Quality Perceptions and Professional Status: The Impact of Extrinsic Information on Translation Editing

Authors

  • Tabea de Wille University of Limerick
  • Montserrat Bermúdez Bausela Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Keywords:

quality, perception, translation, professional status, localisation, extrinsic factors

Abstract

While there is a large body of knowledge on quality in translation and localisation, the question of how quality is perceived based on extrinsic factors has so far not been widely investigated. This paper provides some views on translation quality from different theoretical perspectives in the field of Translation Studies and focuses on how extrinsic information on the translators’ professional status influences the edits introduced by reviewers to translations in proofreading.

This paper reports primarily on the second part of a two-stage study. In the first stage we found that participants were influenced by extrinsic information when asked to select their preferred translation. This correlation was stronger in participants with less expertise.

In the second stage of the study, presented in this paper, we additionally asked participants to proofread and edit the translations they had selected. We then categorised the changes made (grammar, spelling, meaning, etc.) and conducted frequency analysis and cross-tabulation. Factors for cross-tabulations included for example the participants’ level of expertise, and the extrinsic information on the translator’s professional status.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Tabea de Wille, University of Limerick

Dr. Tabea De Wille holds an MA (Magister Artium) in German and English Linguistics from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany and an MSc Multilingual Computing and Localisation from the University of Limerick, Ireland. She has completed her PhD studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland within CNGL II, where she has examined perceived quality in the context of crowdsourced localisation.

Tabea has in the past worked in the localisation industry, primarily in video games localisation and is currently a lecturer at the University of Limerick where she teaches in a range of localisation, software internationalisation and translation technology modules as well as modules related to video games and project management. Tabea is the director of the Localisation Research Centre at the University of Limeric

Montserrat Bermúdez Bausela, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

Montserrat Bermúdez Bausela is a lecturer in English at UNED (National Distance Education University) where she teaches Legal English, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Specialised Translation in different degrees as well as in the MA in the European Union. She has also taught Linguistics, Translation, Computer-Assisted Translation Tools and Software Localisation at Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio.

She holds a degree in English (Universidad de Valladolid), a PhD in Philology (UNED), an MSc in Localisation (University of Limerick) and an MA in Specialised Translation (Universidad de Valladolid). Her research interests are English for Specific Purposes, Translation Studies and Corpus Linguistics, among others. She is the author of a number of articles in leading journals on Translation Studies.

She has recently translated from English into Spanish the book by Sari Nusseibeh, Once upon a Country: a Palestinian Life (Érase una vez un país: una vida palestina), published by Berg Institute.

References

Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The Market for “Lemons”: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3), 488–500.

Al-Qinai, J. (2000). Translation Quality Assessment: Strategies, Parametres and Procedures. Meta, 45(3), 497-519.

Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words. A Coursebook on Translation. London & New York: Routledge.

Brunette, L. (2000). Towards a Terminology for Translation Quality Assessment. The Translator, 6(2), 169-182.

Catford, J. (1965). A Linguistic Theory of Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chesterman, A., & Wagner, E. (2002). Can Theory Help Translators? A dialogue between the Ivory Tower and the Wordface. Manchester, UK & Northampton, MA: St. Jerome.

Dreyfus, S.E. & Dreyfus, H.L. (1980). A five-stage model of the mental activities involved in directed skill acquisition. Operations Research Center.

Drugan, J. (2013). Quality in Professional Translation. Assessment and Improvement. London & New York: Bloomsbury.

Dunne, K.J. (2006). Putting the cart behind the horse: Rethinking localization quality management. In K.J. Dunne (Ed.), Perspectives on Localization. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 95–117.

Eraut, M. (2000). Non-formal learning and tacit knowledge in professional work. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 113–136.

García, I. (2014). Training Quality Evaluators. Revista Tradumàtica: tecnologies de la traducció, 12, 430–436.

Golder, P. N., Mitra, D., & Moorman, C. (2012). What Is Quality? An Integrative Framework of Processes and States. Journal of Marketing, 76, 1–23.

Hansen, G. (2010). Translation ‘errors’. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies: Volume 1 (pp. 385–388). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Hatim, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.

