1,721,098 research outputs found
Can Culture-specific Humour Really "Cross the Border"?
No full textA famous anonymous aphorism reads: “All people smile in the same language”; however, both ‘Verbal’ and ‘Referential’ humour (Attardo 1994) are dependant on language (McGhee 1996) and in turn expressed through the witty exploitation of – different – languages themselves. This is one of the reasons why each form of humour is inextricably embedded in the cultural cradle in which it was born; in this perspective, according to Solomon (1997:204) “humour is to some extent ‘racist,’ not in the vile sense of demeaning some ethnic or racial group but rather in the more innocent sense that all humour is to some extent context and culture-bound”; this implies that it can hardly, or even never, be understood without an explanation of the cultural mindset and rules/taboos which the humorous issue refers to. Accordingly, in order to understand the ambiguity underlying the majority of verbally expressed humour, not only a sound linguistic knowledge is required, but also the ability to switch frames of reference, which implies that careful attention must be paid to the “cultural turn”, to use Bassnett’s definition (1991:4). All this accounts for the great – sometimes insurmountable – challenge that the rendering of verbally expressed humour represents for translators, “a notoriously hard task the results of which are not always triumphant”, in Chiaro’s words (2005:135). Our paper intends to investigate if and to what extent the Italian dubbed version of Hugh Wilson’s 1996 film The First Wives Club is effective in translating all the humorous issues, and whether (or not) it is successful in fully conveying its comic and satirical dimension. The theoretical framework in which our research lies is both Applied Descriptive Translation Studies (Gottlieb 1998, Snell-Hornby1988, 2006) and Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo &. Raskin1991, Attardo 1994, 2002). Adapted from the best-selling novel by Olivia Goldsmith, the film is a scathing satire of modern North American society, and in particular of Upper East Side and Hollywood ‘norms’. In this hit comedy three wealthy Manhattanites, former close college friends, reunite for the first time in years and set out for revenge on their two-timing husbands who, after being helped by their spouses to build up hugely successful businesses, dump them for younger ‘trophy’ wives
Traduzione e Cultural Turn nel nuovo melting pot europeo
No full textQuesto lavoro tende a dimostrare, attraverso diversi esempi, in che modo nell'odierno scenario le competenze professionali del traduttore sono più che mai volte a promuovere lo scambio e la comprensione interculturale e, come auspicato da Pym, “an ethics of contextualized human relations, rather than a barrage of abstract universal rules.
International CERLIS Conference Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Representing the Voices of Tourism
No full textELF come‘facilitatore linguistico’ nel processo di integrazione sociale dei migranti in Italia
No full textLa “traduzione” delle persone da un luogo all’altro può ingenerare un senso di perdita delle proprie radici e della propria lingua, produrre una chiusura nei confronti della nuova cultura, difficoltà pratica di integrazione/scambio comunicativo (condivisione di codice linguistico). La presenza sempre più massiccia di studenti non nativi nelle scuole italiane ha ingenerato una serie di necessità di ordine metodologico ed organizzativo che trovano in nuove figure professionali, come i mediatori culturali e i facilitatori linguistici, i loro principali attori. Il facilitatore linguistico è un insegnante di L2 che ha lo specifico compito di sostenere l’apprendimento dell’Italiano nel laboratorio di L2. Obiettivi primari del facilitatore linguistico sono il saper gestire l’accoglienza e l’inserimento di studenti stranieri e progettare percorsi didattici in coabitazione con la classe rendendo trasferibili gli apprendimenti maturati nei due contesti. Attraverso un sondaggio condotto su un campione di migranti provenienti dal cosiddetto Outer Circle e residenti in un paese del Sud Italia si è voluto valutare se, e in che misura, l’inglese stesso in Italia possa divenire ‘facilitatore linguistico’ nei processi di comprensione/interazione tra i migranti e le figure professionali nelle varie istituzioni (ospedale, tribunale, scuola, associazioni di volontariato,ecc.). I risultati del sondaggio e le conseguenti implicazioni sono discussi e commentati all’interno di una dimensione socio-linguistica
L’EUROmosaico linguistico: scenario e politiche di tutela
No full textLinguistic diversity has been an issue tackled since the EU began its life as an economic community in 1958 the 4 languages (Dutch, French, German and Italian) in which the Treaty was drafted were recognised as official languages in the Members States and therefore became the working and official languages of the Institutions. However, progressive enlargements have brought in additional states and the current UE official languages are 24 and, consequently, all legislation is promulgated in parallel in all official languages, while interpretation/translation is provided all languages. Additionally, apart from official state languages, in the linguistic Euromosaic some other 60 languages, i.e regional minority languages, are currently in use by almost 46 million EU citizens, together with a large number of immigrant minority languages