1. © Intercultural Studies Group Universitat Rovira i Virgili Plaça Imperial Tàrraco 1 43005 Tarragona Fax: (++ 34) 977 55 95 97 Risk analysis in translation processes Anthony Pym Universitat Rovira i Virgili Tarragona, Spain Interkulturelle aspekter ved oversettelse Bergen, Lørdag 12. februar 2005

2. © Intercultural Studies Group Preliminary example 1 In a birth certificate, where can you make a mistake? Name of person born? Date of birth? Name of midwife?

3. © Intercultural Studies Group This means Only work hard where there is high risk. Don’t work hard where there is low risk. (Don’t work too hard!)

4. © Intercultural Studies Group What is risk? The possibility of not fulfilling the translation’s purpose. So what is the purpose?

5. © Intercultural Studies Group Preliminary example 2 Foreign students will need to convalidar or homologar their first degree. Convalidación = accreditation Homologación = accreditation

6. © Intercultural Studies Group This means: “seek accreditation” = low risk? Use Spanish terms = low risk? Omit phrase = high risk!... More information is needed.

7. © Intercultural Studies Group With more information: - it is possible to define “failure conditions” - for each receiving situation or locale - where “success” is the avoidance of failure.

8. © Intercultural Studies Group This means: You need more information than is in the text. You need more than the “rich points” (Agar). The text will give you some information, but will not tell you about the risks.

9. © Intercultural Studies Group Extra information is in: Parallel texts Consultation with experts Consultation with clients The “job specification”

10. © Intercultural Studies Group Problems: Many clients do not know about this. Clients will tend not to give specifications for small projects.

11. © Intercultural Studies Group Even worse: Translators are by definition open to mistrust. Mistrust feeds on minor mistakes. So,without trust, effort cannot be distributed away from low-risk messages.

12. © Intercultural Studies Group The ideal If the job specification is as complete as possible, and if the translator is trusted all will go well. ¡Ojalá!

13. © Intercultural Studies Group Hatim’s objections The default norm for translation is to reproduce what is in the text. The active client is a feature of the Western market only.