Contributions of the philosophy of science to juridical semantics

Chinese special languages and the notion of headedness

see: Andrew Hippisley

Cheung, Paul

Developing web-mediated genre-based English language resources for university students of law

see: Christopher N. Candlin

Christensen, Tina Paulsen
Juristisches Übersetzen – als andere als nur Routine
Beim Produzieren juristischer Texte reproduzieren Juristen mehr oder weniger automatisch bestimmte sprachliche Realisierungsformen. Dadurch entsteht eine Norm, die ungeachtet dessen, dass diese sogenannten Standardformeln nicht präskriptiv sind, nicht auBer Acht gelassen werden kann, weil sie Ausdruck einer juristischen Formulierungsroutine ist, die beim Konzipieren juristischer Texte unbedingt zu beachten ist.
Diese normbedingten Standardformeln stellen eine der Haupt­schwierigkeiten beim juristischen Übersetzen dar, weil der Übersetzer hier keine Formulierungsfreiheit hat: Die ausgangssprachlichen Standard­formeln müssen im Zieltext durch die in der Zielsprache üblicherweise realisierten Standardformeln ersetzt werden, um so den Erwartungen der Empfänger gerecht zu werden und eine eindeutige juristische Auslegung des übersetzten Textes zu ermöglichen.
Für den Übersetzer besteht die Schwierigkeit auf der einen Seite in der Lokalisierung der ausgangssprachlichen Standardformeln und auf der anderen Seite in der Wahl eines zielsprachlichen Wortbildungskomplexes, das sowohl den Inhalt der ausgangssprachlichen Wortverbindungen wiedergibt als auch den in der zielsprachlichen Rechtsordnung üblichen Formulierungsroutinen gerecht wird. In dem Vortrag wird ausschlieBlich das erstgenannte Übersetzungsproblem Gegenstand der Untersuchung sein.
Vor dem Hintergrund der Unzulänglichkeit der bisherigen Versuche, Standardformeln zu definieren, steht die Formulierung einer ’praktikablen’ Definition, die sich unter anderem durch Einsatz eines Translation-Memory-Systems erzielen läßt, im Mittelpunkt der Bestrebungen.


Christoffersen, Ellen

Identification of non-realised agents in technical texts

together with: Lotte Weilgaard

This paper presents some results from our participation in a valency project¹ based on a valency theory called The Pronominal Approach (PA).
The working hypothesis in our comparative studies was that differences between LGP and LSP (i.e. technical texts) as to verbs can be measured in terms of differences in

1. 
   the number of possible readings of a verb
   

1. 
   the realisation of valency patterns
   

3. the frequency of structures in which the grammatical subjects of active sentences have not been realised – particularly passive and infinitive structures

4. the choice of tense and number

5. the inventory of verbs
The description of the valency of a verb according to the PA is based on a declarative sentence in the active voice and the present tense. In order to identify the agent, it becomes necessary to perform a paraphrasing of passives into the active voice. Since the agent is not expressed in the vast majority of passive sentence structures, it is necessary to find ways of identifying agents. Therefore our paper focuses on the third item above and the identification of non-realised agents. In performing paraphrases, we have used both text-external and text-internal criteria for identifying agents. In our concluding remarks we enumerate the most helpful indicators for identifying non-realised agents. Finally, we compare and contrast our approach to that of other researchers.

Coll-García, Juan Francisco

Hypermedia-enhanced lessons for chemistry English students: Effect of computer anxiety on achievement and on students' attitudes towards the learning environment.

This paper describes the findings of a small-scale exploratory study concerned with the relationship between the students´degree of anxiety when working with computers and a wide range of attitudinal and achievement variables. A sample of 40 students enrolled in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry English courses were exposed to a set of hypermedia-enhanced instructional units on Chemistry English. The means of the students with a moderate degree of computer anxiety and the ones of the students with a low degree of computer anxiety were compared on the basis of the students achievement scores, and the students' attitudes towards hypermedia-enhanced instruction. The results of the study show that the lower the degree of computer anxiety, the more favorable the students' perceptions towards hypermedia-based instruction. Additionally, the students with a moderate degree of computer anxiety obtained greater gain scores than students with a low degree of computer anxiety in the vocabulary achievement test.

