Protivoslovo

[Lily Alexander]

Dear Colleagues,

Rereading yesterday Bakhtin, I ran into "protivoslovo."

I am surprised that I did not come across any attempts of its theorization.
Of course Bakhtin invented many words, but this one may have slipped 
through undiscussed. It is used in his "Marxism and the Philosophy of 
Language."

As with all of his invented words (or reinvented), it is more than what 
just meets the eye. It  certainly will be more than just "vozrazhenie," 
counter argument, etc.
Slovo also connotes tale, myth, even epos, so it might have an extended 
meaning beyond "word."  But of course, for starters, "word" and 
"utterance" would be the subject of his discussion.

I have two questions. Have anyone seen or read (or written!) any 
theoretical work discussing it as a term or concept? I saw in one 
semiotic paper - it was mentioned in passing.

How to translate it?
Trying to translate it, I came up with "antiword" (like antiworld), or 
"counterword" (like counter-culture). I saw "counterword" used in an 
article in an journal on aesthetics simply as "vozrazhenie." It is also 
interesting what both (or any other possible) translations would connote 
in English.

Antiword is part of the software engineering vocabulary. Counterword is 
translated in Multitran - definitely far from what Bakhtin meant. See below:

Counterword
??????????????????? ????? 
<http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=654038_2_1>; ???????????? ?????????? 
????? ?? ??????? ?????????-?????????? ????????? 
<http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=1357637_2_1>

1) a desemantized word, 2) an emotionally colored word with faded 
[objective-logical] meaning

This will be something fossilized - exactly the opposite to what was 
meant by Bakhtin, as "I am feeling" :-)
Bakhtin was rarely interested in anything "stertoe," but rather of the 
the things that "stick out."

Slovo provokes protivoslovo in his context. This would be more along the 
lines of passionate counterargument. Something polyarnoe in a dialoical 
context, coming out of opposition or provocation and stimulated by debate.

Any thoughts?

Thanks you.

Lily Alexander

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