The axis of professionalization

Using the results of two surveys conducted by the present authors, this paper examines translators’ and interpreters’ behaviour in the translation market and factors that influence it in (Slovak) society. In keeping with the familiar fact that not all translators are alike, we believe that empirically measurable factors enable us to observe behavioural patterns among translators and interpreters that are distinguishable along an axis of specialisation and an axis of professionalisation. The authors conducted two separate surveys involving 550 translators and interpreters – including literary translators, court translators and interpreters, translators of technical texts, audiovisual translators, institutional interpreters, and freelance translators – who worked across Slovakia’s market spectrum. In the analysis of the survey results, we found that, among other things, the level of professionalisation played a crucial role in translators’ decision-making processes within the broader social and professional context. In line with Toury’s (1995, 55) definitions of the norm, we hoped to “distinguish regularity of behaviour in recurrent situations of the same type” according to certain factors, including the degree of professionalisation and age, education, and type of translatorial activity.