PhD candidates and peer review: Reflections on teaching an Academic English module in an emergency situation

The idea of using peer feedback in second language writing classes is not new and dates to the 1980s. Despite the abundant evidence supporting the integration of peer review into L2 writing courses, it was not before the outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic that this activity was incorporated in the Academic English module (AEM) module for PhD students at the University of Trieste. This paper adopts a reflective teaching perspective to report on a case study in which peer review of students’ abstracts was introduced as a ‘new’ teaching technique in the AEM delivered online due to the pandemic. Based on the responses to two questionnaires, this paper illustrates how the students tackled two peer review tasks and examines the participants’ attitudes and feedback, with the aims of stimulating a critical reflection on the experience and formulating concrete plans to make peer review an integral part of future Academic English modules

Legal translation and terminological resources. How to deal with stipulative correspondence

The notion of ‘equivalence’ is not new to translation studies and terminology but has been studied differently in these two disciplines, since translation equivalence and terminological equivalence do not coincide: while the former establishes a relationship between source-language (SL) and target-language (TL) units, segments or full texts, the latter assesses the relationship between terms and concepts embedded in conceptual systems. However, in the translation process, terminological resources are used to solve translation problems, so information on terminological equivalence is crucial for making the most appropriate choices in terms of translation equivalence. While playing a fundamental role in the building of bi- or multilingual terminological resources, equivalence has frequently failed to receive the visibility it deserves. In many resources, terms in two or more languages are presented as if they were characterized by full equivalence, even when this is not the case, while it would be better for the degree of equivalence to be specified. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the debate over the notion of equivalence in translation studies and in terminology, with special emphasis on legal terminology. The role of equivalence in legal terminological repositories is discussed in order to introduce “stipulative correspondence” (Magris 2018), a category that identifies the lexical relation between a term referring to a concept embedded in a specific legal system and a term used in a target language – which is not a language in which the legal system is generally expressed – to refer to the same concept. Stipulative correspondence is illustrated by examples extracted from an Italian-English parallel corpus of judgments delivered by the Italian Constitutional Court (Schiavi 2017-2018). It is argued that stipulative correspondence should be taken into account when designing (or restructuring) terminological resources and when describing information relevant to legal translation

Secondary term-formation within the EU: term transfer, legal transplant or approximation of Member States’ legal systems?

The EU legal system and the legal systems of its Member States have to adapt to the ever-changing nature of society and are therefore in a constantly evolving state. The EU, which is characterised by a unique lawmaking system, has proved to be an inexhaustible source of legislation, giving rise to a dynamic legal context. The same dynamicity can be observed also from a linguistic perspective. Due to the multilingualism principle, which makes multilingual communication a mandatory activity in EU institutions, new EU legislation and, consequently, new legal concepts are expressed in equally authentic texts. As a result, 23 different varieties of national official languages are being developed within the EU and existing terms are already undergoing a Europeanisation process. This paper presents a case study conducted on the terminology extracted from a corpus of parallel EU documents in English and Italian on the specific subdomain of the standing of victims in criminal proceedings and victims’ rights, and discusses the consequences of concept transfer between legal systems within a multidimensional context and in terms of monolingual and multilingual secondary term formation

National law in supranational case-law: A linguistic analysis of European Court of Human Rights judgments in English

The focus of the corpus-based and corpus-driven study presented in this book is on a supranational institution that has received relatively little attention in linguistic research: the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). After briefly illustrating the functioning of the ECtHR and its historical development, the first part of the book delves into the Court’s language regime, which consists in the use of only two official languages, i.e. English and French. The linguistic study presented in the second part of the book concerns the presence of Italian national “system-bound elements” (SBEs) in ECtHR case-law. SBEs are elements originally embedded in a legal and judicial system that are recontextualised in a different legal environment. To extract Italian SBEs from a corpus of sixteen ECtHR judgments published in English, an innovative methodology was proposed combining event templates with keywords. This allowed the retrieval of 401 expressions referring to different Italian SBEs, which were analysed in terms of their frequency, distribution, and linguistic form. The study reveals that a variety of national and international sources co-exist in the corpus and that translation plays a fundamental role in the drafting of supranational case-law, which requires the creation of “stipulative corresponding expressions”

