The introduction to my thesis

[LuisMa]

I've been going through my trunk of memories recently, and I would like to share with you the introduction I wrote for my thesis to obtain a Master's degree back in 1999! OMG ten years have passed, and I still love Celine as much as I did since I first heard her debut English track back in 1991. Of course, you might know all of what I wrote there by heart, and a lot more could have been added, but it's just the words of a then-24-year-old guy.

 

Introduction

 

 

Over the years, a lot of fields have been aided by technology, and translation has not been the exception. The idea of computer programs that translate developed in the middle of this century, and since then it has developed enormously. Many people have used machine translation in order to save money and time; however, “many have tended in recent years to dismiss it as one of the failures of scientific research” (Hutchins, 93), and this has happened because difficulties in machine analysis of languages and the considerable time spent by machines in processing data have been present in some translation programs.

 

In recent years, scientists and engineers have developed new translation programs, but they still leave out the question if a machine can be more accurate and reliable than a human translator. A lot of controversy has swirled over the new translation programs; for instance, when the program GTS (Globalink Translation System) came out in the early nineties, it was said that “it takes into account the context and global sense of the text, avoiding a literal translation, but the role of the translator will not be eliminated, for someone with knowledge about translation will have to make the necessary changes to the final work” (Zúñiga, 2). This seems to be very contradictory, because if this program were accurate and reliable, the translator would not be needed to correct the final product.

 

 

 

This research will try to find the differences (advantages and disadvantages) that exist between a human (professional) and a machine translator, in order to determine which of them is more accurate and reliable. To do so, I will translate the texts Les Premières Années, written by Jean-Marc D’Angio and Jean-Pierre Pasqualini, and Celine Dion Boosting Global Status written by Larry LeBlanc, manually and by means of computer software. The former will be translated from French into English and the latter from English into Spanish. Both texts contain information to singer Celine Dion’s rise to stardom. After the translations are conducted, an analysis of surface (syntax) and deep (semantics) structure will be done to find the aforementioned characteristics.

 

1.1 Celine Dion

 

According to Billboard Magazine, the world’s leading music publication, Canadian music has gotten a very important place thanks to the achievements of great pop singers in the nineties. It all started back in June, 1990 when a lady from Toronto, Alannah Myles, reached number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles Chart with her first single, “Black Velvet.” Two weeks later, another lass from Toronto, Jane Child, went to number two with “Don’t Wanna Fall In Love;” that was just the beginning of a string of hits by well-known Canadian acts such as Bryan Adams, Crash Test Dummies, Shania Twain and Alanis Morissette, to name a few. However, none of these artists has come close to Celine Dion’s success.

 

Celine Dion was born in the French-speaking province of Quebec, Canada, in a small town called Charlemagne. Since very little, Celine had a lot of ambitions: she wanted to become a singer and be able to sing all over the world. When she was nine, her mother and one of her brothers wrote Celine a song called “Ce N’Était Qu’un Rêve” (It Was Only a Dream), which she recorded. That was just the beginning of a fabulous career. In 1989, after a dozen gold albums and a few number one hits in France and Quebec, Celine decided to learn and be able to record songs in English. By the end of 1990, she had already finished recording her first English album, “Unison.” Her record label released the ballad “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” as the first single, and it debuted on the Hot 100 in January, 1991. Celine thought it was a dream, but that was not the end of it. A few months later, the ballad climbed up to number four. She had done it! She had made her way into the American charts! A few other songs were released from the album, and she was given the great opportunity of singing a second album and a very important song for a movie.

 

In 1992, Celine impressed everybody with a beautiful interpretation of the title track to Walt Disney’s new animated film “Beauty And The Beast.” The song was a duet with well-known American singer Peabo Bryson, and it gave Celine her second Top 10 smash. By May, her second album, simply called “Celine Dion” hit the stores. The first single from it, “If You Asked Me To” reached the Top 5 and opened the doors for a big record deal in the United States.

