In die afgelope bykans 30 jaar het 'n groot leemte ontstaan aan omvattende verwysingsbronne en handboeke in die Afrikaanse taalkunde wat op universiteitsvlak voorgeskryf kan word. In 2014 word hierdie leemte gevul deur Kontemporere Afrikaanse Taalkunde. Die feit dat 'n tweede, hersiene uitgawe slegs drie jaar later verskyn, beklemtoon weereens die groot behoefte aan so 'n bron. Die samestelling van hierdie boek bied 'n nuwe blik op die taalkunde en het wye gebruikspotensiaal omdat dit die kernvelde van die taalkunde, en in die besonder van die Afrikaanse taalkunde, dek. Sodoende gee dit nuwe lewe aan 'n belangrike komponent in die bestudering van die Afrikaanse taal: die taalkunde en alles wat daarmee saamhang. Inhoud en konsepte strek van die ontstaan en aard van die Afrikaanse taal, leksikografie en dokumentontwerp tot fonetiek, fonologie, morfologie, sintaksis, semantiek, pragmatiek, taalverwerwing en die normatiewe taalkunde. Al die bestaande hoofstukke is op datum gebring, en 'n ekstra hoofstuk oor sintaksis is bygevoeg om nuwer sieninge te weerspieel. Bydraes deur spesialiste in die onderskeie velde bied daarom die nuutste navorsing en 'n verskeidenheid teoretiese vertrekpunte met die Afrikaanse taalkunde as fokus. Nuwe en moontlik selfs omstrede standpunte sal akademiese gesprek stimuleer, terwyl elke hoofstuk nasionale en internasionale ontwikkelinge op die bepaalde gebied voorle aan 'n nuwe geslag studente, onderwysers, akademici en taalpraktisyns.

Altered states of consciousness - including experiences of deprivation, pain, hallucination, fear, desire, alienation, and spiritual transcendence - can transform the ordinary experience of selfhood. Unselfing explores the nature of disruptive self-experiences and the different shapes they have taken in literary writing. The book focuses on the tension between rival conceptions of unselfing as either a form of productive self-transcendence or a form of alienating self-loss. Michaela Hulstyn explores the shapes and meanings of unselfing through the framework of the global French literary world, encompassing texts by modernist figures in France and Belgium alongside writers from Algeria, Rwanda, and Morocco. Together these diverse texts prompt a re-evaluation of the consequences of the loss or the transcendence of the self. Through a series of close readings, Hulstyn offers a new account of the ethical questions raised by altered states and shows how philosophies of empathy can be tested against and often challenged by literary works. Drawing on cognitive science and phenomenology, Unselfing provides a new methodology for approaching texts that give shape to the fringes of conscious experience.

This book deals with the tension between a strategy of language maintenance (protecting and reinforcing the language where it is still spoken by community members) and a strategy of language revitalization (opening up access to the language to all interested people and encouraging new domains of its use). The case study presented concerns a grammar school in Upper Lusatia, which hosts the coexistence of a community of Upper Sorbian-speakers and a group of German native speakers who are learning Upper Sorbian at school. The tensions between these two groups studying at the same school are presented in this book against the background of various language strategies, practices and ideologies. The conflict of interests between the “traditional� community which perceives itself as the “guardians� of the minority language and its potential new speakers is played off on different levels by policy-makers and may be read through different levels of language policy and planning.