Translation and the Changing Profession: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective

Disciplines that deal with the selection, dissemination, and translating of information have had to adapt to changes that have come with the adoption of new technology. On the one level there has been a reflection in research on the responsibilities and relevance of the discipline itself and the professions associated with it. The “communication” professions have also shown a concomitant movement toward contracting rather than salaried positions, and so both the day-to-day organization of work and the institutionalized practices of entering the workforce, gaining experience, and being promoted have changed. Power relations inherent in organizational structures change as the organization of work changes, and the intrinsic values associated with professions that produce knowledge products change with reorganization as well. While technology has challenged all communication professions with change, the responses across these fields have been very different. This paper is about those differences in translation and disciplines close to translation. How has each discipline adapted (or not) to changes in the way its profession has evolved, and what does current research say about these transformations?L’avancement technologique a grandement influencé les disciplines qui doivent sélectionner, propager et traduire l’information. Sur le plan de la recherche, on peut constater la présence de nombreuses réflexions quant à la responsabilité et à la pertinence de la traduction et de ses professions connexes. Désormais, dans le grand domaine des communications, on choisit de travailler à contrat plutôt qu’en entreprise, ce qui entraîne de nombreux changements, que ce soit dans l’organisation de l’emploi du temps ou dans les possibilités d’avancement traditionnelles telles que les promotions basées sur l’ancienneté. Ces changements remettent en question les relations de pouvoirs propres aux structures organisationnelles de même que les valeurs intrinsèques que l’on associe à ces professions. Bien que toutes les professions qui transmettent un savoir et produisent de l’information aient été influencées par l’avancement technologique, la réponse à ces changements n’est pas la même pour l’ensemble du domaine. Cet article s’intéresse à ces différences. Les disciplines doivent-elles, elles aussi, faire face au changement à mesure que les professions évoluent? La recherche s’interroge-t-elle, à l’heure actuelle, sur ces transformations

Shortcuts, Strategies and General Patterns in a Process Study of Nine Professionals

To date, most process studies have had to get around the problem of duplicating the working environment of professional translators. In fact, the definition of professionalism itself has varied. This study was designed specifically to focus on the strategies of a large group of professionals all from the same workplace. The research involved nine translators in the linguistics department of one pharmaceutical company working on the kind of text that required their specialized experience. It was hoped that if there were experience-related or text-specific strategies shared by translators in the same institutional environment, they would surface either in the record of the translating process or in the think-aloud or retrospective protocols.Jusqu’à maintenant, les études qui ont porté sur le processus de traduction ont toujours dû faire face à la difficulté de reproduire les conditions de travail réelles des traducteurs professionnels. Même la définition de ce qu’on entend par professionnalisme a pu varier. Notre étude, en revanche, s’est donné pour objectif de ne considérer que les stratégies employées au sein d’un groupe assez nombreux de professionnels travaillant tous dans un même lieu. Ce groupe était composé de neuf traducteurs travaillant pour une compagnie pharmaceutique à des traductions requérant des connaissances et de l’expérience dans ce domaine de spécialisation. Nous pensions en effet que s’il existait des stratégies propres à tous les traducteurs appartenant à un même environnement institutionnel, celles-ci apparaîtraient soit dans le processus de la traduction capté par vidéo, soit dans les remarques qu’ils pouvaient se faire tout haut en travaillant (les TAP’s) ou dans les entretiens à la fin de chaque séance d’enregistrement

Navigation by Dead Reckoning and Local Cues

According to comprehensive theories of navigation, animals navigate by using two complementary strategies: (1) dead reckoning informs the subject in a continuous manner on its actual location with respect to an Earthbound or absolute coordinate system; while (2) long-term associations between particular landmarks and specific locations allow the animal to find its way within a familiar environment. If the subject structures familiar space as a system of interconnected places - the so-called ‘cognitive map' - it may know through dead reckoning where it is located on its map and relate its route-based expectations to the actually perceived scenario of local cue

Proposal for PS beam tests of a fast rich detector

A full scale prototype Fast RICH detector with pad readout for unambiguous imaging has been constructed for operation in a high luminosity environment. It uses the best photosensitive gas capable of fast response (TEA) or the intrinsically fast solid photocathode (CsI/TMAE), developed specifically for this purpose. It can be used at e+e- or hadron colliders as well as at fixed target facilities. It has time resolution of 20 ns with a 1.3 microsecond pipeline and parallel readout of 4000 pad sectors. Fast digital VLSI electronics has been developed for readout and 24000 channels have been tested. The prototype device (12000 pad channels) is assembled and ready for beam tests in 1993

The X-HPD: Conceptual Study of a Large Spherical Hybrid Photodetector

We present the results of a conceptual study demonstrating the feasibility of a large spherical hybrid photodetector with central anode. A prototype tube with 208 mm diameter and an anode in form of a metallic cube has been fabricated. In the final version of the so-called X-HPD concept the anode will be a scintillator cube with plated faces and a small photodetector to read out the bottom. The bialkali photocathode covers three quarters of the sphere surface. Combined use of this cathode in transmissive and reflective mode leads to effective quantum efficiency values exceeding those obtained in conventional hemispherical PMT designs. Further features of the concept are a photoelectron collection efficiency approaching 100% and a photon amplification in the scintillator crystal leading to a distinct single photoelectron signal. Using a custom built electron accelerator based on a CsI transmissive photocathode, LSO and YAP block crystals in geometries adapted to the anode of an X-HPD have been tested with single photoelectrons in the 10-30 keV energy range. The scintillation light was read out with a conventional PMT or a Si-PM. More than 30 photoelectrons per incident electron could be detected with the PMT