Accent Building is a course book that introduces the vowels and consonants as well the most important stress and intonation patterns of British English. Through small chunks of information and... Show moreAccent Building is a course book that introduces the vowels and consonants as well the most important stress and intonation patterns of British English. Through small chunks of information and short analysis and repetition exercises, students are, in a step-by-step fashion, urged to build their English accent. The target is understandable, natural and educated English. The tips and exercises aim primarily at making learners aware of the nature of sounds, and this course gives them the opportunity to practise their knowledge by listening to and imitating native speakers of English. A website with recordings of words, sentences and texts is part of this course. Furthermore, learners gain access to an online tool which measures the acoustics of their pronunciation and compares it with those of a native speaker model. By the end of the course, students will not only have improved their own pronunciation; they will also be more confident when teaching others English pronunciation at an advanced level. Show less
This book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning,... Show moreThis book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia. It is a language with words flexible in function and meaning, which do not bear overtly expressed features to indicate grammatical functions. Linguistic tools traditionally used to distinguish between word classes do not work satisfactorily for this language. Certain lexical items and their position in a string of words serve as indicators of relationships between the words and determine the meaning they express. The preference for particular types of constructions and other combinatory abilities serve to limit the number of plausible interpretations and facilitate the determining of meaningful word constructions. The linguistic context and the non-linguistic situation determine the most appropriate interpretation of structures and the meaning they express. Various kinds of constructions are analyzed, described, and illustrated with examples from stories, told by a young Ternate Malay speaker. The word order, different types of possessive constructions, spatial orientation, and other linguistic topics of interest are described and discussed. The grammar aims to complement linguistic descriptions of Malay varieties in general, and particularly those in eastern Indonesia. The Ternate Malay texts and examples display spontaneous and naturally spoken Malay used as the daily language of communication in Ternate. The accompanying CD-rom contains texts with sound files and a Ternate Malay-English wordlist. Show less
Schrijven op berkenbast speelde in de middeleeuwen een wezenlijke rol in de communicatie en sociale organisatie van verschillende Russische steden, met name de stad Novgorod, gelegen ten zuiden van... Show moreSchrijven op berkenbast speelde in de middeleeuwen een wezenlijke rol in de communicatie en sociale organisatie van verschillende Russische steden, met name de stad Novgorod, gelegen ten zuiden van het huidige Sint-Petersburg. Dit boek laat aan de hand van een selectie van overgeleverde berkenbastbrieven zien hoezeer de schrijftraditie geïntegreerd was in het dagelijks leven. De korte mededelingen doen ons vaak denken aan hedendaagse e-mails of sms'jes. Ze waren bedoeld voor alledaagse communicatie over geld en macht, afspraken en conflicten, management en huishouden, ellende en liefde. Stemmen op berkenbast offers a compilation of personal letters written on birchbarck. It is an introduction to medieval communication in Russian Novgorod. BIC HB Show less
The Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic... Show moreThe Rubáiyát by the Persian poet ‘Umar Khayyæm (1048-1131) is used in contemporary Iran as a resistance literature, symbolizing the secularist voice in cultural debates. While Islamic fundamentalists criticize Khayyæm as an atheist and materialist philosopher who questions God’s creation and the promise of reward or punishment in the hereafter, secularist intellectuals see in him an example of a scientist who scrutinizes the mysteries of the world. Others see a spiritual master, a Sufi, who guides people to the truth. This volume collects eighteen essays on the history of the reception of ‘Umar Khayyæm in various literary traditions, exploring how his philosophy of doubt, carpe diem, hedonism, and in vino veritas has inspired generations of poets, novelists, painters, musicians, calligraphers and film-makers. Show less
The present work, a grammar of Dhimal, fills an important void in the documentation of the vast and ramified Tibeto-Burman language family. Dhimal, a little known and endangered tongue spoken in... Show moreThe present work, a grammar of Dhimal, fills an important void in the documentation of the vast and ramified Tibeto-Burman language family. Dhimal, a little known and endangered tongue spoken in the lowlands of southeastern Nepal by about 20,000 individuals, is described in this detailed work. With data gathered over many years in the village of Āṭhiyābārī, the author crafts a readable description of the western dialect, using over 1000 examples to illustrate usage. Included in this reference work are seventeen texts transcribed from recordings made in Nepal, riddles, songs and a Dhimal-English glossary. This grammar of Dhimal joins other recent ground-breaking linguistic descriptions by researchers from the Himalayan Languages Project at Leiden University and will have lasting scientific value both for future scholars and for the Dhimal community in their efforts at preserving their language. Show less
