Interview with Marella Magris (EN)

Marella MagrisMarella Magris is associate Professor at the School for Interpreters and Translators (SSLMIT) of the University of Trieste. She teaches German to Italian Translation and German Language and Linguistics. Her research first focused on medical language and related translation problems. Now she mostly focuses her attention on the field of terminology. Since 1996, she has worked as editorial staff for the International Journal of Translation (RITT) and has been chief editor since 2004. She is a member of the Association for German Studies in Italy (AIG) and of the Network of Excellence for Institutional Italian Language (REI). Moreover, she has written several books on translation and terminology and she is one of the supervisors of SSLMIT of Trieste’s terminology database, TERMit.

1. As well as coordinating the terminology database IATE, the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament’s mission is to help translators and make terminology research and management more efficient. Are you aware of TermCoord? What is your opinion?

I am familiar with TermCoord and I receive its information emails. I think it’s a necessary service for improving terminological activity at the European Institutions. I really appreciate its collaboration outside the European Institutions, for instance with the academic world.

2. In your work at the School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste as a Translation professor, what importance do you give to terminology during your classes?

The importance of terminology depends on the level of the course. For instance, during the first year on the Bachelor Degree, texts are more general and often they don’t require deep terminological analysis. But during the final year of the Bachelor Degree and during the two years of the Master’s Degree, the topics covered on the course provide a starting point for discussing the importance of definitions and concepts in order to evaluate the level of equivalence, synonymy, standardisation of terms in specific domains and so on. In my experience, many students feel what I call a “cultural shock” when they run into the underlying conceptual complexity of a term for the first time.

3. Do you think that Terminology and Translation should be studied as separate disciplines in Translation departments?

I think that the best approach is to combine the two disciplines. Specific courses in Terminology and Terminography for translation students are very useful for developing the necessary skills to deal with terms; for instance for the management of a terminography database. However, at the same time, paying attention to terminology methods and principles during translation courses allows students to understand the importance of the main translation problems related to specialised concepts and their classification. Students can also improve their ability to solve these translations problems.

4. Do you think that translators don’t give enough importance to terminology? Or do you think that, on the contrary, they often focus more on terminology than on the translation of all other lexical elements?

I think that this is a very subjective thing, which depends on the individual translator’s training. As far as my students are concerned, at the beginning of the Bachelor Degree they focus so much on terminology that their errors more often concern general language and syntax. During my translation courses, I always try to correct this tendency and encourage students to give the same attention to all the aspects of a text – without ignoring the terminological aspects, of course!

5. Alongside Maria Teresa Musacchio, Lorenza Rega and Federica Scarpa, you edited the terminology manual “Manuale di Terminologia”, which was the first publication on this topic in the Italian language. Why did you decide to write a manual on terminology?

Mainly because there was no manual on this topic in Italian which put together contributions with a mainly didactic-methodologist orientation, without ignoring the theoretical basis. Moreover, we wanted to share the experience gained from our database, and put it in a more international context. This was achieved by the participation of some internationally-known experts, such as Khurshid Ahmad and Felix Mayer. More than 10 years later, it would be useful undertake the same project again to account for the methodological developments in the discipline.

6. It’s often said that a good translator is not necessarily a good terminologist. But maybe the concept of a “good translator” implies giving special importance to terminology. What’s your opinion?

Obviously a good translator should be aware of the complexity of terminological aspects and the real “behaviour” of terms, which does not always correspond to the sometimes idealised principles of terminology, particularly in its more traditional forms. The translator should know how to analyse aspects such as synonymy, variation, polysemy and diachronic evolution. As for the interlinguistic level, the translator should evaluate and manage the different levels of conceptual equivalence among terms of different languages. Despite that, a good translator is not necessarily a good terminologist since he or she is not always able to manage terminology in databases and so on.

7. You are one of the supervisors of the School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste’s TERMit terminology database. Can you briefly explain why it was created, what it consists of and how it works?

The TERMit project was created to systematise the terminological work carried out in SSLMIT and make it more accessible. It is a multilingual database based on the onomasiological method. The core of each entry is the concept level, and all the possible denominations in different languages are analysed in light of this specific concept. TERMit is aimed first and foremost at translators and interpreters and therefore tries to answer to the needs of translators and interpreters looking for an equivalent or solving other terminological problems. However, I think that our terminography collections can also be useful for linguists and experts from other disciplines. It has a very complex structure which aims to give a short but detailed conceptual, linguistic and pragmatic description of each term’s characteristic. Despite this complexity, it also allows translators and interpreters to quickly and easily consult the equivalent terms they are looking for in one field (equivalence). This database is fed with collections that are created by degree students who work always with Italian and usually with one or two more languages (sometimes even three) and are supervised by our professors and experts of the chosen field.

8. The TERMit project involves many students who are preparing for a degree at the SSLMIT of Trieste and contains thousands of terms in many different languages. Do you think that this database is used by translators, besides the students of Trieste? How can a translator consult this database?

TERMit was previously accessible online. For a simple search no special procedure was needed but for more complex research it was necessary to subscribe. Unfortunately, this database can no longer be consulted because of technical problems that hopefully will be solved soon. Though in this period of budget cuts everything seems to be more complicated.

9. What’s your opinion on IATE, the terminology database of the European Institutions? How do you think it can be improved?

IATE is a fundamental reference point not only for the translators working for the European Institutions, but also for freelance translators and translators working for national institutions. Thanks to the extent of its collections, it is very likely to find an answer for any terminology question. However, its size means that management is very complex, which is very hard to evaluate from an external point of view. In my limited experience as one of the supervisors of TERMit, which is much smaller, I have proved that any uploading or any improvement and feeding of existing collections require good planning and coordination. In my opinion, IATE could be improved by completing some fields – I’m referring to the definition field in particular – for entries which are missing information, expanding the conceptual relations – for instance with diagrams or lists – and implementing more transparent bibliographic sources.

10. Last of all, TermCoord organises a terminology project in collaboration with professors of Translation. As part of this project, students create terminology tables with terms that will be later on integrated in IATE. Do you think that this project could be useful for your Translation students?

Absolutely, and it would be a pleasure for me to participate in the project. Also, I’m not the only one interested in it; there are also some other professors of translation at SSLMIT interested.


Deidda ClaudiaInterviewer: Claudia Deidda

Claudia graduated with a BA in Linguistic Mediation from the University of Cagliari with an experimental thesis about liaison interpreting. She then graduated with a MA in Specialised Translation