Who Verbalises What: A Linguistic Analysis of TAP Texts

Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit
University of Joensuu, Savonlinna School of Translation Studies

This paper suggests that a linguistic analysis of TAPs elicited by authentic-like translation briefs might reveal differences in existing or potential translational proficiency. A distinction is made between addressee-oriented and addressee-free verbalisations, and in focus are evaluative statements and expressives. Two tentative hypotheses emerge, namely that the proportion and specificity of evaluations of the target text increases with translational proficiency, and that expressives reveal attitudinal differences attributable to different levels of proficiency.

Table of contents

Protocol analysis has turned out to be a useful method for seeking information about the attitudinal side of translators' work. A linguistic analysis of think-aloud protocol texts is one way of approaching this area. In our earlier work we have analysed evaluative utterances in think-aloud protocols to identify the translators' subjective theories of translation and their professional self-image (see Tirkkonen-Condit and Laukkanen 1996).

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