In Other Words

A Contextualized Dictionary to Problematize Otherness


"The single and most aberrant, widespread and persistent violation of human rights is the practice of war" (Gino Strada)

 

IOW stands against war!

 

 

"It is the single word that reveals the way a particular epoch thinks"

(Victor Klemperer)

"It is through language that we are able to convey, challenge and negotiate meanings, as well as form concepts, in order to make sense of and structure the world around us. Words that are central to a culture represent the key to understanding how a society takes on new meanings and how these changes reflect values of society"

(Cornelia Ilie)

"Keywords are focal points around which entire cultural domains are organized (...). You can’t read political history off from dictionary definitions, words meanings are in fact among the most sensitive and underused detectors for registering what’s going on in the world – political, social, and mental"

(Anna Wierzbicka)

"Otherness (…) is not something ontologically given once for all: as for identity, it is a cultural construction which uses images, symbols, stereotypes and, indeed, words. And as it can be constructed, it can be deconstructed and problematized"

(Federico Faloppa)

" (...) it is no longer excusable to embalm the dictionary by autopsying its texts, mummifying its functions, and eulogizing its authors; we must, instead, seek a living dictionary, one that circulates in less familiar haunts, among less familiar speakers, to accomplish less familar purposes"


(Lindsay Rose Russell)