Tolkien and Sanskrit (2016) by Mark T. Hooker

Book review of Tolkien and Sanskrit (2016) by Mark T. Hooke

LEXICAL PITFALLS IN POLISH-ENGLISH LEGAL TRANSLATION: A CASE STUDY INVOLVING STUDENTS OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY IN POLAND

Artykuł ukazuje problemy jakie napotkali studenci I i II roku anglistyki, którym postawiono za zadanie przetłumaczyć z języka polskiego na angielski, fragment uchwały Sądu Najwyższego dotyczącej wykonania Europejskiego Nakazu Aresztowania. Autor – czynny zawodowo prawnik – prokurator Prokuratury Rejonowej – analizuje ok. 20 zwrotów prawniczych pochodzących z tej uchwały i, odnosząc się do oficjalnego tłumaczenia tekstu, dokonuje analizy tłumaczeń zaproponowanych przez studentów (w sumie 108 wersji) przedstawiając i opisując zaistniałe błędy. Przeanalizowane przykłady ukazują specyfikę języka prawnego i prawniczego oraz zawiłości i pułapki leksykalno-syntaktyczne, jakie czyhają na polskiego tłumacza zajmującego się przekładem prawniczych tekstów z języka polskiego na język angielski lub odwrotnie. Omówione przykłady wskazują na potrzebę wysoce profesjonalnego szkolenia studentów neofilologii w zakresie przekładu tekstów specjalistycznych.The article illustrates problems which were encountered by students of the first and second year of English Philology, who had been given a task of translating from Polish into English a passage from a Supreme Court act, concerning the European Arrest Warrant execution. The author who is an active lawyer – working as a prosecutor of the District Prosecutor’s Office – analyzes almost twenty legal phrases coming from the original text and, comparing them with the official version of translation, examines the students’ versions (108 translations altogether) which are then accompanied by descriptions and comments on the mistakes made. The analyzed examples show the uniqueness of the legal language and its pitfalls as well as lexical and syntactic dilemmas which create linguistic traps for a Polish translator who is preoccupied with translation of legal texts from Polish into English or vice versa. Moreover, the discussed cases indicate the need for a highly professional training of philology students, especially in the area of ESP (English for Special Purposes)

Wang Li (1900-1986)

Wang Li (Wang Liaoyi) was one of the three most prominent linguists in China in the 20th century. He was born August 10, 1900, in what is now Bobai County of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Area

Evaluation templates and fulfillment of the university formative objectives: diversification and transverselity of criteria in subjects of Spanish Language and Theory of Literature

In the different projects boarded in these last years by our group from educational innovation, attention to two lines of work has been lent that, applied to subjects integrated in the scopes of the study of the Spanish language and of the theory of Literature, were in our opinion essential to approach the new educative space in which we were immersed. In one first stage, it was fundamental the elaboration of educational materials and the use of heterogenous tools that allowed the student to make a pursuit of the subject in which the knowledge was acquired progressively. The space of the Virtual Campus thus becomes a valid platform for the development and design of different types from activities and exercises by means of which complementary tasks to actual teaching are approached. However, this development raises in one second phase –in which we were now– and almost simultaneously, the necessity to analyze the evaluation methods. Once established the continuous evaluation like fundamental criterion in the development of the subject, it is precise to establish general frames that allow at the same time student’s precise pursuit and transverselity between criteria of evaluation shared by several subjects. From these budgets, our work is centered in the creation of templates or model-cards model that identifie so much the evaluation criteria as the aptitudes that the students must surpass, to the object of which can serve as guide in their application to different disciplines. Therefore, on starting from the exercises designed in the first stage of the project, evaluative models are developed that allow to value the degree of assimilation and execution of the different objectives and contents.Example: Work in group and later exposition and discussions by the students: - Consisting of the putting in common of the results derived from the work in group or other individual derivatives of the theoretical and literary text commentary. - Cooperative learning: works in equipment, inside and outside the classroom. Objectives: to favor the doubt and exchange of information on the subjects debate object, besides to foment initiatives and the critical attitude of the students. - Justification: this type of exercises favors the formation of the student in two-way traffic. First, in as much it must construct his own speech, organize it, structure it and argue it for his putting in common before his companions. It facilitates the personal learning and the development of skills related to the construction, elaboration and written expression of different types from speech. The second, the exposition helps to develop skills and comunicative strategies, contributing to improve the oral expression. Finally, the coordination of the work of group causes a greater implication of the students in the process of elaboration and the final results, as much of the work written as of the oral presentation, without forgetting that the use of other resources (presentations, videos... etc.) by the students facilitates his familiarisation with educational and expositive techniques nearer the present contextInted2009 Proceedings C

