Eger Journal of English Studies

On the Diachronic Development of the Syntax of Clauses in the English Language

2025-07-11T09:19:13+02:00

The English language has gone through significant changes from Old English (450–1150) through Middle English (c. 1150–1500) and Early Modern English (1500-1750) to Modern English (1750–present) by becoming an analytic language from a synthetic language rich in inflections. Instead of inflections Present-Day English makes intensive use of prepositions and auxiliary verbs and depends upon word order to indicate syntactic relations in a sentence. The present paper discusses how English advanced from the free word order of Old English to the relatively fixed word order that is used in Present-Day English by touching upon noun declension, inversion and fronting, quoting examples from literature and popular culture.

Norms, Contexts and Functions of Arabic–English Code-Switching in Egyptian Computer-Mediated Communication

2025-07-11T09:23:47+02:00

This paper investigates the linguistic characteristics of English in the Instant Messaging (IM) discourse as one of the most common computer-mediated communication modes in Egypt, where English is considerably used. It also aims to explore the reasons for the preference of English to Arabic in certain contexts, types of English errors, contexts of English and Arabic use, age of users, addressees, and purposes/functions of code-switching in English–Arabic discourse. Two sources of data were used: a corpus of 30 IM conversations by 60 interlocutors and responses to a survey by a group of 49 participants (including some of the conversation providers). Findings of both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis indicate that English in Egypt is used as an interactive medium of communication among Egyptian professionals, students, and younger generations in general, regardless of their English proficiency levels, in both formal and informal contexts for various purposes. Moreover, IM English used by Egyptians is generally mixed with Arabic, and this code switching between English and varieties of the Arabic language occurs in many contexts to fulfill different functions.

“The Question of Palestine”

2025-07-11T09:29:10+02:00

This study examines aspects of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict as depicted in Fadia Faqir’s Nisanit. It explores both the methods of subjugation employed by the Israeli occupier and the forms of resistance undertaken by the Palestinian occupied. Drawing upon political perspectives that classify this encounter as a neo-colonial paradigm, alongside postcolonial critical views, the textual analysis of Faqir’s text reveals that the settler–native clash is an existential conflict constructed on imposing an exclusivist identity in Palestine. Nisanit exemplifies that the Israeli authorities use a range of domination methods to achieve their goals of settler colonialism, including discrimination, violence, arrests, imprisonment, social segregation, and cultural stereotyping. Meanwhile, the Palestinians respond to the Israeli domination by adopting various models of resistance such as guerrilla warfare and revolutionary actions organised by the local resistance movements.

Culture-Specific and Postmodern Literary Devices in Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer

2025-07-11T09:32:48+02:00

Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer (1996) rewrites the traditional framework of crime fiction by using Native American culture-specific and postmodern literary devices such as fragmentation, intertextuality, irony, and dark humour. The story revolves around a series of brutal murders in Seattle attributed to the so called Indian Killer. The murderer receives the moniker from the media because the victims are scalped, and owl feathers are found at the crime scenes. An omniscient third-person narrator reveals crucial details and leaves readers to play the role of detective, tasked with unravelling the mystery and determining the true identity of the Indian Killer.

Gothic Villains in Three Sherlock Holmes Stories

2025-07-11T09:35:39+02:00

The classic detective story emerged with the publication of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes narratives in the 1890s, which coincided with the resurgence of the Gothic. By drawing comparisons between Gothic genre conventions and Doyle’s fiction, this paper argues that there are two Gothic plot devices in “The Speckled Band,” “The Creeping Man,” and “The Sussex Vampire”: the illusion of supernatural interference and the villainous father who destroys his family. The apparently unnatural events occur due to the ominous presence of animals as both instruments of wrongdoing and images of racial degeneration. Thus, these Gothic Holmes stories negotiate anxieties about degeneracy and declining paternal authority.

Paying Attention to Attention

2025-07-11T09:40:04+02:00

Nationalism in Eastern and Central Europe through the Eyes of Four British Scholars in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

2025-07-11T09:42:14+02:00

Eger Journal of English Studies

2025-07-11T09:13:01+02:00