Chapter 2 Metalanguages and translation studies

"This edited volume covers the development and application of metalanguages for concretely describing and communicating translation processes in practice. In a modern setting of project-based translation, it is crucial to bridge the gaps between various actors involved in the translation process, especially among clients, translation service providers (TSPs), translators, and technology developers. However, we have been confronted with the lack of common understanding among them about the notion and detailed mechanisms of translation. Against this backdrop, we are developing systematic, fine-grained metalanguages that are designed to describe and analyse translation processes in concrete terms. Underpinned by the rich accumulation of theoretical findings in translation studies and established standards of practical translation services, such as ISO 17100, our metalanguages extensively cover the core processes in translation projects, namely project management, source document analysis, translation, and revision. Gathering authors with diverse backgrounds and expertise, this book proffers the fruits of the contributors’ collaborative endeavour; it not only provides practicable metalanguages, but also reports on wide-ranging case studies on the application of metalanguages in practical and pedagogical scenarios. This book supplies concrete guidance for those who are involved in the translation practices and translation training/education. In addition to being of practical use, the metalanguages reflect explicitation of the translation process. As such, this book provides essential insights for researchers and students in the field of translation studies.

Chapter 10 Modelling the process of translation using metalanguages

"This edited volume covers the development and application of metalanguages for concretely describing and communicating translation processes in practice. In a modern setting of project-based translation, it is crucial to bridge the gaps between various actors involved in the translation process, especially among clients, translation service providers (TSPs), translators, and technology developers. However, we have been confronted with the lack of common understanding among them about the notion and detailed mechanisms of translation. Against this backdrop, we are developing systematic, fine-grained metalanguages that are designed to describe and analyse translation processes in concrete terms. Underpinned by the rich accumulation of theoretical findings in translation studies and established standards of practical translation services, such as ISO 17100, our metalanguages extensively cover the core processes in translation projects, namely project management, source document analysis, translation, and revision. Gathering authors with diverse backgrounds and expertise, this book proffers the fruits of the contributors’ collaborative endeavour; it not only provides practicable metalanguages, but also reports on wide-ranging case studies on the application of metalanguages in practical and pedagogical scenarios. This book supplies concrete guidance for those who are involved in the translation practices and translation training/education. In addition to being of practical use, the metalanguages reflect explicitation of the translation process. As such, this book provides essential insights for researchers and students in the field of translation studies.

Chapter 1 Introduction

"This edited volume covers the development and application of metalanguages for concretely describing and communicating translation processes in practice. In a modern setting of project-based translation, it is crucial to bridge the gaps between various actors involved in the translation process, especially among clients, translation service providers (TSPs), translators, and technology developers. However, we have been confronted with the lack of common understanding among them about the notion and detailed mechanisms of translation. Against this backdrop, we are developing systematic, fine-grained metalanguages that are designed to describe and analyse translation processes in concrete terms. Underpinned by the rich accumulation of theoretical findings in translation studies and established standards of practical translation services, such as ISO 17100, our metalanguages extensively cover the core processes in translation projects, namely project management, source document analysis, translation, and revision. Gathering authors with diverse backgrounds and expertise, this book proffers the fruits of the contributors’ collaborative endeavour; it not only provides practicable metalanguages, but also reports on wide-ranging case studies on the application of metalanguages in practical and pedagogical scenarios. This book supplies concrete guidance for those who are involved in the translation practices and translation training/education. In addition to being of practical use, the metalanguages reflect explicitation of the translation process. As such, this book provides essential insights for researchers and students in the field of translation studies.

On the concept of “Comprehensiveness” in Information Services: The case of the online translation aid and hosting service Minna no Hon'yaku / Kyo Kageura and Takeshi Abekawa

The aim of this research is to clarify the concept of ―comprehensiveness‖ and its relationship to the concept of ―normativeness‖ in language reference tools and information for online translators, from the point of view of strategically providing useful reference information via a translation aid-service. The concept of ―comprehensiveness‖ in reference information has not been explored fully to dateThe questions to be answered are: What are the factors that determine different levels of ―comprehensiveness‖ and ―normativeness‖? How can ―comprehensiveness‖ be classified in relation to different types of reference lookup, and what kind of strategies can we define and adopt in developing and providing useful reference resources automatically or semi-automatically? While it is widely held that careful user studies are important in the strategic design of information services, empirical studies of potential users are not sufficient in the conceptualisation and development of advanced information services and tools which incorporate innovative functions or features, because quite frequently users do not understand what they want from the new information technologies. This is all the more true for issues in which one or more of the key concepts are not understood clearly. The question we wished to address fall precisely within this category, as the concept of ―comprehensiveness‖ has not yet been explored fully. We therefore took a deductive and analytical approach, firstly listing up the factors that affect the concept of ―comprehensiveness‖ and related concepts, with special reference to the translation-aid site Minna no Hon'yaku (translation of/by/for all: http://trans-aid.jp/), and deriving the classification of and desiderata for language reference tools and information from the objective of helping online translators. Although we adopted an analytical and deductive approach, the whole argument is implicitly supported by our own experience with actual translators' behaviour on the site Minna no Hon'yaku. Results of the analysis revealed that, within a framework of providing language reference tools for translators in general and in the context of the online translation-aid environment in particular, three different types of combinations of ―comprehensiveness‖ and ―normativeness‖ are of prominence and importance, namely: (i) task-oriented normativeness/comprehensiveness; (ii) domain-oriented normativeness/comprehensiveness; and (iii) user-oriented normativeness/comprehensivenes

Looking for Transliterations in a Trilingual English, French and Japanese Specialised Comparable Corpus

International audienceTransliterations and cognates have been shown to be useful in the case of bilingual extraction from parallel corpora. Observation of transliterations in a trilingual English, French and Japanese specialised comparable corpus reveals evidences that they are likely to be used with comparable corpora too, since they are an important and relevant part of the common vocabulary, but they also yield links between Japanese and English/French corpora

The correlation between library circulation and bookstore circulation in Japan: A time series analysis / Bin Umino, Kyo Kageura and Shinichi Toda

The objective of this paper is to investigate the interrelationship between the two main book distribution channels in Japan, bookstores and libraries. For this purpose, we compare and analyse the circulation of books via bookstores and via libraries in the 60 years since the end of World War II. We also focus on domestic economic trends as an external factor influencing book circulation. Three time-series variables were analysed: total annual net paid circulation via bookstores (from 1953 to 2009), total annual circulation via public libraries (from 1958 to 2008), and the real economic growth rate, calculated on the basis of real GDP, for each calendar year (from 1956 to 2009). The circulation of books via libraries has increased almost monotonically since the 1960s, while that via bookstores has decreased since reaching a peak in 1996. Simple correlation coefficients and partial correlation coefficients were calculated to demonstrate synchronous relationships between each pair of the three time-series variables. Tests of non-correlations for each correlation coefficient were also conducted. Finally, the Granger causality test was conducted to demonstrate anterior-posterior relationships among variables. From the results of the correlation analyses and the Granger causality test, we can conclude with reasonable certainty that book circulation has been affected by economic trends, whereas the correlation between the circulation of books via bookstores and the circulation of books via libraries is in fact spurious. To eliminate the population effect, per-capita circulation was also calculated. The per-capita circulation data also supported the above conclusion