Actors and Actions in Prenups and Capitulaciones Matrimoniales: A Cross-Cultural Study

The investigation of a corpus of American prenuptial agreements and Spanish capitulaciones matrimoniales shows how the popularity of premarital contracts is spreading everywhere. The American and the Spanish documents, juridically diverse in many aspects, embedded in two different legal systems, belong to the genre of contracts and are classified as a type of negotiation/mediation. The lexical and semantic analysis focuses on the specialized terminology used to refer to the human actors and their actions within the documents. The aim is to discover whether and how legal, intercultural and sociological divergences emerge from the textual context. Participants play several roles in the various semantic-pragmatic units constituting the contract, being in turn considered as contracting parties, married couple, notary public, parents, esposos, padres, and otorgantes. Their actions are highlighted by a punctual and proper use of verbal constructions and speech acts, such as asserting, signing, stipulating, agreeing. The study demonstrates how actors and actions do not stand autonomously and separately: they perform and fulfil a specific pragmatic function in a precise legal and cultural context

The power of attorney. A creatively conventional genre in legal discourse?

The power of attorney is one of the most frequently used instruments in international legal practice, both in Common Law and Civil Law contexts. Internationally known as a legal-lay contractual agreement, it is locally adapted and drafted to suit specific, local realities. Generally, contracts lie within those genres which combine ‘highly formal traits with features typical of the written mode’ (Gotti 2005, p. 21). Additionally, as contracts, powers of attorney can be considered as highly codified and standardised, with easily predictable sentences and constructions, rich in formulaic expressions (Gotti 2005, p. 21), thus showing a crystallized and conventional use of certain routines. Starting from the assumption that legal language is inherently complex, obscure and over sophisticated (Di Renzo Villata 2007, p. 4), the present study investigates the power of attorney as a legal genre, identifying its particular move structure (Bhatia 2003). The qualitative and quantitative analysis of a corpus of different typologies of powers of attorney, drafted ad hoc for specific actions, endeavours to ascertain whether and to what extent specific generic features, macrostructures, moves, along with lexical expressions, archaic formulas and clichés can be placed on a creativity-conventionality cline. The investigation aims to determine whether powers of attorney can be representative of the dynamic interaction between conservatism and lexical productivity

Parallel corpora and ST analysis: EU regulations on immigration in the specialised translation classroom

Starting from the assumption that “if corpora are to play a role in the translation professions of tomorrow, it is important that they impact on the education of the students of today” (Bernardini & Castagnoli, 2008, p. 40), this study endeavours to show how translation corpora of parallel texts (in English and in Italian) can be used in a Specialised Translation Master’s degree classroom. The point of departure is to examine parallel or aligned texts (originals and their translations) taken from the various European Union websites available for citizens to read and consult. The corpora currently being gathered include a variety of text typologies ranging from legal documents (such as regulations or directives), to administrative documents (such as White and Green papers) or informative texts (such as leaflets, brochures or web texts) (Felici, 2010, p. 101), all of them dealing with migration and asylum issues. The various types of documents are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively in class according to the following three main methodologies: Corpus Linguistics (Stubbs, 1996), Genre Analysis (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1985; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). Classroom experiences in the past few years have shown that building ad hoc corpora (or do-it-yourself corpora as coined by Krüger, 2012, p. 514) for classroom consumption is a valuable and precious learning tool which enables students to hone their practical skills in the resource gathering process and consequently in the translation process itself. This study focuses on an EU regulation and shows how a lesson in class can be conducted with students at Cagliari University, Italy. The aim is to get students to work on the quantitative aspects along with the more qualitative linguistic elements of the ST (Source Text) in order to obtain greater awareness and understanding of professional translator strategies used by the professionals in the translation agencies of European Union institutions. From an educational and academic point of view, the linguistic and contrastive analysis of certain features of the ST along with the investigation of specialised terminology associated with contexts of migration and asylum and their equivalents in the TT (Target Text), have so far provided the Master’s students at Cagliari University with useful insights and sound knowledge of the linguistic characteristics of legal and institutional discourse in both English and Italian

