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Article published In: Target
Vol. 21:2 (2009) ► pp.235–264

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Further evidence for a functionalist approach to translation quality evaluation

 | The University of Arizona
Published online: 16 December 2009
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.21.2.02col
. 2008. “Translation Quality Evaluation: Empirical evidence for a Functionalist Approach”. The Translator 14:1. 97–134.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar proposes a componential-functionalist approach to translation quality evaluation and reports on the results of a pilot test of a tool designed according to that approach. The results show good inter-rater reliability and justify further testing. The current article presents an experiment designed to test the approach and tool. Data was collected during two rounds of testing. A total of 30 raters, consisting of Spanish, Chinese and Russian translators and teachers, were asked to rate 4–5 translated texts (depending on the language). Results show that the tool exhibits good inter-rater reliability for all language groups and texts except Russian and suggest that the low reliability of the Russian raters’ scores is unrelated to the tool itself. The findings are in line with those of . 2008. “Translation Quality Evaluation: Empirical evidence for a Functionalist Approach”. The Translator 14:1. 97–134.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar.
Résumé
. 2008. “Translation Quality Evaluation: Empirical evidence for a Functionalist Approach”. The Translator 14:1. 97–134.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar propose une approche componentielle et fonctionnelle de l’évaluation de la qualité des traductions et dresse un rapport sur les résultats d’un test-pilote portant sur un outil conçu pour cette approche. Les résultats attestent un taux élevé de fiabilité entre évaluateurs et justifient la continuation des tests. Cet article présente une expérimentation destinée à tester l’approche ainsi que l’outil. Des données ont été collectées pendant deux périodes de tests. Un groupe de 30 évaluateurs, composé de traducteurs et enseignants espagnols, chinois et russes, ont évalué 4 ou 5 textes traduits. Les résultats montrent que l’outil assure un bon taux de fiabilité entre évaluateurs pour tous les groupes de langues et de textes, à l’exception du russe ; ils suggèrent également que le faible taux de fiabilité des scores obtenus par les évaluateurs russes est sans rapport avec l’outil lui-même. Ces constats confirment ceux de . 2008. “Translation Quality Evaluation: Empirical evidence for a Functionalist Approach”. The Translator 14:1. 97–134.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar.
Article outline
  • 0.Introduction
  • 1.Translation quality revisited
    • 1.1Experiential approaches
    • 1.2Theoretical approaches
      • 1.2.1Reader-response approaches
      • 1.2.2Textual and pragmatic approaches
    • 1.3The functional-componential approach (Colina 2008)
  • 2.Second phase of TQA testing: Methods and Results
    • 2.1Methods
      • 2.1.1Raters
      • 2.1.2Texts
      • 2.1.3Tool
      • 2.1.4Rater Training
    • 2.2Results
  • 3.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (22)
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