Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Transkript

1 Petra Brdečková 2012 Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Magisterská diplomová práce 2012 Petra Brdečková

2 Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English-language Translation Petra Brdečková Comparing the Quality of Translations of Specialised Texts Depending on the Translators' Level of Expertise Master s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Ing. Lucie Šnytová 2012

3 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography... Author s signature

4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor for her helpful guidance, support and patience. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their encouragement.

5 TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Introduction Classification of texts Text and Discourse Text typology Classification of chosen texts according to Newmark Specialised texts and technical style Problems in Specialised texts Linguistic problems Textual problems Extralinguistic and cultural problems The PACTE Group Research of the PACTE Group Results Research Design and Methodology Experimental Universe Questionnaire on Knowledge about Translation Dynamic vs. static approach according to Nida Rich Points Rich Points in IT text Rich Points in the automotive text Rich Points in the Finance Text Acceptability Questionnaire on Translation Problems Total time taken Translation Brief Criteria of Scientific Standards Evaluation of the questionnaires Evaluation of the Questionnaire on the Knowledge about Translation Evaluation of the Questionnaire on Problems of Translation Analysis and discussion of translations Analysis and discussion IT text Discussion on selected Rich Points Analysis and discussion Automotive text Discussion on selected Rich Points Analysis and discussion Finance Discussion on selected Rich Points Conclusion Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Résumé Resumé

6 1. INTRODUCTION The inspiration for my thesis arose from the increasing need to translate various specialised texts from English into Czech. In the present world of globalisation, clients can be represented by diverse institutions such as European Union bodies or a government, international companies or individual persons. Whenever I spoke about a specialised translation with a professional working in a certain field, I heard the same thing. They preferred to translate the text themselves rather than have it assigned to a professional translator. Surprisingly, it was not because of financial reasons. They simply claimed that a translation produced by an expert translator would not be accurate. Gradually, I began to wonder where the truth was and whether we really need expert translators. That was the incentive why I decided to choose this topic. The present study will be based on specialised translations from English into Czech, done by three groups of subjects, namely expert translators, professionals working in the respective field of expertise and students of translation. I chose short texts from fields of information technology, automotive industry and finance. A number of translation problems (Rich Points) will be identified in each text. The main objective of my thesis is to analyse translations of these Rich Points and find out what the overall quality of translations is like and how the acceptability is going to differ in relation to competencies of the subject groups. Main emphasis will be of course laid on terminology. I will use the PACTE Group s quantitative method of Acceptability. Based on two questionnaires, tendencies in translating (dynamic versus static approach) or relationship between time taken and quality will be analysed. 1

7 I am aware that my thesis can only present tentative results because I plan to gather maximum of 5 translations from each subject group per a text. This sample is rather limited but I hope that the obtained results will serve as a starting point to further research on quality of specialised translations. 2

8 2. CLASSIFICATION OF TEXTS Definition of text types is anything but easy. Since various types of texts are used in this study, it is useful to delineate the text typology which can provide me with the ground for handling the texts in terms of terminology and their classification. Texts can be of course naturally divided simply into non-literary and literary texts or technical and non-technical texts, but this approach does not seem very useful, because the resulting categories are far too broad to be of any real value. (Nokkonen- Pirttilampi: 8) 2.1 TEXT AND DISCOURSE Before we move on to discussing some of the established text typologies, the terms text and discourse should be explained. A text is sentence in combination, in contrast with discourse which is the use of utterances in combination. (Widdowson in Bell 1991: 149) The two terms text and discourse are sometimes used interchangeably in the literature. For some linguists, again, text refers to written language and discourse to spoken language. For others, still, texts may be spoken or written, and they may involve one or more text producers, which then leave discourse for other uses. (Virtanen 1992: 2) Virtanen (1992: 3) also adopts the British view of text as discourse without context, and discourse, correspondingly, as text and its situational context. In other words, text is often seen as the product of process while discourse is often seen as the process of text production (Trosborg 1997). Another definition says: 3

9 A text is a passage of discourse which is coherent in these two regards: it is coherent with respect to the context of situation and therefore consistent in register; and it is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive. (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 23) For the purposes of this study, the terms discourse and text are used interchangeably and these two terms refer to written texts only. 2.2 TEXT TYPOLOGY The first attempt to classify texts was made by Katharina Reiss in Her suggestion of text-types was based on Karl Buhler s tripartite model of language functions (informative, expressive, and vocative). Accordingly, Reiss text typology follows as: content-focused (informative), form-focused (expressive) and appealfocused (operative). She also suggested a fourth category of the audio-medial text type (Reiss 2004: 24-27). Hatim and Mason s text typology is described in their book called Discourse and the Translator (1990). Three text types were introduced: expository, argumentative and instructional texts. In argumentative texts, the contextual focus is on the evaluation of relations between concepts (Hatim and Mason 1990: 154). The contextual focus in expository texts is on analysis or synthesis. Expository texts are further divided into descriptive and narrative texts. In place of concepts, description handles objects or situations, while narrative texts arrange actions and events in a particular order. (Hatim and Mason, 1990: ) Focus of the instructional text type is on the formation of future behaviour (Hatim and Mason 1990: 156). According to Hatim and Mason (1990: 140) is the text-type a conceptual framework which enables us to classify texts in 4

