82023 - Information Mining and Terminology (CL2)

Learning outcomes

The student knows and is able to use effectively the main resources for information mining and terminology management, be they paper-based or in digital form; has terminological and terminographic knowledge of one or more sub-languages and domains, as required for translation purpose; s/he is able to devise, manage and evaluate complex terminography projects, involving several professionals and a variety of skills and competences, in a way that is consistent with professional ethics; s/he is able to acquire higher-level knowledge and competences in the areas of terminology/terminography and information mining autonomously, and to apply them to novel fields.

Course contents

The "Information Mining and Terminology" (InMiTe) module is one of the two modules that make up the "Technologies for Translation" course, together with "Computer-Assisted Translation and Post-editing" (CatPed); the latter is held by Prof. Claudia Lecci.

The InMiTe module is split, in turn, into two sub-modules, the first one of which ("Information mining") is held by Prof. Adriano Ferraresi [https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/adriano.ferraresi] and the latter of which ("Terminology") is held by Prof. Beatrice Ragazzini.

The "Information Mining" sub-module will be held in the first part of the semester and focuses on the main online and offline tools and methods to retrieve and process information, aimed both at the translation and revision of specialised texts and specifically at terminology and terminography. Specifically, the following contents will be covered:

• Advanced techniques for web searching using online search engines and generative artificial intelligence systems;
• Construction of specialised electronic corpora, both adopting manual methods and semi-automatic ones;
• Methods of consulting specialised corpora for the retrieval of terminological information (concordances, clusters, collocates, frequency lists, keywords)
• Advanced methods for consultation of online reference corpora (Corpus Query Language).

The "Terminology" sub-module, which will be held during the second half of the semester, presents the main concepts and methods of terminology and terminography which will allow the students to carry out their terminology project. The following contents will be covered:

• Core concepts of terminology: general vs. specialized language; systematic and ad hoc terminology; the concept of term; the relationship between concept, term and object; conceptual relationships; the process of term formation; the main theories of terminology;
• Methods to extract terminological units;
• Methods to systematize and visualize relationships among terminological units, towards the creation of conceptual systems;
• Methods to plan, structure and feed terminology databases and glossaries with a special focus on MultiTerm.

Readings/Bibliography

Suggested readings

• Cabré, M. T. (1999). Terminology. Theory, methods and applications. John Benjamins.
• Cabré, M. T. (2010). "Terminology and Translation" In: Gambier, Yves & Luc van Doorslaer (eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies. Volume 1. John Benjamins: 356–365.
• Crawford, W. and Csomay, E. (2016). Doing corpus linguistics. Routledge.
• Faber, P. and L'Homme, M.-C. (eds.). (2022). Theoretical Perspectives on Terminology. Explaining terms, concepts and specialized knowledge. John Benjamins.
• Melby, A. K. (2012). "Terminology in the age of multilingual corpora". Jostrans - The Journal of Specialised Translation 18: 7–29.
• Sinclair, J. M. (1996). “The search for units of meaning”. Textus 9(1): 75–106.
• Temmerman, R. (2000). Towards New Ways of Terminology Description. The sociocognitive approach. John Benjamins.
• Zanettin, F. (2012). Translation-Driven Corpora: Corpus Resources for Descriptive and Applied Translation Studies. Routledge.

Teaching methods

Lessons are delivered in the form of lectures and workshops and combine theoretical contents and a strong practical and applied component.

Theoretical contents are delivered through presentations by the lecturer, and their acquisition is tested by means of suggested readings and in-class discussions.

The applied part consists of hands-on practice in the lab or on an e-learning platform, with subsequent class discussion aimed at solving the problems that arise. These activities, together with the intermediate assessed exercises (see the “Assessment methods” section), are aimed at constantly monitoring progress in the development of the knowledge and skills that make the object of the course.

Students are expected to attend at least 70% of the module classes.

All students must attend Module 1 and 2 on Health and Safety online.

Assessment methods

The "Information Mining and Terminology" (InMiTe) module will be assessed through a single final examination, which will be evaluated jointly by the lecturers of the two sub-modules.

In addition to the final examination, there are three intermediate assessed exercises to be carried out during the semester by the dates communicated by the lecturers. While the final examination is compulsory, the intermediate exercises are optional. In the event of a positive evaluation, each one provides for the addition of 1 point to the final evaluation on a total of 30 points.

The final examination consists of the handing in of an individualdocumentation and terminology project, carried out according to the example and methods covered in class. Students will have the opportunity to discuss their project and defend their methodological choices during an optional oral examination, following the evaluation of the project.

The project, which will have to be handed in via email or through the Virtuale e-learning platform, a week before every "appello", will consist of: a) a pool of bilingual specialised corpora built manually and/or semi-automatically, accompanied by a brief report on the corpus construction techniques adopted (readme file); b) a bilingual terminological database (in various formats compatible with the most widely used terminology management software, such as MultiTerm) and the matching conceptual systems, through which the typical terminology of the domain represented in the corpus is systematized.

The assessment will focus on the project as final examination and three intermediate optional and assessed exercises, as follows:

1.Final examination: Individual documentation and terminology project

The lecturers will provide analytical feedback on the project before the date of the (optional) oral examination. During the oral examination, students can discuss their work and justify their choices. This oral test is intended to deepen the topics covered in the project and provide students with the opportunity to defend their methodological choices.

Evaluation criteria: originality in the choice of the domain for terminological enquiry and thoroughness in the sampling of relevant texts for corpus construction; clarity in the systematization of terminology (conceptual systems); formal correctness of the terminological databases.

For this examination, assessment is based on the following scale:

• 30L-30: excellent skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria;
• 29-28: very good skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria;
• 27-25: good skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria;
• 24-21: adequate skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria;
• 20-18: sufficient skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria;
• <18: insufficient skills and knowledge with reference to the evaluation criteria.

2. Intermediate assessed exercises (optional)

The intermediate exercises will cover the following skills developed during the course:

2.1. Methodological competences concerning information mining techniques presented in class; points awarded in addition to the final assessment: 1.

2.2. Knowledge of the theoretical foundations ofterminology/terminography; points awarded in addition to the final assessment: 1.

2.3. Practical skills regarding the extraction andsystematisation of terminology units, as well as the planning andstructuring of terminology databases and glossaries; points awarded in addition to the final assessment: 1.

The mark of the InMiTe module will result from the sum of the points obtained in the final examination and in the three intermediate assessed exercises up to the maximum grade (30L).

The final mark of the "Technologies for Translation" course will be calculated as the arithmetic mean of the marks obtained in the InMiTe and CatPed modules.

Teaching tools

Both frontal and workshop-like lectures will be delivered in a computer lab equipped with a PC and an overhead projector.

Frontal lectures will provide the necessary theoretical and methodological foundations of the discipline. These lectures will be followed by lessons in the form of workshops, during which substantial time will be devoted to practical hands-on exercises, focusing on the main software applications used in the field of information mining, both proprietary and open-source/free.

Support materials (videos, sample texts, slides, project files, instructions etc.) are made available through the Virtuale e-learning platform. Support materials for both classes will be uploaded on: Information Mining and Terminology (Cl1).

Links to further information

https://virtuale.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=61784

Office hours

See the website of Adriano Ferraresi

See the website of Beatrice Ragazzini