bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reading human faces
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: January 2011

It is widely believed that there are some emotions (so-called "basic emotions ") which are universally associated with distinctive facial expressions and that one can recognize, universally, an angry face, a happy face, a sad face, and so on. The "basic emotions " are believed to be part of the biological makeup of human species and to be therefore "hardwired". In contrast to this view, Or tony and Turner (1990) have suggested that it is not emotions but some components of emotions which are universally linked with certain facial expressions, or rather with some components of facial expressions. Ortony and Turner have made a good case for this hypothesis. But the theory will be more convincing - and indeed more verifiable - if the postulated "dissociable components of emotions" are formulated in a rigorous, and culture-independent manner. The paper argues that the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, based on universal semantic primitives and devised by the author and colleagues, provides a suitable culture-independent framework.
Why are we (at least sometimes) conscious of our thoughts?
Authors: Shanon Benny
Published: January 2011

The two questions that constitute the title of the paper are examined in the context of thought sequences, i.e., progressions of phrase-like expressions that spontaneously run through people 's minds. The analysis of a corpus of such sequences suggests that the articulation of thought in language affords fluidity that makes novelty possible. The articulation makes control possible, it lends momentum to thought, it presents alternative avenues for the further progression of thought, it renders thought into an activity akin to action in the real world, and it results in objectivization that provides compartmentalization and reflection. While the discussion focuses on the medium of language, it is noted that similar patterns hold with other media of articulation, both in natural cognition and in the arts. General implications are proposed and discussed.
Putting interaction theory to the empirical test
Authors: Glicksohn Joseph
Published: January 2011

I report an empirical study deriving from a Gestalt-Interactionist approach to metaphor. Both the type of figurative expression (metaphor or simile) and the form of the expression (A is B or B is A) were manipulated in a factorial design. Subjects were asked to evaluate a given figurative expression both with regard to complexity and interest, and in terms of the degree of imageability of the tenor and the vehicle. As hypothesized, the design factors interacted in their influence on these ratings. Specifically, both the metaphor in standardform and the simile in reversed form received relatively higher ratings in degree of interest aroused and degree of complexity, while receiving relatively lower ratings in degree of vehicle imageability.
Relativism-pragmatism and the goals of cognition
Authors: Miščević Nenad
Published: January 2011

The central goal of cognition is truth. This thesis is defended against the new wave relativist-pragmatists, notably Stephen Stich. First, the relativist-pragma-tist stance and its central line of argumentation is briefly presented, pivoting around the plurality of TRUTH-predicates. Against this, the following theses are argued for: (1) various TRUTH-predicates are not in semantic, epistemic, and instrumental competition, and they will stand for the same higher-level epistemic goal — believing and saying "p" only if p; (2) the choice among TRUTH-predicates for natural languages is epistemically and instrumentally insignificant; whereas (3) the choice among TRUTH-predicates for the (hypothetical) language of thought is not available to thinkers, since they do not choose in what interpreted language they think and therefore are not to be blamed for not exercising a choice where there is none.
Structures of natural reasoning within functional dialogues
Authors: Grusenmeyer Corinne , Trognon Alain
Published: January 2011

The aim of this paper is to describe and characterize some structural features of natural reasoning by analyzing a number of conversations held by operators during shift changeovers. During this work phase the operators have to cooperate in order to carry out the same process. This need to cooperate leads to dialogues and joint elaboration of information, especially when involving the reporting of a malfunction. Three dialogues observed at this work phase on two study sites (a paper mill and a nuclear power plant) are analyzed. These analyses show that the step by step follow-up of the operators' collective reasoning is feasible. They highlight that these reasonings are complex experimental and hypothetico-deductive reasonings. They are reasonings for action, that are elaborated as the conversation unfolds, and for which the operators do not always have the means of testing their hypotheses.
The written representation of negation
Authors: Olson David R.
Published: January 2011

While negatives are fundamental to the functioning of human languages and while they are acquired extremely early by children, there is some evidence that an aware-ness of the logical and representational functions of negation is late to develop and may depend in part on the invention of notational means for representing it. This hypothesis is explored by reference to the presence or absence of notations for negation in the world's writing systems, the acquisition of notational devices for representing negation by young children, and the invention of numerical notation for representing nothing, namely, zero. In each case it is argued that while negation is part of oral language, conceptualizing absence may be related to the invention of notations for negation.
Ecological content
Authors: Toribio Josefa
Published: January 2011

