1. Cognitive research on translation processes
Anthony Pym

2. A map of Translation Studies
Products
People
Processes
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3. What we teach comes from…
Mindless reproduction
Suppositions about the market
Evaluations of output (grading schemes)
Surveys of market needs?
Process research comparing novices and professionals?
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4. © Intercultural Studies Group
Process studies use
Think-Aloud Protocols (TAPs)
Translog
Screen recording
Eye-tracking
Post-performance interviews
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5. A simple translation problem

6. A simple translation problem

7. © Intercultural Studies Group

8. © Intercultural Studies Group
Translog
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9. © Intercultural Studies Group
Eyetracking
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10. © Intercultural Studies Group
Eyetracking
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11. © Intercultural Studies Group
Eyetracking
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12. More experienced translators…
1) use more paraphrase and less literalism as coping strategies (Kussmaul 1995, Lörscher 1991, Jensen 1999)
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13. More experienced translators…
2) process larger translation units (Toury 1986, Lörscher 1991, Tirkkonen-Condit 1992)
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14. More experienced translators…
3) spend longer reviewing their work at the post-drafting phase but make fewer changes when reviewing (Jensen and Jakobsen 2000, Jakobsen 2002, Englund Dimitrova 2005)
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15. More experienced translators…
4) read texts faster and spend proportionally more time looking at the target text than at the source text (Jakobsen and Jensen 2008)
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16. More experienced translators…
5) use top-down processing and refer more to the translation purpose (Fraser 1996; Jonasson 1998; Künzli 2001, 2004, Séguinot 1989, Tirkkonen-Condit 1992)
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17. More experienced translators…
6) rely on encyclopaedic knowledge as opposed to ST construal (Tirkkonen-Condit 1989)
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18. More experienced translators…
7) express more principles and personal theories (Tirkkonen-Condit 1989, 1997, Jääskeläinen 1999)
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19. More experienced translators…
8) incorporate the client into the risk-management processes (Künzli 2004)
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20. More experienced translators…
9) automatize some complex tasks but also shift between automatized routine tasks and conscious problem-solving (Krings 1988, Jääskeläinen and Tirkkonen-Condit 1991, Englund Dimitrova 2005)
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21. More experienced translators…
10) display more realism, confidence and critical attitudes in their decision-making (Künzli 2004)
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22. © Intercultural Studies Group
Jensen 2001
Planning and problem-solving activities were reduced with increased time pressure, “signaling a more rapid and linear translation process”.
Expert translators “engage in less problem-solving, goal-setting and re-analyzing behavior vis-à-vis young professional translators”
So to translate fast is to translate in a more expert way?
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23. Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987)
Why is writing difficult?
Why do people learn while they write?
Knowledge telling vs. knowledge transforming:
Goal-directed strategies
Reformulation
Distinction between content and rhetoric, each informing the other
“For routine tasks, experts use the knowledge-telling strategy.”
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24. © Intercultural Studies Group
Jensen 2001 again:
Expert translators use the Knowledge Telling model as a more permanent strategy since they “engage in less problem-solving, goal-setting and re-analyzing behavior vis-à-vis young professional translators”. (Jensen 2001: 177)
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25. © Intercultural Studies Group
The focus of teaching?
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26. Aspects not normally covered
Speed
The capacity to distribute effort in terms of risk
The restrained use of external resources (both written and human)
The key role of revision/reviewing
(new technologies).
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27. A simple translation problem
Ting Ting Maggie Hui, RISK MANAGEMENT BY TRAINEE TRANSLATORS: A STUDY OF TRANSLATION PROCEDURES AND JUSTIFICATIONS IN PEER-GROUP INTERACTION (2012)

28. “Enjoy your adventure”

29. “Enjoy your adventure”
C4: Hmm… hmmm… “(ST) Enjoy your adventure” 呢?
C7: “(ST) Enjoy your adventure”, “愛你的冒險”, haha…
C4: “冒險” 不好…… 不要 “冒險”, 但是說……
C7: 這是說, 你來第一次你會享受…… 對, 第一次來你會享受…… 只要來一次你會想享受這裡面……
C4: 對呀對呀! 因為他有點敢著說…... 來到一個…... 一個地方, 然後你…… 你享受可以找到很多東西…… 所以這個要翻成…… “好好享受你的新發現吧!”
C7: Hmm, 挺好的!
C4: Hmm… hmmm… “(ST) Enjoy your adventure”?
C7: “(ST) Enjoy your adventure”, “Love your adventure”, haha…
C4: “Adventure” is not good… Not to say “adventure”, how about…
C7: So it means: When you come the first time you enjoy… right, when you come the first time you enjoy… just come once and you enjoy being here…
C4: Right, right! Because it seems to say… come to a… a place, then you… you enjoy making many discoveries… so it can be translated as… “Enjoy the discoveries you make!”
C7: Hmm, sounds good!

30. Literal back-translation
“Shop fearlessly”
No.
Solution
Literal back-translation
Procedure
Risk management 1
购物愉快!
(during the process)
Happy shopping!
Adaptation R- 2
享受这个旅程!
Enjoy your tour!
Substitution 3
祝您购物愉快哦！
Wish you happiness when you do the shopping!
Explicitation 4
享受你在该店的“旅程” 。
(in final TT)
Enjoy your “tour” in the shop.

31. “Enjoy your adventure”
No.
Solution
Literal back-translation
Procedure
Risk management 1
爱你的冒险
Love your adventure
Literalism
R -> ST 2
好好享受你的新发现
Enjoy the discoveries you make
Shift of focus R-

32. “GET HUNGRY, Shop fearlessly”
No.
Solution
Literal back-translation
Procedure
Risk management 1
感到饿，就大胆的……
Get hungry, audaciously…
Exaggeration R+ 2
感到饿，就行动吧！
Get hungry, act now!
Omission R-

33. “fearless”

34. Translator’s risk profile