69750 - Textual Linguistics

Course contents

Part A (‘theoretical'). To obtain a translation oriented to the target audience we need also a deep analysis of the source-text. In this perspective we will adopt a framework (cf. Tudor 1987) organized into four levels: the general text profile (i.e., its type and genre), the stylistic (generic and specific) profile, the socio-professional profile of (the linguistic varieties used by) the sender, and the (presumed) background knowledge of its intended audience.

Part B (‘practical'). Our aim is to show to the future professional translators the multi-layered structure of texts, which are not mere sequences of words or clauses but complex “sense-building machines”. We will adopt the framework sketched by de Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) and examine the constitutive and regulative principles and levels of textual communication, focussing mainly – although not exclusively – on cohesion, coherence and intertextuality.

Readings/Bibliography

De Beaugrande, R.-A. e Dressler, W. U. (1981), Introduzione alla linguistica testuale, trad. it. Bologna, Il Mulino, 1984.

Hatim, B. (1984), A Text-Typological Approach to Syllabus Design in Translator Training, in “The Incorporated Linguist” 23/3, pp. 146-149.

Ferrari, A. (2014), Linguistica del testo. Principi, fenomeni, strutture, Roma, Carocci (Manuali universitari 151 – Linguistica).

Mazzoleni, M. (1996), Un modello di interpretazione testual-proposizionale: la “Semantica a Scene e Cornici”, in “Quaderni di semantica” 33 (XVII/1), pp. 149-161.

Mazzoleni, M. (2000), Per una didattica della traduzione come mediazione linguistica e culturale, in “Annali dell'Università per stranieri di Perugia” VIII/27 (N.S.), pp. 219-245.

Mazzoleni, M. (2002), Classificazioni “tipologiche” e classificazioni “generiche” in prospettiva traduttiva, in M. G. Scelfo (a cura di), Le questioni del tradurre: comunicazione, comprensione, adeguatezza traduttiva e ruolo del genere testuale, Roma, Edizioni Associate Editrice Internazionale, pp. 150-159.

Tudor, I. (1987), A Framework for the Translational Analysis of Texts, in “The Linguist” 26/2, pp. 80-82.

Teaching methods

Lectures and group work.

Assessment methods

In the final written exam (time: 2 hours), students will perform the analysis of a text or of an autonomous textual fragment with reference to the above mentioned principles and levels:

1) Cohesion: anaphoric chain/s of the main text referent/s, and other formal connections between text blocks;

2) Coherence: words, phrases, clauses and sentences of the linguistics frames corresponding to the main textual thematic fields;

3) Intentionality: main communicative aim of the sender toward the addressee (text type) and its eventual specific textual markers;

4) Acceptability: eventual problems for the addressee;

5) Situationality: main elements of the communicative context – sender, addressee, place and time of the utterance;

6) Informativity: eventual problems with too high / too low level of text chunks' informativeness in the internal text dynamics;

7) Intertextuality: text genre, and eventual quotations and/or allusions.

Teaching tools

Books, papers, texts to be analyzed..

Office hours

See the website of Marco Mazzoleni