We organised a kind of low-cost online conference

I was supposed to start writing something serious this evening (which I have been postponing for last couple of weeks, but who’s counting). So as you can imagine, I am not going to write that today, too. Anyways, this is one of the ways that I trick my mind to work on topics that are not really “work” but very close to it.

So, I wanted to write briefly on organising an online conference from a developing country in the covid 19 pandemic (hence the title). Obviously, we did not have a lot of money and resources to buy expensive private hosting or hosting on university learning management system, as it has been the case with many conferences in the Western countries. That’s why we tried to keep the budget as low as possible and looked for cheaper or free alternatives.

But this was not the only issue. We did not have much technical expertise, too (both in terms of organising and presenting in an online manner). The conference was supposed to be hosted at a university in Pakistan. But from the year start it was clear that it won’t happen the usual way. 

The technical expertise on the organising side were procured by asking colleagues to volunteer (who happened to be computational linguists, and me, a corpus linguist). The computational expertise of the organising committee helped in finding resources and devise methods for the online conference:

We used email for communication (as is the case with every online or offline conference).

We decided to set up a separate Gmail account for the conference and used 15 GB space in Google Drive to host videos before they were published.

We used Google Firebase platform, which has a free quota, to host videos for streaming.

We bought (for about $ 235) two meeting slots and one webinar slot from Zoom for one month. There were two parallel conference sessions and the plenary sessions were organised through the webinar slot.

We asked the presenters to record their presentations using the record presentation option in Microsoft PowerPoint (Slideshow > Record Slide Show). The use of audio format by a vast majority of the presenters made sure that they could upload their presentations hassle-free without worrying about large-size videos and slow internet speeds.

These presentations were converted into videos by yours truly and then uploaded by another colleague (and their student helpers) to Google Firebase platform.

The videos were then embedded on an HTML page on the conference website, for which the link was sent to the participants through email. (Not a very intuitive solution but it worked.)

The conference parallel sessions would just have 10 to 15 minutes per (already uploaded) presentation for questions and answers.

This online edition of the conference (ICLAP2020) gave us ideas for the future editions:

It was easier and cost virtually nothing to invite international speakers for plenaries and workshops in an online format. Future editions will also include international speakers in the same format.

Similarly, it was easier for presenters from abroad to present in the conference without flying to Pakistan.

As you might have guessed, it was not as smooth as it appeared. We also faced many problems, and realised later on that many things could be done differently.

Normally, a conference (when it is organised at a university) is run by many more colleagues so the work is divided. For this online version, we did not have that luxury which sometimes created bottlenecks.

We could not make sure that the videos arrive well before the conference start date so that they could be checked and uploaded, and hence be available for the conference participants to watch.

We did not add any virtual social events (Zoom breakout rooms?) which made the whole experience kind of dry and un-interesting.

We could not communicate the conference format in an effective way (videos will be hosted, watched beforehand and the presenters will make themselves available in the respective session for question answers). These discussions were mostly led by the session chairs.

We organised this conference, we found many new and useful ways for the future and also learned lessons to improve the upcoming editions.

Resources for Forensic Linguistics

Forensic linguistics is a branch of linguistics that is concerned with (mostly) criminal investigations and the use of linguistic analysis in this process. For example, a very simple task of a forensic linguist could be to analyse the linguistic content of a threat message and try to find out the writer of this text. A linguist who is trained in text analysis and stylistics will find themselves equipped with such tools that would be helpful in this analysis. Today, corpus linguistics is heavily used in text analysis for forensic linguistics. Moreover, forensic linguistics is not just about investigating threat messages or suicide notes, there are many more opportunities with the new mediums of communication on the internet, e.g. the analysis of social media texts for deception, fake news, disinformation, and trolling.

I have come to know some people and resources in last few years in this area. Following them on social media (Twitter) will be helpful for the reader to widen their horizons and/or get more information about forensic linguistic methods.

