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Open Access In search of directionality effectsin the translation processand in the end product

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Abstract

This article tackles directionality as one of the most contentious issues in translation studies, still without solid empirical footing. The research presented here shows that, to understand directionality effects on the process of translation and its end product, performance in L2 → L1 and L1 → L2 translation needs to be compared in a specific setting in which more factors than directionality are considered—especially text type. For 26 professional translators who participated in an experimental study, L1 → L2 translation did not take significantly more time than L2 → L1 translation and the end products of both needed improvement from proofreaders who are native speakers of the target language. A close analysis of corrections made by the proofreaders shows that different aspects of translation quality are affected by directionality. A case study of two translators who produced high quality L1 → L2 translations reveals that their performance was affected more by text type than by directionality.

Keywords: L2 translation; Polish-English language pair; TPR; directionality; proofreader’s comments; quality assessment

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 07 March 2019

More about this publication?
  • Translation, Cognition & Behavior (TCB) focuses on a broad area of research generally known as cognitive translation studies – a term that encompasses new conceptual paradigms being explored in cognitive translatology as well as traditional translation process research. Cognitive translation studies intersects with a number of disciplines, and the journal welcomes interdisciplinary research from philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, bilingualism studies, anthropology, artificial intelligence, ergonomics, and, indeed any discipline that can illuminate our understanding of the mental processes that underlie the complex observable behavior of cross-language communication. The overall objective of the journal is to connect rigorous descriptions of the observable activities of translators and interpreters – as the result of ethnographic, experimental or corpus research – to conceptions of the translating mind and brain. TCB will thus publish empirical and theoretical contributions focusing on the cognitive and behavioral aspects of a broad range of cross-language activities including all kinds of translation and interpreting tasks and subtasks, but also other unique forms of communicative mediation, professional or otherwise.
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