new book - Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation

This new coursebook, Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation is now available on Amazon. It is also available to be taken as a course at the Digital Training Library.

• Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation Paperback (272 pages)
• by Stephen H Levinsohn with Steve Nicolle and Tim Stirtz
• Published by Sil International, Global Publishing (January 2024)

“In Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation, Stephen Levinsohn has drawn on 55 years of research and teaching to create what is probably the most practical and comprehensive course available for Bible translators. Levinsohn explains how the people who write the Bible used their languages, Hebrew and Greek, to communicate clearly and vividly to their original audiences. He then guides students through the process of discovering how they can communicate the message with the same force in their own languages. Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation will be an essential tool for Bible translators for many years to come.” (Steve Nicolle)

This coursebook uses simplified language and terminology, to help translators with limited linguistics training and education learn 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 the Old and New Testaments. Questions, exercises and application then effectively engage translation teams and individual translators in how to improve their draft translations and provide reasons for their decisions. These exercises and assignments promote careful thinking, empowering them to confidently present Biblical truth in natural and accurate ways in the target language.

The coursebook explains and illustrates in simple English the most relevant discourse features for Bible translation in the languages of the world, including differences between the source and target languages that relate to the use of connectors and to constituent order. Where relevant, for example, sections are addressed specifically to speakers of verb-initial, verb-medial and verb-final languages. Topics include 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. The final module introduces readers to culturally appropriate ways of translating Biblical poetry. Even challenging concepts such as background versus foreground and the topic-focus distinction are surprisingly easy to follow yet include enough explanation that there is little chance of misunderstanding.

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 as well as 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.