2024年2月28日发(作者：)

THE Map

路线图—翻译研究方法入门

A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies

By Jenny Williams & Andrew Chesterman

Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2004

Contents

Acknowledgements………v

Introduction…………….1

1. Areas I Translation Research…..6

2. From the Initial Idea to the Plan……28

3. Theoretical Models of Translation……48

4. Kinds of Research ….. 58

5. Questions, Claims, Hypotheses….69

6. Relations between Variables….83

7. Selecting and Analyzing Data…..90

8. Writing Your Research Report….101

9. Presenting Your Research Orally…….116

10. Assessing Your Research….122

11. References……….129

12. Subject index………….141

Translation Studies: the field of study devoted to describing, analyzing and theorizing the

processes, contexts and products of the act of translation as well as the (roles of the) agents

involved.

The aim:

 By providing new data

 By suggesting an answer to a specific question

 By testing or refining an existing hypothesis, theory or methodology

 By proposing a new idea, hypothesis, theory or methodology

Text Analysis and Translation

Translation Quality Assessment

Genre Translation

Multimedia Translation

Translation and Technology

Translation History

Translation Ethics

Terminology and Glossaries

Interpreting

The Translation Process

Translator Training

The Translation Profession

Research Process consists of the following stages, some overlapping:

 Choosing an area

 making a preliminary plan

 searching through the literature

 reading and thinking

 defining the research question

 revising the plan

 collecting the data

 processing the results

 writing a draft

 evaluating, eliciting feedback

 thinking of implication

 finalizing the text

 presenting your research report

1. Areas in Translation Research

1.1 Text Analysis and Translation

Source Text Analysis: careful analysis of the syntactic, semantic and stylistic features, to

prepare for a translation: Nord (1991); the communicative situation of the translation

itself: who will it be for, what its function is intended to be, and so on

Comparison of Translations and their Source Texts: the textual comparison of a

translation with its original; several translations, into the same language or into different

languages, of the same original--- a particular aspect of the source text (e.g. a stylistic or

syntactic feature) + the corresponding sections / a translation the

translation of passive sentences, or dialect, or allusions) + translation strategies used /

translation strategy such as explicitation (See Shuttleworth and Cowie 1997) + change

or shift between source and target texts + its conditions of use (See Leuven-Zwart 1989,

1990 for a methodology for translation analysis)

Aim: to discover patterns of correspondence between the texts = possible

regularities of the translator’s behaviour; the general principles that seem to determine

how certain things get translated under certain conditions

Comparison of Translations and Non-translated Texts: comparison of translations into a

given language with similar texts originally written in that language. Parallel

(comparable) texts -quantitative –relative differences of distribution of particular textual

features ---contrastive analysis and contrastive stylistics (See Chesterman 1998 for the

relation between the theories and methodologies of contrastive analysis and Translation

Studies)

Translation with Commentary = annotated translation: a form of introspective and

retrospective research – translate a text, and write a commentary on this translation

process (See Bly 1984 for translating a poem) –including discussion of the translation

assignment, an analysis of aspects of the source text, a reasoned justification of solutions

you arrived at for particular kinds of translation problems; whether you have found any

helpful guidelines for your translation decisions in what you have read in Translation

Studies.

1.2 Translation Quality Assessment

International standards: ISO 9002, DIN 2345

Three general approaches to quality assessment:

Source-oriented: Equivalence/deviance (See House, 1997; Schaffner 1998)

Target-language oriented: Text analysis for “Degree of Naturalness” (See Touray 1995,

Leuven-Zwart 1989 and 1990)

Translation effects: on clients, teachers, critics and readers

Functional and/or communicative theories – skopos theory (Vermeer

1996) –skopos is the “purpose for which a translation designs a translation in agreements with

his commissioner”

examining published reviews (See Maier 1998; Fawcett 2000), interviewing

publishers and readers about their expectations concerning translation quality;

carrying out comprehension tests on the translation to see how well people

understood it; questionnaire to translation teachers, to see what kinds of

marking methods and criteria they used .

1.3 Genre Translation (See Swales 1991, Trosborg 1997 for overview of definitions and

methodological concepts; See Bassnett 1991, Gaddis Rose 1997, Bassnett and Lefevere 1998,

Boase-Beier and Holman 1999 for major issues in literary translation)

1.3.1 Drama: See Johnston 1996 for a range of views from translators for the stage. Aaltonen

1996, Anderman 1998 and Bassnett 2000 for further reading

to be performed or read? Performability (body language; choice of props)

1.3.2 Poetry: (See Holmes 1994 for an overview of the issues in poetry translation and both

Beaugrande 1978 and Bly 1984 for a ‘step by step’ guide to translating a poem

 The aim of the translation – a prose version or a poem?

