Historical and comparative linguistics Books

Book SynopsisColbert Nepaulsingh has written a new kind of history of medieval Spanish literature, one based on hermeneutic principles derived from such literary theorists as hans-Georg Gadamer. Through a close and original reading of selected major texts such as Razon de amor and Libro de buen amor, he answers some of the fundamental questions about how literary works were composed during the medieval period. Professor Nepaulsingh brings into clear focus the evolution of a series of sophisticated compositional techniques over three centuries. In early thirteenth-century texts, stringing and juxtaposing techniques predominated; at the end of the thirteenth and through the fourteenth century a more dialectical method of composing texts became more dominant, in the fifteenth century the most popular compositional device was the wheel of Fortune. Nepaulsingh deftly places these developments in the wider context of the biblical and apocalyptical traditions that overwhelmingly dominated mediev

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to speak Sakha in the city? Words Like Birds, a linguistic ethnography of Sakha discourses and practices in urban far eastern Russia, examines the factors that have aided speakers in maintaining—and adapting—their minority language over the course of four hundred years of contact with Russian speakers and the federal power apparatus.Words Like Birds analyzes modern Sakha linguistic sensibilities and practices in the urban space of Yakutsk. Sakha is a north Siberian Turkic language spoken primarily in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in the northeastern Russian Federation. For Sakha speakers, Russian colonization in the region inaugurated a tumultuous history in which their language was at times officially supported and promoted and at other times repressed and discouraged. Jenanne Ferguson explores the communicative norms that arose in response to the top-down promotion of the Russian language in the public sphere andTrade Review"Informed by an awareness of comparable case studies of Native American and other Indigenous language revitalization projects, Words Like Birds is itself a must-read not just for specialists but for all who regard language as a critical resource for maintaining Indigenous cultures and for those who know that revitalization and reclamation are so much more than merely language documentation."—Paul V. Kroskrity, Native American and Indigenous Studies“Ferguson’s vibrant ethnography offers a multifaceted view of contemporary Sakha cultural and linguistic practices, blending analyses of syncretism and language revitalization with explorations of place, movement, and belief to capture speakers’ complex understandings of what it means to be Sakha.”—J. A. Dickinson, associate professor of anthropology at the University of VermontTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Transcription and Transliteration Acknowledgments Introduction: A Short History of Sakha 1. We Have Always Been Adaptable: Frameworks for Sakha Language Vitality 2. Sakha under the Tsars and Beyond: Language Policies and Communicative Norms 3. Like Sweet Cream and Lingonberries: Language, Spirits, and Sustenance 4. One Drop Traveling along a Great Artery: Moving the Ulus to the City 5. Sakhalyy in the City: Language Mixing and Indexing Authenticity 6. Acquiring Russian, Maintaining Sakha: Language Choices and Life Trajectories 7. Ohuokhaj in Lenin Square, Hip Hop in Virtual Tühulgeter: Adapting New Spaces for Sakha Conclusion: Words Like Birds Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a stunning relational analysis of social, cultural, and linguistic change in the Lower Mississippi Valley from 500 to 1700. David Kaufman charts how linguistic evidence aids the understanding of earlier cultural and social patterns, traces the diaspora of indigenous peoples, and uncovers instances of human migration.Trade Review"In Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories, Kaufman, an independent researcher who focuses on indigenous language documentation, revitalization, and language contact, uses linguistic evidence to provide an enlightening account of the social and cultural history of this area. Well written and comprehensive, this volume traces the linguistic and trade ties between the Lower Mississippi Valley and other settlements, most notably Cahokia near present-day St. Louis, which was larger even than London at the time. Detailing the influence of Cahokia on the trade routes and language of the Lower Mississippi Valley, this work suggests an even larger network of cultural exchange, spanning as far north as the Ohio Valley and as far south as the Valley of Mexico. Scholars will appreciate the detailed accounts of the many indigenous languages that have sadly been nearly lost in terms of present-day active speakers, making this a useful resource for those working to revitalize these languages. This text is a feast of information for students in Native American studies, archaeology, history, anthropology, and linguistics."—B. E. Johansen, Choice"Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories effectively employs multiple sources of information to provide innovative insights in the culture and linguistic history of the LMV."—Colin M. Betts, Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society“Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories assembles a wide range of information about the peoples, cultures, migrations, archeological traditions, and languages of the area called the Lower Mississippi Valley. Scholars will welcome the compilation and analysis of so many interrelated aspects of this area.”—Marcia Haag, professor of linguistics at the University of Oklahoma“Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories offers a composite portrait of the past based on evidence from linguistics, ethnography, and history, while shedding light on the movement of ideas across linguistic and cultural boundaries. As such, it provides a compelling reconsideration of life in the Mississippi Valley, an area that has attracted broad public interest for generations.”—Sean O’Neill, associate professor of anthropology at the University of OklahomaTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction List of Abbreviations Part 1. Geography, Archaeology, Peoples, and Languages 1. Geography and Environment 2. Archaeology and History 3. Peoples, Migrations, and Languages Part 2. Language Contact 4. Language Contact 5. Phonetic and Phonological Features 6. Morphological Features 7. Word Borrowings and Calques Conclusion Appendix: Sample Texts from the LMV Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisGeoffrey Kimball presents the first grammar of the American Indian language Atakapa, Yukhíti Kóy, once spoken in coastal southwestern Louisiana and coastal eastern Texas. Trade Review"This is a meticulously documented and useful reference source. . . . Because of the lack of documentation on this subject, any resource is a treasure for language revival and further academic studies."—Jurgita Antoine, Tribal College Journal“There has not been a comprehensive reference grammar of the Atakapa language, and so this book fills a real need. There is very careful philological work here.”—George Aaron Broadwell, author of A Choctaw Reference Grammar“This reference grammar will make a huge and much-needed contribution to Atakapan language studies and to linguistics in general. Geoffrey Kimball has clearly well researched the language based on both the original Gatschet field notes and the published Gatschet and Swanton Atakapa dictionary.”—David V. Kaufman, author of Clues to Lower Mississippi Valley Histories: Language, Archaeology, and Ethnography and Atakapa Ishakkoy DictionaryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments Introduction List of Abbreviations 1. Phonology Orthography Atakapa Phonemes Accent Phonetic Processes Active Phonological Processes 2. The Verb and Verbal Morphology Aorist Mode Preterite Mode Dubitative Mode Future Mode Progressive Mode Subordinate Mode Gerund Participle Stative Verbs Negation Aspect Suffixes Verbal Prefixes Adjectives Adverbs Comparison of Adjectives Verbal Derivational Processes Verb Pluralization Suppletion 3. Nouns and Nominal Morphology Animacy Mass Status Ordering of Nominal Morphology Nominal Cases Noun Pluralization Noun Possession Pronouns Deictics Postpositions Numerals Noun Formation 4. Syntax Ergativity Fluid-S Marking Word Order Locative Compounds Focus Clausal Complements Conjunction and Disjunction Omitted Inflection in Coordinate Contexts Relative Clause Equivalents Interrogative Sentences Idiomatic Expressions 5. Texts Text 1: Cultural and Historical Topics Text 2: The Skin-Desirer Text 3: Treatment of the Heads of Infants Text 4: Form Letter Text 5: Biographical Sketch of Kišmok Text 6: Notes on the Family of Tottokš Text 7: Traditional Treatment of Disease Text 8: Traditional Burial Practices Text 9: A Fight among Black People in Lake Charles Yukhíti–English Vocabulary Appendix 1: Hiyékiti (Eastern Atakapa)–English Vocabulary Appendix 2: Orkokisak (Western Atakapa)–English Vocabulary Appendix 3: Yukhíti Kinship Terminology References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisLanguage in all its modes—oral, written, print, electronic—claims the central role in Walter J. Ong’s acclaimed speculations on human culture. After his death, his archives were found to contain unpublished drafts of a final book manuscript that Ong envisioned as a distillation of his life’s work. This first publication of Language as...Trade Review"Language as Hermeneutic is fresh and startlingly relevant. This short book could have an important impact on issues of cognition, interpretation, and the reception of literary and philosophical texts in an era of technological and media transformation." -- William J. Kennedy, author of Petrarchism at WorkTable of ContentsPreface Introduction, by Sara van den Berg Part I: by Walter J. Ong Prologue 1. Orality, Writing, Presence 2. Hermeneutics, Textual and Other 3. Affiliations of Hermeneutics with Texts 4. The Interpersonalism of Hermeneutics, Oral and Other 5. Hermeneutics, Print, and "Facts" 6. Hermeneutics and the Unsaid 7. Meaning, Hermeneutic, and Interpersonal Trust 8. Hermeneutic and Communication in Oral Cultures 9. Logos and Digitization 10. Hermeneutics in Children’s Learning to Speak 11. Language, Technology, and the Human Epilogue: The Mythology of Logos Illustrations References Part II Language as Hermeneutic, by Thomas D. Zlatic Language as Hermeneutic, by Thomas D. Zlatic Part III Time, Digitization, and Dalí’s Memory, by Walter J. Ong Picturing Ong’s Oral Hermeneutic, by Thomas D. Zlatic Notes Select Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this highly original work, Steven A. Epstein shows that the ways Italians employ words and think about race and labor are profoundly affected by the language used in medieval Italy to sustain a system of slavery. The author''s findings about the surprising persistence of the language of slavery demonstrate the difficulty of escaping the legacy of a shameful past.For Epstein, language is crucial to understanding slavery, for it preserves the hidden conditions of that institution. He begins his book by discussing the words used to conduct and describe slavery in Italy, from pertinent definitions given in early dictionaries, to the naming of slaves by their masters, to the ways in which bondage has been depicted by Italian writers from Dante to Primo Levi and Antonio Gramsci. Epstein then probes Italian legal history, tracing the evolution of contracts for buying, selling, renting, and freeing people. Next he considers the behaviors of slaves and slave