32.831, Support: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Pragmatics; Translation: PhD, University of Sheffield

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-831. Fri Mar 05 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.831, Support: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Pragmatics; Translation: PhD, University of Sheffield

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Lauren Perkins, Nils Hjortnaes, Yiwen Zhang, Joshua Sims
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Becca Morris <becca at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2021 13:31:32
From: Nicole Baumgarten [n.baumgarten at sheffield.ac.uk]
Subject: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Pragmatics; Translation: PhD, University of Sheffield, UK

 Institution/Organization: University of Sheffield 
Department: School of Langauges and Cultures 
Web Address: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/slc 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research
 
Specialty Areas: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Pragmatics; Translation 
Audiovisual Translation; Dubbing 

Description:

PhD Project: Non-literal language use in machine and human translation for
dubbing (3 years fully-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between University
of Sheffield, and Zoo Digital Group plc)

Project Summary:
The project is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and
Sheffield-based ZOO Digital Group plc, one of the industry leaders in media
localisation. The project will investigate non-literal language use (such as
idioms, metaphor, jokes, conventional indirectness, or conversational
implicatures) in machine and human audiovisual translation for commercial
lip-sync dubbing of films. By means of an innovative and original
multi-methods approach, the project will close the gap between computational
and humanistic approaches to translation and make use of their complementary
strengths in the development of an integrated, industry-relevant human-machine
translation system for dubbing that is able to handle implicit meaning in
film.

PhD Project Description:
Non-literal language features in film are problematic for existing machine
translation (MT) approaches, for example because they may have
culture-specific implied meanings that MT systems cannot infer, they may be
unique ideas originated by the speaker spontaneously (creative language use,
linguistic innovation), or their intended meaning may rely on the extended
linguistic or visual context in which the utterance is embedded. MT
approaches, which rely on linguistic surface structures to identify language
patterns, struggle with these kinds of non-compositional, pragmatic and
context-dependent meanings, which, however, play a central role in film
because they drive forward the story and are crucial to character development.
Human dubbing translators, too, face challenges with non-literal language,
albeit on the level of re-creating it in equivalent and lip-synchronous ways
in the target language, and not on the level of recognising it in the original
text.

The project will integrate the distinct qualities of MT and the human
translator to identify linguistic, textual and visual characteristics of
non-literal language in film, and express them as heuristics or algorithms a
computer could interpret, so that it might be possible to improve MT, or at
the very least identify areas where MT is expected to struggle to direct human
translators’ effort.

The project taps into the grey area between two distinct views of translation,
namely translation as a culture-based interpretive-creative process and
translation as a computational-statistical procedure. As a consequence,
research on human translation and MT have become increasingly uninformed by
one another. The project aims to offer a solution to a specific pervasive
problem identified in professional AVT practice by integrating humanistic and
MT approaches to translation.

It is driven by three broad research questions, which can be shaped by the
student candidate, for example with respect to the languages to be considered:
- How do MT systems and human translators handle non-literal language use in
film?
- How can MT and human translation processes be integrated in AVT?
- How can MT systems be enhanced by formal descriptions of non-literal
languageuse in film?

More information on the project, eligibility and the application process can
be found at the application link provided below.

For questions about the project, please email Dr Nicole Baumgarten at the
contact information below.
 

Web Address for Applications: https://wrocah.ac.uk/2021-cda-projects/ 

Contact Information: 
	Dr Nicole Baumgarten
	n.baumgarten at sheffield.ac.uk  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2020 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
                   https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/the-linguist-list

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-32-831	
----------------------------------------------------------