Learning from others' experience: A taste of parallel corpus analysis for translation students and budding corpus researchers

Abstract

This contribution describes the potential of parallel corpus analysis for the development of research skills in the translation classroom. Using culinary texts as a case in point, and more specifically a culturally salient Italian text from the turn of the 19th century (Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte del mangiar bene/Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well, in its original Italian and translated English version), a detailed analysis is offered of the Italian equivalents of the verb lemma COOK and of the English equivalents of the Italian verb lemma CUOCERE, showing how the paradigmatic and syntagmatic insights thus obtained could be used to construct bilingual lexical/terminological profiles of units of meaning, and/or to shed light on translation strategies and norms, depending on one's research hypotheses and variables. Two more unorthodox uses of parallel corpora to tap into translators' domain-specific knowledge, and as aids in the interpretation of culturally salient historical and literary texts, are also discussed.