Fascinated By Languages

A discussion of the problems encountered translating the Bible into many different languages.

Growing Up with Two Languages provides a highly accessible account of the stages of language development, describes and evaluates the various systems and strategies that can be adopted and looks at the problems that can occur when a child is exposed to two languages and cultures. Combining research-informed advice and the experience of parents raising children as speakers of a wide range of languages in every populated continent in the world, this book and its associated web material will answer questions, offer tried and tested strategies to keep children speaking a minority language, and provide material to enlist the support of the extended family, teachers and others. The perspective of adults who were themselves raised speaking more than one language is included. New to this edition is a chapter focusing on families raising children as speakers of indigenous and threatened languages as well as chapters for teachers and health professionals who want to know more about multilingual child language development and how they can support parents to continue speaking their language with their children. With new and updated first-hand advice, Internet resources and examples throughout, this book also includes a chapter that introduces important recent research into multilingual children and further reading guides for those who want to know more. This book is for parents who are raising or plan to raise children as speakers of more than one language, and for the teachers and healthcare workers who meet and can support them.

Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both French and Dutch were spoken as local tongues.

This two-volume set is part of a growing body of literature concerned with the history of biblical interpretation. The ample introduction first situates key players in the story of the development of the major strands of biblical interpretation since the Enlightenment, identifying how different theoretical and methodological approaches are related to each other and describing the academic environment in which they emerged and developed. Volume 1 contains fourteen essays on twenty-two interpreters who were principally active before 1980, and volume 2 has nineteen essays on twenty-seven of those who were active primarily after this date. Each chapter provides a brief biography of one or more scholars, as well as a detailed description of their major contributions to the field. This is followed by an (often new) application of the scholar's theory. By focusing on the individual scholars and their work, the book recognizes that interpretive approaches arise out of certain circumstances, and that scholars are influenced by, and have influences upon, both other interpreters and the times in which they live. This set is ideal for any class on the history of biblical interpretation and for those who want a greater understanding of how the current field of biblical studies developed.

“The most important—and provocative—anthropological fieldwork ever undertaken.” —Tom Wolfe For years, the prevailing opinion among academics has been that language is embedded in our genes, existing as an innate and instinctual part of us. In this bold and provocative study, linguist Daniel Everett argues that, like other tools, language was invented by humans and can be reinvented or lost. He shows how the evolution of different language forms—that is, different grammar—reflects how language is influenced by human societies and experiences, and how it expresses their great variety. Combining anthropology, primatology, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, and his own pioneering research with the Amazonian Pirahã, and using insights from many different languages and cultures, Everett presents an unprecedented elucidation of this society-defined nature of language. In doing so, he also gives us a new understanding of how we think and who we are.

Bible translators, all over the world, are making Bibles that they think are only for Protestant and Baptist believers. But they've been sold a lie! Actually, they have been tricked into also making false bibles for someone else. Most don't know that Christian translators are being trapped into helping create a One-World Bible! And all the translation work is paid for by contributions from Bible believers like you. And Who is that "someone," and what do they believe? They will tell you, in their own words!

This volume contributes to a linguistic program characterized by the view that explanatory goals in syntax and semantics can be met only in models that are sufficiently formalized. The properties of these formalizations must be well understood, and they have to do justice to both the syntactic and semantic aspects of a construction. The contributions shed light on this view from the perspectives of theoretical linguistics (semantics, syntax), automata theory, and computational and mathematical linguistics.

This book introduces readers to the principles of a fairly new branch of psychology – positive psychology – and demonstrates how they can be applied in the context of second language acquisition in a natural environment and in instructed foreign language (FL) learning. It focuses both on the well-being and success of the learner and the professional and personal well-being of the teacher. Further, the book stresses the importance of the positive emotions and character strengths of those involved in the process of language learning and teaching, as well as the significant role played by enabling institutions such as school and, at the micro-level, individual FL classes.