owners as a means of exTrade ReviewEach chapter sets up a dialogue between medieval language about slavery and language in more recent times—for example, in the Risorgimento, the anti-slavery movement in Italy, colonial experience, and fascism. Epstein concedes that the Italian contribution to slavery has been insignificant in global terms but that Italy's medieval experience with slavery has colored modern language about color and ethnicity.... The third substantive chapter deals with day-to-day life for slaves: the work that was expected of them, the treatment of slave pregnancy, cultural resistance from slaves, and other related issues. Epstein combs through notarial charters in search of language that is 'personal' rather than formulaic in order to humanize this picture of domestic slaves' daily life. This chapter and the following one on the Great Economy explore the heritage of medieval slavery for the plantation system in the New World, which will be of interest to those who study slave systems in the modern world. Throughout his study, Epstein pays attention to the practice of slavery on the islands of the Mediterranean and in overseas colonies of Italian city-states.... This monograph presents a case for a historical memory of slavery that colors modern discourse in Italy and carries important implications for perceptions of race and ethnicity. -- Susan Mosher Stuard, Haverford College * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *Scholars with specialisms outside Italy will find a great deal of interest in this book and many intriguing parallels with systems of slavery elsewhere.... Epstein's persuasive notion of the corrupting and normalizing language of medieval slavery will effect a permanent change in the way in which Italian slavery will be approached in the future. His pioneering, well written and constructed study is very timely, and it is to be hope that it will provide a lead for other much needed investigations of the culture of Italian slavery, both historical and interdisciplinary. -- Kate Lowe * Slavery and Abolition *Speaking of Slavery argues that Italian words specifically, and Italy's spoken culture generally, supported the owning and exploiting of humans, thus mainstreaming ideas about cultural superiority and inferiority that are still evident in Italian nomenclature today.... Epstein's study is successful on two fronts. First, he successfully challenges the alienation of discussions of New World slavery to the American context; moreover, he demonstrates that the attitudes of explorers like Christopher Columbus cannot be separated from preexisting slave traditions and language traditions. While the international slave market lost its stronghold long ago, the language established to support it still shapes ideas about race. In the end, the relationship between early Italian slavery and Italian ideas about ethnicity is still evident in the language used to talk about color and race, specifically the language reserved for immigrant laborers and ethnic minorities living in Italy today. -- Audrey Kerr, Southern Connecticut University * Sixteenth Century Journal *Steven Epstein's study of slavery in medieval Italy focuses on language, the ways people talked or wrote about slaves in a variety of contexts and the ways slaves talked about themselves. He makes it clear that slavery's significance in Italian history is more cultural than economic; although he does discuss the kinds of work that slaves did, he is more concerned with the intellectual and social implications of markets than with quantifying the contributions of slaves to production.... In the later Middle Ages women slaves outnumbered men slaves, while among free servants men were the minority. Epstein implies that the feminization of (free) domestic service in sixteenth-century Venice may be a result of the decline of slavery and the replacement of female domestic slaves by free female servants.... A final contribution of Epstein's work is to set slavery in the context of servanthood and poverty. Servants and poor laborers were not legally property, but their lives might be in effect quite similar to those of slaves, and the kind of language used about them could be similar as well. -- Ruth Mazo Karras, University of Minnesota * Speculum *The heart of the book examines the language used in many kinds of medieval documents dealing with slavery... Many interesting individual stories and insights.... * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor all that we love and admire Shakespeare, he is not that easy to grasp. He may have written in Elizabethan English, but when we read him, we can't help but understand his words, metaphors, and syntax in relation to our own. Until now, explaining the powers and pleasures of the Bard's language has always meant returning it to its original linguistic and rhetorical contexts. Countless excellent studies situate his unusual gift for words in relation to the resources of the English of his day. They may mention the presumptions of modern readers, but their goal is to correct and invalidate any false impressions. Shakesplish is the first book devoted to our experience as modern readers of Early Modern English. Drawing on translation theory and linguistics, Paula Blank argues that for us, Shakespeare's language is a hybrid English composed of errors in comprehension—and that such errors enable, rather than hinder, some of the pleasures we take in his language. Investigating how and why it strikes us, by turns, as beautiful, funny, sexy, or smart, she shows how, far from being the fossilized remains of an older idiom, Shakespeare's English is also our own.Trade Review"As Paula Blank argues, whether or not we are dipping into a 'No Fear' edition, we are always paraphrasing Shakespeare. Shamelessly fun to read, this original and timely book should have broad appeal." -- Julia Reinhard Lupton * University of California, Irvine *"In her worthy sequel to Broken English, Paula Blank meditates provocatively on the 'friction' induced by our distance from early modern English. Shakesplish confronts and celebrates that distance, giving voice to a past now revived for our era." -- Scott Newstok, Director, Pearce Shakespeare Endowment * Rhodes College *"This beautifully conceived book argues for a new and suggestive way of making Shakespeare our contemporary, at once familiar and exotic. Focusing on Shakespeare's language not as he might have intended it but as we understand it today, Paula Blank shows how what registers to a modern reader as the difficulty or strangeness of Shakespeare actually provokes singularly rich forms of cultural and personal self-discovery." -- Geoffrey Harpham, Kenan Institute for Ethics * Duke University *"We owe Paula Blank much thanks for bequeathing to us a book that I would not hesitate to describe as possessing the same traits she has analyzed for us—a book that is 'beautiful', 'funny', 'smart', and yes, even 'sexy': seductive, that is, in the elegant and articulate way in which it helps reveal to us our innermost desires about what Shakespeare's language should be." -- Iolanda Plescia * Memoria di Shakespeare *"Blank returns the reader to the act of luxuriating in the opulent richness of Shakespeare's language like no other scholar I have ever encountered. Shakesplish: How We Read Shakespeare's Language will be consulted for decades to come because of its indefatigable energy and exuberate erudition." -- William Reginald Rampone * Sixteenth Century Journal *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1"Shakespeare in Modern English" chapter abstractThis chapter lays the groundwork for approaching Shakespeare's English from the perspective of our own, drawing on translation theory, second-language acquisition theory, and performance studies. It destabilizes the argument over whether Shakespeare should or should not be translated into modern English by posing the theory that Shakespeare's English, in our reception of it, has become an "interlanguage," a uniquely modern hybrid. 2"Beautiful" chapter abstractThis chapter attempts to account for our continuing sense of Shakespeare's language as "beautiful" in an age in which the traditional aesthetic categories of "beautiful" and "sublime" have given way to new categories, such as "cute" or "interesting." Starting from the premise that, when it comes to Shakespeare, we are closer to eighteenth-century critics than twenty-first century ones, this chapter posits that our best chance of determining what it is that makes Shakespeare's language beautiful lies in considering what happens in the moment we make contact with his texts, the moment of our interlinguistic participation. Focusing on our experience of belatedness in relation to Shakespeare's Early Modern diction and syntax, this chapter examines various examples of Shakespeare's beautiful—and not so beautiful—language in order to determine the source of our aesthetic pleasure. 3"Sexy" chapter abstractThis chapter shows that Shakespeare's language is more openly sexual, when it is sexual, than our Modern English expectations have led us to believe. Early Modern English lacked "clinical" terms for male and female sexual organs and for the act of sexual intercourse itself. When Shakespeare uses terms like "sport" or "dally" for sex, he is speaking directly rather than euphemistically. This chapter argues that our interest in Shakespeare's sexual language actually reveals our ambivalence toward his original sexual frankness: We prefer sex in Shakespeare be hidden, so that we can find it out for ourselves. For us, Shakespeare's sexual language is, in itself, a metaphor for our idea of Shakespeare's text as coded, hiding some essential "truth." 4"Funny" chapter abstractThis chapter explores the "funny" and "unfunny" effects of Modern English on Shakespeare's comedy. Situating Shakespeare's jokes within the context of several dominant, enduring theories of humor in the Western tradition—including "superiority" theories, "arousal" or "release" theories, and "incongruity" theories—the chapter explains why and how it is that some of Shakespeare's comedy falls flat to contemporary ears while other instances have become more funny as a result of the gap between our English and Shakespeare's. 5"Smart" chapter abstractThis chapter examines Shakespeare's "intelligence effects," the ways in which his language gives us a sense of depth and acuity. Shakespeare did not use the word "intelligence" in the way that we do: in Early Modern English, the key terms were "wit" and "discourse of reason." Often, modern readers find Shakespeare's characters' "intelligent" because they demonstrate inwardness and self-consciousness; in the process, however, we miss their many failures of logic, which for Shakespeare's audience would have indicated a failure of reason. The chapter further argues that Shakespeare's poetic syntax makes him sound "smarter" to us. 6"Shakespeare as Modern English" chapter abstractThis chapter focuses on Modern English phrases that derive from Shakespeare's Early Modern English, but have been adapted to more recent forms of the vernacular, either in meaning or form. Modern English includes many idioms that originate in Shakespeare, such as "hoist with his own petard," "one fell swoop," and "primrose path." This chapter divides such idioms into three categories: those whose literal meaning is now obscure to us, those that we hear simply as Modern English, and those that sound antiquated and clichéd. Finally, the chapter returns to our modern obsession with identifying idioms as Shakespearean. Cited so often, in so many contexts, over so many centuries, these phrases have become their own particular suborder of language. They are far more ours than his, not Shakespeare but "Shakespeare."

