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Inglese Giuridico – nozioni di base                                                                                                                                                               

Prof. Patricia Sours

COMPUTER LESSON ONE

 

► Create a folder on the Desktop at each session to save your work you are doing that day, or create a folder in your memory stick (chiavetta) and save it there. To create a folder, place the cursor on the Desktop/Press on the right side of mouse/New/Folder/Give it your name. All the documents that you work with today can be saved in this folder, and before you leave, SEND everything in this folder as an “attachment” to your personal email address or save it to a floppy or your  ‘chiavetta’. You cannot access this folder from outside this aula. Please work in pairs.

 

1) REVIEW OF WORD PROCESSING SKILLS

If you have a WORD program at home (Word XP, Office XP, Word 2007, etc.), please follow these instructions. Your terminology papers should absolutely have NO SPELLING ERRORS. If there are errors, you did not set the language for English.

 

a) Instructions for Setting the language for English

Before you start writing in English, SET the language for English.

How?

►On the TOOLBAR: Strumenti/Lingua/Imposta Lingua/ Highlight ‘Inglese USA’ or ‘Inglese Gran Bretagna’/ press OK.

 

By doing this, every word that is misspelled or has a capitalization error will be underlined in red in your text. AFTER you finish writing, you can point to each word that is underlined in red with the cursor, then press the mouse on the right side, and a selection of correct spellings will appear. Highlight the one that is appropriate.

Synonyms: After you have set the language for English, if you need to find a synonym for a word, highlight the word you wish to find a synonym for in the text, press the right side of the mouse, and choose the correct word. Sometimes you will need a dictionary to make the correct choice, as meanings will change in context.

 

b) Copy and paste Highlight the text you wish to copy, press the right side of the mouse, then “copy”. You may then open another document, and with the right side of the mouse press “paste” where you want it inserted. This can also be done of the keyboard (tastiera) by pressing Control C (copia), placing the cursor in the new document, then Control V (incolla).

 

2) DICTIONARY USE ONLINE

 

Comparing different law dictionaries online:

Duhaime’s Online Legal dictionary http://www.duhaime.org/dictionary/diction.aspx Canadian (alphabetical, no embedded)

Nolo dictionary http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm  USA (alphabetical, embedded)

Law.com http://dictionary.law.com/  USA (it has embedded words)

FindLaw  http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/  USA (it has embedded words)

SCADPLUS EU Glossary http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/index_en.htm This glossary contains descriptions of different topics in the EU. You can also read it in Italian  http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/index_it.htm. However, the main EU index http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm will be more useful when you are searching for context in original legal documents. For example, go to Documents/ EUROLEX – portal to EU law / left margin is Treaties. Click and open an original treaty. These could later be used for 'context' examples from an original legal document.

 

Compare the above dictionaries. Search for one legal terminology search for the meaning in the above dictionaries. Which did you prefer?

►Does it have "related words”? (Related words are words that belong to the same 'family'. This term will be explained further in Lesson 2.)

►Does it have “links within links” (embedded links)? These are helpful for unknown words within the definitions.

►Pronunciation - Some dictionaries, especially the general English dictionaries, have pronunciation also (however you will need an audio software installed like Real PlayerOne).

**Please do not use Wikipedia for your definitions. It is NOT A LEGAL DICTIONARY (nor are the general dictionaries listed below).

 

GENERAL ENGLISH DICTIONARIES http://www.m-w.com/  http://answers.com

BILINGUAL DICTIONARY http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages/romance.html#italian

 

►Practice on the internet

Here is a site in the internet which could prove quite useful for your oral exam if you are uncertain of the correct pronunciation of legal terminology (it is my voice). If you have audio software in your computer at home, you can listen to the following files online.

Legal pronunciation and word stress tasks http://claweb.cla.unipd.it/home/psours/pronunciation/wordstress.htm rules for word stress and an exercise with 60 different words.

http://claweb.cla.unipd.it/home/psours/listening/lords.htm intonation and rhythm (UK and USA, House of Lords Report.

 

 

3) MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARY http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff

  This is a very good dictionary because you can choose the specific subject area for a word, choose the language, and then you can extend the search to view the word in various contexts. 

 

For example:

Enter Query/Source language (English)/Subject/Target language (Italian)/Search/

You must choose a context. I have chosen “Law, Legislation & Jurisprudence” below.

 

Example
Enter query: appeal    Source language: English  Subject: Law, Legislation & Jurisprudence (You must scroll down to make the choice.)

Target language: Italian

Display: ALL FIELDS or if you prefer, just the “hit list”.

Click on SEARCH

You will now be able to read the English and Italian IN CONTEXT. Remember the meanings change in context. If you choose some of these as your Italian translation, you should also use the paper Bilingual legal dictionary De Franchis to confirm the translation.

Remember to copy and paste ALL your resources from the internet (references) as noted on the page.

 

►Try a few words out. Save them on the Desktop and then send them to your email address as an “attachment”.

 

WHILE you are working:

Compare definitions. Are they the same? Does one have an extra explanation that other one doesn't have? COMPARE.

How much of the definition should you copy? My suggestion is to copy everything in the beginning and delete later. Obviously, you only need enough for YOU to understand and explain it during the oral exam. Keep the full URL address so that you can get back exactly to that page. Later, you can cancel out the full address and leave only the main URL.

IMPORTANT!! You must cite your resources.

 

How are your resources cited?

Name the dictionary online and ‘copy and paste’ the URL under your definition.

Example: Nolo Legal Dictionary Online http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm 

 or  De Franchis – Dizionario Giuridico (English-Italian, Italian-English)  (paper version)

 

Next week: Bring at least 5 words that you might want to use for your terminology project. We will be researching different legal resources online for context references for your terminology projects.