27472 - Specialized translation between English and Italian II (CL2)

Learning outcomes

The student :
- is to acquire a good working knowledge of the strategies, techniques, traditional and current advanced tools and methods of specialized translation work

- is then able to apply them in the translation of specialized texts of different types and genres within the technical-scientific fields
- is to be conversant with and capable of using the basic  techniques of documentation, writing and revising texts, and is able to assess the quality of the texts s/he has produced
- is to be able to identify and apply the advanced translation strategies that are most appropriate to the communicative functions of the source texts

Course contents

The course is made of four different modules:

Technical/scientific module

Prof. Boothman will choose one or more texts, possibly within the general economic field, as the basis for the translation exercises of the course

Technical/scientific module ENG/ITA
This module focuses on the translation of specialised texts mainly in the domain of economics/finance. When tackling translation and revision in this area, special care will be taken to enhance documentation strategies and the creation of resources to assist translation (translation memories, glossaries, corpora): to this end, CAT and corpus query tools, i.e. IT tools usually used in the profession, will also be practiced.

Multi-media Module
The voice-over module will provide a theoretical and practical introduction to the translation techniques required to adapt documentaries from and into English.

Editorial module
This module aims at analysing some aspects of editorial translation, in particular students will be asked to concentrate their attention on the editing process. Texts will be analysed from the point of view of both content, style and function. During classes students will learn how to enable their capacity of translation quality assessment.

Readings/Bibliography

Technical/Scientific Module

Peter Newmark is always a good source of sound, practical advice. For linguistic analyses, start from the notions of field, tenor, mode and communicative purpose as outlined in Halliday and Hasan's "Cohesion in English" (absolutely essential). For the analysis of scientific texts see the relevnt chapters of Bhatia ("Analysing Genre") and Swales ("Genre Analysis"), as well as Halliday and Martin's "Writing Science". Juan Sager e M.T. Cabrè are other useful authors for technical-scientific texts, as are Larry Selinkerand Hatim and Mason. 

The volume edited by Tullio De Mauro "Studi sul trattamento dell'informazione scientifica", contains a wide range of studies of scientific and technical texts.

For a(n) historical reconstruction of translational activity, but not only this, see M. Morini /La traduzione (Teorie, strumenti, pratiche)/. Sironi Editore, 2007.

·        For macro-micro textual analyses, the main authors to consult are:

Jakobson (1959), Austin (1955), Searle (1997), Palmer (1990, 1986, 2001), Swales (1990), Bhatia (1994), Halliday & Hasan (1976), Hatim & Mason (1990, 1997), Newmark (1982, 1988, 1991),  Gunnarsson, Linel & Nordberg (edit) (1997), Cortellazzo (1994),  Dardano (1994b, 2004, 2005), Gotti (1991, 2006),  Eco (2003).

Whenever possible, consult original source texts rather than those of authors who merely quote the originals at second hand.

Multi-media Module

Per il modulo multimediale
 *   Orero, P. (2004): The pretended Easiness of Voice-over Translation of TV Interviews. In Journal of Specialised Translation. Issue 2. http://www.jostrans.org/issue02/art_orero.php (2006): Voice-over: A case of Hyper-reality. In: MuTra 2006 – Audiovisual Translation Scenarios: Conference Proceedings.
 *   Pageon (2007): The World of the Voice-over. Actors World production Ltd.
 *   Viaggio, S. (2001): Simultaneous interpreting for television and other media: translation doubly constrained. In: (Multi)Media Translation. Ed.:Gambier, Y. and Gottlieb, H. John Benjamins Publishing. Amsterdam/Philadelphia. P.: 23-31.
More texts will be added to this list during the semester.

Teaching methods

Technical/Scientific module (ITA/ENG)
  Module of translation towards English: Translations to be analysed in class while the actual work of translation is done in part outside the lecture/seminar sessions 

Technical/Scientific module (ENG/ITA)
Classes will be held in the computer lab, with substantial hands-on practice of translation (individually, in pairs and small groups), IT tools, correction and revision tasks, the latter being also carried out as peer assessment.

Multi-media Module
Activities will be structured on group work both in the classroom and at home.

Editorial Module
Students will be asked to work in class and at home individually and in groups. Their translations will be corrected during feedback lessons. During labs students will be asked to assess the quality of their colleagues translations as well as their own

Assessment methods

Technical/Scientific module ITA/ENG

Translation towards English: Examination, in a computer room with access to internet, that will consist of the translation of a text similar in type to those dealt with during the module.  Use of Trados if requested is accepted


Technical/Scientific module ENG/ITA
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An end-of-course translation test will be taken in the computer lab; the text to be translated will be comparable – in terms of topic and text type – to those analysed during the course, and students will be able to use the tools with which they practiced as well as the resources they produced.  

Multi-media Module
Voice-over adaptation into English of a 2-minute clip (from a documentary) + voice-over adaptation into Italian of a 4-minute clip (from a documentary)

Editorial Module
Students will have to produce a trnaslation fo about 1500 words. Details will be given during classes

Teaching tools

Technical/scientific module ITA/ENG
  Translation towards English: Parallel texts, corpora in the two languages (source and target), learners and (preferably) specialist or authoritative mono- and bi-lingual dictionaries; use of Google Scholar (often preferable to the generic Google pages for the use in context of linguistic phrasing and for specialist information). The European Union multilingual dictionary site www.iate.europa.eu is particularly usefil, as are the glossaries compiled by specialist institutions in the sector.

Technical/scientific module ENG/ITA
Networked PCs with Internet access; CAT and corpus query tools.

Multimedia module
Internet, computer, specific software

Editorial Module
Labs, internet access, online and traditional dictionaries

Office hours

See the website of Adele D'Arcangelo

See the website of Rachele Antonini

See the website of Sara Castagnoli

See the website of Derek Boothman