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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 19:1 (2007) ► pp.1–19

Methodological questions about translation research

A model to underpin research into the mental processes of translation

| University of Western Sydney
| University of Western Sydney

Research on the mental processes of written translation has benefited less from the findings of psycholinguistic and cognitive research than interpreting research has. This has left translation research relatively impoverished in the theoretical grounding of research methodology. While the performance speed of interpreting seems to make interpreting research closer to bilingual speech research, the shared features of interpreting and translation suggest that they are points on a continuum rather than discrete production modes. A Translation-Interpreting Continuum is proposed, which allows various production modes to be described in terms of psycholinguistic notions, and which includes a language development dimension to account for second language production. The Continuum allows some very basic questions about translation research methodology to be answered, and opens up the opportunity for a better integration of translation and interpreting research.

Keywords: translation, interpreting, research methodology, psycholinguistics, language acquisition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1A knowledge gap in translation research
    • 1.2Methodological problems in translation research
    • 1.3Two principal elements of the Translation-Interpreting Continuum
  • 2Prerequisites for a model of the mental representation of the translation task
    • 2.1Mental representation and discourse
    • 2.2Attention switching
    • 2.3Automaticity and control
    • 2.4“Transcoding”
    • 2.5Word order
    • 2.6Retention and decay of source text
  • 3The developmental dimension
    • 3.1Specialised expertise
    • 3.2Second language competence
  • 4The Translation-Interpreting Continuum in overview
  • 5Methodological questions revisited
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2007
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19.1.02cam
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