LINGUATECA &
Translation, terminology and research
at the University of PortoBelinda Maia
Universidade do Porto
Translation at FLUPPast and Present
Licenciatura
• TRANSLATION SPECIALIZATION
• 3rd YEAR– Theory of Translation -2 hours per week– Contrastive Analysis - Portuguese + foreign
language- 2 hours per week– Portuguese Language - 4 hours per week
Licenciatura
• 4th YEAR– Translation - Foreign language > Portuguese - 6
hours per week– Translation -Portuguese > Foreign Language -
3 hours per week– Word Processing - 2 hours per week– Portuguese Culture - 4 hours per week
• 5th YEAR – 6 months’ 'ESTÁGIO'
Master’s degrees at FLUPPast
• Master’s in Translation Studies 1995-7– Theory of Translation– Translation and Rhetoric– Linguistics and Translation
• Master’s in Translation Studies 1998-2000– Theory of Translation– Translation and Rhetoric– Information Technology and Translation
Master’s degrees at FLUPPast and Present
• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2000-2 & 2002-4 – General seminars– Introduction to Human Language Technology
– Terminology and Lexicography
– Theory of Translation
– Semantics and Syntax
– Translation
– Terminography
– http://www.letras.up.pt/translat/i_mepr.html
Master’s degrees Past Specializations
• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2000-2– Geography – population geography– History – medieval castles, diachronic study of
wool industry, ‘vinho verde’– Mechanical Engineering – tribology, metal
fatigue, composite materials, maintenance, statistics,
Master’s degrees Present Specializations
• Master’s in Terminology and Translation 2002-4 – Geography – natural disasters
– History – professional occupations
– Electrochemical engineering
– Civil engineering
– Localization
– Translation
– Genetics
– Medicine (area still to be chosen)
Licenciatura- Original objectives
• To supply a post-graduate certificate in translation
• To provide an alternative to the teaching qualification at level of licenciatura
• Vision: preparation in ‘general’ translation and the rest learnt ‘on the job’
• Course was designed about 12 years ago and the names have remained
Change of emphasis - Reasons
• Perception that the course was not satisfying the professional needs of our students– Not enough ´real-life’ translation– Not enough practice in the mother tongue– Not enough practice in information technology
Change of emphasis - Effects
• Attempts to match the course to real-world expectations - partly successful– wider variety of texts for translation– specialized glossary and corpora work– classroom + computers and connection to the
Internet– more information technology
Present situationof Licenciatura – 3rd year
• Theory of translation– practical introduction to professional translation – with
theory implied rather than explicit - see Robinson (1997) Becoming a Translator.
– Corpora building
• Contrastive analysis– contrastive lexicography and terminology + contrastive
grammar and text analysis
– glossary building.
• Portuguese language: text analysis
Real present situationof Licenciatura – 4th year
• Translation - Foreign language > Portuguese• Translation -Portuguese > Foreign Language
– Both courses concentrate on ‘real-life’ translations – including subtitling, webpages etc
• Word Processing > Introduction to IT for translation – complete Microsoft Office, translation software, etc
• Portuguese Culture - no change....• 5th YEAR – 6 months’ Estágio - wide variety
Do-it-yourself corpora
• We started this type of work as soon as we got the Internet - about 1997
• Project work for students includes building mini-corpus on a specialized subject with the objctives of:– Finding out about the subject– Searching terminology– Learning about types and levels of texts
Glossary making
• Gradual progress
• ‚Hard words‘ lists
• Glossaries - general topic areas
• Glossaries - specialized areas
• WORD > EXCEL > MULTITERM > ...
Terminology databases
• Using commercial databases– ACCESS– Multiterm– Termstar
• Making our own with cooperation of the Computer Engineering department
LINGUATECA
• General presentation
• http://www.linguateca.pt
• Computational processing of Portuguese– Resources– Tools– Publications
Polo – CLUP-Porto
• Started work end of October
• Official objectives: – to add parallel corpora in technical and
scientific fields to COMPARA– to create comparable corpora– to provide on-line access to corpora and
corpora analysis tools
Polo – CLUP-Porto
• Developing objectives:– automatic term extraction– multidimensional concept mapping– evaluation of on-line corpora use by general
public– evaluation of machine translation– revised webpage for LINGUATECA
Polo – CLUP-Porto Online tools
• http://poloclup.linguateca.pt/ferramentas– EXTEX – Tool for extracting .txt from other
formats– METRA - MEta TRAnslator.
EVAL 1 - Ferramenta para Categorização de Erros de Tradução.
– BOOMERANG – Translation + re-translation + re-translation
Master’s dissertationscompleted
Pais, Jorge. 2001 Tradução e Localização: Pontos de Contacto e de Afastamento.
Gonçalves, M. Emilia 2001 Contributo para a Tradução de Construções Passivas com base em ‘Great Expectations’ de Charles Dickens’.
Milner, M. do Céu. 2001 Terminografia com Base em ‘Corpora’ – Um Ensaio na Área da Construção Metálica.
Ribeiro, M. da Graça. 2001 Aspectos Teóricos e Práticos da Pesquisa Terminológica – Estudo Experimental no Domínio do Betão.
Carmo, Felix do. 1999. Tese de Mestrado - A Variação do Número de Palavras em Tradução.
Master’s dissertationsunder construction
• Population geography– Ontology / multidimensional framework – Documentaries and subtitling– Text analysis
• History – diachronic study of wool industry, – ‘vinho verde’– castles - text analysis
Master’s dissertationsunder construction
• Mechanical Engineering – Conceptualization and tribology– Text analysis of standards documents– Socio-terminology - composite materials
• Marketing - Automatic term extraction• Other
– metaphors in football corpora– analysis of advertising texts
Ongoing/future work
• With supervision from Geography Department– domain – ‘Natural disasters’ + possible help from
insurance company
• With supervision from History Department – domain - ‘Professional occupations’
• With supervision from Faculty of Engineering– Civil engineering - with support from professional
organization
– Electro-chemical engineering
Ongoing/future work
• With Supervision from the Computer Engineering Department– Localization - translation of Bert Esselink´s A Practical
Guide to Localization
• With the supervision of the Faculty of Sciences– Genetics
• With the supervision of medical expert and supprt of commercial firm– Medicine (area still to be chosen)
Ongoing/future work
• Translation – Portuguese terminology for Delisle, Jean, Hannelore
Lee-Jahnke et Monique C. Cormier Terminologie de la traduction / Translation Terminology / Terminología de la traducción / Terminologie der Überserzung Amsterdam, John Benjamins
Ongoing/future work
• Doctorates planned in the areas of:– Contrastive linguistics - metaphors
– Corpora and machine translation
– Terminology
Past/Ongoing/Future work
• Undergraduate mini-corpora and glossary work in a wide variety of areas