Read more less

Book SynopsisLanguage is the medium in which we humans compose our thoughts, explain our thinking, construct our arguments, and create works of literature. Without language, societies as complex as ours could not exist. Geoffrey Pullum offers a stimulating introduction to the many ways in which linguistics, as the scientific study of language, matters. With its close relationships to psychology, education, philosophy, and computer science, the subject has a compelling human story to tell about the ways in which different societies see and describe the world, and its far-reaching applications range from law to medicine and from developmental psychology to artificial intelligence. Introducing Polity’s Why It Matters series: In these short and lively books, world-leading thinkers make the case for the importance of their subjects and aim to inspire a new generation of students.Trade Review"An approachable, fascinating resource for those interested in the mechanics of words." —​The Guardian "[A] fascinating, beautifully written and highly accessible exposition of why the science of language matters. Strongly recommend it."—Oliver Kamm, columnist for The Times of London "Geoff Pullum, tart and cosmopolitan as always, has at last given the world the handiest possible remedy for idea that what's interesting about language is snippy rules about where prepositions shouldn't be, that different languages make you think in different ways, or that Siri actually understands us. Linguistics is fascinating far beyond these myths and this book will show you why in a quick coffee-cup read.'—John McWhorter, Columbia University "Geoff Pullum among our greatest living linguists, with a deep appreciation of the richness of language and the elegance of linguistic theory. He is also one of the finest stylists writing today, and presents ideas with dazzling clarity and wit. No one is better equipped to explain linguistics and why it matters."—Steve Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works "Hard to put down and infinitely informative ... Pullum's book has the feel of a casual conversation with a personable and knowledgeable companion."—CHOICETable of Contents Preface Chapter 1: What Makes Us Human Chapter 2: How Sentences Work Chapter 3: Words, Meaning and Thought Chapter 4: Language and Social Life Chapter 5: Machines That Understand Us Conclusion Notes on Further Reading

Read more less

Book SynopsisIlluminates the competing understandings of poison and power in the Atlantic worldBy the time of the opening of the Atlantic world in the fifteenth century, Europeans and Atlantic Africans had developed significantly different cultural idioms for and understandings of poison. Europeans considered poison a gendered weapon of the weak while Africans viewed it as an abuse by the powerful. Though distinct, both idioms centered on fraught power relationships. When translated to the slave societies of the Americas, these understandings sometimes clashed in conflicting interpretations of alleged poisoning events.In Poisoned Relations, Chelsea Berry illuminates the competing understandings of poison and power in the Atlantic World. Poison was connected to central concerns of life: to the well-being in this world for oneself and one's relatives; to the morality and use of power; and to the fraught relationships that bound people together. The social and relational n

Read more less

Book SynopsisThree centuries of English idioms—their unusual origins and unexpected interpretationsTo pay through the nose. Raining cats and dogs. By hook or by crook. Curry favor. Drink like a fish. Eat crow. We hear such phrases every day, but this book is the first truly all-encompassing etymological guide to both their meanings and origins. Spanning more than three centuries, Take My Word for It is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind window into the surprisingly short history of idioms in English. Widely known for his studies of word origins, Anatoly Liberman explains more than one thousand idioms, both popular and obscure, occurring in both American and British standard English and including many regional expressions.The origins, and even the precise meaning, of most idioms are often obscure and lost in history. Based on a critical analysis of countless conjectures, with exact, in-depth references (rare in the literature on the subject), Take My Word for It provides not only a large corpus of idiomatic phrases but also a vast bibliography. Detailed indexes and a thesaurus make the content accessible at a glance, and Liberman’s introduction and conclusion add historical dimensions. The result of decades of research by a leading authority, this book is both instructive and absorbing for scholars and general readers, who won’t find another resource as comparable in scope or based on data even remotely as exhaustive.Trade Review "This is a treasure trove for scholars who enjoy tracing the ever-developing nuances of the English language."—Booklist "If you’ve ever wanted to know the origins of some of the English language’s more colorful expressions you will thoroughly enjoy paging through Anatoly Liberman's new book, Take My Word for It: A Dictionary of English Idioms"—Minnesota Alumni "Spanning more than three centuries, Take My Word for It: A Dictionary of English Idioms is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind window into the surprisingly short history of idioms in English."—New Books Network "Liberman writes in a way that is inclusive and accessible for all, creating not only an interesting collection of trivia that would sit attractively on any bookshelf but also providing a sort of study guide for non-native English speakers as they attempt to navigate the intrinsically difficult nature of the language."—Mankato Free Press "Take My Word for It, while impressively scholarly, is also a highly entertaining read."—Star Tribune "Why does so long! mean “goodbye”? Why are hatters proverbially mad? Anatoly Liberman comes to the rescue with his latest book, Take My Word for It: A Dictionary of English Idioms."—The New Criterion

Read more less

Book SynopsisA foundational book by one of the most distinguished German humanists of the last half century, Tempus joins cultural linguistics and literary interpretation at the hip. Developing two controversial theses—that sentences are not truly meaningful in isolation from their contexts and that verb tenses are primarily indicators not of time but of the attitude of the speaker or writer—Tempus surveys a dazzling array of ancient and modern texts from famous authors as well as casual speakers of German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, and English, with a final chapter extending the observations to Greek, Russian, and world languages. A classic in German and long available in many other languages, Tempus launched a new discipline, text linguistics, and established a unique career that was marked by precise observation, sensitive cultural outreach, and practical engagement with the situation of migrants. Weinrich’s robust and lucid close readings of famous and little-known authors from all the major languages of western Europe expand our literary horizons and challenge our linguistic understanding.Table of ContentsTranslators’ Note | ix Introduction | 1 Jane K. Brown and Marshall Brown 1 Tense in Texts | 9 Tense and Time, 9 • Text Linguistics, 11 • A Preliminary Reflection: Obstinate Signs, 14 • Tense Distribution, 17 • Two Tense Groups: Discussing and Narrating, 22 • On the Freedom of the Narrator, 25 2 Discussing–Narrating | 32 Syntax and Communication, 32 • Register, 36 • Tense in Different Genres, 42 • The World of Discussion, 45 • The World of Narrating, 50 • Tense in the Language of Children, 55 3 Perspective | 60 Time in Texts, 60 • The Future (using French as an example), 64 • The Perfekt in German, 69 • The Perfect in English, 75 • Thornton Wilder: The Ides of March, 78 • The Passé composé in French, 83 • The Passato prossimo in Italian, 87 • The Perfecto compuesto in Spanish, 91 • Narration, Past, Truth, 96 4 Highlighting | 101 Narrative Highlighting, 101 • Narrative Tempo in the Novel, 106 • Baudelaire: “Le vieux saltimbanque” (The Old Mountebank), 111 • Of the Tense of Death, 117 5 Tense in Novellas and Short Stories: Highlighting vs. Aspect | 121 Maupassant, 121 • Pirandello, 126 • Unamuno, Darío, Echegaray, 129 • Hemingway, 135 • Frame Narrative (Boccaccio), 142 • Narration in the Middle Ages, 147 • Frame and Highlighting in Modern Stories, 150 6 Tense Transitions 153 Tense in Dialogue, 153 • Descartes, Rousseau, and the Sequence of Tenses, 164 7 Tense Metaphors | 171 Tense Metaphors in Texts, 171 • Condition and Consequence, Reality and Unreality, 180 8 Tense Combinations | 186 Tense and Person, 186 • Tense and Adverbs, 190 • Combined Transitions, 197 • Semi-finite Verbs, 205 9 A Crisis in Narration? | 211 Tense in Old French, 211 • Evidence of Language Consciousness in French Classicism, 217 • The Time of Newspapers, 224 • Albert Camus: L’étranger, 227 • Oral Narration in French, 236 • A Parallel: Tense in South-German Dialects, 244 10 Other Languages—Other Tenses? | 252 Tense in Ancient Greek, 252 • Tense in Latin, 256 • Whorf, Spengler, and the Hopi Indians, 264 • Toward a New Method of Description, 270 Index | 275