• Dr Claire Hardaker (she also runs a podcast on forensic linguistics which is very informative, and she is the director of FORGE: Forensic Linguistics RG, University of Lancaster).
• William Dance is doing PhD in online fake news.
• Isobelle Clarke is a corpus linguist who has worked on Trump's tweets.
• Maciej Eder is a stylistician and digital humanist. He has written an R package called Stylo which is helpful in text analysis, e.g. authorship attribution.

As far as books related to forensic linguistics are concerned, a simple Google search with 'forensic linguistics' can return many titles including introductory books and handbooks about forensic linguistics. PDFs for many books can be found on Library Genesis (search on Google or use DuckDuckGo Search Engine that is a bit more merciful in searching such websites).

Learning German

Fortunately or unfortunately I am in Germany these days. Why? Because I got a scholarship to do my PhD at a German university. Bravo! That was a great achievement. But it also included four months of German language learning. I will not write my PhD dissertation in German, nonetheless it was kind of compulsory to avail the offer from German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). So I spent last four months in a language school here in my university city Münster at a very good German language school Kapito. It was a great experience to learn a foreign language (a little hard at first because I used to be an English language teacher in Pakistan and it was difficult for me to accept myself as a student of a foreign language). For about four months, I and my class fellows did our best to enjoy and have fun in our class and our teachers tried their best to teach us German. So after all these months How do I feel? What is German like? Is it easy to learn? Is it like English? A lot of questions can be asked. Let me try to answer and share my observations about German.

• At the beginning I wanted to learn German Phonology because I am trained in English Phonology using Phonetic charts and tables. I was wrong, you cannot learn to pronounce the sounds of a new language simply by knowing place and manner of articulation. It needs a lot of practice which I still lack to be frank. But it is good to know that German is a lot more phonetic language as compared to English.
• I thought German is like English. I tried to understand German grammar w.r.t. English grammar. Resultantly I failed badly. German grammar is awfully more complex as compared to English grammar. The inflection system, the articles and grammatical gender, the case system, pronouns (and their case specific forms) and the word order (a lot more fluent due to rich inflection system) is a nightmare at the start. All of these things are bombarded on the beginner on A1 level, and one has to cope with it, because it is the base. I still only know about half of it by heart.
• German has a lot of similarity with English and Latin (and other European languages). But these similarities can only be traced in etymology of words and some general grammatical concepts (prepositional phrases for instance as opposed to post positional phrases in my mother tongue Punjabi and Urdu). German gives a lot of importance to Verb at second position in main clause. Conversely verb(s) in a dependent clause are put at the end (in reverse order if an auxiliary is involved as well). Having been trained in English Linguistics, I find it (after 4 months) easy to learn German syntax.
• German verbs have a lot more forms (inflections) because of more complex pronoun system (distinction in singular/plural and formal you). German does not have a progressive tense (but there are adverbs to fill in the gap). I am not sure how many tenses, but I just know Present, Perfect, Past, Past Perfect and a kind of future tense using verb 'werden'. German modal verbs are more or less like English but they are confusing as well (Subjunctive mode has different verb forms, 'will' in German is 'want to').
• German loves to make compound nouns with just putting various words together (no dash or indication of sub parts). One has to be familiar with the sub parts (sub words) to pronounce and understand the noun. These nouns can be quite long sometimes.
• Germans love their language. They encourage foreigners to talk in German and they become very happy when you do that. So I am also trying these days to do the same, as being a linguistics student I know that language cannot be learned without using it properly.
• Lastly, German is easy if you give it some time, hear FM in German and watch German TV, read German newspapers and websites and try to use it (even if it is wrong). My biggest flaw being a student is I like to listen or read (and write with the help of dictionary) German but does not speak. Perhaps it is because I learnt English the same way i.e. a lot of years without speaking. My teachers also asked me to break the barrier and speak even with mistakes, in simpler words and not to look for sophisticated vocabulary and (after failing to do so) switch to English. I hope to be able to do that in coming days.

So if you want to learn German, it just needs some dedication, motivation and usage to learn a language. You provide these ingredients and just within six months you will see the positive results.

