For the past month, RGCL has hosted three Spanish translators who visited to carry out research and collaborate with members of the group. Pilar Castillo, María Luisa Rodríguez and Mar Ogea are all affiliated with the University of Cordoba in Spain, as well as working as freelance translators specialising in various fields. In addition to drawing on the facilities and research materials available here at Wolverhampton University, they shared the details of their own work with the group over the course of three seminars, information about which can be found below. We wish them the very best in their future endeavours.  Continue reading →

Speaker: Snezhana Boyanova (Veliko Turnovo University, Bulgaria)
Date: 9 June 2015
Location: MC131
Time: 3.15pm

Abstract: Chomsky offered a different perspective to the study of the language – studying the process of production rather than the ready product. He was looking for language universals that could be applied to any language. Language is viewed as a genetic predisposition, a genetic chip that enables a child to acquire a language. It is an instinct that we are born with. The acquisition of language cannot be explained through imitation. Every sentence that we produce is unique – it is a unique combination of words, and meanings, and connotations, and context, situation, audience, speaker, etc. No two sentences are identical in this context. So imitation is too simplistic as an explanation of language acquisition. Language production is a creative process. Creativity and linguistic intuition are the two basic skills underlying language production. Continue reading →