Rivista internazionale di tecnica della traduzione n.04 - 1999

Rivista Internazionale di Tecnica della Traduzione of the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori, University of Trieste (Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche, del Linguaggio, dell’Interpretazione e della Traduzione) is a refereed international journal published once a year. The aim of the journal is to provide a forum of discussion for the multifaceted activity of translation as well as related issues such as terminology and terminography, lexicology and lexicography, contrastive analysis, corpus linguistics, and intercultural communication. The journal is mainly focused - but not limited to – specialized, i.e. non-literary, translation and is open to different theoretical approaches including contributions from qualified professionals operating on the translation market. Articles are mainly published in Italian and English, but articles in other European languages are also accepted, provided they are preceded by an Abstract in English. Each issue of the journal contains a section devoted to a specific topic, but contributions on other subjects as well as papers by young researchers and reviews are also very welcome.

This article illustrates the theory and methodology behind the preparation of a specific tiype of dictionary, the syntactic dictionary or lexicon-grammar, in order to demonstrate how lexicography can draw new momentum from transformational and lexico-grammatical studies. The author’s two syntactic dictionaries are presented: the first, monolingual, of Italian frozen adverbs, and the second, French-Italian, resulting from a comparison between the first dictionary and that already developed for French by Maurice Gross (1990). In particular, after defining the notions of adverb and frozen adverb, un account is provided of the various lexicographical results which have been achieved and of the main translational criteria which have been followed in the research.

Dialogue translators have to face a number of problems, lip synch being simply the most obvious. The real challenge is to recreate the illocutionary effect of the SL dialogues in the TL, which is no easy task when dealing with humour. This is why a thorough understanding of the way jokes are created and of the features that make them effective can help translators find solutions that match the humorous spirit of the SL version when a transparent translation just would not work. The author has formulated guideline strategies and techniques which concentrate on resolving the main types of problem that occur in the translation of films. In the article the SL dialogue continuity script is compared with the translated anà the final dubbed version. The main focus, in all cases, is on the translation of jokes and culture-bound language.

Software localization, the process of translating and adnpting a software product into another language, is by definition an extreme example of target-oriented translation. This strong target-orientation derives from the very particular nature of the textual components contained in a software product. Typically, these are text strings embedded in the software interface and on-line and printed documentation. These components not only transmit operational information but also help in giving the product its commercial appeal. The translation process is thus subject to a double constraint: on the one hand, it must provide a text which is as effective as the original in transmitting information; on the other, it must ensure that the translated product has the same commercial appeal as the original. A cursory survey of the strategies and techniques adopted by localizers in the translation of software applications from English into Italian reveals that the source-language text is often substantially adapted, if not reworked, to meet the stylistic and cultural requirements of Italian users/consumers. Nonetheless, far from being a special case of language transfer, software localization can be considered as just another example, however extreme, of the cultural and extra-linguistic constraints placed on any act of translation.