Cover not available
Article published In:
Discourse Analysis in Translation Studies
Edited by Jeremy Munday and Meifang Zhang
[Target 27:3] 2015
► pp. 454–471

Conflicting discourses of translation assessment and the discursive construction of the ‘assessor’ role in cyberspace

| Ajou University

This article explores the ways in which translation assessment is discursively constructed by readers participating in an online translation debate. Focusing on a controversy over the Korean translation of Walter Isaacson’s 2011 biography of Steve Jobs, it examines how readers participating in a translation debate in Daum Agora, the largest online discussion forum in South Korea, enact the ‘assessor’ role in evaluating the translation. Drawing on the concepts of ‘social role,’ ‘activity role,’ and ‘discourse role,’ I argue that online translation assessors perform the discourse roles of ‘expert-judge,’ ‘activist,’ and ‘assessment evaluator.’ The findings suggest that translation assessment in cyberspace is a subjective, contextualizing process where value, meaning, and function are often a matter of uptake. Furthermore, discourse-based approaches may play critical roles in examining translation assessment in cyberspace as a socially situated act that involves an intricate negotiation of meaning, complex workings of power, and a reconstitution of local social positioning within global cultural flows.

Keywords: translation assessment, digital media technology, translation quality, social activism, translation reception
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translation receivers, digital technology, and translation assessment
  • 3.Discourse analysis of the ‘assessor’ role
    • 3.1Data and method
    • 3.2Analysis
      • 3.2.1Judgment of translation quality
      • 3.2.2Conflation of assessment and activism
      • 3.2.3Evaluation of translation assessments
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.27.3.08kan
References
Ahn, Jin-Hwan
2011 “Suthipu Capsu Penyekca Ancinhwanipnita [[I’m] Jin-Hwan Ahn, the translator of Steve Jobs].” Minumsa. Accessed 10 September 2012. [URL].Google Scholar
Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa
2005 “Personal Web Pages and the Semiotic Construction of Academic Identities.” In The Writer’s Craft, the Culture’s Technology: PALA, ed. by Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard and Michael J. Toolan, 23–46. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Choi, Won-hyung
2011 “Steve Jobs’ Biography Sparks Translation Debate.” The Hankyoreh. Accessed 3 October 2012. [URL].Google Scholar
Colina, Sonia
2011 “Evaluation/Assessment.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 21, ed. by Yves Gambier and Luc Van Doorslaer, 43–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Assessment of Translation.” In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Carol A. Chapelle, 245–251. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael
2013 Translation in the Digital Age. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Elgesem, Dag
2002 “What is Special about the Ethical Issues in Online Research?” Ethics and Information Technology 41: 195–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fowler, Roger, and Gunther Kress
1979 “Critical Linguistics.” In Language and Control, ed. by Roger Fowler, Robert Hodge, Gunther Kress, and Tony Trew, 185–213. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Giles, David
2006 “Constructing Identities in Cyberspace: The Case of Eating Disorders.” British Journal of Social Psychology 451: 463–477. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving
1974 Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
1981 Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hookway, Nicholas
2008 “Entering the Blogosphere: Some Strategies for Using Blogs in Social Research.” Qualitative Research 8 (1): 91–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
House, Juliane
2001 “Translation Quality Assessment: Linguistic Description versus Social Evaluation.” Meta 46 (2): 243–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 “Quality.” In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 2nd ed., ed. by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 222–225. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Isaacson, Walter
2011a Steve Jobs. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
2011b 스티브 잡스 [orig. Steve Jobs]. Translated by Jin-Hwan Ahn. Seoul: Minumsa.Google Scholar
Kang, Ji-Hae
2013 “Penyek Swuyongcatulun ‘Penyeknunglyek’ul Ettehkey Ihayhanunka? [How do translation readers understand ‘translation competence’?]” Thongpenyekhakyenkwu [Interpreting and Translation Studies] 17 (4): 1–34.Google Scholar
Kim, Soon-Mi
2011 “Onlainsang Tokcatuluy Penyek Piphyeng [Online translation criticism by readers].” Penyekhakyenkwu [The journal of Translation Studies] 13 (2): 7–40.Google Scholar
Lauscher, Susanne
2000 “Translation Quality Assessment: Where Can Theory and Practice Meet?” The Translator 6 (2): 149–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maier, Carol
2000 “Introduction.” In Evaluation and Translation, ed. by Carol Maier, special issue of The Translator 6 (2): 137–148.Google Scholar
Martínez Melis, Nicole, and Amparo Hurtado Albir
2001 “Assessment in Translation Studies: Research Needs.” Meta 46 (2): 272–287. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mason, Ian
2009 “Role, Positioning and Discourse in Face-to-Face Interpreting.” In Interpreting and Translating in Public Service Settings: Policy, Practice, Pedagogy, ed. by Raquel de Pedro Ricoy, Isabelle Perez, and Christine Wilson, 52–73. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism
2012 Chwulphanmwunhwasanep Cinhung 5Kaynyen Kyeyhoyk [The 5 year plan for the promotion of publishing culture industry]. Seoul: Kyeymwunsa.Google Scholar
Minumsa
2011 “Suthipu Capsu Penyek Kwanlyen Kongciipnita [Notice about the translation of Steve Jobs].” Minumsa. Accessed 25 November 2012. [URL].Google Scholar
Munday, Jeremy
2012 Evaluation in Translation: Critical Points of Translator Decision-Making. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nord, Christiane
1997 Translating as a Purposeful Activity. Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
OECD
2015 “OECD Broadband Portal. Broadband and Telecom.” OECD. Last updated 19 February 2015. [URL].Google Scholar
O’Hagan, Minako
2011 “Community Translation: Translation as a Social Activity and Its Possible Consequences in the Advent of Web 2.0 and Beyond.” In Translation as a Social Activity, Community Translation 2.0, ed. by Minako O’Hagan, special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies 101: 11–23.Google Scholar
Pérez-González, Luis
2010 “Ad-hocracies of Translation Activism in the Blogosphere: A Genealogical Case Study.” In Text and Context, ed. by Mona Baker, Maeve Olohan, and María Calzada Pérez, 259–287. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar
Sarangi, Srikant
2010 “Reconfiguring Self/Identity/Status/Role: The Case of Professional Role Performance in Healthcare Encounters.” In Discourse, Identities and Roles in Specialized Communication, ed. by Giuliana Garzone and James Archibald, 33–58. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon
2012 Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Revised ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vanderschelden, Isabelle
2000 “Quality Assessment and Literary Translation in France.” In Evaluation and Translation, ed. by Carol Maier, special issue of The Translator 6 (2): 271–294.Google Scholar
Walther, Joseph B
2002 “Research Ethics in Internet-Enabled Research: Human Subjects Issues and Methodological Myopia.” Ethics and Information Technology 41: 205–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Chen, Xuemei
2023. Interactive reception of online literary translation: the translator-readers dynamics in a discussion forum. Perspectives 31:4 ► pp. 690 ff. DOI logo
Lee, Seryun
2021. Translating YouTube vlogs for a global audience: Innovative subtitling and community-building. International Journal of Cultural Studies 24:5 ► pp. 767 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Xiaorui
2022. The translator as an activist: the case of Yan Fu as a pioneer activist translator in the late Qing. Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies 9:2 ► pp. 170 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.