A relevance-theoretic analysis of concept narrowing and broadening in English and Norwegian original texts and translations

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Lossius Falkum
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretic Analysis ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Conceptual Content ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Theoretic Point

This paper studies the lexical-pragmatic processes of narrowing and broadening of conceptual content in the relation between original texts and their corresponding translations in the English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC) from a relevance-theoretic point of view. It is suggested that, in at least some cases, translations can be seen as a kind of mirror reflecting the pragmatic processes at work in lexical interpretation. A translator may choose to render an underspecified concept encoded in a source text by a word that more closely encodes the interpretation given to the concept in question, in which case the semantics/pragmatics distinction (as it applies to the source text) will be made explicit in the relation between source and target text. In other cases, the comparison of source and target text shows that similar lexical encodings in the two languages do not necessarily provide the same possibilities for lexical broadening.

Translatability vs Untranslatability: A relevance-theoretic view

Babel ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Xiumei ◽  
Gong Qinyan
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Language Translation ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
Theoretic Point ◽  
Essential Function

Having rejected the assumption that there is a necessary link between language and communication, relevance theory holds that languages are indispensable not for communication, but for information processing, and information processing is their essential function. And the distinction between the descriptive and interpretive use of language settles the disputes upon translatability and untranslatability. From the relevance-theoretic point of view, translation falls naturally under the interpretive use of language: translation is intended to restate in one language what someone else said or wrote in another language. It means that different utterances can be used to express the same meaning, while the same meaning can be expressed in different ways. Interpretive use entails translatability. As to how closely the language of the target text resembles that of the source text, the answer is that it is a matter of degree. However, in any case, the target language used should fulfill the requirements of the principle of relevance: it is relevant enough for it to be worth the reader’s effort to read and it is the highest level of relevance that the translator is capable of achieving given the means and goals. Résumé Ayant rejeté l’hypothèse d’un lien nécessaire entre la langue et la communication, la théorie de la pertinence affirme que les langues sont indispensables non pour la communication, mais bien pour le traitement de l’information, et que le traitement de l’information est leur fonction essentielle. La distinction entre l’utilisation descriptive et interprétative de la langue règle les controverses sur la traduisibilité et l’intraduisibilité. Du point de vue de la théorie de la pertinence, la traduction relève naturellement de l’utilisation interprétative d’une langue : la traduction a pour but de reformuler dans une langue ce que quelqu’un a dit ou écrit dans une autre. Cela signifie que des énoncés différents peuvent être utilisés pour exprimer une même signification, bien qu’une même signification puisse s’exprimer de différentes manières. Une utilisation interprétative engendre une traduisibilité. La réponse à la question de savoir à quel point la langue du texte cible doit ressembler à celle du texte source, est une question de degré. Cependant, la langue cible utilisée devrait en tout cas répondre aux exigences du principe de pertinence : elle est suffisamment pertinente pour justifier l’effort du lecteur pour la lire et elle est le niveau de pertinence le plus élevé que le traducteur est capable d’atteindre, étant donné les moyens et les objectifs.

On the validity of hilbert's nullstellensatz, artin's theorem, and related results in grothendieck toposes

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 1177-1187
Author(s):  
W. A. MacCaull
Keyword(s):  
Intuitionistic Logic ◽  
Main Idea ◽  
Rational Functions ◽  
Completeness Theorem ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Polynomial Rings ◽  
Von Neumann ◽  
Ordered Fields ◽  
Von Neumann Regular ◽  
Theoretic Point

Using formally intuitionistic logic coupled with infinitary logic and the completeness theorem for coherent logic, we establish the validity, in Grothendieck toposes, of a number of well-known, classically valid theorems about fields and ordered fields. Classically, these theorems have proofs by contradiction and most involve higher order notions. Here, the theorems are each given a first-order formulation, and this form of the theorem is then deduced using coherent or formally intuitionistic logic. This immediately implies their validity in arbitrary Grothendieck toposes. The main idea throughout is to use coherent theories and, whenever possible, find coherent formulations of formulas which then allow us to call upon the completeness theorem of coherent logic. In one place, the positive model-completeness of the relevant theory is used to find the necessary coherent formulas.The theorems here deal with polynomials or rational functions (in s indeterminates) over fields. A polynomial over a field can, of course, be represented by a finite string of field elements, and a rational function can be represented by a pair of strings of field elements. We chose the approach whereby results on polynomial rings are reduced to results about the base field, because the theory of polynomial rings in s indeterminates over fields, although coherent, is less desirable from a model-theoretic point of view. Ultimately we are interested in the models.This research was originally motivated by the works of Saracino and Weispfenning [SW], van den Dries [Dr], and Bunge [Bu], each of whom generalized some theorems from algebraic geometry or ordered fields to (commutative, von Neumann) regular rings (with unity).

scholarly journals On the Graph of Divisibility of an Integral Domain

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Greene Boynton ◽  
Jim Coykendall
Keyword(s):  
Topological Space ◽  
Integral Domain ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Topological Graph ◽  
Integral Domains ◽  
Graph Theoretic ◽  
Theoretic Point ◽  
Group Of Divisibility

AbstractIt is well known that the factorization properties of a domain are reflected in the structure of its group of divisibility. The main theme of this paper is to introduce a topological/graph-theoretic point of view to the current understanding of factorization in integral domains. We also show that connectedness properties in the graph and topological space give rise to a generalization of atomicity.

