This study seeks to determine whether grammatical and presentational features of authentic non-fiction French texts are in any way related to the level of difficulty of texts as perceived by students who have taken Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS). The notions of text and genre are examined, as are the processes of reading in the first language (L1) and in the foreign language (L2). The question of ‘readability, and that of ‘authenticity’ in L2 are also examined. In order to ascertain students’ reactions to different text-types, 150 texts from French sources were gathered and classified. 100-word samples of each text were analysed for various linguistic features. Statistical tests on these were carried out, as well as statistical tests on the visual elements and layout of the whole texts. Further linguistic analysis was carried out within the text-type groups in order to ascertain their grammatical features. 31 students from local tertiary institutions were interviewed, and their perceptions on a sample of the texts were sought. This included the grading of texts for difficulty on a 1-5 Likert scale. The results of the interviews were triangulated with the statistical and linguistic analyses. A relationship was found between text-type and level of perceived difficulty. In the light of these results, the distinction between genre and text-type was examined, and a way was found of linking these into a textual taxonomy, which has close relations with the grammatical and presentational features which characterise the various text-types. In the light of these results, the question of the ‘topic approach’ to the teaching of French is examined, and a way found by which text-types that are perceived to be simpler are studied before those which are perceived to be more difficult. This approach advocates a more logical continuum of grammatical presentation than has hitherto been witnessed in course books for French at this level, while retaining the semantic integrity inherent in the ‘topic approach’.

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O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar uma proposta de tradução, do francês para o português, de partes selecionadas da obra Festin Joyeux, ou, la Cuisine en Musique, de autoria do officier de bouche do rei Luís XV, J. Lebas (1738). Essa obra constitui objeto inusitado de tradução e se distingue de outros livros de cozinha por envolver uma singular justaposição de gêneros, uma vez que se trata de receitas culinárias versificadas que podem ser entoadas segundo melodias populares da época, os airs de cour e os vaudevilles. No primeiro capítulo, é feita uma breve contextualização sócio-histórica e apresentação da obra original. O segundo capítulo consiste em discussão da natureza da obra e levantamento de possíveis dificuldades decorrentes do hibridismo de gêneros, acompanhado de uma delimitação de estratégia para a tradução pretendida. Por fim, o terceiro capítulo contém a tradução em si de composições de Festin Joyeux, acompanhadas de comentários que justificam as decisões pessoais tomadas na empreitada. Como apoio teórico, recorreu-se às abordagens funcionalistas da tradução, que enfatizam a questão da função como guia no processo de transposição de conteúdo e de forma da língua-fonte para a língua-meta. À luz de conceitos elaborados por teóricos funcionalistas como Katharina Reiss e Hans Vermeer, e em especial do modelo proposto por Christiane Nord, procurou-se traçar um plano de ação voltado para uma função pré-estabelecida para o textometa, tendo por base a análise textual e o receptor final da tradução. Em razão da perspectiva adotada, o corpus se compõe exclusivamente de composições que recebem a indicação de melodias cujas partituras estão incluídas na obra, de maneira que a função estabelecida possa ser cumprida integralmente. Todos os termos específicos ao campo semântico da gastronomia foram pesquisados em livros de cozinha contemporâneos a Festin Joyeux e em dicionários históricos, com o intuito de minimizar as possíveis distorções sofridas nesse espaço de quase três séculos entre a publicação de Festin Joyeux, no século XVIII, e sua tradução, no século XXI. / The aim of this study is to present a translation proposal, from French to Portuguese, of selected parts from the book Festin Joyeux, ou, la Cuisine en Musique, written by Louis XVs officier de bouche, J. Lebas (1738). This book appears as an unusual subject for a translation and distinguishes itself from other culinary books due to its text type juxtaposition, in as much as its a compilation of recipes in verse, intended for singing according to popular tunes at the time, the airs de cours and vaudevilles. In the first chapter, we make a brief social-historical contextualisation and an introduction of the original book. In the second chapter we discuss the nature of the text and survey the possible difficulties derived from the text type juxtaposition, determining a strategy for the intended translation. Finally, the third chapter includes the translation itself of Festin Joyeuxs compositions, accompanied by commentaries that justify the personal decisions made in the task. As a theoretical support, we have drawn from the functional approaches of translation which emphasize the question of the function as a guide in the process of transposing the content and form from the source-text to the target-text. In the light of concepts elaborated by funcionalist theorists like Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer, and in particular of the model proposed by Christiane Nord, we have strived to set an action plan towards a pre-established function for the target-text, based on text analysis and the final receiver of the translation. Due to the adopted perspective, the corpus is constituted exclusively by compositions that receive the indication of tunes for which there are music scores included in the book, in such a way that the established function can be thoroughly fulfilled. All the words which are specific to the semantic field of gastronomy have been researched in cookbooks contemporary to Festin Joyeux and in historical dictionaries, aiming at minimizing possible distortions caused by the gap of nearly three centuries between the publication of Festin Joyeux, in the 18th century, and its translation, in the 21st century.