 The translation of meter, cadence, rhythm, rhyme

 The profile of the translator – can only poets translate poetry?

 How do translators translate poetry?

1.3.3 Prose fiction

Select ONE aspect – the narrative perspective of the author /translator, the translation of

dialogue, the handling of culture-specific items or the translation of humour; sometimes,

concentrate on the first chapter or opening scene

Contemporary translators: their biographies, ow they obtain translation contracts, their

relations with editors and publishers; how they go about their work, whether they write

prefaces / afterwords, whether they use footnotes or provide glossaries (See Pelegrin 1987)

The reception of translated works: how do critics review translated works? What do they

have to say about translation (if anything) See Fawcett 2000 for a study of the reception of

translation in the quality press.

1.3.4 Religious Texts

 The enormous temporal and cultural gap between the societies for which these texts

were written and the societies for which they have been translated

 The tension between treating religious texts such as the Bible as a sacred text in which

every word is holy (which requires a word-for-word translation) and using it as a

missionizing text (which requires a target-culture-centred approach). See Nida 1964 and

Nida and Taber 1969.

 Comparison of different translations of a particular sacred text into one language, either

diachronically or synchronically (See Lewis 1981). See Gregory 2001 for currently

available English translations of the Bible.

 The influence of the 1611 King James Bible (the Authorized Version) on the

development of the English language: is it true that anyone translating out of English

needs to be familiar with this text? And if so, in what circumstances? And with what

aspects? (See Biblia 1997).

1.3.5 Children’s Literature

1.3.6 Tourism Texts

1.3.7 Legal Texts

1.4 Multimedia Translation

Revoicing

Sur-/Subtitling

1.5 Translation and Technology

Evaluating Software

Software Localization

Effects of Technology

Website Translation

The Place of Technology in Translation Training

1.6 Translation History

Who

What

Why

How

1.7 Translation Ethics

Different Kinds of Ethics

Cultural and ideological factors

Codes of Practice

Personal vs. Professional Ethics

1.8 Terminology and Glossaries

(detailed conceptual analysis + bibliographical fieldwork + corpus processing)

(You need to know the basics of terminology theory and its origins in the growing need for

international standardization during the past century: understand the difference between general

knowledge and domain-restricted knowledge; how to define a term

You will also need to master the methodological and technical skills required: how to formulate

a valid definition; how to represent various kinds of conceptual systems based on different kinds

of relationships between concepts (e.g. hierarchical concept diagrams of various kinds); how to

use the computer programs such as Tradus MultiTerm that have been developed specifically for

terminological work).

Theoretical research: cognitive and philosophical questions

Terminology

Terminology, Science and Research

publications in the Information Infrastructure Task Force (IITF) series published by

TermNet

Practical research: choose a domain and a language or two, begin with documentary

searches and corpus work: this is term identification and extraction. Via parallel conceptual

analysis and definition comparison, you will gradually compile the terminology database for

the domain and languages you have chosen. The work might eventually involve term

harmonization and language planning.

See Wright and Budin (1997 and 2001) Cabre 1999; Sager 1990;

See Pearson 1998 for an introduction to corpus-based approaches.

Additional specialist journals in this area

Terminologie et Traduction

La Banque des Mots

Terminolies Novelles

International standards： ISO/DISC087-1.2 Terminology work – Vocabulary – Part.

Theory and application, 1999

1.9 Interpreting

 Conference interpreting (usu simultaneous, in one direction)

 Liason interpreting = dialogue/ community interpreting (usu bi-directional)

 Court interpreting (usu bi-directional)

Cognitive studies

 Neurophysiological studies of the interpreter’s brain in action (not for beginners!)

 Functioning of memory in simultaneous interpreting

 The effect of time-lag on the final quality of the interpretation (in simultaneous)

Behavioural Studies

 The note-taking techniques used in consecutive interpreting

 Studies of the strategies interpreters use to prepare for a task

 Studies of how interpreters cope with particular problems such as a speaker’s unusual

form of delivery, unusual time constraints, unusual stress conditions

 Time-sharing in dialogue interpreting (between the various speakers)

 Eye-contact between the interpreter and the other participants

Linguistics Studies

 Language-pair-specific studies of how interpreters tend to render various kinds of

structures under certain conditions

 Studies of what and when interpreters tend to omit or condense

 Style shifts during interpreting: do interpreters tend to gravitate towards a neutral style,

even when their speakers are using a more formal or informal register?

