CODE 61329 ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018 CREDITS 12 cfu anno 2 TEORIE E TECNICHE DELLA MEDIAZIONE INTERLINGUISTICA 8741 (L-12) - SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR L-LIN/12 LANGUAGE English TEACHING LOCATION SEMESTER Annual AIMS AND CONTENT LEARNING OUTCOMES The aim of the course is to acquire competence inthe poragmatics of human communication. The main theories in the field will be studied (speech acts, conversational implicature, politeness, context, co.-text, inferencing and mental processing, culture etc).and applied to concreete texts in order to to comprehend the objective of a message, what linguistic means are employed to create the message in the attempt to achieve the pre-selected objective . The course is supported by langauge lessons taught by mother tongue teachers and by translators aimed at imporving basic linguistic competence in translation (Italian-English and English Italian). AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES The specific aim of the course is to acquire pragmatic competence in order to communicate efficaciously with others (and translate efficaciously). Special attention is devoted to cultural differences and how these may be handled. The student will be required to identify illocutionary and perlocutionary force, implicatures, presuppositions, speaker's goals, and to identify style, register and personal style, as well as the speaker's mental and emotional states. The student will be expected to acquire the ability to accomodate, to modify idiolect and sociolect to the specific context, to recognise and respect the speaker's cultural norms, and to develop argumentative, descriptive and analytical skills. TEACHING METHODS Classroom lessons. The students are expected to participate actively in the lesson, analysing and commenting examples and texts presented by the teacher in order to infer the theoretical principles underlying the interpretations offered and then demonstrate they can apply those principles. Students are required to read the basic text by Douthwaite BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE. SYLLABUS/CONTENT The course provides an overview of the major theories in pragmatics, including speech act theory, conversational implicature, relevance theory, politeness, conversation analysis, culture, social cognition and social action. The workings of the theories will be illustrated by applying them in the analysis of brief texts in order to comprehend the speaker’s goal(s), the linguistic and non-linguistic means employed to achieve those goals and how such means achieve (or fail to achieve) their pre-selected effects. Understanding how messages are conveyed is the essential prerequisite translation practice, since without understanding what meaning a message conveys and how it does so there can be no (accurate) translation. Theoretical lessons are flanked by language lessons in which students practice translating from Italian into English and from English into Italian. RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY (to be read before the beginning of the course) Douthwaite, J. 1990. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Torino: SEI. (only chapter 2 and Chapter 3.1) Yule G., 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford, Oxford University Press. IMPORTANT SUPPLEMENTARY READING Ariel, M. 2010. Defining Pragmatics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Clark B., 2013. Relevance Theory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Duranti S., 1997. Linguistic Anthropology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Mills S. 1995 Feminist Stylistics. London, Routledge. TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD JOHN DOUTHWAITE Ricevimento: By appointment. Please write to j.douthw@virgilio.it. Or at the end of the lesson. Exam Board JOHN DOUTHWAITE (President) CRISTIANO BROCCIAS ELISABETTA ZURRU LESSONS LESSONS START 27th febrauary, 2018 Class schedule ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TRANSLATION II EXAMS EXAM DESCRIPTION The exam is oral. The student will be asked to analyse a minitext (utterances, short texts, advertisements or jokes) in order to identify the meaning(s) conveyed and the pragmatic devices employed to convey those meanings. This will lead into a general discussion of pragmatic theories. The student must have passed all the written parts (practical translation) before he can take the final oral exam. ASSESSMENT METHODS The ability to identify illocutionary force, perlocutionary force, implicatures, presuppositions and other implicit meanings, context of utterance, social and cultural norms determining content and form (e.g. appropriacy to context) in concrete texts and situations. Exam schedule Data appello Orario Luogo Degree type Note 30/01/2018 09:00 GENOVA Trad. Ingl. Ita 30/01/2018 11:00 GENOVA Trad. Ital. Ingl 30/01/2018 14:00 GENOVA Orale 06/02/2018 11:00 GENOVA Orale 21/02/2018 08:30 GENOVA Orale 23/02/2018 11:00 GENOVA Orale 29/05/2018 09:00 GENOVA Scritto 29/05/2018 11:00 GENOVA Scritto 11/06/2018 08:30 GENOVA Orale 18/06/2018 08:30 GENOVA Orale 19/06/2018 09:30 GENOVA Orale 02/07/2018 08:30 GENOVA Orale 04/07/2018 10:00 GENOVA Orale 04/09/2018 09:00 GENOVA Traduzione inglese italiano II 04/09/2018 11:00 GENOVA Traduzione italiano inglese II 11/09/2018 14:00 GENOVA Orale 13/09/2018 11:00 GENOVA Orale 25/09/2018 08:30 GENOVA Orale 26/09/2018 11:00 GENOVA Orale FURTHER INFORMATION The student must have passed the first year exam in its entirety and the practical (translation) modules before he can sit the final oral exam. The student must read Douthwaite’s text BEFORE THE COURSE STARTS.