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis work is a study of this evolution of writing systems. It describes the role the phonetic alphabet has played in the development of Western civilization. Drawing a variety of conclusions about how societies advance, the author shows how the advent of mass communication and the use of computers affect how we communicate.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSimilar words for similar concepts turn up in many widely scattered languages. Some linguists say this is chance while others claim that many if not all of the world's languages descend from a single prehistoric language. Yet neither position has been analyzed or supported with statistics. Computerized statistical techniques can be used to help determine whether or not words in different languages have ancestral connections. These techniques are explained and broken down to provide the necessary principles for those linguists with no background in statistics. This methodology measures the probabilistic significance of sound correspondences between short word lists. Many rules of thumb used to obviate chance resemblance are shown to decrease the power of quantitive testing. The procedures presented here are straightforward, but the author also presents the extensive linguistic work needed to produce word lists that will not yield nonsensical results. Examples analyze 200 words in eight languages.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe annual Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference provides a forum for research, particularly through comparative study, of both languages. This title includes essays on the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, historical linguistics, discourse analysis, prosody, and psycholinguistics of these languages from the 2010 conference at Oxford.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPapers of the Algonquian Conference is a collection of peer-reviewed presentations from an annual international forum that focuses on topics related to the languages and cultures of Algonquian peoples.This volume touches on a variety of subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, education, ethnography, history, Indigenous studies, language studies, literature, music, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology. Contributors often cite never-before-published data in their research, giving the reader a fresh and unique insight into the Algonquian peoples and rendering these papers essential reading for those interested in studying Algonquian society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPapers of the Algonquian Conference is a collection of peer-reviewed scholarship from an annual international forum that focuses on topics related to the languages and cultures of Algonquian peoples. This series touches on a variety of subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, education, ethnography, history, Indigenous studies, language studies, literature, music, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology. Contributors often cite never-before-published data in their research, giving the reader a fresh and unique insight into the Algonquian peoples and rendering these papers essential reading for those interested in studying Algonquian society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPapers of the Algonquian Conference is a collection of peer-reviewed scholarship from an annual international forum that focuses on topics related to the languages and cultures of Algonquian peoples. This series touches on a variety of subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, education, ethnography, history, Indigenous studies, language studies, literature, music, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology. Contributors often cite never before published data in their research, giving the reader a fresh and unique insight into the Algonquian peoples and rendering these papers essential reading for those interested in studying Algonquian society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPapers of the Algonquian Conference is a collection of peer-reviewed scholarship from an annual international forum that focuses on topics related to the languages and cultures of Algonquian peoples. This series touches on a variety of subject areas, including anthropology, archaeology, education, ethnography, history, Indigenous studies, language studies, literature, music, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology. Contributors often cite never-before-published data in their research, giving the reader a fresh and unique insight into the Algonquian peoples and rendering these papers essential reading for those interested in studying Algonquian society.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPublic debate and discussion was overshadowed by the slavery controversy during the period of the U.S. Civil War. Slavery was attacked, defended, amplified, and mitigated. This happened in the halls of Congress, the courts, the political debate, the public platform, and the lecture hall. This volume examines the issues, speakers, and venues for this controversy between 1850 and 1877. It combines exploration of the broad contours of controversy with careful analysis of specific speakers and texts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisLike trigger warnings and gender-neutral bathrooms, pronouns spark debate, prompting new policies about what pronouns to use. More than a by-product of the culture wars, gender-neutral pronouns are, however, nothing new. Pioneering linguist Dennis Baron puts them in historical context, noting that Shakespeare used singular they, women invoked the generic use of he to assert the right to vote (while those opposed to women’s rights asserted that he did not include she) and people have been coining new gender pronouns for centuries. An essential work in understanding how 21st century culture has evolved, What’s Your Pronoun? chronicles the story of the role pronouns have played—and continue to play—in establishing both our rights and our identities.Trade Review"Dennis Baron’s What’s Your Pronoun? is a delightful account of the search for what Baron, a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, calls ‘the missing word’: a third person singular, gender-neutral pronoun." -- Amia Srinivasan - London Review of Books"Dennis Baron has spent years researching the quest for a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun in English. Lively, accessible and full of fascinating details, What’s Your Pronoun? will appeal to anyone with an interest in linguistic and cultural history." -- Deborah Cameron, Worcester College, University of Oxford"Into the breach comes a useful corrective in the form of Dennis Baron's well-timed new book, "What's Your Pronoun?"" -- The Economist"A scrupulous and absorbing survey. Its great virtue is to show that these issues are nothing new… This scholarly assiduousness, though, also makes him the ideal pilot through these contentious political-linguistic waters. If you want to know why more people are asking ‘what’s your pronoun?’ then you (singular or plural) should read this book." -- Joe Moran - The New York Times Book Review"In this learned and entertaining book, Dennis Baron provides vital historical context to today's impassioned debates over gender-neutral and non-binary pronouns... Baron knows what he's talking about and provides a much-needed dose of scholarship leavened with good sense in the language wars. The book is timely, for pronouns are suddenly politically sexy." -- The Times"His [Dennis Baron's] new book, What's Your Pronoun? Beyond He and She is a meticulous, consummate dissection of the pronoun wars..." -- Attitude

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first detailed linguistic history of South Carolina, with a new preface by the authorIn Voices of Our Ancestors Patricia Causey Nichols offers the first detailed linguistic history of South Carolina as she explores the contacts between distinctive language cultures in the colonial and early federal eras and studies the dialects that evolved even as English became paramount in the state. As language development reflects historical development, Nichols's work also serves as a new avenue of inquiry into South Carolina's social history from the epoch of Native American primacy to the present day.Because Charleston was among the foremost colonial American seaports, South Carolina experienced a diverse influx of cultures and languages from the onset, drawing influences from Native Americans, enslaved African Americans, and a plethora of European peoples—Scots-Irish, English, Jewish, German, and French Huguenot chief among them. Nichols tells the richly complex story of language contact from groups representing three continents and myriad cultures. In examining how South Carolinians spoke in public and private we glean much about how they developed a common culture while still honoring as best they could the heritages and tongues of their ancestors. Nichols pays particular attention to the development of the Gullah language among the coastal African American peoples and the ways in which this language—and others of South Carolina's early inhabitants—continues to influence the communication and culture of the state's current populations.Nichols's synthetic treatment of language history makes expert use of primary source materials and is further enhanced by the author's field research with Gullah-speaking African Americans and with descendants of Native Americans, as well as her keen observation of her own European American community in South Carolina. Through her deft analysis of contemporary language variations and regional and ethnic speech communities, she advances our understanding of how diverse the South Carolina experience has been, from the lowcountry to the upcountry and all points in between, and yet how the need to communicate shared experiences and values has united the state's population with a common meaningful language in which the diverse voices of our ancestors can still be heard.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAkkadian, a Semitic language attested in writing from 2600 BCE until the first century CE, was the language of Mesopotamia for nearly three millennia. This volume examines the language from a comparative and historical linguistic perspective. Inspired by the work of renowned linguist John Huehnergard and featuring contributions from top scholars in the field, Bēl Lišāni showcases the latest research on Akkadian linguistics. Chapters focus on a wide range of topics, including lexicon, morphology, word order, syntax, verbal semantics, and subgrouping. Building upon Huehnergard’s pioneering studies focused on the identification of Proto-Akkadian features, the contributors explore linguistic innovations in the language from historical and comparative perspectives. In doing so, they open the way for further etymological, dialectical, and lexical research into Akkadian. An important update on and synthesis of the research in Akkadian linguistics, this volume will be welcomed by Semitists, Akkadian language specialists, and scholars and students interested in historical linguistics. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Øyvind Bjøru, Maksim Kalinin, N. J. C. Kouwenberg, Sergey Loesov, Jacob J. de Ridder, Ambjörn Sjörs, Michael P. Streck, and Juan-Pablo Vita.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book provides a new explanation for what has long been a challenge for scholars of Biblical Hebrew: how to understand the expression of verbal tense and aspect.Working from a representative text corpus, combined with database queries of specific usages and surveys of examples discussed in the scholarly literature, Ulf Bergström gives a comprehensive overview of the semantic meanings of the verbal forms, along with a significant sample of the variation of pragmatically inferred tense, aspect, or modality (TAM) meanings. Bergström applies diachronic typology and a redefined concept of aspect to demonstrate that Biblical Hebrew verbal forms have basic aspectual and derived temporal meanings and that communicative appeal, the action-triggering function of language, affects verbal semantics and promotes the diversification of tense meanings. Bergström’s overarching explanation of the semantic development of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system is an important contribution to the study of the evolution of the verbal system and meanings of individual verbs in the Hebrew Bible. Accessibly written and structured for seminar use, Bergström’s study brings new perspectives to a debate that, in many ways, had reached a stalemate, and it challenges scholars working with TAM and the Biblical Hebrew verb to revisit their theoretical premises. Advanced students and scholars of Biblical Hebrew and other Semitic languages will find the study thought provoking, and linguists will appreciate its contributions to linguistic theory and typology.Trade Review“[U]ndoubtedly a significant contribution to our understanding of Hebrew verbal forms.”—Alastair G. Hunter Society for Old Testament Study Booklist (JSOT)“Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms is an ambitious, sophisticated, and technical treatment of a set of recalcitrant problems. The Biblical Hebrew verbal system and how it relates to tense, aspect, and mood has been the object of many studies over hundreds of years, and we are still just in the process of understanding it. This study offers an interesting, overarching solution.”—Martin Gustaf Ehrensvärd,University of CopenhagenTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsTransliteration KeyChapter 1. Introduction 1.1 The Problem 1.2 Aim 1.3. What “Meaning” Means 1.3.1. Semantics and Pragmatics 1.3.2. Criteria for Explanatory Semantics 1.4. The Biblical Hebrew Verbal System 1.5. Scope 1.5.1. Source Material 1.5.2. Diachronic Diversity 1.5.3. Prose and Poetry 1.6. SummaryChapter 2. Comments on the State of Research 2.1. Tense 2.2. Aspect 2.2.1. Aspect in Classical Grammar 2.2.2. Modern Times 2.2.3. Reference Time, Focused Time, and Deictic Centers 2.2.4. Aspect in Hebraistic Studies 2.3. Modality 2.4. Linguistic Attitude (Sprechhaltung) 2.5. The Grammaticalization Approach 2.6. SummaryChapter 3. A Theory of Aspect and Tense 3.1. Introductory Note: Nonsemantic Factors Indicating Tense 3.2. Aktionsart 3.3. Focused Time and the Definition of Tense and Aspect 3.4. Stage- Based Aspect 3.4.1. Resultative 3.4.2. Progressive 3.4.3. Preparative 3.4.4. Stage- Based Aspect and Aktionsart: An Overview 3.5. Stage- Based Versus Limit- Based Analysis of Aspect 3.6. Temporalization 3.7. SummaryChapter 4. Progressive and Resultative Verbs in Biblical Hebrew 4.1. Qotel 98 4.1.1. Invariant Progressive qotel 98 4.1.2. Temporalized qotel 103 4.1.3. Nonprogressive and Nominal qotel 104 4.2. Yiqtol-L 108 4.2.1. Invariant Progressive yiqtol-L 108 4.2.2. Temporalized yiqtol-L 114 4.3. Qatal 118 4.3.1. Invariant Resultative qatal 119 4.3.2. Temporalized qatal 132 4.3.3. Adjectival and Verbal Stative qatal 141 4.4. Yiqtol-S 142 4.4.1. Invariant Resultative yiqtol-S: wayyiqtol 142 4.4.2. Temporalized wayyiqtol 149 4.4.3. Free- Standing Declarative yiqtol-S 151 4.4.4. Volitive yiqtol-S 155 4.5. SummaryChapter 5. Communicative Appeal and the Semantics of the Biblical Hebrew Verb 5.1. The Semiotic Foundations for a Theory of Appeal in Language 158 5.2. Criteria for Full Communicative Appeal 162 5.2.1. Imminence 162 5.2.2. Nonexpectancy 163 5.2.3. Efficiency 165 5.3. Communicative Appeal and Verbal Grammar: The Case of theEnglish Progressives 170 5.4. Communicative Appeal in the Biblical Hebrew Verbal System 172 5.4.1. The Resultative Subsystem 173 5.4.2. The Progressive Subsystem 176 5.4.3. The Volitive Subsystem 180 5.5. SummaryChapter 6. ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisBy challenging assumptions regarding the proximity between Egyptian and Semitic Languages, Ancient Egyptian and Afroasiatic provides a fresh approach to the relationships and similarities between Ancient Egyptian, Semitic, and Afroasiatic languages. This in-depth analysis includes a re-examination of the methodologies deployed in historical linguistics and comparative grammar, a morphological study of Ancient Egyptian, and critical comparisons between Ancient Egyptian and Semitic, as well as careful considerations of environmental factors and archaeological evidence. These contributions offer a reassessment of the Afroasiatic phylum, which is based on the relations between Ancient Egyptian and the other Afroasiatic branches. This volume illustrates the advantages of viewing Ancient Egyptian in its African context.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this collection include Shiferaw Assefa, Michael Avina, Vit Bubenik, Leo Depuydt, Christopher Ehret, Zygmunt Frajzyngier, J. Lafayette Gaston, Tiffany Gleason, John Huehnergard, Andrew Kitchen, Elsa Oréal, Chelsea Sanker, Lameen Souag, Andréas Stauder, Deven N. Vyas, Aren Wilson-Wright, and Jean Winand.Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsPart 1. Introduction and MethodologyChapter 1. Comparative Afroasiatic Linguistics and the Place of Ancient Egyptian Within the PhylumM. Victoria Almansa-Villatoro and Silvia Štubňová NigrelliChapter 2. Data Limitations and Supplementary Methods in Placing EgyptianChelsea SankerChapter 3. Afroasiatic Lexical Comparison: An Egyptologist’s Point of ViewJean WinandPart 2. Ancient Egyptian: A Comparative MorphologyChapter 4. Egyptian Morphology in Afroasiatic PerspectiveAndréas StauderPart 3. Ancient Egyptian and SemiticChapter 5. Proto-Semitic and EgyptianJohn HuehnergardChapter 6. Some Common Features of Akkadian and Egyptian RevisitedElsa OréalChapter 7. Rethinking the Relationship Between Egyptian and Semitic: The Lexical, Phonological, and Morphological EvidenceAren M. Wilson-WrightPart 4. Ancient Egyptian Within AfroasiaticChapter 8. Reconstructing Proto-Semitic Nominal and Verbal Systems in the Context of Afroasiatic LanguagesVit BubenikChapter 9. Ancient Egyptian’s Place in the Afroasiatic Language FamilyChristopher Ehret, Deven N. Vyas, Shiferaw Assefa, J. Lafayette Gaston, Tiffany Gleason, and Andrew KitchenChapter 10. Testing the Hypothesis—Theoretical and Methodological Issues: The Relationship of Egyptian to AfroasiaticZygmunt Frajzyngier and Michael AvinaChapter 11. Restructured or Archaic? The Hunt for Shared Morphological Innovation Involving EgyptianLameen SouagPart 5. ConclusionChapter 12. In Pascal’s and Boole’s Footsteps: Measuring the Mathematical Probability of Genetic Kinship Between Language Families (with a Note on Chadic)Leo DepuydtList of ContributorsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisA celebration of cultural inheritance and the evolution of language. Mapping the language, literature, and history of Icelandic immigrants and their descendants, this collection, translated and expanded for English-speaking audiences, delivers a comprehensive overview of Icelandic linguistic and cultural heritage in North America. Drawn from the findings of a three-year study involving over two hundred participants from Manitoba, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and the Pacific West Coast, Icelandic Heritage in North America reveals the durability and versatility of the Icelandic language. Editors Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, Höskulder Þráinsson, and Úlfar Bragason bring together a range of interdisciplinary scholarship to investigate the endurance of the “Western Icelander.” Chapters delve into the literary works of Icelandic immigrant writers and interpret archival letters, newspapers, and journal entries to provide both qualitative and quantitative linguistic analyses and to mark significant cultural shifts between early settlement and today. Icelandic Heritage in North America offers an in-depth examination of Icelandic immigrant identity, linguistic evolution, and legacy.Table of Contents Foreward by Guðni Th. Jóhannesson and Eliza Reid, President and First Lady of Iceland Introduction Moving a language between continents: Icelandic language communities 1870-1914 Icelanders and America: What is it to be Vestur-Íslendingur? Acculturation on their own terms: The social networks of political radicals among Icelandic immigrants in Canada in the early twentieth century The Barnason brothers in Nebraska: Two pioneer farmers Ralph E. Halldorson and the Great War Icelandic immigrants, modernity, and Winnipeg in Einar Hjörleifsson Kvaran’s “Hopes” Another emigrant ship crossing the Atlantic: The poetics of migration in the poetry of Undína and Stephan G. Stephansson The young Icelander grows up: Nationalism and ethnic identity in Jóhann Magnús Bjarnason’s life and work Icelandic-Canadian oral lore: New life in a new land and how the women's tales may shed light on the classification of the Edda poems Raven tracks across the Prairies: Icelandic immigration and manuscript culture in the Canadian West World meanings in North American Icelandic: More North American or more Icelandic? Understanding complex sentences in a heritage language "And the dog is sleeping too": The use of the progressive in North American Icelandic Language and Identity: The case of North American Icelandic The Heritage Language Project: Impact and implications

