stemgerechtigde leden. Probeer daarmee maar eens snel beslissingen te nemen. Dat lukt gewoon niet."

U bent rector: als iemand de bestuursstructuur van de UGent kan vereenvoudigen, dan bent u het.

"Ik heb mij daar de voorbije jaren ook hard voor ingezet. Maar ik had gehoopt om al wat verder te staan. De UGent moet zich van zijn al te strikte bestuurlijke harnas verlossen. Alleen dan zullen we onze talenten tenvolle tot hun recht kunnen laten komen."

Wordt uw macht door de buitenwereld overschat?

"Schromelijk. (lacht) Ceo zijn van de UGent is niet hetzelfde als ceo zijn van een bedrijf. Ik heb wel dezelfde verantwoordelijkheden maar bijlange niet dezelfde vrijheden. Wij zijn een publieke instelling: ik ben afhankelijk van heel wat commissies en adviesraden. Dat is soms frustrerend. Onze besluitvorming verloopt trager en moeilijker dan de buitenwereld vermoedt."

Welke beslissing had u wíllen nemen, maar kón u niet nemen?

"In juni vorig jaar waren er meldingen van seksuele intimidatie vanwege een professor in de faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte. In die zaak voelde ik me geremd. Onze reglementen schrijven voor dat er een officiële klacht moet zijn voor de tuchtcommissie in actie kan komen. Maar ik hád geen officiële klacht, alleen meldingen. Daardoor kon ik minder doortastend optreden dan ik zelf had gewild."

Sommigen beweren dat u te laks was. Dat u de zaak onder de mat probeerde te vegen.

"Dat klopt echt niet. Het heeft alleen tergend veel tijd gekost om één en ander in kaart te brengen. Omdat niemand officieel een klacht had ingediend, wist ik totaal niet wie de slachtoffers waren. Het heeft mij maanden gekost om - samen met de mensen van de ombudsdienst - een totaalbeeld te krijgen van wat er precies gebeurd was."

Waarom duurde dat zo lang?

"Omdat de slachtoffers - van wie sommigen al jaren afgestudeerd waren - heel wantrouwig waren: ze hadden jarenlang geen steun gekregen. Pas toen ze begrepen dat ik het probleem au serieux nam, wilden ze praten. Ik heb hen gevraagd: 'Dien alsjeblieft een klacht in, anders kan ik weinig doen.' Maar niemand wou dat. Uiteindelijk heb ik de decaan van Letteren & Wijsbegeerte gevraagd om alle getuigenissen op papier te zetten en ze in de vorm van verklaringen toch over te maken aan de tuchtcommissie. En heb ik alsnog een bewarende maatregel kunnen nemen: de professor in kwestie mag niet langer contact hebben met studenten of doctorandi."

Dat u als eerste vrouwelijke rector van de UGent bekritiseerd werd in een zaak over gendergelijkheid moet extra pijnlijk geweest zijn.

"Ik vond dat heel moeilijk te verteren, ja. Men verweet mij dat ik alles in de doofpot probeerde te stoppen. Terwijl het net omgekeerd was."

Vindt u de tuchtprocedure van uw universiteit te omslachtig?

"Ja en nee. Je mag niemand ontslaan op basis van geruchten. Sommige mensen maken collega's verdacht om hun eigen ambities waar te maken. Vooraleer je sancties treft, moet je dus altijd een grondig onderzoek doen. Maar ik vind wel dat we de drempel voor het melden van wantoestanden moeten verlagen. En dat we duidelijker moeten maken welk gevolg we aan eventuele meldingen geven. We zijn daar momenteel volop mee bezig: een werkgroep is onze tuchtprocedure op mijn vraag aan het herbekijken."

Wouter Van Vooren vraagt om een time-out: binnen een half uur slokt de zee de zon op en hij wil met Anne De Paepe nog een fotosessie doen op het strand. Of ze daar wel de juiste kleren voor draagt, vraagt ze zich bezorgd af. Maar Van Vooren kent geen genade: we zijn aan de zee en dus gaan we naar het strand. De Paepe bindt met de glimlach in. Fotografen mogen - in tegenstelling tot rectors - wél hun wil doordrukken.

Na de fotosessie trekken we ons terug in het vissershuis van Willem Hiele. Bij het binnengaan valt ons oog op een foto van de jonge Jane Birkin die in een kanten doorkijkjurkje en met een décolleté tot ver onder de navel Serge Gainsbourg flankeert. "Frisjes, hè?", zegt Anne De Paepe, zich niet bewust van het feit dat haar woorden zowel betrekking kunnen hebben op de avondlijke afkoeling als op de vergevorderde staat van ontkleding van Birkin. We laten het gevalletje van synchroniciteit onvermeld en vragen haar hoe ze haar nalatenschap als rector zou omschrijven. "Ik denk dat ik aan de UGent een dialoogcultuur heb doen groeien. Ik heb mensen bij elkaar gebracht en hen samen problemen laten oplossen. Dat was minder vanzelfsprekend dan het lijkt."

Toch werd u weleens ten laste gelegd dat u een autoritaire stijl van leiding geven hebt.

"Dat is een verwijt dat vrouwen in leidinggevende posities wel vaker krijgen. Als je tijdens een vergadering eens wat afgemeten bent, wordt er al gauw gezegd: wat een kille vrouw, wat een bitch. Terwijl mannen die hetzelfde doen bewonderd worden om hun vastberadenheid. Mannen komen altijd met meer weg."