Dictionary of Linguistic Terms (English Urdu)

I am a translator. Yes, I am not a 'scholarly' translator. Even being a freelance translator, I feel helpless when there are no resources. Well, for me, resources are dictionaries, terminologies and word banks which help me translate quickly and efficiently. It is very hard to re-invent the wheel every time, when I do not find a standard translation of an English word. I must also admit that I am very lazy and try my best not to open any manual dictionary. So I am left online searching non-standard sources to find an equivalent of a given English term. The situation is not very promising. We need to digitize English Urdu dictionaries and terminology banks. While we are working on that, I have scanned an English Urdu terminology for linguistic terms for myself and the other translators out there. This is a searchable PDF (only for English text) and it can be very useful for someone who is as lazy as I am. A quick search by Ctrl+F will certainly give you a clue of the Urdu word you are looking for.

So after all this bragging, let us go to the link and download the PDF.

Book Name: Dictionary of Linguistic Terms (English to Urdu)

Editor: Professor Amir Ali Khan

Publisher: National Language Authority, Islamabad, Pakistan.

How to Paraphrase/ Summarize

Following topics are covered in these slides:

• What is paraphrasing
• How to paraphrase
• What is summary
• Steps to write a summary
• Connotative and Denotative Meaning

Reference: Academic writing: A handbook for international students By Bailey S. 2011

How to Write a Paragraph/ Essay

These slides were prepared as a lecture for MA English Literature (Distance Learning), Govt. College University, Faisalabad. The topics included are as follows:

• The process of writing
• Pre-writing (Mapping, Listing, Free writing)
• Paragraph and its structure (Topic sentence, concluding sentence, supporting details, examples and explanation)
• Types of paragraph: compare and contrast, opinion (argumentative), narrative, descriptive, problem solution
• Essay and its structure (Thesis statement, introduction, conclusion, body paragraphs)
• Types of essay: narrative, descriptive, argumentative, comparison contrast, problem solution.

Following books were mainly consulted though some internet sources were also tapped.

• Academic writing: A handbook for international students By Bailey S. 2011
• College writing from paragraph to essay  By Dorothy E. Zemach, Lisa A. Rumisek
• Real Writing with Readings Paragraphs and Essays for College, Work and Everyday Life By Susan Anker

Metalingual Function in Translation

Metalingual function of language is the ability of language to talk about its own features. Thus talking about phrasal verbs in English will be an instance of metalingual function. Metalingual function of language becomes relevant in translation when a particular word is used in a special sense, deliberately a word play is done or linguistic ambiguity is created.

The translator has to assume that second reader needs more information about that ‘grammatical peculiarity’ as compared to the first reader. So he has to decide whether the target (second) reader is a specialist of some SL knowledge or he does not know anything at all. Such decision will determine how to deal with the particular case, whether it be: (a) transcribed, (b) loan translated, (c) neologised, (d) defined in footnotes, (e) exemplified, (f) interlinearly translated to show the syntax, or (f) functionally translated.

If a word is used in SL in a special sense, the translator has several choices. He can translate the term in its obscure sense as translating ‘libertinage’ to ‘guilty of libertinage’. Or he can chose to use a more expressive term e.g. ‘freethinking in religious matters’. The choice will be dependent on his assessment of reader’s knowledge and interest. Thus he can choose to delete a special sense of a word, if it is of no interest to the reader. Alternative terms for same referent in the text can be deleted. Similarly, if TL synonyms are less frequent as compared to SL one, they can be dropped.

Translation of word play in literary and non-literary texts can be done in two ways. The reader will need all available and possible information in non-literary texts.  Thus as Newmark (2001, p.105) notes, in translating a joke from German to English, the translator adds original German text in brackets. e.g.

‘Mr.  and  Mrs.  X live  in fairly  grand style.  Some  people  think  that  the husband has earned a lot and so has been able to lay by a bit  (sich etwas zuruckgelegt ); others again think that the wife has lain back a bit  (sich etwas zuruckgelegt ) and so has been  able  to  earn  a  lot' (p.106)

As he notes that punning element is retained by reproducing German text to illustrate the rearrangement of ‘precisely same verbal material’. Thus the same punning effect, with slight changes of course, can be created in English. But this is not always possible as neatly as the example shows.

