Eye-movements During Translation: Large-scale Analyses Using the CRITT TPR Database

Translation process research or TPR, the study of the cognitive processes involved in translation, is a relatively new field characterised by small-scale studies with few participants and variables. However, the translation process is characterised by much variation between different translators, texts, tasks and languages, and larger-scale investigations are therefore highly desirable. To that end, we have publicly released the CRITT TPR database which currently contains data from 845 translation sessions but is continually extended. The database includes information about the source and
target texts as well as both eye-tracking and keylogging data.
Based on this database, I present a large-scale analysis of gaze on the source text based on 91 translators' translations of six different texts from English into four different target languages. I use mixed-effects modelling to compare from-scratch translation with post-editing of machine translated texts, uncovering similarities and dierences between the two processes, overall and in interaction with other variables also investigated. These include gaze and keystroke behaviour, word and n-gram probabilities, participant variables including expertise, and variables indexing the alignment between the source and target texts. The results are related to current models of translation processes and reading and compared to a parallel analysis of production time.