Read more less

Book SynopsisNames are very powerful and significant, especially in the African context. Across societies, there is a universal, albeit taken-for-granted fact that all human beings have names. Names Fashioned by Gender is a collection of essays on onomastics – a linguistics field of study focusing on the origin, form, history and use of proper names.The study of naming potentially provides significant evidence about the role of gender in the assimilation and/or enculturation processes as personal names evoke insight into the construction of gender and personhood in African societies. The book takes intellectual course from the idea that how names are viewed and used is heavily context-dependent and gendered. It demonstrates that personal names are narratives derived from different contexts within various cultures and circumstances subsequently imposing different identities on name bearers. Through persuasive essays, this book elucidates that naming is an activity that needs to be conducted cautiously because names tend to determine the destiny and character of an individual. Unfortunately, names are sometimes given without considering the consequences of ascribing names to people. This book asserts that females continue to be named according to gender stereotypes, therefore, evidently perpetuating women oppression. Sometimes, circumstances around one's birth may be used to name the child, including time, month, emotions, and weather among others. Music is also used to describe and denigrate the characters of women. Moreover, westernisation, colonisation, Christianity, patriarchy and African traditions influence African naming patterns. Interrogating positions and attitudes of the larger society, what transpires from the discussion about this scholarly work is that personal names form and reflect ideas held about personal identities, children's well-being and underlying perceptions held by the public about boys versus girls and men relative to women.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis study is a linguistic analysis of the first two academic periodicals from their creation in 1665 until the end of the seventeenth century. These were the Journal des Sçavans in France and the Philosophical Transactions in England. The analysis is carried out within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The linguistic features and aspects of the theory necessary for understanding the rest of the book are explained, and the historical situation is described in order to place the texts in the context from which they derived. The corpus is made up of a selection of issues for the years 1665, 1675, 1685 and 1694/5, totalling over 66,000 words for the Journal des Sçavans, and over 77,000 words for the Philosophical Transactions. Thematic structure and progression, types of process, expressions of modality, and nominalised processes are studied in each of the periodicals and the results compared. It is shown that differences in the results for the two journals derive from differing editorial decisions, which themselves are engendered by the historical context.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers an updated introduction to Relational Network Theory (RNT), a neurocognitive model of language compatible with systemic-functional tenets. It describes and illustrates the logical types of relations found in a linguistic network. Part I traces the evolution of RNT from the 1960s to the present, highlighting its systemic and stratificational origins, introducing its main notational devices, and identifying successive theoretical milestones (from structural, to operational, to neurocognitive considerations). Part II offers an unprecedented collection of case studies showing descriptive applications of RNT. The studies deal with varied linguistic phenomena in different languages (phonological patterns in Russian, morphological systems in Polish and Spanish, pronouns and nouns in English discourse, speech errors in English and Polish). The book is prefaced by Michael Halliday and includes a recent interview with Sydney Lamb, the main developer of the theory. Its didactic s

