The borrowers

Abstract

The paper considers the interdisciplinary interaction of research on the cognitive aspects of translation. Examples of influence from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, reading and writing research and language technology are given, with examples from specific sub-disciplines within each one.The breadth of borrowing by researchers in cognitive translatology is made apparent, but the minimal influence of cognitive translatology on the respective disciplines themselves is also highlighted. Suggestions for future developments are made, including ways in which the domain of cognitive translatology might exert greater influence on other disciplines.

A Study of the Effects of Time Pressure on Translation Quantity and Quality

“…This can be explained by the fact that the field of Translation Studies have particularly preoccupied itself with corpus-based studies the aim of which have been to determine how textual features are rendered from the SL into the TL in different types of genres (for a review of this approach to Translation Studies, see Kuhiwczak & Littau, 2007;Munday, 2016). Fortunately, in recent decades, translation researchers have become aware that cognitive sciences have a lot to offer to the field of Translation Studies (Gutt, 2014;O'Brien, 2013). They now believe that translation is "an 'expert task' requiring specific competences, all of which have to be strategically managed to reach a successful outcome" (O'Brien, 2013, p. 8, emphasis is added).…”

“…They have either showed interests in examining what effects differences between translators have on their success to translate an SL text into the TL (e.g., Hubscher-Davidson, 2009;Zheng & Xiang, 2014). Or, they have investigated what goes on in the translator's mind when he embarks on translating an SL text into the TL (O'Brien, 2013). Less is known about the conditions under which translation is undertaken.…”

“…The findings of the study have significant implications for both theory and practice in Translation Studies. Recently, attempts have been made in the field of Translation Studies to investigate the cognitive mechanisms and processes involved in translation from language into the other (e.g., Gutt, 2014;O'Brien, 2013;Shreve & Angelone, 2010). These attempts, however, overlooked the translation conditions that may affect these mechanisms and processes.…”

“…As mentioned above, translation from a language into the other requires the involvement of the translator's mental resources (Bassnett, 2013;Gutt, 2014;O'Brien, 2013). Such a view of translation urges us to consider translation as a 'cognitive task', with the implication that we should move beyond examining the textual features of translation products towards investigating the strategic decisions that the translator has to make to address the challenges he/she face during the process of translation.…”

Positionality in Public Service Interpreting Research

“…Research methods volumes generally include at least some mention of the inherent challenges of some types of data collection, including power differentials and relationships that occur in interviews and observational studies, participatory research, or product-and process-oriented studies (e.g., Hale and Napier, 2013;Saldanha and O'Brien, 2014;Angelelli and Baer, 2016;Mellinger and Hanson, 2017). Baraldi and Mellinger (2016) also allude to this issue in the context of interpreting studies more generally, but on the whole, T&I studies have tended to rely on theoretical and methodological contributions from neighboring disciplines (O'Brien, 2013).…”