| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | Never read it through first! Thread poster: James (Jim) Davis
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| Taxonomy of human translation styles | Nov 6, 2012 |
Hi there,
Please find below details on research that has been done in this area. I hope this will be informative for this discussion.
Taxonomy of Human Translation Styles (Carl, Dragsted & Lykke Jakobsen, 2011)
Translation experiments involved 12 professionals and 12 students and combined process and product data. Eye-tracking and keystroke logging data were gathered and these were then combined with each participants' aligned ST and TTs producing transl... See more Hi there,
Please find below details on research that has been done in this area. I hope this will be informative for this discussion.
Taxonomy of Human Translation Styles (Carl, Dragsted & Lykke Jakobsen, 2011)
Translation experiments involved 12 professionals and 12 students and combined process and product data. Eye-tracking and keystroke logging data were gathered and these were then combined with each participants' aligned ST and TTs producing translation progression graphs. These showed relations between translation product and process in time.
Three translation phases as well as different working styles of translators were observed.
• Initial orientation – initial text planning phase. Several types of behaviour can be distinguished:
- Systematic initial orientation: the translator systematically reads through the ST before translation
- Skimming: the translator skims the ST rapidly before translation
- Quick planning: the translator reads the first couple of words or sentences, and then presses the first key.
- Head start: the translator starts translating right away
• Translation drafting: the phase in which the actual translation is drafted. Several translation styles were distinguished:
- Large-context planning: the translator reads text sequences, sometimes whole sentences, far ahead in the source text.
- Small-context planning: the translator frequently fixates the word being typed or a couple of words, but rarely a whole sentence ahead.
- Backtracking: the translator has a tendency to re-fixate ST words which have already been translated
- Non-backtracking: the translator does not systematically re-fixate ST words which have already been translated
The translators may show traces of different kinds of behaviour during drafting, but the data provide evidence for an overall preference for one of the two kinds of planning ahead (small context or large context planning) as well as a preference with respect to looking back at previously translated ST words. The two types of planning behaviour may or may not be combined with backtracking.
• Revision: this phase serves to review the text and refine translation choices. Three types of revision can be distinguished:
- Online revision: the translator revises the text during the drafting phase
- End revision: the translator spends 20 per cent or more of his/her time on end revision
- Constant revision: the translator spends more than 20 per cent of translation time on end revision, but at the same time makes a large number (above average) of online revisions.
For full paper, please refer to:
Carl, Michael, Dragsted, Barbara, Lykke Jakobsen, Arnt. 2011. ‘A Taxonomy of Human Translation Styles’. Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Available at: http://translationdirectory.com/articles/article2321.php.
Best wishes,
Joanna
[Edited at 2012-11-06 07:50 GMT]
[Edited at 2012-11-06 07:51 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | James (Jim) Davis 
Seychelles
Local time: 16:22
Member (2022)
Italian to English
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you Joanna | Nov 6, 2012 |
That is hugely interesting and very constructive. Your link: http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article2321.php didn't work, so I went here and found article 2321 scrolling down the page.
Thank you very much, I don't think I've read a psychology experiment write up in, well at least thirty years.
I note that the subjects (translators in the experiment) di... See more That is hugely interesting and very constructive. Your link: http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article2321.php didn't work, so I went here and found article 2321 scrolling down the page.
Thank you very much, I don't think I've read a psychology experiment write up in, well at least thirty years.
I note that the subjects (translators in the experiment) didn't have Internet access. If I met a technical term I didn't understand or know, I would stop and look on the internet until I found it and if I didn't, I would probably phone the client. Without, internet or a phone, I would probably search the whole source text looking for clues.
In the conclusion/discussion part they say:
"Preliminary investigations suggest that professional translators tend to be characterized by head-starting, small-context planning, and end-revising, while student translators more frequently perform systematic initial orientation, large-context planning and online revising (Carl and Buch-Kromann, 2010). Future studies will investigate this preliminary finding in more detail."
On a 160 word translation (or so I seem to understand), "head-start" means no reading before you start, "small-context planning" means you don't read very far ahead while translating and "end-revising" means spens a lot of time revising and proofing after you have finished.
This is how I translate, with a strong emphasis on revision sentence by sentence, revision hour by hour of translation and revision day by day. ▲ Collapse
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