Books

The current volume presents a number of chapters which look at informal vernacular letters, written mostly by emigrants to the former colonies of Britain, who settled at these locations in the past few centuries, with a focus on letters from the nineteenth century. Such documents often show features for varieties of English which do not necessarily appear in later sources or which are not attested with the same range or in the same set of grammatical contexts. This has to do with the vernacular nature of the letters, i.e. they were written by speakers who had a lower level of education and whose speech, and hence their written form of language, does not appear to have been guided by considerations of standardness and conformity to external norms of language. Furthermore, the writers of the emigrant letters, examined in the current volume, were very unlikely to have known of, still less have used, manuals of letter writing. Emigrant letters thus provide a valuable source of data in tracing the possible development of features in varieties of English in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

In the context of increased movement across borders, this book examines how key cultural texts and concepts are transferred between nations and languages as well as across different media. The texts examined in this book are considered fundamental to their source culture and can also take on a particular relevance to other (target) cultures. The chapters investigate cultural transfers and differences realised through translation and reflect critically upon the implications of these with regard to matters of cultural identity. The book offers an important contribution to cultural approaches in translation studies, with ramifications across different disciplines, including literary studies, history, philosophy, and gender studies. The chapters offer a range of cultural and methodological frameworks and are written by scholars from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds, Western and Eastern.

The ten volumes of Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While the other volumes select specific philosophical, cognitive, grammatical, social, cultural, variational, interactional, or discursive angles, this first volume reviews basic notions that pervade the pragmatic literature, such as deixis, implicitness, speech acts, context, and the like. It situates the field of pragmatics, broadly defined as the cognitive, social, and cultural science of language use, in relation to a general concept of communication and the discipline of semiotics. It also touches upon the non-verbal aspects of language use and even ventures a comparison with non-human forms of communication. The introductory chapter, moreover, explains why a highly diversified field of scholarship such as pragmatics can be regarded as a potentially coherent enterprise.

This handbook for German/English/German technical translators at all levels from student to professional covers the root terminologies of the spectrum of scientific and engineering fields. The work is designed to give technical translators direct insight into the main error sources occurring in their profession, especially those resulting from a poor understanding of the subject matter and the usage of particular terms to designate different concepts in different branches of technology. The style is easy to read and suitable for nonnative English speakers and translators with no engineering experience. Volume 1 presents a comprehensive systematic description of the basic concepts underlying all branches of technology: Electrical, Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Materials, Science, Electronics, Nucleonics, Aeronautics, Computers, Automobiles, Plastics and other important fields. Volume 2 expands this terminology with the aid of a Technical Thesaurus and a set of structured bilingual dictionaries which draw attention to specific English/German errors, usage of technical vocabulary and to collocations of general vocabulary in engineering contexts. The two volumes combine 3 major areas: 1. Technical Translation, 2. General Linguistics and 3. Computational Lexicography, possibly indirectly marking the birth of a new discipline “Technical Linguistics”. The book is designed for practical as well as academic use, for translator trainers, practicing translators, applied linguists, and professional engineers and scientists working with English/German documentation. “There is so much material there that the books will not only be wanted by English/German/English translators, but the English basis on its own will be attractive to other language orientations involving English” Juan C. Sager (UMIST, Manchester)

This volume brings together contributions selected from papers delivered at the 21st International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Leiden 2021). The contributions deal with various aspects of English language across time and geographical space, shedding light on both long-term developments and singular documents of particular linguistic interest. A wide range of methodologies are represented, including corpus linguistics, acoustic phonetics and philology. Chapters showcase work on syntax and word order (parataxis and hypotaxis from Old to Late Modern English; left-dislocation in Old English; do-support in Scots), diachronic linguistic change (phonological developments of lateral /l/ in English; modality in noun clauses from Old to Early Modern English; editorial practices of Middle English punctuation across time) and lexicography and lexis (Old English glosses of the Durham Ritual; Old English lexicographers from 17th-century Germany; lexical differences between Old and Middle English; Yiddish loanwords in English). This volume will be of interest to those working on morphology, syntax and lexicography of English, historical linguistics, language change, history of linguistics, computational historical linguistics and related sub-disciplines.