10 terms of communicative intentions serving an overall purpose. These intentions are (a) to claim reader s attention, (b) to announce a topic, (c) to express support for a project and (c) to justify by argument. Another text typology was proposed by Peter Newmark in His typology meets the purposes of my study in the most appropriate way; especially in terms of clearly stated language functions, examples of texts belonging to each category and also the categorization of text styles. Newark s typology will be therefore explained more in detail and demonstrated by particular examples of the texts to be translated. As well as Reiss, Newmark too based his text typology on Buhler s functional theory of language and distinguishes three main functions: 1) expressive, 2) Informative and 3) vocative. Function Expressive Informative Vocative Core Writer Truth Readership Author s status Sacred Anonymous Anonymous Type Novels, plays and Scientific nonevaluative Notices poetry texts Autobiography Technological nonevaluative Instructions texts Essays Industrial nonevaluative Propaganda texts Political speeches, Economic nonevaluative Publicity legal documents texts Personal Commercial nonevaluative Popular fiction correspondence texts Table 1: Newmark 1988: 40 5

11 The expressive function Expressive function concerns mainly the mind of the speaker or the writer who try to express their feeling without expecting any response from the reader. Examples of expressive function are serious imaginative literature (poetry, short stories, novels and plays), authoritative statements (political speeches, legal documents, scientific and philosophical work etc.) and autobiography, essays and personal correspondence (Newmark 1988: 39). The Informative function According to Newmark (1988: 40), the core of the informative function of language is external situation, the facts of a topic, reality outside language, including reported ideas or theories. For the purposes of translation, typical informative texts are concerned with any topic of knowledge, but texts about literary subjects, as they often express value-judgements, are apt to learn towards expressiveness. Newmark also formulated four types of style. Style Used for Characterised by Formal, non-emotive, technical style Neutral or informal style with defined technical terms Informal, warm style Familiar, non-technical style Table 2: Newmark 1988: Academic papers Textbooks Popular science and art books Popular journalism Passives, present and perfect tenses, literal language, Latinised vocabulary, jargon, compound words, no metaphors 1 st person plurals, presents tenses, dynamic and active verbs, basic metaphors Simple grammatical structures, wide range of simple vocabulary, illustrations, stock metaphors Surprising metaphors, short sentences, unconventional punctuation, colloquialism etc. 6

12 The vocative function The core of this function is the reader, or rather the readership. Purpose of the function is to influence people so they act in the way intended by the text (Newmark 1988: 41). Most important is the relationship between the readership and the writer which is induced for instance by grammatical forms of address, infinitives, imperatives, commands, requests of persuasion etc. Secondly, these texts must be written in a way that the readership comprehend them immediately. Newmark (1988: 42) naturally realizes that only few texts are purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all three functions, with an emphasis on one of the three. Like Newmark, also Halliday and Hasan confirm this multifunctionality: The problem is that, however the typology is set up, any real text will display features of more than one type. This multifunctionality is the rule rather than the exception, and anyuseful typology of texts will have to be able to accommodate such diversity. (Halliday and Hasan 1990: 138) Besides the categorization of text types according to language functions, Newmark suggests to divide texts by topic into three broad categories: literary texts, institutional and scientific texts. Literary texts are important in their imaginative connotations; institutional texts include politics, commerce or finance. Scientific texts then include all areas of science and technology (Newmark 1988: 151). 7

13 2.2.1 CLASSIFICATION OF CHOSEN TEXTS ACCORDING TO NEWMARK Each of the texts is concerned with a topic of knowledge (either IT, automotive or finance) and thus the predominant language function is informative. All three texts were taken over from the internet and their authors are unknown. The IT and automotive text can be considered as technological non-evaluative texts and the finance text can be classified as economic non-evaluative texts. Most characteristic for the three texts is neutral or informal style with defined technical terms, even though Newmark assigned this style mainly to writing textbooks. Very often are used present simple tense and dynamic verbs. In terms of Newark s further broad division of texts by topic, our texts would be regarded as institutional texts. 2.3 SPECIALISED TEXTS AND TECHNICAL STYLE Following chapter discusses main features of technical writings. This study is dealing only with specialised texts. Therefore, I believe that taking a look at basic principles of technical style will help me to prepare for the translations analysis. The aim of a specialised text is to express given information precisely, clearly and in a complex way. These texts typically include terms and expressions belonging to specific fields, they are explicit, written, accurate, non-emotive, etc. (Grygová, in Knittlová 2010: 206). Similarly, Herman (1993: 13) says: A translation of technical prose, though non-literal, should convey the exact meaning of the original texts as directly as possible. Purposeful ambiguities, ungrammatical constructions and sound combinations which call attention to themselves are the province of literary translation. 8