Sociological Studies, Ethics, History

 The negotiation of power and politeness relations among the participants in a dialogue

interpreting situation

 The ethical responsibility of the interpreter, whose side is he/she on?

 The history of interpreting

Interpreting Training

 Comparative studies of professional and trainee interpreters working under similar

conditions; or of ‘naïve’, untrained interpreters

 Comparative studies of how interpreters are trained in different institutions.

Quality Assessment

 Studies of the reactions of hearers to various aspects of interpreting quality: intonation,

voice quality, speed, pauses, grammatical errors, etc.

 Experiments with various methods of assessing the quality of interpreting.

Special Kinds of Interpreting

 The special requirements of court interpreting

 Interpreting for the deaf: sign-language interpreting

 Interpreting for the blind: e.g. the simultaneous oral narration of films (setting, action and

script…)

 The use of whispered interpreting (chuchotage).

1.10 The Translation Process

Workplace Studies

Protocol Studies

1.11 Translator Training

Curriculum Design

Implementation

Typical Problem Areas

Professional Dimension

1.12 The Translation Profession

(quite a new area of research. Historical /Contemporary)

 Qualifications for membership/membership categories

 The nature of the certification process (if one exists)

 The employment status of the members (freelance, salaried translators in the private /public

sector, part-time/full-time?) and their specialism (technical, literary etc.)

 The Association’s code of ethics

 The benefits of membership

 The Association’s role in translation policy development at local, regional or national level

 The Association’s programme of professional development for members

(See the list of Translation Associations in Part IV of Hatim 2001) and also the journal Babel.)

2. From the Initial idea to the Plan

2.1 Refine the Initial Idea

2.2 Talk to Someone Who Knows

2.3 Check out other Resources

2.4 Read Critically

2.5 Take Full Notes, and Make Them Easy to Classify

Primary sources: your own empirical material, data or corpus;

Secondary sources: to support your own arguments; borrow concepts or analytical methods; to

argue back at important disagreements;

Tertiary sources: e.g., encyclopedias; popularized works explaining and synthesizing other

people’s theories

Questions to ask while you read (based on Gile 1995)

 Are the author’s objectives clear?

 Is the methodology explained clearly enough?

 Are the facts a curate, as far as you can tell? (Facts about dates and also bibliographical

information)

 Is the argumentation logical, relevant?

 Are the conclusions justified by the evidence?

 Does the presentation seem careful, or careless?

 Does the author seem to be trustworthy?

 Is the author actually saying something important?

2.6 Keep Complete Bibliographic Records

References: works cited (in TWO places) in a piece of academic writing: first in the text

where you refer to a document, and then in a complete list at the end of your work

Bibliography: a list of works relevant to a particular field and can form a book itself, e.g. the

Bibliography of Translation Studies.

Chicago Manual of Style

MLA (Modern Language Association of America) Handbook

The Harvard System (Name and Date System) (frequently used in Translation Studies)

2.7 Plan your Time

2.8 Determine the Scope of your Project

2.9 Work with your Supervisor

2.10 Emotional/ Psychological planning

2.11 Information Technology Planning

2.12 Keep a Research Diary

2.13 The Research Plan

1. Introduction: your topic, its background and the significance of the topic to science

and/or society

2. Aim and scope of the Research: clear research question(s), and how you restrict the

scope of your project

3. Theoretical background: brief literature survey, main relevant sources, main

concepts and definitions

4. Material: what kind of data, where from…?

5. Method

6. Timetable/deadlines

7. Costings (if any)

3. Theoretical Models of Translation (pp. 48-57)

You choose your model type according to the kinds of questions you want to ask and the kind

of data you have selected; then you choose the most appropriate variant within that type, and

adapt it as required by your own objectives. These choices you need to explain and justify in

your written paper. (p.57)

3.1 Comparative Models

Earliest, static, product-oriented, centred on some kind of equivalence

Goal: to discover correlations between the two sides of the relation.

