LibGuides: Linguistics and Philosophy of Language: Linguistics

Introduction to Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language

Chart of Languages By Total Number of Speakers

Among the many questions asked in linguistics and philosophy of language are:

What is the origin of language? How are all the languages of the world related as families and how are they similar and different? How do humans acquire language capability neurologically? Is thought predicated on language, i.e. do we think in language and without language could thought proceed? Are there limits of language after which one enters into silent contemplation, and if so how do we map those limits? What are common macro structures of languages? What are the functions of language? How does language relate to psychology? Do men and women think in different kinds of language, i.e. is language gender determined? Does geography affect the nature of the language of people in those climates? What is the relationship between ethnicity and language identity? How does language give a social identity and contextual identity? What common stylistic features are common to all languages? What is the typolgy of languages? What are the statistical structures of languages around the globe? How is grammar different and similar amongst different languages? What is semantics? How are dictionaries and lexicons made? What are patterns and trends in personal names and place names in history? What is the nature of free-flowing conversation and dialogue from a scientific perspective? What factors govern our choice of which languages to learn? Are there common speech acts in all languages? How do we understand the auditory-vocal channel for communication? How do we scientifically understand the production, transmission and reception of speech? What is the anatomy, neurology, and physiology of speech? How do the vocal tract and vocal organs affect langauge and the nature of articulation for humans? What are the acoustics of speech? What are the techniques used in the analysis of speech?

David b Levy

Introduction Continued: More Questions in Linguistics

Introduction Continued: More Kinds of Questions Asked in Linguitstics by David B Levy

Power point on Translation issues relating to Tanakh, Targumim, Septuagint, Vulgage, Tafsir, and Die Heilige Schriften und Ihren Verdeutschung by David B Levy presented at AJL Scottsdale

Narative Text on Translation issues relating to the Tanakh, Targumim, Septuagint, Vulgate, Tafsir, and Beur by David B Levy presented at AJL Scottsdale Conference

Flowing Translation, Example (non Literal trans.)
The acdemic article originally authored by Dr. Claud Heyman is titled in French, "Rabbi Yonathan Eibeschutz et l'etude de la Torah a Metz", found in Archives Juives, vol 28, issue 2, pages 20 to 35, 1995 was commissioned by Rabbi Dovid Katz to be translated by DBL around 1996. The posted Translation is an example of a non-literal translation, attempting to convey the flow of the french language and its idioms and spirit. Good translations attempt to transmit some of the unfathomable, the mysterious, and the poetic as opposed to a computer program like “Babelfish” which mechanically renders a dictionary translation inattentive to syntax or more importantly to that spirit of the work that cannot be mechanically generated and reproduced by a machine.This is why BabelFish and other direct word for word literal translations not only mess up syntax but cannot catch the esprit of the language that a translator faces as the Zeitgeist moving through cultures that express themselves in different languages. See DBL essay on translation titled "the ethics, politics, heremeneutics, and theology of translations...." at http://databases.jewishlibraries.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/proceedings2007/levy_talk.pdf In this work on translation theory DBL cites Walter Benjamin's essay "the Art of the Translator" along with a case study of looking at how musical Instruments in the Hebrew bible have been translated across history in Aramaic (the Targumim), Septuagint (Greek), Vulgate (Latin), Tafsir (Arabic), Peshita (Syriac), Shmuel Teuch (Yiddish), and German (the Beur of Mendelsohn, Sacks Die Heilige Schriften, and Rosenzweig and Buber's Die Heilige Schriften und Ihren VerDeutschung, and in French Le Texte Sacre.
Example of more literal Translation of Yiddish and Hebrew Titltes by DBL ca 1996
This Bibliography of the Yiddish and Hebrew Holdings of the Enoch Pratt Library (Balto) by DBL ca 1996 was acknowledged in a letter correspondence from the Amherst Yiddish Book Center as making a positive contribution in assisting in cataloging of Yiddish books
Pt II of example of more literal translaiton of Yiddish and Hebrew Titles ca 1996 by DBL
This work was acknowledged by the Amherst Yiddish Book Center in a letter as making a unique contribution assisting in cataloging

Linguistics and Philosophy of Language

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Introduction to Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language

Introduction Continued: More Questions in Linguistics