The translation of food-related culture-specific items in the COVALT corpus: A study of techniques and factors

This article aims to analyse the translation of food-related culturespecific items (CSI) in the English–Catalan subcorpus of the Valencian Corpus of Translated Literature (COVALT). This general aim can be broken down into two specific aims: to find out what techniques prevail in the translation of these cultural items, and to determine what factors influence the choice of specific techniques. Corpus analysis is carried out by means of the Corpus Query Processor. The theoretical framework deals with the definition and scope of the concept of CSI, the classifications of techniques put forward in the literature for the translation of CSI, and the position of food- and drink-related elements within the broader category of CSI. Analysis of the results yielded by the corpus shows that neutralising techniques prevail over foreignising and domesticating ones, with the latter coming last in descending order. The most prominent factors identified are nonexistence of the source text (ST) item in the target culture, different degrees of institutionalisation, the ST item having been imported into the target culture, and different degrees of granularity. Correlations between techniques and factors are never very strong, but some are strong enough to deserve further attention

Permutation 2-groups I: structure and splitness

By a 2-group we mean a groupoid equipped with a weakened group structure. It is called split when it is equivalent to the semidirect product of a discrete 2-group and a one-object 2-group. By a permutation 2-group we mean the 2-group $\mathbb{S}ym(\mathcal{G})$ of self-equivalences of a groupoid $\mathcal{G}$ and natural isomorphisms between them, with the product given by composition of self-equivalences. These generalize the symmetric groups $\mathsf{S}_n$, $n\geq 1$, obtained when $\mathcal{G}$ is a finite discrete groupoid. After introducing the wreath 2-product $\mathsf{S}_n\wr\wr\ \mathbb{G}$ of the symmetric group $\mathsf{S}_n$ with an arbitrary 2-group $\mathbb{G}$, it is shown that for any (finite type) groupoid $\mathcal{G}$ the permutation 2-group $\mathbb{S}ym(\mathcal{G})$ is equivalent to a product of wreath 2-products of the form $\mathsf{S}_n\wr\wr\ \mathbb{S}ym(\mathcal{B}\mathsf{G})$, where$\mathcal{B}\mathsf{G}$is the delooping of$\mathsf{G}$. This is next used to compute the homotopy invariants of$\mathbb{S}ym(\mathcal{G})$which classify it up to equivalence. In particular, we prove that$\mathbb{S}ym(\mathcal{G})$can be non-split, and that the step from the trivial groupoid$\mathcal{B}\mathsf{1}$to an arbitrary one-object groupoid$\mathcal{B}\mathsf{G}$is in fact the only source of non-splitness. Various examples of permutation 2-groups are explicitly computed, in particular the permutation 2-group of the underlying groupoid of a (finite type) 2-group. It also follows from well known results about the symmetric groups that the permutation 2-group of the groupoid of all finite sets and bijections between them is equivalent to the direct product 2-group$\mathbb{Z}_2[1]\times\mathbb{Z}_2[0]$, where$\mathbb{Z}_2[0]$and$\mathbb{Z}_2[1]$stand for the group$\mathbb{Z}_2$ thought of as a discrete and a one-object 2-group, respectively.Comment: 45 pages; v2, expository and language improvement