“LEGAL TERMINOLOGY AND THE 'GLOCAL' WORLD OF COMMUNICATION”

1. Antonella Distante “LEGAL TERMINOLOGY AND THE 'GLOCAL' WORLD OF COMMUNICATION” Luxembourg, 28 march 2011

2. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

3. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

4. Introductory features LEGAL TERMINOLOGY AND THE 'GLOCAL' WORLD OF COMMUNICATION • Analysing the objective pursued through this title • Using a blend ‘glocal’ (global + local) to qualify the world of communication stemming from the idea of providing a sort of ‘settlement’ between global and local instances • We are going to analyse both aspects: the global trend & the local identity

5. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

6. The global trend (1) • Exchanging documents, transferring data, providing legislation, giving rise to international exchanges on a global scale all entail the chance of exploiting well-known means to attain some beneficial results in transferring forms from one language to another, in other terms, in favouring communication • The infinite chances of the global trend: the use of corpora, glossaries and other well-known technological resources as tools aimed at facilitating our communication strategies • The opportunity of sharing knowledge worldwide is another fundamental aspect the global approach is offering us: “globish” and the new frontiers of languages

7. The global trend (2) • The international framework: an eye to the UN language charter, Officialese & Ngoish jargon • Stakeholder • Quango, Engo, Bingo, Wango, Ringo • Capacity-building

8. The global trend (3) • The idea of attaining a sort of standardisation is essential for languages within the European framework. Official and working languages in the EU: the language Charter, Regulation n.1/1958 (as amended) aimed at paving the way to mutual understanding. • Eurospeak & Eurocratese and the chance of exploiting common means of communication to attain better results in terms of ‘red tape’, aka bureaucracy. • Words of Latin origin confer to the legal document a higher degree of formality, solemnity and constitute an essential basis to develop a relevant extent of standardisation of the legal discourse.

9. The global trend (4) • The positive outcomes, descending from the global framework, can affect the field of research, notably the chance of exchanging ideas, data and other main strategies amounting to a proactive knowledge-sharing approach. • This approach can stem problem solving skills - encountering the need to find a balance between global and local contexts - and also promote common and comprehensible means of communication throughout the EU framework.

10. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

11. The local identity (1) • Language as a marker of identity. Italy and other European contexts: a brief overview • Regional instances as a mean of distinction but also as a chance of exalting the intrinsic value of these challenging varieties • From language to terminology toward legal discourse: a groundbreaking challenge

12. The local identity (2) • Legal terminology and legal translation: a consistent link • The intrinsic and relevant non-transferability of concepts among different legal cultures • The civil-law system, its major forms and expressions underlie its foundations on some essential legal issues varying from country to country. • The Italian legal language: main features • Formalism vs Formality: an overview on Legalese

13. The local identity (3) • The need to find common strategies aimed at enhancing problem-solving skills. • The need to collocate expressions through the legal document. • The importance of attaining a relevant balance between form and substance, a journey throughout the legal terminology and the hurdles encountered “moulding” concepts from English into Italian and vice-versa: some selected examples as listed below.

14. The local identity (4) • The abstract idea of our Constitution differs from the substantial image of the same regarded through the image of the Constitution within a Common-law country. • The concept of ‘compensation’ can be translated (from English into Italian) into ‘risarcimento’ and under certain circumstances into ‘indennizzo’ but how can you identify the right correspondent if you do not own a basic knowledge of the legal gist related to these forms ? • The fundamental role played by substance can be figured out also through the following examples.

