Rivista internazionale di tecnica della traduzione n.06 - 2001

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.

Over the last fifteen years several bilingual dictionaries on CD-ROM have been published in Italy, some of which are intended as an alternative to the printed edition. The purpose of this paper is to assess the degree to which these dictionaries exploit the possibilities offered by CD-ROMs as regards search options and inclusion of multimedia content. After a brief discussion of the pros and cons of electronic dictionaries as opposed to dictionaries in paper form, a selection of titles is reviewed, consisting of bilingual Italian/English dictionaries likely to be used by translators, interpreters and trainees for both professions. Each title is evaluated with particular reference to the following aspects: differences from the printed version, search options, characteristics of the graphical interface and presence of multimedia content. The reviews highlight that some titles do represent a valid alternative to the printed version and indeed make searching both quicker and more accurate than paper-based dictionaries.

When teaching Spanish to Italian speakers, it is not rare tu come across grammatical issues concerning asymmetries between the two languages, not only at the level of the norm of the two systems being contrasted but also regarding the oral realization of the systems. One of the major problems is the current use of verb forms due to a combination of student lack of knowledge regarding possible equivalences and LI interference. This article underlines some contrasts in tenses that often result in errors due, in this particular case, to regional linguistic variants in Italian.