Volume 61, Issue 2

This paper takes a cognitive translational perspective on the field of specialised translation. In a first step, it surveys the three cognitive scientific paradigms of symbol manipulation, connectionism and situated cognition and discusses the influence of these three paradigms on the development of cognitive translation studies. The currently dominating cognitive scientific paradigm of situated cognition and the corresponding translation theory of situated translation (Risku 2004) then serve as a basis for developing the Cologne Model of the Situated LSP Translator, which attempts to give a comprehensive account of the relevant factors influencing the LSP translator’s cognitive performance in real-world translation settings. While discussing the structure and components of the model, I will illustrate potential areas of application and possible research perspectives than can be derived from it.

In order to adapt universities to the social, disciplinary and professional needs, we consider it necessary to contextualise the professional profiles of translators. The main groups involved in the educational process are translation teachers and researchers, employers and students/graduates, and their contribution to the definition of professional profiles is essential. Therefore, in this article we will focus on studies about professional profiles from the following perspectives: translation market studies, academic research, research on labour market insertion and students’ expectations. These studies will allow us to draw conclusions that could be applied during curricular design.

The Spanish Inquisition has been widely studied and approached from the perspective of different disciplines. However, from the point of view of Traductology, the role translators and interpreters played during that time is very little known. Authors who have published works in English about the Inquisition are numerous and some of them have mentioned interpreters involved in trials, ship registers, confessions, etc. This article collects references in these publications to the figure of language intermediaries, whether they were found among clerics, artisans or traders, to mention but a few of the wide range of professions carried out by those who ended up translating for the inquisitors.

The differences in Russian and German verb systems cause problems in translation. In translation from German one of Russian aspectual forms has to be chosen, whereby, as is shown, several criteria are useful: the right and the left context, the accordance of several verbs in a phrase, and semantic nuances of the verb itself. The problems of translating from Russian into German were treated with the help of an experiment. A questionnaire of Russian sentences was given to bilingual students who were asked to translate them into German. The informants rendered the Russian aspect by lexical means, some of them being close to grammatical but not grammaticalized, sometimes also by the alternations of terminative and cursive verbs.

This article outlines the revision of DIN 2335 standard on language identifiers, which dates back to 1986. The aim of the revision is, for the first time, to standardise language names alongside language identifiers. A list of sources compiled specially for this purpose from which language names with information of relevance to the term or concept have been taken will serve as a basis. Moreover, uniform name selection criteria are developed with a view to making the decision in favour of certain language names transparent and understandable to others. The analysis shows that it is not always possible to strike a balance between a descriptive and a normative approach.

The article analyses how the Swiss Confederation regulates its multilingualism and the role the official languages play in the legislative and judicial processes of this country. It is proved here that the legislation in Switzerland is not made in all four official languages, hence it depends on translation. Considering that only German and French text versions of Swiss laws are aligned to each other, the article further examines whether the differences existing between the language versions of these legal texts lead to pragmatic divergences. Against this backdrop, the article considers whether the legal system of the multilingual Switzerland can be called multilingual.

Politeness exists in all society and in many diverse ways. This is because it is based on the common value system. Politeness helps to secure social coexistence of individuals as well as helps to achieve goals of the society that individuals belongs to, which is to form a society with less conflictive coexistence. Politeness has a special meaning because it is on the cross walk of culture, social, cognition, and language, in relation to communicative competence. A range of studies regarding politeness have already been conducted. However, past research about politeness was on the premises in which it hypotheses that politeness applies to all cultures the same, but it overlooks the cultural differences of all cultures in different societies. It is necessary to conduct this new research because previous studies such as Lakoff, Leech, and Brown/Levionson have focused on universal politeness.

This article is based on the preliminary results of an interview project with managers, project leaders, and translators from three major German multimedia archives who are/were involved with translating audio-visual Holocaust testimony for educational purposes. It will focus on the economic aspects in this highly sensitive field of translation and assess what status translation is given within these projects. Despite of the narrow research framework, the findings point out to broader issues related to current outsourcing practices instead of integrating translation as central part of a project.

This research study deals with public examinations of translators and interpreters in the German state of Hesse. Since 2012, candidates have completed a semi-structured questionnaire before entering the conclusive oral part of the examination. The purpose is twofold. The questionnaires provide information on the candidates’ social characteristics, education, professional interests and experience, and at the same time are an opportunity to evaluate the examination office and its officials. The key results are presented here, accompanied by a general overview of the languages examined, the number of candidates over the years, and their different success rates.