Structural Analysis of the Western Afar Margin, East Africa: Evidence for Multiphase Rotational Rifting

The Afar region in East Africa represents a key location to study continental breakup. We present an integrated structural analysis of the Western Afar Margin (WAM) aiming to better understand rifted margin development and the role of plate rotation during rifting. New structural information from remote sensing, fieldwork, and earthquake data sets reveals that the N-S striking WAM is still actively deforming and is characterized by NNW-SSE normal faulting as well as a series of marginal grabens. Seismicity distribution analysis and the first-ever borehole-calibrated sections of this developing passive margin show recent slip concentrated along antithetic faults. Tectonic stress parameters derived from earthquake focal mechanisms reveal different extension directions along the WAM (82°N), in Afar (66°N) and in the Main Ethiopian Rift (108°N). Fault slip analysis along the WAM yields the same extension direction. Combined with GPS data, this shows that current tectonics in Afar is dominated by the local rotation of the Danakil Block, considered to have occurred since 11 Ma. Earlier stages of Afar development (since 31–25 Ma) were most likely related to the large-scale rotation of the Arabian plate. Various authors have proposed scenarios for the evolution of the WAM. Any complete model should consider, among other factors, the multiphase tectonic history and antithetic fault activity of the margin. The findings of this study are not only relevant for a better understanding of the WAM but also provide insights into the role of multiphase rotational extension during rifting and passive margin formation in general.</p

I corpora bilingui nell'apprendimento della traduzione. Riflessioni su un'esperienza pedagogica

Over the last five years we have been using small comparable corpora, i.e. collections of texts in two languages of similar types and on similar topics for the training of translation students. These corpora have been taken from a variety of sources, such as newspapers on CD-ROM, printend periodicals (either re-typed or digitized through OCR software), and the Internet. In this paper we describe some uses we have made of comparable corpora for translation and pre-translation activities and discuss students' analyses, looking at some of the limits and advantages of such corpora as a pedagogic resource, in particular in comparison with parallel corpora of translated texts

Methodology in translation studies: An introduction

An introduction by the editors of the handboo

TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS (TAIL) Lessons in honour ofGuy Aston, Anna Ciliberti, Daniela Zorzi

Translation And Interpreting for Language Learners (TAIL) is a collection of papers that addresses a two-faceted pedagogic question: How can interpreter/translator training be enhanced by greater attention to what happens in the classroom, and how can general language learning be furthered by recognising interpreting/translating as abilities worthy of attention alongside the traditional “four skills”? The teaching/learning activities presented aim to provide suggestions about how students can be given opportunities to engage with problems that arise when interacting in and/or comparing different languages in cross-cultural communication

When is a universal not a universal? Some limits of current corpus-based methodologies for the investigation of translation universals"

This paper raises a number of concerns relating to the notion of universality in translation and to the methodology adopted in the search for translation "universals". The term itself, it is suggested, may be misleading if applied to corpus-based research, where the emphasis should be first on the relations between translated texts and the socio-cultural constraints under which they were produced and then on the cognitive processes underlying translation activities. The paper illustrates the working of some such constraints on corpus design. With reference to non-fiction texts, it shows how two different cultures (Italy vs the U.S.) reciprocally select for translation texts belonging to different textual typologies, resulting in the possibility of skewed distributions within comparable corpora. Similarly, with reference to fiction texts, it shows how Italian texts translated into English tend to be canonical high-brow ones, whilst this is not the case with English texts translated into Italian. We suggest that the effect of such contextual variables over translation strategies and norms should not be neglected in translation research. One suggestion in this direction is to set up corpus resources so as to allow multiple comparisons across subcorpora, such that each component can be used as a control for the mirror one

Translation and interpreting for language learners: An introduction

One of the tasks of applied linguistics is the formulation of pedagogic problems for which solutions may be obtained through the use of techniques derived from the linguistic disciplines: at the same time, the relationship between linguistics and pedagogy is a dialectic one, so that an applied linguistic approach to discourse may also provide insights of descriptive interest as well as ones of pedagogic relevance (Introduction to The PIXI Project, Aston, 1988a: 12-3)