Source text (ST) = Target text (TT)

Or: TT=ST

ST ≈TT or TT≈ ST

(区分correspondence和equivalence)

Useful in charting equivalences, for instance in terminology work. One-to-one equivalence, or,

complex such as,

SL item X ≈ TL item A (under conditions ….)

TL item B (under conditions …)

TL item C (under conditions …)

Equivalence rule: under given contextual conditions, the equivalent of SL item X is ….

Useful for studying shifts (differences, resulting from translation strategies that involve

changing something). For particular items, or particular segments of text, do we find identity

(ST=TT) or similarity (ST≈TT)? Random or systematic differences? Any equivalence rule?

Used in corpus studies:

Translated texts ≈ Non-translated texts

3.2 Process Models

Translation as a process: dynamic model

Communication model:

Sender (S)→ Message (M) →Receiver (R)

Translation Model:

S1(original Writer and Client)→M1→R1/S2(Translator)→M2→R2(Client,

Publisher, Readers)

Juan Sager 1993 uses a process model to represent the main phases of a translation task:

Specification (ie. the client’s instructions)→Preparation→Translation→Evaluation

Psycholinguistic researchers into translation:

Input→Black box→Output

Sequential relations between different phases of the translation process

Translator’s problem-solving procedures

3.3 Causal Models

Causes >> Translation(s) >> Effects

 Nida’s dynamic equivalence (e.g. Nida 1964) includes the idea of achieving a similar effect.

 Skopos theory (skopos is Greek for ‘purpose’ foregrounds one kind of cause, i.e. the final

cause (intention), and skopos itself could be defined in terms of the intended effect of a

translation. (For skopos theory, Vermeer 1996; Nord 1997.)

 The polysystem approach and scholars of the ‘cultural turn’ use causal concepts such as

norms, in both source and target cultures, to explain translation causes and effects; they also

build in other causal constraints such as patronage and ideology. (For a survey, see Hermsans

1999.)

 Gutt’s application of relevance theory to translation makes explicit appeal to cognitive effects;

he argues that optimum relevance (in the technical sense of the term) is the explanatory factor

that accounts for communicative choices in general (Gutt 2000).

 Toury’s (1195) proposed laws of interference and standardization (cognitive etc.) causes of

atrnsaltor’s decisions ( Tirkkonen-Condit and Jaaskelainen 2000).

A causal model allows us therefore to make statements and formulate hypotheses about

causes and effects, in response to questions such as the following:

 Why is this translation like it is?

 Why do people react like this to that translation?

 Why did this translator write like that?

 Why did translators at that time in that culture translate like that?

 How do translations affect cultures?

 What causal conditions give rise to translations that people like/ do not like? (What

people…?)

 Why do people think this is a translation? What will follow if I translate like this?

4. Kinds of Research

4.1 Conceptual and Empirical Research

Hermeneutics (science of interpretation): for humanistic disciplines

vs. Positivism (based on empirical observation and experiment): for hard sciences

Conceptual/ Theoretical research/analysis aims to define and clarify concepts, to interpret

or reinterpret ideas, to relate concepts into larger systems, to introduce new concepts or

metaphors or frameworks that allow a better understanding of the object of research. Often

takes the form of an argument. Conceptual arguments need to show that theyr are in some

way more convincing than alternative or preceding analyses of the concept in question.

Empirical research seeks new data, new information derived from the observation of data

and from experimental work; it seeks evidence which supports or disconfirms hypotheses, or

generates new ones.

Concepts drive action. Conceptual analysis is also an integral part of empirical research. It

involves processes like the following:

 defining key terms (X is defined here as Y)

 comparing definitions / interpretations by different scholars

 explicating and interpreting the overall theoretical framework, perhaps the basic metaphor

underlying the general approach taken (e.g. ‘translation is seen here as a kind of creative

performance’…: what is meant by this, exactly?)

 setting up classification systems (concept X understood as consisting of categories ABC)

 defining the categories used in the analysis;

 deciding what to do with borderline cases, i.e. how to interpret category boundaries

(categories interpreted as being black-and-white, or as being fuzzy, or as being prototype

categories, or as overlapping…)

 interpreting the results of an analysis

 considering the implications of an argument

 coming up with new ideas that might lead to new research methods and results.

Note: Concepts/ Theories and the selection and interpretation of them are seldom value-free.