Terminological Mismatches in English Non Legally-binding Criminal Law Texts

EU non legally-binding texts provide us with evidence that the victim-related conceptual system at the European level is still evolving. The absence of a well defined conceptual system, combined with the multilingual requirement, gives rise to a situation in which different types of terminological mismatches are identified. The paper aims at providing a tentative insight into three types of mismatches: predominantly linguistic, predominantly conceptual and mixed terminological mismatches

From LSP trainers to trainees and back: what can be learnt from developing terminology resources for future legal experts

The Department of Legal, Language, Interpreting and Translation Studies of the University of Trieste is working on TERMitLEX, a new terminological knowledge base (TKB) containing legal terminology. This knowledge base is specifially meant to meet the needs and expectations of legal experts besides those of terminologists and translators. Expert input through consultation with legal practitioners was sought to design the template for the terminological records to be included in TERMitLEX. As part of this consultation process, a questionnaire was submitted to first-year students of the Department’s own 5-year degree programme in Law. This paper first presents the questionnaire and then analyses participant responses. The results of the questionnaire not only provide information for the design of TERMitLEX (e.g. what aspects of a legal TKB students are most interested in, such as contexts, phraseology, and equivalence), but also shed light on other important factors in the learning process: the students’ attitudes to using English as a foreign language, a general lack of awareness of linguistic resources (both electronic and printed), and scarce online information retrieval skills. This information could be useful in the design or redesign of LSP course syllabuses

Terminological Equivalence and Variation in the EU Multi-level Jurisdiction: A Case Study on Victims of Crime

