Search

This paper compares use of collocations by Italian learners writing in and translating into English, conceptualising the two tasks as different modes of constrained language production and adopting Halverson’s (2017) Revised Gravitational Pull hypothesis as a theoretical model. A particular focus is placed on identifying a method for comparing datasets containing translations and essays, assembled opportunistically and varying in size and structure. The study shows that lexical association scores for dependency-defined word pairs are significantly higher in translations than essays. A qualitative analysis of a subset of collocations shared and unique to either mode shows that the former set features more collocations with direct cross-linguistic links (connectivity), and that the source/first language seems to affect both modes similarly. We tentatively conclude that second/target language salience effects are more visible in translation than second language use, while connectivity and source language salience affect both modes of bilingual processing similarly, regardless of the mediation variable.

Introduction to the volume

The purpose of this book is to showcase a diverse set of directions in empirical research on mediated discourse, reflecting on the state-of-the-art and the increasing intersection between Corpus-based Interpreting Studies (CBIS) and Corpus-based Translation Studies (CBTS). Undeniably, data from the European Parliament (EP) offer a great opportunity for such research. Not only does the institution provide a sizeable sample of oral debates held at the EP together with their simultaneous interpretations into all languages of the European Union. It also makes available written verbatim reports of the original speeches, which used to be translated. From a methodological perspective, EP materials thus guarantee a great degree of homogeneity, which is particularly valuable in corpus studies, where data comparability is frequently a challenge. In this volume, progress is visible in both CBIS and CBTS. In interpreting, it manifests itself notably in the availability of comprehensive transcription, annotation and alignment systems. In translation, datasets are becoming substantially richer in metadata, which allow for increasingly refined multi-factorial analysis. At the crossroads between the two fields, intermodal investigations bring to the fore what these mediation modes have in common and how they differ. The volume is thus aimed in particular at Interpreting and Translation scholars looking for new descriptive insights and methodological approaches in the investigation of mediated discourse, but it may be also of interest for (corpus) linguists analysing parliamentary discourse in general.

A corpus is a collection of authentic, non-elicited texts selected and assembled to study language. Thanks to software applications designed specifically for searching through corpora, known as concordancers or corpus query tools, it is possible to obtain information about patterns occurring in a single text or across sets of texts, that would almost certainly escape us if we only read the texts. At their simplest, corpus methods allow users to find out which words are used most frequently in a given corpus (wordlists), or more frequently in one corpus compared to another that acts as a baseline (keywords); users can also search for words that tend to go together more often than would be expected (collocations) or for repeated word sequences (variously called clusters, n-grams, or lexical bundles). Through the provision of information about word frequencies and about syntagmatic relationships established on the level of discourse (Saussure 1971/ 1916: 170ff.), corpora have revolutionised linguistics, allowing researchers to tap into a major new source of linguistic evidence, thus relaxing ‘the stranglehold of intuition’ (Sinclair 1991: 7) and the exclusive focus on the abstract paradigms of traditional grammar. The first modern corpora were developed in the 1970s and 1980s as a reaction against the methods of so-called ‘armchair linguistics’ (Fillmore 1992), which relied on the linguist’s intuition, or on the intuition of a few informants, to describe aspects of language. At the time, linguistics was heavily influenced by generativist views (e.g. Chomsky 1986), and language as an object of study was largely synonymous with a speaker’s linguistic competence. This in turn referred to knowledge of the grammaticality of a given construction, for which the intuition of a competent speaker was considered an adequate source of evidence. With the growing importance accorded to pragmatics and sociolinguistics, a shift occurred from linguistic competence to communicative competence, or competence on the contextual adequacy of language choices (Hymes 1972). More recently, usage-based linguistic approaches have become mainstream. These postulate that ‘usage events define and continuously redefine the language system in a dynamic way’ (Tummers et al. 2005: 228). In these approaches language performance, or actual samples of authentic language usage, have become the main object of linguistic analysis. Anticipating and accompanying these theoretical developments, in the last 50 years corpus methods have grown in importance and nowadays occupy a central position in linguistics. In the words of Stubbs (2009: 117), ‘[c]orpora are just data and quantitative methods are just methods, but their combination has led to a major shift in theory’. The applied branches of the discipline, such as first- and second- language acquisition, terminology and lexicography, and indeed the study of translation, have in turn discovered corpora, and are currently using them as a fundamental resource for studying the products of these activities, and to obtain indirect evidence about their underlying processes.

