Translation Spaces - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2012

Throughout its disciplinary history, Translation Studies has critically engaged with issues intimately linked to language, culture, and society. It has problematized social categories, concepts, and historical time periods, attempting to place translation practice and theory in ever more meaningful contexts. The disciplinary reading of translation and localization technologies can be enhanced by moving beyond the observation and description of specific tools, procedures, and applications to inquire into the multiple, complex dynamics currently shaping practices of communication globally. At a time when many disciplines are in dialogue with others in order to share expertise and better understand the quickly evolving times we live in, Internet, Web, and Digital Culture Studies can serve as a complementary and useful approach for examining the roles of translation and translators in a technologically configured digital world of 24/7 communication. This article seeks to bring to Translation Studies a view from the digital world and the technologies that sustain it.

There is a growing trend among some internet software companies to involve users in the translation process by inviting or enabling them to shape the way the final product reads in their native languages. This is called translation crowdsourcing, and an increasing number of user-translators are willing to dedicate their spare time to contribute to such undertakings. What motivates them to do so, and how could their motivation be boosted? In order to answer these questions, this article looks at Facebook and Skype, examples of the two most common translation crowdsourcing models: open community and closed community. The first part of the article describes these two models, highlighting their principal differences and the business needs that help determine which model is adopted. The second part examines the origins of user-translator motivation and the ways that these two software companies maintain and boost motivation.

“Übersetzen ist die Verwendung des Verstandenen,” wrote the late Hans Vermeer in 1986. Seen within the context of Vermeer’s Skopos theory, translation is at its core a dual process of understanding and applying this understanding in the production of a target text. I intend to discuss the essence of Vermeer’s quote against the background of specialized translation and interpreting. In particular, I will be focusing on the two main aspects of translation highlighted in the quote, the cognitive dimension of translation as information processing on the one hand and the pragmatic dimension of the purposeful application of that information in the transfer and production phases of the translation process on the other hand. At the heart of my paper lies a didactic model for the development of information processing and information application competence in the university training of future translators and interpreters. The main focus of the discussion will be on terminology in general and, following Teresa Cabré’s “theory of doors,” on the cognitive and pragmatic dimensions of terminological units in particular. The objective is to combine terminological (concept-oriented) approaches with textographical (corpus-driven) ones, so as to show, first, how terminological units can be organized in mono and multilingual knowledge structures and, second, how, based on a digital corpus search, these units can be implemented into the norm-guided production of the target text.

As the contours of the globalized digital information society become apparent, so does the need for a reform of translation rights within the intellectual property regime. The history of translation rights provides insights that help us understand the underlying economic and political tensions in copyright negotiations today. The various versions of agency in translation studies, which run parallel to recent interactive technologies, destabilize important notions in copyright law, such as authorship, originality, and the idea-expression dichotomy. Finally, translational ethics can perhaps contribute to redirect current dialogues on copyright and language policy towards increased interdisciplinarity and internationalism, in part, as a result of decentralizing power.

This paper seeks to characterise translation as a form of human–computer interaction. The evolution of translator–computer interaction is explored, and the challenges and benefits are enunciated. The concept of cognitive ergonomics is drawn on to argue for a more caring and inclusive approach towards the translator by developers of translation technology. A case is also made for wider acceptance by the translation community of the benefits of the technology at their disposal and for more humanistic research on the impact of technology on the translator, the translation profession, and the translation process.

Aimed at promoting a broader interdisciplinary discussion, this paper explores translation and entertainment in the context of current and emerging technological trends from a perspective beyond strictly Translation Studies concerns. Taking the case of video games as a rapidly growing modern digital entertainment genre, the article examines the concept of adaptation and how transmedia and remediation might further impact translation practices. It hints at a new development of translation itself as a form of entertainment, which may tie in with the concept of gamification to stimulate further thinking into the future of translation and entertainment.

Much has written by scholars on translation as product and as process, but relatively little attention has been paid to translation as a commercial service, business or industry. This article proposes a modest step in this direction by using microeconomics as a window through which to examine the industrialization of translation, focusing on causes, consequences and challenges. It begins by analyzing the outsourcing of translation and translation-related services. It then considers consequences of large-scale outsourcing, including quality uncertainty, information asymmetry, adverse selection, price pressure and perceived commoditization. Finally, the article explores challenges posed by these developments, including signaling and screening, the productivity imperative and the development of expertise. The article concludes with an overview of potential areas of research to be explored in this track in future issues.

Mental load is an important construct in reading, writing, bilingualism, and multitasking research. It is also an implicit concept in most accounts of both translators’ mental processes and expertise, where it is often related to controlled and automated processes, which are interrelated. TPR projects tend to equate problem solving with controlled processing, but problem solving is not fully conscious or analytic and TPR should consider many other factors and the translation event as a whole. On the other hand, automated processes seem to comprise several phenomena, such as the optimization of the bilingual mental lexicon, the proceduralization of translation routines, and the development of translation-specific monitoring and evaluative processes and coping tactics. Many of the coping tactics translators develop are epistemic actions that deserve further study. Focusing on mental load in TPR may foster both theoretical and empirical efforts and also establish a bridge with interpreting research.