Week 1

Why do we use language? Halliday’s three macrofunctions:

- Ideational: concerns the way external reality is represented in language. It might

be thought of as the content or idea expressed in a message.
- Interpersonal: concerns social and power relationships among language users,
specifically between the speaker, his addressee(s), and his message.
- Textual: concerns the property of language to create texts, to organize information
in texts, as opposed to simple strings of words or clauses.

What is a text?

According to linguists, a text is not defined by its written form or length.

“A text is not defined by its size. A text is best regarded as a semantic unit; a unit not
of form but of meaning.” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976)

In academic terms, a text is defined as a unit of language in use. This is its

distinctive feature.

The word unit implies that some elements (such as words, phrases, and clauses) fit
and hang together in some way.

A text is anything that conveys a set of meanings.

A text is a naturally occurring manifestation of language, a communicative language

event in a context.

Texts can be of many types: Dialogues, song lyrics, audiovisual contents, web
pages, pictures and captions, UI (user interface), etc.

Multimodal texts combine two or more communication modes such as written

language, spoken language, music, picture. Meaning is conveyed to the addressee
through varying combinations of modes, according to different purposes and
audiences (Cope and Kalantzis, 2009).

Simple multimodal texts include comics, graphic novels, picture books, newspapers,
brochures, print advertisements, e-books and many other forms.

Complex digital multimodal texts include live-action films, animations, digital stories,
web pages, book trailers, documentaries, music videos. Meaning is conveyed
through dynamic combinations of various modes across written and spoken
language, visual (still and moving image), audio, gesture (acting), and spatial
semiotic resources. Producing these texts also requires skills with more
sophisticated digital communication technologies.

Identifying different text types:

 DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS

They depict the characteristics of items, the location of people and things in space,
often providing background information to other texts.

Descriptive texts use adjectivization, complex sentences and subordination

(background information).

 NARRATIVE TEXTS (STORY-TELLING)

They relate events and can be fictional or non-fictional. Narrative texts use past
tense verbs, complex sentences.

 DIRECTIVE (OR INSTRUCTIVE) TEXTS

They are concerned with concrete future activity and aim at giving commands,
instructions, regulations. They directly affect the receiver’s behaviour.

Directive (or instructive) texts use imperatives (Please turn off all personal electronic
devices, Stand upright, lift your torso), modals (Your seats and table trays must be in
the upright position for take-off), simple sentences, exemplification (as if you were
going to stand up again, … so far that you compress the back of your neck)

 EXPOSITORY TEXTS

They identify and characterize phenomena, e.g. definitions, explanations, essays.

Expository texts are complex sentences and subordination, adjectivization and noun
specification (The central nervous system is made up of the brain, spinal cord and
nerves. The peripheral nervous system consists of sensory neurons, ganglia
(clusters of neurons) and nerves that connect to one another and to the central
nervous system), relative clauses (The nervous system is a complex collection of
nerves and specialized cells known as neurons that transmit signals between
different parts of the body), terminology (sensory neurons, ganglia, somatic system).

 ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS
They aim to change or affect the receiver’s beliefs, by expressing an evaluation.

Argumentative texts modals, imperatives, questions and involvement strategies,

reporting verbs (recommend), evaluative language (a poor economic decision,
arbitrary)

Features of texts types:

EXPOSITORY TEXTS

Main features: complex sentences and subordination, adjectivization and noun

specification, specific vocabulary, relative clauses, passive forms to describe
objective processes.

“Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion.
This is transformed into electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy
conversion systems. Wind first hits a turbine’s blades, causing them to rotate and
turn the turbine connected to them. That changes the kinetic energy to rotational
energy, by moving a shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing
electrical energy through electromagnetism.
The amount of power that can be harvested from wind depends on the size of the
turbine and the length of its blades. The output is proportional to the dimensions of
the rotor and to the cube of the wind speed. Theoretically, when wind speed
doubles, wind power potential increases by a factor of eight.”

Expository texts, or informational texts, are non-fiction texts that give facts and
information about a topic. These academic texts are common in subjects such as
science, history and social sciences.

ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS

Main features: modals, imperatives, questions and involvement strategies, reporting

verbs, evaluative language.

“One of the biggest cons about sustainable tourism is air travel. Aviation accounts for
over half of transportation CO2 emissions. To be truly eco-friendly, it may mean
eliminating air travel from your trip entirely. Obviously, this can make it difficult to visit
certain places. Some airlines now have the option for passengers to purchase a
carbon offset ticket, but typically a fee is charged. Thus, flying becomes more
expensive. Popular destinations for ecotourism may become over-visited, which
could damage the natural environment. Local indigenous people can also become
“tourist attractions”, with their culture and heritage exposed and potentially ridiculed.
There are definitely some advantages to sustainable tourism, however. It does
provide the opportunity for local inhabitants to generate revenue from tourists in
areas where there may be poverty. It also allows tourists to experience certain
environments and locations in their natural state without any urbanization or
repercussions from industrialism.”

An argumentative speech often aims to change or influence the audience

viewpoint, trying to move listeners to change their views on a controversial issue.

DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS

Main features y adjectivization, lists of items

NARRATIVE TEXTS

Main features y past tense verbs, complex sentence

Mixed functions y a descriptive text is designed to provide details about people,

places, objects. Specific adjectives and adverbs help to imagine characters and
events in narrative texts, or to paint a picture in the reader's mind. So, both narrative
and descriptive functions, as many others, can be mixed in the same text.

DIRECTIVE (OR INSTRUCTIVE) TEXTS

Main features: imperative verbs, numbered or bulleted points, phrases to express

prohibition or permission.
___________________________________________________________________

TEXT PROPERTIES y COHERENCE AND COHESION

COHERENCE

Coherence: The set of logical connections and relations which underlie the surface
text,

The reader or the listener can move easily from one sentence to another through the
text, information cannot be arranged in a random sequence.

If a text lacks coherence, it will fail to communicate the intended meaning to its
addressee.

Establishes overall consistency, continuity of sense.

COHESION
Property by which specific words are used as ties to join sentences together.

