How readers perceive translated literary works: an analysis of reader reception

Abstract - The aim of this paper is to investigate the reader’s reception of translated literary texts and to explore the reader’s expectations about literary works. For this purpose, three comparable corpora of British, American and Italian online book reviews commenting on the English version of Andrea Camilleri’s La forma dell’acqua (The Shape of Water) and on the Italian version of Stephen King’s Joyland were assembled and analysed. The way active target language readers perceive and evaluate a translated literary work was then explored by taking the language they actually used in book recommendation websites. The analysis demonstrates that the Anglo-American and Italian readers’ reception of the translated text is different, in terms of focus and perception. Riassunto - Il presente articolo esplora il modo in cui i lettori recepiscono testi letterari tradotti e quali sono le loro aspettative. A tale scopo sono stati raccolti e analizzati tre corpora comparabili di recensioni online scritte da lettori britannici, americani e italiani sulla versione inglese de La forma dell’acqua di Andrea Camilleri e sulla versione italiana di Joyland di Stephen King. In particolare, l’articolo esplora il modo in cui i lettori della lingua di arrivo percepiscono e valutano un’opera letteraria tradotta partendo dal linguaggio da usato dai lettori nei siti web di recensioni di libri. L’analisi dimostra che i lettori anglo-americani e italiani percepiscono un testo tradotto in modo differente e ne commentano aspetti differenti

Development of the multilingual semantic annotation system

This paper reports on our research to generate multilingual semantic lexical resources and develop multilingual semantic annotation software, which assigns each word in running text to a semantic category based on a lexical semantic classification scheme. Such tools have an important role in developing intelligent multilingual NLP, text mining and ICT systems. In this work, we aim to extend an existing English semantic annotation tool to cover a range of languages, namely Italian, Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese, by bootstrapping new semantic lexical resources via automatically translating existing English semantic lexicons into these languages. We used a set of bilingual dictionaries and word lists for this purpose. In our experiment, with minor manual improvement of the automatically generated semantic lexicons, the prototype tools based on the new lexicons achieved an average lexical coverage of 79.86% and an average annotation precision of 71.42% (if only precise annotations are considered) or 84.64% (if partially correct annotations are included) on the three languages. Our experiment demonstrates that it is feasible to rapidly develop prototype semantic annotation tools for new languages by automatically bootstrapping new semantic lexicons based on existing ones

Literary Translation between Italian and English. Publishing trends in Italy, the UK and the USA

This study aims to investigate publishing trends in literary translation from English into Italian in Italy and from Italian into English in the UK and the USA over the 2000-2008 time span. The data were retrieved from the Index Translationum, an international bibliography of translations managed by UNESCO, and were then stored in three Microsoft Access databases, one for each country. The databases were analysed according to specific criteria, in order to determine trends concerning the amount of translated literature in the three countries, the main publishing houses dealing with translated works, and the most translated genres and authors. This paper is meant to provide a mainly descriptive, but necessary basis for future investigation of socio-cultural as well as market-led processes underlying publishers’ choices and gate-keeping in literary translation. Keywords: literary translation market; Index Translationum; most translated authors; most translated genres

Preventive medicine center and health care for students of medicine and health professions at the Sapienza University of Rome: a research protocol

This project aims to develop a Center of Preventive Medicine and Health Care for the students of Medicine and Health profession at Sapienza University of Rome. At the beginning of the university career students, both residents and nonresident s, have to face several difficulties such as: starting smoking or the increase in cigarette consumption ; the independent management of their own health (especially for non residents consequently to the distance of the family doctor) ; unhealthy diet; tuberculosis (TB) biological risk during their university training. These aspects , especially if present at the same time, act as a source stress and adversely affect the quality of life and the academic performance. Specific aims of the project will be: implementing an ambulatory of Preventive Medicine; implementing a virtual ambulatory of general medicine; creating a website on the problems mentioned above. Data collected will be computerized to keep an electronic health record (HER) and to use the information for the purposes of scientific research. The Centre will act in close relationship with the Central Administration, with the Headmasters of the Medical Faculties, and in close collaboration with the Center of Occupational Medicine of Sapienza University

