About me: I’m a bi-lingual reflective left-wing feminist liberal - I have written about and done research in linguistics, education, literature and social identity. I’ve done a lot of teaching (language, culture, language methodology, ethnocentrism) and contribute regularly to several Czech journals. (See more at http://www.dominiklukes.net)

About the blog: The posts on this blog represent my more or less random reflections on my journey through the intellectual world. The main attraction of this format is the possibility to quickly jot down thoughts that I can use later in my work. The possibility of getting some feedback is only secondary - and at this point hypothetical - I would be perfectly content if this blog stayed off the radar of the web community, although I will take some steps towards publicizing it and sharing. At this stage, I have been keeping it for a while a maintained more or less regular postings. It is also possible that I will eventually get bored of it and/or I will run out of things to say. Originally the blog was called My Week In Thought but my thought proved to be much less in sync with the cyclical nature of time than I had hoped. My aim is still to post at least once a week, but in the 10 months, this blog has been online I have posted in spurts - sometimes I put up several posts in one day and at other times (although not too often) I go for weeks without a post. If I have additional thoughts or am reminded of relevant facts, I will edit a post usually without marking the change.

About the name: As noted, originally, this was called ‘My Week In Thought’ but since most of my posts have been of the ‘hermeneutic’ variety, I thought a change would be appropriate. The alliteration suggested itself immediately - and trust in the serendipity of tropes is part of my hermeneutic makeup - but it was difficult to choose one of the many. Here are some other possibilities that I ultimately rejected but that may on occasion reflect the nature of this blog more accurately. I’m particularly fond of Hermeneutic Hand-me-downs but it would make for an awkward URL. True to my linguistic training I categorized them by their attributive valence (several are in Czech):

ABOUT THE BLOGGER Hermeneutic Heretic Hermeneutic Has-Been Hermeneutic Hippo Hermeneutic Herbert Hermeneutický hezoun

ABOUT THE CONTENT Hermeneutic Hand-Me-Downs Hermeneutic Hostility Hermeneutic Hesitations Hermeneutic Hip-Replacement Hermeneutic Hopscotch

ABOUT THE PLACE Hermeneutic Hinterland Hermeneutic Hempfarm Hermeneutic Hovel Hermeneutic Hymnbook

About my approach: I’m slowly building up a more coherent picture of my approach in the Hermeneutic Manifesto. Broadly speaking, my approach is a form of what I call a ‘conceptual discourse analysis’ relying on cognitive models and frames as well as more formal aspects of discourse analysis such as cohesion and coherence of text. This colors my thinking even on seemingly unrelated subjects.

About academic integrity: I try to mention sources (if I can recall them quickly enough) but one of the allures of keeping a blog like this is not having to observe all the tedium of citation. However, I would greatly appreciate suggestions for further reading and pointers to relevant research and will correct or modify any inaccuracies brought to my attention.

About quotations: I occasionally quote long stretches of texts (with attribution of course) which in the case of columns sometimes amounts to as much as 50% of the original text (I try to limit the length when possible but I do this mostly to avoid wasting time on summaries). I will be happy to remove any of the text if approached by a rights’ holder who considers my quotation to exceed the rules of fair use. All the excerpts are intended to illustrate my points rather than the author’s view - I try to represent the authors fairly but my main aim is to organize my own reflections on a topic and the quotations only serve as a trigger.

About spelling: I rarely reread the posts for spelling, grammar and clarity - if I did that I would probably never write anything - but I welcome any comments or suggestions regarding the formal aspect of my writing. I realize how distracting typos, misspellings and disjointed syntax can be and I will correct anything of that sort that is pointed out to me.

About language and identity: Well, strictly speaking, I’m not actually bilingual having learned my first English word when I was about 14 and engaged in my first conversation with a native speaker when I was 20. These days I do most of my thinking and writing about it in English but almost all of my published work has been in Czech.

The concept of bi-lingualism itself is a fascinating subject for me particularly to the extent it impinges on questions of cognition and personal identity.

About my picture: The picture in the corner is that of St Dominic of Savio who looks a little like me. I borrowed the picture off a random site. I hope they don’t mind, I did it in good faith. If you have rights to that picture and feel it is displayed here inappropriately, please let me know and I will take it down.