Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Arista, Javier Martin / Lopez, Ana Elvira Ojanguren (eds.), Structuring Lexical Data and Digitising Dictionaries: Grammatical Theory, Language Processing and Databases in Historical Linguistics. (Language and Computers) 310 pp. 2024:9 (Brill, NE) <726-1432>
ISBN 978-90-04-70265-3 hard ¥30,602.- (税込) EUR 130.00

This book addresses the question of how to structure the linguistic data in a historical dictionary or a historical lexicon with methods that incorporate relational databases and language processing. Emphasis is made on the integration of corpus linguistics and dictionary compilation through aims and tasks associated with electronic lexicography, as well as on the interaction of datasets guided by the transition from relational databases to knowledge bases.

Ferrara, Silvia / Montecchi, Barbara / Balerio, M. (eds.), Writing from Invention to Decipherment. 400 pp. 2024:9 (Oxford U. Pr., UK) <726-1434>
ISBN 978-0-19-890874-6 hard ¥33,903.- (税込) GB￡ 119.00 *

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Writing from Invention to Decipherment contains a wealth of global scholarship on ancient writing systems from China, Mesopotamia, Central America, and the Mediterranean, to more recent newly created scripts such as the Rongorongo from Easter Island, the Caroline Island scripts, as well as the alphabet. The aim is to dig into the foundations of writing, showcasing the complexities and varieties of scripts, from their invention to the potential decipherment of poorly understood scripts. The volume offers state-of-the-art research on undeciphered scripts from the Aegean (as for example, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A) or not completely deciphered (as for example Maya) scripts. From a methodological perspective, these contributions lay out how and why writing was invented, who used it, and to what ends. Here writing is presented as a multi-modal cultural phenomenon, that intersects and transcends neat discipline boundaries, within an inclusive approach bridging archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and cognitive studies.

Ponton, Douglas Mark, Exploring Ecolinguistics: Ecological Principles and Narrative Practices. (Bloomsbury Advances in Ecolinguistics) 200 pp. 2024:7 (Bloomsbury Academic, UK) <726-1435>
ISBN 978-1-350-28142-4 hard ¥27,065.- (税込) GB￡ 95.00 *

Contributing to the rapidly emerging field of ecolinguistics, this book explores the role of language in mediating and determining our relationship with nature and in shaping attitudes and social practices in environmental areas. In doing so, it maps out research pathways for informed ecological debate that concerns both the planet and the discipline. The book centres on two case studies. The first is a nature reserve near Siracusa in Sicily run by Fabio Cilea, where flamingos have begun to breed despite the devastation of the nearby coastline by one of the largest petro-chemical plants in Europe. The second is High Ash farm, a small farm near Norwich, UK. Farmer, Chris Skinner, is a passionate naturalist who for 30 years has presented a programme on BBC Radio Norfolk. Through analysing the discourse of both Skinner and Cilea, the book explores what it can reveal about the underlying environmental visions that sustain them. Together with the discourse of other engaged ecological figures, a picture emerges of the connections that exist between our beliefs/attitudes, language and the natural world. Presenting a framework for analysing environmental discourse from a primarily positivist standpoint, the book draws attention to the discourses that underline social practices felt to be useful, necessary and beneficial in these moments of environmental crisis. Although these contexts are European, the methodologies applied, as well as the ecological and linguistic issues dealt with, are universal, clarifying the relationship between social practices and language itself, viewed in the book as an ecosystem that is also in need of loving attention.

Winters, Marion / Deane-Cox, Sharon / Boeser, Ursula (eds.), Translation, Interpreting and Technological Change: Innovations in Research, Practice and Training. (Bloomsbury Advances in Translation) 224 pp. 2024:6 (Bloomsbury Academic, UK) <726-1437>
ISBN 978-1-350-21294-7 hard ¥27,065.- (税込) GB￡ 95.00

The digital era is characterised by technological advances that increase the speed and breadth of knowledge turnover within the economy and society. This book examines the impact of these technological advances on translation and interpreting and how new technologies are changing the very nature of language and communication. Reflecting on the innovations in research, practice and training that are associated with this turbulent landscape, chapters consider what these shifts mean for translators and interpreters. Technological changes interact in increasingly complex and pivotal ways with demographic shifts, caused by war, economic globalisation, changing social structures and patterns of mobility, environmental crises, and other factors. As such, researchers face new and often cross-disciplinary fields of inquiry, practitioners face the need to acquire and adopt novel skills and approaches, and trainers face the need to train students for working in a rapidly changing landscape of communication technology. This book brings together advances and challenges from the different but intertwined perspectives of translation and interpreting to examine how the field is changing in this rapidly evolving environment.

儀式の言葉ハンドブック
Tavarez, David (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ritual Language. (Oxford Handbooks) 608 pp. 2024:12 (Oxford U. Pr., UK) <726-244>
ISBN 978-0-19-286809-1 hard ¥40,740.- (税込) GB￡ 143.00

This volume brings together representative case studies and surveys that explore research into ritual language, covering theoretical and methodological approaches that reflect traditional inquiries and more recent studies. This recent literature contends that ritual language hinges on the construction of authoritative ontological models about the cosmos and its inhabitants. Ritual speech also orchestrates performances that articulate representations of collective identities, and rests on the diversity of hierarchical forms of authoritative knowledge, displayed in both oblique and direct terms. Moreover, performances, texts, and narratives associated with ritual practices are closely entwined with historical accounts that navigate current memories, recast in a diversity of ways, about ancestral beings and distant or recent pasts, or delimit a terrain in which dialectical relationships with colonial hegemony and Christian indoctrination emerge to transform the social order. Ritual narrative often offers in its structure and delivery momentous representation of the social order, social institutions, social difference, and collective identities, and may also be constituted by claims about relations among species, non-human actors, and material culture. The Oxford Handbook of Ritual Language addresses foundational questions regarding the scope, structuring, use, and consequences of ritual language. The chapters examine the relationship between speakers' consciousness and verbal ritual performances, and between ritual language, hegemony, collective authority, and the social world. As the study of ritual speech hinges on extensive analyses of linguistic choices and styles, the contributors draw on data from a wide range of language groups and societies in the Americas, the Middle East, the Pacific, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

Bellewes, Emile, Ecolinguistics and Environment in Education: Language, Culture and Textual Analysis. (Bloomsbury Advances in Ecolinguistics) 264 pp. 2024:9 (Bloomsbury Academic, UK) <726-1019>
ISBN 978-1-350-22934-1 hard ¥27,065.- (税込) GB￡ 95.00 *

In the age of ecological crisis, language and discourse are emerging as a new battleground in the environmental debate. With the rise of new environmentalist movements and their subsequent backlash, we are now exposed to a plethora of different and often opposing discourses on the environmental crisis and our relationship with nature. This book argues for the need to develop classroom practices which aid students in critically reviewing and evaluating different perspectives on discourses of environmentalism and sustainability. Remarking that language and humanities teachers are perfectly positioned to play a key role in the development of eco-critical language awareness at this crucial juncture, this book explores how they can help students utilise a critical perspective to navigate the multitude of cultural messages regarding our relationship with nature. Employing ecolinguistics as a form of eco-critical pedagogy, Emile Bellewes presents key concepts underpinning ecolinguistics, before guiding readers through their application in the classroom. Serving as a bridge between critical perspectives on environmental education and forms of discourse analysis, Ecolinguistics and Environment in Education explains how ecolinguistics can be used to carry out detailed linguistic analyses of environmentally significant messages in the classroom.