Is de UGent onder uw bewind vervrouwelijkt?

"Alleen al de vaststelling dat een vrouw het tot rector kan schoppen, heeft hier veel ogen doen open gaan: meer vrouwen dan ooit stellen zich kandidaat voor leidinggevende functies. En ook in de problematiek met betrekking tot grensoverschrijdend gedrag is er een mentaliteitswijziging: iedereen weet nu dat het probleem niet geminimaliseerd wordt. Ook al is er met 99% van onze medewerkers geen enkel probleem, dat wil ik toch even benadrukken."  

Wat beschouwt u als uw mooiste verwezenlijking?

"Ons pensioenplan voor contractuele medewerkers. Voor ik rector werd, hadden velen onder hen nog altijd geen volwaardige pensioenregeling. Nu wel."

U noemt een administratieve verwezenlijking. Staat u niet liever bekend om een revolutionaire onderwijshervorming?

"We hebben ook op het gebied van onderwijs en onderzoek grote stappen gezet.  We hebben de muren tussen de faculteiten verder doen afbrokkelen en interdisciplinaire samenwerking gestimuleerd. We hebben het loopbaanmodel voor onze professoren verbeterd. We zijn erin geslaagd om toponderzoekers uit andere landen aan te trekken door ze een langetermijnperspectief te geven. Dat zijn allemaal dingen die een grote impact hebben op de kwaliteit van ons onderwijs en ons onderzoek."

Ze stond jarenlang aan het hoofd van het Centrum voor Medische Genetica van het UZ Gent. Onder haar leiding groeide het centrum uit tot een multidisciplinaire onderzoekseenheid met meer dan 150 werknemers. We vragen haar of ze tijdens de moeilijke momenten van haar ambtstermijn nooit gedacht heeft: 'Was ik maar in mijn laboratorium gebleven.' "Nee. Er zijn in elke job moeilijke momenten. Alleen blijven de dipjes van een wetenschapper onder de radar en staan die van een rector in alle kranten. Maar ik heb mijn ambtstermijn niet ervaren als een calvarietocht. Alleen het laatste jaar is zwaar geweest. Logisch: het is een verkiezingsjaar."

En wat voor één. Zelfs na zeven stemrondes raakte Rik Van de Walle niet verkozen. Zelden legde een rectorverkiezing zo'n diepe verdeeldheid aan een universiteit bloot.

"Dat is wat de media ervan maken. De realiteit is genuanceerder."

Met alle respect, maar het zijn niet de media die van julle rectorverkiezing een weinig beschaafd spektakel hebben gemaakt.

"Dat weet ik. Maar het zijn wel de media die in hun berichtgeving over de UGent eenzijdig op de rectorverkiezing hebben gefocust. Er worden hier fantastische onderzoeken gedaan, maar dat komt in de media nauwelijks aan bod. Terwijl er over de verkiezingen buitensporig veel artikels verschijnen."

Dat komt natuurlijk omdat er ook buitensporig veel verkiezingsrondes zijn.

"Akkoord. Maar wie wel of niet rector wordt, is toch niet het enige onderwerp waarover jullie kunnen schrijven?"

Het is in ieder geval het enige onderwerp waarover de kandidaten zélf praten. De verkiezingen gaan uitsluitend over hén, niet over de toekomst van de UGent.

"En dat is jammer, want ik weet dat de kandidaten wel degelijk een toekomstvisie hebben. Alleen wordt die overschaduwd door de persoonlijke aanvaringen die er geweest zijn."

In april verklaarde u dat u 'onder druk bent gezet' om niet aan de rectorverkiezingen deel te nemen. Welke vorm nam die druk aan?

"Sta me toe om niet op die vraag te antwoorden. Een verkiezing is per definitie een conflictsituatie: alle aandacht gaat naar de verschillen tussen mensen, niet naar hun gelijkenissen. In die context is het logisch dat er soms harde woorden vallen. Dat hoort erbij. Al is het niet míjn stijl."

Waarom vond u het dan nodig om in de media te zeggen dat men u geïntimideerd heeft?

"Ik vond dat helemaal niet nodig. Op een gegeven moment vroeg een journalist mij of ik onder druk was gezet om niet opnieuw kandidaat te zijn. Ik had geen zin om te liegen - waarom zou ik? - en dus heb ik 'ja' geantwoord. Maar ik wou en wil niemand persoonlijk aanvallen. De verkiezingsstrijd is al bitsig genoeg. Als rector is het mijn taak om daarboven te staan."

Volgens Guido Van Huylenbroeck en Sarah De Saeger - de oorspronkelijke uitdagers van Rik Van de Walle en Mieke Van Herreweghe - heeft u hen persoonlijk gevraagd om kandidaat-rector te zijn. Zo afzijdig heeft u zich dan toch niet gehouden?

"Ik begrijp nog altijd niet waarom ze dat gezegd hebben. Ik heb op geen enkele manier het verkiezingsproces beïnvloed. Wat anderen daarover ook mogen zeggen."

Heeft u Van Huylenbroeck en De Saeger aangesproken op hun uitlatingen?