Universal recursion theoretic properties of r.e. preordered structures

1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Montagna ◽  
Andrea Sorbi
Keyword(s):  
Equivalence Relation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Natural Numbers ◽  
Axiomatic Theory ◽  
Recursive Functions ◽  
Theoretic Point

When dealing with axiomatic theories from a recursion-theoretic point of view, the notion of r.e. preordering naturally arises. We agree that an r.e. preorder is a pair = 〈P, ≤P〉 such that P is an r.e. subset of the set of natural numbers (denoted by ω), ≤P is a preordering on P and the set {〈;x, y〉: x ≤Py} is r.e.. Indeed, if is an axiomatic theory, the provable implication of yields a preordering on the class of (Gödel numbers of) formulas of .Of course, if ≤P is a preordering on P, then it yields an equivalence relation ~P on P, by simply letting x ~Py iff x ≤Py and y ≤Px. Hence, in the case of P = ω, any preordering yields an equivalence relation on ω and consequently a numeration in the sense of [4]. It is also clear that any equivalence relation on ω (hence any numeration) can be regarded as a preordering on ω. In view of this connection, we sometimes apply to the theory of preorders some of the concepts from the theory of numerations (see also Eršov [6]).Our main concern will be in applications of these concepts to logic, in particular as regards sufficiently strong axiomatic theories (essentially the ones in which recursive functions are representable). From this point of view it seems to be of some interest to study some remarkable prelattices and Boolean prealgebras which arise from such theories. It turns out that these structures enjoy some rather surprising lattice-theoretic and universal recursion-theoretic properties.After making our main definitions in §1, we examine universal recursion-theoretic properties of some r.e. prelattices in §2.

scholarly journals Homogeneous models and almost decidability

1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Millar
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Theory ◽  
Homogeneous Model ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Type Spectrum ◽  
Homogeneous Models ◽  
Theoretic Point

AbstractCountable homogeneous models are ‘simple’ objects from a model theoretic point of view. From a recursion theoretic point of view they can be complex. For instance the elementary theory of such a model might be undecidable, or the set of complete types might be recursively complex. Unfortunately even if neither of these conditions holds, such a model still can be undecidable. This paper investigates countable homogeneous models with respect to a weaker notion of decidability called almost decidable. It is shown that for theories that have only countably many type spectra, any countable homogeneous model of such a theory that has a Σ2 type spectrum is almost decidable.

AN OVERVIEW ON GAME THEORY APPLICATIONS TO ENGINEERING

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 1340019 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOAQUIN SANCHEZ-SORIANO
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Sole Purpose ◽  
Engineering Problems ◽  
Theoretic Point ◽  
Game Theoretic

In this paper, we review some of the literature in which different applications to engineering problems are analyzed from a game-theoretic point of view. The revision is far from exhaustive and the sole purpose of this paper is to provide an approximate state-of-the-art on this topic. Likewise, we try throughout the paper to highlight what game theory could contribute to the study of engineering problems.

Cultural and stress-related manifestations of political controversial language in the European Parliament from the view of interpreters

Babel ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vlasta Kučiš ◽  
Simona Majhenič
Keyword(s):  
European Parliament ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
Know How ◽  
Transcultural Communication ◽  
Communicative Role

Abstract Translation and interpreting are not only linguistic activities, but also to a large extent primarily activities of cultural transfer. Transcultural communication displays complexity, diversity and readiness for conflict in communicative interaction, so the interpreter/translator, as an intercultural mediator, is assigned a special communicative role in this regard. This article examines how interpreters at the European Parliament deal with controversial language rendering evaluative components of political statements as well as whether there is a rise in stress-related disfluencies in the interpretation of such statements and whether intonation (dis)similarities between the source text and the interpretations occur in the context of cultural and lexical know-how. Seven excerpts from four sessions of the European Parliament in the last six years and their interpretations into Croatian, Slovene, English, French and German were analysed from the point of view of stress and culture. Deviations in pitch and intensity levels of both the speaker and the interpreters were calculated and statistically compared in the light of differing cultural know-how. The intonation results for these interpreting examples showed that all the interpreters followed the speaker’s pitch deviations to a certain extent. Analysis of politically-controversial statements also revealed that more than 80% of the interpretations selected contained stress-related disfluencies and almost 70% contained some form of discrepancy with the source text at a lexical level. The interpretations therefore largely contained fewer negative evaluative components of controversial language than the speakers in the European Parliament.

scholarly journals The editor’s invisibility

Target ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Bisiada
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Translation Product ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Parallel Corpus

Abstract Most corpus-based studies of translation use published texts as the basis for their corpus. This overlooks interventions by other agents involved in translation such as editors, who may have significant influence on the translated text. In order to study editors’ influence on the translation product, this paper presents a comparative analysis of manuscript and published translations, which allows a differentiation of actual translated language and edited translated language. Based on a tripartite parallel corpus of English business articles and their translations into German, I analyse translators’ and editors’ influence on grammatical metaphoricity of the text, specifically on the use of nominalisations. One finding is that a significant amount of nominalisation is re-verbalised by editors. The results show that translated language may often be the result of significant editorial intervention. Thus, by just considering source text and published translation, our picture of what translators actually do may be significantly distorted.

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