The objective of this course is, on the one hand, to familiarize students with the theoretical approaches of linguists and translation specialists on the relationship between linguistics and translation and on the other hand, to form their own opinion about the contribution of linguistics to translation and vice versa through small research projects. For this purpose, we study linguistic approaches to translation proposed by contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, and text-linguistics. The aim is for students to combine theory with practice, using free software for creating text corpora such as AntConc, Sketch Engine etc. for the study and analysis of linguistic and translation equivalences between English and Greek.
Upon successful completion of the Module, students will be able to:
- analyse the original text and identify translation problems
- self-assess choices made during the translation process
- distinguish the differences between linguistic varieties in two working languages
- tranlate linguistic varieties from the original to the target text by evaluating their function
- create and use IT tools such as bilingual text corpora
- recognise differences and similarities between several registers in two parallel texts and use translation strategies to resolve translation problems
- respect cohesion markers in their translation
- edit translated text or post-edit MT texts
Week 1: Introduction to the relations between linguistics and translation: presentation of the Module and instructions for the final written assignment.
Week 2: Contrastive linguistics and translation: introduction to translation techniques
Week 3: Translation strategies: examples and exercises
Week 4: Corpus linguistics and translation: theory
Week 5: Corpus linguistics and translation: ways and methods of creating monolingual and bilingual corpora
Week 6: Exercises on parallel corpora for translation practice
Week 7: Introduction to sociolinguistics: Theory
Week 8: Introduction to sociolinguistics: focus on registers, dialects and inclusive language
Week 9: Exercises on translation problems related to registers, dialects and inclusive language
Week 10: Introduction to text-linguistics: focus on cohesion markers
Week 11: Exercises on translation problems related to cohesion markers
Week 12: Recapitulation on the relations between linguistics and translation
Week 13: Final presentation of written assignments and comments
Austin, John L. (1962) How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words. London & New York: Routledge.
----- (ed) (1998) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London & New York: Routledge.
Baker, Paul (2014) Using Corpora to Analyse Gender. London: Bloomsbury.
----- (2010) Sociolinguistics and Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
----- (ed.) (2009) Contemporary Corpus Linguistics. London: Continuum.
----- (2006) Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.
Bassnett, Susan (1991) Translation Studies. London: Methuen.
Beaugrande, de Robert & Wolfgang Dressler, (1981) Introduction to Text Linguistics. London & New York: Longman.
Dias-Cintas Jorge & Aline Remael (2007) Audiovisual Translation : Subtitling. London & New York: Routledge.
Delisle, Jean (1980) L’analyse du discours comme méthode de traduction. Ottawa: Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa.
― & Judith Woodsworth (eds) (1995) Translators Through History. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Dressler, Wolfgang (ed.) (1978) Current Trends in Text Linguistics. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Fawcett, Peter (1997) Translation and Language. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Halliday, Michael & Ruquayia Hasan (1980) Cohesion in English. London & New York: Longman.
Halliday, Michael A. K, Angus McIntosh & Peter Strevens (1964) The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching. Longmans Linguistic Library. London: Longmans.
Halliday, Michael A. K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic: the social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
The lesson has a hybrid lecture-workshop format. It is largely based on the interaction with students and classroom discussion. Hands-on sessions focus on practical aspects of the issues covered and described during the lectures.
PPT presentations
The MT system e-Translation
The corpus analysis tools AntConc and Sketch Engine
Open eClass platform.
A final written assignment abd a final exam are used to assess the students.
Students are assessed in the following:
- ability to synthesise literature
- development of scientific thinking and argumentation
- originality of ideas
- ability to use new technologies.
There are explicitly defined assessment criteria and they are accessible to students in the open e-class platform (the criteria are given together with the assignment topics).