"Nee. Mijn devies luidt: ik ben van niemand en niemand is van mij. Maar nogmaals: ik heb mij niet bemoeid met mijn opvolging."

Aan de basis van jullie chaotische rectorverkiezingen ligt een machtsstrijd tussen de katholieken en de vrijzinnigen van de universiteit.

"Als je sommige kranten moet geloven, bestaat de UGent uit twee ideologische kampen die elkaar naar het leven staan. Maar dat ís helemaal niet zo. Er woedt een strijd tussen personen, niet tussen ideologieën. Dat de rector-kandidaten zich tot een ideologische groep bekennen, heeft alles te maken met het netwerk dat aan die groep verbonden is: ze denken dat ze met de steun van dat netwerk verkozen zullen raken. Maar er vindt aan de UGent geen veldslag plaats tussen katholieken en vrijzinnigen. Onze mensen werken uitstekend met elkaar samen. Van welke strekking ze ook zijn."

Veel mensen verbazen zich erover dat professoren - toch heren en vrouwen van stand - zich aan kleinmenselijk gedrag bezondigen. Zie ook: de recente rectorverkiezingen aan de KU Leuven. Fronst ook u de laatste tijd regelmatig de wenkbrauwen? Of wist u al langer dat de verlokkingen van de macht ook van professoren kleuters kunnen maken?

"Ik wist dat de universitaire wereld een harde wereld is. Maar dat sommigen zo meedogenloos zijn in het najagen van hun ambities heeft mij toch verwonderd.

Vier jaar geleden nam u samen met huidig vicerector Freddy Mortier deel aan de rectorverkiezingen. Toen heeft ú zich naar verluidt van uw minst zachte kant getoond. De afspraak tussen u en Freddy Mortier was dat híj rector zou worden en u vice-rector. Maar op het laatste nippertje stak u hem alsnog voorbij. Een last-minute opstootje van ambitie?

"Het kiesdecreet schrijft voor dat er zowel voor het rectoraat als voor het vice-rectoraat een mannelijke en een vrouwelijke kandidaat moet zijn. Freddy en ik waren dus allebei kandidaat-rector én kandidaat-vice-rector. Toen we door de universitaire gemeenschap verkozen werden, was dat voor beide functies. Vervolgens kwam het de raad van bestuur toe om te beslissen wie van ons beiden rector moest worden en wie vice-rector. De keuze voor het rectoraat is op mij gevallen en de rest is geschiedenis."

Maar u had Freddy Mortier wel verteld dat het rectoraat u niet interesseerde.

"Als het mij niet interesseerde, had ik mij geen kandidaat gesteld. Wat wél klopt, is dat ik aan de campagne begonnen ben met de verwachting dat ik vice-rector zou worden. Pas toen duidelijk werd dat veel mensen mij ook als rector zagen, is er een zekere ambitie in mij beginnen te kiemen. Maar ik heb Freddy nooit gezegd dat ik geen rector zou worden als de raad van bestuur dat zou beslissen. We wisten op voorhand niet in welke constellatie we gingen samenwerken."

In juli vorig jaar kreeg ze het noodlot in zijn meest verwoestende gedaante te zien: onderzoek wees uit dat haar man een bijzonder agressieve vorm van kanker had. Nauwelijks twee maanden na de diagnose - op 4 september 2016 - overleed hij. "Toen ik de röntgenbeelden zag, besefte ik meteen dat ik mijn man kwijt was. Dat is het nadeel als je zelf arts bent: je weet onmidellijk hoe laat het is. Er is geen buffer. Niemand die je - al was het maar met twee inleidende zinnen - voorbereidt op het naderende onheil."

Aangezien geen chemo-, radio- of immunotherapie de kanker van haar man nog kon verdrijven, besloot ze zijn grootste wens in te willigen: thuis zijn, dicht bij haar. Ze trok de deur van de universiteit achter zich dicht, liet een ziekenhuisbed in haar woonkamer installeren en bleef dag en nacht aan zijn zij. Het woord 'kanker' sprak ze in zijn bijzijn niet één keer uit. "Mijn man had me ooit op het hart gedrukt: 'Als ik op een dag kanker krijg, mag je het mij niet zeggen.' Hij was bang dat hij dan fatalistisch zou worden. En hij wou blijven hopen, vechten, leven. Elke dag vroeg hij mij: 'Ik ga toch genezen, hè?' 'Waarop ik - tegen beter weten in - zei: 'Daar gaan we alles aan doen, schat.'"

"Op een gegeven moment probeerde hij een nieuwe behandeling uit. Maar de oncoloog raadde een derde kuur af omdat die het aftakelingsproces van Godfried nog zou versnellen. Toen ik hem dat moest vertellen, is hij ingestort: ik zag de levenslust zo uit zijn ogen verdwijnen. Ik heb die avond mijn dochter Liesbeth gebeld: 'Godfried gaat heel snel achteruit. Spring maar op het eerste vliegtuig naar huis.' Ze is aangekomen op een zondagochtend en twee uur later is haar vader overleden. Alsof hij op haar gewacht had."

U was twintig jaar jonger dan uw man. Hield u er van in het begin rekening mee dat hij wellicht voor u zou overlijden?

"Je verstand weet dat dat kan. Maar je hart verdringt het. Godfried zag er ook veel jonger uit dan hij was. Het was niet moeilijk om het leeftijdsverschil tussen ons te vergeten." (glimlacht)

Heeft u na zijn dood veel steun gekregen van de universiteit?