A revolution in language heralded the birth of modern science. Latin was replaced by formal languages, such as algebra, born of artificial notations and practical devices like new numerals. Frits... Show moreA revolution in language heralded the birth of modern science. Latin was replaced by formal languages, such as algebra, born of artificial notations and practical devices like new numerals. Frits Staal argues that some of the roots of that revolution lie in Asia. Show less
Le présent travail est consacré à la phraséologie de la langue tchétchène, qui est parmi les thèmes les plus récents et moins étudiés de la linguistique nakh. Le sous-groupe nakh des langues ibero... Show moreLe présent travail est consacré à la phraséologie de la langue tchétchène, qui est parmi les thèmes les plus récents et moins étudiés de la linguistique nakh. Le sous-groupe nakh des langues ibero-caucasiennes comprend le tchétchène, l’ingouche et le bacbitien, parmi lesquelles la langue tchétchène est la plus répandue. Selon les données du recensement de l’année 2002, la République Tchétchène compte 1.031.000 habitants tchétchènes parlant leur langue maternelle. Ce nombre n'inclut pas les centaines de milliers de réfugiés qui vivent dans les régions différentes de la Fédération Russe et dans d'autres pays. Cette thèse de doctorat comprend une introduction et 6 chapitres. À la fin du travail sont donnés la conclusion, la liste de la littérature utilisée des sources écrites avec les unités phraséologiques de la langue tchétchène, ainsi qu'un index alphabétique des unités phraséologiques utilisées (1.569 unités phraséologiques, provenant de 184 oeuvres de 78 auteurs et d'autres matières). Show less
This is the first study that connects Septuagint research, mainly the domain of theologians, to insights from Translation Studies. Of the different approaches in TS I consider especially historical... Show moreThis is the first study that connects Septuagint research, mainly the domain of theologians, to insights from Translation Studies. Of the different approaches in TS I consider especially historical TS and the linguistic (or early) TS relevant for the study of the Septuagint. From a survey of views of language and translation in Antiquity it appears that the same differences of opinion existed among Greeks, Romans, Jews and Egyptians. The 'frontlines' between views of language and translation by no means coincided with religious borders. That there would exist 'a Jewish view of translation' prescribing literalness, as is commonly believed, is evidently mistaken. This myth in fact harks back to the anti-Jewish propaganda by the church father Jerome (Hieronymus). Many 'modern' insights in language and translation were common knowledge in Antiquity, albeit less systematic and in a different terminological garb. The chapters 4-6 consist of an analysis of the transformations (or 'shifts', changes in form or content that necessarily or intentionally occur in the process of translation). I analyzed the LXX translations of Genesis 2, Isaiah 1 and Proverbs 6. Before ascribing 'deviations' to the translator's ideology or to a different Hebrew Vorlage, one should of course first exclude the possibility that the deviation arose from translational factors. Every transformation has a cause, and by categorizing the rationales behind the transformations we can trace the translational hierarchy that guided the translator(s), consciously or unconsciously. The conclusions show that both Septuagint Studies and Translation Studies greatly profit from this cross-fertilization. Show less
In the number of its speakers, Tibeto-Burman is one of the largest language families in the world. The language family, however, has received little scholarly attention and its composition and... Show moreIn the number of its speakers, Tibeto-Burman is one of the largest language families in the world. The language family, however, has received little scholarly attention and its composition and history remain poorly understood. Many languages are still awaiting detailed documentation and description - a task that is becoming urgent as smaller languages fall victim to socio-economic and demographic pressures. Given the dazzling linguistic diversity and sheer number of languages yet to be studied, a thorough understanding of the Tibeto-Burman language family poses great challenges. One complicating factor is that presently available data are scattered, making an overview of the family and adequate historical comparisons unfeasible. Show less
This thesis describes several patterns of phonetic variation in Sign Language of the Netherlands. While lexical variation between different regions has been found in the Netherlands, little is... Show moreThis thesis describes several patterns of phonetic variation in Sign Language of the Netherlands. While lexical variation between different regions has been found in the Netherlands, little is known about phonetic or phonological variation. Phonetic variation in the realization of some of the traditional handshape and orientation features is analyzed in detail. Furthermore, data were elicited from different registers: short-distance signing (__whispering__) was compared to long-distance signing (__shouting__). Results show that differences between registers lead not only to variation in movement size, but also to changes in the traditional phonological categories. In enlarged realizations, as in shouting, handshape and orientation changes may be enhanced by a location change; in reduced forms, as in whispering, location changes may be realized as changes in orientation or handshape. While the distinction between the three parameters handshape, orientation and location remains valid, it is argued that their definition needs to be stated in global perceptual targets rather than in detailed articulatory terms in a comprehensive analysis of the various differences between registers. The data thus provide evidence for a strict separation of perceptual and articulatory characterizations of signs. The lexical specification contains only perceptual targets. The variation is thus not generated by a phonological process, but is a matter of phonetic implementation. Show less
