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Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation

Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation

by Levinsohn, Stephen H
No customer reviews yet ISBN 9781556715518 Sil International, Global Publishing

With simplified language and terminology, this coursebook assists Bible translators with limited linguistics training to recognize differences in natural structures of the target and source languages for both narrative and behavioral genres. Concepts are carefully introduced with illustrative examples from both the Old and New Testaments followed by questions, exercises, and applications that effectively engage translation teams and individual translators to improve their draft translations and provide reasons for their decisions. These exercises and assignments promote careful scholarship by empowering translators to confidently present biblical truth in natural and accurate ways in the target language. As relevant, sections are addressed specifically to speakers of verb-initial, verb-medial, and verb-final languages. Further topics include

  • connectors and constituent order in the source and target languages;
  • the reporting of speech and the preferred positions for speech orienters;
  • motivations for referring to participants and concepts in different ways;
  • the most appropriate ways of exhorting different groups of people;
  • rhetorical questions, conditional clauses, and relative clauses; and
  • culturally appropriate ways of translating biblical poetry.


Advanced concepts such as background versus foreground and the topic-focus distinction are presented in easy-to-follow, understandable terminology. In addition to translators, this coursebook will be of great interest to academics, training institutions, and field workers. Even experienced discourse instructors will learn new insights and new ways of teaching these concepts. Consultants and advisors assisting translation teams may want to use this coursebook in leading workshops or to integrate instruction in ongoing translation sessions. A variety of users will find it easy to read, deeply informative, and profoundly practical for translation.


This book is printed in full color to enhance the illustrations: "We used markers of one color for the poetic text and markers of other colors for different parts of the analysis."

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Product details

BrandSil International, Global Publishing
Pub dateJan 3, 2024
ISBN-10155671551X
ISBN-139781556715518
LanguageEnglish
Paperback272.0 pages
Dimensions11 × 0.57 × 8.5 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-09-24 15:38
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