In other contexts, I probably would not have highlighted a book that is so much more directly aimed about people working in Bible translation and not specifically about Postclassical Greek, but I wanted to make an exception here. That is certainly, because I know and appreciate all three of the authors, but more importantly, for my audience, the style and approach to the content of this book is significant. Yes, it is primarily focused on local, mother-tongue translators of national, but that also means that its focus and emphasis is more on accessibility than other texts on discourse analysis.

So number #1, For western students of the Bible, linguistics education continues to be generally unavailable in most Bible college and seminary settings, so the way this new volume uses simplified language and terminology and does not assume advanced linguistics education should be ideal for helping Bible students in ways that other texts (like Dooley and Levinsohn 2001) do not. But also, number #2, I also think that helping students think more about the diversity of language generally can help challenge students to think more critically about how their own first language compares or relates to the languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

For both those reasons: I would highly encourage biblical language educators to seriously consider picking up a copy and think hard about how you might be able to integrate its insights into your own classroom.

Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation by Levinsohn, Nicolle & Stirts (Amazon)

Publisher Description

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.

About the authors

Stephen H. Levinsohn is a senior linguistics consultant with SIL International. Since 1997 he has run Discourse for Translation workshops in 20 countries for linguist-translators working with over 400 languages, and continues to provide consultant help by email.

Steve Nicolle has been involved in linguistic research and translation with SIL since 1999, working as Translation Advisor with the Digo Language and Literacy Project in Kenya (1999-2007), Linguistics Coordinator for SIL Africa Area (2008-2011), and head of the Department of Linguistics and Translation at Africa International University in Nairobi (2012-2013). Throughout this time he worked with various translation teams in Africa as a linguistics consultant and translation consultant. He is currently a senior linguistics consultant with SIL International and director of the MA in Linguistics and Translation at the Canada Institute of Linguistics in British Columbia.

Tim Stirtz is the Coordinator for Grammar Writing Services for SIL International. He has been actively involved in the work and mission of SIL since 1999.

Publisher Details

• Publisher: SIL International
• Publication Date: January 3, 2024
• Language: English
• Page Count: 272 pages
• ISBN: 978-1556715518