14 The form of a specialised text is usually simplified, avoids synonyms and variations. Such simplification is present both at lexical and syntactic level. Certain degree of stereotypical formulations even contributes to an unambiguity of the meaning and is rather welcome in specialised texts (Grygová, in Knittová 2010: 208). Principal goals of specialised writing according to Herman (1993) are correctness (accuracy), clarity and concision. Correctness means accurate recreation of the ideas and technical terms of the original in the target language. (Herman 1993: 18) He moreover suggests that in order to fulfil the goal of correctness, a translator should be also able to correct possible mistakes in the original document and produce an accurate text in the target language. That of course implies that a translator must have good knowledge about the subject (Herman 1993: 18). The principle of clarity means that the reader must be able to understand the text. It follows that also stylistics is important in technical writings. If the syntactical and lexical features of the source and target languages differ, clarity often requires that the sentence in the target language be completely recast. (Herman 1993: 18) Concision means that every idea of the original is transferred. For that reason, the first draft of translation might be rather wordy. Subsequently, words that do not contribute to meaning or clarity can be eliminated. (Herman 1993: 17) Newmark further suggests three kinds of technical style (Newmark 1988: 153): 1) Academic including transferred Latin and Greek words; 2) Professional formal terms used by experts; 9

15 3) Popular layman vocabulary that can include familiar alternative terms. Original texts used for the purposes of this study are written in professional/popular style. On the one hand, words and terms such as vehicles, balance sheet or suspension coils are used, but on the other hand idiomatic expressions such as sitting on the shelves, with a minimum of fuss or keep down the clutter occur in these texts as well. Even though terminology makes up perhaps only 5-10% of a text (Newmark 1988: 160), it is definitely one of the most distinctive and important features of specialised texts. Set phrases and nomenclature exist within specific fields and a general tendency to nominalisation and multiverbization exist (Grygová 2010). Equally characteristic is also a process of internationalisation which goes in hand with the overall development of the fields and societies. When translating a specialised text, certain shifts must inevitably occur (Popovič 1977: 191). The extent of these shifts is dependent on stylistic level of languages. Even though the main purpose of a specialised translation is to transmit technical information, the aesthetics, stylistics should not be forgotten. Even a translator of specialised texts must be able to deal for example with metaphors (Popovič 1977: 191). The issue of a stylistic level and translation of terms will be discussed in later chapters on evaluation of the collected translations. Generally, I expect the translations produced by professionals working in the field to be more precise in regards of 10

16 translating terms and less accurate in terms of stylistics. Professional translators are then expected to be more advanced in terms of stylistic formulation. 11

17 3. PROBLEMS IN SPECIALISED TEXTS A translator might come across various problems when translating a specialised text. The four broad categories of translation problems that are taken into account in the present study are linguistic, textual or extralinguistic problems and problems of intentionality. All of these are explained in detail in following subchapters. 3.1 LINGUISTIC PROBLEMS Translation problems can also arise from structural differences in the vocabulary, syntax and suprasegmental features of the two languages. Some of these linguistic translation problems are restricted to language pairs, as might be the case of cognates or false friends, one-to-many ore one-to-zero equivalences. (Nord 1997: 66) The linguistic category of translation problems classification in the present study includes problems relating to lexis and problems with re-formulation. For that reason, suprasegmental features as suggested by Nord (stress, accent and intonation Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics 2000: 465) are excluded from the further explanation of linguistic problems. One of the lexical problems described by Nord (1997) is a situation, in which a source language word has many translations in the target language. Contrary, a word in a source language might happen to have no corresponding word carrying the same meaning in the target language. Cruse recognises four different types meaning in words and utterances (in Baker 1992:13). 12

18 1. Propositional meaning describes a relationship between the word and what it refers to. It seems to me that this type of a meaning corresponds with denotation. Following this description, when a translation is described as inaccurate, it is often the propositional meaning that is being called into question. (Baker 1992: 13) This kind of a meaning will be most probably referred to later in my study when the analysis of linguistic problems at lexical level is carried. Quite a few linguistic problems were selected in each text and it is highly possible that some of the translation solutions will be classified as inaccurate, therefore semiacceptable or even unacceptable. However even Baker (1992: 17) says that it is almost impossible to define propositional meaning of a word or an utterance with absolute certainty because in the majority of cases, words have blurred edges; their meanings are, to a large content, negotiable and are only realized in specific context. 2. Expressive meaning, as opposed to the propositional meaning, cannot be judged as accurate or inaccurate. This type of a meaning is connotative and expresses the speaker s feelings, attitudes, etc. Two or more words or utterances can therefore have the same propositional meaning but differ in their expressive meaning. (Baker 1192: 13) These words can be synonyms or near synonyms of the same language or even words from two different languages. Also some words might have both propositional and expressive meanings, while other is purely expressive or propositional. Neglecting the right meaning of a word in context need not always have a direct impact on the information content; 13