Le présent travail s’est proposé d’analyser avec les outils de la linguistique textuelle les autobiographies des jeunes Allemands de l’Est après 1989 souvent présentées comme inclassables dans le genre autobiographique. Il s’ouvre sur une description de la position interdisciplinaire adoptée dans ce travail de linguistique textuelle qui porte sur un corpus de textes relevant du discours littéraire tout en investissant des notions de l’analyse de discours s’inscrivant dans la tradition de Michel Foucault. Il se poursuit avec l’analyse des spécificités énonciatives, pragmatiques, thématiques et stylistiques des autobiographies des jeunes Allemands de l’Est après 1989, sur lesquelles se fonde leur appréhension en termes d’autobiographies contre-discursives, genre textuel désignant une sous-variante autobiographique produite par des auteurs-narrateurs marginalisés dans la réalité socio-historique, à destination du centre discursif, en réaction au discours dominant dont ils sont l’objet et qu’ils réfutent. Enfin ce travail propose une analyse détaillée des lexèmes nominaux composés ayant pour déterminant Ost- ou West- et à leur mise en texte dans les autobiographies des jeunes Allemands de l’Est après 1989. Parmi ces dénominations référant aux réalités de l’Est et de l’Ouest, certains complexes nominaux peuvent être qualifiés de composés phraséologiques : éléments linguistiques clés dans la diffusion des stéréotypes du discours sur l’Est, ils donnent lieu dans les textes du corpus à de nombreuses [dé]constructions lexicales permettant une critique du discours dominant, qui illustre la dimension défensive du contre-discours autobiographique est-allemand. / Through the use of text linguistics tools, this work aims to analyse the post 1989 autobiographies of young East Germans, which are often considered to be unclassifiable in the autobiographic genre. It starts with a description of the interdisciplinary position adopted in this text linguistics work. While focussing on a corpus of literary discourse texts it invests notions of discourse analysis which fall within the tradition of Michel Foucault. It continues with the analysis of the enunciative, pragmatic, thematic and stylistic specificities of these post 1989 autobiographies, which reveal, through a counter-discursive text type, the apprehension of their young East German authors. This text type refers to an autobiographic subvariant produced by author-narrators who have been marginalised from the social-historic reality, with a discursive purpose in reaction to the dominant discourse of which they are the objects and which they refute. La! stly, this work offers a detailed analysis of nominal compound lexemes having Ost- or West- as their determiner and their inclusion in the text of these post 1989 autobiographies of young East Germans. Among these denominations referring to East and West realities, certain nominal compounds can be qualified by phraseological compounds: as key linguistic elements in the diffusion of East discourse stereotypes they give rise, in the corpus texts, to numerous lexical [de]constructions which allow a criticism of the dominant discourse, thereby illustrating the defensive dimension of the East German counter-discourse autobiographies.

