Setting up a New Masters in CAT and Project Management: Challenges and Prospects

This article describes the new Masters, the ‘Master en traduction spécialisée multilingue: technologies et gestion de projets’ that was set up at the University of Lille III in 2004 (UFR des LEA). Some information is given about the context in which this socalled ‘Master professionnel’ was created and about its contents, the main focus being on the ‘profession-oriented’ aspect of the programme, and the plusses and possible minuses that such an approach represents

On verbal concord with collective nouns in British English

International audienceThe article aims to find out whether verbal concord with collective nouns (e.g. committee) in British English is indeed governed by the commonly accepted principle that a focus on the individuals that belong to the group results in the use of a plural verb, whereas a focus on the group as a unit leads to the use of a singular verb. This is a quantitative study: data extracted from the British English sections of the Collins Cobuild corpus have been subjected to statistical tests. The investigation reveals that, with a few exceptions, the preference for a singular verb of the so-called ‘verb-number-variable’ collectives (i.e. collective nouns that occur with both singular and plural verbs) is significant, which suggests that semantic and pragmatic factors do not play the crucial role they are commonly thought to play in the verb number assignment process. The article also includes taxonomic observations: in the first part, in which collectives are defined, a survey is given of their semantic and morphosyntactic characteristics

On the necessity of distinguishing between (un)boundedness and (a)telicity

International audienceIt is argued that two different types of concept are often intermingled in discussions of Aktionsart. The most common type of classification is one of situation types, relating to the potential actualisation of a situation, although some of the definitions have to do with the actual realization of the situation. This distinction, adequately captured by the notions (a)telicty and (un)boundedness (Declerck 1989), is explored and it is shown how NPs, PPs and tense influence a sentence's classification as (un)bounded

Some observations on the expression of temporal relations in future time relative clauses

International audienceThis paper deals with the question whether the syntactic diffrence between restrictive relative clauses (RRC) and nonrestrictive relative clauses (NRRC) results in different tense systems determining the choice of verb forms to indicate future time. It is shown that future-time NRRCs only allow the use of absolute tenses to express temporal relations, whereas in RRCs, relative tenses can be used as well. However, there are a number of constraints on the use of relative tenses even in RRCs, a phenomenon that has escaped most linguists' attention. In this paper, a survey is made of factors that determine whether or not it is possible to use relative tenses to refer to future-time situations in RRCs

On the pragmatics of modal verbs

This paper reflects on the nature of the contextual meaning that is often associated with modal verbs. Four examples are given of contextual effects that have been discussed in the literature: pragmatic strengthening and weakening, dynamic implication, strength of the modality and subjective vs. objective modality. It is argued that these four cases are not entirely similar when they are considered from the perspective of the semantics-pragmatics interface and the categorisation of modal meaning. This study shows what unites and what differentiates these four facets of the ‘pragmatics’ of modals

What counts as useful advice in a university post-editing training context? Report on a case study.

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to identify posteditingguidelines that need to be highlightedin the context of translation training.The analysis of a corpus of textspost-edited by 10 translation trainees revealshow they intuitively approach postediting.The corpus shows that stylisticand phraseological changes are kept to aminimum, and that most errors occur inthe field of calque or translation loss. Onthe basis of the intuitive post-editingstrategies observed, a number of recommendationsare made for teaching purposes,and they include the need for error analysis of MT output

The present perfect progressive: constraints on its use with numerical object NPs

International audienceThis paper tries to reveal the constraints on the use of the present perfect progressive (PPP) in combination with numerical object NPs. Existing accounts tend to takesituation type classes as a basis for the description of the PPP. It is shown that such an approach does not yield adequate results. (Un)boundedness (Declerck, 1991; Depraetere, 1995) plays an equally important role as (a)telicity in determining whether the progressive can be used or not. (Un)boundedness, as opposed to (a)telicity, is concerned with actual terminal points (of situations referred to) rather than potential (inherent) endpoints. It will be shown in this paper that, in some cases, the conflict between the unboundedness inherent in the progressive form and the boundedness often brought about by numerical object NPs that are used in nonstative sentences results in unacceptability. Considerable attention is first paid to the constraints on the use of the past progressive with numerical object NPs. The second part of the paper focuses on the PPP: apart from (un)boundedness and (a)telicity, the type of perfect and our knowledge of the world also play their part in determining whether or not the PPP is acceptable in sentences with a numerical object NP

Towards a more explicit taxonomy of root possibility

The aim of this paper is to improve the description of root (or non-epistemic) possibility meanings. In previous accounts, the defining criteria are not applied systematically; there is a tendency towards definition by exemplification (especially when it comes to meanings that are 'not permission' and 'not ability') and certain categories (permission, for instance) tend to be defined in a circular way. We will argue that there are three criteria which are necessary and sufficient to distinguish five subclasses of root possibility meaning. The three criteria are: (a) the scope of the modal meaning, (b) the source of the modality and (c) the notion of potential barrier; the five meanings are: (a) ability, (b) opportunity, (c) permission, (d) general situation possibility (GSP) and (e) situation permissibility. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of the three defining criteria and the root possibility meanings that their systematic application gives rise to. This approach clearly brings out the similarities and the dissimilarities between the different subcategories of root possibility meaning in English and in this way it results in a more explicit taxonomy

Quelques réflexions sur le système verbal dans les subordonnées relatives en anglais.

International audienceCet article se veut une réflexion sur l'expression de relations temporelles dans des subordonnées relatives (SR) en anglais. Plus particulièrement, je veux démontrer que les différences dans l'emploi des temps qu'on peut constater entre les subordonnées relatives non-restrictives (SRNR) et les subordonnées relatives restrictives (SRR) qui renvoient au futur se reflètent dans les phrases qui réfèrent au passé. Une fois que ce fait est établi, il est possible de prouver sur un plan plus général que les contraintes que comporte le renvoi à une situation postérieure sont les mêmes, que l'on renvoie à un temps postérieur d'un point de vue passé ou que l'on renvoie à un temps postérieur du point de vue du présent