Beyond the boundaries: migration discourse in EU parliamentary debates

Immigration has emerged as a prevalent political issue throughout the entire European Union over the past few years. Hardly a day goes by without news stories of people fleeing the Middle East and Northern Africa to reach the shores of Europe, or without an act of violence, the emergence of a new association or political party, or debates on policy initiatives taken by EU Member States. In this respect, and in ways which were almost completely ‘unexpected’ some years ago, nearly every single aspect of political discussion has been affected by the issue of immigration. In every European country new movements have emerged, anti-immigrant political parties have obtained electoral advances and have altered the balance of political forces. This new balance has influenced policy changes in the EU as Members States have attempted to deal with the challenges that threaten understandings, agreements, social policy and the political and social construction of Europe itself. By adopting CDA (Fairclough 1995, 2013; van Dijk 1984; Wodak 1997) and Zapata-Barrero’s distinction between re-active and pro-active discourse (2007), this work analyses a corpus of EU parliamentary debates on migration. The aim was to ascertain whether and to what extent the interventions taken into consideration negatively react against the process of integration and multiculturalism resulting from the arrival of migrants or whether they instead positively accompany the process and consider it a historic opportunity and not a threat. The ad hoc corpus, which covers a time span of three years – from 2016 to 2018 – will be investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to identify the most frequent lexemes and their co-occurring patterns of usage along with the most recurrent or relevant phraseology in the verbatim reports. The interventions under scrutiny deal with migration issues, such as the flow of migrants legally or illegally entering the EU, asylum seekers, undocumented residents, borders and boundaries, thus allowing for the exploration of re-active and pro-active discourse constructions and of the strategies of legitimation used by MPs who try to demonstrate that their policies and actions towards immigration are legitimate, and executed within the boundaries and barriers of moral order and correct procedures (van Leeuwen, Wodak 1999; van Leeuwen 2007)

Online Dispute Resolution Websites: bringing legal texts closer to ordinary citizens?

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), or out-of-court settlement, refers to dispute resolution processes and techniques, such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration, that fall outside traditional judicial processes. ADR is being increasingly conducted online. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) applies traditional alternative dispute resolution methods to disputes solved online by either relying upon technologies or through procedures taking place entirely online. The analysis of two websites providing ODR will try to highlight, from an intracultural perspective, to what extent the features of obscure and ambiguous legalese shade into plain English expressions and structures, pursuing clarity and understanding, thus producing texts closer to and more intelligible for the layperson. The linguistic study is conducted within the investigation of the websites’ general ‘architecture’ which uncovers how texts, images and symbols synergically convey both verbal and nonverbal communication, along with the several traditional and non-traditional information technology devices employed which relate the several codes to one another in the cyberspace, exploiting those conventions which are peculiar to both the genre of mediation and that of online/electronic texts

“Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure…”: metadiscourse in EU regulations on immigration

The ongoing Pan-European integration process has profoundly influenced the nature of European law and its development, demanding a review of “the ways of how language […] is materialized” (Gibová, 2009, p. 192). EU multilingualism is thus becoming an intricate concept since “EU translation is […] becoming the language of Europe” (Gibová, 2009, p. 192) encompassing a supranational view of the world conveyed in EU-wide legislation. Very much in line with this assumption, and taking into account the teaching experience in Specialised Translation Masters’ courses training would-be professional translators, this study examines a corpus of European Parliament Regulations on immigration.In order to understand whether dissimilarities and/or congruencies occur between the EU working language, i.e., English, and the Italian versions, the metadiscourse framework by Hyland (2005), comprising both interactive and interactional features, is used as the point of departure for the analysis of parallel texts. The Regulations produced by EU institutions and conveyed and transmitted both in English as a “procedural language” (Wagner, Bech, &Martίnez, 2012) as well as in Italian have been scrutinized both quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to draw precious pedagogical implications for translation studies and professional practice for future qualified and trained translators

'We are a global community': communicating knowledge through MOOCs and teacher training platforms

A socio-rhetorical discourse community consists of a group of people who come together to pursue objectives that predate those of socialization and solidarity, and who aim to develop and maintain their own discoursal characteristics. We have examined MOOCs (Massive Open Online courses) and teacher training educational platforms in order to ascertain whether and to what extent they may be identified as networked learning tools and discourse communities characterized by a commonality of goals, mechanisms and procedures of intercommunication, exchange of knowledge, information, as well as specialized genres and their terminology. MOOCs and learning platforms have dramatically changed the way people learn. Starting from ongoing research, we analyze the metadiscoursal features of an ad hoc corpus of online filmed lectures drawn from two MOOC providers (FutureLearn and Coursera). We look at both interactive and interactional resources (to guide the listener through the texts and to involve the listener in the subject), in order to discover how these features are used to control, evaluate and negotiate the communicative goals and impact of the ongoing exchanges. The quantitative and qualitative analysis shows a significant use of metadiscourse markers in the video lectures with a higher frequency of interactional features such as self-mentions, engagement markers, hedges and boosters, rather than interactive ones. These commentaries in the lectures signal the instructors’ attitudes towards the texts and their listeners. Additionally, they were found to perform a rhetorical function since they persuasively reinforce the instructors’ attitude and stance. Thus, their use engages the participants as members of a digital community, where commitment, dedication, and common goals seem to be fundamental features

SLS: Smart localization service: human mobility models and machine learning enhancements for mobile phone’s localization