The second method to translate word play is to drop them altogether or replacing them with translator’s own examples. This method ‘substitutes translator’s insights for the authors’. Thus for the above example the translator could create a wholly new joke and replace with another one. Newmark (2001, p.107) notes that the first method is most important and correct one in cases where “words are as important as thought, and ‘dramatic illusion’ is less important”.

Proverbs in non-literary texts can be translated to their known equivalents in TL. Alternatively, the translator can translate the proverb from SL to TL and give its relevance to current text as an explanation; or he can simply absorb the proverb during the translation.

Word play in literary texts (i.e. plays and poems etc.) where ‘dramatic illusion’ is a must can be translated in different ways. Widely used method is that translator captures one of two senses of the word. As Newmark (2001, p.108) exemplifies the translation of Shakespeare’s play Helmet in Germen, where source has three puns and two sets of alliterations, but translator preserves only two puns and one set of alliteration.

If a literary text has double meaning within a lexical unit, firstly the translator tries to reproduce it with a word having same double meaning. At second attempt he will try to use a synonym with same double meaning. At a third attempt, he might decide to distribute two senses of words to two or more lexical units; or he can sacrifice one of two meanings.

While translating imaginative literature ‘loss of meaning comes from metaphorical properties rather than sound effects’. As Newmark is of the view that metaphors are rooted in particular environments. Thus literal and metaphorical meaning, at the same time, are difficult to transfer from SL to TL.

Imaginative literature develops events and people in symbolical character, which is done through more general words that denote them. As Newmark (p.109) describes, “connotation, metonymy, metaphor, word-play merge into each other”. A new ‘separate sense’ is developed for the words which becomes a pun on the primary sense of the word. It is upto the translator to select more general concrete sense or more culturally influenced sense, or combine them both.

Concluding his paper, Newmark (p.109) says that for translating metalanguage, there are alternative solutions. His view is that nothing is untranslatable, only a ‘supplementary gloss’ is often required. Metalanuage is often signalled by expressions like ‘so called’, ‘by definition’, ‘so to speak’ … (p.109). It is usually imaginative literature where force or the meaning may have to be sacrificed, otherwise metalangauge can be handled neatly.

Translation of Metaphor

1. THE METAPHOR AND ITS PURPOSE

Metaphor can be defined as an indirect comparison between two or more apparently unrelated things or subjects. The point of similarity ‘may be physical but often it is chosen for its connotations’ (Newmark, 1988, p.85).

Newmark (1988) discusses a number of functions of metaphor: to define something more closely; a decoration to show resemblances; to create emotive effect; as an object of interest for media; and lastly as a ‘basic element of language where it later becomes dead or literal language’. For him, translation theory is mainly concerned with the serious purpose of metaphor which is, “to describe an entity, event or quality more comprehensively and concisely and in a more complex way than is possible by using literal language” (p.84).

There are five terms related to metaphor, which define its various related concepts. Firstly, ‘object’ is ‘the item described by the metaphor’. Secondly, ‘image’ is the item ‘in terms of which the object is described’. Thirdly, ‘sense’ is ‘the point of similarity’ between object and image. Fourthly, ‘metaphor’ is the actual word taken up. Lastly, the ‘metonym’ is a one word image which is used in place of whole, and has potential to become ‘dead metaphor’ (literal language) e.g. ‘fin’ of a motor bike. (p.85)

2. TYPES OF METAPHOR

Newmark (1988b) provides a classification consisting of six types, which are discussed below with appropriate examples and sub-types.

2.1 Dead Metaphors: They are “metaphors which often relate to universal terms of time and space, general ecological features and main human activities” (p.106). Dead metaphors have become literal language because users do not recognize them as metaphors, so their images are lost. Idioms, metonyms, synecdoche, and words accepted as technical terms also become dead metaphors. They add to the number of words in a language.

Dead metaphors can be of three types: firstly where image and sense is retained in a second language; secondly thousands of words denoting objects e.g. metonyms; and lastly non-technical words which appear to have concrete and figurative meaning at the same time e.g. ‘foot of a hill’.

