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Language Arts & Disciplines Translating & Interpreting

Translation Quality Assessment

An Argumentation-Centred Approach

by (author) Malcolm Williams

Publisher
University of Ottawa Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2004
Category
Translating & Interpreting
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780776617367
    Publish Date
    Jul 2004
    List Price
    $14.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780776605845
    Publish Date
    Jul 2004
    List Price
    $29.95

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Description

Outlining an original, discourse-based model for translation quality assessment that goes beyond conventional microtextual error analysis, Malcolm Williams explores the potential of transferring reasoning and argument as the prime criterion of translation quality. Assessment through error analysis is inevitably based on an error count - an unsatisfactory means of establishing, and justifying, differences in quality that forces the evaluator to focus on subsentence elements rather than the key messages of the source text. Williams counters that a judgment of translation quality should be based primarily on the success with which the translator has rendered the reasoning, or argument structure. Six aspects for assessment are proposed: argument macrostructure, propositional functions, conjunctives, types of arguments, figures of speech, and narrative strategy. Williams illustrates the approach using three different types of examples: letters, statistical reports, and argumentative articles for publication. Translation Quality Assessment offers translators a new set of flexible and modular standards.

About the author