Investigating the conceptual-procedural distinction in the translation process
Fábio Alves, José Luiz Vila Real Gonçalves · Target International Journal of Translation Studies · 2013
This article draws on relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1986/1995) and its application to translation ( Gutt 2000 ) to investigate processing effort in translation in relation to two different types of encodings, namely conceptual and procedural encodings ( Blakemore 2002 , Wilson 2011). Building on the experimental paradigm of data triangulation in translation process research ( Alves 2003 ; Jakobsen 2005 ), it analyses the translation processes of eight professional translators when performing a direct and an inverse translation task. The analysis focuses on the number and types of encodings found in micro/macro translation units ( Alves and Vale 2009 ; 2011). Results suggest that processing effort in translation is greater in instances of procedural than conceptual encodings.