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Motoki Nomachi

Motoki Nomachi

This article discusses the semantics and syntax of bare locative and accusative cases, such as ona je ø crikviloc. (lit.: She is church, ‘She is in church’) and ona gre ø crikvuacc. (lit.: She goes church, ‘She goes to church’) in... more
This article discusses the semantics and syntax of bare locative and accusative cases, such as ona je ø crikviloc. (lit.: She is church, ‘She is in church’) and ona gre ø crikvuacc. (lit.: She goes church, ‘She goes to church’) in Burgenland Croatian. Previous studies have indicated the existence of such phenomena in this language but have not analyzed the specifi c semantic and grammatical features of these constructions in historical and typological contexts. The author describes the specific usage of the previously mentioned constructions to demonstrate the conditions in which they are used. The article then considers whether the constructions are relics from Proto-Slavic, inherited from North Čakavian, or a later development in Burgenland. As a result of the analysis, the author concludes tentatively that the constructions in question emerged independently in Burgenland.
Afanasij Matveevič Seliščev (1886-1942), one of the most renowned specialists in the Slavic linguistics in the 20th century, particularly on their Southern branch, had a plan to publish his trilogy entitled Slavjanskoe jazykoznanie... more
Afanasij Matveevič Seliščev (1886-1942), one of the most renowned specialists in the Slavic linguistics in the 20th century, particularly on their Southern branch, had a plan to publish his trilogy entitled Slavjanskoe jazykoznanie (Slavic Linguistics) in the 1940s, which was realized only in part due to his death in 1942. Some scholars have reported that his unpublished manuscript was lost, while others think that the text preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RGALI) is Seliščev's manuscript of the second volume of Slavjanskoe jazykoznanie dealing with the South Slavic languages. In this article, the author identifies the RGALI manuscript and then analyzes it in the context of the current state of Slavic studies.
Samuil Bernštejn is known as one of the first Russian/Soviet scholars to recognize a distinct Macedonian language. Throughout his life, Bernštejn maintained his interest in Macedonian. However, it remains unknown how Bernštejn interacted... more
Samuil Bernštejn is known as one of the first Russian/Soviet scholars to recognize a distinct Macedonian language. Throughout his life, Bernštejn maintained his interest in Macedonian. However, it remains unknown how Bernštejn interacted with Macedonian scholars, in particular with Blaže Koneski. Bernštejn’s memoirs, Zigzagi pamjati (2002), have no mention of Koneski, though there surely must have been substantial contacts between two scholars. In this presentation, based on unpublished materials preserved in Moscow and Skopje archives, I explore the relationship between the two eminent scholars in the field of Macedonian studies.
This article provides an overview of the unpublished manuscript, Gramatyka kaszubska “Kashubian Grammar,” by the eminent Kashubian writer and activist, Aleksander Majkowski. It analyzes each section of the work to show that Majkowski’s... more
This article provides an overview of the unpublished manuscript, Gramatyka kaszubska “Kashubian Grammar,” by the eminent Kashubian writer and activist, Aleksander Majkowski. It analyzes each section of the work to show that Majkowski’s grammar is based on both Lorentz (1919) and Ceynowa (1878). The article further discusses his possible ideas and ideology.
This article analyses the use of the indefinite marker jeden 'one' in contemporary Kashubian, which has often been treated simply as an indefinite article in previous studies. A synchronic description has been presented in the first part... more
This article analyses the use of the indefinite marker jeden 'one' in contemporary Kashubian, which has often been treated simply as an indefinite article in previous studies. A synchronic description has been presented in the first part of this paper, comparing the use of the indefinite marker in Kashubian with that in Polish, Upper Sorbian, and German. The second part deals with the diachronic change in Kashubian in this respect. The main conclusion of this paper is that Kashubian has never developed the indefinite article per se, while its usage was far more frequent in the past, which could be explained by the emergence of the German influence.
With negative indefinite pronouns the Balto-Slavic languages all exhibit strict negative concord. In this study we investigate how negative concord functions in a context in which a connective negator ('neither ... nor') combines either... more
With negative indefinite pronouns the Balto-Slavic languages all exhibit strict negative concord. In this study we investigate how negative concord functions in a context in which a connective negator ('neither ... nor') combines either phrases or clauses. We show that there are various types of non-concordant patterns.
