Volume 66, Issue 1

Vocal pitch (also known as F0), pause and positioning of the sentence accent are closely related to the meaning of a statement. Although other elements of prosody can also be related to the meaning of the statement (e. g. timbre, speaking rate), in this paper only the three mentioned elements of prosody are considered in connection with the semantic interpretation. These three parameters are analyzed here individually or in connection with the meaning of potentially ambiguous statements in writing. In this way, the role of prosody in resolving ambiguities in written formulations is demonstrated, ambiguities that may lead to incorrect translations. The approach used for this research is „Analysis-by-introspection.” For better illustration of the differences in the meaning depending on the prosody, the translation method is used. Some translations come from the author of this paper; other translations are taken from some published books. For one or the other prosodic contour, semantic explanations are formulated. It is shown that prosodic topics play a major role in courses for foreign language learning, translation lessons and post-editing.

This article offers an insight into strategies in English-to-German simultaneous interpretation that can be applied when a speaker uses racist language. Six interpreters were first introduced to a selection of strategies. They were then asked to interpret a staged panel discussion in which racist language was used. Each time they recognized racist speech they were supposed to intuitively apply one of the strategies they had previously been introduced to. In a final step, all six interpreters took part in a focus group interview during which they assessed the applied strategies and discussed difficulties. The results from both the interpretations and the focus group interview illustrate how racist speech can be interpreted critically. They offer a new perspective on traditional translation and interpretation theories as well as on the role of interpreters. The article concludes with some ideas as to how the results could be incorporated into interpretation didactics. Given the fact that we live and work in a time in which power relations and the world’s landscape continue to shift and change, it appears appropriate to challenge the current self-image of interpreters.

This article discusses problems of systemic software-based modelling. It presents a first computer-aided model of interpreting, developed by Martina Behr, professor of Translatology with emphasis on interpreting studies at Innsbruck University. The model focusses on complexity and dynamics on the basis of the software iModeler by Consideo. Some of the key ideas of this approach are contrasted with the modelling of translation processes on the basis of the software Sensitivitätsmodell Prof. Vester® (Salevsky/Müller 2011 ). An outline is given concerning research desiderata for innovation in Interpreting Studies in transdisciplinary centres.

Scholarly studies on the notion of retranslation have focused majorly on the body of texts and not specifically on titles. The issue of retranslation of titles considered in this study assesses the indirect translation of the title of Chinua Achebe’s novel into Yoruba through German. In view of this, the notion of individualism extending from the European literary culture into the African literature through translation is criticized. Based on the intersemiotic approach adopted by the Yoruba translator on the title page and the German translation of the title of the original source text, the study concludes by proposing a two-way approach to the interpretation of the title Things Fall Apart .

Governments and official organizations usually publish their tourism reports in print or online to provide information about the current status or future tendencies in the tourism industry. These special-purpose texts are tied to the cultural values of their respective states. Therefore, the contrastive analysis of these texts from different countries allows us to determine the differences in language conventions and to perceive the cultural-cognitive differences reflected in them. This corpus-based study conducts an interlingual-contrastive investigation of German and Chinese tourism reports. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses are employed to answer the following questions: 1) What are the differences between the language conventions of German and Chinese official tourism reports; 2) How are these interlingual differences characterized by cultural and socio-cognitive perspectives?

This article deals with a linguistic phenomenon of increasing presence in everyday life which has found little attention in linguistic studies: humorous shop signs in German, shop signs involving word play. This article locates such shop signs within the study of linguistic landscapes, to which they belong but in which they have so far played no more than a minor role, the academic discussion of linguistic landscapes generally focussing on the function of linguistic phenomena in everyday life, above all the function of different languages in bilingual contexts. This article, in contrast, besides the function, examines the specific linguistic form of such shop signs, the syntactic, morphological and lexical particularities of German which allow such wordplay. The article closes with some didactic considerations regarding the exploitation of such shop signs in language tuition.

This study examines Jordanian graduate students' complaints posted on a Facebook closed group and directed to the representatives of Student Union at Jordan University of Science and Technology to be transferred to the officials concerned. In line with Boxer (1993b), the study considers the students' complaints to be indirect speech acts, as the addressee(s) are not the source of the offense. Using a sample of 60 institutional complaining posts, the researchers have analysed the complaints in terms of their semantic formulas, politeness functions and correlations with the gender of the complainers. The students’ complaints are classified into six semantic formulas of which the act statement element is indispensable as the complaint is stated in it. The other five formulas, ordered according to their frequency, are opene r, remedy , appreciative closing , justification and others . Despite the negative affect typically involved in the complaining act, the semantic formulas identified in this study are found to signal politeness and fit into Brown and Levinson’s (1987) pool of face-saving strategies rather than face-threatening acts. Specifically, when the graduate students direct their Facebook complaints to the students' representatives, they tend to offer camaraderie with them to be encouraged to pursue the problems specified in the complainers’ posts.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between law and language in workplace discourse. To this end, a number of pronouncements issued by Australia’s Fair Work Commission – which mostly deals with employment litigation – are examined to see to what extent language-related problems affect both the employment relationship and the decision handed down by lawmakers when evaluating the cases submitted.

Public Service Interpreting and Translation –PSIT– is a specialty of the studies of Translation and Interpreting that generates controversy in the specialized literature in its most basic defining aspects. For this reason, a reading of the literature will reveal a lack of consensus in its own conceptualisation; something essential for its social and professional knowledge/acknowledgment. Thus, this article will focus on the denominational plurality of the PSIT in Spain and will offer a quali-quantitative analysis of the names under which it is known in Spain and the use of these names in two of the most popular social media in Spanish society today: Twitter and YouTube.