How words are connected to each other into and among sentences and not chosen
in a random sequence.

Cohesion differs from coherence in that a text can be internally cohesive but be
incoherent – that is, make no sense, like this:

“I used to drink fishes every time I went to the office”.

How to achieve cohesion at lexical level?

 Lexical fields
 Meaning relations
 Collocation
 Text patterns

Lexical fields

A group of words with related meaning (not necessairily belonging to the same word
class).

Meaning relations

- Horizontal relations:
 Similarity of meaning (synonymy): afraid, scared, frightened… big, large,
huge, enormous…
 Oppositeness of meaning (antonymy): quick – slow… | raise – lower… |
right –wrong…

- Hierarchical (vertical) relations:

 kind-of relation (hyponymy) = hyponyms refer to classifications or
taxonomies (kind-of relation): Animal is a superordinate whereas pig, cat,
dog and cow are hyponyms of animal.
 part-of relation (meronymy) = meronyms refer to parts-whole relations.
For instance, 'cuff', 'collar' and 'sleeve' are the meronyms of 'shirt’, as they
are parts of it.
Hierarchical relations

Meronyms

Collocation

When two words co-occur, or are used together frequently, they are said to
collocate.

Collocations cerate cohesion

Text patterns (repetition, parallelism)

Parallelism: a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses

that have the same grammatical structure

Syntactic Cohesion

- Pronoun reference
- Other referential expressions
- Ellipsis and Substitution
- Connectives and Time Reference

PRONOUN REFERENCE

- Pronouns: words that replace nouns/noun phrases/noun clauses in a sentence.

- Reference: a relation between grammatical units
Pronouns are used to reduce repetition, create links and make sentences smoother
and communication more effective.

Other referential expressions:

- Determiners such as articles, demonstratives (This, that, etc.).

- Adverbs (there, here, etc.).

Exophora y a word refers to something outside the text. This kind of reference
requires some shared knowledge between speakers, as in the following dialogue:

- Can you see that bus over there?

- You mean the blue one?
- Yes. If you catch it now, you’ll be at the airport in 15 minutes.

Endophora y a word in a text refers to something within the surrounding text

Cataphora y a word in a text refers to another later in the same text and you need to
look forward to understand. For example: “I cannot stand it any longer.”

Anaphora y a word or phrase refers to something mentioned earlier in the text.

“I’ve just made some dinner if you’d like some.”

Ellipsis and substitution

Ellipsis: Omission of an item

“We went for a walk and took some lovely photographs”

Substitution: Replacement of one item with another:

- We always have a coffee in the morning.
- We do too. I can’t work without a coffee cup.

Connectives and time reference

Connective words or phrases

Our holiday started in Wien where we rented a car. We spent some great days in the
capital and in nearby villages before we drove to Innsbruck.

Placing events in time

Our holiday started in Wien. First of all, we rented a car. We spent some great days
in the capital and in nearby villages. Then we drove to Innsbruck.
Week 2

TEXTUALITY

Neubert and Shreve (1992): “the complex set of features that texts must have to be
considered texts”:

 COHESION
 COHERENCE
 INTENTIONALITY
 ACCEPTABILITY
 INFORMATIVITY
 SITUATIONALITY
 INTERTEXTUALITY

Intentionality: How does the writer’s intention affect the construction of textual
meaning? Linguistic choices are not accidental (think about poems or newspaper
articles).

Acceptability: Readers expect that texts are organized in certain ways, to achieve
certain objectives (instructions, directions, bullet points are generally not expected in
a novel).

Informativity: Are the contents of a text already known? Can they be compared to
already known or expected information?

Situationality: Appropriateness and relevance, like the “NO SMOKING” sign in a

train or restaurant (informal vocabulary for informal situations), or the short and direct
sentences written on urban signs, since the driver does not have much time to read.

Intertextuality: The production and reception of texts often depend on the

knowledge of other texts:
- Deliberate: the text producer purposely borrows from texts
- Latent: references occur unintentionally

Register

 Field: What? What is happening and what is being talked about

 Tenor: Who? Who is taking part in communication and their relationship to each
other.
 Mode: How? How language is being used (channel, medium, nature of the
exchange).
TRANSLATION STRATEGIES

“A translation strategy is a potentially conscious procedure for the solution of a

problem which an individual is faced with when translating a text segment from one
language to another” (Lörscher, 1991).

Plans and processes aimed at resolving a problem or achieving an objective

(translation effectiveness). The translation approach is problem-oriented.

What is a translation strategy?

How do we deal with differences between source language and target language?

Malone (1998) provides a list of 9 strategies:

1) EQUATION:

2) LOAN WORDS:

Loan words are often (but not always) related to sport, food and technical language:

- Italian: rugby, cupcake, layout...

- English: pesto, rucola, bravo!

Sometimes loan words are used even when equivalence is possible:

Rucola > Rocket
Corner > Calcio d’angolo

3) CALQUES:

Calques require morphological adjustments: “Dribblare”, “Formattare”.

Possible traps and limits of this strategy:

- Cognates, false friends

- Frequency of foreign words/loan words in the target language
- Always clarify translation task requirements with your client!
- Never take equivalence for granted!

4) AMPLIFICATION:

Adding further explanation, making information explicit when it is vague or unclear

in terms of meaning or cultural references or when specific knowledge is required:

- We are wrapping up Kwanzaa = Si chiude il capitolo delle feste afro Kwanza

- The old farmhouse was once part of the estate owned by Sir Francis Drake.
Surrounded by picturesque nature, it offers you a great location = (…) di proprietà
di Sir Francis Drake, navigatore e condottiero.

Amplification is also used to fill collocational gaps, that is when an item in the
source language requires a collocation partner in the target language.

They lived happily ever after y Vissero per sempre felici e contenti (text
conventions and genre play an important role in this case).

Most obvious form of amplification: translator’s note, as an endnote, a footnote or

a bracketed addition (e.g. often in city guides).

