L'uso di risorse durante una prova di traduzione giuridica: uno studio empirico

Abstract

The study examines the use of the translator’s toolbox during a professional translation test (from Spanish to Italian) of a group of M.A. graduates in Specialized Translation recorded during their task. As far as the experiment and its environment are concerned, an attempt was made to simulate a professional setting, since the text was chosen by a translation agency and the participants worked online using all kinds of material at their disposal. From a methodological point of view, the work aims to study the translation process, focusing on the resources used to carry out the translation of a legal text, as well as to solve a group of rich points identified through the PACTE criteria (2005: 614). Finally, the study investigates the relationship between the use of tools and the quality of the target text. Data were collected through questionnaires (compiled both before and after the translation test), screen recordings and recordings of on-screen movements, allowing to analyse the trends in the use of resources during the translation test, as well as their consequences on the final result. The results seem to confirm previous studies on the identification of different translation phases during the translation process (Hvelplund 2019; Borg 2018) as well as on resources consultation (Hvelplund 2017; Onishi & Yamada 2020). However, this study highlights some discrepancies in the connection between the length of the resource consultation activity and the high-quality of the final product on a professional level (Sycz-Opoń 2019).

Keywords

• use of resources in translation
• instrumental competence
• translation process
• legal translation
• rich points