The “technological turn” in translation studies

Abstract

For over two decades, Translation Studies (TS) scholars have argued that the discipline is going through a ‘technological turn’. This paper critically questions whether TS has already completed this “paradigmatic” or “disciplinary turn,” “a clearly visible and striking” change of direction that can “perhaps even [amount] to a redefinition of the subject concerned” (Snell-Hornby 2010, 366). After a revision of the notion of ‘turn’ in TS, it will be argued that the ‘technological’ one has been completed and it can, in fact, be assessed “after it is already complete” (ibid). It will be shown how the emergence and consolidation of this turn were “driven not by theoretical developments in cognate areas of inquiry,” but are an “emergent property from new forms of translation practice” (Cronin 2010, 1). As a consequence, it has permeated TS across its different subdisciplines, both in their theoretical apparatus and/or in their research methodologies. In this examination, the picture that emerges is that translation, across TS, has in fact been redefined in one way or another as an instance of “human-computer interaction,” even in contexts such as literary translation.

A gépi fordítás és kiértékelésének módszerei a fordítástudományban

“…MorphoLogic Localisation 4 ). A piaci igényekhez igazodva a fordítástudomány területén belül is kialakulnak azok a területek, amelyek a gépi fordítást állítják a fókuszba (Jiménez-Crespo 2020). A gépi fordítás és annak kiértékelése témakörének fontosságát jelzi még, hogy külön kon zor ciumot 5 hoztak létre, amely törekszik egységes szempontrendszert és eszközkészletet biztosítani a terület iránt érdeklődők és a kutatók számára (Lommel 2018).…”

Audiovisual translation, translators, and technology: From automation pipe dream to human–machine convergence

“…Since the beginning of this century, technology has had a determinant impact on translation professionals because they have had to catch up with the increased demand for the translation services provided by the digital world. Large suppliers of multilingual services, small translation companies, and freelance translators have increasingly been required to use translation memory (TM) and terminology management solutions -the main features of CAT tools (Doherty, 2016;Jiménez-Crespo, 2020;O'Brien & Conlan, 2018;O'Hagan, 2013).…”

Motivation for User-Generated Translation on Chinese Online Video Platform

“…However, "translation practices involving the Internet crowd are still an emerging phenomenon with even its label yet to be agreed upon" (O'Hagan, 2011, pp. [15][16], which indicates a dearth of views from the TS perspective. In this context, we argue that UGT carried out on online video platforms are not necessarily collaborative.…”