5) REDUCTION:

Omitting items that are considered unnecessary, not determining or even

misleading

Think about possessives in English. Do they always need to be translated in italian?

t
“You may need to use the product every time you wash your face. After cleaning
your skin, apply it throughout the day. Avoid sensitive areas such as your eyes. If
you have any questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist.”

ITA y EN

globo terrestre y globe

carta geografica y map
 6) DIVERGENCE:

Choosing the suitable term or acceptable construction from a range of

alternatives:

“Should the reservation be cancelled within the 72-hour window, a 100%

cancellation fee applies. Date may be changed subject to availability.”

Should the reservation be cancelled = If the reservation should be cancelled...

7) CONVERGENCE:

Translating alternatives in the source text by one word in the target text:

Lingua, linguaggio y Language

8) DIFFUSION/CONDENSATION:

Effects:
- Producing a longer target text without adding details y DIFFUSION
- Producing a shorter target text without omitting details y CONDENSATION

Show me = Fammi vedere y Diffusion

The killer is alleged/ said/ thought/ reported to have committed other crimes y Il killer
avrebbe commesso altri crimini y Condensation

9) REORDERING:

The translator often needs to rearrange or change the word order in a sentence.

The atmospheric city passionately keeps its written tradition alive…

18th-century bard Robert Burns...

Sentence structure:

- Lisa’s sister likes music. She works in a record company.

- Lisa’s sister likes music and she works in a record company.
- Lisa’s sister, who works in a record company, likes music.
SENTENCE TYPES IN WRITTEN ENGLISH

1) Simple sentences: containing only one clause (one verb group/predicate).

Ex: Lisa’s sister likes music. She works in a record company.

Compound sentences: consisting of two main clauses, joined by a word

(conjunction).

Ex: Lisa’s sister likes music and she works in a record company.

2) Complex sentences

Complex sentences consist of at least one independent clause (simple sentence)

and one or more dependent clauses.

Complex sentences contain a subordinate clause as well as a main clause,

usually joined through conjunctions.

Complex sentences are often used in written texts. They allow writers to connect
information, to establish relationships between events (reason, effect, manner) or
present some of them as more important than others.

Ex: Lisa’s sister, who works in a record company, likes music.

Formal vocabulary: to tower, to go unchanged, ideological shifts, to put in jeopardy,

resilience, to embark, oak, spire, landmark, iconic, to honour.

Evaluative language: statements about quality, importance, amount, or value of

something.

Complex phrases and adjectivization:

- “The cathedral's familiar façade”

- “As physically destructive as the catastrophic fire in April 2019”
- “The original oak roof”
- “Its iconic 19th century spire”

Endophoric reference:

Frequency of endophoric reference:

...that put the landmark in jeopardy and tested its resilience.
...its iconic 19th century spire burn.
Week 3

VERB FORMS IN WRITTEN ENGLISH

Tense:

Tense «expresses the time that an action occurs in relation to the moment of
speaking» (Cowan 2008: 350).

- It has three dimensions (time): present, past, future.

- English marks only past and present time by verb inflection.
- Future time is expressed through other means, e.g. modals (will) or semimodals
(be going to).

Aspect:

Aspect «expresses how the speaker views the action of the verb» (Cowan 2008:
351), e.g. as a complete and/or punctual action, as an ongoing or repeated action.
Tense and aspect combine giving rise to different verb forms.

Aspect can be either lexical or grammatical

 Lexical aspect:

Semantic property related to the type of action.

- Duration
- End point
- Change

1) Stative verbs:

He loves music | They lead a quiet life

A stative verb is a verb used primarily to describe a state of being (I am) or

situation (I have). It's how something is, feels, or appears. These verbs don't show
physical action (I run) or processes (It prints). Stative verbs can describe a mental or
emotional state of being (I doubt) as well as a physical state (Kilroy was here). The
situations illustrated by "state" verbs are unchanging while they last and can
continue for a long or indefinite time period.

2) Dynamic verbs:
 Activity verbs

Gas prices are increasing | They run at least one hour per day.

 Achievement verbs: actions occur instantaneously, either punctually or as a

change of state

She crossed the finish line | Vandals kicked the door down.
They found their keys | They suddenly spotted the murderer in the crowd.

 Accomplishment verbs: actions imply a goal, a result, the action leads up to the
end point of the event. They reach an endpoint in an incremental way

Don't drive so fast! (activity verb) | He drove fast to work. (accomplishment verb)
John eventually recovered from a bad case of pneumonia. | They built a new house

(A VERB MAY FALL INTO MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY!)

 Grammatical aspect:

The speakers can view the action as complete (perfect aspect), ongoing
(progressive aspect), regular (habitual aspect) and so on.

Aspect + Tense/Time

- They will have read the book (perfect aspect + future y future perfect)
- He had read the book (perfect aspect + past y past perfect)
- He has just arrived (perfect aspect + present y present perfect)
VOICE

Voice is related to the perspective from which we view an action and «who or what
serves as the subject in a clause», as opposed to other arguments. (Celce-Murcia,
Larsen-Freeman, 1999).

- Active voice, passive voice, middle voice

- Relates to the relationship between the subject, the action, and/or the object

There are 2 types of interactions between syntactic and semantic roles:

 Syntactic level: Subject, Object y how words and phrases are put together to
form sentences in a language
 Semantic level: Agent, Patient y connected with the meaning of words and
sentences

1. ACTIVE VOICE

Active voice: Unmarked verb (no special focus or meaning)

Agent: Who performs the action

Patient: The person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb

I started the car | Sheila opened the door

2. PASSIVE VOICE

- Passive = to be + past participle

- The subject is the patient

Examples:
Sheila opened the door y The door was opened by Sheila
I started the car y The car was started by me

3. MIDDLE VOICE

Subjects are receiving, rather than performing, the action expressed by the verb.

It’s called “middle” because a person or a thing both performs and is affected by the
action

The door opened | The glass broke | The car started | The new mobiles sell well |
The rope tightened | The rice is cooking | This car drives well
Passive voice: When and why

 When we do not know who did the activity

 When we do not want to mention (or blame) the agent
 When it is not important or it is obvious who did an activity
 When we want to focus on specific language units

Passive voice in academic writing

In depth-interviews with ten adult migrants have been conducted in different

languages and contexts.

 Standard of scientific objectivity

 Providing facts and evidence
 Presenting research and conclusions as not influenced by any specific agent
 Minimizing individual perspectives or personal interests

Modals

 Likelihood that an action or event is taking place

 Speaker’s attitude towards an action, a state or an event
 Ability to perform an action
 Permission to perform an action
 Obligation to perform an action

Form

 Pure modals = can, could, may, might, would, must, should, will
 Marginal modals = dare, need, ought to y They have some but not all of the
properties of an auxiliary, for example do not always undergo inversion in
questions. A marginal modal can be used as either an auxiliary or a main verb

Oughtn't the water to have boiled by now?/ Ought I to write to say thank you?
(Formal and rare) (inversion)
You told him? How did you dare? (No inversion)

 Semimodals: have to, be going to, had better y They are fixed, multi-word
constructions including forms of be and have.
DEONTIC MEANING AND EPISTEMIC MEANING

Deontic and epistemic modals

Deontic modality: More based on a set of rules, expectations, on speaker’s desires

Epistemic modality: More based on reasoning, beliefs, evaluations/judgments,
degree of confidence, doubts, certainties

 You have to be very rich to be successful in politics

(DEONTIC MODALITY – NECESSITY)
 You must be very rich if you own an entire building in the heart of town
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY - CERTAINTY)
 They must have cleared away the mess before they went out
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY – SUPPOSITION FROM EVIDENCE)
 They must have cleared away the mess before the next appointment.
(DEONTIC MODALITY - NECESSITY)
 You may wait for us at the information desk.
(DEONTIC MODALITY – PERMISSION)
 They may be waiting for you at the information desk.
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY – HYPOTHESIS)
 He shouldn’t have said such a stupid thing.
(DEONTIC MODALITY – PERMISSION / ADVICE)
 He can’t have said such a stupid thing.
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY - CARTAINTY)
 Could you repeat what she just said?
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY – POSSIBILITY)
 Shall I repeat what she just said?
(DEONTIC MODALITY - PERMISSION)
 There could have been some method to her madness.
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY - HYPOTHESIS)
 No one could have put it more delicately.
(DEONTIC MODALITY - ABILITY)
 She might be bringing along a friend.
(EPISTEMIC MODALITY - POSSIBILITY)
 She might have let us know in advance.
(DEONTIC MODALITY – NECESSITY / REQUIREMENT)

Hedging

Expressing different degrees of (un)certainty:

- Soften one’s claims
- Style of academic writing
- Politeness strategy

Compare the following short texts:

“Women have what is known as an ‘internal bias’, causing them to under-value their
own abilities or intelligence. Research has shown that if women are told that men do
better in maths tests than women, this affects their score negatively.”

“Women may have what is known as an ‘internal bias’, causing them to under-value
their own abilities or intelligence. Research has shown that if women are told that
men do better in maths tests than women, this can affect their score negatively.”

It is often believed that... (passive voice + hedging)

Week 4

LANGUAGE VARIATION

Language change and variation is a central issue in the field of linguistic studies.
Variability is an inner property of languages. As a global language, English varies
more than other languages at different levels.

Diachronic variation

- Variation of a language over time

- Languages are not fixed entities, but they change through time

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.” [Hamlet, Act I, Scene II]

Diatopic variation y linguistic variation on a geographical level (different dialects

and regional varieties). National, regional, local varieties, dialects

Cockney y
 A person from the East End of London
 The way of speaking that is typical of cockneys
 Any Londoner who speaks with a local accent
 Spoken by working-class Londoners (see next ↓)

Diastratic variation y variation of a language according to the social class or

group the speaker belongs to. The speech of an old, non-educated speaker, for
example, may differ from that of a young, educated speaker.

Diaphasic variation y variation according to the situation. This dimension implies

different degrees of formality as well as a specific vocabulary

Examples: Jargon of rappers, young people, sport enthusiasts, professionals

Diamesic variation y depending on the medium of communication. For example,

the variety used during a phone call may differ from the variety used to write an
email
ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP)

Difference between EFL and ESP:

- EFL = English as a Foreign Language = English taught to or used by non-native

speakers.
- ESP = English for Specific Purposes

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a subset of English as a foreign language,

that focuses on developing communicative skills in a particular field or occupation
(Paltridge, Starfield, 2014). In other words, ESP is a variety of English related to
specialized, technical fields and disciplines.

ESP refers mainly to two dimensions of language variation:

- DIAPHASIC VARIATION: depending on situational factors, on the setting

(professional activity, domain)
- DIASTRATIC VARIATION: depending on social factors such as age, profession,
sex, education, (higher education is often required)

ESP Texts:

 Require a specific vocabulary;

 Imply a specific register;
 The tenor variable plays a determining role in the degree of technical complexity
of each text;
 Different relationships between participants: they share different degrees of
specialization, peer to peer (among academics > magazines, reviews);
specialists to learners (teachers to students > textbooks, manuals, lectures);
specialists to general readers/listeners (divulgation)

Tenor and situationality in ESP

Same field but different tenor:

- Patient to nurse: Good morning, I’m here to have my tonsils out
- Nurse to doctor: Doctor, there’s a patient here for tonsillectomy

Using a specific vocabulary depends not only on the specific subject (i.e. surgery in
both examples above), but also on participants and their relationship to each
other, in terms of professional roles and shared knowledge.
Possible relationships between communication participants (Tenor)

- Specialists address other specialists = describing a research project, reporting

results, data etc. medical examinations

- Specialists address non-specialists = explaining notions, serving educational

purposes)

- Specialists address the layperson = providing technical information through

everyday vocabulary, to reach out to a wider audience

ESPs between communication and social membership

- Communication tool for specific topics and activities

- Social tool by which professionals identify with a specific group of specialists

Learning ESPs

- The ESP focus is on terminology used in specific fields (such as finance, law,
medicine, technology etc.) as well as on the usage of English in those specific
fields.

- Specialized vocabulary acquisition + language use in context

The purpose of communication varies:

 Business setting: marketing products and negotiating deals
 Medical setting: listening with empathy, giving instructions, provide information
about diseases and healthcare
 Legal setting: regulating, stating obligations

Lexical density

Lexical density is a ratio between content words and the total number of words in a
text. The higher lexical density there is, the higher amount of content words there will
be.
y Content word: a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb whose main function is
to express meaning
y Function word: a word that is important to the grammar of a sentence rather than
its meaning, for example “do” in: “We do not live here”.
Translating terminology

As we said, ESP texts are characterised by a field-specific terminology, so this

means that in order to translate these terms it is required the use of monolingual and
bilingual technical dictionaries, corpora, word banks, glossaries, parallel texts.

Some resources:

Net exports: esportazioni nette, saldo netto delle esportazioni

- https://iate.europa.eu/search/result/1650518983565/1 (corpus)

- https://www.augie.edu/sites/default/files/shared/Thomas-Willing-financial-history-
glossary2.pdf (monolingual financial glossary)

- https://www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/financialguide.pdf (monolingual financial

glossary)

- https://www.imf.org/en/About/Glossary (from IMF website - International

Monetary Fund, an organization concerned with economics)

Check website domains: .co.uk, .edu, etc.

Nominalization

 Nominalisation is a process by which actions and processes (concepts

prototypically expressed through verbs) are expressed through nouns and noun
phrases, accompanied by premodifiers.

 Nominalization entails a shift from verb phrases or clauses to noun phrases

 Information is packaged, condensed in complex noun phrases with a typical

design: noun + premodifiers

 Premodifier: a word, especially an adjective or a noun, that is placed before a

noun and describes it or limits its meaning in some way: complex heart surgery
EXAMPLES :

Pattern: NOUN PHRASE + VERB + NOUN PHRASE

A tax cut or an increase in government spending would lead to an expansion in

demand (noun phrase)

If taxes were reduced or if government spending were increased, demand

would be expanded (verb clause)

The introduction of new tax rules by the government should help those on low
incomes (noun phrase)

The government is introducing new tax rules that should help those on low
incomes (verb clause)

NP: A tax cut or an increase in government spending

V: would lead to
NP: an expansion in demand

Effects on the reader/listener

 The use of passive use + nominalization + subordination increases

objectivization (a consequence of nominalisation) and impersonality (passive +
nominalization)

 Nominalisation is so common in ESP texts because it uses economy and

conciseness of special languages y nominalization conveys information in a
concise way.

 Logical connection, consequential arrangement of different ideas (subordination,

e.g., if… then…, in expository/argumentative texts)

Acronyms

MRI = Magnetic resonance imaging RM = Risonanza magnetica

CT = computed tomography TC = tomografia computerizzata

Scenario 1: two doctors talking about a patient

Scenario 2: two doctors talking to a patient

In which scenario would you use acronyms? y Scenario 1

Collocations:

Booms and busts: alternation of prosperity and depression; alternate periods of

high and low levels of economic activity in the business cycle

Idioms + metaphorical language:

- Put something on (one's) shoulders: in the position of being one's sole

responsibility or obligation

- Erode consumer confidence

Metaphor

A word or phrase describing somebody or something in an imaginative way, to show

that two entities share common qualities and to make the description more
impressive; a word or expression normally used of object, action, etc. is extended to
another.

Change in meaning

If used in specific professional languages, some words may have a meaning that
differs from the meaning they have in ordinary English.

THE CASE OF LEGAL ENGLISH:

Legal English in spoken and written communication

Features of legal English

 Specific writing conventions

 pronouns: the same, the aforesaid, instead of he, she, they, etc. y avoiding
ambiguity, referring clearly to the parties mentioned in the document

 Set phrases: null and void = that was never valid, made unenforceable by the law

 Use of rarefied verb forms such as subjunctive:

1) If the Court were to hold for Defendant, there would be no justice for injured
plaintiffs.
2) The committee recommends that he face an enquiry.

Features of legal English: whom and here-, there- and where- words

Archaic formulations belonging to legal tradition: Hereof, thereto, whereof and other
derivatives ending in after, -with, -by, -above, etc. are not common in ordinary
English, but they are still used in legal English to avoid the repetition in documents.

The parties hereto = the parties to this contract

The parties hereby declare = by this means (contract), as a result of this
The contract is effective hereafter = from now on

Whom in legal texts:

How it is used: whom instead of who

I advised John and Mary Clifford, all of whom are contemplating claims against the
XXX Ltd.

This privacy notice is intended for: visitors to GSK and GSK-owned websites;
members of the general public who are interested in contacting or are being
contacted by GSK; and any individual who has received this notice and to whom the
other notices in this Privacy Centre do not apply.

https://privacy.gsk.com/en-gb/privacy-notice/general

Modern trends in addressing people in legal texts

1) Intellectual Property y All intellectual property rights in the material on this site are
owned by the GSK group of companies, or they have been granted permission to
use such material except where specifically stated otherwise. Reproduction of
part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than in accordance with
the following permissions.

“You may read, view, print, download and copy the material on this website for your
personal and non-commercial use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the
source of the material and include the copyright statement “© GSK group of
companies, all rights reserved”. Unless specifically indicated, no other use of the
material is permitted”

Source : https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/terms-of-use/
EXAMPLES :

1. Debtor representation :
The debtor hereby represents and warrants that both parties in this agreement have
set a payment plan to secure that deficiency in a scheduled manner set herein
without further interruption, notwithstanding an additional fees for processing of such
scheduling.

2. Payment plan:
The Parties hereby agree to the scheduled payment plan, as to the declaration of its
contents found on Exhibit A attached hereto (the “Payment plan”). The DEBTOR
shall conform to the schedule set and shall pay to the CREDITOR before or upon
the amount as indicated on the Payments Schedules table.
3. Payment Method:
Payment shall preferably be made to the CREDITOR in accordance to the mode as
indicated in the Payment Plan, but in any case, the DEBTOR may choose his
method of payment to his convenience.

