Cover not available
Article published In:
Interdisciplinarity in Translation and Interpreting Process Research
Edited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Susanne Göpferich and Sharon O'Brien
[Target 25:1] 2013
► pp. 107–124

Investigating the conceptual-procedural distinction in the translation process

A relevance-theoretic analysis of micro and macro translation units

| Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
| Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil

This article draws on relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995) and its application to translation (Gutt 2000) to investigate processing effort in translation in relation to two different types of encodings, namely conceptual and procedural encodings (Blakemore 2002, Wilson 2011). Building on the experimental paradigm of data triangulation in translation process research (Alves 2003; Jakobsen 2005), it analyses the translation processes of eight professional translators when performing a direct and an inverse translation task. The analysis focuses on the number and types of encodings found in micro/macro translation units (Alves and Vale 2009; 2011). Results suggest that processing effort in translation is greater in instances of procedural than conceptual encodings.

Keywords: translation process research, relevance theory, conceptual and procedural encodings, micro/macro translation units, processing effort in translation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical underpinnings
    • 2.1Relevance and translation: in search of a cause-effect relation
    • 2.2Some important relevance theory concepts
      • 2.2.1The principle of relevance and the effect-effort relation
      • 2.2.2The conceptual-procedural distinction in relevance theory
    • 2.3Revisiting the conceptual-procedural distinction in translation
  • 3.Methodological framework
    • 3.1Experimental design
    • 3.2Procedures for data analysis
    • 3.3Hypotheses
  • 4.Analyses and discussion
    • 4.1Types of macro translation units in direct/inverse translation tasks
    • 4.2Editing procedures in micro/macro translation units
    • 4.3Distance indicators of conceptual and procedural encodings
    • 4.4Processing effort in relation to conceptual and procedural encodings
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 March 2013
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25.1.09alv
References
Alves, Fabio
1995 Zwischen Schweigen und Sprechen: Wie bildet sich eine transkulturelle Brücke? Hamburg: Dr. Kovac. Google Scholar
(ed) 2003 Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [Benjamins Translation Library, 41.]   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 “Cognitive Effort and Contextual Effect in Translation: A Relevance-Theoretic Approach.” Journal of Translation Studies 10 (1): 18–35.Google Scholar
Alves, Fabio, and José Luiz Gonçalves
2003 “A Relevance Theory Approach to the Investigation of Inferential Processes in Translation.” In Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in Process Oriented Research, ed. by Fabio, Alves, 3–24. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alves, Fabio, Adriana Pagano, and Igor Silva
2009 “A New Window on Translators’ Cognitive Activity: Methodological Issues in the Combined Use of Eye Tracking, Key Logging and Retrospective Protocols.” In Methodology, Technology and Innovation in Translation Process Research. A Tribute to Arnt Lykke Jakobsen, ed. by Inger Mees, Fabio Alves, and Susanne Göpferich, 267–291. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. Google Scholar
Alves, Fabio, and Daniel Vale
2009 “Probing the Unit of Translation in Time: Aspects of the Design and Development of a Web Application for Storing, Annotating, and Querying Translation Process Data.” Across Languages and Cultures 10 (2): 251–273.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alves, Fabio, and Daniel, Vale
2011 “On Drafting and Revision in Translation: A Corpus Linguistics Oriented Analysis of Translation Process Data.” TC3. Translation: Corpora, Computation and Cognition 1 (1): 105–122.Google Scholar
Blakemore, Diane
1987 Semantic Constraints on Relevance. Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar
2002 Relevance and Linguistic Meaning: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dragsted, Barbara
2005 “Segmentation in Translation. Differences Across Levels of Expertise and Difficulty.” Target 17 (1): 49–70.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elman, Jeffrey L., Elizabeth A. Bates, Mark H. Johnson, Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Domenico Parisi, and Kim Plunkett
1996 Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar
Gutt, Ernst-August
1998 “Relevance and Effort: A Paper for Discussion.” Paper presented at the II Relevance Theory Workshop 8–10 September 1998, University of Luton.Google Scholar
2000 Translation and Relevance: Cognition and Context, 2nd ed. Manchester: St Jerome. Google Scholar
Jakobsen, Arnt
2005 “Investigating Expert Translators’ Processing Knowledge.” In Knowledge Systems and Translation, ed. by Helle V. Dam, Jan Engberg, and Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast, 173–189. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Astrid
2001 The Effects of Time on Cognitive Processes and Strategies in Translation. Copenhagen: Working Papers in LSP. Google Scholar
Königs, Frank
1987 “Was beim Übersetzen passiert: theoretische Aspekte, empirische Befunde und praktische Konsequenzen.” Die neueren Sprachen 21: 162–185.Google Scholar
PACTE
2008 “First Results of a Translation Competence Experiment: ‘Knowledge of Translation’ and ‘Efficacy of the Translation Process’.” In Translator and Interpreter Training. Issues, Methods and Debates, ed. by John Kearns, 104–126. London: Continuum. Google Scholar
Scardamalia, Marlene, and Carl Bereiter
1991 “Literate Expertise.” In Toward a General Theory of Expertise, ed. by Karl-Anders Ericsson, and John Smith, 172–194. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar
Shreve, Gregory
2006 “The Deliberate Practice: Translation and Expertise.” Journal of Translation Studies 9 (1): 27–42.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Deirdre Wilson
186/1995 Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Taboada, Maite, and William C. Mann
2006 “Rhetorical Structure Theory: Looking Back and Moving Ahead.” Discourse Studies 8 (3): 423–459.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre, and Dan Sperber
1993 “Linguistic Form and Relevance.” Lingua 901: 1–25.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Deirdre
2011 “The Conceptual-Procedural Distinction: Past, Present, and Future.” In Procedural Meaning: Problems and Perspectives, ed. by Victoria, Escandell-Vidal, Manuel, Leonetti, and Aoife, Ahern, 3–28. London: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 18 other publications

Abdel Latif, Muhammad M. M.
2018. Towards a typology of pedagogy-oriented translation and interpreting research. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 12:3 ► pp. 322 ff. DOI logo
Alos, Julieta
2015. Explicating the implicit: an empirical investigation into pragmatic competence in translator training. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 9:3 ► pp. 287 ff. DOI logo
Alós, Julieta
2016. Discourse relation recognition in translation: a relevance-theory perspective. Perspectives 24:2 ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Alves, Fabio
2015. Translation process research at the interface. In Psycholinguistic and Cognitive Inquiries into Translation and Interpreting [Benjamins Translation Library, 115], ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
Behrens, Bergljot
2016. The Task of Structuring Information in Translation. In New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 265 ff. DOI logo
Carl, Michael
2023. Models of the Translation Process and the Free Energy Principle. Entropy 25:6 ► pp. 928 ff. DOI logo
Daems, Joke, Sonia Vandepitte, Robert J. Hartsuiker & Lieve Macken
2017. Identifying the Machine Translation Error Types with the Greatest Impact on Post-editing Effort. Frontiers in Psychology 8 DOI logo
Dai, Guangrong
2016. Conclusions and Expectations. In Hybridity in Translated Chinese [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen, Michaela Albl-Mikasa, Katrin Andermatt, Andrea Hunziker Heeb & Caroline Lehr
2020. Cognitive load in processing ELF: Translators, interpreters, and other multilinguals. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 9:2 ► pp. 217 ff. DOI logo
Ferreira, Aline
2014. Analyzing recursiveness patterns and retrospective protocols of professional translators in L1 and L2 translation tasks. Translation and Interpreting Studies 9:1 ► pp. 109 ff. DOI logo
Gieshoff, Anne Catherine & Andrea Hunziker Heeb
2023. Cognitive load and cognitive effort. Translation, Cognition & Behavior 6:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
Jääskeläinen, Riitta
2017. Verbal Reports. In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Kanglong, Muhammad Afzaal & Diego Raphael Amancio
2021. Syntactic complexity in translated and non-translated texts: A corpus-based study of simplification. PLOS ONE 16:6 ► pp. e0253454 ff. DOI logo
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M., Bo Wang, Yuanyi Ma & Isaac N. Mwinlaaru
2022. Translation as a Linguistic Process. In Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics [The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, ], ► pp. 237 ff. DOI logo
Sasamoto, Ryoko
2021. Onomatopoeia, translation and relevance. Pragmatics & Cognition 28:2 ► pp. 347 ff. DOI logo
Schaeffer, Moritz, David Huepe, Silvia Hansen-Schirra, Sascha Hofmann, Edinson Muñoz, Boris Kogan, Eduar Herrera, Agustín Ibáñez & Adolfo M. García
2020. The Translation and Interpreting Competence Questionnaire: an online tool for research on translators and interpreters. Perspectives 28:1 ► pp. 90 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Fuxiang
2022. Impact of translation difficulty and working memory capacity on processing of translation units: evidence from Chinese-to-English translation. Perspectives 30:2 ► pp. 306 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Yifang
2023. The impact of linguistic metaphor on translation unit in target text processing: An eye tracking and keylogging English-Chinese translation study. Ampersand 11 ► pp. 100129 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.