4.2 Characteristics of Empirical Research (Carl Hempel: 1952:1, cited in Toury 1995:9)

(pp60-62)

First: particular and general

Second: describing and explaining

Third: predicting

Fourth: hypothesis

4.3 Subtypes of empirical research: Naturalistic vs. Experimental

Naturalistic /Observational studies: exploratory; focused

Experimental study: interfere with the natural order of things in order to isolate a particular

feature for study and eliminate irrelevant features (p.63) (e.g. think-aloud protocols in study

translation process – often minimize the necessary artificiality of an experimental situation

4.4 Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research

Qualitative research: describe the quality of sth in some enlightening way, can lead to

conclusions about what is possible, what can happen (at least sometimes); it does not allow

conclusions about what is probable, general, or universal.

Quantitative research: say sth about the generality of a given phenomenon or feature, about

how typical or widespread it is, how much of it there is; about regularities, tendencies,

frequencies, distributions – ultimately about universality. Seeks to measure things, to count,

to compare statistically. E.g. corpus-based studies

4.5 Examples of Empirical Research Methods

Case studies

Corpus studies (e.g. Translational English Corpus held at UMIST

(/ctis) or the GEPCOLT corpus at Dublin City University.

Survey studies:, historical and archive studies: questionnaires and /or interviews

4.6 Applied Research

A good research design format: (based on Emma Wagner p.67):

Building on researcher A’s claim (which was itself based on evidence C), this research will

test the applicability of claim B to practical translation situation D. In the light of the results

of this test, it will then formulate recommendations or guidelines for translation situation D,

and if necessary revise or refute claim B.

5. Questions, Claims, Hypotheses

5.1 Asking Questions (pp.69-71)

5.2 Making a Claim (pp.71-73)

5.3 Four kinds of Hypotheses (pp.73-77)

1. Interpretive hypothesis: that sth can be usefully defined as, or seen as, or interpreted as,

sth else; i.e. that a given concept is useful for describing or understanding sth.

2. Descriptive hypothesis: that all instances (of a given type /under given conditions) of

phenomenon X have observable feature Y.

3. Exploratory hypothesis: that a particular phenomenon X is (or tends to be) caused or

influenced by conditions or factors ABC.

4. Predictive hypothesis: that conditions or factors ABC will (tend to) cause or influence

phenomenon X. (p.77)

5.4 Hypothesis Testing (PP. 77-82)

5.4.1 Operationalizing: to reduce a hypothesis to concrete terms in such a way that it really can

be tested in practice.

5.4.2 Testing: falsifiable – testable:

Hypotheses can be tested on four criteria: these are the ACID tests…

 A for Added value in general: new understanding

 C for Comparative value, in comparison with other hypotheses

 I for Internal value: logic, clarity, elegance, economy

 D against Data, empirical evidence

Testing means checking these things:

 Ascertain that the hypothesis does indeed add to our understanding of the phenomenon,

it brings sth new, it is not trivial, it is genuinely interesting

 Check it against other competing hypotheses: in what respects is it better than others?

 Is it logical, elegant, parsimonious (economical), with no unnecessary concepts or

assumptions? Is it plausible?

 Does it accurately represent the empirical evidence? Does it account for the facts? Does

it cover a wider variety of data, is it more general than competing hypotheses?

6. Relations between Variables (pp.83-89)

6.1 Relations

6.2 Text and Context Variables

6.3 Variables Illustrated in Research Practice

7. Selecting and Analyzing Data (pp.90-100)

7.1 Kinds of Date

7.2 Representativeness

7.3 Categorization (similarities; differences)

7.4 Using Statistics

7.4.1 Random sampling

7.4.2 Processing your data

Mean; median; mode

7.4.3 Quantitative analysis

7.4.4 Statistics – some do’s and don’ts (pp.99-100)

8. Writing Your Research Report (pp.101-115)

8.1 Begin Writing Early, and Write a Lot, All the Time

8.2 Documentation Conventions in the Text

References; Quotations

8.3 Think of the Reader: KISS and Tell

8.4 Show a Logical Structure

8.5 Everyone Gets Stuck…

8.6 Substantiate or Withdraw

8.7 Starting and Finishing

8.8 Feedback and Revision

9. Presenting Your Research Orally

9.1 Structure

9.2 Delivery

9.3 Visual Aids

10. Assessing Your Research (pp.122-28)

10.1 Self-assessment

10.2 Internal Assessment

10.3 External Assessment

10.4 Typical Weaknesses

Length

Organization

Review of the literature

Methodology

Logic

Style

Added value

Plagiarism

10.5 Publication and after

References