19 nevertheless, it might reduce its forcefulness which is rather essential for some types of texts. 3. Presupposed meaning is in fact a collocational meaning which arises from restrictions on what other words or expressions we expect to see before or after a particular lexical unit. (Baker 1992: 14) 4. Evoked meaning is to a large extent connected to register, i.e. a variety of language that a language user considers appropriate to a specific situation. (Baker 1992: 15) 3.2 TEXTUAL PROBLEMS Beaugrande and Dressler (1981) define text as a communicative occurrence which meets seven standards (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality and intertextuality). The two following subchapters focus on cohesion and coherence because the cohesion of surface texts and the underlying coherence of textual worlds are the most obvious standards of textuality. (Beaugrande and Dressler: 113) The two categories are also included in the portfolio that I use for the classification of translation problems in the three specialised texts. Intertextuality is a subject of interest to this study as well and was already discussed in chapter 2.2. Cohesion Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 48) suggest that the stability of the text as system is upheld via a continuity of occurrences. It means that various occurrences are 14

20 related to each other and access some other occurrences through syntax. Consequently, cohesion is understood as a sticking together as for the function of syntax in communication reflected via surface elements (Beaugrande and Dressler 1981:48). Units of syntax that can be employed in a short span of time are the phrase, clause and the sentence. Some of the other devices that are important in longer stretches of texts and that contribute to stability and economy, are recurrence (straightforward repetition), partial recurrence (shifts to different classes), parallelism (repetition of structures and addition of new elements), paraphrase (repetition of content in other words), ellipsis (repetition with a certain surface omission), etc. (Beaugrande and Dressler 1981: 49). Since only relatively short specialised articles are used in this study, predominantly cohesion within a phrase or clause will be taken into notice. However, should any problems regarding cohesion in the overall text appear, this fact will be also noticed. Coherence Beaugrande (1980) defines coherence as the procedures which ensure conceptual connectivity, including (a) logical relations, (b) organisation of events, objects and situations, and (c) continuity in human experience (in Hatim and Mason 1990: 195). Beaugrande and Dressler (1981: 84) also say: Many expressions have several virtual meanings, but under normal conditions, only one sense in a text. A reader can only understand a text if there is a continuity of senses among the knowledge activated by the expression of the text. (Beaugrande and Dressler 1981: 84) Therefore concepts and relations are the key notions here. 15

21 3.3 EXTRALINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL PROBLEMS Terms Sharkas (2009) says that technical terms pose three main problems: lexical, conceptual and stylistic. The conceptual problem is represented also by terminology that plays the most substantial part in the assessment of the translations adequacy in this study. It is thus essential that the translator is ideally familiar with the specific terminology and knows how to deal with it. The problem that lies within the translating terms is according to Newmark (1988: 152) as follows: Contrary to popular belief, even BSI (British Standards Institution) standardised terms may have more than one meaning in one field, as well as in two or more fields. Especially in technical translations, concept-words can bear various senses in various technologies. Other terms may have different meanings when used in various collocations (Newmark 1988: 152). Several means exist that can be used for translating terminology (Vinay and Darbelnet 1995). The first one is to use borrowing from the source text. For example in IT texts, words such as malware or freeware have successfully made it into Czech lexicon. Another possibility is to translate terms literally, i.e. to use a word-by-word translation. This strategy might truly work in certain cases. For example an expression braking components can be translated word-by-word without distortion of the meaning in the Czech language. However, using this notion universally might cause distortion of meaning or might even result in having no meaning at all. For instance, it is not possible to translate a term book value literary because the translation into Czech would lack any sense. 16

22 IT and automotive areas are great examples of fields that are evolving very quickly and it is therefore essential that a translator willing to translate these texts stays updated (Poltan: 2008, p. 5). Great advantages to translators are parallel texts that can be nowadays easily found on the internet. They can help translators to find the most suitable vocabulary and stylistic features that tend to be used. (Chesterman 2002: 73) Cultural problems Newmark (1988: 94) claims that where there is a cultural focus, there is a translation problem due to the cultural gap or distance between the source and target languages. He also suggests various categories of cultural problems, such as ecology, material culture, social culture, organisations, customs, activities, procedures, concepts, gestures or habits. Cultural words are easily recognised because mostly they describe common things but cannot be translated literary. We can find an example of a cultural problem almost in every translation. According to Nord (1997: 66), cultural translations problems are a result of the differences in the norms and conventions guiding verbal and non-verbal behaviour in the two cultures involved. Examples of cultural references can be names, institutions, foreign units or idioms, such as pounds, miles, a model of a car called Vauxhall Vivaro, an institution called Center for Automotive Research or an idiom sitting on the shelves, etc. Sharkas (2009) for instance suggests various kinds of dealing with idioms: (1) using an idiom of similar meaning and form; (2) using an idiom of similar meaning but of different form; (3) paraphrasing; (4) omission, and (5) compensation. 17