An Inventory of Tibetan Sound Laws.

Scholars of Indo-European historical linguistics have long found it convenient to refer to well known sound changes by the name of the researcher who first noticed the correspondences the sound change accounts for. Because of the proven utility of such sound laws in Indo-European linguistics, the explicit listing and naming of sound laws in the Tibeto-Burman family could be expected to bring similar benefits

Stosunek polskich uczniów do nauki wymowy języka angielskiego: analizując od nowa

It is widely agreed that acquisition of a sound system of a second language always presents a great challenge for L2 learners (e.g. Rojczyk, 2010). Numerous studies (e.g. Nowacka, 2010; Flege, 1991) prove that L2 learners whose first language has a scarce number of sounds, encounter difficulties in distinguishing L2 sound categories and tend to apply their L1 segments to new contexts. There is abundance of studies examining L2 learners’ successes and failures in production of L1 and L2 sounds, especially vowels (e.g. Flege, 1992; Nowacka, 2010; Rojczyk, 2010). However, the situation becomes more complicated when we consider third language production. While in the case of L2 segmental production the number of factors affecting L2 sounds is rather limited (either interference from learners’ L1 or some kind of L2 intralingual influence), in the case of L3 segmental production we may encounter L1→L3, L2→L3, L1+L2→L3 or L3 intralingual interference. This makes separation of L3 sounds a much more complex process. The aim of this paper is to examine whether speakers of L1 Polish, L2 English and L3 German are able to separate new, L3 vowel categories from their native and L2 categories. The research presented in this article is a part of a larger project assessing production of L3 segments. This time the focus is on German /y/. This vowel was chosen since it is regarded as especially difficult for Polish learners of German and it is frequently substituted with some other sounds. A group of English philology (Polish-English- German translation and interpretation programme) students was chosen to participate in this study. They were native speakers of Polish, advanced speakers of English and upper-intermediate users of German. They had been taught both English and German pronunciation courses during their studies at the University of Silesia. The subjects were asked to produce words containing analysed vowels, namely: P /u/, P /i/, E /uÉ/, E /iÉ/, E /ɪ/ and G /y/. All examined vowels were embedded in a /bVt/ context. The target /bVt/ words were then embedded in carrier sentences: I said /bVt/ this time in English, Ich sag’ /bVt/ diesmal in German and Mówię /bVt/ teraz in Polish, in a non-final position. The sentences were presented to subjects on a computer screen and the produced chunks were stored in a notebook’s memory as .wav files ready for inspection. The Praat 5.3.12 speech-analysis software package (Boersma, 2001) was used to measure and analyse the recordings. The obtained results suggest that L2 affects L3 segmental production to a significant extent. Learners find it difficult to separate all “new” and “old” vowel categories, especially if they are perceived as “similar” to one another and when learners strive to sound “foreign”.Przyswajanie systemu fonetycznego języka drugiego (J2) zawsze jest ogromnym wyzwaniem dla uczących się nowego języka (np. Rojczyk, 2010). Liczne badania (np. Flege, 1991; Nowacka, 2010) udowodniły, że w przypadku, gdy J1 uczących się nowego języka ma raczej ograniczoną liczbę dźwięków, wówczas osoby te mają problemy z odróżnianiem większej liczby nowych głosek i często zastępują je ojczystymi segmentami. Łatwo można znaleźć wiele badań