"Ik heb veel blijken van medeleven gekregen. Daar was ik erg blij mee. Maar zodra ik terug in het rectoraat was, moest ik onmiddellijk weer de draad opnemen. Mijn verdriet tonen tijdens een vergadering met de raad van bestuur was niet echt een optie."

Op welke momenten mist u uw man het meest?

"Als ik 's avonds thuiskom. Die leegte is verschrikkelijk. Het overkomt mij ook nog regelmatig dat ik 's ochtends wakker word, iets tegen hem zeg en pas daarna besef: hij is er niet meer. (stilte) Ik zag hem zó graag. Maar als ik in mijn leven ooit nog een vorm van geluk wil ervaren, zal ik zijn afwezigheid moeten leren aanvaarden."

Gelooft u dat u uw man na uw dood zal terugzien?

"Ik geloof dat we op één of andere manier herenigd gaan worden, ja. Maar veeleer op een metafysische dan op een fysieke manier. In de vorm van een blijvend geluksgevoel, bijvoorbeeld."

Dat geloof is voor u compatibel met uw wetenschappelijke ratio?

"Ja. Ook wetenschappers kunnen niet alles verklaren."

Tijdens een vorig interview omschreef u uw man als uw steun, uw toeverlaat, uw alles.

"Dat was hij ook. Ik kon rector zijn dankzij hem. Hij deed de boodschappen, kookte voor mij, creëerde warmte en gezelligheid en hielp mij om de dingen te relativeren. Hij heeft zich vaak weggecijferd voor mij."

Was u wél kandidaat geweest voor een tweede ambtstermijn als uw man nog geleefd had?

"Nee. We hadden net besloten om wat meer van het leven te genieten. Samen fietsen, wandelen, voor de open haard zitten en babbelen... (stilte) Ik vind het vreselijk dat ik hem verloren heb op een moment dat we zo'n mooie plannen aan het maken waren."

Uw dochter woont sinds een jaar in Houston, Texas. Komt ze nog terug, denkt u?

"Ze heeft net een leuke Amerikaan leren kennen, dus die kans wordt met de dag kleiner. (lacht) Ze heeft het goed in Houston. Ze werkt aan het Baylor College of Medicine: een gerenommeerd instituut waar academici uit alle hoeken van de wereld samenwerken. Ze houdt van het Texaanse klimaat en heeft zich wonderwel aangepast aan de mentaliteit van de Amerikanen. Ook al zie ik haar veel minder vaak dan ik zou willen: ik merk aan alles dat ze gelukkig is. En dat is het belangrijkste."

De warmte waarmee ze over haar man en dochter praat, reduceert de verkiezingscrisis aan de UGent tot een bestuurlijk niemendalletje. We drinken inmiddels koffie, de meeste restaurantgasten zijn naar huis gegaan, de nacht doet onze stemmen zachter klinken. Le Tout Nouveau Testament komt ter sprake, de film van Jaco Van Dormael waarin mensen op de hoogte worden gebracht van hun sterfdatum. Plots moeten ze zich afvragen wat ze nog willen doen met de dagen, weken, maanden en jaren die ze nog hebben. Met alle existentiële ellende vandien. "Ik zou het niet willen meemaken", zegt Anne De Paepe. "We hoeven niet per se te weten wat ons tijdens de rest van ons leven nog te wachten staat."

Beroepshalve probeert u dat nochtans wél te weten te komen: genetici kunnen steeds beter voorspellen welke ziektes we in ons leven zullen krijgen. Vanaf 1 juli wordt de NIPT-test zo goed als gratis. Het wordt dan een fluitje van een cent om vast te stellen of een ongeboren kind een afwijking zoals het Downsyndroom heeft. Een goede zaak?

"Dat er testen bestaan die menselijk leed kunnen vermijden, kan ik alleen maar toejuichen. De vraag is alleen: wat is menselijk leed? Is een kind opvoeden dat het syndroom van Down heeft een lijdensweg? Ik denk dat dat een vraag is waarop - afhankelijk van de context - meerdere antwoorden mogelijk zijn. Wat is de psychische draagkracht van de ouders? Welke steun krijgen ze van hun omgeving? Hoe stabiel is hun relatie? Wat voor sommige mensen leefbaar is, zal voor andere mensen ondraaglijk zijn. Men heeft mij vaak gevraagd om regels op te stellen voor prenatale diagnostiek. Ik heb dat altijd geweigerd. Je moet elke situatie apart beoordelen."

Speelt uw katholieke achtergrond een rol van betekenis in uw werk?

"Tot op zekere hoogte wel. Ik zal bijvoorbeeld nooit een zwangerschapsonderbreking bagatelliseren. Maar soms wordt er bij een ongeboren kind een vreselijke afwijking ontdekt. In dat geval heb ik alle begrip voor ouders die voor abortus kiezen. Zelfs als die abortus tijdens het laatste trimester van de zwangerschap moet uitgevoerd worden."

Tot slot: trekt u straks opnieuw naar uw geliefde Centrum voor Medische Genetica?

(glundert) "Já. Maar niet als diensthoofd: die titel heb ik vier jaar geleden opgegeven, het zou ongepast zijn hem nu opnieuw op te eisen. Waarschijnlijk ga ik doctorandi begeleiden en nu en dan raadplegingen doen."

