Translation and Interpreting Studies. The Journal of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2013

Toury (1995, 2012) distinguishes between cognitive translation acts on the one hand, and sociological translation events on the other; a translation act is embedded in a translation event, and both acts and events are seen as processes. He also explains three senses of ‘translation problem,’ which relate to different notions of the processes involved in the translation act. The present paper analyzes and develops these ideas. It distinguishes between what are here labeled virtual, reverse-engineered, and actual processes of translation acts or events, which correlate with Toury’s three senses of ‘translation problem.’ A few examples are given of models of each kind of process, both classical and more recent ones. Also discussed is the extent to which the various models are predictive and hence testable. To designate the translation process at the historical and cultural level, alongside the mental act and the situational event, the term ‘translation practice’ is suggested.

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate automated processing during translation. We provide evidence from a translation priming study which suggests that translation involves activation of shared lexico-semantic and syntactical representations, i.e., the activation of features of both source and target language items which share one single cognitive representation. We argue that activation of shared representations facilitates automated processing. The paper revises the literal translation hypothesis and the monitor model (Ivir 1981; Toury 1995; Tirkkonen-Condit 2005), and re-defines it in terms of findings from translation process research. On the basis of the evidence, we propose a recursive model of translation.

At the crossroads of English as a lingua franca (ELF) research and interpreting studies, it is paramount to examine why interpreters are at odds with ELF communication in general and with the effects of the output of the growing number of non-native English conference speakers on their work in particular. On the basis of a small-scale case study, the stumbling blocks resulting from non-native English input are examined. The findings point toward what may be a major impediment: activation and retrieval constraints can result from ELF speakers’ restricted power of expression and have an adverse effect on the interpreter’s inferential processing and target text rendering. In the discussion, it is argued that a key problem for devising compensatory (strategic or didactic) measures may lie in the unpredictable and open-ended nature of the means of expression creatively constructed by ELF speakers, which makes it extremely difficult for interpreters to build up a stock of resources that will match the ongoing input items, allowing them to function as activating cues.

This paper explores the psychological construct of intuition and its influence in decision-making behavior. Intuition was defined by Jung (1971) as a primary mode of perception operating subconsciously. As opposed to sensing personality types who prefer concrete details, intuitive personality types prefer to acquire information by imagining possibilities (Myers and Myers 1995). In this paper, an analysis of verbalization data from a translation process study is discussed in order to demonstrate the influence of intuition on decision-making during the translation process and to explore the implications of this influence. Recent studies have found that intuition plays a role in learning and decision-making tasks involving affect (Laborde et al. 2010: 786). Intuition is therefore here viewed as a potentially vital component of translator behavior which could predict individuals’ translating effectiveness.

The aim of this process-oriented study is to test the literal translation hypothesis, i.e., the frequently held view that, in their search for the most suitable translation solution, translators move from more literal towards freer renderings. The study uses keystroke-logging to investigate translation processes involving self-revision in terms of ‘distance dynamics.’ The latter term refers to the fact that each new solution to a particular translation problem can be closer or more distant from the source item than the previous one. A more specific hypothesis is also tested, namely that experience in interpreting has an effect on distance dynamics. To this end, processes of two groups of subjects — translators without substantial interpreting experience, and interpreters — are compared. The findings challenge the literal translation hypothesis, and highlight some methodological issues that should be tackled in future studies.

This paper presents the initial results of an exploratory study examining the efficacy of Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting (IPDR) logs, recorded verbalizations, and screen recordings when used by translation students as revision tools for purposes of recognizing problems and mitigating errors in their translations. Students were given the task of creating one of these three process protocol types in conjunction with nine translations. They were then asked to self-reflect on their problem-solving performance while paying particularly close attention to a series of concrete problem indicator types found in the respective protocols during a post-task retrospective session. The students had the chance to make any desired revisions to their translations as a result of analyses before submitting a final version. The revised versions were marked up for punctuation, spelling, lexical, syntactic, stylistic, and mistranslation errors. The frequency of errors for each of these types was calculated for each student in conjunction with the process protocol utilized. The total number of errors in conjunction with each process protocol type used, regardless of textual level, was also calculated. Screen recording consistently proved to be the most efficacious process protocol type in mitigating errors. This paper concludes by positing several possible explanations for the greater success rate of screen recording as a revision tool and calls for screen recording to be implemented as a core component of a process-oriented translator training curriculum.

In today’s rapidly developing digital age and increasingly socially-aware society, the notion of media accessibility is evolving in response to shifting audience expectations. Performing arts and media, such as opera, are called upon to include all audiences, and related audiovisual translation methods are progressing in this direction. These comprise audio description and touch tours for the blind and partially-sighted, two relatively new translation modalities which are consumer-oriented and require an original research design for the analysis of the translation processes involved. This research design follows two fundamental principles: (1) audience reception studies should be an integral part of the investigation into the translation process; and (2) the translation process is regarded as a network. Therefore, this paper explores the unique translation processes of audio description and touch tours within the context of live opera from the perspective of actor-network theory and by providing an overview of a reception project. Through discussion of the methodology and findings, this paper addresses the question of the impact of audience reception on the translation process.