23 4. THE PACTE GROUP The general concept of my own research including methodology, research design and indicators of acceptability is based on An Empirical Experimental Study of Translation Competence which was carried out by a Spanish academic PACTE Group. Main outline of their study will be described in the following chapter. 4.1 RESEARCH OF THE PACTE GROUP The project was commenced by an Exploratory studies on Translation Competence in June 2000, and was followed by pilot tests on Translation Competence in The experiment itself started in October 2005 and took approximately a year. Subsequently, data collected from the experiment on Translation Competence were being analysed from 2006 to The PACTE Group (2006) formulated two general hypotheses: 1) the degree of expertise of the translator influences the translation process and the translation product. 2) Expertise is defined in terms of a) years of experience translating, b) main source of income coming from translation and c) experience in a variety of fields. As an experimental universe were chosen professionals working with foreign languages (direct and inverse translations were carried out in six different language combinations), specifically 35 professional translators and 24 teachers of foreign languages. Regarding the Translation Competence Research Design, independent and dependent variables were defined by the PACTE Group. The independent variable represents a degree of expertise in translation. Two categories of expertise were distinguished, one for translators, who were supposed to have six or more year of professional translating experience of various texts, and one for teachers, who were 18

24 required to have six or more years of professional teaching experience, but no experience of translation. Dependent variables as well as their indicators are listed below: 1. Knowledge of translation - Dynamic index and coherence coefficient 2. Efficacy of the process - Total time taken, time taken at each stage of the translation process (Orientation, Development, Revision) 3. Decision-making - Types and sequences of actions 4. Translation project - Dynamic index and coherence coefficient 5. Problem-solving - Nature of problems identified - Conceptualization of problems - Subject s degree of satisfaction with the solution found, degree of difficulty of the text 6. Use of instrumental resources Table 3: PACTE Group 2009 A very specific role played an Indicator of Acceptability that was used for measuring all of the above mentioned variables. 19

25 Data collected by the PACTE Group are complex and comprehensive. Besides texts and translations, both direct and inverse, data from Initial questionnaire, Knowledge of Translation Questionnaire and Translation Problems Questionnaire were obtained. The Translation Knowledge Questionnaire consisted of five pair questions that reflect a static/dynamic contrast. The respondents could choose their answers from a scale: I strongly disagree (1 point), I disagree (2 point), I agree (3 points) or I strongly agree (4 points). Purpose of these questions was to calculate the dynamic index of the translators. Questions about translation problems, difficulty of the text or any other questions relating to the text were asked in the Translation Problems Questionnaire. Above that, translation protocols Proxy and Catamsia were used, which enabled them to observe whether the translator found an immediate, non-immediate or no solution to the translation problem, if the solution was a final or just a temporary one, or when the translator made a pause, used on-line consultation or any other technologies or if he/she made any kinds of corrections (P pause, PS provisional solution, DS definitive solution, CON consultation). Based on these observations, the authors were able to analyze which kind of a support (internal or external) the translator used. Additionally, each participant went through a Retrospective interview and was also directly observed while translating. Part of the Problem-solving variable was a selection of representative translation problems, so called Rich Points. The same types of Rich Points were used for both direct and inverse translations and for all possible language combinations. Here are five Categories of Translation Problems used by the PACTE Group (2011). 20

26 Linguistic: lexis and morphosyntax, problems of comprehension or reexpression Textual: coherence, cohesion, text type, genre and style, references Extralinguistic: cultural, encyclopaedic and subject-domain knowledge Intentionality: difficulty in understanding information in the source text Relating to the translation brief and/or the target-text reader. Speaking about Translation Problems that can occur in texts, it was needed to develop a methodology for assessing and evaluating these problems. A very effective tool for measuring the quality of translations, efficacy of the process or for measuring the subjects expertise in translation that the PACTE Group used in their experiment was an Indicator of Acceptability. Three parameters and three values of acceptability were recognised. PARAMETERS Meaning of the source text Function of the target text Language use VALUES Acceptable solutions Semi-acceptable solutions Non-acceptable solutions Table 4: PACTE 2009 PACTE Group (2009) explains the concept of values of acceptability in a following way: Acceptable solutions (A) activate all relevant connotations in the source text, Semi-acceptable (SA) activate some of the relevant connotations in the source text and also maintain the coherence of the target text and Non-acceptable 21

