Evaluating the Evaluator: A Novel Perspective on Translation Quality Assessment

This book offers a theoretical framework for assessing translation quality grounded in supportive argumentation. The volume outlines a systematic framework for translators and translation critics to substantiate their decisions and judgments on a translation’s quality and in the case of negative criticism, put forward a more effective translation solution. The book traces the decision-making process underpinning translation practice, considering the different factors surrounding a particular translation to inform the most appropriate translation strategy, such as the temporal and geographical relationship between source and target texts, special provisions required by clients, timeframe, qualifications, and sociocultural and political issues. The framework posits that such factors should underpin any arguments used by the translator in adopting a given strategy and in turn, that any criticism of a translation’s quality must be in line with the same argumentative structure. Applied to a corpus of translation examiners’ reports of translation, the book demonstrates how this framework can act as a tool to be scaled to fit the needs of the different actors of a translation – translators, critics, and scholars. This book will be of interest to scholars in translation studies and practicing translators.

Table of Contents:
Introduction The quality of translation: different approaches Juliane House Malcolm Williams Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast and Klaus Mudersbach Ernst-August Gutt Other approaches to translation quality Approaches to translation quality in the twentieth century Approaches to translation quality in the twenty-first century Preliminary assumptions Defining translation quality and translation quality assessment Some thoughts on measuring quality Some thoughts on achieving good quality Revisiting overt and covert translation Refining the concept of overt/covert translation: overview Refining the concept of overt/covert translation: detailed discussion The problem of subjective evaluation The problem of subjectivity from a philosophical point of view The process of translation quality assessment The problem of subjectivity from a translation studies point of view How to curb the subjective in translation quality assessment Towards evaluating the evaluator Some views on how to evaluate translations The evaluation of commented translations Quality factors of translation The translator’s daffodil Underlying assumptions Factor categories Source text Language pairs in translation and source text analysis (Nord) Sender and sender’s intention Audience and medium Place and time of communication Motive for communication and text function Source text defects Summary of source text factors Text form Intratextual factors Subject matter and content Text composition and non-verbal elements Lexis, syn