The paper has a negative and a positive side. The negative side argues that the classical notions of narrow and wide content are not suitable for the purposes of psychological explanation. The positive side shows how to characterize an alternative notion of content (ecological content) that is suitable for those purposes. This account is supported by (a) a way of conceptualizing computation that is constitutively dependent upon properties external to the system and (b) empirical research in developmental psychology. My main contention is that an adequate computational explanation of the behavior involved in cognitive activities should invoke a concept of content that can capture the intimate dynamical relationship between the inner and the outer. The notion of content thus reaches out to include the set of skills, abilities and know-hows that an agent deploys in a constantly variable environment. The assumption underlying my attempt to characterize this ecological notion of content is that cognition is better understood when treated as embedded cognition and that the idea of cognitive significance ought to be cashed out in non-individualistic and pragmatic terms.
Sound affects of poetry
Authors: Tsur Reuven
Published: January 2011

This paper assumes that the literary work of art is a "stratified system of norms", and that the description of each stratum may require a different kind of logic. One of the main problems is the meaningful integration of these descriptions. A speech sound may be described on an acoustic, a phonetic and a phonemic level; normally, its acoustic description is irrelevant to its linguistic or poetic significance. However, in certain circumstances, the acoustic description may account for the emotional quality of the speech sound, may yield insight into the rhythmic structure of a poem (or just of a performance thereof), etc. Furthermore, pieces of poetry may be used to illustrate psychological theories about the aesthetic event; or psychological theories may be used to yield insight into the aesthetic nature of pieces of poetry. The paper focuses on the methodological issues involved in foregrounding the possible aesthetic significance of the transitions from one level of description to another. In doing this, it attempts to carefully navigate between two theoretical extremes: a reductionist view of literary theory according to which all the "special sciences " can be reduced to "more basic sciences" and, eventually, to physics; and the one formulated by Wellek and Warren (1956:135) as follows: "The psychology of the reader, however interesting in itself and useful for pedagogical purposes, will always remain outside the object of literary study [...] it must be unrelated either to the structure or the quality of a poem ". The middle course here proposed relies on "the principle of marginal control", that is, "the control exercised by the organizational principle of a higher level on the particulars forming its lower level" (Polânyi, 1967: 40). Paraphrasing Polânyi, the principles of literature may be said to govern the boundary conditions of a cognitive system—a set of conditions that is explicitly left undetermined by the laws of lower processes — physical, cognitive, and linguistic. If one knows more about these "lower" processes, one may get a better understanding of the principles of literature that govern those boundary conditions. It is claimed that in this way Cognitive Poetics is capable of discerning and explaining significant literary phenomena which present insurmountable difficulties to other approaches.
Routes to reference
Authors: Bruner Jerome S.
Published: January 2011

However one conceives of the relation between a sign and its significate, referring is a communicative act in which a speaker must intentionally direct the attention of an interlocutor to some object, event, or state of affairs that the speaker has in mind. This article examines the ontogenesis and phylogenesis of acts of referring, with special concern for the possible nature of sign-significate relationships. Findings from developments psychology indicate that a group of abilities and skills underlie the ability to refer. Infants follow the gaze of others to objects of attention, and enjoy joint attention with others. Interactions with caregivers in routines well known to the child enable her to achieve joint attention with the adult on a particular ingredient in the routine. In this way, the ability to refer develops from certain "language games ", interactions that combine goal-seeking and joint attention.
Impaired theory of mind in schizophrenia
Authors: Abu-Akel Ahmad
Published: January 2011

The study argues that linguistic/communication dysfunctions present in disorganized schizophrenia may stem, at least in part, from an impaired theory of mind. Using pragmatics and systemic linguistic theory, the study examined speech samples of two disorganized schizophrenic patients and attempted to determine if their communicative failures are because they lack theory of mind in the sense that they do not take into account the interlocutor's mind, i.e., the interlocutor's intentions, dispositions, and knowledge; or because they have a hyper-theory of mind through which they over-attribute mental states to their interlocutor, i.e., assume that their interlocutor has access to their intentions, dispositions, and knowledge. The study indicates that disorganized schizophrenics are unlikely to be characterized as lacking a theory of mind; rather they seem to have a hyper-theory of mind, to which the psychopathological symptoms of hallucinations, delusions of reference and incoherent speech can be attributed.
A neurobiological basis for decision making in language pragmatics
Authors: Schumann John H.
Published: January 2011

In the nervous system, the orbitofrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the body proper are involved in personal and social decision making. Since normal conversational interaction involves making personal and social decisions on a moment to moment basis about what to say and how to say it, it is proposed that these areas of the nervous system, which subserve stimulus appraisal, attachment, affect regulation, and social cognition, also subserve decision making in language pragmatics.
BAD as a semantic primitive
Authors: Durst Uwe
Published: January 2011