This article analyzes the second edition of History of Various Slavic Peoples – written by Ioann Rajić but published in 1823, long after his death – by raising the following three questions: 1) What was the editor’s linguistic strategy... more
This article analyzes the second edition of History of Various Slavic
Peoples – written by Ioann Rajić but published in 1823, long after his death – by raising the following three questions: 1) What was the editor’s linguistic strategy for the second edition?, 2) What were the concrete changes?, and 3) What was the sociolinguistic background at the time of editing that encouraged the editor to change Rajić’s text? The analysis of this article shows that the main strategy for the second edition was the Slavicization of the text, particularly excluding features of the Russian literary language. This editorial policy was likely made
by the fact that, contrary to the general tendency to replace Church Slavonic with the Serbian vernacular in the 18th century, Church Slavonic did have a status and functioned as the national language of Serbs, whose elites – eligible to read in Church Slavonic – were potential readers of Rajić’s History.
This article analyzes the syntax and semantics of the verb celovat’ ‘to kiss’ in Russian from three perspectives with special attention to the lexical semantic approach advanced by Jurij D. Apresjan. First, the lexical collocation of the... more
This article analyzes the syntax and semantics of the verb celovat’ ‘to kiss’ in Russian from three perspectives with special attention to the lexical semantic approach advanced by Jurij D. Apresjan. First, the lexical collocation of the target construction is analyzed, and it is demonstrated that this construction can be used outside of the typical meaning of an established gesture for expressing politeness or greetings. It is ascertained, furthermore, that the use of the preposition u in the u+gen. construction is motivated by the need to express non-affectedness and non-cooperation of the recipient of the action initiated by the agent, by comparing with the competing construction with the dative argument celovat’ komu čto. Second, the corpus analysis has shown that the preposition u+gen began to appear in the 18th century in literary works which reflect colloquial varieties of Russian. In addition, a statistical analysis has indicated that the preference of the prepositional construction u+gen was overwhelming in the 19th century and sharply declined in the 20th century. Lastly, in terms of the areal distribution of the target construction, it is characteristic particularly for Russian, while in Ukrainian and Belarusian, the equivalent construction with the prepositional construction u+gen can be regarded as a calque from
Russian. In those two languages it began to appear in the 19th century, but it is almost out of use today.
This article deals with the use of two series of postposed determiners (-ot/-ta/-to/-te and-ov/-va/-vo/-ve) in the Gorani dialects in Kosovo, particularly in the Zlipotok variety, based on the literary works of Ramadan Redžeplari... more
This article deals with the use of two series of postposed determiners (-ot/-ta/-to/-te and-ov/-va/-vo/-ve) in the Gorani dialects in Kosovo, particularly in the Zlipotok variety, based on the literary works of Ramadan Redžeplari (1944-2016), one of the distinguished Gorani writers and folklorists.
This is not a finalized version, but the content remains almost the same. The finalized version is: here: https://www.degruyter.com/viewbooktoc/product/517554
This article presents an analysis of certain uses of past tense forms (the aorist and imperfect) in Banat Bulgarian, spoken by descendants of Catholic Bulgarians who migrated from present-day Romanian Banat. A part of them later settled... more
This article presents an analysis of certain uses of past tense forms (the aorist and imperfect) in Banat Bulgarian, spoken by descendants of Catholic Bulgarians who migrated from present-day Romanian Banat. A part of them later settled in present-day Serbian Banat in multiple waves between 1776 and 1867. Over time, this migration led Banat Bulgarians to face a new sociolinguistic situation, in which Serbian, the language of administration, was dominant. Against this background, the idiolect of the writer Matija Bánčov (1911―?) is analyzed in this article to show how the imperfect remained preserved in Modoš (present-day Jaša Tomić), due to its early detachment from the mainland and to the influence of Serbian.