 

At the beginning of 1993, Celine received great news: her album “Celine Dion” had been certified platinum for sales of over 1,000,000 units and she had received two nominations for the best music award in the States: the Grammys. She was nominated for Best Female Vocal Performance for “Celine Dion” and for Best Pop Vocal Performance for a Duo or Group for “Beauty And The Beast.” She won in the latter category and her music got even to a higher position. The fact that five songs had been released from her album was just amazing, and these songs, “If You Asked Me To,” “Nothing Broken But My Heart,” “Love Can Move Mountains,” “Water From The Moon,” and, of course, “Beauty And The Beast” were internationally acclaimed. Also, that year she recorded a new French album, ”Des Mots Qui Sonnent” (The Words That Sound), which included tracks such as “Je Danse Dans Ma Tête” (I Dance in My Head) and “L’Amour Existe Encore” (Love Still Exists). These songs would become massive number one songs in France, Belgium, Switzerland and other European territories.

 

It was in November 1993 that her third English album, “The Colour Of My Love,” was released. By March, 1994, the album had already sold 500,000 copies and the first single from it, “The Power Of Love,” became her first number one song in the United States. A second single, “Misled,” became her first number one dance track. Its follow-up, “Think Twice,” went on to sell over 3 million copies worldwide and went to number one in more than 30 countries.

 

 

 

In 1995, another French album, “D’Eux” (Of Them) hit stores in Europe. To date, it has sold over six million copies, becoming the best-selling French album in history. In France, it is the best-selling album of this country’s history, and two singles, “Pour Que To M’Aimes Encore” (So That You Still Love Me) and “Je Sais Pas” (I Don’t Know) made “D’Eux” stay atop the France album charts for an amazing 44 weeks. In England, a country that might seem to be resistant to the French language, “D’Eux” went on to sell over 100,000 copies and “Pour Que Tu M’Aimes Encore” hit the Top 10.

 

Though Celine was already considered a super star in Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan, she was not heeded that way in the US. Today, she is one of the most popular female singers in this country. What happened? The answer is quite simple: “Falling Into You,” her fourth English album. Early in 1996, Celine was given the chance of having the beautiful ballad “Because You Loved Me” in the film “Up Close And Personal” starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. The song exploded everywhere and, with just three weeks on chart, it was already the number one song on the Hot 100. “Falling Into You” debuted a few weeks later on the albums chart at number two, and it stayed in the Top 10 for more than a full year. Another factor that contributed enormously to Celine’s success in the US was her performance at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games inauguration ceremony, where she sang “The Power Of The Dream.” The song was included as the B-track of her single “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” which went to number two in late 1996.

 

 

 

By the end of 1997, Celine was considering taking a break from show business, but the record company approached her with new and fantastic ideas for a new album. As Celine said in an E! Entertainment Television interview, “They said the iron was still hot, so we had to go for it!” The recording of this new album was a dream come true for Celine. She had the chance to record with artists she always had admired, such as Barbra Streisand and Luciano Pavarotti. Furthermore, she was given the opportunity to record the love theme to the greatest movie of all time, “Titanic.” When “My Heart Will Go On” hit number one in Billboard, the song had already become the most played song in history all over the world. The album went on to sell over 25 million copies and Celine earned a lot of accolades, such as Grammy Awards, Junos, World Music Awards, and even the Oscar for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture.

 

1998 was quite a big year for Celine as well. Sales from all of her albums surpassed the astounding number of 100 million copies, making her one of the Top 5 recording artists of all time. She released not one but two albums almost simultaneously. A new French recording, “S’il Suffisait D’Aimer (If Only Love Could Be Enough),” and her first English Christmas Collection, “These Are Special Times.” The latter featured a gorgeous duet with Rhythm and Blues crooner R. Kelly entitled “I’m Your Angel,” which reigned atop the American charts for six weeks.

 

Finally, Celine decided to close a wonderful decade of monstrous hits with a much-deserved break. She just gave her last concert December 31st, and she will go on hiatus for at least two years. However, she did something just to let her fans remember her and have something new for the holidays. Last November, she released “All The Way...A Decade Of Song,” a greatest-hits album featuring nine of her most impacting tunes plus seven new tracks. One of these new recordings, “That’s The Way It Is,” is number one in several countries as of today, and three more singles have been scheduled for release in the year 2000.

