An overview of linguistic mechanisms introducing a Christian conceptual universe into the Bunun language

Abstract

This article discusses how the translation of the Bible in indigenous languages of Taiwan created an entirely new vocabulary for representing the conceptual universe that was introduced by the Christianization of Taiwanese indigenous communities in the second half of the twentieth century. We focus particularly on Bunun, an Austronesian language of Taiwan. We will discuss which linguistic mechanisms the Bunun Bible translation uses to introduce novel concepts into the language, and how this new religious vocabulary influences the local interpretation of religious concepts.