In an article entitled "Is BAD a semantic primitive?" (1996), John Myhill suggested that the concept 'bad' should be removed from the list of semantic primitives put forward by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Myhill argued (1) that 'bad' is semantically decomposable, (2) that there is no word in Biblical Hebrew that corresponds to the English word bad and, thus, no linguistic form that represents the primitive BAD in this language, and (3) that 'bad' is dispensable in the semantic analysis and can be replaced with other components without any loss or change of meaning. Discussing and illustrating some fundamental questions in the search for universal semantic primitives, the present author reconsiders these findings and finds a different answer to John Myhill's question.
The Passive of Bodily Effect in Chinese
Authors: Chappell Hilary
Published: January 2011

In standard Chinese (pŭtōnghuà), besides the regular passive form NP (undergoer) - BEI - NP (agent) - VP, there is a second syntactically related passive with a complex predicate containing a postverbal or 'retained object' : NP (undergoer) - BEI - NP (agent) - V - LE - N (part of the body).
This second construction serves as the topic of discussion of this paper. It is shown to be restricted to expressing an inalienable relationship between a person and a part of the body, other relational nouns such as kinship or material possessions being excluded from postverbal position.
It is argued that the postverbal NP is not a case of a 'retained object' in Jespersen's sense (1933) as the body part term neither acts as the true semantic undergoer nor can be considered as a kind of second object. This argument is supported by the additional evidence of the postverbal NP not permitting any modification by adjectives or demonstratives.
The interpretation of lasting effect on the undergoer (the affected per son) resulting from an adversative passive event is claimed to be a main semantic constraint of this construction.
Functional Type, Voice, and the Javanese DI-Form
Authors: Myhill John
Published: January 2011

This paper introduces the concept of functional type, a particular combination of functions which are realized in a single clause, and applies this concept to data on voice from Javanese and English, comparing the English passive and two Javanese constructions with passive-like structural and functional properties. It is shown that what is conceived of as general passive function can be divided into a number of different functional types, each one associated with particular discourse properties of the agent and patient and a particular combination of structural representations in Javanese and English.
Irrealis and the Subjunctive
Authors: Givón T.
Published: January 2011

This paper suggest that in order to understand the cross-language distribution of the subjunctive mood one needs to understand the cross-grammar distribution of the irrealis modality, as well as have a general theory of modality, within which irrealis takes its rightful natural place. The subjunctive mood turns out to occupy two coherent sub regions within irrealis: (a) the subjunctive of lower certainty (within the epistemic sub-mode of irrealis), and (b) the subjunctive of weaker manipulation (within the deontic sub-mode of irrealis). A grammaticalized subjunctive may take the same form in both sub-modes (as in Romance), or two distinct forms (as in some Bantu languages). The paper also investigates the diachronic pathways of grammaticalization through which various subjunctive patterns arise, showing that analogical extension patterns exist in both directions — from deontic to epistemic and vice versa. The interaction between grammaticalization patterns and functional universals is also discussed.
On the Double Object Construction in English and Modern Greek
Authors: Kakouriotis A.
Published: January 2011

Modern Greek, like English, has double object constructions of the type Ed gave Sue a rose; in Modern Greek, the recipient in this construction appears in the genitive case, but like an accusative object can correspond to a verbal clitic. In Modern Greek, the range of semantic roles (theta-roles) that can appear as subject is more restricted than in English, but the range of semantic roles that can appear as object (in the position of Sue) is broader than in English, encompassing in particular Source expressions (cf. */ borrowed John some money) and Benefactive expressions where the Patient is not itself intended as to the benefit of the Benefactive (cf. *Peter opened the old lady a door) — Modern Greek literal translations of both these examples are grammatical.
Linguistic and Behavioural Measures for Ranking Basic Colour Terms
Authors: Corbett Greville G. , Davies Ian R.L.
Published: January 2011

We report an attempt to find more objective measures for identifying basic colour terms. We investigate the types of measure available, both linguistic and behavioural, and the statistical techniques for establishing the closeness of fit with the predictions derived from Berlin and Kay. This leads to an investigation of the interrelation between the measures; having examined consistency across investigators and across languages we establish that certain measures give considerably better results than others. While the indicators point in the same direction, supporting Berlin and Kay to varying degrees, different measures serve different functions.
Sarcasm in Japanese
Authors: Adachi Takanori
Published: January 2011