Social changes have influence on languages in the location where the changes take place. If a change involves contact with external groups, then a change in hierarchy of languages affects their speakers, which may lead to structural... more
Social changes have influence on languages in the location where the changes take place. If a change involves contact with external groups, then a change in hierarchy of languages affects their speakers, which may lead to structural changes in a language. However, we still do not know what conditions can cause changes in language structure. Although Thomason (2007:18) claims that one cannot predict concretely what kind of language change can happen, we wonder if one can expect similar results when similar social changes appear in nearby locations, particularly in linguistic entities that are genetically close. As an example to justify our thought, one can take the development of the bALkAn sPrAchbund: over the past millennium, genetically different languages have come to possess very similar structures (Joseph 2013:618-33). These emerged because of close contacts between the languages but also because they experienced the same or very similar cultural and political conditions, which are closely linked with some social evaluations, educational policies, language policies, etc. (Campbell 2004:317). Considering these facts, in this paper we will try to explore possible correlations of language changes and social changes based on two case studies from South Slavic languages, Banat Bulgarian in Serbia and Bosnian. Having been in the same polity, Yugoslavia, these particular two cases have something in common, namely that they have gained increased recognition in society and by governments as a side-effect of social and political change.
Poland was established as a nation-state in 1918. The state's administration embarked on the policy of ethnolinguistic homogenization in the interwar period, because one-third of the population was seen as ethnolin-guistically non-Polish.... more
Poland was established as a nation-state in 1918. The state's administration embarked on the policy of ethnolinguistic homogenization in the interwar period, because one-third of the population was seen as ethnolin-guistically non-Polish. The Polish borders and territory were dramatically altered as a result of World War II, and the country became a member of the Soviet bloc. The concomitant genocide and ethnic cleansing yielded an almost ethnolinguistically homogenous Poland. After the end of communism, the German minority, whose existence had as required, a system of minority rights protection. However, it did not cover contemporary Poland's largest minority, the Silesians. Additionally, the system was constructed in such a manner that the acknowledged linguistic difference of a similar group of Kashubs stopped short of recognizing them as a minority. It appears that in Poland the need provisions itself. In its de jure observance of minority rights provisions, de facto, the Polish state administration seems to endeavor to limit such provisions as much as possible, alongside the number of Polish citizens entitled to them. Hence, it may be proposed that the ongoing project of ethnolinguiustic homogenization continues to be the ideological backbone of national statehood legitimation in today's Poland.
Research Interests:
The presented text is an analysis of the dynamics of changes in linguistic situation in terms of the language emancipation theory by Huss and Lindgren (2011). Five periods of the literary Kashubian language are being compared according to... more
The presented text is an analysis of the dynamics of changes in linguistic situation in terms of the language emancipation theory by Huss and Lindgren (2011). Five periods of the literary Kashubian language are being compared according to five features described as the criteria of evaluation. The author demonstrates that for Kashubian, the language emancipation procedure started in Reformation, that in the last 150 years, the process was mainly facilitated by literary creation and that in the period of a communist regime, despite difficult social conditions, the process continued due to the already existing literary tradition and social activity. After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc a new phase of the emancipation process was initiated. At the moment the most important challenges are revitalization and standardization of the Kashubian language.
This article considers the context of language contact and discusses four typologically relevant morphosyntactic features (definite and indefinite articles, the merger of instrumental and comitative cases, and the non-pro-drop tendency)... more
This article considers the context of language contact and discusses four typologically relevant morphosyntactic features (definite and indefinite articles, the merger of instrumental and comitative cases, and the non-pro-drop tendency) and their possible changes in the Kashubian dialect in Canada. A comparison of the data on the Kashubian dialect recorded in Prussia during the mid-19th century by Hilferding and in the present-day by the author in the Renfrew area (Ontario, Canada) revealed no significant difference, even though the Kashubian spoken in the area has undergone various innovations due to the influence of English. Both grammatical and sociolinguistic analyses of the history of the contact situation suggested that the conservativeness of grammatical changes in the dialect can be explained by the prolonged isolation of the speakers in their new homeland, and by the fact that the intensive language contact and collective bilingualism between Kashubian and English are relatively new phenomena.
That contact between genetically unrelated languages (or dialects) has taken place is relatively easy to establish when they share, for instance, sufficient lexical or grammatical forms. This is usually much more difficult to demonstrate... more
That contact between genetically unrelated languages (or dialects) has taken place is relatively easy to establish when they share, for instance, sufficient lexical or grammatical forms. This is usually much more difficult to demonstrate when the shared elements concern structure and/or meaning, that is, when no form-meaning units and no phonetic substance are involved. And this is particularly difficult when trying to distinguish between different kinds of shared grammaticalization. This paper argues that even in the latter kind of situation, it is possible to identify instances of contact-induced language change. In this paper, a number of guidelines are proposed for identifying cases of presumed transfer of structural and semantic transfer across languages.