In recent years we are witnessing a noticeable increment in the usage of new generation smartphones, as well as the growth of mobile application development. Today, there is an app for almost everything we need. We are surrounded by a huge number of proactive applications, which automatically provide relevant information and services when and where we need them. This switch from the previous generation of passive applications to the new one of proactive applications has been enabled by the exploitation of context information. One of the most important and most widely used pieces of context information is location data. For this reason, new generation devices include a localization engine that exploits various embedded technologies (e.g., GPS, WiFi, GSM) to retrieve location information. Consequently, the key issue in localization is now the efficient use of the mobile localization engine, where efficient means lightweight on device resource consumption, responsive, accurate and safe in terms of privacy. In fact, since the device resources are limited, all the services running on it have to manage their trade-off between consumption and reliability to prevent a premature depletion of the phone’s battery. In turn, localization is one of the most demanding services in terms of resource consumption. In this dissertation I present an efficient localization solution that includes, in addition to the standard location tracking techniques, the support of other technologies already available on smartphones (e.g., embedded sensors), as well as the integration of both Human Mobility Modelling (HMM) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques. The main goal of the proposed solution is the provision of a continuous tracking service while achieving a sizeable reduction of the energy impact of the localization with respect to standard solutions, as well as the preservation of user privacy by avoiding the use of a back-end server. This results in a Smart Localization Service (SLS), which outperforms current solutions implemented on smartphones in terms of energy consumption (and, therefore, mobile device lifetime), availability of location information, and network traffic volume

Beyond the boundaries. Migration discourse in EU parliamentary debates

Immigration has emerged as a prevalent political issue throughout the entire European Union over the past few years. Hardly a day goes by without news stories of people fleeing the Middle East and Northern Africa to reach the shores of Europe, or without an act of violence, the emergence of a new association or political party, or debates on policy initiatives taken by EU Member States. In this respect, and in ways which were almost completely ‘unexpected’ some years ago, nearly every single aspect of political discussion has been affected by the issue of immigration. In every European country new movements have emerged, anti-immigrant political parties have obtained electoral advances and have altered the balance of political forces. This new balance has influenced policy changes in the EU as Members States have attempted to deal with the challenges that threaten understandings, agreements, social policy and the political and social construction of Europe itself. By adopting CDA (Fairclough 1995, 2013; van Dijk 1984; Wodak 1997) and Zapata-Barrero’s distinction between re-active and pro-active discourse (2007), this work analyses a corpus of EU parliamentary debates on migration. The aim was to ascertain whether and to what extent the interventions taken into consideration negatively react against the process of integration and multiculturalism resulting from the arrival of migrants or whether they instead positively accompany the process and consider it a historic opportunity and not a threat. The ad hoc corpus, which covers a time span of three years – from 2016 to 2018 – will be investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to identify the most frequent lexemes and their co-occurring patterns of usage along with the most recurrent or relevant phraseology in the verbatim reports. The interventions under scrutiny deal with migration issues, such as the flow of migrants legally or illegally entering the EU, asylum seekers, undocumented residents, borders and boundaries, thus allowing for the exploration of re-active and pro-active discourse constructions and of the strategies of legitimation used by MPs who try to demonstrate that their policies and actions towards immigration are legitimate, and executed within the boundaries and barriers of moral order and correct procedures (van Leeuwen, Wodak 1999; van Leeuwen 2007).

"Wikigender" and "Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation": Digital genres countering inequality and discrimination

Launched on ‘International Women’s Day’ on 7 March 2008, Wikigender is a project created by the OECD Development Centre that aims to facilitate the exchange and improvement of knowledge on gender-related issues around the world. Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation was an event hosted on 17 April 2014 by the Clinton Foundation ‘No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project’, was designed to foster and advance progress for women and girls worldwide. The two projects are investigated here as new types of communication on the World Wide Web. The analysis tries to ascertain whether and to what extent the generic features and discursive strategies of the two new collaborative platforms contribute to the co-construction of information, the dissemination of knowledge and awareness, and the development of a participatory agenda (Jones 2008; Campagna, Garzone, Ilie and Rowley-Jolivet 2012) on themes related to gender as well as resistance to inequality and otherness. An examination of these two examples of on-line communication will entail a scrutiny of new digital genres (Yates, Orlikowski and Renneker 1997), of the genre-specifi c features of web communication (Gruber 2008), and of the democratizing impetus embedded in their discourse. Promoting the exchange and creation of information and increasing citizens’ access to it enables readers to simultaneously become users, writers and critics; it seems to be the new trend of new web-mediated forms of communication that is resulting in the ‘democratization’ (Fairclough 1992; 1995a; 1995b; 1998) of several types of discourse