B6116 - ITALIAN LINGUISTICS FOR INTERPRETERS

Learning outcomes

Students know the main aspects (terminology, concepts and methods) of discourse and speech analysis. They are able to process and use additional metadiscoursive knowledge and skills at a higher level.

Course contents

The course aims at enhancing comprehension and expression skills in Italian, useful for future interpreters working in private or institutional contexts, through the acquisition of some concepts of applied and educational linguistics. We will firstly begin with some notions of the acquisition and learning processes of L2/LS and the concepts of competence and ability, with particular reference to orality.
Particular attention will then be paid to observing the pragmatic aspects of monologic and dialogic oral discourse and the strategies employed by speakers: meaning modulations (intensity, prosodic variations, hedging), implicit and inferential mechanisms, marked syntax, cohesive mechanisms, textuality.
We will focus on enhancing lexical skills, also with respect to intralinguistic reformulation skills, starting with discourses strongly embedded in national and international current affairs.

While keeping a certain variety of genres and types of speech selected, preference will be given to argumentative speech and speech on current topics: press conference, interview, university lecture, speech in Parliament, news item on the news or radio, public debate. In connection with the teaching of interpretation, students will be able to take an active part in the proposal of discourses in Italian.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students
Students will be asked to elaborate a personal reflection on the features of oral discourse in Italian. The analysis of the features of oral speech will have to be supported and argued by the study of a few articles of the student's choice (cf. field "Methods of assessment and evaluation of learning"). A wide selection of articles will be made available to attending students on the Virtual Platform. Other references will be given during lectures and one lesson will be one lecture will be devoted to bibliographical source-oriented research. The selection of bibliographical references for the oral examination can be carried out with the advice and support of the teacher.
The material (slides, etc.) used in class is an integral part of the syllabus and is available on the 'Virtual' platform. The Glossary of new words co-developed during the course will also be discussed.

For non-attending students (InTeCo curriculum only):
Required readings
Bazzanella, C. (1994), Le facce del parlare. Un approccio pragmatico all’italiano parlato, Firenze: La Nuova Italia (solo cap. 1, Parlare e Scrivere, pp. 7-34).
Cervini, C. (2021), "Quale linguistica per gli interpreti in formazione? Un excursus sulle competenze in lingua madre". In Russo, M.C., Interpretare da e verso l'italiano. Didattica e innovazione per la formazione dell'interprete. Bologna University Press (pp. 115-134).
Voghera, M. (2017), Dal parlato alla grammatica. Costruzione e forma dei testi spontanei, Carocci editore (solo cap. 3, Dalla modalità ai testi).
Caffi, C. (1999), On mitigation, Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 31, Issue 7 (solo pp. 881-909).
Marotta, G., Vanelli, L. (2021), Fonologia e prosodia dell'italiano, Carocci Editore (solo cap. 5, Prosodia).

Other interesting references just for your knowledge (not compulsory for the exam):
Bazzanella, C. (2011), Linguistica e pragmatica del linguaggio, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza.
Bazzanella, C. (1994), Le facce del parlare. Un approccio pragmatico all’italiano parlato, Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Bersani Berselli, G., Mack, G., Zorzi, D., Linguistica e interpretazione, Bologna: CLUEB.
Casadei F., Fiorentino G., Samek-Lodovici V. (1995), L'italiano che parliamo, Rimini: Fara Editore.
Díaz-Galaz S., Torres A. (2019), Comprehension in interpreting and translation: testing the phonological interference hypothesis, Perspectives, 27:4, 622-638.
Díaz-Galaz S. (2014), Individual factors of listening comprehension in a second language: Implications for interpreter training. Synergies Chili, 10, 31-40.
Hyland K. (2000), Hedges, Boosters and Lexical Invisibility: Noticing Modifiers in Academic Texts, Language Awareness, 9:4, 179-197.
Lombardi Vallauri, E., Masia, V. (2016), “Specificità della lingua persuasiva”: l’implicito discutibile”, in Ruffino, G., Castiglione, M., La lingua variabile nei testi letterari, artistici e funzionali contemporanei, Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore (pp. 637-652).
Novelli, S. (2014), Si dice? Non si dice? Dipende. L’italiano giusto per ogni situazione, Ed. Laterza.
Orletti, F. (2014), La conversazione diseguale. Potere e interazione, Roma: Carocci Editore.
Russo M. C. (2021), Interpretare da e verso l’italiano: didattica e innovazione per la formazione dell’interprete, Bologna: BUP Open Teaching.
Voghera, M. (2017), Dal parlato alla grammatica. Costruzione e forma dei testi spontanei, Carocci editore.

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lectures, individual and group work.

The practical activities will mainly focus on reformulations, summaries, intralinguistic translations etc. of authentic, unplanned oral texts or oralised writings.

Students will be invited to carry out practical activities individually or in small groups and to share self- and hetero-evaluation initiatives.

Assessment methods

The oral exam consists in a discussion of the main concepts and a discourse analysis activity.

(a) Practical activity (for all students)
(i) selection, listening, transcription and analysis of a short oral speech (max. 5 minutes). The transcription and supporting information must be handed in to the teacher at least 3 days before the examination;
(ii) summary at the oral;
iii) discourse analysis focusing on two relevant features of the student's choice (lexical, syntactic, pragmatic, prosodic, etc.);

(b) Discussion
For attending students: discussion of the content covered in class (slides + glossary) and of the individual in-work bibliography, i.e. 4 articles of your choice. The lecturer will explain at length the characteristics of the oral examination during the lectures.
For non-attending students (InTeCo only): discussion of the content of the compulsory articles listed in the bibliography under the specific session.
The lecturer will organise a targeted reception for non-attending students to help them prepare for the exam.


Evaluation criteria
Practical activity (max.15 points out of 30)
oral synthesis: identification of main information + fluency;
reformulation: ability to find variants + pragmatic equivalence;
discourse analysis: ability to detect salient linguistic features of discourse.
Theoretical insights (max. 15 points out of 30)
clarity of exposition and accuracy of terminology;
extent and completeness of theoretical knowledge;
critical thinking and re-elaboration skills.

Overall Marks:
28 to 30L: very good command of theoretical content, very good oral exposition skills and very good discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning skills.
26 to 27: good command of theoretical content, good oral presentation skills and good discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning skills.
23 to 25: moderate command of theoretical content, fair oral presentation skills and fair discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning skills.
20 to 22: more than adequate command of theoretical content, oral presentation skills and discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning skills.
18 to 19: elementary but adequate content knowledge with discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning skills to be improved.

The teaching of 'Linguistics for Interpreters' is part of the integrated course of Methods, Technologies and Linguistics for Interpretation. The grade awarded will be the average obtained in the two modules.

Teaching tools

Slide and further material.
In addition to traditional classroom teaching, we will use an instance on the Platform Virtuale to share slides and course materials and to initiate discussion and comparison activities via forum.

Office hours

See the website of Cristiana Cervini