The present paper examines standard language ideologies in Serbia and Poland. We look closely at the weight that standard language ideology carries in both nation-states by analyzing those languages in them, which are not accorded the... more
The present paper examines standard language ideologies in Serbia and Poland. We look closely at the weight that standard language ideology carries in both nation-states by analyzing those languages in them, which are not accorded the highest status: in Serbia — Bunjevac, and in Poland — Kashubian. We demonstrate how — in both Serbia and Poland — standard language ideology appears to be challenged on various grounds, yet it is almost indisputably enforced at the same time. In the end, we conclude that our examination is a contribution to the latest observations regarding the notion of language standardization, which notion appears to have been changing before our own eyes.
One of the articles published in a collection of essays entitled "Perspectives on Contemporary East European Literature: Beyond National and Regional Frames" (Slavic Eurasian Studies No. 30). The whole volume can be downloaded here:... more
One of the articles published in a collection of essays entitled "Perspectives on Contemporary East European Literature: Beyond National and Regional Frames" (Slavic Eurasian Studies No. 30). The whole volume can be downloaded here:  http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no30_ses/index.html
An essay on Canada's Kashubs and their language for non-specialists
Chapter 2 from the collected essays entitled "The Grammar of Possessivity in South Slavic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives" The whole volume can be downloaded here:... more
Chapter 2 from the collected essays entitled "The Grammar of Possessivity in South Slavic Languages: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives"
The whole volume can be downloaded here: http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no24_ses/contents.html
For the linguistic landscape analysis of private signs of Banat Bulgarians we chose two cemeteries, both of them multiethnic, since Banat Bulgarians in Serbia do not form a majority population in any village. The cemetery in Jaša... more
For the linguistic landscape analysis of private signs of Banat Bulgarians we chose two cemeteries, both of them multiethnic, since Banat Bulgarians in Serbia do not form a majority population in any village. The cemetery in Jaša Tomić/Modoš is religiously mixed, but the Catholic and Orthodox part are still divided. Banat Bulgarians in Konak village are buried in the Catholic cemetery; there is a separate Orthodox cemetery for the majority population. These two villages (Jaša Tomić and Konak) were selected because they share a similar situation from the diachronic socio-linguistical point of view: apart for a brief time during World War II, the Bulgarian/Paulician language was hardly taught since the early 20th century; Bulgarian was used only in the family and the Catholic church (there are prayer books in Banat Bulgarian); there were many mixed marriages; there was no revival of language and culture
As inscriptions on all existing Banat Bulgarian Cyrillic headstones are in Serbian and none of the cemeteries visited have inscriptions in Bulgarian, or rather in the Bulgarian Cyrillic, this indicates that the use and knowledge of standard Bulgarian is limited among the Banat Bulgarians. At the same time, the use of Banat Bulgarian in the Latin alphabet on a proportionally large number of headstones up to the end of the 20th century in the Serbian part of the Banat, and also actively today in Vinga in the Romanian part of Banat, indicates the great importance of the Banat Bulgarian language in preserving the identity of Banat Bulgarians.
This article analyzes the emancipation of forty-three ethnic minorities’ languages in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, using the theory of language emancipation advanced by Huss and Lindgren (2011). By applying the six criteria... more
This article analyzes the emancipation of forty-three ethnic minorities’ languages in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, using the theory of language emancipation advanced by Huss and Lindgren (2011). By applying the six criteria provided by Huss and Lindgren, notably, overall respect, legislative official status, new societal domains, two types of language shift, as well as corpus planning and language standardization, we conclude that the degree of language emancipation considerably differs from one language to another, with only about one-fourth of what we consider to be Vojvodina’s minority languages displaying considerable degrees of emancipation. While noting certain weaknesses of our pioneering approach, such as — on the one hand — a limited set of symbols we used to make different degrees of language emancipation appear visually different, and — on the other — the virtual impossibility of knowing everything about all who identify as minorities, nevertheless we suggest that Vojvodina handles its minorities (and — by extension — their languages) with respect. Still, we see room for improvement. Our article demonstrates just how complex the occurrence of multiingualism is, be it as a generally recognized one or else — as in the example of Vojvodina — a self-proclaimed one.