 

What many people like about Celine Dion is her dedication, confidence and simplicity. She is not one of those artists who, after having one or two hits, think they are the best in this world. In a recent interview with Chuck Taylor, a well-known Billboard Magazine columnist, she said, “I hope to have a lifelong career and sing for the rest of my life. It’s not just because of the success, because when I started I had no success, and I was just as happy. I’m just happy to be able to perform, to be the best of myself” (Taylor, 41). Definitely, Celine Dion has what it takes to become the world’s biggest singer, and just as Chuck Taylor says, “give this girl a ballad, and watch her fashion it into a stately declaration of emotion and sincerity rarely heard in pop music” (Taylor, 41).

 

 

 

1.2 Motivation

 

I decided to work with Les Premières Années and Celine Dion Boosting Global Status for three main reasons:

 

First, French has always been one of my favorite languages, and I thought it would be very interesting to work with a text written in French for my starred paper. Besides, the university I am working for is implementing a Master’s degree in Translation, so I believe this study will be beneficial for future teachers and students of translation. Also, I will make use of this study in the Applied Linguistics courses that I teach in the university, for the students and I work with Computer Systems applied to Education, and Computational Linguistics, that deals with the way in which computers are used to stimulate language. Second, many people think that a computer program that translates is faster and more reliable than a human translator. My thesis will attempt to prove that though machines can really help people and make their lives easier, they will never substitute the human brain. Of course, this also happens in translation, and I will try to show the differences that exist between a machine and a human translator, and which of them is more reliable.

 

Last but not least, I chose both texts because they present information related to Celine Dion, my favorite singer. Her music is very special to me, for the lyrics and melodies of her songs deal with different aspects of human life, such as love, friendship and commitment. Also, many times that I have felt down, her music has helped me in a way to overcome my problems.

 

“Tel est mon destin, “Such is my destiny,

 

je vais mon chemin, I walk down my road,

 

ainsi passent mes heures My hours are passing

 

au rythme entétant des battements With the tireless rhythm

 

de mon cœur” of my heart”

 

Celine Dion, “Destin”

 

Taken from her album “D’Eux”

 

Written by Jean-Jacques Goldman

Edited March 25, 2009 at 03:24 PM by LuisMa

[Matias]

WOW such a neat presentation!

[lauracd]

Great!!!! :clap:

[LuisMa]

Thank you!!

[ce-line]

Wow, and very long... I'll read it tomorrow when I have more time!

And thanks for sharing!

Edited March 25, 2009 at 10:00 PM by ce-line

[linda90]

thanks! your thesis is great, congrats

[Céline's Blues]

I'm more interested in the thesis than the hag, Luis. It seems spot on, truly. When we'll meet I want to read the whole thing as I studied translation techniques myself for a short period of my Shaman studies in Maputo.

[LuisMa]

I'm more interested in the thesis than the hag, Luis. It seems spot on, truly. When we'll meet I want to read the whole thing as I studied translation techniques myself for a short period of my Shaman studies in Maputo.

 

Seb

 

You got it! Prepare yourself to read 240 pages more on the... hag?

 

[Céline's Blues]

I'm more interested in the thesis than the hag, Luis. It seems spot on, truly. When we'll meet I want to read the whole thing as I studied translation techniques myself for a short period of my Shaman studies in Maputo.

 

Seb

 

You got it! Prepare yourself to read 240 pages more on the... hag?

 

 

OMG 240 pages?????????? On my queen Céline?????????? Are we for real Luis? 

[Shall]

Great work and very interesting! Would you later post the whole thesis? I'm looking forward to reading:)

[LuisMa]

I'm more interested in the thesis than the hag, Luis. It seems spot on, truly. When we'll meet I want to read the whole thing as I studied translation techniques myself for a short period of my Shaman studies in Maputo.

 

Seb

 

You got it! Prepare yourself to read 240 pages more on the... hag?

 

 

OMG 240 pages?????????? On my queen Céline?????????? Are we for real Luis?

 

 

 

 

Great work and very interesting! Would you later post the whole thesis? I'm looking forward to reading:)

 

Thank you! But it's actually 240 pages long. If I did, Bellamy and Vic would go berserk, and I would be banned in a jiffy.

[SensationalCeline]

You wrote that for a Masters???!!! That was brilliant and it had to do with Celine! Thanks for sharing.