TREC Seminar, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona 2-3 July 2013

1. TREC Seminar, UniversitatAutonoma de Barcelona 2-3 July 2013 Mapping unchartered territory – a roundtrip: methodological and theoretical perspectivesRiitta Jääskeläinen

2. Contents • The beginning • Main trends in 1990 – 2013 • Methodology • Empirical testing of models and hypotheses • Conceptual analyses • The future Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

3. The beginning • Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit participated in the AILA Congress in Hamburg (13-15 August 1984) • Sectiondealingwithprocessresearch (e.g. Gerloff, Krings, Lörscher)  Gerloff’spaperinspired Riitta Jääskeläinen to doher MA thesis on studenttranslationprocesses • TAP experimentswithstudents in 1985-1986: twosets of tasks (one for Sonja’sresearch, the other for Riitta’s MA thesis) • Summer 1986: Riitta working as a researchassistanttranscribing the TAP tapes • Firstresearchreports: general descriptions of studentprocesses: use of time & dictionaries, problem-solving, decision-making (Tirkkonen-Condit 1987, 1989; Jääskeläinen 1987, 1989) • Researchlargelybased on individualprojects international networking Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

4. The beginning • Earlyresearchcharacterisedby general descriptions of whathappens in the translationprocess collectingideas, creatinghypotheses, refiningtools • Firstattempts to identifye.g. • Whichprocessingfeaturescontribute to goodquality • Whichprocessingfeaturesaretypical of professionaltranslation • Whichroledoaffectivefactors play in translation (Laukkanen 1997) • Howparticularlinguisticitemsarehandledbytranslators (Tirkkonen-Condit 1993) • Howtranslatorsmanageuncertainty (Tirkkonen-Condit 2000) Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

5. Main trends in 1990 – 2013 • After the beginning, three main trendscanbeidentified (in the Savonlinna-basedresearch) • Focus on methodology (TAPs) • Empiricaltesting of models and hypotheses • Conceptualanalyses • Empiricalresearchhasforcedresearchers to specifytheircategories and conceptsmoreprecisely • For example, for Krings (1986), in languagestudents, translationproblemswere the result of lackingknowledgeorskill findingsfromtranslationstudents and professionaltranslatorsshowedthatsometimessensitivity to potentialproblems is a sign of knowledge and skill Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

6. Main trends in 1990 – 2013: methodology • Firstprocessstudiesusedthink-aloud in data elicitation • Borrowedfromcognitivepsychology via SLA research • Methodologicaljustificationbased on previousresearch in otherfields (Krings 1986; Lörscher 1991; Jääskeläinen 1999) • Fewstudiesfocusing on think-aloud in the study of translationprocesses – a call for focusing on methodology (Jääskeläinen 2000) • Notmuchprogress on thatfront – however, the pool of available data elicitationmethodshasexpanded to includekey-logging, eye-tracking etc. • A large-scalesystematicmethodologicalstudystillpending (see Jääskeläinen 2011) Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

7. Main trends in 1990 – 2013: empirical testing of models and hypotheses • Interest in empiricaltesting of ideas, models and hypothesesproposed in TS literature • Tirkkonen-Condit (1992): howdotranslatorsapplyworldknowledge and linguisticknowledgewhiletranslating • Tirkkonen-Condit (1993): howdotranslatorshandle a typicallyFinnishlinguisticitem (the cliticparticle–kin)  Thisline of research led to the ’uniqueitems’ hypothesiswhichhasbeenfurtherdeveloped and tested in relation to the proposedtranslationuniversals (seee.g. Tirkkonen-Condit 2004) • Tirkkonen-Condit (2000): howdotranslatorshandlemetaphoricalexpressions Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

8. Main trends in 1990 – 2013: empirical testing of models and hypotheses • Literaltranslationhypothesis, Monitormodel, and deverbalisation • The Monitormodel (Ivir 1981/Toury 1995): The translator begins his search for translation equivalence from formal correspondence, and it is only when the identical-meaning formal correspondent is either not available or not able to ensure equivalence that he resorts to formal correspondents with not-quite-identical meanings or to structural and semantic shifts which destroy formalcorrespondencealtogether. • i.e. contrary to the deverbalisationview of the Paris school, it is proposedthattranslationtends to proceedliterallyuntilsuch a point at whichliteraltranslationdoesnotworkanymore; at thatpoint, the Monitorsteps in • empiricalevidencesupporting the Monitormodel (e.g. Tirkkonen-Condit 2005) Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

9. Main trends in 1990 – 2013:conceptual analyses • ’translationstrategies’ – whatdowemeanbythem? • Jääskeläinen (1993): firstattempt to operationalise ’translationstrategies’ for the purposes of TAP analyses • Korhonen (1998): MA thesispointing out the differencebetweenproduct- and process-orientedstrategies • Jääskeläinen (2007): a secondattempt at the elusiveconcept, now on a more general level (textualoperations vs. processingactivities) • Jääskeläinen (2009): the thirdattempt is no charm – the differentdefinitions of ’translationstrategy’ aredescribed and discussed, but the finalword is notprovided … to becontinued? Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

10. Main trends in 1990 – 2013:conceptual analyses • ’professionalism’ and ’expertise’ (see Jääskeläinen 2010) • ’professionaltranslator’ used as a self-evidentcategory of subjects • Pragmaticaspect: anyonewhoearnstheirlivingbytranslating? • Qualityaspect: professionalsturn out goodtranslations (always?) • Ethicalaspect: professionalsfollowprofessionalrules of conduct (ifanyavailable?) • ’expertise’ defined in manyways as well • ‘the possession of a large body of knowledge and procedural skill’ (Chi et al. 1982: 8) • consistently superior performance in a domain (e.g. Ericsson 2006: 3)  The importance of definingyourcategories in research Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

11. The future • Work in progress • Sini Immonen – pausebehaviour/cognitiverhythm in translation vs. monolingualtextproduction (PhDproject) • Minna Kumpulainen – the development of translationcompetence: a longitudinalstudy of BA-leveltranslationstudents (PhDproject) • Futureprojects – a wishlist • Jointprojects & international collaborationwelcome, e.g. • Large-scalemethodologicalstudy • Nature of expertise in translation • Development of translationcompetence • NB! Finnish in the languagecombinationmayoffervaluableinsights cooperationwith the Crosslingnetwork: https://wiki.uef.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16586730 Mapping unchartered territory/Jääskeläinen, UEF

12. Thank you for your attention I’ll be happy to answer your questions              (list of references available from me) www.uef.fi