For good reasons, linguists are highly skeptical when it comes to predicting linguistic change, As has been argued in (Heine 2003: 598-599), based on observations on some regularities of grammatical change made within the framework of... more
For good reasons, linguists are highly skeptical when it comes to predicting linguistic change, As has been argued in (Heine 2003: 598-599), based on observations on some regularities of grammatical change made within the framework of grammaticalization theory, however, it seems possible to propose at least some probabilistic predictions on what is a possible grammatical change and what is not. In the present article it is argued that this also applied to grammatical change that takes place in situations of language contact.
The whole volume can be downloaded here: http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no31_ses/index.html
The English version (slightly different from the Serbian version) is also available.
The article scrutinizes the dynamics of the experiment involving the so-called West Polessian literary language, initiated by Mykola Šyljahovyč in the Byelarussian Soviet Socialist Republic. This socio-cultural phenomenon, which lasted... more
The article scrutinizes the dynamics of the experiment involving the so-called West Polessian literary language, initiated by Mykola Šyljahovyč in the Byelarussian Soviet Socialist Republic. This socio-cultural phenomenon, which lasted for only a decade toward the end of the 20th century right before the break-up of the Soviet Union, was never uniform. Three less studied aspects of the movement are the targets of the analysis: 1. Šyljahovyč’s ideas regarding the literary language, ranging from philological to political, and their reflections in the movement of the socio-cultural association Polis’se, 2. Reasons for the failure in establishing the literary language with attention to Ukrainian factors, 3. The present-day situation of the literary activity in West Polessian.
The first file is the scan of the article originally published in the volume entitled  "Gedenkschrift für George Y. Shevelov zum 100. Geburtstag". The second file is a reader-friendly version. The content is identical.
External possession constructions are defined as constructions in which a semantic possessor-possessum relation is expressed by coding the possessor as a core grammatical relation of the verb and in a constituent separate from that which... more
External possession constructions are defined as constructions in which a semantic possessor-possessum relation is expressed by coding the possessor as a core grammatical relation of the verb and in a constituent separate from that which contains the possessum. One construction representative of this phenomenon is that with the dative case as a marker of the possessor, which is known as the dative of possession (DP) and is widely attested in European languages as an areal feature. In this article, I analyze the DP in Croatian, both its standard variety and dialects, particularly from a (micro-)areal-typological perspective, to locate the place of Croatian among Slavic, paying special attention to the correlation between the use of DP and its areal tendency. My analysis led me to conclude that Croatian occupies a place between West Sla-vic and Slovene, which tend to have a narrower sphere of the use of DP, and Balkanized Slavic, which has a wider sphere of it. This finding can be explained by the fact that West Slavic and Slovene are more habere-type languages than Croatian, which still preserves more esse-type language features that can be also found in the Balkanized Slavic languages.
This article analyzes various examples of language contact and linguistic change in the history of the Serbian languages, with special attention to the cultural opposition of the East and West. In the second section, after the... more
This article analyzes various examples of language contact and linguistic change in the history of the Serbian languages, with special attention to the cultural opposition of the East and West. In the second section, after the Introduction, the author discusses the place of Serbian in the context of the Balkan Sprachbund. The third section deals with the influence of Russia as part of the East in the development of the Serbian literary language. The fourth section analyzes the influence of the Islamic East based on loanwords from Turkish and other " oriental languages. " In the fifth section, the author analyzes the structure of Serbian when observed in contact with German in light of the Danube or Carpathian Sprachbund.
This article explores the grammatical status of Kashubian periphrastic constructions such as òn je jachóny ‘he is gone’ within the framework of the St. Petersburg school of linguistic typology. Based on a comparison of the preterite forms... more
This article explores the grammatical status of Kashubian periphrastic constructions such as òn je jachóny ‘he is gone’ within the framework of the St. Petersburg school of linguistic typology. Based on a comparison of the preterite forms of BE-1 and HAVE-periphrasis in the contemporary language and German equivalents, a new classification of the Kashubian verbal system is proposed, namely, that BE-2 is the resultative. Using both contemporary and historical data, as well as geographical distribution, the author tries to show the possible direction of the development of BE-2 in the light of language contact.