2.2 Cliché: They lie between dead and stock metaphors. These metaphors are “used as a substitute for clear thought, often emotively, but without corresponding to the facts of the matter” (1988b, p.107). They “usually consist of two types of collocations: figurative adjective and literal noun e.g. ‘filthy lucre’; or figurative verb and figurative noun e.g. ‘explore all avenues’” (1988, p.87).

2.3 Stock Metaphors: Newmark (1988b, p.108) defines this type as “an established metaphor, which in an informal context is an efficient and concise method of covering a physical and/or mental situation both referentially and pragmatically”. They may have cultural distance or overlap; may be used universally or at least in a wide spread sense, and may have subjective aspects. He notes that there might be no universal metaphors, but hopes if ‘societies reach certain stage of physical health and well-being, there will be some basic universal metaphors’ (1988, p.87).

2.4 Adapted Metaphors: They are actually stock metaphors but are adapted by the writer or speaker into a new context.

2.5 Recent Metaphors: Newmark (1988b, p.111) defines these metaphors as “a metaphorical neologism, often 'anonymously' coined, which has spread rapidly in the SL”. They are often categorised as a slang.

2.6 Original Metaphors: These metaphors are “created or quoted by the SL writer” (1988b, p.112). They “contain the core of an important writer's message, his personality, his comment on life” (ibid). These metaphors are not only complex but have double meanings. They might also contain “personal or dialectal … irrational element peculiar to the imagination” (1988, p.93).

3. PROCEDURES OF METAPHOR TRANSLATION

Newmark (1988, p.88) notes following seven procedure of metaphor translation:

3.1 The same image is reproduced in TL ‘provided that it is comparable in frequency and use in the appropriate register’. One word metaphors are more commonly translated by this method, while translation of complex metaphors or idioms depends on cultural overlap. Reproducing one-word metaphors representing sense of an event or quality instead of an entity is more difficult e.g. ‘elbow one’s way’. Similes are more cautious than metaphors, and must normally be translated in any type of text. Lastly, animal abuse can have cultural or subjective connotations but can be quite universal as well (‘swine’ is symbol of filth and dirt everywhere).

3.2 SL image can be replaced with a standard TL image provided that it is culturally compatible in TL, and ‘presumably coined by one person and diffused through popular speech’. Stereotyped metaphors should be converted to sense whether they exist in TL or not. Euphemisms are also metaphors and often have to be replaced by cultural equivalent, unless reader has to be informed in similar way as SL reader.

3.3 The metaphor can be translated as a simile while retaining the image. This modifies the shock of metaphor, ‘particularly if TL text is not emotive in character’. This procedure can be used for any type of word, and original metaphor.

3.4 The metaphor can be translated as simile along with its sense (or metaphor plus sense). This is a compromise procedure and combines communicative and semantic translations together which address both layman and expert reader. The main focus here is on the ‘gloss’ rather than equivalent effect. It is noteworthy that some metaphors may be incomplete in TL without the addition of a sense component.

3.5 The metaphor can be converted into sense. This procedure can be applied in any type of text, and preferred when SL to TL image replacement is extra broad in terms of sense or register. To perform this procedure, the sense of metaphor should be analysed componentially because image is ‘pludri-dimensional’.

3.6 A rather radical approach is to delete the metaphor along with sense component if it is redundant. A caution is that SL text should not be ‘authoritative’ or ‘expression of writer’s personality’. The translator should make decision after weighing what is more important and less important in the text. An empirical justification of such deletion comes if ‘metaphor’s function is being fulfilled elsewhere in the text’.

3.7 Sometimes translator wants to make sure that image will be understood properly so he adds a gloss as well. Thus he transfers same metaphor along with its sense. E.g “The tongue is a fire” can be translated as follows “A fire ruins things; what we say also ruins things”. This may suggest lack of confidence in metaphor’s power and clarity, but it can be useful if metaphor is repeated.

REFERENCES

Newmark, P. (1988). Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Newmark, P. (1988b). A Text book of Translation. London: Prentice Hall.