Beyond MT metrics in specialised translation: Automated and manual evaluation of machine translation output for freelance translators and small LSPs in the context of EU documents

This paper discusses simplified methods of translation evaluation in two seemingly disparate areas: machine translation (MT) technology and translation for EU institutions. It provides a brief overview of methods for evaluating MT output and proposes simplified solutions for small LSPs and freelancers dealing with specialised translation of this kind. After discussing the context of the study and the process of machine translation, an analysis of fragments of the selected specialist text (an EU regulation) is carried out. The official English and Polish versions of this document provide the basis for a comparative evaluation of raw machine translation output obtained with selected commercially available (paid) neural machine translation engines (NMT). Quantitative analysis, including the Damerau-Levenshstein edit distance parameters and the number of erroneous segments in the text, combined with a manual qualitative analysis of errors and terminology can be a serviceable method for small LSPs and freelance translators to evaluate the usefulness of neural machine translation engines.

Translating a pandemic: A corpus study of COVID-19 multi-word terminology in EU press releases

The study employs a parallel English-Polish corpus to investigate how COVID-19 multi-word terms are handled in translations of EU press releases. Translation techniques are examined at four levels of analysis: (1) term variation, (2) institutionalization, (3) domestication/foreignization, and (4) degree of transfer of information. The results are discussed in regard to the characteristics of COVID-19 terminology and its, often neological, instability, which manifests itself in high levels of terminological variation, inconsistent use of recommended institutional equivalents, and varied degrees of information transfer between SL and TL. The findings are also reviewed in light of the nature of press releases which, as an essential link in the transmission of knowledge from EU institutions to citizens, prompt the use of domesticating techniques.

The status of English in the EU institutions after Brexit: A discursive analysis of selected press articles

The aim of this article is to find out what the status of English, currently the primary working language within the EU institutions, might look like once the United Kingdom leaves the EU structures. To that end, this paper will analyse a selection of press articles. Although the manner in which the so-called Brexit will take place is still uncertain, a diverse range of opinions and prognostications on what will happen to English is being expressed publicly, taking into consideration many factors (political, sociological and purely linguistic) which may contribute to a possible scenario or scenarios. This article does not lay claim to submitting any firm or reliable vision of the future as none such exists elsewhere. This paper intends to analyze some discursive strategies employed by the authors of the articles to place the discussed subject into a discursive framework by using tools of critical discourse analysis which mainly focus on the relation of power and language.

Language communication in a pragmatic perspective: Flouting the cooperative principle

The aim of the article is a pragmatic analysis of various linguistic communication situations in the light of Grice’s principle of cooperation (1975). The analysis shows that language strategies involve a deliberate flouting of the cooperative principle using various pragmatic functions. The presented communication strategies in English, German, Polish and Russian show similarities in their occurrence. The sender may convey intentions not directly, but by hidden means of expression which often become an exponent of an apparent question, a change in the argumentative direction, the use of ambiguous words, irony or even silence. Hence, we can talk about the implementation of the pragmatic functions of “language avoidance”, “counter-argumentation”, “counter-proposal”, “irony” etc.

Secondary school students’ attitudes to phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are an essential, though difficult to teach and learn, part of the English language. Although phrasal verbs are commonly used by native speakers, for English learners they pose a considerable challenge as far as their acquisition and use are concerned. The aim of this study is to examine students’ attitude towards phrasal verbs taught at the B2 level in upper-secondary schools, and to analyse the significance of these multi-word verbs. The paper presents an excerpt of a survey conducted among secondary school students, which examined their understanding of phrasal verbs and analysed students’ opinions about the importance of acquiring these demanding multi-word verbs.

Strategies in the translation of the narrative in "Pillars of Eternity"

The present article is devoted to the translation of the narrative in the RPG game entitled Pillars of Eternity. The narrative of the game comprises texts such as the main story, dialogs, journals, books, poems and item lore. Since these texts are essentially literary in nature, they require a creative and covert approach to translation supplemented by local semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic strategies. The article examines the texts shaping the narrative and the strategies which conspire to achieve the ultimate goal of the narrative: player immersion in the game world.

The seven deadly sins: Images of pride and transience

The aim of this paper is to look at the works of William Shakespeare and the seven deadly sins from the perspective of painting. The seven deadly sins include pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. The paper presents, among others, an analysis of the painting by Hieronymus Bosch with that very title – The Seven Deadly Things and the Four Last Things, with reference to such works by Shakespeare as A Comedy of Errors, Richard III or Twelfth Night.

Self-mention in argumentative essays written by pre-service teachers of English

This article presents and discusses a study that aims at establishing how self-mentions are used by pre-service teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in their argumentative essay writing. The study examined a corpus of argumentative essays written on a range of topics in EFL didactics by a group of pre-service EFL teachers (hereafter – participants). The corpus involved two rounds of argumentative essays written by the participants and their respective controls (nonteacher EFL students). The frequency of self-mentions in the corpus was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM 2011) in terms of raw values, and the computer program WordSmith (Scott 2008) as normalised data per 1000 words. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that the frequency of the self-mention we decreased, whereas the frequency of the self-mention I increased in the second round of essays. These findings and their linguo-didactic implications are further discussed in the article.

Disfluencies in sight translation vis-à-vis dominating text function: A pilot study based on English-Polish sight translation performed by professional interpreters

The aim of the paper is to provide an account of a pilot study whose primary intention was to classify and analyse disfluencies that recur in sight translations performed by professional interpreters. For this purpose, Gósy’s disfluency taxonomy (2004, 2007) was modified and applied to ten professional translations of three source texts (STs), the latter representing three text functions reflecting Christina Nord’s interpretation of Katherine Reiss’ classification (Reiss 1989 in Nord 1997), namely informative, expressive and operative one. An attempt was also made to trace any interdependencies of disfluency occurrence and ST dominating function.

COVID-19: The assessment of the current situation, recommendations, challenges, and conduct guidelines for medical interpreters at the time of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

The paper addresses the underlying complexities and phenomena arising in response to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, and pertaining to interpreting. The pandemic-related neologisms are introduced, followed by practical guidelines for medical interpreters and the assessment of the problems and challenges encountered in the current mode of work, including (remote) community interpreting. The impact of the pandemic on medical interpreters is also discussed with the associated problems which are also related to the wellbeing of the interpreters themselves at the time of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To fully comprehend the real value of services provided by medical interpreters, it is necessary to assess the health outcomes and the quality of life of patients in longitudinal studies conducted on large cohorts of patients, with particular attention to at least several months of follow-up.