Is het een optie om vanaf oktober voltijds in zenmodus te leven?

"Nee. Ik wil niet van de ene extreme situatie naar de andere gaan. Er moet een overgangsperiode zijn (lacht). Maar binnen een paar jaar kies ik allicht wel voor het dolce far niente. Ik heb de voorbije jaren soms gesnakt naar vrije tijd. Die ga ik mezelf in steeds grotere dosissen gunnen."

[itsleeviyah]

A Concept Paper on Nature of Language

This write-up aims to initially define language by offering definitions and sayings of different linguists and experts in neurolinguistics. Next, it compiles researches about the nature of language gathered from different published articles online and electronic books. Then, another research synthesis is presented about the language and the brain including the concepts of the language center of the brain as well as lateralization and contralateralization concepts. The purpose of this concept paper is to explain huge concepts and examples that define the said topics and to synthesize various theories from linguistics to correlate linked ideas.

Defining Language

           According to Professor Naeem (2010) of Neoenglish, language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it have proved inadequate. In a nut-shell, language is an ‘organised noise’ used in actual social situations. That is why it has also been defined as ‘contextualised systematic sound‘.

In order to understand a term like life, one has to talk of the properties or characteristics of living beings (e.g. motion, reproduction, respiration, growth, power of self-healing, excretion, nutrition, mortality, etc. etc.). Similarly, the term language can be understood better in terms of its properties or characteristics. 

Similarly, Merriam- Webster dictionary defined language as audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs. They initially refer language to sounds.

Robins (1985) said that “Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions… infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers.” Therefore, language is a symbol system and every language selects some symbols for its selected sounds. 

 Another definition, according to Sapir (1921) explains that “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.” Therefore, only humans possess language and all normal humans uniformly possess it. 

Wardhaugh (1986) as well as Bloch and Trager (1942) explained that language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of communication.

 With the use of the definitions given, Prof. Neem (2010) of Neoenglish synthesized concepts about the nature of language.  The following characteristics are below:

Language is a Means of Communication

Language is a very important means of communication between humans. A can communicate his or her ideas, emotions, beliefs or feelings to B as they share a common code that makes up the language. Language is so important a form of communication between humans that it is difficult to think of a society without language. It gives shape to people’s thoughts and guides and controls their entire activity. It is a carrier of civilization and culture as human thoughts and philosophy are conveyed from one generation to the other through the medium of language. Language is ubiquitous in the sense that it is present everywhere in all activities.

Language is Arbitrary

Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them (except in the case of hieroglyphics where a picture of an object may represent the object). Selection of these words in the languages mentioned here is purely arbitrary, an accident of history. The choice of a word selected to mean a particular thing or idea is purely arbitrary but once a word is selected for a particular referent, it comes to stay as such. It may be noted that had language not been arbitrary, there would have been only one language in the world.

Language is Primarily Vocal

Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory mechanism in the human body. In the beginning, it must have appeared as vocal sounds only. Writing must have come much later, as an intelligent attempt to represent vocal sounds. Writing is only the graphic representation of the sounds of the language. There are a number of languages which continue to exist, even today, in the spoken form only. They do not have a written form. A child learns to speak first; writing comes much later. Also, during his life time, a man speaks much more than he writes. The total quantum of speech is much larger than the total quantum of written materials.

It is because of these reasons that some linguists say that speech is primary, writing is secondary. Writing did have one advantage over speech—it could be preserved in books or records. But, with the invention of magnetic tapes or audio-cassettes, it has lost that advantage too.

Language is a Social Phenomenon

Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community. Language in this sense is a possession of a social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits its members to relate to each other, to interact with each other, to co-operate with each other; it is a social institution. Language exists in society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations. It is as a member of society that a human being acquires a language. We are not born with an instinct to learn a particular language––English, Russian, Chinese or French. We learn a language as member of the society using that language, or because we want to understand that society, or to be understood by that speech-community. If a language is not used in any society, it dies out.

Language is thus a social event. It can fully be described only if we know all about the people who are involved in it, their personalities, their beliefs, attitudes, knowledge of the world, relationship to each other, their social status, what activity they are engaged in, what they are talking about, what has gone before linguistically and non-linguistically, what happens after, what they are and a host of other facts about them and the situation they are placed in.

Language is non-instinctive, conventional

No language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans. Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each generation transmits this convention on to the next. Like all human institutions languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language then is a convention in a community. It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human beings. Nobody gets a language in heritage; he acquires it, and everybody has been provided with an innate ability to acquire language. Animals inherit their system of communication by heredity, humans do not.

Language is systematic

Although language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All languages have their system of arrangements. Though symbols in each human language are finite, they can be arranged infinitely; that is to say, we can produce an infinite set of sentence by a finite set of symbols.

Every language is a system of systems. All languages have phonological and grammatical systems, and within a system there are several sub-systems. For example, within the grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within these two sub-systems we have several other systems such as those of plural, of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc.

Language is unique, creative, complex and modifiable

Language is a unique phenomenon of the earth. Other planets do not seem to have any language, although this fact may be invalidated if we happen to discover a talking generation on any other planet. But so far there is no evidence of the presence of language on the moon. Each language is unique in its own sense. By this we do not mean that lan­guages do not have any similarities or universals. Despite their common features and language, universals, each language has its peculiarities and distinct features.

