Browsing Ph.D. theses (IBC) by Title
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Cross-lingual concept mapping based on the information receiver’s prior-knowledgeGlückstad, Fumiko Kano (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: A Japanese acquaintance who has been living in Denmark for more than 40 years formulated his difficult mission of undertaking translation tasks in the following way: “Once I deeply understood the two cultures [Denmark and Japan] and the cultural differences/nuances of conceptual meanings existing in the two countries, it became impossible for me to translate culturally-specific terms into the other language. Existing language resources [dictionaries etc.] are in this context useless”. What he was frustratingly expressing is that it becomes virtually an impossible task to precisely translate or convey the meaning of a Culturally-Specific Concept (CSC) if no exact equivalent concept exists in the Target Language (TL) culture. Despite this inherent frustration, communicators or translators are still required to convey such CSCs into a TL in an optimal manner such that a TL reader can instantly infer the original meaning of a given Source Language (SL) concept. In short, the key issue is whether there can be found a way to solve this inherently frustrating situation which even skilled human translators cannot easily cope with ? The challenge of translating CSCs from an SL is not only caused by the absence of equivalent concepts in a TL culture, but also due to differences of the background knowledge possessed by the two parties involved in a cross-cultural communication scenario. Sperber & Wilson (1986) emphasize that, although all humans live in the physical world, mental representations are constructed differently due to differences in our close environment and our different cognitive abilities. Because people use different languages and have mastered different concepts, the way they construct representations and make inference is also dissimilar. Since an individual possesses a total cognitive environment that is the set of facts based on his/her perceptual ability, inferential ability, actual awareness of facts, knowledge he/she has acquired and so on, it is much easier to achieve a so-called “asymmetric” coordination between communicator and audience (Sperber & Wilson, 1986).... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8546 Files in this item: 1
Fumiko_Kano_Gluckstad.pdf (11.35Mb) -
An eye-tracking and key-logging studySjørup, Annette Camilla (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis, titled Cognitive effort in metaphor translation – an eye-tracking and key-logging study, is an empirical investigation of professional translators’ cognitive effort during metaphor translation. Metaphors are defined as expressions in which one concept is used to characterise another concept, such as Peter is a wolf in which the characteristics of the wolf are used to define Peter. As a point of departure, the thesis adopts the direct access view of metaphors in which metaphors are regarded as unambiguous expressions which are interpreted as metaphors directly. Metaphors have primarily been researched in monolingual studies such as Glucksberg (2001) and Inhoff et al. (1984), who investigated how metaphors are processed and the cognitive effort required for this processing compared with literal expressions. The conclusion to their studies was that metaphors were not more cognitively effortful to process than literal expressions and that they were not necessarily more ambiguous either. Dagut (1987) and Newmark (1985, 1988) discussed metaphors from a translation perspective in which they regarded metaphors as a particular translation problem. Trim (2007) argued that the translatability of metaphors was related to their language-specific saliency. Neither Dagut, Newmark or Trim was empirical in his methodology, and the purpose of this thesis was to bridge the gap between the empirical methodology used in metaphor comprehension research and the more qualitative methodology used in metaphor translation research. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8698 Files in this item: 1
Annette_Camilla_Sjørup.pdf (2.263Mb) -
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Abstract: This thesis provides a framework for information retrieval based on a set of models which together illustrate how users of search engines come to express their needs in a particular way. With such insights, we may be able to improve systems’ capabilities of understanding users’ requests and through that eventually the ability to satisfy their needs. Developing the framework necessitates discussion of context, relevance, need development, and the cybernetics of search, all of which are controversial topics. Transaction log data from two enterprise search engines are analysed using a specially developed method which classifies queries according to what aspect of the need they refer to. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8720 Files in this item: 1
Esben_Alfort.pdf (5.804Mb) -
Schachtenhaufen, Ruben (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Med udgangspunkt i det danske talesprogskorpus DanPASS undersøges tilbøjeligheden til fonetisk reduktion i dansk talesprog i forhold til en række intralingvistiske faktorer. I undersøgelsen udføres en kortlægning mellem 300.000 fonemer og foner. På baggrund af denne kortlægning er det muligt at danne et meget detaljeret billede af både hvor i sproget den fonetiske realisering afviger fra den fonologisk forudsagte form, og naturen af denne afvigelse. I afhandlingen fokuseres der på den type afvigelser der kan karakteriseres som reduktioner, dvs. svækkelse og bortfald af de enkelte lydsegmenter. De reducerede forekomster sammenlignes med de øvrige annoterede lag i korpusset, herunder grammatiske, informationsstrukturelle og prosodiske forhold. Det demonstreres at tilbøjeligheden til reduktion, såvel som reduktionernes fonetisk resultat, i høj grad er knyttet til lingvistisk faktorer, såsom ordklasse, grammatisk funktion, ny vs. kendt information, fokus, emfase mm. foruden en række fonologiske faktorer. Reduktioner bliver ofte betragtet som sprogligt ukrudt, men på baggrund af den systematiske sammenhæng med informationsbærende elementer i sproget, virker det rimeligt at betragte reduktioner som funktionelle elementer, der er understøttende for kommunikationen snarere end forstyrrende. I afhandlingen udforskes og dokumenteres en række tilbøjeligheder som ikke tidligere er undersøgt i dansk, og kun sparsomt i internationale sammenhænge. Herigennem opnås et dybere indblik i dansk lydstruktur og de mønstre som reduktioner generelt ser ud til at følge. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8676 Files in this item: 1
Ruben_Schachtenhaufen.pdf (2.520Mb)
Now showing items 1-4 of 4