dotyczących sukcesów i porażek w produkcji i percepcji nowych dźwięków przez uczących się J2 (np. Flege, 1992; Nowacka, 2010; Rojczyk, 2010), jednakże sytuacja staje się znacznie bardziej skomplikowana w przypadku przyswajania języka trzeciego (J3). Podczas przyswajania języka drugiego liczba czynników wpływających na proces produkcji poszczególnych segmentów jest raczej ograniczona (może to być wpływ języka pierwszego lub też interferencja językowa wewnątrz J2), natomiast podczas przyswajania języka trzeciego ich liczba jest zdecydowanie większa (J1→J3, J2→L3, J1+J2→L3 lub procesy zachodzące wewnątrz J3). To wszystko sprawia, że przyswajanie systemu fonetycznego języka trzeciego jest procesem wyjątkowo złożonym. Celem niniejszego artykułu było zbadanie czy rodzimi użytkownicy języka polskiego z J2 — angielskim i J3 — niemieckim, są zdolni do oddzielenia nowych, niemieckich kategorii samogłoskowych od tych polskich i angielskich. Badanie tu opisane jest częścią większego projektu mającego na celu ocenę produkcji samogłosek w J3. Tym razem opisana jest produkcja niemieckiego /y/. Samogłoska ta została wybrana ponieważ jest uważana przez uczących się języka niemieckiego za wyjątkowo trudną i często jest zastępowana innymi, podobnymi polskimi dźwiękami. Uczestnikami badania była grupa studentów filologii angielskiej, potrójnego programu tłumaczeniowego: polsko-angielsko-niemieckiego. Byli rodzimymi użytkownikami języka polskiego, zaawansowanymi użytkownikami języka angielskiego i średniozaawansowanymi użytkownikami języka niemieckiego. Przed przystąpieniem do badania, byli oni uczeni wymowy obu obcych języków. W trakcie badania musieli wyprodukować słowa zawierające wszystkie badane dźwięki, mianowicie: P/u/, P/i/, A/uÉ/, A/iÉ/, A /ɪ/ oraz N/y/. Wszystkie badane samogłoski były ukryte w kontekście /bSt/ . Te słowa były następnie ukryte w zdaniach: I said /bVt/ this time po angielsku, Ich sag’ /bVt/ diesmal po niemiecku oraz Mówię /bVt/ teraz po polsku. Wszystkie wypowiedzi zostały nagrane jako pliki .wav, a następnie poddane analizie akustycznej przy użyciu programu Praat (Boersma, 2001). Uzyskane wyniki pokazały jak trudne dla uczących się języków jest rozdzielenie „nowych” i „starych” samogłosek, zwłaszcza, gdy brzmią one podobnie, a mówiący starają się mówić „jak obcokrajowiec”

Ergative marking in Tibeto-Burman

This paper presents the first results of a comprehensive project on comparative Tibeto-Burman (TB) morpho-syntax. Data on morphological forms and typological patterns were collected from one hundred fifty-one languages and dialects in the TB family. For this paper the data were surveyed for nominal 'ergative' or agentive case marking (postpositions), in an attempt to determine if it would be possible to reconstruct an ergative case marker to Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB), and in so doing learn more about the nature of grammatical organization in PTB. Ablative, instrumental, genitive, locative, and other case forms were also surveyed for possible cognacy with ergative forms, as suggested in DeLancey 1984

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: Evaluation and Modelling of Verbal Associations

We present a quantitative analysis of human word association pairs and study the types of relations presented in the associations. We put our main focus on the correlation between response types and respondent characteristics such as occupation and gender by contrasting syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations. Finally, we propose a personalised distributed word association model and show the importance of incorporating demographic factors into the models commonly used in natural language processing.Comment: AIST 2017 camera-read