Language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his hearers may ever have made or heard before any, listener, yet which both sides understand without difficulty. Language changes according to the needs of society. Old English is different from modern English; so is old Urdu different form modern Urdu.

Duality

           The language that human beings use consists of two sub-systems – sound and meaning. A finite set of sound units can be grouped and re-gourd into units of meaning. These can be grouped and re-grouped to generate further functional constituents of the higher hierarchical order. We can produce sentences through this process of combining units of a different order. Animal calls do not show such duality, they are unitary.

An addendum of the concept of duality is from Yule (2005) that explains, human language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. This property is called duality (or “double articulation”). In speech production, we have a physical level at which we can produce individual sounds, like n, b and i. As individual sounds, none of these discrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. In a particular combination such as bin, we have another level producing a meaning that is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality of levels is, in fact, one of the most economical features of human language because, with a limited set of discrete sounds, we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) which are distinct in meaning.

Productivity

A speaker may say something that he has never said before and be understood without difficulty. Man uses the limited linguistic, resources in order to produce completely novel ideas and utterances. Fairy tales, animal fables, narratives about alien unheard of happenings in distant galaxies or nonexistent worlds are perfectly understood by the listeners.

 Displacement

One can talk about situations, places and objects far removed from one’s present surroundings and time. We often talk about events that happened long time ago and at a distant place; bombing incident in Ireland’s Londonderry twelve years’ back, for instance; or the sinking of the Spanish Armada in the sixteenth century. Bees, of course, perform dances about the source of nectar that is also removed from the place of dance (beehive). But they cannot convey what happened in the previous season through their dance features. Human beings, however, can narrate events in which they were not involved.

Yule (2005) explained, when your dog says GRRR, it means GRRR, right now, because dogs don’t seem to be capable of communicating GRRR, last night, over in the park. In contrast, human language users are normally capable of producing messages equivalent to GRRR, last night, over in the park, and then going on to say In fact, I’ll be going back tomorrow for some more. Humans can refer to past and future time. This property of human language is called displacement. It allows language users to talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment. Indeed, displacement allows us to talk about things and places (e.g. angels, fairies, Santa Claus, Superman, heaven, hell) whose existence we cannot even be sure of. Animal communication is generally considered to lack this property.

 Language is both linguistic and communicative competence

A language is an abstract set of psychological principles and sociological consideration that constitute a person’s competence as a speaker in a given situation. “These psychological principles make available to him an unlimited number of sentences he can draw upon in concrete; situations and provide him with the ability to understand and create entirely new sentences. Hence, language is not just a verbal behavior; it is a system of rules establishing correlations between meanings and sound sequences. It is a set of principles that a speaker masters; it is not anything that he does. In brief, a language is a code which is different from the act of encoding; it is a speaker’s linguistic competence rather than his linguistic performance.

Language is human and structurally complex

Human language is open-ended, extendable and modifiable whereas the animal language is not.

Ambedkar (2015) have made a few concepts of the nature of language. The following are:

 Living Language

A language undergoes a continuous and unnoticed change for its refinement and depth. It responds to the demands and requirements of the group that it represents. As the human utterances became complex and varied, a language to be living must move with the group, must grow with the group, should be alive to their needs and aspirations. In this process of change and growth, language acquires new shape, new approach, new significance and new application.

 Sounds and Signals

Sounds produced by human beings differ from the 'signal-like' sounds and actions of the animals. A lot of research is going on to establish if the animals also have similar conventionalised arrangement in their expression. According to Bloomfield, "In human speech, different sounds have different meanings. To study this coordination of certain sounds with certain meanings is to study language". In other words, a study of a language consists in giving meaning to a meaning. The meaning already exists, we have to give it a meaning to be intelligible to us as a language.

Yule (2005) had pointed out another two nature of language. This is reflexivity. The property of reflexivity (or “reflexiveness”) accounts for the fact that we can use language to think and talk about language itself, making it one of the distinguishing features of human language. Indeed, without this general ability, we wouldn’t be able to reflect on or identify any of the other distinct properties of human language. We’ll look in detail at another five of them: displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, cultural transmission and duality.

The other one is cultural transmission. While we may inherit physical features such as brown eyes and dark hair from our parents, we do not inherit their language. We acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. An infant born to Korean parents in Korea, but adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in the United States, will have physical characteristics inherited from his or her natural parents, but will inevitably speak English.

A kitten, given comparable early experiences, will produce meow regardless. This process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next is described as cultural transmission. It is clear that humans are born with some kind of predisposition to acquire language in a general sense. However, we are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language such as English. We acquire our first language as children in a culture. The general pattern in animal communication is that creatures are born with a set of specific signals that are produced instinctively. There is some evidence from studies of birds as they develop their songs that instinct has to combine with learning (or exposure) in order for the right song to be produced. If those birds spend their first seven weeks without hearing other birds, they will instinctively produce songs or calls, but those songs will be abnormal in some way. Human infants, growing up in isolation, produce no “instinctive” language. Cultural transmission of a specific language is crucial in the human acquisition process.

Language and the Brain      

Language is both a science and an art. The human’s biological body have certain parts of which is the responsible for the language as well as information processing, sounds and communication.

