Translation Challenges:

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• Translation Challenges
• From Training to Profession
• Hammamet, Tunisia, 28-29 November
• Discovery and justification procedures in the
  corpus-based translation classroom

Sara Laviosa University of Bari Aldo Moro
University of Rome Tor Vergata saralaviosa_at_gmai
l.com
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Aim

• to illustrate how translator trainers are drawing
  on the research methods developed in descriptive
  translation studies in order to devise
  corpus-based teaching techniques inspired by the
  pedagogic principle of discovery learning

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Presentation structure

• discovery and justification procedures (Toury
  1995)
• case study of corpus-based translation pedagogy

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Discovery and justification procedures

• selecting a corpus of translated texts and
  examining their acceptability in the target
  language
• mapping the segments of each target text onto the
  source texts counterpart
• first-level generalizations about the norms
  underlying the concrete way in which equivalence
  is realized

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Case study

• background information about the translation
  course
• teaching objectives of the module unit on
  polysemic lexical Anglicisms in the language of
  business and economics
• corpora and corpus-processing tools

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Phase I business in translated articles

• the work of producing or buying and selling goods
  or services for money
• a high profile area of business where more than
  one company operates
• a highly profitable business activity undertaken
  by a company
• a large organization that provides services, or
  that makes or sells goods
• volume of business

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lexico-grammatical patterning of business

• words that refer to other human activities,
  (turismo e business), the place where business is
  carried out, and the people of different
  nationalities that are in business it forms
  multi-word-units (business hub, area business,
  segmento business, aree consumer e business)
• nouns that identify a particular business sector
  and the position gained in the market, nouns
  referring to the major players that operate in or
  impact on it, adjectives describing its
  qualities, such as diversity, profitability or
  importance

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• words that refer to the company undertaking a
  particular business activity and to the type of
  activity undertaken, verbs referring to the
  changes undergone by a business, adjectives and
  nouns describing its main features, such as
  novelty, solidity or volatility it forms one
  compound (core business)
• words referring to the people owning or running a
  company or to the way in which a company
  organizes its activities it forms
  multi-word-units (business model, modello di
  business, business manager, business partner)

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• words that refer to the monetary value of a
  company or business sector
• Al 73enne Ecclestone è rimasto il 25 del gruppo
  che gestisce il business da 800 milioni di
  dollari.
• Per contrastare il cambiamento del clima anche
  gli ambientalisti riscoprono il nucleare. Un
  business da 125 miliardi di dollari.

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business in comparable non-translated articles

• the work of producing or buying and selling goods
  or services for money
• a high profile area of business where more than
  one company operates (including illegal sectors)
• a highly profitable business activity undertaken
  by a company
• a large organization that provides services, or
  that makes or sells goods
• volume of business (including that of an illegal
  company)

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• words that refer to other spheres of human
  activity (business ? società, sport e business,
  musica ? business, business ? genetica), the
  place where business is carried out, and the
  people of different nationalities that are in
  business it forms multi-word-units (business
  information, aree di business, clienti business,
  utenti business) used in puns (il business
  resta in porto titanic del business)
• nouns that identify a particular sector and the
  position gained in the market, nouns referring
  to the major players that operate in or impact on
  it, adjectives describing its qualities, such as
  diversity, profitability or importance compounds
  (business travel, social business, business
  online) illegal sectors (il business dei falsi
  i business si chiamano droga, prostituzione,
  racket) used creatively (un business che si
  chiama sconto un business duro come il teak)

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• business activity and the type of activity
  undertaken, verbs referring to the changes
  undergone by a business activity, adjectives and
  nouns describing its main features, such as
  novelty, importance, competitiveness, credibility
  or profitability it forms various compounds
  (core business, business continuity, business
  case, business plan), it strongly collocates
  with possibilità, opportunità, occasioni, fare
  used in creative collocations and puns (il
  business in una cannuccia, ora faccio business
  col cuore, un Tornado di business ho più di un
  business per capello)

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• words referring to the people owning or running a
  company or to the way in which a company
  organizes its activities it forms
  multi-word-units (business unit, unità di
  business, business development manager) used in
  creative collocations, creative metphors and puns
  (un business fatto di nuvole, lEnav e quel
  business che è caduto dal cielo il business
  lievita alla luce del sole)

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• words that refer to the monetary value of a
  given enterprise it is used creatively
• Quel business da 2,5 milioni di sacchi di caffè
  it refers to illegal activities
• Il business dei falsi vale almeno 7 miliardi di
  euro allanno
• Cibo Nostro. La Mafia nellalimentare. Quasi 20
  miliardi di incassi per la criminalità
  organizzata tanto vale oggi il business mafioso
  nellagroalimentare, nelle sue varie declinazioni.

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Conclusions Phase I

• when a word is polysemous, the lexico-grammar of
  one sense of the word differs from the
  lexico-grammar of its other senses
• the collocation, colligation and semantic
  preference of business in translational and
  non-translational Italian appear to be
  divergently similar
• the translator seems to have resisted the
  influence of English to a degree by limiting the
  use of business and largely reproducing its
  unmarked lexico-grammatical patterning.

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Phase II mapping Italian target texts onto
English source texts

• I) il mondo degli affari, gli affari, affari,
  lattività, attività commerciali
• II) il settore, lindustria, le industrie
  (business translates industry)
• III) unattività commerciale, lattività, le
  attività delle aziende
• IV) unazienda
• V) Ø ? business
• Examples of explicitation generating the
  business ? cedendo i prestiti (relinquishing
  loans)

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Phase III the norm

• initial norm
• acceptability
• textual-linguistic norms
• preference for native Italian equivalents
• tendency towards explicitation

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Conclusions

• students professional empowerment (Kiraly 2003)
• teachers professional empowerment

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• Bibliography
• Kiraly, D.C. (2003) From Instruction to
  Collaborative Construction A passing fad or the
  promise of a paradigm schift in translator
  education?. In B.J. Baer and G.S. Koby (eds.)
  Beyond the Ivory Tower. Rethinking translation
  pedagogy. Amsterdam and Philadelphia John
  Benjamins. 3-27.
• Görlach, M. (2003) English Words Abroad.
  Amsterdam and Philadelphia John Benjamins.
• Johns, T. And P. King (eds.) (1991) Classroom
  Concordancing. ELR Journal 4. Birmingham
  University of Birmingham.
• Sinclair, J.McH (2004) Reading Concordances.
  London Pearson Longman.
• Toury, G. (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies
  and Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia John
  Benjamins