LINGUATECA &

Translation, terminology and research

at the University of PortoBelinda Maia

Universidade do Porto

Translation at FLUPPast and Present

Licenciatura

• TRANSLATION SPECIALIZATION

• 3rd YEAR– Theory of Translation -2 hours per week– Contrastive Analysis - Portuguese + foreign

language- 2 hours per week– Portuguese Language - 4 hours per week

Licenciatura

• 4th YEAR– Translation - Foreign language > Portuguese - 6

hours per week– Translation -Portuguese > Foreign Language -

3 hours per week– Word Processing - 2 hours per week– Portuguese Culture - 4 hours per week

• 5th YEAR – 6 months’ 'ESTÁGIO'

Master’s degrees at FLUPPast

• Master’s in Translation Studies 1995-7– Theory of Translation– Translation and Rhetoric– Linguistics and Translation

• Master’s in Translation Studies 1998-2000– Theory of Translation– Translation and Rhetoric– Information Technology and Translation

Master’s degrees at FLUPPast and Present

• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2000-2 & 2002-4 – General seminars– Introduction to Human Language Technology

– Terminology and Lexicography

– Theory of Translation

– Semantics and Syntax

– Translation

– Terminography

– http://www.letras.up.pt/translat/i_mepr.html

Master’s degrees Past Specializations

• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2000-2– Geography – population geography– History – medieval castles, diachronic study of

wool industry, ‘vinho verde’– Mechanical Engineering – tribology, metal

fatigue, composite materials, maintenance, statistics,

Master’s degrees Present Specializations

• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2002-4 – Geography – natural disasters

– History – professional occupations

– Electrochemical engineering

– Civil engineering

– Localization

– Translation

– Genetics

– Medicine (area still to be chosen)

Licenciatura- Original objectives

• To supply a post-graduate certificate in translation

• To provide an alternative to the teaching qualification at level of licenciatura

• Vision: preparation in ‘general’ translation and the rest learnt ‘on the job’

• Course was designed about 12 years ago and the names have remained

Change of emphasis - Reasons

• Perception that the course was not satisfying the professional needs of our students– Not enough ´real-life’ translation– Not enough practice in the mother tongue– Not enough practice in information technology

Change of emphasis - Effects

• Attempts to match the course to real-world expectations - partly successful– wider variety of texts for translation– specialized glossary and corpora work– classroom + computers and connection to the

Internet– more information technology

Present situationof Licenciatura – 3rd year

• Theory of translation– practical introduction to professional translation – with

theory implied rather than explicit - see Robinson (1997) Becoming a Translator.

– Corpora building

• Contrastive analysis– contrastive lexicography and terminology + contrastive

grammar and text analysis

– glossary building.

• Portuguese language: text analysis

Real present situationof Licenciatura – 4th year

• Translation - Foreign language > Portuguese• Translation -Portuguese > Foreign Language

– Both courses concentrate on ‘real-life’ translations – including subtitling, webpages etc

• Word Processing > Introduction to IT for translation – complete Microsoft Office, translation software, etc

• Portuguese Culture - no change....• 5th YEAR – 6 months’ Estágio - wide variety

Do-it-yourself corpora

• We started this type of work as soon as we got the Internet - about 1997

• Project work for students includes building mini-corpus on a specialized subject with the objctives of:– Finding out about the subject– Searching terminology– Learning about types and levels of texts

Glossary making

• Gradual progress

• ‚Hard words‘ lists

• Glossaries - general topic areas

• Glossaries - specialized areas

• WORD > EXCEL > MULTITERM > ...

Terminology databases

• Using commercial databases– ACCESS– Multiterm– Termstar

• Making our own with cooperation of the Computer Engineering department

LINGUATECA

• General presentation

• http://www.linguateca.pt

• Computational processing of Portuguese– Resources– Tools– Publications

Polo – CLUP-Porto

• Started work end of October

• Official objectives: – to add parallel corpora in technical and

scientific fields to COMPARA– to create comparable corpora– to provide on-line access to corpora and

corpora analysis tools

Polo – CLUP-Porto

• Developing objectives:– automatic term extraction– multidimensional concept mapping– evaluation of on-line corpora use by general

public– evaluation of machine translation– revised webpage for LINGUATECA

Polo – CLUP-Porto Online tools

• http://poloclup.linguateca.pt/ferramentas– EXTEX – Tool for extracting .txt from other

formats– METRA - MEta TRAnslator.

EVAL 1 - Ferramenta para Categorização de Erros de Tradução.

– BOOMERANG – Translation + re-translation + re-translation

Master’s dissertationscompleted

Pais, Jorge. 2001 Tradução e Localização: Pontos de Contacto e de Afastamento.

Gonçalves, M. Emilia 2001 Contributo para a Tradução de Construções Passivas com base em ‘Great Expectations’ de Charles Dickens’.

Milner, M. do Céu. 2001 Terminografia com Base em ‘Corpora’ – Um Ensaio na Área da Construção Metálica.

Ribeiro, M. da Graça. 2001 Aspectos Teóricos e Práticos da Pesquisa Terminológica – Estudo Experimental no Domínio do Betão.

Carmo, Felix do. 1999. Tese de Mestrado - A Variação do Número de Palavras em Tradução.

Master’s dissertationsunder construction

• Population geography– Ontology / multidimensional framework – Documentaries and subtitling– Text analysis

• History – diachronic study of wool industry, – ‘vinho verde’– castles - text analysis

Master’s dissertationsunder construction

• Mechanical Engineering – Conceptualization and tribology– Text analysis of standards documents– Socio-terminology - composite materials

• Marketing - Automatic term extraction• Other

– metaphors in football corpora– analysis of advertising texts

Ongoing/future work

• With supervision from Geography Department– domain – ‘Natural disasters’ + possible help from

insurance company

• With supervision from History Department – domain - ‘Professional occupations’

• With supervision from Faculty of Engineering– Civil engineering - with support from professional

organization

– Electro-chemical engineering

Ongoing/future work

• With Supervision from the Computer Engineering Department– Localization - translation of Bert Esselink´s A Practical

Guide to Localization

• With the supervision of the Faculty of Sciences– Genetics

• With the supervision of medical expert and supprt of commercial firm– Medicine (area still to be chosen)

Ongoing/future work

• Translation – Portuguese terminology for Delisle, Jean, Hannelore

Lee-Jahnke et Monique C. Cormier Terminologie de la traduction / Translation Terminology / Terminología de la traducción / Terminologie der Überserzung Amsterdam, John Benjamins

Ongoing/future work

• Doctorates planned in the areas of:– Contrastive linguistics - metaphors

– Corpora and machine translation

– Terminology

Past/Ongoing/Future work

• Undergraduate mini-corpora and glossary work in a wide variety of areas