The study of the relationship between language and the brain is called neurolinguistics.

Language Center of the Brain

In a paragraph of the chapter, Language and the brain in the book of Yule (2005) he stated that if we disregard a certain amount of other material, we will basically be left with two parts, the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. If we put the right hemisphere aside for now, and place the left hemisphere down so that we have a side view, we’ll be looking at something close to the accompanying illustration (adapted from Geschwind, 1991). The shaded areas in this illustration indicate the general locations of those language functions involved in speaking and listening. We have come to know that these areas exist largely through the examination, in autopsies, of the brains of people who, in life, were known to have specific language disabilities. That is, we have tried to determine where language abilities for normal users must be by finding areas with specific damage in the brains of people who had identifiable language disabilities.

Broca’s area

The part shown as (1) in the illustration is technically described as the “anterior speech cortex” or, more usually, as Broca’s area. Paul Broca, a French surgeon, reported in the 1860s that damage to this specific part of the brain was related to extreme difficulty in producing speech. It was noted that damage to the corresponding area on the right hemisphere had no such effect. This finding was first used to argue that language ability must be located in the left hemisphere and since then has been treated as an indication that Broca’s area is crucially involved in the production of speech.

Wernicke’s area

The part shown as (2) in the illustration is the “posterior speech cortex,” or Wernicke’s area. Carl Wernicke was a German doctor who, in the 1870s, reported that damage to this part of the brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties. This finding confirmed the left hemisphere location of language ability and led to the view that Wernicke’s area is part of the brain crucially involved in the understanding of speech.

 The motor cortex and the Arcuate Fasciculus

The part shown as (3) in the illustration is the motor cortex, an area that generally controls movement of the muscles (for moving hands, feet, arms, etc.). Close to Broca’s area is the part of the motor cortex that controls the articulatory muscles of the face, jaw, tongue and larynx. Evidence that this area is involved in the physical articulation of speech comes from work reported in the 1950s by two neurosurgeons, Penfield and Roberts (1959). These researchers found that, by applying small amounts of electrical current to specific areas of the brain, they could identify those areas where the electrical stimulation would interfere with normal speech production. The part shown as (4) in the illustration is a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate fasciculus. This was also one of Wernicke’s discoveries and is now known to form a crucial connection between Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas.

The localization view

Having identified these four components, it is tempting to conclude that specific aspects of language ability can be accorded specific locations in the brain. This is called the localization view and it has been used to suggest that the brain activity involved in hearing a word, understanding it, then saying it, would follow a definite pattern. The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to part of the motor cortex to physically articulate the word.

 Another detailed concept of the language and the brain is being explained by authors, Springer et al (1981) and Bayles (1981) in a separate study. Below was expounded.

Physical Features of the Brain

The brain is divided into two nearly symmetrical halves, the right and left hemispheres, each of which is responsible for processing certain kinds of information concerning the world around us. These hemi- spheres are connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. These nerve fibers make it possible for the two hemispheres to communicate with each other and build a single, coherent picture of our environment from the many different kinds of stimuli-visual, tactile, oral, auditory, and olfactory that we receive.

The brain is covered by a one-quarter-inch thick membrane called the cortex. It has been suggested that it is this membrane that makes human beings capable of higher cognitive functions, such as the ability to do math or use language, and that its development was one of the primary evolutionary changes that separated us from other animals. In fact, most of the language centers of the brain that we will be discussing later in this chapter are contained in the cortex. This is why even minor damage to the surface of the brain, e.g, that caused by a strong blow to the head, can result in language impairment.

The cortex is not flat but covered with bumps and indentations. The bumps on the surface of the brain are called gyri (sg. gyrus) and the de- pressions are called fissures. Scientists use certain fissures to demarcate particular areas of the brain. One of the most prominent of these is the Sylvian Fissure, the large horizontal fold located in the middle of each hemisphere separating the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe of the brain. Several portions of the cortex are specialized to perform particular functions that play a role in language use. The first that we will introduce is the auditory cortex (in the figure referred to as "Primary Auditory Area"), located next to the Sylvian Fissure. The auditory cortex is responsible for receiving and identifying auditory signals and convérting them into a form that can be interpreted by other areas of the brain. A second special area is the visual cortex (in the figure referred to as "Primary Visual Area"), located in the lower back of each hemisphere. This area receives and interprets visual stimuli and is thought to be the storage site for pictoral images. A third is the motor cortex, which is found in the upper middle of each hemisphere, perpendicular to the Sylviah Fissure. The fissure between the motor cortex and the somatic sensory cortex also separates the frontal lobe from the parietal lobe. This part of the brain is responsible for sending signals to your muscles, including those of your face, jaw, and tongue, to make them move.

(The left hemisphere of the human brain. "Map of the Human Cortex," figure by Carol Donner from "Specializations of the Human Brain," by Norman Geschwind.)

Then there are the language centers of the brain-parts of the cortex that, as far as we know, are used only for the production and comprehension of language. In contrast to the other areas we have introduced here, these centers are found only in the hemisphere that is specialized for language: for approximately 90 percent of the right-handed people and 90 percent of the left-handed people, this is the left hemisphere. The opposing hemisphere does not have these language centers. The first of these language centers that we will introduce is Broca's area. Located at the base of the motor cortex, this language center appears to be responsible for organizing the articulatory patterns of language and directing the motor cortex when we want to talk. (This involves the face, jaw, and tongue in the case of spoken language, and the hands, arms, and body in the case of signed language.)