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe genre of medieval romance examined through the lens of their physical and their metrical forms. Romances were immensely popular with medieval readers, as evidenced by their ubiquity in manuscripts and early print. The essays collected here deal with the textual transmission of medieval romances in England and Scotland, combining this with investigations into their metre and form; this comparison of the romances in both their material form and their verse form sheds new light on their cultural and social contexts. Topics addressed include the textualhistory of Sir Orfeo; the singing of Middle English romances; their rhythms and rhyme schemes; their printed transmission from Caxton to Wynkyn de Worde; and the representation of the Otherworld in manuscript miscellanies. AD PUTTER is Professor of Medieval English at the University of Bristol; JUDITH A. JEFFERSON is Research Associate at the University of Bristol. Contributors: Michelle de Groot, Judith A. Jefferson, RebeccaE. Lyons, Carol M. Meale, Donka Minkova, Nicholas Mylkebust, Derek Pearsall, Rhiannon Purdie, Ad Putter, Elizabeth Robertson, Jordi Sánchez-Martí, Thorlac Turville-PetreTrade ReviewThis universally excellent collection is an important contribution to the increasingly sophisticated study of medieval romance and its afterlives. * ANGLIA *This will prove a valuable collection for anyone working on insular romance, verse form, or textual transmission in medieval England. * MEDIUM AEVUM *The volume is well supported, with lists of figures and abbreviations, and a substantial index. * Parergon *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Forms of Transmission of Medieval Romance - Ad Putter and Judith Jefferson King Orphius and Sir Orfeo, Scotland and England, Memory and Manuscript - Rhiannon Purdie The Metre of the Tale of Gamelyn - Derek Pearsall Rhyme Royal and Romance - Elizabeth Robertson The Singing of Middle English Romance: Stanza Forms and Contrafacta - Ad Putter Deluxe Copies of Middle English Romance: Scribes and Book Artists - Carol Meale Is Cheuelere Assigne an Alliterative Poem? - Thorlac Turville-Petre Language Tests for the Identification of Middle English Genre - Donka Minkova The Problem of John Metham's Prosody - Nicholas Myklebust The Printed Transmission of Medieval Romance from William Caxton to Wynkyn de Worde, 1473-1535 - Jordi Sanchez-Marti Compiling Sacred and Secular: Sir Orfeo and the Otherworlds of Medieval Miscellanies - Michelle De Groot The Woodville Women, Eleanor Haute, and British Library Royal MS 14 E III - Rebecca Lyons

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith Serge Cleuziou, Jean-Paul Demoule and Pierre EncrevéPAPERBACK PUBLISHED MAY 2009Origin and Evolution of Languages has a strong interdisciplinary flavour designed to highlight the true complexity of the debates in the field. Many of the models and theories conjectured can only receive their validation from a convergence of arguments developed across disciplines. The book underscores this dimension by including contribution from disciplines that have been wary, traditionally, of extending beyond their borders: linguistics (different branches thereof), philosophy, history and prehistory, archaeology, anthropology, genetics, computer-modelling. The presentation is intended to encompass both the agreements and disjunctures characteristic of the field and insisted on laying open propositions that clearly differ from, possibly even enter into contradiction with one another. While several teams of researchers active in the fields of genetics, linguistics, anthropology and archaeology have come up with new proposals in favor of the “New Synthesis,” many competing hypotheses and models continue to be explored in areal linguistics, language contact, wave-like diffusion. On the anthropological scene, criticisms of the monogenetic model have set up new debates and counter-arguments. Approaching the issue of the origin and evolution of human languages within a Darwinian paradigm remains problematic. On the archaeological scene, not all reconstructions are proving compatible with current models for the circulation of techniques, myths and cultures. On the linguistic scene, raising again the issue of the origin / evolution of humankind and of languages in an evolutionary, cognitive, social and cultural perspective or in terms of generational transmission and acquisition, may induce a reconsideration of linguistic theories in search of universals as well as most theories of change and variation. All contributors are world-renowned experts in their domain.

Read more less

Book Synopsis"The Language Impact" is a transdisciplinary book which looks at language from the point of view of its effect on the world. The appearance of language on our planet is similar to a natural event with far-reaching consequences for the evolution of the human species, the language system and discourse. The author shows in detail with many examples to what extent language has had and still has a strong effect on individuals, societies and the earth in general from the first bonding talk 30,000 years ago to the effects of the internet in the 21st century A.D. The book serves as a comprehensive and cutting-edge survey of this emerging field, covering a wide variety of topics including the phylogeny of language, Linguistic Relativity (Sapir/Whorf) and Linguistic Constructivism, Cognitive Linguistics as well as Critical Discourse Analysis and Discourse Strategies.Trade Review'As a comprehensive survey of what must be top of the agenda for any socially and environmentally committed linguist or student of linguistics, this book is second to none.' Professor Andrew Goatly, Department of English, Lingnan University, Hong Kong 'The breadth of humanities disciplines covered in the book is phenomenal: philosophers, (social) psychologists, humorologists, sociologists, discourse analysts of every possible hue, psychotherapists, not to mention innumerable linguists, hyphenated or otherwise, perform on his adroitly erected stage. The diverse scholarly sources tapped and incorporated into this well argued book are very aptly chosen. The overall rhythm and chain of argument together with the examples and quotations given to illustrate the phenomenon of language and discourse's variegated impact are extremely persuasive. Both beginning students of language and linguistics and also common readers will be able to benefit from its not inconsiderable insights and erudition, as well as committed fellow researchers.' Professor Richard Alexander, Wirtschafts Universitat WienTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I The Impact of Speech on a Planet - a 'Meteorite' Hits the Earth 1. The Phylogeny of Language 2. Functional Models of Language 3. Religion, Philosophy and Language Impact Theories Part II The Impact of Language as a System 1. Language as energeia: Wilhelm v. Humboldt 2. Language, Thought, Reality 3. The 'Linguistic Seduction' of Thought: Critique of Language (Bacon, Locke, Hume, Berkeley / Cassirer, Mauthner, Kainz) 4. General Semantics (Korzybski, Hayakawa, Stuart Chase) 5. Linguistic Constructivism (Michael Halliday etc.) 6. Cognitive Linguistics: the Impact of Metaphor and Frame 7. Summary (Part II) Part III The Impact of Discourse on the World 1. Language as Discourse 2. Precursors of Pragmatics 3. Pragmatics 4. Further Topic Areas in Pragmatics 5. The Impact of Texts 6. Discourse Ethics (Habermas, Apel) and Dialogue 7. Discourse Strategies 8. Critical Discourse Analysis: Language, Ideology and Power (Fairclough) 9. Women, Men and Discourse 10. Interaction between Language and World (Ecological Linguistics) 11. Language Combined with Other Modes and Media Summary: Expansion and Limitation Appendix I: Glossary of Terms Appendix II: Commented List of Thinkers on Language Impact

