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Topics in Language Resources for Translation ... - ymerleksi - home

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Chapter 3. Corpora <strong>for</strong> translator education and translation practice 43Table 2. Titles and senses: lexicalised phrases and wordplay <strong>in</strong> the Time Out BarcelonaGuide (Pengu<strong>in</strong>)Title Topic SensesGet <strong>in</strong>to thehabitMontserratMonastery1. <strong>in</strong> the habit of do<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g; hav<strong>in</strong>g ahabit [...] of so do<strong>in</strong>g. So to [...] get <strong>in</strong>to thehabit (OED)2. the habit, monastic order or professionGett<strong>in</strong>g high Castells 1. situated far above the ground (OED)(human towers) 2. high: under the <strong>in</strong>fluence of drugs oralcohol (OED)Death on the Montjuïc 1. end of one’s life on a mounta<strong>in</strong> areamounta<strong>in</strong> (site of executions) 2. usually refers to climbers’ accidental deaths;also a Japanese movieOn the tiles The work of famous 1. on the tiles: on a spree, on a debauch (OED)Catalan ArchitectJ. M. Jujol2. Josep Maria Jujol: Catalan architect, hisactivity ranged from furniture designs andpa<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g, to architecture (wikipedia)Compar<strong>in</strong>g the two lists, one notices that neither item 1 nor item 2 <strong>in</strong> the first (the“skills” list) translate <strong>in</strong>to any of the know-hows <strong>in</strong> the second. In other words,there is a gap between “fully understand the material/detect any gaps etc.” and“gett<strong>in</strong>g the <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation and knowledge required”.While illustrat<strong>in</strong>g this po<strong>in</strong>t with sufficient detail would take more space thanis available here, a simple example can be provided. The phrases <strong>in</strong> the first columnof Table 2 are taken from the Time Out Barcelona Guide (2002, Pengu<strong>in</strong>).They are all titles of short sections devoted to different events or places, they all<strong>in</strong>volve wordplay and require, to “fully understand the material to be translated”,an understand<strong>in</strong>g of the relationship between the facts be<strong>in</strong>g recounted or placesbe<strong>in</strong>g described and the standard sense of the lexicalised expression used. Whilethe text itself no doubt provides h<strong>in</strong>ts <strong>for</strong> a correct <strong>in</strong>terpretation of the allusionsto places and events <strong>in</strong> and around Barcelona, <strong>for</strong> the wordplay to be successfulthe reader also has to know that the expressions used are not creative co<strong>in</strong>ages butlexicalised phrases (their availability to the reader out of context is <strong>in</strong> fact a precondition<strong>for</strong> the success of the wordplay). A student who is not aware of theselayers of mean<strong>in</strong>g may be misled <strong>in</strong>to tak<strong>in</strong>g such expressions as “on the tiles” and“gett<strong>in</strong>g high” at face value only.While it is easy to f<strong>in</strong>d out about these expressions, i.e., “get the <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mationand knowledge required” with the resources currently available to any translator,the real and often underestimated challenge lies <strong>in</strong> teach<strong>in</strong>g students to identifywordplay or other types of “layered” mean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the first place. By draw<strong>in</strong>g their

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