The aim of this thesis is to study what means are used in newspaper leaders (editorials) to influence public opinion. In order to obtain a wide range of such means, I have chosen material that has a clear timeframe and illustrates strong political antagonism, concerning the 1971 conflict between the Saco and SR unions and the Swedish state. Leaders from eight different newspapers with different party affiliations are analysed – six morning and two evening newspapers. What type of message leaders convey is examined mainly at the sentence level. Writers report what happened, assess the situation and analyse the causes and explanations for there being a labour conflict. They express criticism of those involved in various ways and exhort them to take recommended courses of action to resolve the conflict. Paragraphs can also be categorised in this way. How criticism is expressed is studied in detail because the material is rich in critical utterances of different types.  Various theories about text types and speech act theory provide a theoretical background that is applied to the material. A number of different theories about what defines a genre are presented and tested on the leaders. The results of the investigation indicate that a large number of leaders from the morning newspapers are structured in a similar way, with the paragraph as the unit. They reveal a pattern, the normal pattern, where information is presented in a given order in the majority of morning leaders and the greatest number of message types is used. There is also a pattern of analysis/criticism, with critical and analytical paragraphs alternating and the analysis substantiating the criticism, as a rule. The few leaders in the morning newspapers that do not form a pattern may be strongly critical or almost solely analytical. One of the morning newspapers has many critical leaders that argue or incite. No analysis is made of evening newspaper leaders at the paragraph level since the paragraphs are short; instead, they are analysed as a whole, as are the argumentative leaders. The analysis shows that many leaders are structured in a similar way while at the same time there is considerable variation in the material, which is attributable to there being different types of editorials.

This master thesis deals with the text analysis of cover letter in German and with identifying characteristic text structures of this text type. The theoretical part covers the main concepts of text linguistics. Based on the scientific literature are defined the basic outline for the text analysis. The practical part concerns the analysis of the corpus of 30 cover letters written by Czech candidates in compliance with the criteria for job application in supposed language German. After that, the communication context, textual theme, function and text structures significant for this text type are determined. Finally, the results are compared with the set hypotheses.

O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar uma proposta de tradução, do francês para o português, de partes selecionadas da obra Festin Joyeux, ou, la Cuisine en Musique, de autoria do officier de bouche do rei Luís XV, J. Lebas (1738). Essa obra constitui objeto inusitado de tradução e se distingue de outros livros de cozinha por envolver uma singular justaposição de gêneros, uma vez que se trata de receitas culinárias versificadas que podem ser entoadas segundo melodias populares da época, os airs de cour e os vaudevilles. No primeiro capítulo, é feita uma breve contextualização sócio-histórica e apresentação da obra original. O segundo capítulo consiste em discussão da natureza da obra e levantamento de possíveis dificuldades decorrentes do hibridismo de gêneros, acompanhado de uma delimitação de estratégia para a tradução pretendida. Por fim, o terceiro capítulo contém a tradução em si de composições de Festin Joyeux, acompanhadas de comentários que justificam as decisões pessoais tomadas na empreitada. Como apoio teórico, recorreu-se às abordagens funcionalistas da tradução, que enfatizam a questão da função como guia no processo de transposição de conteúdo e de forma da língua-fonte para a língua-meta. À luz de conceitos elaborados por teóricos funcionalistas como Katharina Reiss e Hans Vermeer, e em especial do modelo proposto por Christiane Nord, procurou-se traçar um plano de ação voltado para uma função pré-estabelecida para o textometa, tendo por base a análise textual e o receptor final da tradução. Em razão da perspectiva adotada, o corpus se compõe exclusivamente de composições que recebem a indicação de melodias cujas partituras estão incluídas na obra, de maneira que a função estabelecida possa ser cumprida integralmente. Todos os termos específicos ao campo semântico da gastronomia foram pesquisados em livros de cozinha contemporâneos a Festin Joyeux e em dicionários históricos, com o intuito de minimizar as possíveis distorções sofridas nesse espaço de quase três séculos entre a publicação de Festin Joyeux, no século XVIII, e sua tradução, no século XXI. / The aim of this study is to present a translation proposal, from French to Portuguese, of selected parts from the book Festin Joyeux, ou, la Cuisine en Musique, written by Louis XVs officier de bouche, J. Lebas (1738). This book appears as an unusual subject for a translation and distinguishes itself from other culinary books due to its text type juxtaposition, in as much as its a compilation of recipes in verse, intended for singing according to popular tunes at the time, the airs de cours and vaudevilles. In the first chapter, we make a brief social-historical contextualisation and an introduction of the original book. In the second chapter we discuss the nature of the text and survey the possible difficulties derived from the text type juxtaposition, determining a strategy for the intended translation. Finally, the third chapter includes the translation itself of Festin Joyeuxs compositions, accompanied by commentaries that justify the personal decisions made in the task. As a theoretical support, we have drawn from the functional approaches of translation which emphasize the question of the function as a guide in the process of transposing the content and form from the source-text to the target-text. In the light of concepts elaborated by funcionalist theorists like Katharina Reiss and Hans Vermeer, and in particular of the model proposed by Christiane Nord, we have strived to set an action plan towards a pre-established function for the target-text, based on text analysis and the final receiver of the translation. Due to the adopted perspective, the corpus is constituted exclusively by compositions that receive the indication of tunes for which there are music scores included in the book, in such a way that the established function can be thoroughly fulfilled. All the words which are specific to the semantic field of gastronomy have been researched in cookbooks contemporary to Festin Joyeux and in historical dictionaries, aiming at minimizing possible distortions caused by the gap of nearly three centuries between the publication of Festin Joyeux, in the 18th century, and its translation, in the 21st century.