La formazione in traduzione ha avuto un rapido sviluppo negli ultimi venti anni ed stata accompagnata da un'intensa riflessione sulle competenze e sugli approcci pedagogici necessari per acquisirle, anche sulla spinta di iniziative come la rete EMT (European Master's in Translation), che hanno favorito i contatti fra istituzioni di istruzione superiore che formano traduttori/rici professionisti/e. Particolare attenzione stata posta, soprattutto nell'ultimo periodo, sulle competenze pi strettamente legate alla professione. Questo contributo intende offrire una panoramica dei principali quadri delle competenze e dei principali approcci pedagogici proposti per lo sviluppo di tali competenze (informazioni non sistematicamente disponibili in lingua italiana). Su questa base propone poi l'introduzione di un approccio pedagogico noto come service-learning, attualmente sperimentato in diversi contesti universitari, in Italia e all'estero, il cui valore per la formazione in ambito traduttivo risulta ancora inesplorato. L'intervento si conclude con alcuni suggerimenti pratici per la sperimentazione di un'esperienza di service-learning in un contesto universitario italiano. In the past two decades there has been a substantial increase in the number of translator education programmes, that has gone hand in hand with intense reflection on translation competences and on the pedagogic approaches needed to acquire them. An important role has been played by network initiatives such as the EMT (European Master's in Translation), which have strengthened collaboration among higher education institutions that educate future language professionals. Particular attention has been devoted, especially in the latest years, to professional competences. In this contribution we survey the main competence frameworks and pedagogic approaches proposed for the acquisition of such competences. Based on these premises, we argue for the introduction of a new pedagogic approach known as service-learning, which is being tested and used in higher education settings internationally, but that is still not widely employed in translation pedagogy. We conclude with some practical suggestions for the implementation of service-learning in an Italian university translation programme.

The extraordinary achievements of artificial intelligence are impacting all sectors of society and raising issues that concern, among others, what emerging skills are needed by the world of work, how amplification of the current gender gap can be limited, and whether disruption can be an engine for positive change. These issues affect the language and linguistics sectors strongly, and should be carefully considered by higher education degrees in setting their priorities so as to favour employability, job retention and job satisfaction for the coming years.

The UPSKILLS needs analysis explored the current academic offer in language- and linguistics-related fields (modern languages and cultures, translation, general linguistics, etc.) and the requirements the job market has for graduates in these areas. The analysis highlighted the need for a new skill set and a new mind frame to meet the demands as well as the professional challenges of the industry. Taking into consideration the results of the individual components of the needs analysis, this final report outlines a new professional profile, that of the language data and project specialist, and includes a detailed description of the knowledge, skills and competences that present-day and future graduates in languages and linguistics should obtain to improve their employability in the digital business sector.

The final stage of the UPSKILLS needs analysis involved focus interviews with job market stakeholders. This report presents the method used to conduct and analyse the interviews we carried out with twelve job market stakeholders, the main findings of this UPSKILLS task, a discussion of how these findings relate to the results obtained in the previous steps of the needs analysis, and the aims of the UPSKILLS partnership more generally.

The corpus-based analysis of job advertisements is part of the UPSKILLS needs analysis. Its objective is twofold. First, it aims to provide an overview of the knowledge, skills and competences mentioned in job posts targeting graduates in language-related degrees or professionals with expertise in this area, as well as of the typical tasks and responsibilities associated with these positions. Second, it aims to provide an initial list of companies at the crossroads between the language sector and the digital sector, which can be involved as stakeholders for the dissemination of UPSKILLS results.