scholarly journals How ‘direct’ can a direct translation be? Some perspectives from the realities of a new type of church Bible

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo H.J. Van der Merwe

The skopos of this new type of church Bible is: ‘How would the source texts of the Bible have sounded in Afrikaans in the context envisaged for its hypothesised first audience(s)?’ Fully acknowledging the complexities of language as a dynamic and complex system embedded in the culture and conceptual world of its speakers, as well as the wide range of frames that are involved in the process of Bible translation as a difficult form of secondary communication, this article addresses two of the challenges of this ambitious project. In the first section the incongruence between the world of the Old Testament and speakers of Afrikaans is treated. Examples are provided of instances where both the nature of difficult secondary intercultural communication as well as the subjective theories of the host audience constrains the ‘directness’ of the translation. In the second section, some of the challenges of distinguishing between the formal and functional features of Biblical Hebrew are dealt with. The article concludes that, although the notion ‘communicative clue’ provides a useful heuristic device to act as point of departure for negotiations on the construal of the meaning of the text in the source language and host language respectively, the notion has to be supplemented by insights from the fields of cultural anthropology, cognitive linguistics and linguistic typology. A better understanding of how meaning ‘works’ (e.g. how linguistic expressions act as windows into the conceptual worlds of speakers, how the meaning of expressions may shift and develop, as well as processes of grammaticalisation) provides members of a translation team with some criteria to make informed decisions when they negotiate how the meaning of specific Biblical Hebrew constructions are to be construed ‘directly’ in Afrikaans.Keywords: Afrikaans Bibles; Bible translation; Biblical Hebrew; church Bible; code model; cognitive linguistics; cognitive semantics; communication model; communicative clue; direct translation; discourse marker; dynamic equivalent translation; functionalist tran 

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Phil King

Feeling down or in a tight spot? How do we know what someone means when they tell us how they feel? How could we go further and explain how emotions are understood across cultures? This article looks at three approaches—the use of physiology, of key words, and of metaphors. This is followed by a demonstration of the insights from the metaphorical approach as applied to Anglo emotions. Applying this metaphorical approach to biblical Hebrew (where there is no access to native speakers) is much more difficult than to a living language. However, application of the Cognitive Linguistics of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Raymond Gibbs, John Taylor and others allows the construction of a methodology to give evidence for what emotions the Hebrew authors felt. This methodology is applied to Hebrew descriptions of distress to show how such emotions are conceptualised. The article also explains how this methodology can be applied more widely, to evaluate others’ claims about how the ancient Israelites thought and felt. Finally, some implications are given in the areas of Hebrew exegesis, cultural anthropology, and for the translation of “emotional” texts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-89
Author(s):  
Robert Alter

For author Robert Alter, moving from the Northeast to California meant moving from academic institutions with firmly established hierarchies to a place characterized by openness and flexibility. Comparative Literature at Berkeley made it possible for the author to explore a wide range of literary interests, and this eventually led him to teach and write on the Bible and then to begin to translate it. His impulse to break decisively with prevailing modern models of Bible translation was encouraged by California's atmosphere of innovation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.


The Library ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-375
Author(s):  
Alexander Soetaert ◽  
Heleen Wyffels

Abstract The career of the Catholic Englishman Laurence Kellam is often reduced to his most impressive edition, the Old Testament of the Douay-Rheims Bible (1609–1610), an English Catholic Bible translation edited by the English College of Douai. Yet, there has been scarce attention for the remaining 190 editions, printed in English, as well as in Latin, French and Dutch, that bear a Kellam imprint. The discovery of another fifty editions that should be ascribed to the Kellam press demands a reappraisal of its activities and significance. By analysing both printed and archival sources, this article intends to fit the Bible edition of 1609–1610, and English Catholic printing on the continent more generally, into the wider perspective of three generations of publishing activities and family history, highlighting the increasingly tight connections between several generations of the Kellam family and the authors, institutions, and fellow-publishers of their host society.


2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Milker ◽  
Zbigniew Czech ◽  
Marta Wesołowska

Synthesis of photoreactive solvent-free acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives in the recovered system The present paper discloses a novel photoreactive solvent-free acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) systems, especially suitable for the so much adhesive film applications as the double-sided, single-sided or carrier-free technical tapes, self-adhesive labels, protective films, marking and sign films and wide range of medical products. The novel photoreactive solvent-free pressure-sensitive adhesives contain no volatile organic compounds (residue monomers or organic solvent) and comply with the environment and legislation. The synthesis of this new type of acrylic PSA is conducted in common practice by solvent polymerisation. After the organic solvent are removed, there remains a non-volatile, solvent-free highly viscous material, which can be processed on a hot-melt coating machine at the temperatures of about 100 to 140°C.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Mikolajczyk ◽  
Danil Pimenov ◽  
Catalin Pruncu ◽  
Karali Patra ◽  
Hubert Latos ◽  
...  

A novel design of a universal form tool is presented for machining complex planar and axisymmetric surfaces. The geometric and kinematic flexibility (GKF) of this tool type means that it can machine a wide range of profiles using a single setup. The operating principle of this multi-insert tool is its combination of single cutting edges, each of which form the individual details of the machined surface. The structure and application of both turning and milling multi-insert tools with combinations of single edges are described in the paper. Complex shapes and forms can be machined by changing the cutting-edge positions. The number of combinations of a given tool set can be determined by using the relations detailed in this study. Both turning and milling tools are utilized in a unique tool holder that clamps the inserts into position and allows their adjustment that is facilitated by special prepared analytical software to the desired object profiles. It is possible to use these tools in machining both wood and aluminum alloys. Finally, the design of the multi-insert tools for turning and milling and its functional features were experimentally verified with positive results.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Homa Majd ◽  
Ryan M Samuel ◽  
Jonathan T Ramirez ◽  
Ali Kalantari ◽  
Kevin Barber ◽  
...  

The enteric nervous system (ENS) plays a central role in gut physiology and mediating the crosstalk between the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and other organs. The human ENS has remained elusive, highlighting the need for an in vitro modeling and mapping blueprint. Here we map out the developmental and functional features of the human ENS, by establishing robust and scalable 2D ENS cultures and 3D enteric ganglioids from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). These models recapitulate the remarkable neuronal and glial diversity found in primary tissue and enable comprehensive molecular analyses that uncover functional and developmental relationships within these lineages. As a salient example of the power of this system, we performed in-depth characterization of enteric nitrergic neurons (NO neurons) which are implicated in a wide range of GI motility disorders. We conducted an unbiased screen and identified drug candidates that modulate the activity of NO neurons and demonstrated their potential in promoting motility in mouse colonic tissue ex vivo. We established a high-throughput strategy to define the developmental programs involved in NO neuron specification and discovered that PDGFR inhibition boosts the induction of NO neurons in enteric ganglioids. Transplantation of these ganglioids in the colon of NO neuron-deficient mice results in extensive tissue engraftment, providing a xenograft model for the study of human ENS in vivo and the development of cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative GI disorders. These studies provide a framework for deciphering fundamental features of the human ENS and designing effective strategies to treat enteric neuropathies.  


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