Various kinds of motivation, such as psychological and physiological, affect and determine the forms of an utterance. Often observed consistent forms of sarcastic expression are likewise configured by sarcastic motivations. These forms, though still reflecting their original sarcastic motivation, progressively become emancipated from that motivation and become increasingly rigid and arbitrary as they undergo repetition. The relationships between motivation, this process of "grammaticalization", and arbitrary linguistic signs are observable in various forms of Japanese sarcastic expression. These forms are grouped by each specific major characteristic: 1) exaggeration 2) alienation 3) informal speech 4) stylized intonation 5) glottal stop
Eskimo Influence on the Formation of the Chukotkan Ergative Clause
Authors: Fortescue Michael
Published: January 2011

It has generally been assumed in the literature on ergativity that the phenomenon of ergative clause structure in Chukotkan languages represents a family-internal development reflecting the common source of such constructions in earlier passives. On closer inspection it appears that Chukotkan ergativity is of a typologically quite aberrant kind, however, whose most likely source is to be found in influence from neighbouring Eskimo. Prior to that, all Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages had already developed complex transitive verbal paradigms of a non-ergative type.
Evaluative Morphology
Authors: Bauer Laurie
Published: January 2011

Various claims from the previous literature about the way in which evaluative morphology (particularly diminutives and augmentatives) operates are tested on a large sample of languages. Evaluative morphology is seen as being less morphologically marginal than has been implied in some of the recent literature, but nevertheless as showing some interesting cross-linguistic tendencies.
Fusion, Fission, and Relevance in Language Change
Authors: Méndez Dosuna Julián
Published: January 2011

In Early Greek, ana and ek(s) were still largely independent adverbs. In time, following the normal trend to univerbation ('Today's syntax is tomorrow's morphology'), they became prepositions and -what matters here- preverbs capable of modifying the meaning of a verbal root.
As a rule, what took place is univerbation into an unanalyzable verb (fusion). There are, however, some interesting exceptions. The preverb eks- assumed a new shape kse- which preserved morphological transparency, and the conglomerate ksana-(< eks- + ana-) regained independence (fission) as a free adverb: Yesterday's morphology is today's syntax!
My paper tries to explain these developments (with parallels in other languages) and to investigate the interplay between form and meaning (constructional diagram-maticity). It is argued that conceptual distance to the semantics of the verb is a determining factor in the behaviour of Greek preverbs. De-univerbation proves to be a very effective means in opposing opacity.
On Experiential Sentences
Authors: Kim Nam-Kil
Published: January 2011

In the study of the syntactic category EXPERIENTIAL, it has been known that the experiential is mainly concerned with indefinite (or nonspecific) situations. However, a comparative study of the experiential in Chinese, Japanese and Korean reveals that there exists another type of experiential which is concerned with definite (or specific) situations. All three languages share the semantic properties of repeatability, uniqueness, discontinuity and relevant duration for the experiential. The distinction between the indefinite and definite experiential is supported by syntactic as well as semantic evidence.
Where the Progressive and the Resultative Meet
Authors: Shirai Yasuhiro
Published: January 2011

This paper surveys the progressive and resultative morphology of Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, and argues that although the distinction between perfective and imperfective is the most fundamental of aspectual distinctions, analysis of these languages reveals that this distinction can sometimes be murky. A unified account of the imperfective morphology in these languages is presented which relies on the interaction of inherent aspect and viewpoint aspect markers (Smith 1991). It is suggested that the differences among these languages are the results of the different patterns and degrees of grammaticization of their imperfective markers.
Substratum Semantics in the Verbal Lexicon of Haitian Creole
Authors: Lefebvre Claire
Published: January 2011

The aim of this paper is to document the presence of substratum semantics in the verbal inventory of Haitian creole on the basis of a comparison of a sample of verbs in Haitian, French (its lexifier language) and Fongbe (one of its substratum languages). The paper begins with a comparison of the meanings of a sample of Haitian, French and Fongbe verbs. Although the phonological representations of the Haitian verbs are derived from the phonetic representations of French verbs, the details of their semantics do not correspond exactly to those of French, but rather to those of Fongbe. Idiomatic expressions in Haitian are often expressed with similar verbal phrases in Fongbe, whereas they are rendered by a simple verb in French. Aspectual properties of verbs (stative/non-stative) constitute another facet of verbal semantics, and I compare the aspectual properties of Haitian, French and Fongbe verbs. Haitian verbs, like Fongbe verbs, are often not specified for aspectual properties, in contrast to French verbs. Thematic properties constitute yet another topic in the semantics of verbs, addressed here from the point of view of the verbs' agentiveness. On the basis of these various types of data, it is argued that the bulk of Haitian verbs' semantic properties have been carried over into the creole from the substratum lexicons. This situation argues in favor of the claim that the process of relexification plays a central role in the formation of a Creole's lexicon. Some cases of acquisition of French verbs are also reported. Such cases have triggered a reorganization in the properties of the verbal lexical entries originally relexified from the Haitian substratum languages.
The Grammaticization of Topics in American Sign Language
Authors: Janzen Terry
Published: January 2011