spoken by the large migrant/refugees communities. All these languages represent an essential component of EU fabric and identity. Not surprisingly, in an age of intensive political and socio-cultural changes language policy has been acquiring increasing importance and linguistic diversity, in particular, has become an issue of growing social importance, recognized also as an all-encompassing dimension of the socio-economic pillars of any truly sustainable development. Nonetheless, a majority of living languages, for different reasons, are threatened in their existence. Given the interdependence among languages, cultures, and ecosystems, the loss of cultural and linguistic diversity represents an undeniable loss of our collective human heritage, resulting in social and cultural disruptions, but, as highlighted by many eminent linguists, similarly to bio-diversity, promoting and supporting language diversity requires constant nurturing. This is the reason why, nowadays, minority languages have been increasingly gaining support both at global level and at European one, and many initiatives/projects have been promoted in order to support minority and/or endangered languages. Among the main educational language policy issues enacted in contemporary Europe is NPLD 2020 Project, whose aim is both the safeguard and promotion of minority and endangered languages such as Irish, Welsh and Estonian language
Bambini immigrati e mediazione linguistica: il fenomeno del Child Language Brokering.
Full text linkInternational migration forces everyday more and more families to cope with a host of complex challenges as they must adapt to the demands of life in a new environment. Since children acquire language proficiency and adhere to new cultural norms at a more rapid pace than their parents, they often become the intermediaries between the cultural and linguistic divides that separate their families from the host culture. Such children, referred to as language brokers (LBers) in literature, translate the new language and interpret cultural practices for their parents, or assist them not only in daily crosscultural transactions (such as arranging medical appointments, filling out job applications, disputing phone bills and credit card charges, and dealing with schools and the legal system) but often in very critical situations as conveying medical diagnoses, or making decisions that may affect their entire family. Research demonstrates that about 90 percent of children from language minority families serve as LBers. However, data on the psychological and socioemotional outcomes of Language Brokering (LBing) – where the LBer is asked to negotiate between two adult parties in sensitive conditions – are very controversial. The present study accounts for some aspects of the relationships between family environments, emotional and behavioral adjustment in children and parents which favor or disfavor LBing. These cognitively demanding experiences may result in positive outcomes including the development of strong metalinguistic and interpersonal skills, academic self-efficacy and pride at being able to help out their families. In contrast, other studies have shown that LBing can have negative consequences in terms of stress and academic functioning, obligation, and socioemotional health, since it requires children to take on powerful adult-like roles, which can negatively affect identity development for them and disrupt parenting practices. As children become increasingly influential cultural agents on behalf of their families, parents may find themselves less authoritative and self-confident, family relations become strained due to role reversals between adults and children: this can lead to parental disempowerment, and, reversely, to children ‘parentification’
Evaluating the Power of Language
No full textMedia-generated narration/images of the world are used to construct meaning about political and social issues. The lens through which we receive these images is not neutral but evinces the power and point of view of the political and economic elites who operate behind media.
Not only are our own ideas moulded in their formulation through (media) language but views are manipulated through (media) discourse as well.The press declared informative communicative purpose of transmitting impersonal data and facts, is simply a biased representation of (c)overt ideologies, a pivotal notion in much recent mass communication research, so extensively demonstrated that it hardly needs to be argued for.
While the special genius of this system is to make the whole process seem so normal and natural that the very art of social construction is invisible, our seminar aims at
1) Unveiling its ( textua)l strategies
2) Highlighting overarching meaning potential of language
3)Showing how the press biased representation of ideas/experience is both (cognitively) «semanticized» and (verbally) «grammaticalized»
(Halliday and Matthiessen 2004: 452)
Traduzioni e Tradizioni
No full textOur study is an attempt to further underline the relevance of translation throughout history . “Translation is [...]an activity dependent on the relation within a certain cultural system”, (Even-Zohar 1990: 51), and by analyzing different examples within this perspective, our study aims to show to what extent translations did allow to compare different cultures and, more importantly, spread knowledge and preserve/shape peoples’ identity
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