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Translation and Interpreting in the 20th Century : Focus on German
Feb 1999
Book
This book provides a historical survey of the unfolding of translation and interpreting (language mediation) in the 20th century with special reference to the German-speaking area. It is based first on extensive archive research in Austria Germany and Switzerland second on a large number of interviews with experts in the field of language mediation and third on the author's observations and experiences in the field of translation practice translation teaching and translation studies between 1950-1995. A specific feature of the book is the description of the social role of the language mediator through the prisms of communicative targets and technological developments and to determine his function as that of an indispensable bridge-builder between the members of differing linguistic and cultural communities.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Historically it distinguishes between three main phases the period from 1900 to 1919 with the dominance of French as lingua franca in international communication the period from 1919 to 1945 which is characterized by English-French bilingualism and the period from 1945 to approximately 1990 with its massive trend toward multilingualism and the development of language mediation into a “translation industry”. The book continues with chapters on the implications of globalization specialization and automaticization for international communication and it closes with reflections on future prospects for the profession in a knowledge society both from a practical and a pedagogical viewpoint.
Pathways of the Brain : The neurocognitive basis of language
Feb 1999
Book
The brain is the organ of knowledge and organizer of our abilities our means of recognizing a face in a crowd of conversing about anything we experience or imagine of forming thoughts and developing ideas of instantly understanding words coming rapidly in conversation. How does it manage all this? Does it represent information in symbols or in the connectivity of a vast network?Pathways of the Brain builds a theory to answer such questions. Using a top-down modeling strategy it charts relationships among words and other products of the brain’s linguistic system to reveal properties of that system. Going beyond earlier linguistics it sets three plausibility requirements for a valid neurocognitive theory: operational developmental and neurological: It must show how the linguistic system can operate for speaking and understanding how it can be learned by children and how it is implemented in neural structures. Unlike theories that leave linguistics isolated from science it builds a bridge to biology.
Of interest to anthropologists linguists neurologists neuroscientists philosophers psychologists and any thoughtful person interested in language or the brain.
The author is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences.
Of interest to anthropologists linguists neurologists neuroscientists philosophers psychologists and any thoughtful person interested in language or the brain.
The author is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences.
Dietrich von Freiberg : Neue Perspektiven seiner Philosophie, Theologie und Naturwissenschaft.. Freiberger Symposion, 10–13 März, 1997
Feb 1999
Book
Spätestens seit dem Abschluß der kritischen Edition der Werke Dietrichs von Freiberg im Rahmen des ‘Corpus Philosophorum Teutonicorum Medii Aevi’ ist die philosophische Bedeutung seines Denkens offenkundig. Dietrichs Philosophie ist aus der Philosophiegeschichte des Mittelalters nicht mehr wegzudenken — eine Tatsache der über die Edition hinaus zahlreiche Einzeluntersuchungen Rechnung getragen haben.<br xmlns="http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/"/>Vom 10. bis 13. März 1997 fand in Freiberg ein Symposion zu Dietrich von Freiberg statt. Der Band vereinigt die Beiträge die aus diesem Anlaî vorgetragen wurden. Die Breite der Themen umfaît das historische Umfeld im Sachsen seiner Zeit Aspekte seiner theoretischen und seiner praktischen Philosophie seine Theologie sowie seine Rezeption durch andere Philosophen des Mittelalters.<br/>The critical edition of Theodoric of Freiberg’s works within the ‘Corpus Philosophorum Teutonicorum Medii Aevi’ now being complete the philosophical significance of his thought is clearer than ever. Theodoric’s philosophy is an integral part of the intellectual history of the Middle Ages — a fact to which numerous individual studies beyond the edition have attempted to do justice.<br/>This volume collects the papers on Dietrich’s thought presented at a conference in Freiberg (March 10-13 1997). Themes include the historical context of his contemporary Saxony aspects of his theoretical and practical philosophy his theology and the reception of his thought by other philosophers of the Middle Ages.
Source Book for Linguistics : Third revised edition
Jan 1999
Book
This is a revised and expanded edition of Cowan and Rakušan’s Source Book for Linguistics. In addition to the chapters on Phonetics Phonology Phonological Alternations Morphology Syntax Sound Change and Historical Reconstruction there are two new chapters: one on Semantics and one on Grammatical and Lexical Change. In addition an index of the 93 languages and dialects represented in the book has been added as well as a revised bibliography. The solutions to the exercises have also been revised and expanded. The number of exercises has been increased from 333 to 472. New exercises have been added to most chapters and many exercises have been revised to focus on new issues in linguistics. The text has been completely reset in high-quality letterpress with a wide range of phonetic symbols and diacritics. This newly revised edition will continue to be useful as a teaching tool and a source of examples in a variety of linguistic applications.
The End of Organization Theory? : Language as a tool in action research and organizational development
Jan 1999
Book
Organizational theorists talk a lot about organizational development. Although they can express themselves eloquently too often the practitioner is not convinced by their talk. The authors of The End of Organization Theory? are in favor of the ‘doers’ doing most of the talking themselves. Thus in this book Øyvind Pålshaugen tells the story of an action research project in which a reorganization of the discourse between management and workers serves as the basis for an organizational development process. Björn Gustavsen Dag Østerberg and John Shotter add critical comments.
Phonetics and Phonology of Tense and Lax Obstruents in German
Jan 1999
Book
Knowing that the so-called voiced and voiceless stops in languages like English and German do not always literally differ in voicing several linguists — among them Roman Jakobson — have proposed that dichotomies such as fortis/lenis or tense/lax might be more suitable to capture the invariant phonetic core of this distinction. Later it became the dominant view that voice onset time or laryngeal features are more reasonable alternatives. However based on a number of facts and arguments from current phonetics and phonology this book claims that the Jakobsonian feature tense was rejected prematurely. Among the theoretical aspects addressed it is argued that an acoustic definition of distinctive features best captures the functional aspects of speech communication while it is also discussed how the conclusions are relevant for formal accounts such as feature geometry. The invariant of tense is proposed to be durational and its ‘basic correlate’ is proposed to be aspiration duration. It is shown that tense and voice differ in their invariant properties and basic correlates but that they share a number of other correlates including F0 onset and closure duration. In their stop systems languages constitute a typology between the selection of voice and tense but in their fricative systems languages universally tend towards a syncretism involving voicing and tenseness together. Though the proposals made here are intended to have general validity the emphasis is on German. As part of this focus an acoustic study and a transillumination study of the realization of /ptkfs/ vs. /bdgvz/ in German are presented.
Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African Context : A sociohistorical and structural analysis
Jan 1999
Book
This first published full-scale study of the Ghanaian variety of West African Pidgin English (GhaPE) makes extensive use of hitherto neglected historical material and provides a synchronic account of GhaPE’s structure and sociolinguistics. Special focus is on the differences between GhaPE and other West African Pidgins in particular the development of and interrelations between the different varieties of restructured English in West Africa from Sierra Leone to Cameroon. This monograph further includes an overview of the history of Afro-European contact languages in Lower Guinea with special emphasis on the Gold Coast; an outline of the settlement of Freetown Sierra Leone with a description of how and when the transplantation of Sierra Leonean Krio to other West African countries took place; an analysis of the linguistic evidence for the origin development and spread of restructured Englishes on the Lower Guinea Coast; an account of the different varieties of GhaPE and their sociolinguistic status in the contemporary linguistic ecology of Ghana; as well as a comprehensive structural description of the “uneducated” variety of GhaPE. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains illustrative material such as spoken GhaPE and photographs.