27 solutions (NA) do not activate any of the connotations in the source text or those solutions that it does activate are not coherent. Meaning Function Language Category Numeric value A A A A A SA A SA A A 1 A SA SA SA A A A A NA A SA NA A NA A A NA SA SA 0.5 SA SA A SA SA SA SA A SA A NA NA NA 0 SA SA NA etc. Table 5: PACTE Group RESULTS By analyzing data from the Translation knowledge questionnaire, the subject s implicit knowledge about principles of translation and aspects of professional translation practise (PACTE Group 2011: 21) was found out. Teachers translations were much less dynamic than the translations from professional translators. It means that teachers tended to stick to linguistic and literal concept when translating, while professional translators inclined to use more of a communicative and functional concept. However, there was no considerable difference between the two groups in terms of coherence. The coherent coefficient was calculated following the formula suma 22

28 S suma D or suma D suma S, and maximum coherence (suma 4-5), average coherence (suma 2-3) and no coherence (suma 0-1) categories were determined. Next variable which was measured was an Efficacy of the Process, i.e. acceptability, total time taken, time taken at each stage and acceptability. According to the analysis, there was no difference between the 15 best translators and 15 best teachers. There was a positive relationship between the total time taken and the acceptability both in translators and teachers. In another words, the more time spent on the translation, the better it was. Nevertheless, no correlation was observed between acceptability and time taken at each stage. The overall acceptability of translations in both groups is described as follows: Results (PACTE 2008, 2009) showed that the group of translators obtained more acceptable results in their translations than the group of foreign-language teachers, both in direct and inverse translation. The difference in the acceptability of the results obtained in both groups is much greater in direct translation. (PACTE Group 2011: 12) In terms of Decision-making were authors of the experiment interested in whether internal or external support was sought by the two groups of participants. To be able to collect such data, Proxy and Catamsia recordings were used. Internal support was then more characteristic for teachers and Predominantly internal support for translators. Also, External support was used much more often in inverse translation by both groups and Predominantly external support was used only a little more often in inverse translation by both groups. (PACTE Group 2008) Generally speaking, Predominantly internal support led to better results and more acceptable solutions. Dynamic index was also measured for the variable Translation project, reflecting the approach to the translation of a specific text. However, no significant differences 23

29 were found between translators and foreign-language teachers as regards their overall approach to the translation of a text, i.e. both groups approaches to their translation was dynamic. (PACTE Group 2011: 15) Teachers translations were in average slightly less dynamic (87.5% direct translation and 75% inverse translation) than translations from professionals translators (85.71% direct translation and inverse translations). Both experimental groups were also coherent in their translations, even though translators were more coherent than teachers. Dynamic Translation Index This index was created by crossing data from the Dynamic index of Knowledge of Translation, the Dynamic index of Translation project and the Dynamic index of Translation project for Rich points. As a result, translators were found to be more dynamic than teachers. Considering the Dynamic Translation index and Acceptability of solutions, there was an overall tendency observed: both the Dynamic Translation Index and Acceptability were seen to move in the same direction, i.e. as one increased, so did the other. There is thus a correlation between the Dynamic Translation Index and Acceptability. (PACTE Group 2011: 26) This conclusion actually says that the dynamic approach determines the acceptability of translations in a positive way. 24

30 5. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the empirical-experimental research of the PACTE Group provided me with great inspiration. Methodology, research design and the acceptability assessment of my research are very much based on the methods used by the PACTE Group. However, the scope of their research was extremely large and due to the limited technical background, resources and also a time factor, it was impossible to carry out all of the experiments or focus on all of the variables. Moreover, the PACTE Group s research was primarily focused on research into translation competence as well as its acquisition in written translation. My research does not intend to look into acquiring translation competence, but rather into how the acceptability of translations is going to differ in relation to the translation competences of a subject group. Besides that, translating tendencies of subject groups and the relationship between acceptability and total translating time will be looked at. In this chapter, I will describe in detail all parts of my research, such as selection of subject groups, Questionnaire on Translation Knowledge, Rich Points in particular specialised texts, Indicator of Acceptability, Questionnaire on Translation Problems and Total translating time. 5.1 EXPERIMENTAL UNIVERSE I am going to work with translations from three different subject groups: expert translators, professionals working in the certain field and students of translation. Defining expertise is a very substantial part of every research. For my purposes, I will distinguish between two types of expertise according to Jääskeläinen (2011): absolute and relative. Absolute expertise concerns experienced professional translators 25