2011/2012Il progetto di ricerca ha lo scopo di analizzare la terminologia giuridica in lingua inglese e italiana relativa alla figura della vittima di reato e radicata nello spazio giuridico europeo, caratterizzato dalla coesistenza dell’ordinamento giuridico sovranazionale dell’Unione europea (UE) e degli ordinamenti giuridici nazionali del Regno Unito e dell’Italia. Secondo l’ipotesi principale alla base del progetto, il linguaggio giuridico è intrinsecamente caratterizzato da un certo grado di dinamismo terminologico, che si esprime sia a livello linguistico, con una serie di termini utilizzati per riferirsi a uno stesso concetto, sia a livello concettuale, dove si riflettono le diverse concettualizzazioni della stessa area del diritto. Poiché la terminologia giuridica analizzata nella presente tesi si colloca in uno spazio giuridico che vede il sovrapporsi di vari ordinamenti, si presume che detto dinamismo si manifesti in due diversi contesti linguistici. Nel primo contesto, che è di tipo intralinguistico, viene presa in considerazione la terminologia utilizzata nelle varianti nazionale e sovranazionale della stessa lingua, mentre nel secondo contesto, di tipo interlinguistico, la terminologia è esaminata da una prospettiva multilingue. Al fine di verificare la veridicità di tale ipotesi, è stata sviluppata una metodologia per l’analisi della terminologia giuridica in cui la distinzione tra genotipi e fenotipi introdotta da Sacco (1991) si unisce ai principi metodologici proposti da Cabré (1999a) per il lavoro terminografico. Per poter applicare detta metodologia è stato necessario costruire un corpus bilingue di testi dell’Unione europea e una collezione di testi di origine nazionale, entrambi incentrati sulla figura della vittima di reato. L’analisi della terminologia estratta ha rivelato che, nel primo contesto linguistico, il dinamismo intralinguistico si riflette nella variazione terminologica, che può interessare sia la sfera linguistica della terminologia (variazione denominativa) sia la sfera concettuale (variazione concettuale). La variazione denominativa consiste nell’esistenza di più unità terminologiche per designare uno stesso concetto, che però non comporta modifiche sostanziali nei relativi fenotipi. Nel caso della variazione concettuale, invece, è possibile riscontrare un certo anisomorfismo nei fenotipi. In entrambi i casi, tuttavia, tutti i termini interessati dal fenomeno della variazione terminologica mantengono la relazione con uno stesso genotipo. Si è proposta una classificazione della variazione denominativa prendendo in considerazione quattro variabili, ossia il livello di specializzazione, il periodo temporale, l’ordinamento giuridico e la valenza giuridica. Visto l’approccio metodologico adottato nel presente progetto di ricerca, in cui la terminologia giuridica dell’Unione europea è presa come punto di partenza ai fini dell’analisi terminologica e della strutturazione preliminare del sistema concettuale relativo al dominio, la variazione concettuale è stata riscontrata con minor frequenza rispetto alla variazione denominativa. Nell’analisi del secondo tipo di variazione terminologica, ossia della variazione concettuale, è stata presa in considerazione un’unica variabile, ovvero l’ordinamento giuridico. In base a tale variabile, la variazione concettuale è stata classificata come intra-sistemica, qualora sia riscontrata nell’ambito dello stesso ordinamento giuridico, ed inter-sistemica, qualora l’ordinamento sovranazionale e quello nazionale elaborino due fenotipi concettualmente diversi che, a prescindere dalle divergenze concettuali, possono essere ricondotti allo stesso genotipo. Nel secondo contesto linguistico, ovvero quello multilingue, la terminologia giuridica si è dimostrata caratterizzata da diversi gradi di equivalenza interlinguistica. Essendo la terminologia esaminata radicata in tre sistemi giuridici diversi, sono stati individuati due diversi tipi di equivalenza terminologica, ossia l’equivalenza intra- e inter-sistemica, e tre diversi gradi di equivalenza terminologica, ovvero l’equivalenza assoluta, l’equivalenza relativa e la non equivalenza. Altro scopo della presente tesi era quello di registrare le informazioni terminologiche raccolte in una base di conoscenza terminologica orientata alla traduzione giuridica. Giacché la terminologia esaminata è caratterizzata da un alto tasso di dipendenza dall’ordinamento giuridico a cui fa riferimento, la base di conoscenza terminologica MuLex è stata concepita specificamente come ausilio alla traduzione giuridica. MuLex ha quindi lo scopo di esplicitare le differenze riscontrate tra i sistemi giuridici esaminati e spiegare le peculiarità dell’uso di tale terminologia giuridica agli utenti finali. Al fine di ottimizzare la rappresentazione della conoscenza soggiacente la terminologia giuridica, le schede terminografiche in MuLex sono dotate di uno strumento di visualizzazione che consente la rappresentazione grafica delle strutture relazionali concettuali che raffigurano i concetti analizzati registrati nella base di conoscenza stessa.The research project aims at studying the English and Italian legal terminology related to the area of law of victims of crime and embedded in the multi-level jurisdiction provided by the supranational legal system of the European Union (EU), on the one hand, and the British and Italian national legal systems, on the other. The main hypothesis is that legal language is inherently characterised by terminological dynamism, which emerges both at the linguistic level – with different terms used to refer to individual legal concepts – and at the conceptual level, where different conceptualisations of the same legal domain are reflected. Since the bilingual legal terminology that has been examined occurs within a judicial space in which several legal systems are interconnected, such dynamism is expected to manifest itself in two different linguistic settings. In the first, the terminology in a national and an EU variety of the same language is taken into consideration, while in the second setting, terminology is studied from a multilingual perspective. In order to verify the main hypothesis, a methodological framework has been set out, on the basis of both the methodological premises for terminological analysis proposed by Cabré (1999a) and the distinction between genotypes and phenotypes introduced by Sacco (1991). Such a methodology required the compilation of a bilingual corpus of EU legal texts and a collection of national legal texts focusing on the figure of the victim of crime. The examination of the terminology extracted has shown that in the first linguistic setting envisaged, intralingual dynamism is reflected in terminological variation, which can affect either the linguistic layer (denominative variation) or the conceptual layer (conceptual variation) of terminology, with denominative variation consisting in the co-existence of several terminological units in which no substantial difference in the phenotypes involved is produced, while in conceptual variation anisomorphism among the phenotypes can be observed. In both cases, all the terms affected by the phenomenon of terminological variation are related to the same genotype. A classification of denominative variation has been proposed based on four variables, i.e. degree of specialisation, time span, legal system, and legal force. Due to the methodology adopted in this research project, in which the EU legal terminology has been taken as the starting point for both the terminological analysis and the preliminary conceptual structuring of the legal area of the study, conceptual variation has emerged to be less frequent than denominative variation. By taking the legal system as a variable in the analysis of conceptual variation, such variation has been subdivided into intra-systemic variation, occurring within a single legal system, and inter-systemic variation, when the supranational and the national legal systems elaborate two conceptually different phenotypes which, in spite of their conceptual anisomorphism, can be linked to the same genotype. In the second linguistic setting, where terminology is studied from a multilingual perspective, legal terminology has turned out to be characterised by different degrees of interlingual equivalence. On account of the embeddedness of the legal terminology examined in three different legal systems, different types and degrees of terminological equivalence have been identified and discussed: the types of terminological equivalence are intra-systemic and inter-systemic equivalence, while the degrees of equivalence are absolute equivalence, relative equivalence and non-equivalence. Another aim of this thesis was to record the collected terminological data in a legal translation-oriented terminological knowledge base (TKB). The terminology under discussion is characterised by a high degree of dependency on the legal system it refers to and the MuLex terminological knowledge base was specifically designed for helping the work of legal translators. This TKB aims at capturing the differences among the legal systems involved in the study and showing the peculiarities in the usage of legal terminology in such legal systems to its end users. For optimising the representation of the domain-specific knowledge implied by legal terminology, in MuLex terminographic entries integrate a tool enabling the graphic representation of the conceptual relational structures among the concepts analysed and recorded in the TKB.XXV Ciclo198

