Using NLP tools in the specification phase

The software quality control is one of the main topics in the Software Engineering area. To put the effort in the quality control during the specification phase leads us to detect possible mistakes in an early steps and, easily, to correct them before the design and implementation steps start. In this framework the goal of SAREL system, a knowledge-based system, is twofold. On one hand, to help software engineers in the creation of quality Software Requirements Specifications. On the other hand, to analyze the correspondence between two different conceptual representations associated with two different Software Requirements Specification documents. For the first goal, a set of NLP and Knowledge management tools is applied to obtain a conceptual representation that can be validated and managed by the software engineer. For the second goal we have established some correspondence measures in order to get a comparison between two conceptual representations. This information will be useful during the interaction.Postprint (published version

The Synonym management process in SAREL

The specification phase is one of the most important and least supported parts of the software development process. The SAREL system has been conceived as a knowledge-based tool to improve the specification phase. The purpose of SAREL (Assistance System for Writing Software Specifications in Natural Language) is to assist engineers in the creation of software specifications written in Natural Language (NL). These documents are divided into several parts. We can distinguish the Introduction and the Overall Description as parts that should be used in the Knowledge Base construction. The information contained in the Specific Requirements Section corresponds to the information represented in the Requirements Base. In order to obtain high-quality software requirements specification the writing norms that define the linguistic restrictions required and the software engineering constraints related to the quality factors have been taken into account. One of the controls performed is the lexical analysis that verifies the words belong to the application domain lexicon which consists of the Required and the Extended lexicon. In this sense a synonym management process is needed in order to get a quality software specification. The aim of this paper is to present the synonym management process performed during the Knowledge Base construction. Such process makes use of the Spanish Wordnet developed inside the Eurowordnet project. This process generates both the Required lexicon and the Extended lexicon that will be used during the Requirements Base construction.Postprint (published version

An interview with Dr. Jasone Cenoz on multilingual education and translanguaging

Dr. Jasone Cenoz is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Research Methods at the University of the Basque Country. Her research interests include multilingual education, the acquisition of English as a third language, language learning in school contexts and minority languages. The interview published in this issue was conducted in the autumn of 2015 as part of the meetings held with regard to the author's doctoral thesis and research interests during a brief stay in Donostia (Spain)

Pour une lecture traduisante ou comment faire avec la fragilité des signes : Iconicité dans La Guerre de J.M. le Clézio

À partir de notre traduction de certains fragments de La Guerre de J.M. le Clézio, de la critique de la traduction existante et d'un travail d'analyse textuelle faisant l'objet d'une expérience didactique, on constate la dominance de procédés de traduction qui débouchent sur un texte neutralisé et dont le fonctionnement signifiant ne fait pas jouer les mêmes modes de lecture et stimulations en langue cible. Cela tient au fait que l'iconicité du texte leclézien a été négligée. L'exemple de La Guerre est sans doute un cas particulièrement remarquable sur le plan sémiotique, vu, notamment, la forte densité de traits iconiques et les rapports complexes qu'ils entretiennent. L'amplification du phénomène dans cet ouvrage permet de mieux comprendre l'importance d'un tel travail d'analyse, de lecture traduisante, assumant les dimensions sémiotiques de tout texte. Partant d'une définition de l'iconicité, nous considérerons ses niveaux, ses processus; nous montrerons comment sa prise en compte aboutit à traduire différemment, d'une façon qui fasse pratiquer, au lecteur, un rapport plus complexe et plus libre au texte, rendu ainsi scriptible, et un rapport plus sensible et plus tendu du texte au monde de référence.Comparing some fragments of our own translation of La Guerre by J.M. le Clézio with its published translation, examining the latter, and carrying out a textual analysis -which was elaborated in the framework of a didactic experiment- we can consider as currently dominant certain translation processes which produce a neutralized text. Their signifying mechanism does not allow the receiver to put to play the same modes of reading and stimulations in the target language as in the source language -essentially because the iconicity of le Clézio's text has been ignored. Semiotically speaking, that example is undoubtedly remarkable for the high density of its iconic features and the complexity of the relations between them. The expansion of that phenomenon in le Clézio's work allows a better understanding of the importance of the analytical work involved in a lecture traduisante (reading as/for translation) that takes into account the various semiotic dimensions of any text. Starting from a definition of iconicity, we consider its levels and processes. We show how, paying attention to it, one can translate differently, so that the reader may develop a more complex and freer relationship to the text. The text then turns scriptible (writable) and its relation to the world of reference becomes both more sensitive and tighter

Passages

À partir de certains passages de la ville de Barcelone, un itinéraire de la mémoire sera tracé servant de fil conducteur à une méditation sur le sujet et la traduction. L'expérience intime de ces lieux communs de la ville, rendus ainsi à leur singularité, permet d'une part de relier la topologie choisie du passage avec l'aspect plus strictement transitif du terme, celui de la traversée, et par là même elle pointe l'expérience de la traduction. Mais une telle méditation permet surtout d'envisager un rapport possible, au sein des configurations particulières des passages, entre le transitoire ou éphémère qui obéirait plus facilement à la sémantique du terme, et le permanent, l'historisé amené par ce qui s'inscrit sur le lieu (de passage) ou sur le sujet qui le traverse. Cette polarité complexe, qui sera analysée et poétisée aussi à l'appui d'une analyse de la désignation onomastique, nous conduit enfin à considérer le passage en tant que « lieu » de traduction.Starting with specific passages in the city of Barcelona, a route of remembrance will be traced that will serve as a guideline for a meditation on the subject and on translation. This personal experience of these shared spaces or topoï of the city, thus re-assigned to their singularity, will allow us to link the chosen topology of the passage with the more strictly transitive sense of the term (that of a crossing) and to evoke implicitly the experience of translation. However, a meditation of this sort should also allow us to sketch a possible link, within the particular configurations of passages, between the transitory or ephemeral, in keeping with the semantics of "passage" and a sense of permanence through the historical narrative emerging from what inscribes itself in the place (the passage) or the subject who crosses it. This complex polarity, (examined and also poeticised in support of an analysis of the onomastic designation) will lead us, finally, to approach the passage as a "locus" of translation