31 and relative category of expertise applies to students and professionals working in a field, who do not necessarily have such extended experience either in translating or in the specific field. It would be of course better to think only upon absolute expertise, however, it is likely that I find only such professionals willing to translate the texts who have different level of English knowledge and dissimilar working experience. Therefore, setting the criteria for example to at least minimum of 5 years of experience would be quite impossible both for students and professionals in the field. Nevertheless, according to Professor Riitta Jääskeläinen, it is not conceivable to define expertise as such but it is rather essential to define our own criteria of expertise. Regarding expert translators, minimal experience of translating is five years and the translator is required to make his or her living mainly through translating. Only translators who work independently will be asked to translate the texts. Translation agencies very often employ external translators of disputable quality or people who lack basic linguistic education. By excluding these agencies, I would like to avoid possible distortion of collected data. I will first try to address translators who were recommended to me and subsequently search the internet if needed. I will also try to address only such translators, who do not accept texts from one particular field only. Defining the expertise of professionals working in the field is extremely difficult. Naturally, I do not know all of them personally and I am not able to judge their level of English knowledge. However, they are required to be university graduates who use English language at work, some of them are even working abroad and their communicative language is English. Generally, the minimum level of English required for the group of working professionals is upper intermediate. 26

32 As for students, I will ask only those who are in their final year of Translation Studies (Master degree). Some of these students might have already experience of translating various kinds of texts, nevertheless not extensive. 5.2 QUESTIONNAIRE ON KNOWLEDGE ABOUT TRANSLATION The Translation Knowledge Questionnaire is entirely taken over from the PACTE Group. The first five questions are dynamic-oriented and the second five questions are static. Respondents can choose from following answers: I strongly disagree (1), I disagree (2), I agree (3) or I strongly agree (4). I was originally thinking about offering only answers yes or no; however, just these two answers would not provide any space for eventual slight contradictions in respondent s answers to the pair questions. For example, item a) is dynamic and item b) is static. Together, they are a pair question: a) A text should be translated in different ways depending on who the target reader is. b) The aim of every translation is to produce a text as close in form to the original as possible. For an ideal dynamic approach, answer to the item a) would be I strongly agree, i.e. number four. Accordingly, answer to the item b) would be I strongly disagree, i.e. number one. However, other possible combinations would be 4; 2, 3; 1 and 3; 2. Similarly, numbers for static approach to translation would be 1;4, 1;3, 2;4 or 2;3. Table 1 shows the Dynamic Index in terms of categories of dynamism and Values of scales. 27

33 Answers to Dynamic/Static questions 4;4 4;3 3;4 3;3 Categories of Dynamism 0 points of dynamism 2;2 2;1 1;2 1;1 4;2 3;2 0.5 points of dynamism 4;1 3;1 1 point of dynamism 2;4 2;3-0.5 points of dynamism 1;4 1;3-1 point of dynamism Table 6: PACTE Group 2009 Based on the points of dynamism, dynamic value for the three groups of subjects will be calculated. A few segments will be chosen and analysed in each text in order to track dynamic or static approach. This is only to reflect whether the respondents answers tend to correspond with the real translation approach. This assessment will not be based on any quantitative method and thus the evaluation will be merely subjective DYNAMIC VS. STATIC APPROACH ACCORDING TO NIDA The concept of dynamic and static approach is based on Nida s two basic orientations in translation (Nida 1964). He distinguishes between formal equivalence (which corresponds with the term static approach here) and dynamic equivalence. According to Nida, there has been a marked shift of emphasis from the formal to the dynamic dimension (Nida 1964: 160). However, as he mentions later, formalequivalence translations are often perfectly valid translations of certain types of 28

34 messages for certain types of audiences (Nida 1964: 166). In other words, Nida does not say that one or the other approach is bad. Nevertheless, he confirms that the most important test of a translation is that it does not read as translation and that correspondence in meaning is more significant than correspondence in style (Nida 1964: ). As explained in chapter 5.2 on Translation Knowledge Questionnaire, each of the translators will be asked to fill in the above mentioned questionnaire in order to determine what their translating tendencies are. The two concepts are more closely explained below. A formal equivalence translation is oriented on the source text. Features of such translation are: reproduction of grammatical units (nouns are translated by nouns and verbs by verbs, phrases and sentences are intact, all formal indicators such as punctuation or paragraphs are preserved), consistency in word usage, etc. Formal equivalence can be thus required when translating technical terms provided that the term used in the source language has a corresponding word in the target language. On the other hand, this approach is not so much appropriate when dealing e.g. with idioms. The emphasis of a dynamic equivalence is on the receptor response, i.e. audiences. A translation of dynamic equivalence aims at complete naturalness of expression, and tries to relate the receptor to modes of behaviour relevant within the context of his own culture. (Nida 1964: 159). In terms of grammar and lexicon, nouns 29