Diachrony in legal terminology: A case study on the rights of victims of crime in the EU

Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA was the first legal act adopted by the European Union to lay down general provisions addressing victims of crime and their rights. Significant progress was achieved a decade later by adopting Directive 2012/29/EU, which established minimum standards on the rights, support, and protection of victims of crime. This article presents a study conducted on the terms starting with the head element \u201cright\u201d extracted from both acts. The aim was to determine whether the legal progress experienced in a decade was accompanied by an evolution in the terminology used. The study revealed that, when legal terminology is analysed from a diachronic perspective, different phenomena can be observed: in this case, instances of stability, formal neology, and complete neology were identified. Diachronic evolution phenomena in legal terminology are then considered from a didactic perspective: students of law, legal translation, and legal terminology are deemed likely to benefit significantly from the inclusion of the diachronic dimension in their studies

Empowering children: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its English and Italian child-friendly versions

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history and sets out children’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. From a linguistic and subject-specific perspective, it is a typical international convention, which is most likely incomprehensible to children. For this reason, the Convention has undergone a process of reformulation and recontextualization (Calsamiglia – Van Dijk 2004) leading to the creation of a variety of child-friendly (CF) versions in many languages. This paper presents a corpus-based study of four CF posters explaining the rights enshrined in the CRC in English and Italian. The comparison of the CF versions with the original CRC revealed that the reformulation and recontextualization entailed a change in genre (from convention to poster), a significant reduction in length, a shift in focus from States Parties to children, a different use of deontic modality, and a limited use of cognitive popularization strategies