The topic construction of American Sign Language (ASL), within a topic-comment discourse structure framework, is explained as having emerged from gestural, communicative roots. In modern ASL, the prototypical topic construction is understood to grammatically mark pragmatic information that is accessible to both the signer and the addressee. But the construction is shown to have grammaticized further, with grammatical meaning having to do with text organization and with no reference to pragmatic, extra-linguistic information. The topic, however, is not seen as grammaticizing into a subject. Rather, the grammaticized topic remains prominent in ASL, with its own distinct set of resulting functions.
An Optimality-Theoretic Account of the Japanese Case System
Authors: Nakamura Wataru
Published: January 2011

This paper provides an Optimality-Theoretic account of the Japanese case system within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar [RRG] (Van Valin 1993; Van Valin and LaPolla 1997). It is shown that a particular ranking of universal constraints may accommodate not only the regular case marking patterns of Japanese, but the irregular ones displayed by inversion, causative, and a variety of double-nominative constructions. Finally, it is suggested that characterizing case systems in terms of the way universal constrainst are ranked opens up a way to a principled typology of case systems.
Conjoined Ordering of Color Terms by Children and Adults
Authors: Conley Kathi , Cooper William E.
Published: January 2011

Preferences for ordering conjoined color terms in English were examined for twenty first-graders and twenty-one adults. On each trial the subjects were asked to name the two colors included in a pair of intertwined shoelaces. For children the results showed that ordering preferences were determined primarily by differences in brightness rather than hue or saturation, with relatively dark colors ordered before relatively light colors. The hue dimension showed more importance for adults, with red, pink, and purple typically occurring in first position. A small number of conjoined color pairs exhibited a significant ordering preference, with most of these pairs including white in second position. The strength of the ordering effect is related to the perceived level of contrast between the two colors, with more highly contrastive pairs being more likely to exhibit a fixed ordering. Additional results showed that ordering preferences were unrelated to individual color preferences, that adult females showed stronger ordering tendencies than adult males, and that the ordering exhibited by both male and female children correlated better with the ordering of adult females than with the ordering of adult males.
Labrador Inuttut (Eskimo) and the Theory of Morphology
Authors: Smith Lawrence R.
Published: January 2011

In this paper Aronoff s theory of word formation is discussed in the context of polysynthetic structures. In several areas Eskimo demonstrates characteristics that would be unexpected from the largely Indo-European perspective which Aronoff adopts. In general LI word formation exhibits a high level of regularity and productivity. This may be attributed to the involvement of syntactic rather than lexical rules in the generation of LI wordforms. Syntactic and regular word derivation, such as that documented here, play a highly important role in the grammar of Eskimo, a fact which would be unexpected from Aronoff s data and synthesis. In general, LI resists description in the lexically biased approach Aronoff was required to develop for English. Furthermore, Eskimo data requires refinements of the proposed constraints on the input and output of word formation rules.
Semantic Extension in the Colour Lexicon
Authors: Kikuchi Atsuko , Lichtenberk František
Published: January 2011

A cross-linguistic study of the figurative use of colour terms reveals the existence of both language-idiosyncratic developments and general tendencies. It is argued that both types of development are ultimately grounded in the experience of the world by the speakers of the languages. Furthermore, the findings contradict the claim that there exists a universal order in the development of the figurative use of colour terms.
Traditional, Structuralist, and Textlinguistic Approaches to the (Latin) Vocative
Authors: Panhuis Dirk G.J.
Published: January 2011

A critical review of various theories reveals the need to see the vocative in the context of the speech act and on the highest level of the monolog (and not on the sentence level) through a descending analysis. The vocative cannot be correctly understood in reductionist theories without speaker and addressee, which tend to ignore the vocative or to deny its status as a case. In line with these findings, a short but complete Latin text is analysed in a tagmemic framework.
Cognitive Constraints on the Order of Subject and Object in German
Authors: Zubin David A. , Köpcke Klaus-Michael
Published: January 2011