Modals in legal English

 Obligations, authorizations, prohibitions and permissions: shall, will, can and

must
 Shall (long legal tradition): obligation regulated by another party, by an authority
 Will: willingness (more subject-oriented)
 Must (more used in modern legal English): obligation, necessity
 May and can: permission or possibility

Il Presidente dovrà ricevere per i suoi servizi, a tempi determinati, un compenso, che
non potrà essere né aumentato né diminuito durante il periodo per il quale è stato
eletto, ed egli non potrà ricevere in tale periodo qualsiasi altro emolumento dagli
Stati Uniti o da alcuno degli Stati. (Costituzione degli Stati Uniti d’America, Articolo II,
Sezione I).

Target Text = modal + future tense

Shall y usually described as typical modal in legal English, shows a decline

Modern trends in using must in legal English

“Shall isn’t plain English. . . But legal drafters use shall incessantly. They learn it by
osmosis in law school, and the lesson is fortified in law practice. […] Use must, not
shall, to impose requirements. Shall is ambiguous, and rarely occurs in everyday
conversation. The legal community is moving to a strong preference for must as the
clearest way to express a requirement or obligation.”

First, lawyers regularly misuse it to mean something other than “has a duty to.”
Second, it breeds litigation. Third, nobody uses “shall” in common speech.

“Plain language makes it easier for the public to read, understand, and use
government communications.”
Comparing modals in English and Italian legal texts
Italian often resorts to verbs other than modals to express deontic meaning, such as
“obbligarsi a”, “impegnarsi a”

Monoreferentiality

Within a specialized domain (!) and (ideally) independently of the context:

Term ↔ Only one specific referent (meaning)

Concept ↔ Only one specific term

Term

A word or expression that has a precise meaning in some uses or is peculiar to a

science, art, profession, or subject

Denotative language

«Unlike words, terms have a purely denotative function» (Gotti, 2008: 35)

Denotation is a relation between a lexical unit and the object it is used to refer to
(Matthews, 2007: 132)

 Neutral tone, no emphasis

 Connotation: the array of ideas suggested by a word

Terminology standardisation and harmonisation

Communicating specialized knowledge unambiguously

t
Growing demand for terminology standardisation and harmonisation

International bodies setting international standards:

 ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
 BSI (British Standards Institution)
 DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung)
Recap

 Language varieties used by a more or less restricted target community (from

expert to layperson)
 Professional or subject-related languages
 Distinctive terminological and syntactic features
 Continuum between specialized and ordinary language
Week 5

Translating promotional and advertising texts

 Promotion: client’s image, identity and money

 Persuasion is the most pursued goal
 -To different extents, translating promotional texts requires a mix of:
 Adaptation; Transcreation; Localization

Adaptation, transcreation, localization

 Adaptation = omitting, adding, rearranging information while still referring to the

original author. It “aims to solve a pragmatic or cultural problem” (Scarpa, 2020:
217).

 Transcreation = redesigning and rewriting the entire text

 Localization = focusing more on internationalizing software for a specific region

and language

La localizzazione è un atto successivo al processo di traduzione.

Essa prevede una trasformazione del testo, affinché si adatti precisamente alle varie
sfumature della lingua, alla zona geografica e politica presa in considerazione,
cercando di mantenere il medesimo stile linguistico e il significato di origine.
Il preciso significato originario viene quindi collocato in un ambito linguistico e
culturale interamente rinnovato.

Adaptation, transcreation, localization are just alternative labels for translation

processes.

IDEAL CONTENT OF A TRANSLATION BRIEF

 The purpose
 The intended readership/audience
 The channel of distribution for which the target text is intended
 The values and brand/corporate image that should come out in the target text
 The product/service/institution/behaviour that is being promoted
 The producer/provider/promoting organization
 Where possible, the authors of the source text, whether they are the end clients,
and if not, the position of the end clients relative to the text
Case study y Translating: «Architettura tra le due guerre» (literally: architecture
between the two wars)

D Name of a sight-seeing tour promoted in a tourist guide of Forlì in 2005

Referring to functionalist architecture, popular and official under Fascism

The client works with and for local authorities

Text to be printed on columns

Options

1) «Mussolini Deco»:

 Reference to a previous tourist guide on regional architecture during Fascism

 Pros: authoritativeness, intertextuality, historical reference (Forlì urban layout and
architectural style was strongly influenced by Fascism)
 Cons: political exposure, client’s possible hidden agenda
 Rejected by the client

2) «Italian Functionalism between 1920s and 30s»

3) «Functionalist architecture, 1922-43»

4) «Functionalism in Forlì before WWII»

 Pros: specific reference to time and architectural styles

 Cons: length of the name, space restraints on a brochure

Final translation y «Inter-war architecture»

 Neutral
 Negotiated with client
 Approved by the client

Something more than just translators

No translator can work successfully by relying on language skills only. He needs:

 Ability to detect and reproduce textual genres and text conventions
 Proficient use of CAT tools and corpora
 Familiarity with the subject
 Social, marketing and self-marketing skills
Week 6

Promotional Contents

In the tourism industry, language creates expectations and contributes to the

popularity of certain destinations

Features of Tourism related texts:

 Complex noun phrases
 Connotation
 Adjectivization
 Superlatives
 Hyperboles

Hyperboles: "a statement or description that makes something seem larger, better,
worse or more important than it really is, […] exaggeration" (Matthews, 2007: 180)

Monoreferentiality and denotation is typical of specialized languages. On the

contrary, tourism related texts resort to positive evaluative language from different
topic areas.

Present tense:
 Description of locations
 Combined with connotative vocabulary, conveys the idea of glorious, ageless
locations, makes their historical background more impressive:
“Cannizaro House is a 19th Century dwelling that we have ensured maintains
individual character and historic charm. Sensitively refurbished, its former glory
shines on.”

