Publications

Publication details [#8911]

Polak, Frank. 2005. Review of Feyaerts, Kurt (ed.) 2003. 'The Bible through Metaphor and Translation: A Cognitive Semantic Perspective' (Religions and Discourse 15). Bern: Peter Lang, 298 pp., ISBN: 3906769828. Foreign Language Learning Theory and Practice 13 (2) : 430–433.
Publication type
Review/summary
Publication language
English

Abstract

This volume discusses the impact of cognitive theory on biblical exegesis, mainly in the field of the Hebrew Bible, in the wake of the work of Lakoff, Johnson and Langacker. In this theory, linguistic science abandons its characteristic formality, and takes stock of the social, cultural and psychological aspects of language in language use, thus turning into a meaningful methodology for literary and cultural study. Witness to this tendency can be found in the volume at hand, that grew out of the 25th LAUD symposium on Metaphor and Religion (1997) and the follow up colloquium on 'Meaning, Metaphor and Religion: Cognitive Semantics and the Bible' (1998). The special focus on metaphor and translation is motivated by the insight that in the cognitive spectrum both fields involve the interaction of different domains of knowledge. The value of the cognitive approach is demonstrated very clearly in Feyaerts' Introduction, which explains the cognitive aspects of metaphorization and translation, and in the contribution by Lieven Boeve, "Linguistica ancilla theologiae: The interest of fundamental theology in cognitive semantics" (pp. 15-35). (Frank Polak)