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 to strengthen oral comprehension and oral production skills in Italian, which are particularly useful for future interpreters working in public and private settings, through the acquisition of selected concepts from applied and educational linguistics. Particular attention will be devoted to the pragmatic aspects of monologic and dialogic oral discourse, with reference to speakers’ communicative intentions and to the strategies used to convey them: modulation of meaning (intensity, hedging, prosodic variation), implicit meanings and inferential mechanisms, rhetorical figures, cultural and intercultural references, cohesive devices, and textuality.

We will reflect on the features that determine the complexity of oral discourse, also from the perspective of its rendering in interpreting. The course will focus on the development of lexical competence, including intralinguistic reformulation skills, starting from speeches and oral texts closely connected to current national and international affairs. Students will learn to apply selected conventions for the transcription of spoken language.

While maintaining a certain degree of variety in the genres and types of discourse selected, the course will privilege argumentative discourse and topics of current national and international relevance, such as press conferences, parliamentary speeches, television or radio news reports, and public debates. We will observe how the same event or issue can be described and argued from substantially different perspectives and points of view, also depending on the media context in which it is conveyed.

In coordination with the teaching activities of the interpreting courses, students will be encouraged to play an active role in proposing speeches and oral texts in Italian.

Readings/Bibliography

For attending students
(Interpreting Curriculum and Interpreting and Technologies for Communication Curriculum)

The materials used in class, including slides and other resources, are an integral part of the study programme and are available on the Virtuale platform. Students are required to develop a short personal reflection pathway by selecting three scientific articles for further reading on the topics covered in the course, or on closely related themes.

A broad, curated selection of articles is available to students on the Virtuale platform. The bibliographic references to be discussed during the oral examination may be selected with the guidance and support of the course instructor.

Some bibliographic references, by way of example (to be completed):

Bazzanella, C. (2011), Linguistica e pragmatica del linguaggio, Roma-Bari: Editori Laterza.
Caffi, C. (1999), On mitigation, Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 31, Issue 7 (solo pp. 881-909).
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.
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).
Marotta, G., Vanelli, L. (2021), Fonologia e prosodia dell'italiano, Carocci Editore.
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.

For non-attending students (InTeCo curriculum only):
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).

 

Teaching methods

The first class will be devoted to presenting the course contents, classroom working methods, and assessment procedures, including the characteristics of the project work.

Subsequently, the Thursday class will have a more practical, workshop-based format, aimed at analysing an oral discourse, identifying the speakers’ discursive and pragmatic strategies, and carrying out reformulation activities. The Friday class, by contrast, will be more theoretical and will focus on selected concepts from applied linguistics that are relevant to discourse analysis.

The final three or four classes — depending on the teaching pace most appropriate for the class — will be devoted to the development and presentation of a project work in small groups of three students. Peer-assessment activities will also be carried out.

Assessment methods

The assessment consists of an oral examination involving a discussion of the main concepts acquired during the course and of the contents of the selected articles.

Description of the exam
a) Project work

Each group, composed of three students, will be required to carry out a project work based on the comparative analysis of three oral or written texts, drawn from different media sources and relating to the same current topic. At least one of the texts must be oral, and at least one source must be institutional. The three texts may all be in Italian, or two may be in Italian and one in a language chosen by the group. The oral text must be transcribed using a simplified version of the Jefferson transcription conventions. The analysis must highlight the different points of view expressed on the same event or issue, describing the linguistic, pragmatic, discursive and rhetorical strategies through which these points of view are constructed and conveyed.

Particular attention should be paid to typical features of spoken discourse, the participants’ communicative intentions, the management of point of view, lexical and argumentative choices, as well as strategies of emphasis, mitigation, reformulation, legitimation or distancing. The project work will conclude with a reflection on the value of this type of analysis for the linguistic and professional training of interpreters.

The project work will be developed and presented in class, at least in part, during the final part of the course. It will then be briefly discussed again during the oral examination.

b) Theoretical part 

For attending students: discussion of the contents covered in class, the project work and the individual bibliographic pathway for further study, namely three selected articles. The course instructor will explain the characteristics of the oral examination in detail during the classes.

Assessment criteria 
Practical activity / Project work

The assessment will take into account:
(1) the coherence of the choice of the three texts in relation to the current topic; the variety of sources; the presence of at least one oral text and at least one institutional source; the accuracy of the transcription of the oral text according to the Jefferson conventions;
(2) the depth and accuracy of the linguistic-discursive and pragmatic analysis;
(3) the ability to reflect critically on the relationship between points of view, communicative strategies and interpreting competences.

Theoretical part 

The assessment will take into account:
(1) clarity of presentation and terminological accuracy;
(2) breadth and completeness of theoretical knowledge;
(3) the ability to reflect on and critically rework the course contents.

Mark allocation

a) Project work: maximum 15 points out of 30.
b) Theoretical questions: maximum 15 points out of 30.

Overall

• 28–30 with honours: excellent command of the theoretical contents, excellent oral presentation skills, and excellent ability in discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning.
• 26–27: good command of the theoretical contents, good oral presentation skills, and good ability in discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning.
• 23–25: fair command of the theoretical contents, fair oral presentation skills, and fair ability in discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning.
• 20–22: more than sufficient command of the theoretical contents, oral presentation skills, and ability in discourse analysis, reflection and reasoning.
• 18–19: basic but sufficient knowledge of the contents, with discourse analysis, reasoning and reflection skills requiring improvement.

The course unit “Linguistics for Interpreting” is part of the integrated course “Methods, Technologies and Linguistics for Interpreting”. The final mark will be the average of the marks obtained in the two modules.

Students with specific learning disorders (SLD) or temporary or permanent disabilities, including serious health conditions that interfere with the normal continuation of their studies, are kindly requested to contact the relevant University office in good time, preferably before the beginning of the course: Service for Students with Disabilities and SLD: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it

Please note: the relevant Office will be responsible for proposing any adaptations to the students concerned. These adaptations must in any case be submitted to the course instructor for approval at least 15 days before the examination date. The instructor will assess their appropriateness also in relation to the learning objectives of the course.

Limited use of AI

With regard to the assessment of learning, limited, explicitly declared and non-substantial use of AI is permitted for support activities, for example in producing a first draft of the transcription of the oral text.

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