How readers perceive translated literary works: an analysis of reader reception

Abstract - The aim of this paper is to investigate the reader’s reception of translated literary texts and to explore the reader’s expectations about literary works. For this purpose, three comparable corpora of British, American and Italian online book reviews commenting on the English version of Andrea Camilleri’s La forma dell’acqua (The Shape of Water) and on the Italian version of Stephen King’s Joyland were assembled and analysed. The way active target language readers perceive and evaluate a translated literary work was then explored by taking the language they actually used in book recommendation websites. The analysis demonstrates that the Anglo-American and Italian readers’ reception of the translated text is different, in terms of focus and perception. Riassunto - Il presente articolo esplora il modo in cui i lettori recepiscono testi letterari tradotti e quali sono le loro aspettative. A tale scopo sono stati raccolti e analizzati tre corpora comparabili di recensioni online scritte da lettori britannici, americani e italiani sulla versione inglese de La forma dell’acqua di Andrea Camilleri e sulla versione italiana di Joyland di Stephen King. In particolare, l’articolo esplora il modo in cui i lettori della lingua di arrivo percepiscono e valutano un’opera letteraria tradotta partendo dal linguaggio da usato dai lettori nei siti web di recensioni di libri. L’analisi dimostra che i lettori anglo-americani e italiani percepiscono un testo tradotto in modo differente e ne commentano aspetti differenti.</p

Eyeing Puglia: comparing the tourist gaze in English, Italian and German travel articles

The aim of this paper is to compare the contemporary English, Italian and German tourist gaze upon Puglia. To this purpose, three different corpora of travel articles have been assembled and analysed linguistically. The analysis of the variety of tourist gazes (Urry 2002) on Puglia has been useful to classify the English, Italian and German writers in terms of tourist type. The linguistic analysis has also highlighted the cultural differences which pattern native writer perception and interpretation of Puglia

The Language of Tourists in English and Italian Travel Blogs and Trip Reports: a Corpus-based Analysis

Over the last few decades there has been wide interest in linguistic and cultural mediation in tourist communication as a result of the growth of global tourism. Linguistic research in this field has mainly focused on the linguistic features of mediatised representations, such as brochures, websites and guidebooks. It is only very recently that some scholars have started to discuss the contribution of traveller-generated content to the linguistic and cultural mediation in the language of tourism. This study explores the language used by ordinary travellers through a corpus-based analysis of travel blogs and trip reports to show to what extent the 'tourist gaze' is shaped and mediatised by the tourist industry and how tourism can emerge through tourists' mediated actions and remediated practices. The results also demonstrate that what tourists actually do and gaze at a site may be used to mediate tourist texts across different cultures

The practice of literary translation. An Italian perspective - Fulltext version

The volume focuses on the practice of literary translating between Italian and English as seen by both academics and the translators themselves. The main thrust of the book is on the linguistic, cultural and extra-linguistic factors (including author-translator relationship) which play a key role in the literary translation decision-making process. The translations discussed cover a variety of literary sub-genres ranging from poetry  and drama to fiction, and from the classics to chick-lit. Thanks to its strong focus on the practice of literary translation and its three sections, the book will appeal to a wide readership, which includes all those studying or working in the field of literary translation (in particular, those working between Italian and English). Translation scholars in general will find the practical experiences described in the volume of extreme value, as translators discuss how key issues, theories, and debates in Translation Studies have influenced their practice

The practice of literary translation. An Italian perspective - Fulltext version

The volume focuses on the practice of literary translating between Italian and English as seen by both academics and the translators themselves. The main thrust of the book is on the linguistic, cultural and extra-linguistic factors (including author-translator relationship) which play a key role in the literary translation decision-making process. The translations discussed cover a variety of literary sub-genres ranging from poetry  and drama to fiction, and from the classics to chick-lit. Thanks to its strong focus on the practice of literary translation and its three sections, the book will appeal to a wide readership, which includes all those studying or working in the field of literary translation (in particular, those working between Italian and English). Translation scholars in general will find the practical experiences described in the volume of extreme value, as translators discuss how key issues, theories, and debates in Translation Studies have influenced their practice