Coll-García, Juan Francisco
Multimedia technology and learning to listen in the foreign language:

desing and development of pilot instructional units for science students.
This paper describes the results of a project supported by the Teaching Excellence Program at the Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain. The project itself is being coordinated by the GIAPEL group –an interdisciplinary group concerned with both research in foreing language learning and pedagogical applications in languages-- from the Universitat Jaume I. Since 1992 the GIAPEL has been working on research projects revolving around innovation in the field of foreing language learning and teaching in general, and more specifically in the develpment of autonomous learning. In this project our team has focused on listening comprehension skills. A pilot instructional application to be used by science majors at college level to improve listening comprehension skills and to enhance autonomous listening in the framework of the teaching/learning of Languages for Specific Purposes will be presented. The pilot units have been designed in English. A wide range of comprehension tools, autonomy enhancement tools and feedback options have been made available from within the multimedia-based units.

Corbalán, Prof. María Teresa
Terminología trilingüe en textos instructivos sobre el empleo de vegetales en la alimentación.
together with: Elena Acevedo de Bomba, María del Carmen Pilán
Nuestro propósito es presentar una terminología básica de los alimentos de origen vegetal empleados corrientemente en la República Argentina, con sus correspondientes definiciones y explicaciones e incluyendo ejemplos de uso.
La terminología se presentará en español (en su variante rioplatense, pero también se hará referencia a otras variaciones diatópicas cuando la situación así lo requiera) y en otras dos lenguas de origen romance: franc és e italiano.
La constitución de esta base de datos nos permitirá alcanzar otors objetivos que nos hemos fijado:
a) El empleo didáctico de los textos instructivos en clases de comprensión de lenguas extranjeras y traducción.

b) La elaboración de una guía gastronómica regional, de interés para el Mercado Común del Cono Sur, especialmente área de turismo.

La metodología adoptada en nuestro trabajo es la que propone María Teresa Cabré en su teoría comunicativa de base en terminología.


Costa, Prof. Maria Rosa
The language of defence
This author will discuss language as a defense tool. In a court of law, it is the language defendant pronounces under oath that will lead the judge to plead guilty or innocent. Lawyers instruct defendant or prosecutor to use the language which will guarantee the jury's belief on a certain scenario. It is a fact that the language of law has always been a source of fiction in various modes such as film or writing. Many reasons justify the popularity of this theme. It is about the line of between right and wrong, between true and false, between good and bad, between fair and unfair: the whole question of both Ethics and Morals. That is why the subject is as old as the world. In Western Culture it would go as far back as Aristotele. In everyday life, the common person always discloses a posture vis-a-vis this subject in everyday language. This paper discusses aspects of everyday language in different linguistics levels which are pertinent to the posture of the speaker in relation to the law.


Crespo, Rosalía
On words and buildings: seven magic keywords seen from a conceptual point of view
Terminology and conceptual structure are not to be considered independently from a learning point of view. Words are not to be treated as isolated semantic units, nor the knowledge of a specialized field is to be perceived through isolated units either. There exists a conceptual structure in which each concept plays a special role and it acquires a functional value. The learning of such specialized field needs not only the sistematic study of its terminology but the conceptual structure which relates words between them. In our condition, of ESP teachers, we shoul make our students aware of this, to help them with their learning.
Dahl, Trine
Author abstracts and computer-generated summaries: similarities and differences
In a recently completed doctoral project I have investigated the possibility of producing acceptable condensations of research articles within the natural sciences by means of a computer program.
The program is based on the theory of non-narrative text as organised through lexical patterns. In LSP texts these patterns are to a great extent created through the repetition of a word or a morphological variation. Such repetition is relatively easily identifiable by means of a computer.
The tracking of lexical repetition results in the identification of sentences which are significantly connected. In my dissertation I evaluate the summaries that are created through the concatenation of such lexically connected sentences, using the author-written abstract as a template in the evaluation.
The analysis of my texts reveals that the lexical cohesion-based program is able to produce condensations which in some cases are found to be good enough to replace informative author abstracts, while in other cases their quality corresponds more closely to that of an indicative abstract.
In this paper I discuss features that human-produced abstracts and machine-generated summaries have in common as well as features that distinguish between the two types of condensation. Both content and linguistic form will be focused on.


Davari Ardakani, Negar