30082 - French Language (LM)

Learning outcomes

The student is thoroughly acquainted with linguistic and discursive aspects of the French language from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, including in its applications to textual analysis and translation. Through practical exercises, his or her communicative competence in all skills, active and passive, progresses toward level C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference, which makes him or her able to effectively interpret the socio-linguistic and cultural codes of the subjects involved in a communicative relationship.

Course contents

Students with SLDs or temporary or permanent disabilities: we suggest that you contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and your professor immediately to work together to find the most effective strategies for attending classes and/or preparing for exams.

Any requests for accommodations must be made at least 15 days before the date of the exam, by sending an email to the lecturer and copying (Cc) the email address [disabilita@unibo.it](mailto:disabilita@unibo.it ) (in case of disability) or [dsa@unibo.it](mailto:dsa@unibo.it ) (for students with Specific Learning Difficulties).

 

This course is devoted to the concept of linguistic variation and literary translation in the context of Francophonie, with a special focus on the Quebec landscape. 
Within a general discourse on the importance of language policies, the course will address the concept of polycentric French from a theoretical point of view: language history, lexical particularities of varieties. The case of Quebec will be examined by treating its linguistic and lexicographic history and integrating it with the concept of heterolingualism. The course also consists of an applied laboratory part devoted to literary translation of Francophone works.
The course aims to provide the theoretical knowledge and application tools to identify and interpret linguistic variety within the literary text.

 

2) ESERCITAZIONI LMCP (Daniel Caddoux)

¨ beyond the objectives already achieved within the three-year degree (i.e. to understand and appreciate the specificities of the Italian language compared to the French language, and vice versa; to strengthen the morpho-syntactic knowledge of French so that the student is able to identify and avoid the difficulties of contrastive grammar that arise from the original structures of the two languages; to raise awareness of the mutual syntactic and lexical needs of the two languages; to develop the acquisition of reflexes that allow the student to progress in his/her path to translator and language scholar at university level; for more information on the specific training objectives, see work plan Esercitazioni Linguistiche-Thème 3rd year), -through an accurate interlinguistic analysis of contemporary literary texts (20th-21st century)-, develop intercultural competence in the student.

¨ strengthen vocabulary: meaning; use and translation problems of specific terms; polysemy and frequency; polymorphy (e.g.: tear/tear; sacrifice/sacrifice); synonyms and geosynonyms (e.g. toy/toy; tap/cinnamon; watermelon/watermelon; plumber/tinker; pasta/soup); antonyms; semantic load (e.g.: fright / épouvante, peur ?); connotations and subjective, affective or expressive evaluation of lexemes (e.g.: mamma /maman, mère ?); antiphrases (e.g.: a nice cheek /un sacré culot); deonomastics (e.g.: dance of Saint Vitus/danse de saint Guy); brand names (e.g.: Scottex/Sopalin); “images culturelles” (e.g.: a forty-eight happened; le mot de Cambronne); false friends.

¨ identify the characteristics of the recipients and de-construct/re-construct the text, if necessary, so that the translation can respond to the needs and expectations: reflect on the context of use and formulate adequate translation hypotheses.

¨ stimulate the continuous re-construction of meaning and meaning in a process of adaptation to the target culture/language: reflect on the communication between French and Italian culture, discover commonalities and differences (which shared cultural references?), make the experience of other cultures usable (realia), encourage mutual positive contamination in order to avoid ethnocentrism.

¨ raise awareness of the mutual specificities of the two languages, develop a reasoned translation strategy (problems of phraseology, idiomatisms, adaptation, transparency, translation-calculation, traduction cibliste/oriented to the target text, traduction sourcière/oriented to the source text, linguistic repertoire, contraintes/lexical and/or morphosyntactic constraints, idiomatisms, étoffement/amplification, explicitation, compensation, loss, expansion, omission, ajout/unjustified addition, surtraduction/hyper-translation, sous-traduction/hypo-translation, interference...) and return/negotiate, in translation into French, the literary genre, the tone, the style and the language register, the social groups that use it, the era, the place, the intentions, the context.

Readings/Bibliography

Maria Teresa Zanola, Le français de nos jours, Carocci, 2023

France Martineau, Le français au Québec , Editions Ophrys, 2022

Mireille Elchacar, Délier la langue, Alias, 2022

 

2) ESERCITAZIONI LMCP (Daniel Caddoux)

https://www.unibo.it/it/didattica/insegnamenti/insegnamento/2021/465732

Teaching methods

Lectures, debate, oral exposé, practical exercises using databases and dictionaries.

 

2) Esercitazioni LMCP (Daniel Caddoux)

¨ Written production:

- translation into French of contemporary Italian classical authors (e.g.: Luigi Pirandello, Grazia Deledda, Federigo Tozzi, Michele Prisco, Primo Levi, Goffredo Parise, Vasco Pratolini, Elsa Morante, Mario Rigoni Stern, Enzo Striano, Erri De Luca...)

- checking compliance with the rules of the language, the use of appropriate vocabulary and what is indicated in point 1 (General training objectives)

¨ Teaching strategies and methodology:

a) following a path of progressive difficulty, giving students a text to be translated for the next lesson;

b) during the next lesson:

- sentence after sentence, socialization of possible translations;

- identification of the difficulties and consequent specific needs of the text;

- correction, debate, in-depth analysis

Assessment methods

The course is divided into two parts and the final grade will result from a WEIGHTED average of the results in thirtieths of the «Exercises» part (1/3 of the grade) and the monographic part (2/3 of the grade).

Attention: validity of partial exam tests: 4 sessions including the first, the one in which the test was taken.

To access the oral exam of the Monographic Course you must have passed the reader's tests. A partial grade cannot be rejected, but only the average of the final grades.

MONOGRAPHIC COURSE (Paola Puccini)

ORAL PART (for attending and non-attending students). Students will prepare an exposé in French starting from the topics covered, analyzing an example of communication of their choice from both a theoretical and practical point of view.

The exposé must offer an original reading of the texts and demonstrate a profound knowledge of the theoretical tools, through a clear exposition of the objectives and methodology used.
The oral exam will consist of an interview in French starting from the topic covered in the essay (to be submitted): the student will be asked to present his work in 10/15 minutes, then to answer questions on theoretical or linguistic topics relating to the texts covered.

 

2) ESERCITAZIONI LMCP (Daniel Caddoux)

- N. 1/1 final written test (translation into French of an Italian text of approximately 200 words / time available 2 hours): January session, or the following May/September;

- In the 30/30 assessment, as indicated in point 1 (General training objectives), the rendering in French of the specificities related to morpho-syntax/phraseology (morpho-syntactic/phraseology error: - 0.5 point) and lexicon (lexical error: - 0.5 point) will be appreciated, as well as an effective translation strategy that respects the typology of the text, - tone, style, register of language, intentions, realia, context of fruition- (whose mathematical evaluation is however impossible).

- During the final written test, the student can make use of the help of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, glossaries, manuals, handouts, personal notes.

 

Teaching tools

USITO https://usito.usherbrooke.ca/

Dictionnaire des Francophones https://www.dictionnairedesfrancophones.org/

Office hours

See the website of Paola Puccini