The ordering of subject and object, especially in the so-called clause "middle-field," is a perennial problem both for the grammar of German, and for syntactic theories of linearization. While formalist accounts (e.g. Engel, 1977) and semantic accounts (e.g. Lerenz, 1977a) have made valuable contributions to an understanding of S/O order, their monocausal approaches have only limited descriptive adequacy. This paper presents evidence that the ordering of S and O in the clause middle-field in German results from the interaction of multiple cognitive performance factors: agency, animacy, situational definiteness, and contextual givenness.
Plato, Bacon and the Puritan Apothecary
Authors: Kelly L.G.
Published: January 2011

During the seventeenth century the London apothecaries, most of them Puritans, sought to destroy the control the London College of Physicians exercised over the practice of medicine in the capital. Cromwell's success in the Civil War gave the apothecaries the advantage in this fight, and the major weapon they used against the College was translation of the Latin professional literature into English and wide dissemination of the translations, which often included some very unbridled footnotes to embarass the College. The most important of these apothecary-translators was Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654). His practice in both medicine and translation is typical of the Puritan tradition in combining four influences: the philosophy of Francis Bacon, medieval interpretations of Ovid's account of Creation (Metamorphoses I.85), the Platonist flavour of medieval alchemy, and the Bible, particularly as translated by the Calvinists (the "Geneva Bible"). Culpeper was writing for a public that saw no distinction between secular and religious knowledge, and which took from Bacon and Seneca the conviction that polished language could not co-exist with truth. Thus his translation style, taken ultimately from the Puritan pulpit and schoolroom, is unadorned, accurate, and literal in that his versions respect the discourse order and content of the original.
On Aboriginal Sufferance
Authors: Jones Francis R.
Published: January 2011

This paper presents an empirical model of the processes involved in translating poetry. I suggest three main stages:Understanding, InterpretationandCreation.TheUnderstandingstage involves close ST analysis. At theInterpretationstage the translator works item by item, though with continual reference to ST and TT. An item may participate in one or more textual structures; hence it may be said to carry a number of marked valent features marking its role in the various structures. Valent features may be weighted differently depending on the importance of their structure to the image or the text. I suggest five main strategies of equivalence: Transference—TT item = ST item; Convergence/Divergence—TT item covers larger/smaller semantic space than ST item, but valency remains constant; Improvisation—TT feature is different from ST feature but has similar poetic role; Abandonment of a low-weight for a high-weight feature; Estrangement—equivalent retains an "untranslated" ST feature. TheCreationstage is that of fashioning the target text as an artefact valid in target-culture terms. This informs and is informed by choices made during the Interpretation phase.
Translation among Manila's Book Publishers
Authors: Stecconi Ubaldo
Published: January 2011

A survey conducted among Manila's publishers reveals an interesting translation scene. The bulk of translations available in Philippine bookstores is imported ready-made from the U.S. and Britain, and it seems that, with these, local publishers import an Anglo-Saxon indifference towards translation from foreign languages. Local projects are very few and nearly all of them are translations into Filipino from Philippine originals written in Spanish, English and other vernacular languages. Fortunately, some projects point the way towards a use of translation as a catalyst that can pull together the country's diverse genealogies and may help develop Filipino as a national language. Finally, difficulties in siting these domestic translations reveal an intriguing aspect of Manila's post-colonial condition.
A Statistical Method for Translation Quality Assessment1
Authors: Fan Shouyi
Published: January 2011

This paper attempts to introduce a new statistical method for making a quantitative assessment of the quality of a translation. A set of criteria was defined, against which the quality of a given unit of translation can be measured. These criteria provide a framework within which a mathematical model is constructed. It takes thefuzzy subset theoryas its theoretical basis, trying to solve the problem of translation quality assessment by an approach which might be called analysis-synthesis fuzzy evaluation. Mathematical operations can be performed with the aid of a computer program to yield a grade of membership which indicates the quality of a given translation. The model proposed in this paper is, therefore, of methodological significance.
Linguistic Interference in Literary Translations from English into Hebrew of the 1960s and 1970s
Authors: Weissbrod Rachel
Published: January 2011

In the years leading up to the 1960s and in the beginning of that decade the system of non-canonized literature in Hebrew was inundated with translations from English. These were usually characterized by strong interference of that language. In the system of canonized literature, on the contrary, linguistic interference in translations from English was rather restricted. The gap between the two systems in this respect gradually narrowed during the 1970s. The dynamics in translated literature as regards the interference of English may be explained as deriving from processes of change in Israeli culture and in its redeployment with respect to the West, especially with respect to American culture.
World Knowledge in the Process of Translation
Authors: Schäffner Christina
Published: January 2011