Past tense:
 Typical of narrative texts, especially in guidebooks:
“The chapel was built near the end of the fifteenth century. Pope Sixtus IV had the
best artists of the Renaissance at his disposal to decorate it. Michelangelo didn’t
want to accept the job of painting a masterpiece here but agreed to do it after the
Pope threatened to invade Florence if he didn’t “(Walking Tours of Ancient Rome: A
Secular Guidebook to the Eternal City, by M. Devore, 2008).

Future tense:
 Envisioning the leisure activities that readers can enjoy in the promoted
destination: “you will have the opportunity to walk on a glacier”
Ego-Targeting

Directly addressing the reader, singling him out from the crowd, making him feel as
unique (Dann, 1996)

Appealing, alluring language

Language is as appealing as travel destinations should be for potential tourists

Textual features

 Between narration and description: is narration typical of ESP texts?

 Lexical cohesion: dwelling/mansion; place/setting; character/charm; personalities,
individuality…

Lexical features

 Vocabulary combines and relates to different subjects, such as history, nature,

architecture, environment, sports, gastronomy…
 Evocative, emotional vocabulary

Metaphors

“Directed to the reader’s intelligence and emotions […] intended to enlighten, to

please or to surprise the reader” (Halliday, 2004)

Hybridity in tourism related texts

 Complex sentences, complex noun phrases

 Metaphorical language
 Ego-targeting
 Mixing narration and description
 Tourism related texts are a broader type of LSPs: no homogeneous distinctive
features, especially at the terminological level (Scarpa, 2008).

Culture-specific references

Elements which only exist in the SC (quokka):

 SC elements integrated in the TC (burger)
 References to cultures other than SC and TC (boutique < French)
 References to the TC in the Source Text (tiramisu)

SC = source culture (English)

TC = target culture (Italian)
Translating realia

1) Domesticating strategy:
 Substitution with TL local term or hypernym. ex. Danza del palo di Maggio
 Amplification (explicitation through explanations or glosses). ex. Maypole
Dancing, una danza intorno a un grosso palo di legno che si tiene nel mese di
maggio
 Reduction (or omission) of the cultural reference. ex. Danza di Maggio (no
reference to the pole)

2) Foreignizing strategy:
 Equation (languaging, borrowing; calque)
Ex: Maypole Dancing

LANGUAGING

 Languaging: “the impressive use of foreign words” (Dann, 1996: 184)

 By preserving foreign words used in the source text, the promoted destination
sounds more authentic to the reader
 Words typical of the promoted destination connect the reader with the foreign
culture and lend an exotic twist to the text
Tautology and authenticity in travel articles

 Prototypical image of Tuscany

 The language of tourism describes what the reader already knows, imagines or
expects
 The travel destination is described according to the reader’s expectations
 Authors often use the trip report style to convey the sense of authenticity, but
they focus more on clients’ expectations than on real travel experiences
Week 7
Placing information in a sentence

Relationship between given (already known) and new information:

 Given information: usually at the beginning of the sentence and connected to

previous information
 New information: usually at the end of the sentence

Subject + verb + X (X = other information) = typical word order in English sentences

Main focus strategies

Focus strategies allow to change the usual word order and to reshape the
relationship between given and new information

1) FRONTING

Fronting: moving a word or phrase to the beginning of a sentence, although this is

not its usual position.

Unconsciously, language is used to achieve certain objectives, either to praise,

encourage, guide or to disqualify, humiliate, marginalize the person we speak to.
Unconsciously is a non-subject word and was moved to the normal subject position
The speaker/reader focuses on the beginning of the sentence More emphasis on
specific information (fronting: unconsciously)

2) INVERSION

Inversion: Subject + Verb > Verb + Subject

Ex.: The hill was a green oasis of trees and thick grass. On the top, far from lights
and noises, lived a hermit.
S + V+ X = Subject + verb + other information

Changing the usual word order to focus on different information

-The main weakness of the EU lies in the many questions it does not address.
-In the many questions the EU does not address lies its main weakness.
-It is in the many questions the EU does not address that lies its main weakness.

3) CLEFT SENTENCES

A single sentence is divided (cleft) into two clauses. This allows us to focus on the
new information.

Examples:

The main reason that is pushing Russians from Kazakhstan is the lack of
opportunities for children. But in 40 percent of the cases, it is the language policy
that people do not like.

It is people's attitude towards car use that will inspire the new campaign.

It-cleft sentences

A: Sharon’s car got broken into yesterday, did it?

B: No. It was Nina’s car that got broken into!
D Focus (new information): it was Nina’s car
Understood already (old information): a car got broken into

Wh-cleft sentences

A: I don’t know what to cook for them. I don’t know what they like.
B: What they like is smoked salmon.
D Understood already (old information): we are talking about what they like to eat
Focus (new information): they like smoked salmon

A: This remote control isn’t working.

B: What we need to do is get new batteries for it.

What European citizens need is a more united and integrated EU

___________________________________________________________________

CORPUS

 A collection of texts assumed to be representative of a given language,

dialect, or other subset of a language, to be used for linguistic analysis
(Nelson, 1979: 110)

 A collection of machine-readable1, authentic texts2 […] which is sampled to be

representative3 of a particular language or language variety (McEnery, 2006:
5)

 Una raccolta, in formato elettronico, di testi autentici e ricorrenti nell’uso,

realizzata sulla base di criteri espliciti al fine di costituire una campionatura
equilibrata e rappresentativa di uno stato o di una varietà di una lingua

Machine-readable1: texts collected can be processed by machines

Authentic2 = a corpus must include texts related to a language (variety) that is used
in real communicative situations by a given speech community. So, it may include
different language varieties (diastratic, diatopic, diaphasic varieties, ESPs). The texts
collected are produced in natural contexts, such as everyday conversation,
newspapers, lectures, phone calls, emails…

Representative3 = data extracted from the corpus are true of the entire language or
language variety analysed, so they can be used as a sample of it

Corpora can be either monolingual or bilingual

Some examples of corpora: Monolingual Multilingual

 British National Corpus (20th century English), a big corpus of both written and
spoken (transcribed) texts from different genres;
 COLT Corpus of London Teenage Language
 ACE – Australian Corpus of English
 Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
 The Brown Corpus, the first text corpus of American English (1961)
 British Academic Spoken English Corpus (BASE)
 British Academic Written English Corpus (BAWE)
 British Law Report Corpus
 The Internet
 Corpora processed to extract terms collected in IATE (EU’s terminology
database)

Corpus-based research

Corpora allow users to:

3) Analyse language patterns based on word frequency, collocation and

concordance (e.g., the word dude is more frequent in North American English,
especially in conversation)

4) Confirm or change hypothesis based on text analysis (e.g., Is nominalization

more frequent in ESP texts?)

