DIPARTIMENTO S.A.G.E.O.

SPECIALIZED DEGREE IN

LINGUE E CULTURE EUROPEE E AMERICANE

Semester I – academic year 2005/06

Module in Language, Culture and Translation

LINKING WOR(L)DS:

Lexis, Grammar and Inter-cultural Communication

Prof.ssa Sara Laviosa

saralaviosa@tiscali.it

Module Guide

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the module Linking Wor(l)ds is to expand your knowledge of the lexis and grammar of the English language. You will become familiar with a number of key concepts that will enable you to analyse the structure of words, their lexical and sense relations, word classes, and the construction of phrases, clauses, and sentences. You will also become aware of the relevance of these key notions for examining how culture is represented in texts and relayed in translation, viewed as one of the most important forms of inter-cultural communication in contemporary  society.

MODULE STRUCTURE

The module is taught in Semester I for two fifty minute sessions every week, plus one and half hour of seminar time. Each teaching session comprises: a) an introduction presenting the learning objectives, b) an explanation of the linguistic concepts, c) illustrative examples taken from a wide range of texts such as newspaper articles, tourist brochures, poetry, narrative, political speeches, advertising, scientific, technical, and business writing, d) practical activities involving the lexico-grammatical analysis of English texts,  e) a discussion of some of the problems that may arise when translating from English into Italian or vice versa, f) translation tasks where you will be able to apply some of the translation procedures commonly used by professional translators to solve problems of non-equivalence at the level of lexis or grammar. The seminar sessions focus on the cultural impact of globalization on European identity and contemporary language use. During the seminars you will learn about and critically reflect on the relationship between the cultural and ideological dimensions of globalization and the linguistic and cultural construction of Europeanness.

The textbook for this module is:

Laviosa Sara. (2005). Linking Wor(l)ds. Lexis and Grammar for Translation. Napoli: Liguori Editore. [1]

MODULE OUTLINE AND CONTENTS