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.

Ferrari, A. (2014), Linguistica del testo. Principi, fenomeni, strutture, Roma, Carocci.

Fillmore, Ch. J. (1975), An Alternative to Checklist Theories of Meaning, in C. Cogen et alii (eds.), Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (February 15-17, 1975), Berkeley, Berkeley Linguistics Society, pp. 123- 131.

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

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. (2001), Per una teoria non solo linguistica della traduzione, in M. Lamberti e F. Bizzoni (a cura di), La Italia del siglo XX, México, D.F., Fac. Fil. y Letras UNAM, pp. 403-427.

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.

Mazzoleni, M. e Menin, R. (2011), Traduzione e conoscenze (non) condivise, in “mediAzioni” 11 [http://www.mediazioni.sitlec.unibo.it/index.php/no-11-anno-2011/76-articoliarticles-no-11-2011/184-traduzione-e-conoscenze-non-condivise.html].

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