Exploring variation in student translation

What is it about?

When faced with a text to be translated, different translators will produce target versions that obviously display a high degree of similarity; however, variation will also inevitably occur as translators - like all language users - have a range of likely linguistic options at their disposal to express meaning. The paper explores the relationship between such variation and two possible variables, i.e. translator experience and the possibility of a "literal translation".

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Why is it important?

The research question is investigated using authentic data from a corpus of student and professional translations. Two significant findings: a) translation variation is most remarkable with respect to idiomatic, metaphorical and evaluative items, but also when a literal translation is not possible in the target language; b) translators generally prefer literal translations whenever acceptable in the target language, irrespective of their degree of experience.

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