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In:Corpora in Translation and Contrastive Research in the Digital Age: Recent advances and explorations
Edited by Julia Lavid-López, Carmen Maíz-Arévalo and Juan Rafael Zamorano-Mansilla
[Benjamins Translation Library 158] 2021
► pp. 147–173

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Chapter 6
Developing a corpus-informed tool for Spanish professionals writing specialised texts in English

ORCiD logo with link | ULE
ORCiD logo with link | UPV/EHU
Published online: 8 December 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.158.06per
Abstract
This chapter describes the development and use of Promociona-TÉ, a tool for Spanish professionals who need to write herbal tea promotional texts (HTPTs) in English. The tool was developed from a comparable-corpus approach, given the absence of parallel corpora for under-researched domains (Skadiņa et al. 2010) such as HTPTs. It is the result of applying the insights of contrastive linguistic research in the workplace towards overcoming problems of communication (Rabadán 2019). Two analyses were conducted at the rhetorical and lexicogrammatical levels, providing the tool with a prototypical macrostructure of HTPTs together with a pool of drafting lines and a domain-specific bilingual glossary. We conclude by describing three advantages of this text generator over the use of translation, either human or machine.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Parallel corpora: Applications in cross-linguistic research
  • 3.Comparable corpora: Applications in cross-linguistic research
  • 4.Promociona-TÉ: A comparable-corpus-informed writing tool
    • 4.1Writing in English for specific purposes
    • 4.2The corpus: ACTEaS_Promo
    • 4.3Generating herbal tea promotional texts
      • 4.3.1Prototypical macrostructure
      • 4.3.2Model lines
      • 4.3.3Built-in glossary
    • 4.4Writing assistance
      • 4.4.1Feedback from users
    • 4.5Tool programming and architecture
    • 4.6Advantages of the tool
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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