THEORY AND METHODS IN

TRANSLATOR EDUCATION

AT THE AARHUS SCHOOL

OF BUSINES

Anne Lise Laursen / Ismael Arinas Pellón

Master’s in Specialised Translation

2008 New Structure + Practicum

Introductory Module

Interaction Module / Financial

Translation

Tools and Methods

• BERNARDINI & CASTAGNOLI

• SWALES

• BHATIA

• TROSBORG

• FUNCTIONAL TRANSLATION

• CONCORDANCER

• ANTCONC

CORPUS SKOPOS

CORPORA GENRE

Composition of Corpora

SPANISH

CORPUS

DANISH

CORPUS

Number of Tokens 434,144 145,337

Number of Types 15,100 10,701

Documents in Corpus 14 14

To reveal cross-cultural and cross-linguistic differences

Contrastive Features

Vinay y Darbelnet (1959/1995) :Comparative stylistics of French and

English:

Two important features to be generalized:

1) The linked nature of French = marking interconnections of thought

translation might benefit from e.g. leaving out connectors/articulating connectors:

(Socially and politically) there is a widespread discontent …

> Il règne en effet dans les profound mécontentement, un malaise politique …

2) Predominance of French nouns:

translation might benefit from converting verbs into nouns/converting nouns into verbs

People cheered as the troops marched by

> les gens ont applaudi sur le passage des troupes

Contrastive Features

Korzen & Lundquist (2003)

Contrasts between Scandinavian and Romance languages:

Romance family: exocentric = relatively more information weight outside the verb/verbal phrase, i.e. in the noun

Scandinavian family: endocentric = relatively more information weight in the

centre of the proposition, i.e. in the verb

Romance languages: predominance of nominal style

Scandinavian languages predominance of verbal style

All’indizione delle elezioni lunedí scorso, sembrava che …

‘At the calling of elections last Monday, it seemed that …’

Da valget blev udskrevet forrige mandag, kunne det se ud til at …

‘When elections were called last Monday it seemed that …’

Nominal vs. Verbal Style

LSP tends to level out stylistic contrasts

terms = nouns

Corpus attestation:

Consolidation

Practice of combining the financial statements of the companies in a group into one document.

se consolida*/ser/es/son consolida*/consolidación:

6% verbalization in Spanish corpus

konsolideres/konsolidering:

15% verbalization in Danish corpus

Demonstratives

Demonstratives =

Salient reference = explicit linking

Demonstrative NPs:

= Combination of salient linking + nominal style

Corpus attestation (coping with inexperienced translators’ tendency to use literal translations):

Contrastive Features

Masculine

singular

Feminine

singular

Masculine plural Feminine plural

ESTE (661) ESTA (628) ESTOS (324) ESTAS (365)

ESE (40) ESA (26) ESOS (4) ESAS (16)

AQUEL (4) AQUELLA (5) AQUELLOS (101) AQUELLAS (73)

2247 demonstratives: 0,517%

Dual Neutral Plural

DENNE (89) DETTE (71) DISSE (150)

310 demonstratives: 0,213%

Contrastive Features

Este importe (20 out of 1627)

1.22%

Dette beløb (1 out of 283)

0.35%

Este tipo de + noun (23 out of

1023) 2,24%

Denne type/denne slags +

noun (0) 0%

Este ejercicio (19 out of 2053)

0.92%

Dette regnskabsår (0 out of

178) 0%

Esta interpretación (43 out of

77) 55.84%

Denne fortolkning (1 out of

95) 1.05%

Esta norma (32 out of 95)

33.68%

Denne standard (0 out of 25)

0%

Contrastive features

Additives

En este sentido (31) Por otra parte (35)

En este contexto (2) Por su parte (24)

A este respecto (8) Por otro lado (30)

Asimismo (153) Además (84)

También (150)

Additives

I den/denne forbindelse (4) Herudover (36) (109)

Ligeledes 28 (=84) Desuden (20) (60)

Også 32 (97)

Applied Lexicographic Approach

Use of lexicographic tool:

conceived according to theory of lexicographic functions

Conceived and compiled by students

designed for translators

supplemented by means of genre-specific corpus

including:

1. explanatory notes

2. collocations

3. cross-references

Applied Lexicographic Approach

afskrivning [= depreciation]

amortización

Afskrivning af et aktiv betyder, at anskaffelsesprisen udgiftsføres over en årrække. Dette sker systematisk, således at der fratrækkes en bestemt procentdel af anskaffelsesværdien hvert år. Afskrivningen afspejler normalt den værdiforringelse, der sker ved brug af aktivet, og det antal år, afskrivningen fordeles over, afspejler aktivets formodede levetid, for maskiner og andre anlægsaktiver typisk 20 år.

[‘Depreciation of an asset means that the cost of the asset is spread over a period of years. This is done systematically by deducting a certain percentage of the cost every year. ….]

•foretage afskrivning proceder a la amortización

•foretage afskrivning realizar la amortización

•regnskabsmæssig afskrivning amortización contablemente practicada

→ afskrive

→ nedskrivning

Applied Lexicographic Approach

afskrive [= depreciate]

amortizar

•afskrive et aktiv over den forventede levetid realizar la amortización de un bien en base a la vida útil estimada

•ikke kunne afskrives no ser objeto de amortización

→ afskrivning

→ nedskrive

Conclusion

To cope with time restrictions, training must be

done focusing on methods and processes.

Students can easily contrast choice of stylistic

features for same communicative purpose using

selected corpora and a concordancer.

Techniques can be extrapolated to other genres.

Functional Lexicography provides more accurate

information through the use of corpus analysis

THANK YOU!