In this article, the possible convergence and divergence of linguistic structures in the Banat region are analyzed, based on Serbian and other Slavic dialects spoken in the region. Taking as its starting point Stojko Stojkov's notion of... more
In this article, the possible convergence and divergence of linguistic structures in the Banat region are analyzed, based on Serbian and other Slavic dialects spoken in the region. Taking as its starting point Stojko Stojkov's notion of Banat Sprachbund, his list of shared linguistic features is discussed. As a conclusion, the routes of those shared features may vary and cannot always be justified as features because of mutual language contact due to one-directional Romance-Slavic or Slavic-Slavic language contact in both the Romanian and the Serbian Banat.
Предлагаемый читателю сборник статей является плодом сотрудничества между Кафедрой славянской филологии МГУ и Центром славянско-евразийских исследований Хоккайдского университета (г. Саппоро, Япония). В сборнике анализируются нормативные... more
Предлагаемый читателю сборник статей является плодом сотрудничества между Кафедрой славянской филологии МГУ и Центром славянско-евразийских исследований Хоккайдского университета (г. Саппоро, Япония). В сборнике анализируются нормативные грамматики славянских языков со специальным вниманием к их различной роли в обществе и их месту в истории
образования каждого славянского литературного языка. Сборник состоит из трех частей: первая часть посвящена вопросам образования нормативности, a также особенностям и истории литературных языков у восточных славян. Вторая часть подвергает анализу роль и особенности школьной грамматики
польского языка и вопросы кодификации в истории словацкой грамматики. Заключительная часть рассматривает грамматикографию южнославянских литературных языков.
This is one of the articles included in the collection of essays entitled "Linguistic Regionalism in Eastern Europe and Beyond: Minority, Regional and Literary Microlanguages" edited by Dieter Stern, Motoki Nomachi and Bojan Belic
This book analyzes the creation of languages across the Slavophone areas of the world and their deployment for political projects and identity building, mainly after 1989. It offers perspectives from a number of disciplines such as... more
This book analyzes the creation of languages across the Slavophone areas of the world and their deployment for political projects and identity building, mainly after 1989. It offers perspectives from a number of disciplines such as sociolinguistics, socio-political history and language policy.

About the Authors:

Tomasz Kamusella is Reader in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His monographs include Silesia and Central European Nationalisms: The Emergence of National and Ethnic Groups in Prussian Silesia and Austrian Silesia, 1848–1918 (2007) and The Politics of Language and Nationalisms in Modern Central Europe (2009).

Motoki Nomachi is Associate Professor in the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He wrote and edited The Grammar of Possessivity in South Slavic: Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives (2011), Slavia Islamica: Language, Religion and Identity (2011, with Robert Greenberg) and Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in the Slavic Languages (2014, with Andrii Danylenko and Predrag Piper).

Catherine Gibson is currently completing an Erasmus International MA at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, United Kingdom, and the University of Tartu, Estonia. Her research focuses on transnational history and ethnolinguistic nationalism in the Baltic states.

Contributors to this volume include:
Andrej Beke , University of Tsukuba, Japan Wayles Browne, Cornell University, USA Andrii Danylenko, Pace University, USA István Fried, University of Szeged, Hungary Catherine Gibson, University College London, UK Robert Greenberg, Hunter College of the City University of New York, USA Brian D. Joseph, The Ohio State University, USA Tomasz Kamusella, University of St Andrews, UK Keith Langston, University of Georgia, USA Jouko Lindstedt, University of Helsinki, Finland Paul Robert Magocsi, University of Toronto, Canada Roland Marti, University of the Saarland, Germany Elena Marushiakova, Independent Scholar Vesselin Popov, Independent Scholar Alexander Maxwell, Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand Michael A. Moser,University of Vienna, Austria Motoki Nomachi, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan Anna Novikov-Almagor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Anita Peti-Stanti?, University of Zagreb, Croatia Irina Sedakova, Institute for Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia Sarah Smyth, Independent Scholar Dieter Stern, Ghent University, Belgium Klaus Steinke, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany Paul Wexler, Tel-Aviv University, Israel