TY - CHAP
T1 - Segmentation in Translation
T2 - A Look at Expert Behaviour
AU - Lykke Jakobsen, Arnt
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - The present contribution examines an interesting but technically quite imperfect sample recording in the CRITT Centre’s TPR-database in an attempt to demonstrate how imperfect gaze data can be meaningfully reconstructed and to illustrate and explore details of translational keystroke and gaze behaviour in a single translator. The data clearly show that translation proceeds segment by segment. A source text (ST) segment is read, comprehended, and translated. As the translation is typed, we see it emerging segment by segment. Perfectly smooth production of target text across extended stretches of time is not frequently seen, but is often approximated. Highly expert performers are able to bind processing segments together into a flow of continuous production. From their recorded gaze behaviour, we can observe that experts do process text segment by segment, so how is it that they can manage to sometimes maintain fairly continuous production? Evidence of how reading, comprehension, translation, formulation and typing activities are coordinated is found in recorded gaze data, which provide detailed evidence of what ST text unit was being worked on at any given point in time, and evidence provided by keystrokes. These combined sources of evidence can be used to infer both what ST (sub)segment was being processed within what ST context, and in what manner, always with the big unknowns at play of the translator’s knowledge, memory, meaning construction intelligence and expressive power – and the suspicion that the human brain is doing a good deal more than eye movements and keystrokes reveal.
AB - The present contribution examines an interesting but technically quite imperfect sample recording in the CRITT Centre’s TPR-database in an attempt to demonstrate how imperfect gaze data can be meaningfully reconstructed and to illustrate and explore details of translational keystroke and gaze behaviour in a single translator. The data clearly show that translation proceeds segment by segment. A source text (ST) segment is read, comprehended, and translated. As the translation is typed, we see it emerging segment by segment. Perfectly smooth production of target text across extended stretches of time is not frequently seen, but is often approximated. Highly expert performers are able to bind processing segments together into a flow of continuous production. From their recorded gaze behaviour, we can observe that experts do process text segment by segment, so how is it that they can manage to sometimes maintain fairly continuous production? Evidence of how reading, comprehension, translation, formulation and typing activities are coordinated is found in recorded gaze data, which provide detailed evidence of what ST text unit was being worked on at any given point in time, and evidence provided by keystrokes. These combined sources of evidence can be used to infer both what ST (sub)segment was being processed within what ST context, and in what manner, always with the big unknowns at play of the translator’s knowledge, memory, meaning construction intelligence and expressive power – and the suspicion that the human brain is doing a good deal more than eye movements and keystrokes reveal.
U2 - 10.1007/978-981-13-1984-6_4
DO - 10.1007/978-981-13-1984-6_4
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 9789811319839
T3 - New Frontiers in Translation Studies
SP - 71
EP - 108
BT - Researching Cognitive Processes of Translation
A2 - Li, Defeng
A2 - Lei, Victoria Lai Cheng
A2 - He, Yuanjian
PB - Springer
CY - Singapore
ER -