Regina Blass, PhD
Contact
NEGST, P.O. Box 24686, Nairobi 00502, Kenya
or
Am Landmann 4, 57290 Neunkirchen, Germany
email:
Degrees
- Professorship NEGST 2004
- PhD London University 1988
- MA London University 1980
- PGD London University 1979
Current positions
- Professor in Linguistics and Translation Studies at NEGST.
- Head of Translation Department
Other experience
- International Linguistics Consultant (1993 – 2006)
- Head of Academic Affairs in Niger (1996 – 1999)
- Linguist-Translator for Sisaala language in Ghana and Burkina Faso (1971 – 1994)
Memberships
- IPrA, International Pragmatics Association
- SBL, Society of Biblical Literature
Language proficiency
- German (Native Speaker)
- English
- French
- Sissala (Gur) (basic)
- Koine Greek (basic)
Research interests
- General Linguistics
- Pragmatics
- Relevance Theory
- Discourse Analysis
- Semantics
- Translation
- Hermeneutics
- Particles
- Metarepresentation markers across languages
- African, English, French and German Language Structures
Selected publications
Publications in SIL International Bibliography
Books
1975 Sisaala-English, English-Sisaala dictionary Ghana: Institute of Linguistics
1990 Relevance Relations in Discourse: A study with special reference to Sissala. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 55, CUP, Cambridge.
Articles in a Journal:
1993 ‘Are there Logical relations in a text?’ LINGUA, Vol. 90, No. 1/2special issue on Relevance Theory.
1998 ‘Contrastive focus and Eliminiation ’ Proceedings of the Gur Conference, University of Bayreuth.
Review in a Journal:
2000 Review of ‘Grammaticalisation, a Conceptual Framework ’ by Bernd Heine, Ulrike Claudi and Friederike Hünnemeyer, the University of Chicago Press (1991) and Auxiliaries, Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalisation By Bernd Heine (1993) Oxford University Press in Notes on Linguistics No. 82, SIL Dallas
Chapters of a book:
1989 ‘Baa ’ in Sissala - Truth-Conditional or Non-Truth-ConditionalParticle?’ In Weydt (ed) Sprechen mit Partikeln, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin
2000 ‘Particles on Higher Level Explicature and Mutual Manifestness ’ in Anderson, Gisle and Thorstein Fretheim Pragmastic Markers and Propositional Attitude, “ ”Pragmatics and Beyond, John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
2005 ‘Manipulation in the speeches and writings of Hitler and the NSDAP ’ In De Saussure, Louis & Peter Schulz (eds), Manipulation and Ideologies in the Twentieth Century: Discourse, Language, Mind.Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Selected papers presented
2003. “Some aspects of metarepresentation in German Discourse. ” Paper presented at the IPrA Conference in Toronto, Canada, 13.-19. July (Panel organizer with Christoph Unger: Logical connectors and interpretive resemblance on metarepresentation in a cross-linguistic perspective.)
2003. “Verbal Irony in Bible Translation. ” Paper presented at the SBL International meeting in Cambridge, UK, 20.-25. July.
2004. “Translation and Cultural Variety in Africa ” Paper presented at the Translation Conference at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, 2.-4. April.
2004. “Discourse, Interpretive Resemblance, Reformulation and Exemplication. ”: (Plenary Speaker)Paper presented at the conference ‘Interpreting for Relevance’, organized by the University of Warsaw, in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland,16.-19. June.
2005. “Is Biblical Communication guided by Speech Acts and/or Relevance?” Paper presented at the SBL International Meeting, Trinity College, Singapore, 26. June-4. July.
2006. “Establishing the context in Bridging in Biblical Interpretation. ” Paper presented at the SBL International Meeting, University of Edinburgh,UK. 2.-6. July.
2007. “Resemblance Strategy in Language: Evidence from African Language Data. ” Paper presented at the IPrA Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden,8.-14 July.
2007. 22.-26. July, With Christoph Unger, “Relevance Theory and Discourse Connectivity: Example from Romans 3:21 – 31 ” Paper presented at the SBL International Meeting, University of Vienna,Austria, 22-26. July.
Works online
Textbook:
2008 (Prepublication copy) An Introduction to Relevance Theory: Textbook for Students in Biblical Studies.
Textbook:
2008 (Prepublication copy)With Christoph Unger: Discourse Analysis in a relevance theoretic perspective.
Textbook:
2008 (for Class use) Semantics