TRICKLET - Translation Research in Corpora, Keystroke Logging and Eye Tracking

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Stella Neumann
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2013 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 241433372

Rigorous empirical research has recently gained ground in translation studies. TRICKLET aims at advancing the field’s understanding of the empirical reality of professional translation with the long-term goal of contributing to the development of a model of translation enriched through empirical evidence. Phase 1 of this project concentrated on understanding how specific linguistic properties of translated texts observed in translation corpora are brought about in the translation process. To this end we carried out laboratory experiments with professional translators which yielded behavioural measures interpreted with respect to cognitive processing. Thanks to additional methodological investigations, we developed a dedicated experimental paradigm for translation experiments. In phase 2, we will systematically widen the scope of our investigation by examining operationalisations of (contrastive) linguistic, cognitive, workflow-related and social factors that we believe to have an impact on the language of translation. The studies to this end will address questions such as the extent of cognitive automatisation, the translation inherence of the observed phenomena, the role of external resources and the extent to which translators are influenced by covert attitudes towards the languages involved. Because a model of translation can only capture the empirical reality of translation accurately if it accounts for the amount of change editors introduce at a late stage in the workflow, we will also investigate post-translation change. We will use our established research design, which combines the corpus-linguistic method with behavioural measures obtained from recording eye-tracking and keystroke logging. In selected contexts, this will be realised in the modified form of web-based experiments and/or complemented by questionnaire techniques.Based on this description and explanation of the empirical facts of translation the project will work towards predicting the language of translation against the background of the above mentioned factors, in order to develop an exemplary part of an empirical translation model.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants