Übersetzen als Sonderform des Risikomanagements

Il n’est pas possible de dater l’entrée du mot « Risikomanagment » (RM) dans les dictionnaires de la langue allemande. Probablement, il s’agit d’un calque de l’expression américaine risk management, expression qui peut se vanter d’une longue tradition (Knight 1921) dans le monde anglo-américain. Pour approfondir une telle recherche dans le domaine de la langue allemande, il faudrait de nombreux dictionnaires mono- et plurilingues ainsi qu’une exégèse de la littérature spécialisée et exhaustive en sciences économiques. En d’autres termes, ceci nécessiterait un projet de recherche avec l’établissement d’un important corpus de textes avec l’infrastructure adéquate. Un seul homme – en l’occurrence un professeur émérite – ne peut y parvenir seul.We cannot date the first entry of the German word “Risikomanagment” (RM) in German dictionaries. Most probably, this is a calque of the American expression risk management, which has a long tradition in the Anglo-American world (Knight 1921). Should we want to make a thorough research in the German literature we would need not only numerous mono-and bilingual dictionaries, but would also have to go through the specialized literature of economic sciences. In other words, such an enterprise is not possible without establishing an important text corpus and the needed infrastructure. A one-man enterprise, which an emeritus represents nolens volens, can’t possibly envisage such an enterprise

Experience of Dying: Concerns of Dying Patients and of Carers

Background: Terminally ill patients frequently express concerns about what dying will be like: how their bodies may change as disease progresses, how medication may alter the effect of these changes and whether and how their preferences will be respected as they become more ill.----- Methods: Thirty-six patients admitted to a hospice were interviewed and 18 carers of patients of the Palliative Care service,whohad died participated in focus groups. Thirty-three patients had advanced malignant disease, 13 were women; their mean age was 68 years (range 44–92 years).----- Results: The areas of concern consistently identified by patients were (i) privacy and autonomy, principally in regard to families, (ii) a lack of information about physical changes and medication use as death approached and (iii) the desire to shorten life, which was expressed by all patients. Carers recalled problems accessing services and support and had needed more help with practical issues such as medication timing and dose. They believed that not enough information about the patients’ illnesses had been given to them and they were insistent that carers should have information against the wishes of patients.----- Conclusion: Some of the patients’ and carers’ concerns can be readily addressed. Others, particularly access to confidential information, cannot be addressed without a realignment of professional ethical standards and community expectations. The patients’ discussions of their desire to shorten life may have implications for the debate on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

Aiming for Cognitive Equivalence – Mental Models as a Tertium Comparationis for Translation and Empirical Semantics

This paper introduces my concept of cognitive equivalence (cf. Mandelblit, 1997), an attempt to reconcile elements of Nida’s dynamic equivalence with recent innovations in cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology, and building on the current focus on translators’ mental processes in translation studies (see e.g. Göpferich et al., 2009, Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 2010; Halverson, 2014). My approach shares its general impetus with Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk’s concept of re-conceptualization, but is independently derived from findings in cognitive linguistics and simulation theory (see e.g. Langacker, 2008; Feldman, 2006; Barsalou, 1999; Zwaan, 2004). Against this background, I propose a model of translation processing focused on the internal simulation of reader reception and the calibration of these simulations to achieve similarity between ST and TT impact. The concept of cognitive equivalence is exemplarily tested by exploring a conceptual / lexical field (MALE BALDNESS) through the way that English, German and Japanese lexical items in this field are linked to matching visual-conceptual representations by native speaker informants. The visual data gathered via this empirical method can be used to effectively triangulate the linguistic items involved, enabling an extra-linguistic comparison across languages. Results show that there is a reassuring level of interinformant agreement within languages, but that the conceptual domain for BALDNESS is linguistically structured in systematically different ways across languages. The findings are interpreted as strengthening the call for a cognition-focused, embodied approach to translation

Harmonisation of demographic and socio-economic variables in cross-national survey research

The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate how demographic and socio-economic variables in cross-national comparative survey research can be harmonized. After a short introduction discussing the difference between translation and harmonization, the path from a national concept and structure to an internationally-applicable measurement instrument is traced using the education variable as an example. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document. (author's abstract

Computer assisted instruction and individual cognitive style preferences in learning : does it matter?

This paper reports the findings of a pilot study aimed at improving learning outcomes from Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI). The study involved second year nursing students at the Queensland University of Technology. Students were assessed for their preferred cognitive style and presented with either matched or mismatched instructional material. The instructional material was developed in accordance with four cognitive styles (Riding & Cheema, 1991). The findings indicate groups that received instructional material which matched their preferred cognitive style, possibly, performed better than groups that received mismatched instructional material. The matched group was particularly better in the explanation and problem solving tasks

Changing Workplace Environments: Implications for Higher Education

Industry today is driven by information, global competition and knowledge. These factors have led to continual changes in workplaces as organisations strive to remain viable. This study examined the nature of changes that occurred in two distinct organisations in Australia over two years. It also examined how workers are adapting to those changes in terms of learning, and considered what implications there are for higher education. The participants constituted 18 workers from a medical service industry and 19 workers from an engineering organization. The data were analysed qualitatively and results indicated several categories of change. It was also apparent that while much learning was occurring in the workplace, there was very little direct association between workplace learning and higher education for the workers in this study although several have degrees or have organised their own further study. Suggestions are made regarding the current practices in universities and workplace learning and for better collaboration. For example, universities need to develop closer ties with industry and curriculum models that prepare workers for ongoing changes in the workplace should be developed

Context, culture, compensation Three basic concepts in translation studies

The last decades have witnessed the burgeoning of contextual cultural and cognitive issues in translation studies (TS). TS has come to realise that it shares much with experts in other fields of linguistic and extralinguistic research and that the findings of their seminal work can be usefully integrated into an interdisciplinary (or rather multidisciplinary) conceptual framework. Hence, TS has felt the need to look beyond the confines of a predominantly text-linguistic methodology and seek new dimensions for its research by combining contextual, socio-cultural and cognitive perspectives of the translation process and the translation result

Older and Younger Workers' Conceptions of Work and Learning at Work: A Challenge to Emerging Work Practices

Thirty nine participants aged over 40 and 16 participants aged under 40, from a medical organization and a transport organization, were interviewed to obtain data regarding their conceptions of work and learning at work amidst changing workplace practices. A phenomenographic approach was adopted to analyse the data. Frequency distributions of conceptions and a comparative analysis between the two age groups were also carried out. In addition, an analysis of the implications of these conceptions was conducted to understand workers’ behaviours in light of current changes in work practices and to assess the potential implications for knowledge creation and use. The results indicated that there were four and five hierarchical conceptions for work and learning at work respectively and that these were spread across Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels and workplaces. There were also differences between the two age groups and their distribution across the conceptions

Basic Concepts of MT

Malgré les progrès réalisés dans l'élaboration des algorithmes de parsage, les systèmes de traduction automatiques, même les plus sophistiqués, se heurtent encore à de nombreux problèmes dont ceux de la complexité syntaxique, de l'ambiguïté lexicale et de l'analyse interphrastique. La compréhension de la corrélation entre les diverses unités syntagmatiques dépend des connaissances linguistiques, extralinguistiques et contextuelles dont la combinaison permet justement au traducteur humain de résoudre de manière quasi automatique les problèmes d'ambiguïté. La mise sur pied d'un système totalement indépendant de l'action humaine relevant aujourd'hui de l'utopie, la recherche en traduction automatique devrait davantage s'orienter vers la conception de micro-systèmes utilisables dans des domaines précis