The Miracle of Amsterdam Biography of a Contested Devotion

Charles Caspers & Peter Jan Margry

The Miracle of Amsterdam presents a “cultural biography” of a Dutch devotional manifestation.  According to tradition, on the night of March 15, 1345, a Eucharistic host thrown into a burning fireplace was found intact hours later.  A chapel was erected over the spot, and the citizens of Amsterdam became devoted to their “Holy Stead.”  From the original Eucharistic processions evolved the custom of individual devotees walking around the chapel while praying in silence, and the growing international pilgrimage site contributed to the rise and prosperity of Amsterdam. 

Syntax of Dutch Coordination and Ellipsis

Hans Broekhuis, Norbert Corver

The multi-volume work Syntax of Dutch presents a synthesis of current thinking on Dutch syntax.  The text of the seven already available volumes was written between 1995 and 2015 and issued in print between 2012 and 2016.  The various volumes are primarily concerned with the description of the Dutch language and, only where this is relevant, with linguistic theory.  They will be an indispensable resource for researchers and advanced students of languages and linguistics interested in the Dutch language. 

A Contrastive Grammar of Brazilian Pomeranian

Gertjan Postma

Pomeranian is the West Germanic language spoken by European emigrants who went from Farther Pomerania (present-day Poland) to Brazil in the period 1857–1887.  This language is no longer spoken in cohesive societies in Europe, but the language has survived and is in remarkably good shape on this language island in the tropical state of Espirito Santo.  This monograph offers the first synchronic grammar of this language. 

The Fascination with Inner Eurasian Languages in the 17th Century The Amsterdam mayor Nicolaas Witsen and his collection of ‘Tartarian’ glossaries and scripts

This book contains a number of studies on the language samples in Nicolaas Witsen’s North and East Tartary – glossaries, short texts (translations of the Lord’s Prayer), writing systems and other data.  Most of the contributions are new and were written by specialists in the relevant languages, such as the languages of the Caucasus, Samoyed languages, Finno-Ugric languages, Mongolic languages, Turkic and Tungusic languages. 

Sense and Essence Heritage and the Cultural Production of the Real

Birgit Meyer & Mattijs van de Port (eds.) 

Contrary to popular perceptions, cultural heritage is not given, but constantly in the making: a construction subject to dynamic processes of (re)inventing culture within particular social formations and bound to particular forms of mediation.  Yet the appeal of cultural heritage often rests on its denial of being a fabrication, its promise to provide an essential ground to social-cultural identities.  Taking this paradoxical feature as a point of departure, and anchoring the discussion to two heuristic concepts—the "politics of authentication" and "aesthetics of persuasion"—the chapters herein explore how this tension is central to the dynamics of heritage formation worldwide. 

The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging Perspectives from the margins

Leonie Cornips, Vincent de Rooij

This volume shows the relevance of the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘belonging’ for understanding the dynamics of identification through language.  It also opens up a new terrain for sociolinguistic and linguistic anthropological study, namely the margins.  Rural, as well as urbanized areas that are seen as marginal or peripheral to places that are overtly recognized as mixed and hybridized have received relatively little sociolinguistic attention.