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis accessible text is split into 2 halves. Initially, Janet Townend takes the reader through the early development and the structure and usage of spoken English. In the second half Jean Walker explains the history and structure of written English, including word formation and grammar. It is unusual to find both aspects of this fascinating area of human activity combined in one volume. These insights form an essential foundation for teachers, student teachers, teacher trainers, and specialists in special needs and literacy. It will be of interest to all who speak and write, and are involved in helping others to do so. Janet Townend trained as a speech and language therapist and Jean Walker as an English teacher. Both are now specialist teachers and trainers in the field of dyslexia, literacy and language.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements. Introduction. PART 1: SPOKEN LANGUAGE. Chapter 1. Human Language. Chapter 2. The structure of Language. Cahpetr 3. Language development. Chapter 4. An introduction to phonology. Chapter 5. The sounds of English. Chapter 6. Putting sounds together: the phonological rules. Chapter 7. Words. Chapter 8. Grammatical issues. Chapter 9. Language meaning and use. Chapter 10. Language variation and theory. PART 2: WRITTEN LANGUAGE. Chapter 11. The history of spoken language. Chapter 12. The history of written English. Chapter 13. Grammer 1: Syntax. Chapter 14. Grammer 2: morphology. Chapter 15. Parts of speech/word classes. Chapter 16. Orthography: reading. Chapter 17. Orthography: spelling. Chapter 18. Punctuation. Postscript. Bibliography. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is tempting to take the tremendous rate of contemporary linguistic change for granted. What is required, in fact, is a radical reinterpretation of what language is. This book begins with an examination of the modes of communication used by dolphins, birds and primates as the first contexts in which the concept of 'language' might be applied.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAmagama Izinyoni: Zulu Names of Birds lists all the bird species found in KwaZulu-Natal and surrounds, gives the proposed standardised Zulu name for each species, and explains the underlying meaning and how the name came into being. All earlier names for these birds, even if no longer in current use, have been recorded here, making this a historical repository of Zulu bird names as well. This book is the result of the six-year Zulu Bird Name Project. Between 2013 and 2018, annual workshops, organised and facilitated by the three authors, brought together a total of eighteen mother-tongue Zulu-speaking bird experts to research the names of bird species present in the Zulu-speaking area of South Africa. At the start of the project, only approximately 40 per cent of the bird species of this area had species-specific Zulu names; by the end of the project all 550 species had unique names. The comprehensive introduction explains the methodology used in the Zulu bird name workshops, providing a template for linguists and ornithologists who might wish to do similar bird-naming exercises in the other African languages of southern Africa. The introduction also provides some linguistic and onomastic insights into bird naming generally and Zulu bird names in particular.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the 1990 American Book Award What is classical about Classical civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the foundation of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed since the eighteenth century—chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers—Aryans—from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this “Aryan model.” They did not see their institutions as original, but as derived from the East and from Egypt in particular. This long-awaited third and final volume of the series is concerned with the linguistic evidence that contradicts the Aryan Model of ancient Greece. Bernal shows how nearly 40 percent of the Greek vocabulary has been plausibly derived from two Afroasiatic languages – Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic. He also reveals how these derivations are not limited to matters of trade, but extended to the sophisticated language of politics, religion, and philosophy. This evidence, according to Bernal, greatly strengthens the hypothesis that in Greece an Indo-European-speaking population was culturally dominated by Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic speakers. Provocative, passionate, and colossal in scope, this volume caps a thoughtful rewriting of history that has been stirring academic and political controversy since the publication of the first volume.Trade ReviewMartin Bernal’s Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. -- Molefi Kete Asante * author of The History of Africa,Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University *"In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition." -- Perry Anderson * The Guardian *"An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing." -- G. W. Bowersock * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find." -- Margaret Drabble * The Observer *"Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince." -- Richard Jenkyns * Times Higher Educational Supplement *"A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics." * Christian Science Monitor *"His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him." -- R. A. McNeal * Franklin and Marshall College *"Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives." -- Robert L. Pounder * American Historical Review *"Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt." * New York Times Book Review *"Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all." * Times Literary Supplement *"A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work." -- Stanley M. Burstein, California State University * Classic Philology *"[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology." * Current Anthropology *"A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths." * Toronto Star *"Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt." * Transition *"Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement." * Socialist Review *"A monumental and path-breaking work." -- Edward Said"[Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization." * Newsweek *"Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial." * Baltimore Sun *"Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth." -- Ama Mazama * Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University *“Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses…. He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers.” -- Mary Lefkowitz * New Republic *Table of ContentsContents Preface and Acknowledgments Transcriptions and Phonetics Maps and Charts INTRODUCTION The previous volumes and their reception “Classics has been misunderstood” Anathema from a G.O.M. Outline of Volume 3 Chapter 1 HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND THE IMAGE OF ANCIENT GREEK Nineteenth-century romantic linguistics: The tree and the family Saussure and the twentieth-century epigones of nineteenth-century Indo-European studies Ramification or interlacing Chapter 2 THE “NOSTRATIC” AND “EUROASIATIC” HYPERAND SUPER-FAMILIES Nostratic and Eurasiatic Archaeological evidence for the origin of Nostratic and Euroasiatic Gordon Childe and Colin Renfrew Language and genetics Conclusion Chapter 3 AFROASIATIC, EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC The origins of African languages and the development of agriculture in Africa The origins and spread of Afroasiatic Conclusion Chapter 4 THE ORIGINS OF INDO-HITTITE AND INDOEUROPEAN AND THEIR CONTACTS WITH OTHER LANGUAGES The origins and diffusion of Indo-Hittite and Indo-European Loans from other languages into PIH Development of an Indo-European gender system based on sex Conclusion Chapter 5 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 1, PHONOLOGY Greek: Result of a linguistic shift or of language contact? The elements of the Greek linguistic amalgam The phonologies of Indo-Hittite and Indo-European Phonological developments from PIE to Greek Conclusion Chapter 6 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 2, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL DEVELOPMENTS Morphology Syntax Summary on syntactical changes Conclusion Chapter 7 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 3, LEXICON Introduction The study of lexical borrowings Ancient Greeks’ sense of lexical borrowing Loans from Afroasiatic into Greek and into Albanian or Armenian Conclusion Chapter 8 PHONETIC DEVELOPMENTS IN EGYPTIAN, WEST SEMITIC AND GREEK OVER THE LAST THREE MILLENNIA BCE, AS REFLECTED IN LEXICAL BORROWINGS Introduction Semitic Egyptian Conclusion Chapter 9 GREEK BORROWINGS FROM EGYPTIAN PREFIXES, INCLUDING THE DEFINITE ARTICLES Introduction Greek Borrowings from Egyptian definite article prefixes The Egyptian word pr “house, temple, palace” R- “entry” or local prefix (R)dˆt, “causal prefix” Greek borrowings from Egyptian verbs beginning with dˆ(t)- Conclusion Chapter 10 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 1 1. Ntr/KÅ 2. OEnΔ 3. M(w)dw, mu'qo" 4. SbÅ 5. Dr, R-dr, drw 6. ÷Mwr,MÅOEt, Moi'ra, Meivromai and MmÅOEt, Ma 7. Ôpr Conclusion Chapter 11 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 2 nfr (w)/ms nfr/ms Conclusion CONTENTS Chapter 12 SIXTEEN MINOR ROOTS Introduction CONCLUSION Chapter 13 SEMITIC SIBILANTS Introduction Loans of sibilants from Canaanite into Greek Lateral fricatives Sheltered /s/ sC /s/ before consonants Conclusion Chapter 14 MORE SEMITIC LOANS INTO GREEK Introduction Conclusion Chapter 15 SOME EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC SEMANTIC CLUSTERS IN GREEK Nature and agriculture Cooking Medicine Conclusion Chapter 16 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: WARFARE, HUNTING AND SHIPPING Weapons, warfare and hunting Shipping Chapter 17 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: SOCIETY, POLITICS, LAW AND ABSTRACTION Introduction Society Politics Law and order Abstraction Chapter 18 RELIGIOUS TERMINOLOGY Structures Personnel Cult objects Rituals Sacrifices Incense, flowers, scents Aura Mysteries Conclusion Chapter 19 DIVINE NAMES: GODS, MYTHICAL CREATURES, HEROES Introduction: Gods Ôpr, “become” Ôprr, Apollo, Askle\pios, Python and Delphi Apollo the “Aryan” Was Apollo a sun god before the fifth century? Twins, Apollo and Artemis Other Olympians Zeus Nsw Other gods Herodotos’ non-Egyptian divine names Demigods Mythical creatures Some heroes Conclusion Chapter 20 GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND PLACE-NAMES Introduction Natural features City names Conclusion Chapter 21 SPARTA Introduction Sparta: *sper and SpÅt Anubis, Hermes and Sparta “Late” borrowings and Lykurgos Lakonian terminology Egyptian? Sparta and death Spartans and Jews Chapter 22 ATHENA AND ATHENS Introduction Summary of the chapter Armor and equipment Athena and her victims Athens as a colony from Sais? Summary of the cultic evidence Etymology of names H˘t ntr (nt) Nt Athe\na(ia) Conclusion CONCLUSION Notes Glossary Greek Words and Names with Proposed Afroasiatic Etymologies Letter Correspondences Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the 1990 American Book Award What is classical about Classical civilization? In one of the most audacious works of scholarship ever written, Martin Bernal challenges the foundation of our thinking about this question. Classical civilization, he argues, has deep roots in Afroasiatic cultures. But these Afroasiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied or suppressed since the eighteenth century—chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilization was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers—Aryans—from the North. But the Classical Greeks, Bernal argues, knew nothing of this “Aryan model.” They did not see their institutions as original, but as derived from the East and from Egypt in particular. This long-awaited third and final volume of the series is concerned with the linguistic evidence that contradicts the Aryan Model of ancient Greece. Bernal shows how nearly 40 percent of the Greek vocabulary has been plausibly derived from two Afroasiatic languages – Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic. He also reveals how these derivations are not limited to matters of trade, but extended to the sophisticated language of politics, religion, and philosophy. This evidence, according to Bernal, greatly strengthens the hypothesis that in Greece an Indo-European-speaking population was culturally dominated by Ancient Egyptian and West Semitic speakers. Provocative, passionate, and colossal in scope, this volume caps a thoughtful rewriting of history that has been stirring academic and political controversy since the publication of the first volume.Trade ReviewMartin Bernal’s Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. -- Molefi Kete Asante * author of The History of Africa,Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University *"In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition." -- Perry Anderson * The Guardian *"An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing." -- G. W. Bowersock * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find." -- Margaret Drabble * The Observer *"Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince." -- Richard Jenkyns * Times Higher Educational Supplement *"A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics." * Christian Science Monitor *"His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him." -- R. A. McNeal * Franklin and Marshall College *"Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives." -- Robert L. Pounder * American Historical Review *"Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt." * New York Times Book Review *"Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all." * Times Literary Supplement *"A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work." -- Stanley M. Burstein, California State University * Classic Philology *"[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology." * Current Anthropology *"A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths." * Toronto Star *"Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt." * Transition *"Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement." * Socialist Review *"A monumental and path-breaking work." -- Edward Said"[Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization." * Newsweek *"Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial." * Baltimore Sun *"Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth." -- Ama Mazama * Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University *“Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses…. He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers.” -- Mary Lefkowitz * New Republic *Martin Bernal’s Black Athena is nothing short of a monumental achievement in scholarship that re-oriented and transformed serious study of ancient civilizations. It remains a soaring accomplishment of classical erudition of the Afroasiatic foundation of Greek history. -- Molefi Kete Asante * author of The History of Africa,Professor, Department of Africology, Temple University *"In a spectacular undertaking, Martin Bernal sets out to... restore the credibility of what he calls the Ancient Model of the beginnings of Greek civilizations... Bernal makes an exotic interloper in Classical studies. He comes to them with two outstanding gifts: a remarkable flair for the sociology - perhaps one should say politics - of knowledge, and a formidable linguistic proficiency... The story told by Bernal, with many fascinating twists and turns and quite a few entertaining digressions, is... a critical inquiry into a large part of the European imagination... a retrospect of ingenious and often sardonic erudition." -- Perry Anderson * The Guardian *"An astonishing work, breathtakingly bold in conception and passionately written... salutary, exciting, and, in its historiographical aspects, convincing." -- G. W. Bowersock * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"A work which has much to offer the lay reader, and its multi-disciplinary sweep is refreshing: it is an important contribution to historiography and the sociology of knowledge, written with elegance, wit, and self-awareness... a thrilling journey... his account is as gripping a tale of scholarly detection and discovery as one could hope to find." -- Margaret Drabble * The Observer *"Bernal's material is fascinating, his mind is sharp, and his analyses convince." -- Richard Jenkyns * Times Higher Educational Supplement *"A formidable work of intellectual history, one that demonstrates that the politics of knowledge is never far from national politics." * Christian Science Monitor *"His book should be welcome to both classicists and ancient historians, most of whom will, now at least, be inclined to agree with him." -- R. A. McNeal * Franklin and Marshall College *"Bernal's work and the stir it has occasioned have caused ancient historians and archaeologists to undertake a major reexamination of methods and motives." -- Robert L. Pounder * American Historical Review *"Colossal.... Bernal aims to revise current understanding of Ancient Middle Eastern history by taking seriously the ancient Greeks' legends that portrayed much in their civilization as originating in the Middle East, especially Egypt." * New York Times Book Review *"Demands to be taken seriously... Every page that Bernal writes is educating and enthralling. To agree with all his thesis may be a sign of naivety, but not to have spent time in his company is a sign of nothing at all." * Times Literary Supplement *"A serious work that deals in a serious way with many of the principal issues of Aegean history in the second millennium B.C., and one can ask little more of any historical work." -- Stanley M. Burstein, California State University * Classic Philology *"[Bernal's] multifaceted assault on academic complacency is an important contribution to the development of a more open, historical, and culturally oriented post-processual archaeology." * Current Anthropology *"A breathtaking panoply of archaeological artifacts, texts, and myths." * Toronto Star *"Bernal's enterprise - his attack on the Aryan model and his promotion of a new paradigm - will profoundly mark the next century's perception of the origins of Greek civilization and the role of Ancient Egypt." * Transition *"Challenges the racism implicit in the recent 'cultural literacy' movement." * Socialist Review *"A monumental and path-breaking work." -- Edward Said"[Martin Bernal] has forced scholars to reexamine the roots of Western civilization." * Newsweek *"Martin Bernal has managed to make the subject of Ancient Greece both popular and controversial." * Baltimore Sun *"Black Athena is a powerfully written and brilliantly researched book that relentlessly unveils the historical and cultural African origins of Western civilization. Still a must read for all those in search of truth." -- Ama Mazama * Professor of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University *“Bernal has ample justification for calling into question many widely accepted hypotheses…. He shows that Egypt and its culture were misrepresented or simply ignored by European writers.” -- Mary Lefkowitz * New Republic *Table of ContentsContents Preface and Acknowledgments Transcriptions and Phonetics Maps and Charts INTRODUCTION The previous volumes and their reception “Classics has been misunderstood” Anathema from a G.O.M. Outline of Volume 3 Chapter 1 HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS AND THE IMAGE OF ANCIENT GREEK Nineteenth-century romantic linguistics: The tree and the family Saussure and the twentieth-century epigones of nineteenth-century Indo-European studies Ramification or interlacing Chapter 2 THE “NOSTRATIC” AND “EUROASIATIC” HYPERAND SUPER-FAMILIES Nostratic and Eurasiatic Archaeological evidence for the origin of Nostratic and Euroasiatic Gordon Childe and Colin Renfrew Language and genetics Conclusion Chapter 3 AFROASIATIC, EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC The origins of African languages and the development of agriculture in Africa The origins and spread of Afroasiatic Conclusion Chapter 4 THE ORIGINS OF INDO-HITTITE AND INDOEUROPEAN AND THEIR CONTACTS WITH OTHER LANGUAGES The origins and diffusion of Indo-Hittite and Indo-European Loans from other languages into PIH Development of an Indo-European gender system based on sex Conclusion Chapter 5 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 1, PHONOLOGY Greek: Result of a linguistic shift or of language contact? The elements of the Greek linguistic amalgam The phonologies of Indo-Hittite and Indo-European Phonological developments from PIE to Greek Conclusion Chapter 6 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 2, MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTICAL DEVELOPMENTS Morphology Syntax Summary on syntactical changes Conclusion Chapter 7 THE GREEK LANGUAGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT: PART 3, LEXICON Introduction The study of lexical borrowings Ancient Greeks’ sense of lexical borrowing Loans from Afroasiatic into Greek and into Albanian or Armenian Conclusion Chapter 8 PHONETIC DEVELOPMENTS IN EGYPTIAN, WEST SEMITIC AND GREEK OVER THE LAST THREE MILLENNIA BCE, AS REFLECTED IN LEXICAL BORROWINGS Introduction Semitic Egyptian Conclusion Chapter 9 GREEK BORROWINGS FROM EGYPTIAN PREFIXES, INCLUDING THE DEFINITE ARTICLES Introduction Greek Borrowings from Egyptian definite article prefixes The Egyptian word pr “house, temple, palace” R- “entry” or local prefix (R)dˆt, “causal prefix” Greek borrowings from Egyptian verbs beginning with dˆ(t)- Conclusion Chapter 10 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 1 1. Ntr/KÅ 2. OEnΔ 3. M(w)dw, mu'qo" 4. SbÅ 5. Dr, R-dr, drw 6. ÷Mwr,MÅOEt, Moi'ra, Meivromai and MmÅOEt, Ma 7. Ôpr Conclusion Chapter 11 MAJOR EGYPTIAN TERMS IN GREEK: PART 2 nfr (w)/ms nfr/ms Conclusion CONTENTS Chapter 12 SIXTEEN MINOR ROOTS Introduction CONCLUSION Chapter 13 SEMITIC SIBILANTS Introduction Loans of sibilants from Canaanite into Greek Lateral fricatives Sheltered /s/ sC /s/ before consonants Conclusion Chapter 14 MORE SEMITIC LOANS INTO GREEK Introduction Conclusion Chapter 15 SOME EGYPTIAN AND SEMITIC SEMANTIC CLUSTERS IN GREEK Nature and agriculture Cooking Medicine Conclusion Chapter 16 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: WARFARE, HUNTING AND SHIPPING Weapons, warfare and hunting Shipping Chapter 17 SEMANTIC CLUSTERS: SOCIETY, POLITICS, LAW AND ABSTRACTION Introduction Society Politics Law and order Abstraction Chapter 18 RELIGIOUS TERMINOLOGY Structures Personnel Cult objects Rituals Sacrifices Incense, flowers, scents Aura Mysteries Conclusion Chapter 19 DIVINE NAMES: GODS, MYTHICAL CREATURES, HEROES Introduction: Gods Ôpr, “become” Ôprr, Apollo, Askle\pios, Python and Delphi Apollo the “Aryan” Was Apollo a sun god before the fifth century? Twins, Apollo and Artemis Other Olympians Zeus Nsw Other gods Herodotos’ non-Egyptian divine names Demigods Mythical creatures Some heroes Conclusion Chapter 20 GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AND PLACE-NAMES Introduction Natural features City names Conclusion Chapter 21 SPARTA Introduction Sparta: *sper and SpÅt Anubis, Hermes and Sparta “Late” borrowings and Lykurgos Lakonian terminology Egyptian? Sparta and death Spartans and Jews Chapter 22 ATHENA AND ATHENS Introduction Summary of the chapter Armor and equipment Athena and her victims Athens as a colony from Sais? Summary of the cultic evidence Etymology of names H˘t ntr (nt) Nt Athe\na(ia) Conclusion CONCLUSION Notes Glossary Greek Words and Names with Proposed Afroasiatic Etymologies Letter Correspondences Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book implements a new approach to the study of manipulative tactics in selected Congressional debates in the early history of the United States, highlighting the ways in which language can be used to manipulate an audience. The identification and analysis of different informal fallacies is central in the approach adopted by the authors, and they privilege the role of covert intentions as a frequent ingredient of manipulation. They also show how different speakers can use different subtypes of the same fallacy in a debate, and investigate the tension between the policy preferences and goals of politicians, and existing laws. The book has been written without jargon, all concepts and terminology from the field of linguistic pragmatics are clearly defined, and it is accessible to the interested layperson wishing to become familiar with manipulative techniques in political rhetoric.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Opposition to Amending the Constitution in a Congressional Debate in 1789.- Chapter 3: Edward Livingston’s Motion for Reconciliation with France in July 1798.- Chapter 4: Arguing for the Sedition Act in the Debate of July 5, 1798.- Chapter 5: Debating the Expulsion of Matthew Lyon in February 1799.- Chapter 6: Conclusion.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis textbook takes a broad perspective on multilingualism, using a sociolinguistics and acquisition-informed approach that treats multilingualism not solely as the mastery of two or more well-defined language systems, but rather as a continuum of linguistic repertoires and resources to be used in different settings and combinations. The authors introduce traditional aspects of multilingualism - including historical dimensions, societal and individual multilingualism, aspects of identities, ideologies, education, and language policies - before going on to examine newer manifestations such as multilingualism in migrant and refugee contexts, in new media, pop music and linguistic landscaping, as well as the notion of grassroots multilingualism. This textbook will be an ideal resource for postgraduate students of linguistics and multilingualism, as well as advanced undergraduate students who are looking for a nuanced and holistic approach to the topic. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Welcome to a multilingual worldChapter 2: Multilingualism then and nowChapter 3: The multilingual individual: who is multilingual and what is special?Chapter 4: Linguistic mechanisms, processes, and resultsChapter 5: Linguistic manifestations in a multilingual world: focus on EnglishChapter 6: Societal multilingualismChapter 7: Multilingualism between identities, ideologies, and language policiesChapter 8: Multilingual education and teachingChapter 9: Multilingualism in migrant and refugee contextsChapter 10: Multilingualism in new mediaChapter 11: Multilingual pop musicChapter 12: Linguistic LandscapesChapter 13: Investigating multilingualismChapter 14: Using existing data repositories and data analysis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book explores the rich history of the keyword from its earliest manifestations (long before it appeared anywhere in Google Trends or library cataloging textbooks) in order to illustrate its implicit and explicit mediation of human cognition and communication processes. The author covers the concept of the keyword from its deictic origins in primate and proto-speech communities, through its development within oral traditions, to its initial appearances in numerous graphical forms and its workings over time within a variety of indexing traditions and technologies. The book follows the history all the way to its role in search engine optimization and social media strategies and its potential as an element in the slowly emerging semantic web, as well as in multiple voice search applications. The author synthesizes different perspectives on the significance of this often-invisible intermediary, both in and out of the library and information science context, helping readers to understan

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Gothic version of the New Testament is the oldest extant writing in a Germanic language and one of the earliest translations from the Greek. This volume offers a re-examination of fundamental questions concerning the historical and cultural context in which the version was prepared, the codicology of the manuscripts, and the value of the Gothic text for the reconstruction of the underlying Greek, together with a history of text-critical research and a new evaluation of the significance of the Gothic text in the light of current New Testament textual criticism.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less