Cover not available
Article published In:
The Development of Professional Competence
Edited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Birgitta Englund Dimitrova and Séverine Hubscher-Davidson
[Translation and Interpreting Studies 9:1] 2014
► pp. 52–69

Pulling strings

Concordance searches as manifestations of translation problems

Current forms of web-based external support can easily log user activity and provide researchers with large quantities of an additional type of process data. This paper aims to present a multilingual concordancer used by translators at the EU institutions as an instance of this new data source. To analyze concordance data, a methodological approach will be developed to include searches across multiple language combinations. A concordance search will be broken down into individual components that will be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively with a special focus on the problem unit and the cognitive aspects of problem solving. Results show that searches can be both static (spot searches) and dynamic (search sessions). Moreover, translators often tend to refine their queries by reducing the initial search and progressively highlighting the actual problematic item.
Keywords: translation problems, translation process, search query logs, concordancing tool, European Union
Published online: 7 July 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.9.1.03val
References (26)
Alves, Fabio, and Tânia Liparini Campos. 2009. “Chains of Cognitive Implication in Orientation and Revision During the Translation Process: Investigating the Impact of Translation Memory Systems in the Performance of Professional Translators.” Current Issues in Language Studies 11: 75–95.Google Scholar
Alves, Fabio, Adriana Pagano, Stella Neumann, Erich Steiner, and Silvia Hansen-Schirra. 2010. “Translation Units and Grammatical Shifts: Towards an Integration of Product- and Process-Based Translation Research.” In Translation and Cognition, ed. by Gregory M. Shreve, and Erik Angelone, 109–142. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alves, Fabio, and Daniel Couto Vale. 2009. “Probing the Unit of Translation in Time: Aspects of the Design and Development of a Web Application for Storing, Annotating, and Querying Translation Process Data.” Across Languages and Cultures 10 (2): 251–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bernardini, Silvia. 2001. “Think-aloud Protocols in Translation Research. Achievements, Limits, Future Prospects.” Target 13 (2): 241–263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bussmann, Hadumod. 1996. Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. Translated and edited by Gregory Trauth, and Kerstin Kazzazi. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chesterman, Andrew. 2013. “Models of What Processes?” Translation and Interpreting Studies 8 (2): 155–168. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Désilets, Alain, Christiane Melançon, Geneviève Patenaude, and Louise Brunette. 2009. “How Translators Use Tools and Resources to Resolve Translation Problems: An Ethnographic Study.” Proceedings of MT Summit XII , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 2009. Accessed 22 April 2010. [URL].
Dragsted, Barbara. 2004. “Segmentation in Translation and Translation Memory Systems.” Ph.D. dissertation, Copenhagen Business School.Google Scholar
Enríquez Raído, Vanessa. 2011. “Investigating the Web Search Behaviors of Translation Students: An Exploratory and Multiple-Case Study.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universitat Ramon Llull.Google Scholar
Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke. 2002. “Translation Drafting by Professional Translators and by Translation Students.” In Empirical Translation Studies, ed. by Gyde Hansen, 191–204. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur.Google Scholar
. 2003. “Effects of Think Aloud on Translation Speed, Revision, and Segmentation.” In Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research, ed. by Fabio Alves, 69–95. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jansen, Bernard J. 2006. “Search Log Analysis: What It Is, What’s Been Done, How to Do It.” Library & Information Science Research 281: 407–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiraly, Donald C. 1995. Pathways to Translation. Pedagogy and Process. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.Google Scholar
Krings, Hans-Peter. 1986. Was in den Köpfen von Übersetzern vorgeht. Eine empirische Untersuchung der Struktur des Übersetzungsprozesses an fortgeschrittenen Französischlernern [What goes on in the heads of translators. An empirical investigation of the structure of the translation process with advanced learners of French]. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Künzli, Alexander. 2001. “Experts versus novices: l’utilisation de sources d’information pendant le processus de traduction” [Experts vs. novices: The use of information sources during the process of translation]. Meta 46 (3): 507–523. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Livbjerg, Inge, and Inger M. Mees. 2003. “Patterns of Dictionary Use in Non-Domain-Specific Translation.” In Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research, ed. by Fabio Alves, 123–136. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macklovitch, Elliott, Guy Lapalme, and Fabrizio Gotti. 2008. “ TransSearch: What Are Translators Looking For?” Proceedings of 8th AMTA Conference , Hawaii, USA, 21–25 October 2008, 412–420.
Macklovitch, Elliott, Michel Simard, and Philippe Langlais. 2000. “ TransSearch: A Free Translation Memory on the World Wide Web.” Proceedings of Second International Conference On Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC) , vol. 31, 1201–1208.
Malmkjær, Kirsten. 2006. “Translation Units.” In The Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics, ed. by Keith Brown, 92–93. Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
PACTE. 2011. “Results of the Validation of the PACTE Translation Competence Model. Translation Problems and Translation Competence.” In Methods and Strategies of Process Research: Integrative Approaches in Translation Studies, ed. by Cecilia Alvstad, Adelina Hild, and Elisabet Tiselius, 317–343. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Palumbo, Giuseppe. 2007. “‘Translating Science’: An Empirical Investigation of Grammatical Metaphor as a Source of Difficulty for a Group of Translation Trainees in English-Italian Translation.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Simard, Michel, and Elliott Macklovitch. 2005. “Studying the Human Translation Process Through the TransSearch Log-Files.” Proceedings of AAAI Symposium on “Knowledge Collection from Volunteer Contributors” , Stanford, CA, 21–23 March 2005, 70–77.
Toury, Gideon. 2002. “What’s the Problem with ‘Translation Problem’?” In Translation and Meaning Part 6, ed. by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczy, and Marcel Thelen, 57–71. Maastricht: Hogeschool Zuyd, Maastricht School of Translation and Interpretation.Google Scholar
Valli, Paola. 2012. “A Study on Concordancing: EU Policy Areas as Translation Problems.” In Translation Studies: Old and New Types of Translation in Theory and Practice, ed. by Lew N. Zybatow, Alena Petrova, and Michael Ustaszewski, 131–138. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
. Forthcoming. “The Importance of Being Logged. What Tool Settings Can Reveal about the Behavior of Translators Querying a Concordancer.” In The Coming of Age of Translation Technologies in Translation Studies, ed. by Pilar Sánchez-Gijón, Bartolomé Mesa-Lao, and Olga Torres-Hostench. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Wagner, Emma, Svend Bech, and Jesús M. Martínez. 2002. Translating for the European Union Institutions. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Su, Wenchao
2020. Translation Style in Sight Translation. In Eye-Tracking Processes and Styles in Sight Translation [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 19 ff. DOI logo
Su, Wenchao & Defeng Li
2019. Identifying translation problems in English-Chinese sight translation. Translation and Interpreting Studies 14:1 ► pp. 110 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 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.