The paper illustrates the role of world knowledge in comprehending and translating texts. A short news item, which displays world knowledge fairly implicitly in condensed lexical forms, was translated by students from English into German. It is shown that their translation strategies changed from a first draft which was rather close to the surface structure of the source text to a final version which took situational aspects, texttypological conventions and the different background knowledge of the respective addressees into account. Decisions on how much world knowledge has to be made explicit in the target text, however, must be based on the relevance principle. Consequences for teaching and for the notions of semantic knowledge and world knowledge are discussed.
Methodological Aspects of Interpretation (and Translation) Research
Authors: Gile Daniel
Published: January 2011

Very little actual scientific research has been carried out in I/T to date, essentially because of the lack of scientific background among I/T investigators. Major problems are found in the sampling procedures, materials, experimental conditions and tasks, quantification procedures and conclusion-drawing logic. In order to foster I/T research, methodological research training could be given to investigators, and interdisciplinary contacts and networking should be promoted. The input of I/T practitioners to I/T research can be valuable in spite of their lack of training provided they use simple methods and are supervised appropriately. Non I/T practitioners should work with practitioners.
From ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’
Authors: Chesterman Andrew
Published: January 2011

Translation studies need to cater for both description and evaluation. This can be achieved via the study of translation norms. The norms governing translation are: (a)professional normsconcerning the translation process (= norms of accountability, communication and target-source relation); and (b) expectancy norms concerning the form of the translation product, based on the expectations of the prospective readership. While general translation laws account for the behaviour of translators in general, normative laws describe the translation behaviour of a subset of translators, namely, competent professionals, who establish the norms. Normative laws originate in rational, normdirected strategies which are observed to be used by professionals. These laws are empirical, spatio-temporally falsifiable, probabilistic, predictive and explanatory.
Rhetoric and Dutch Translation Theory (1750-1820)1
Authors: Korpel Luc G.
Published: January 2011

Due to the influence of rhetoric, Dutch translation theory between 1750 and 1820, like translation theory in other Western European countries in those days, was primarily concerned with the effect of a translation on the Dutch public and the verbal appearance of the Dutch version. This functional approach was reinforced by the definition of translation asinterpretatio, imitatioorexercitatio. The translational technique which follows from this prospective orientation is one of adaptation, correction and improvement. By the end of the period, Dutch translation theory seemed to be moving away slowly from the rhetorical tradition, as a result of two major changes: (1) a growing concern as of ± 1780 for fidelity to the verbal aspects of the original within theinterpretatio-approach, and (2) a decrease in the popularity ofimitatioas a creative technique after 1800. Unlike Germany, translation theory in The Netherlands had not made the crucial step towards a new theory of language before 1820.
The Grimm Tales in 19th Century Denmark1
Authors: Dollerup Cay
Published: January 2011

In most countries, theTalesof the brothers Grimm become known by degrees, beginning with one or two stories or a small selection. The situation in Denmark is not typical for a variety of reasons: the Grimms had close personal contacts with prominent Danes. Culturally theirTalesbelonged to a distant pangermanic tradition common to Danes and Germans. Therefore the first volume of tales (1812) was soon translated into Danish. The initial high esteem is felt to this day as a strong tradition of 'respectable and faithful translations'. Yet changes in market forces and reading audiences have created two more strata in the translational heritage of the GrimmTalesin Danish. The Grimm tradition has also responded to changes in Danish middle-class perception of Germany.
Translation Studies in Modern China
Authors: Fan Shouyi
Published: January 2011

The present paper reviews some opinions representative of contemporary Chinese thinking on translation criteria, methods, and the traditional way of assessing the quality of translation. It then summarizes various new views on textual configuration, equivalence, and quantitative analysis, views which can be regarded as the logical consequence of the discussion of traditional topics. The article tries to show that the present movement towards a science of translating is a new trend.
Translating Allusions
Authors: Leppihalme Ritva
Published: January 2011

This paper presents a systematization of translation strategies for key-phrase allusions, in the form of a hierarchical decision process. Actual translatorial practice in Finland, judging by seven translations of novels, favours the strategy of minimum change. This low-effort strategy is useful when allusions are transcultural, but will often lead to flat translations and loss of connotations in the case of unfamiliar allusions, even resulting in a failure to convey the message, as evidenced by reader responses. Adoption of a more creative and reader-oriented translatorial role would offer a wider variety of translation strategies and lead to a decrease of "culture bumps" in translations.
Stranger in Paradigm
Authors: Shlesinger Miriam
Published: January 2011