Havumetsä, N. (2012). The Client Factor: A Study of Clients’ Expectations Regarding Non-Literary Translators and the Quality of Non-Literary Translations. Unpublished thesis, University of Helsinki.

Hermans, T. (1985). Translation Studies and a New Paradigm. In T. Hermans (Ed.), The Manipulation of Literature. Studies in Literary Translation (pp. 7–15). London: Croom Helm.

House, J. (2015). Translation Quality Assessment: Past and Present. London & New York: Routledge.

Jiménez Crespo, M.Á. (2011). From many one: Novel approaches to translation quality in a social network era. Linguistica Antverpiensia New Series - Themes in Translation Studies: Translation as a Social Activity - community translation 2.0, 2, 131–152.

Kelly, N. & DePalma, D.A. (2008). Non-Standard Views on Industry Standards. Common Sense Advisory: Lowell, Massachusetts.

Kelly, N. & DePalma, D.A. (2009). Eliminating Roadblocks to Translation Quality: Practical Steps to Improve Translated Output. Common Sense Advisory: Lowell, Massachusetts.

Lambert, J., & Van Gorp, H. (1985). On Describing Translations. In T. Hermans (Ed.), The Manipulation of Literature. Studies in Literary Translation (pp. 42–53). London: Croom Helm.

Lefevere, A. (1992). Translation, Rewriting and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London & New York: Routledge.

Muñoz Martín, R. (2009). Expertise and environment in translation. Mutatis Mutandis, 2(June), 24–37.

Neubert, A., & Shreve, G. M. (1992). Translation as Text. Kent: Kent State University.

Newmark, P. (1991). About Translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Nida, E. (1964). Towards a Science of Translation. Leiden: Brill.

Nord, C. (2018). Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

O’Brien, S. (2012). Towards a Dynamic Quality Evaluation Model for Translation. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 17, 55–77.

Pérez-González, L. & Susam-Saraeva, Ş. (2012). Non-professionals Translating and Interpreting. The Translator, 18(2), 149–165.

Pym, A. (2010). Exploring Translation Theories. London & New York: Routledge.

Reiss, K. (2000). Translation Criticism: The Potential and Limitations. (E.F. Rhodes, Trans). Manchester: St Jerome.

Reiss, K., & Vermeer, H. J. (2013). Towards a General Theory of Translational Action: Skopos Theory Explained. (C. Nord, Trans.). London & New York: Routledge.

Shreve, G.M. (2002). Knowing translation: cognitive and experiential aspects of translation expertise from the perspective of expertise studies. In A. Riccard (Ed.), Translation Studies: Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline, University Press: Cambridge, 150–171.

Txabarriaga, R. (2009). Best Practices for Client Review Processes. Common Sense Advisory: Lowell, Massachusetts.

Toury, G. (1978). The Nature and Role of Norms in Literary Translation. In J. S. Holmes, J. Lambert & R. Van den Broeck (Eds.), Literature in Translation: New Perspectives in Literary Studies (pp. 83–100). Leuven: Acco.

Vinay, J. P., & Darbelnet, J. (1958). Stylistique Comparée du Français et de L’Anglais. Méthode de traduction. Paris: Didier.

Williams, M. (2009). Translation Quality Assessment. Mutatis Mutandis, 8(1), 3-23.

Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer Perceptions of Price, Quality, and Value: A Means-End Model and Synthesis of Evidence. The Journal of Marketing, 52(3), 2–22.

Downloads

Published

2020-05-02

How to Cite

de Wille, T., & Bermúdez Bausela, M. (2020). Quality Perceptions and Professional Status: The Impact of Extrinsic Information on Translation Editing. Revista De Lenguas Para Fines Específicos, 26(1), 84–107. Retrieved from https://ojsspdc.ulpgc.es/ojs/index.php/LFE/article/view/1236

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 1 (2020): Revista de lenguas para fines específicos

Section

Sección Monográfica/Special Issue

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
    2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
    3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Licencia de Creative Commons
Revista de Lenguas para fines específicos is licensed under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional License.