Examples:

Nominalization instances identified in a specific group of ESP texts can be collected

in a corpus. The processed data show how many noun phrases versus verb phrases
occur in the texts collected
↓
Corpora provide information on language patterns that we should take into account if
we want to produce or effectively translate ESP texts in a given language

Corpus queries: concordance

List of all examples of a word or phrase found in a corpus, usually with the search
word highlighted in the center of the screen and some context to the right and to the
left
Annotated corpora

Annotated corpora provide extra information:

1) Linguistic information such as part-of-speech, lemmata;

2) Extra-linguistic information, e.g., who the speakers/authors are, when the text
was published.

<np> The boy <np> sat on <np> the bench <np>

In the BNC (British National Corpus), for each speaker related to an utterance, the
following metadata are stored:
 Name (anonymized)
 Sex
 Age
 Social class
 Education
 First language
 Dialect/Accent
 Occupation

COLT: the first large English Corpus focusing on the speech of teenagers

 Drawing conclusions from collected data on London Teenage Language

 The list of 1000 most frequent words include items like dunno, gotta, and several
contractions.

CORPORA AND COLLOCATIONS

A collocation, e.g., submit + invoice, typically consists of a node (invoice) and a
collocate (submit).

How strong is the collocation? The higher the score, the stronger the collocation y
Low score = words in the searched collocation combine frequently also with many
other words

Make/express/Fulfil a wish are strong collocations because it is very typical for

wish to occur next to those verbs and, at the same time, wish does not combine with
many other words.

Big house is a weak collocation because both big and house can combine with lots
of other words

Parallel and comparable corpora

 Parallel corpora consist of two or more monolingual text collections. The

same texts are translated into one or more languages and are aligned, i.e.,
corresponding segments (usually sentences or paragraphs) are matched. Users
can search in one or more languages to look up or compare translations
(example: UE corpora).

 Comparable corpora consist of texts from the same domain in more

languages. In these corpora, texts are not translations of each other and
therefore, there are not aligned. Their content is similar, and they may belong to
the same genre and text type, so they can be compared. Examples of
comparable corpora are Wikipedia or company websites available in different
languages.

Specialized corpora

Specialized corpora allow to examine or compare different language varieties

related to specific professional areas, or covering a certain genre or text type,
produced by particular language users.
CORPORA AND TRANSLATORS

Using parallel corpora, translators can train on existing translations and learn
frequent translation equivalents to develop and improve their professional skills.

Corpora allow to identify contrastive areas, frequently occurring translation

strategies, translation universals (solutions generally applying to any source and
target language, such as simplification, explicitation, register shift).
_________________________________________________________________________

THE TRANSLATOR’S RESPONSABILITY

Source text versus target text

Different ideas of the relationship between an original text and its translation:
The translator’s role

 Functionalism: the property of a target text to fulfil a specific function in a target

language is the main translator’s guiding principle.
 The communicative purpose of the TT determines the translator’s choices and
strategies.
 Vermeer: achieving “a text functioning in a target-culture for target-culture
addresses”

Limitations to Functionalism

"The translation purpose justifies the translation procedures, and this could easily be
interpreted as the end justifies the means" (Christiane Nord).

As the translation purpose is often determined by the client, this approach may turn
translators into "mercenary experts, able to fight under the flag of any purpose able
to pay them" (Pym)

Christiane Nord

In Nord’s approach (1992), not only the text function but every partner involved in the
translation process must be taken into account:

1. The author (source text)

2. The client
3. The receiver (target text)

Christiane Nord - The translator’s responsibility

The translator’s responsibility towards:

1) The receiver (target text) y The translator cannot ignore his readers’ expectations
if he wants to produce an effective, functional (= that functions) translation
2) The author (source text) y The translator cannot forget the author’s original
intentions for a specific text
3) The client y The translator should meet the client’s requirements, but cannot
change/bias source texts just to give him whatever he demands y Negotiation

Loyalty

The translator’s responsibility is called Loyalty: it differs from the traditional idea of
fidelity or faithfulness, usually referring to a relationship between the source and the
target texts. Loyalty is an interpersonal relationship between people, as it
commits the translator to the author, the client and the reader.

Nord’s version of the functionalist approach is based on two pillars: function and
loyalty.

Nord’s theory: translating ESP texts

According to Nord’s approach, ST and TT are equally important.

Translating ESP texts:

- ST authors and TT readers usually share similar professional objectives.

- Communicative purposes usually match in the ST and TT.
- In the case of ESP texts, loyalty is relatively easy to achieve.
- Does this relationship change when translators deal with promotional contents?
Is it easy to be loyal to all the partners involved? Is negotiation important in this
respect?

The translator’s role and position

Christiane Nord: Text function + Loyalty

Translating is not a code-switching operation, «but a circular, recursive process in

which it is possible and even advisable to return to early stages of the analysis».
Christiane Nord: the translation process

Before starting any translation, the translator should analyze:

 The source text: what the target text should look like according to the source
text author and his intentions
 The translation brief: what the target text should look like according to the
client’s requirements

Comparing the source text and the translation brief: is the task feasible?
- Identifying translation problems
- Identifying a strategy to produce a target text that works for the target audience in a
given target situation-in-culture

Situation-in-culture

Communicative situations are embedded in cultures, are bound to culture-specific

norms and conventions. The professional translator has a profound knowledge of
both source and target cultures:

Example:
IT: Puoi darmi del tu > EN: You can call me John (by my name)

Receivers find the target text consistent with their situation-in-culture, with their
sociolinguistic conventions.