Translated Plagiarism in Academic Discourse

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.20.2.1

Keywords:

academic plagiarism, back-translation, translated plagiarism, illegal text lifting detection

Abstract

Cross-language plagiarism is increasingly being accorded the interest of academics, but it is still an underresearched area. Rather than displaying linguistic similarity or identity of lexemes, phrases or grammatical structures within one language, translated plagiarism is viewed as the theft of ideas involving two languages. Two instances of translated plagiarism will be discussed - lifting a text from language A, translating it in language B to reuse it as one’s own text, and back-translation: lifting a text verbatim from language A, translating into language B and then re-translating back into language A. The emphasis will be on non-standard structures and inappropriate linguistic choices violating source language norms which could go some way towards assisting in the detection of translated plagiarism, a task heretofore not resolved either by linguists or by computer specialists. The topic is of seminal importance to non-English speaking academic contexts.

Author Biography

Diana Yankova, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Diana Yankova, PhD is Professor of Linguistics and current head of the Languages and Cultures Department, New Bulgarian University, Sofia. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in text linguistics, translation of legislative texts, American and Canadian culture studies. She is the author of several monographs and numerous articles on legal language with special emphasis on culture and genre-specific characteristics of Common law and Continental legislation, points of convergence between legal studies and linguistics, terminological and structural considerations in translating supranational law, approximation of legislation, teaching EALP.

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Published

2020-12-21

How to Cite

Yankova, D. (2020). Translated Plagiarism in Academic Discourse. English Studies at NBU, 6(2), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.20.2.1

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