Broca's area also seems to control the use of inflectional morphemes, like the plural and past tense markers, as well as function morphemes, like determiners and prepositions; this is a very important function with respect to the formation of words and sentences. Next, there is Wemicke's area. Located near the back section of the auditory cortex, this section of the brain is involved in the comprehension of words and the selection of words when producing sentences. Wernicke's area and Broca's area are connected by a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate fasciculus. Like the corpus callosum, these nerve fibers allow the two areas of the brain that they connect to share information; without them, we would not be able to look up words in our "mental lexdcon" (via Werricke's area) and then say them (via Broca's area). (Think of the mental lexicon as a dictionary, located in the brain, containing all the words aun individual knows, including what each word means and how to pronounce it. Recognize, however, that this dictionary is not tangible but rather some abstract network of information scattered throughout the brain. We cannot point to it, but we have strong reasons to believe that it exists.) The final Language center we will introduce is the angular gyrus. This area, located between Wernicke's area and the visual cortex, converts visual stimuli into auditory stimuli (and vice versa), allowing us to match the spoken form of a word with the object it describes; this ability is crucial to the human capacity to read and write.

The Flow of Linguistic Information

Now, how do all these areas of the brain work together to process language? As far as we know, that depends on what type of stimulus (auditory, visual, etc.) is involved and what type of linguistic result (speaking, reading, understanding, etc.) is desired. To produce a spoken word, for example, a person first chooses a word from the mental dictionary. This process activates Wlernicke's area, which then interprets the dictionary entry, identifying the meaning of the word, how to pronounce it, and so on. The phonetic information for the entry is sent via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca's area. Then Broca's area determines what combination of the various articulators is necessary to produce each sound in the word and instructs the motor cortex which muscles to move. To read a word, one first takes the stimulus into the visual cortex via the eyes. The angular gyrus then associates the written form of the word with an entry in the mental dictionary, which releases information about the word into Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area then interprets the entry and gives one the meaning of the word.

Can you figure out how you understand and repeat a word just said to you?

First, the stimulus is brought into the auditory cortex through the ears. That auditory stimulus is matched to a word in your mental dictionary. If you have an image or weitten form associated with the word, the angular gyrus will activate the visual cortex and you will have a picture of the item and its spelling available to you. In the meanwhile, Wemicke's area is activated, interprets the entry from the dictionary, and sends the phonetic information about the word to Broca's area, which coordinates the necessary articulatory commands and gives them to the motor cortex.

Lateralization and Contralateralization

According to Springer et. al. (1989) that each of the brain's hemispheres is responsible for different cognitive functions. This specialization is referred to as lateralization. For most individuals, the left hemisphere is dominant in the areas of analytic reasoning, temporal ordering, arithmetic, and language processing. The right hemisphere is in charge of processing music, perceiving nonlinguistic sounds, and performing tasks that require visual and spatial skills or pattern recognition.

Lateralization happens in early childhood and can be reversed in its initial stages if there is damage to a part of the brain that is crucially involved in an important function. For example, if a very young child whose brain was originally lateralized so that language functions were in the left hemisphere receives severe damage to the language centers, the right hemisphere can develop language centers to compensate for the loss. After a certain period, however, lateralization is permanent and cannot be reversed, no matter how severely the brain is damaged.

The connections between the brain and the body are almost completely contralateral. This means that the right side of the body is controlled by the left hemisphere, while the left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere. It is also important to realize that this contralateral connection means that sensory information from the right side of the body is received by the left hemisphere, while sensory information from the left side of the body is received by the right hemisphere. Sensory information can be any data one gathers through hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, or smelling.

This indicates that the left side of the brain is used to process language in most people, while the right side has much less to do with language processing.

Conclusion

               Language has indeed a very important role in the life of a human being. It is the gate way of expression thoughts through communication. The explained several nature of language signifies that each language is gift from God− it is unique, useful, creative and a systematic system. With the fact that studying language not just focuses on it being an art, it has to deal with science also with regards to the process of information in the brain through the language centers. It has been identified that the center for language in the human brain is the left hemisphere with three main division which are responsible for the linguistic flow. Lateralization and contralatilarization occurs in cases of the brain being damaged and the shift of a language center to another hemisphere of the brain.

References

Naeem, P. (2011). The nature of language and linguistics. https://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/the-nature-of-language-and-linguistics/

 Ambedkar, V. (2015). Language across the curriculum. [e-book version] Retrieved from http://www.bhojvirtualuniversity.com/slm/B.Ed_SLM/bedteb1u1.pdf

 Yule, G. (2005). Chapter 2. The study of language.4th ed. [E-book version] (pp. 31-35) Retrieved from https://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/cambridge.the_.study_.of_.language.4th.edition.apr_.2010.ebook-elohim.pdf

 Yule, G. (2005). Chapter 12. The study of language.4th ed. [E-book version] (pp. 176-179) Retrieved from https://fac.ksu.edu.sa/sites/default/files/cambridge.the_.study_.of_.language.4th.edition.apr_.2010.ebook-elohim.pdf

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 Springer, Sally, and George Deutsch. (1981) Left Brain, Right Brain. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman