LINGUIST List 9.1214

Thu Sep 3 1998

Qs: Translation Majors, Adjectival Semantics

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Deborah D K Ruuskanen, Query: Translation Major
2. Sren Harder, adjectival semantics

Universities within the EU are trying to harmonize the requirements for
degrees. The POSI Project is trying to include 'practical' (praxis) work
in the Translation and Interpretation Degrees. The primary consideration
is the quality of the translation or the interpretation (product) so
that it meets the needs of the person paying for the work. We appear to
be turning out translators who do not meet quality requirements and who
have no idea of the demands of the workplace.
As a result we are in Finland trying to change the curriculum and the
course requirements for the degrees in translation studies (including
interpretation), and to include an internship as a degree requirement.
I would appreciate it very much if any of you who know of a university
outside Europe that offers a degree in translation or interpretation
(major or minor) would send me a) a list of requirements for the degree,
b)a description of the internship (if any, and if it is an elective or
not), c) simply the name of the contact person who would know the
answers to a) and b) if the person writing me only knows that a degree
is offered. Even the information that the degree is there (e.g. there
is a minor in translation offered at Georgetown U in Washington, D.C.)
would be useful.

TIA (Thanks In Advance),
Deborah D.K. Ruuskanen

p.s. Anyone wanting more info on the POSI Project should contact me.
 
 
Deborah D. Kela Ruuskanen 
Leankuja 1, FIN-01420 Vantaa
druuskancc.helsinki.fi 

In connection with my thesis on adjectival (formal) semantics, I want
to exemplify the many possible ways of expressing 'adjectival'
concepts; especially stage-level 'human propensity' adjectives. The
concept I use as an example is 'hungry'.

Many languages use an adjective just as English, some languages uses
other strategies, but I have problems finding examples. 

Please send translations (with interlinear word-for-word translation)
to sharderling.aau.dk for the sentence 'I am hungry' for as many
languages as possible, especially languages that do not use a
predicative adjective. (I will of course let the list know of my
results).

One example I am especially interested in would be a language that use
an abstract noun as 'acting' subject and has the perceiver as object
(no preposition) (paraphrase: 'Hunger takes me').

The types I have found until now are (please let me know of corrections):

adjective: English, Danish, Czech, Lithuanian, Urdu, (Norwegian)
Romany, Turkish, Welsh (?! 'newynawl' or 'newynawg').

verb ('He hungers'): Plains Miwok (California)

abstract noun as object ('I have hunger'): Romance (French, Italian,
Spanish), German, Albanian, 
('I feel hunger'): Hausa

prepositional phrase (abstract noun subject, perceiver in 'locational'
PP) ('Hunger is on me'): Celtic (Irish, Breton, but not Welsh?).


Thank you very much,
Soren Harder

 

- 
Stud. mag. (Ling & Filos) 	e-mail: sharderling.hum.aau.dk
Soren Harder, 			http://ling.hum.aau.dk/~sharder/
Dept. of Linguistics,		phone: + (45) 89 42 21 60
University of Aarhus