Although the importance of reading comprehension is generally recognized, a better understanding of the factors influencing measurement of reading comprehension may impact the ability to assess strengths and deficits. The current study examined the effects of text type and time limits on the rate of students' performance across four common assessments of reading comprehension. Results showed similarities between performance with narrative and expository texts and across time limit conditions for all of the assessments. In terms of comparing across reading comprehension assessments, the findings are limited by the differences in the response channels and stimulus conditions of each assessment. The results have implications for the development of measurement systems and the assessment of reading comprehension.

Due to vague boundaries, a diversity of meanings and variations of modal strength, the translation of modals might be challenging. This paper investigates the translation of the modal should in a text with recommendations on horse feeding. The translations of deontic and epistemic meanings of should expressing an obligation or necessity are analysed using a framework based on grammatical definitions and linguistic theory. The translation strategies are based on Reiss’ text typology and strategies recommended for informative and operative texts (2000), and Newmark’s communicative translation (1988). Also, procedures of Vinay & Darbelnet (1995) are used to describe some of the translations. The study reveals that majority of the examples are used in the deontic sense and that should is mostly translated as bör and ska. The high frequency of ska might be related to its flexibility and multifunctional properties. Possible translation problems involve differences in the interpretation, where a modal might come across as too strong or too weak to target readers. Another translation problem may arise if the chosen modal can be perceived as less moralising than intended. There are also ambiguous cases that could be said to have both deontic and epistemic meanings. The analysis shows how deontic and epistemic meanings can be determined by context. However, even though a deeper understanding of the topic and an evaluation of the context might support the translation choices, some ambiguity can still be said to remain. The paper concludes that the translation of modals requires thoughtful consideration. A thorough interpretation of meaning related to context and profound knowledge on the topic are equally important in the translation of should.

This study investigates translation choices and challenges in the translation of two training guides focused on running. It tests the validity of Reiss’s text-type theory in the translation of cultural aspects. Furthermore, the study discusses to what extent equivalence can be reached when translating an aesthetic language and finally, it comments on some characteristics of typical runners’ language. The results show that Reiss’s text type theory is not sufficient to guide the translation of cultural differences in the SL and TL but an analysis on phrasal and lexical level is also needed, where Koller’s equivalence relations and Newmark’s communicative translation are applicable. The results also show that figurative language is indeed possible to translate in these kinds of texts, where among others compensation proves a useful strategy. Equivalence on all levels of the text, however, is not always possible to reach. Finally, the findings of a special runners’ language were rather limited, although some examples indicating a presence of a runners’ jargon were found.