Simultaneous interpreting holds rich potential for research whose results may shed light not only on the workings of this composite skill itself but also on other areas of study, including language processing, second language acquisition, mediated linguistic interaction, textlinguistics and translation theory. As more and more interpreters are university trained, the interest in less intuitive, more rigorous studies is bound to grow. This article explores potential interdisciplinary paradigms, the premise being that they will gradually evolve towards meeting the specific requirements of interpretation as an object of study.
Une approche asymptotique de la recherche sur I'interprétation
Authors: Strolz Birgit
Published: January 2011

L'article résume l'expérience personnelle d'une praticienne de l'in-terprétation préparant une thèse de doctorat. L'auteur, qui se décrit comme une sceptique intéressée par la neuropsychologie et la psychologie cognitive, cher-chait des explications sur des phénomènes intervenant en cabine dans les travaux de collègues interprètes-chercheurs, mais trouvait peu de résultats convaincants fondés sur des corpus. En outre, son expérience personnelle différait parfois des idées présentées dans les publications sur l'interprétation. Une conjecture favorable l'a décidée à se lancer elle-même dans la recherche.Elle explique ses motivations, évoque les difficultés qu'elle a dû affronter, et évalue le résultat de son travail.
On The Relevance of Signed Languages to Research in Interpretation
Authors: Isham William P.
Published: January 2011

Research using interpreters who work with signed languages can aid us in understanding the cognitive processes of interpretation in general. Using American Sign Language (ASL) as an example, the nature of signed languages is outlined first. Then the difference between signed languages and manual codes for spoken languages is delineated, and it is argued that these two manners of communicating through the visual channel offer a unique research opportunity. Finally, an example from recent research is used to demonstrate how comparisons between spoken-language interpreters and signed-language interpreters can be used to test hypotheses regarding interpretation.
Retranslation of Children's Books as Evidence of Changes of Norms
Authors: Du-Nour Miryam
Published: January 2011

By comparing translations and retranslations of several children's books into Hebrew done over a span of 70 years we try to find out what linguistic and translational norms prevailed at different periods and what changes occurred in these norms, in a framework of the changing historical, cultural and linguistic situation. In recent years there has been a growing tension between the acceptability of the "commissioners" and that of the "customer"—the child. This study found that recent retranslations tend to lower the high literary style customary in previous translations and comply with up-to-date linguistic norms. This concurs with a tendency to put "readability" as a central issue.
Translations, Paratextual Mediation, and Ideological Closure
Authors: Kovala Urpo
Published: January 2011

This article deals with the way so-called paratexts were used, in Finland in 1890-1939, in publishing translations of Anglo-American literature, and especially with the tendencies towards ideological closure that those paratexts manifest. The dominant ideology in the material is what could be called religious-conservative ideology, emphasizing the thought content of the works and their (educative, civilizing, sometimes also entertaining) impact on readers. This is due to the ideological unification process that penetrated the cultural institutions, which were still relatively undifferentiated and non-autonomous during the period in Finland. The article emphasizes that in studying paratext, it is necessary to take heed of the wider cultural context; looking at the paratexts alone is not enough.
Cultural Agents and Cultural Interference
Authors: Shavit Zohar
Published: January 2011

This paper deals with the major role played by translated literature in the emergence of a new system of books for Jewish children in the German-speaking countries at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This role was due to the remarkable status of German culture in the eyes of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment movement), and to the absence of appropriate original texts which could serve the needs of the new system. As a result, translated texts were privileged in the system of Jewish children's literature, to the extent that, to the best of our knowledge, all books for children published by the Haskala in Germany were either official translations, pseudotranslations, or original texts based on existing German models.
Do we need an autonomous theory of terms?
Authors: Cabré Castellví M. Teresa
Published: December 2010

Much effort is devoted to proving that a particular subject field or activity is a discipline and indeed, a scientific discipline. These efforts result from stereotypical prejudices about the significance of science and its social impact. Terminology has suffered from these misconceptions, as can be seen from the repeated references to "terminology science " in recent publications. This paper is intended to clarify the position of terminology as a theoretical and practical field of study; and to propose a general approach to the description of terms within a general framework for the description of language. Taking linguistics as a starting point, it attempts to present an alternative paradigm which serves for the description of the multidisciplinary and multidimensional nature of terms and their use in discourse.