This book represents an approach which is intended to give readers a general insight into what translators really do and to explain the concepts and tools of the trade, bearing in mind that translation cannot be reduced to simple principles that can easily be separated from each other and thus be handled in isolation. On the whole, the book is more process- than product-centred. Translation is seen as an activity with an intentional and a social dimension establishing links between a source-language community and a target-language community and therefore requiring a specific kind of communicative behavior based on the question “Who translates what, for whom and why?” To the extent that the underlying principles, assumptions, and conclusions are convincing to the reader, the practical implications of the book, last but not least in translation teaching, are obvious.

After several paradigm changes and even more turns, after fights about scholarly territories and methodological renewal, after intra- and interdisciplinary discussions, Translation Studies continues to produce a large number of publications dealing with the challenge of defining itself and its object, with the borderlines of both the discipline and the object, with ways of interacting with related (sub)disciplines. This publication gathers contributions from established TS scholars (all former CETRA Chair professors) about the topics that will very probably dominate the near future of the discipline.

This is an extended and updated version of a Target special issue with the same title that was published in 2012 (24:1).

Diese Studie untersucht die Rezeption der Nous-Problematik im deutschen und georgischen Denken des Mittelalters und zeigt sowohl Gemeinsamkeiten als auch Differenzen bei der Analyse der zur Behandlung ausgewählten Texte auf. Eine eingehende historisch-systematische Erforschung der intellekttheoretischen Schriften bzw. der entsprechenden Erkenntniskonzeptionen der deutschen Philosophen Dietrich von Freiberg (1250-1320) und Berthold von Moosburg (14. Jh.) sowie des georgischen Denkers Joane Petrizi (12. Jh.) bilden den Schwerpunkt dieser Untersuchung.Erstmalig wird in dieser Arbeit der Versuch unternommen, völlig verschiedene (und bisher kaum bekannte) Übersetzungs- und Interpretationstraditionen der Proklischen Philosophie – und speziell der Nous-Lehre der Elementatio theologica – einer durch Quellenforschung gesicherten Beurteilung zu unterziehen. Erstmals wird hier auch der erste georgische Kommentator der Elementatio theologica, Joane Petrizi, mit seiner Deutung der Proklischen Seelen- und Vernunftkonzeption zum Gegenstand intensiver philosophiegeschichtlicher Analysen gemacht.

This study analyses the reception of the ancient Greek philosophy of mind (nous) by German and Georgian thinkers during the European Middle Ages – their diverse structures and their common characteristics. The study focuses on the philosophical treatises on the human mind by the German thinkers Dietrich of Freiberg (1250-1320) and Berthold of Moosburg (14th century) and the Georgian philosopher Joane Petrizi (12th century) and provides a thorough analysis of their writings – both philosophical and historical.

For the first time, different (and hitherto hardly known) textual traditions of transmission and interpretation of Proclus’ philosophy – and especially his philosophy of mind in the Elements of Theology (Elementatio theologica) – are presented to and interpreted for a Western audience. Also, for the first time, Joane Petrizi, the first Georgian commentator of the Elements of Theology, and his interpretation of Proclus’ conception of soul and reason are the focus of an intense philosophical and historical analysis.

The English language is changing every day and it is us – the individual speakers and writers – that drive those changes in small ways by choosing to use certain strings of words over others. This book discusses and describes some of the choices made by speakers from South Korea by examining the similarities and differences between two Korean communities: one in England and one in South Korea. The book has two overall aims. Firstly, it is intended to begin a discussion about phraseology and Lexical Priming and how these theoretical concepts relate and play out in the context of a New English. Secondly, it provides a model of how a language variety can be explored by detailed analysis of short strings. It delves into a range of areas from World Englishes to phraseology and formulaic language and would be suitable for students, teachers and researchers in all these areas.