35 are used instead of verbs, word order is shifted and number of substitutions can occur. However, it is still a translation and it must reflect the meaning of the source message. 5.3 RICH POINTS The selection of Rich Points in each text is based on the five Categories of Translation Problems as defined by the PACTE Group. Nevertheless, I did not restrict the number of Rich Points to only five in each text (as PACTE Group did it). Various numbers of translation problems appear in each text, mostly depending on the nature of the text and its difficulty. Generally, as many Rich Points as possible were selected in order to assess the quality or acceptability in an objective way. I am also open to adding more Rich Points to the list as I collect all of the translations provided that any particular place in the text will seem to be rather problematic for the majority of translators. The reason for adding more Rich Points is to increase the accuracy of the overall quality evaluation. When selecting the individual Rich Points, I encountered difficulties with their assignment to the categories of translation problems. First of all, I excluded the fifth category used by the PACTE Group. It would be of course interesting to assess Rich Points in relation to a translation brief or a target-text reader, but it is not the main focus of my research. Some of the remaining four categories, however, seemed to overlap into one another and it was therefore quite difficult to determine the most suitable category. To avoid such difficulties and confusion, I modified the specifications of the four categories as follows: 30

36 1. Linguistic problems relating to lexis and morphosyntax, problems of reformulation in relation to individual words 2. Textual coherence, cohesion, genre or style 3. Extralinguistic cultural knowledge, terms and subject-domain knowledge 4. Intentionality difficulty in understanding the information in the source text and problems with re-expression of longer segments. I have already mentioned that a parallel category of Grammar might be added, including any mistakes regarding spelling, punctuation, capital letters, prepositions, pronouns, etc. Such modification of translation problems categories contributed to making the classification of Rich Points less ambiguous and more confined. However, it did not prevent utterly from an occurrence of potential overlaps. Some Rich Points tended to fall within two or even three categories. In such cases, I tried to identify the strongest aspect of the Rich Point. In justifiable cases where a Rich Point clearly fits into more than one category, it is attributed to as many categories as appropriate RICH POINTS IN IT TEXT I selected 26 translation problems in the IT text. Majority of Rich Points belong to the extralinguistic category. Selected translation problems in the IT text are listed in the table below. 31

37 Translation Problem Category Specification Malwarebytes' Anti- Textual problem Cohesion Malware is a high performance anti-malware application Advanced malware and Extralinguistic problem Term Spyware Quick scans Extralinguistic problem Term GUI Extralinguistic problem Term Language bugs Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge Ignore List Extralinguistic problem Term Protection Module Extralinguistic problem Term Limited users Problem of intentionality Difficulties in comprehension Freeware antimalware Extra/linguistic problem Term/Re-expression tool High-resource programs Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge running Heuristics engine proved on multiple computers during empirical testing Extralinguistic/textual problem Term/cohesion and coherence False positives Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge Rolled in Linguistic problem Re-expression Multiple drive scanning Extra/linguistic problem Term/re-expression Networked drives Extralinguistic problem Term Context menu options Extralinguistic problem Term Scan-on-demand for Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge individual files FileAssassin option Extralinguistic problem Term Under the Moore Tools Extralinguistic problem Term section Tabs lie just below the Extra/linguistic problem Term/re-expression oversized logo Keep down the clutter Linguistic problem Re-expression Well-kept changelog Extralinguistic problem Term Instant definition file Extralinguistic problem Term update Scheduler Linguistic/extralinguistic Re-expression/term problem Responsive malware remover Linguistic/Intentionality problem Re-expression/ Comprehension With a minimum of fuss Linguistic/Intentionality problem Re-expression/ Comprehension Table 7: Rich Points in IT text 32

38 5.3.2 RICH POINTS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE TEXT Regarding the automotive text, 26 translation problems were identified. This text is largely specialised and it is not surprising that more than a half of the translation problems appertain to the extralinguistic category. Translation problems in the automotive text are listed below. Translation Problem Category Specification Has not yet seen the light of day Linguistic problem Idiomatic expression, reexpression Give it a go Linguistic problem Idiomatic expression, reexpression Vauxhall Vivaro Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge At the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminar Extralinguistic/textual problem Subject-domain knowledge/ cohesion Traverse City, Mich Extralinguistic problem Cultural reference Conversion Problem of intentionality Comprehension 70 pounds Extralinguistic problem Cultural element Gas engine Extralinguistic problem Term Sitting on the shelves of R&D departments Linguistic problem Idiomatic or figurative expression Michelin Active Wheel Extralinguistic problem Subject-domain knowledge Remain dormant Linguistic/textual problem Re-expression/cohesion To propel or stop Linguistic problem Re-expression Electric motor Extralinguistic problem Term Suspension coils and Extralinguistic problem Term springs Braking components Extralinguistic problem Term Fuel cells Extralinguistic problem Term One at each corner Textual problem Coherence and cohesion To offer both two-and four-wheel drive setups Textual/extralinguistic problem Cohesion/subject-domain knowledge Four-wheel drive twoseater roadster Textual/extralinguistic problem Cohesion, genre/subjectdomain knowledge From 0 to 60 Extralinguistic problem Cultural element 200 miles Extralinguistic problem Cultural element The Michelin-Heuliez- Textual problem Cohesion and coherence 33