15. The local identity (5) • The term ‘jurisdiction’ can give rise to misinterpretation as it amounts to more than a sole legal gist • The sources of law: key cases • The legal profession

16. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

17. Our lessons learned (1) • The indissoluble link between training and research is one of the pillars of our professional activity • Our research experience as a trigger to attain new and challenging objectives. Some of the means are the following: • PERMANENT TERMINOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY • WORD DETECTING, an on-line section, www.englishfor.it • ENGLISHFOR, THE ESP ON-LINE JOURNAL www.englishfor.it • ESP SERIES, COLLANA INGLESE PER SCOPI SPECIALI

18. Our lessons learned (2) PERMANENT TERMINOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY This is an opportunity of monitoring languages through global resources: it is an attempt to pursue different objectives, among the other things, understanding and “decrypting” buzz words, neologisms and foreign terms. Our fields of interest: • Social & international communication • International relations, political, economic, financial and legal issues • Medical & scientific area • Green economy, sustainable development & environmental security • Information Communication Technology • Food & Wine

19. Our lessons learned (3) WORD DETECTING: • It is a monthly on-line section, whose main target is “detecting words”: a chance to show some of the results achieved via the Observatory, providing definitions in English and Italian and also presenting some of the sources used to analyse the terms in question. • A group of ‘Word detectives’ composed of translators, trainers, interpreters and researchers, namely, A. Distante, C. Dodich, M.P. Montoro, E. Verardi, whose interest and enthusiasm for this research has given rise to many positive outcomes. Here follows a shortlist of some selected forms.

20. Our lessons learned (4) Global economy • Earmarking • Agflation • Intrapreneur Mideast and Northern Africa uprising • Keystroke revolution Green economy • Garbology

21. Our lessons learned (5) Social trends • Neet Foreign terms and language loans • Balconing • Flash mob • Finger food 

22. Our lessons learned (6) ENGLISHFOR, THE ESP ON-LINE JOURNAL • Its aim is to promote research, within the language field, notably English for special purposes. • This on-line journal is a means of presenting cutting-edge studies and professional experiences in action.

23. Our lessons learned (7) ESP BOOK SERIES – COLLANA INGLESE PER SCOPI SPECIALI • A further chance is setting up a book series to promote research on English for Special Purposes, regarded as training as well as a professional instrument. • The first issue on Medical English and the new initiatives in progress • From this research activity to new challenging and demanding targets

24. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

25. New research strands (1) The establishment of a group of research composed of specialists (teachers, translators, experts, EU and MSs officials, and so on) to develop the following: • outline common guidelines to be followed to attain better results in terms of terminological research, taking into account several fields of interest (legal, political, economic, military, ICT, and so on) and at the same time underlying an interdisciplinary approach. In order to draw up these research guidelines, another perspective should be the incidence of foreign terms and/or mutual influences among EU languages (analysing some selected idioms, starting from the working languages and some of the official languages).

26. New research strands (2) Promote the use of on-line platforms (Active Server Pages or similar tools) to carry on terminological researches in order to exchange data and develop “knowledge sharing” (entailing information on bibliographical references, courses, seminars and other relevant initiatives).

27. New research strands (3) Stage periodical roundtables, seminars in order to present the outcomes obtained (on yearly basis, for instance). These last initiatives are aimed at triggering smooth and consistent procedures among the group of study, imposing a scheduled time of research and also spreading the results of such activities through media in order to give notice of the goals achieved to the concerned institutions, bodies and academies.

28. New research strands (4) Give rise to training courses for would-be translators, terminologists, experts and teachers involved in these matters by means of a centre of excellence designed as an instrument to promote research and training whose features are compliant with the European criteria. This centre should also provide courses for professionals (belonging to different fields) in order to develop groundbreaking long-life learning programs.

29. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

30. Developments expected (1) It would be desirable to favour mutual understanding throughout the European framework and also facilitate communication between Europe and the rest of the globe. And last but not least, rendering our way of communicating a means of deep cultural identity: our European languages, notwithstanding their diversity, can mirror our common essence. Conclusions and acknowledgements.

31. AGENDA • Introductory features • The global trend • The local identity • Our lessons learned • New research strands • Developments expected • Questions and answers time

32. Questions and answers time

33. Antonella Distante “LEGAL TERMINOLOGY AND THE 'GLOCAL' WORLD OF COMMUNICATION” Luxembourg, 28 march 2011