Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

UNIT 3 THE METHODOLOGY OF DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION STUDIES

Sara Laviosa

3.1 Aims

In this unit we will examine the methods of investigation conceived and implemented
within the conceptual framework of Descriptive Translation Studies as it has been
proposed by Gideon Toury (1995) and presented in Unit 1 of Module 1 Translation
Studies as an Independent Discipline.

3.2 Objectives

By the end of this unit you will be familiar with a) the general aims of Descriptive
Translation Studies; b) its research methods and some empirical findings; c) the main
similarities and differences with corpus-based translation studies, so that you will be
able to use this methodology for your own research, should you wish to do so.

3.3 Reading

 Munday, J. (2001) Introducing Translation Studies. Theories and Applications.

London and New York: Routledge. Ch. 7: 108-125. [available as an electronic
book from the University of Birmingham elibrary]

 Puurtinen, T. (1994a) ‘Dynamic style as a parameter of acceptability in translated

children's books’. In Snell-Hornby, M., Pöchhacker, F. and Kaindl, K. (eds.).
(1994) Translation Studies: an Interdiscipline. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John
Benjamins. 83-91.

 Puurtinen, T. (1994b) ‘Linguistic difficulty in translated children's literature’.

Unpublished manuscript provided by the author.

 Toury, G. (1995) Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam and

Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Part I: 7-20; Part II: 21-112; Part IV: 259-280.
[available as an electronic book from the University of Birmingham elibrary]

31
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

3.4 Descriptive Translation Studies

This is a brief summary of Gideon Toury's map of Translation Studies which was first
introduced to you in Unit 1 of Introduction to Translation Studies. You need to refer
to that Unit in order to understand the main concepts which inform the methods of
research in descriptive translation studies.

In Toury's (1995) programme for translation studies, Descriptive Translation Studies

(DTS) is at the core of the discipline. Its aim is to describe the relationship between
the product, the process, and the function of translation through the systematic
analysis of representative translation samples. The central role played by DTS within
translation studies is put forward by Toury very strongly when he states that the
development of the descriptive branch of the discipline is the primary condition for
the evolution of translation studies into a complete and autonomous empirical science.

DTS focuses on the linguistic and cultural features of individual translations or groups
of translated texts. Translation theory first puts forward hypotheses about the nature of
translation, then, on the basis of the empirical evidence gathered by descriptive
research, it predicts translating behaviour and/or translation features. These
predictions are expressed in terms of what Toury calls probabilistic laws of
translational behaviour (see Unit 1 of Module 1, p. 9, and Toury (1995: Part IV).
These laws, together with the empirical descriptions which support them, may form
the basis of prescriptive rules of translation practice. These would be formulated only
by those who work in the separate field of the so called "Applied Extensions" of
translation studies, for example translation critics, teachers of translation, translation
planners, etc.

DTS comprises three main areas, namely the function, the process, and product of
translation. The function of translation is, according to Toury, the position or value
that the product of translation and the activity of translating occupy in the target
culture. Function determines the actual textual make-up of the translation and governs
the process of translating, that is, the strategies employed by the translator to produce
a target text from a source text and the resulting relationships between them.

32
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

3.5 The research methods of Descriptive Translation Studies

In this section you will study the research methods proposed by Gideon Toury for descriptive
translation studies, which consist of four essential phases. Each phase (except for the last
one) will be first presented, and then illustrated with an example taken from a completed
piece of research. In the presentation section you will be introduced to the main concepts
informing the methodology of DTS. In the illustrative section you will see how these notions
have been studied empirically, that is, through the analysis of specific linguistic features
found in authentic target and source texts.

3.5.1 Phase I

The methodological procedures that Toury puts forward for DTS start with the
identification of the object of study. This consists of individual translations or a
corpus of translations selected by the researcher within the target culture. According
to Toury translations are texts which belong to the target culture; they are texts in their
own right, not just mere representations of their source texts. This perspective is
known as target-oriented. In DTS the term 'corpus' does not have the same specialised
meaning assigned to it by corpus linguistics, but it generally refers to a relatively small
collection of texts assembled according to specified criteria and studied manually.
These collections include, for example, the texts of a particular translator, school of
translators, author, period of time, etc. Of course the automated analysis of an
electronic corpus is not incompatible with the general methodological approach of
DTS, but it does not constitute an essential part of it, as it will be shown later in 3.6.

The first stage of the analysis involves the assessment of the acceptability of each
individual text without reference to its source. Acceptability is the extent to which a
translated text adheres to the linguistic and cultural norms prevailing in the target
language for a particular text genre, for example science fiction, romance fiction,
thrillers, biographies, non-fiction, etc. An acceptable translated text is one which is
fluent and reads as an original piece of work. It is, in other words, naturalised in the
target language and culture. The reader is hardly aware that s/he is reading a
translation. The opposite concept is that of adequacy. An adequate translation is one
which leans towards the norms of the source culture and contains traces of the textual
make-up of the source text. The reader soon becomes aware that it is a translated text
because of its exocitism, which can be evident from the point of view of the contents,

33
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

cultural references, particular linguistic features, such as the use of loanwords or

foreign words or co-textual characteristics, such as the use of footnotes or glossaries.

Acceptability and adequacy are the extreme poles of a continuum. At one end of it we
find those translations which conform to the norms of the target culture, while at the
other extreme we find those translations which adhere closely to the norms of the
source culture. Although in the initial stage of the analysis the acceptability of a
translation or a corpus of translations is established without involving the source text
in any way, neither strategy can be ultimately fully assessed entirely in the target
environment because if we did, the results could be misleading. This is why:
apparently the level of acceptability of a given translated text can be assessed without
making reference to the source text. If a translation reads fluently and it is well
received by the target culture audience one can conclude that the translation is highly
acceptable. Yet, this type of analysis only gives a partial picture. By looking at the
source text and culture we may discover in fact that the linguistic and textual norms
prevailing in the target and source culture are similar. In this case how do we classify
the translation? Adequate or acceptable? We just do not know. We need to collect
more evidence in the course of our research and consider other aspects of the
translation process before we can suggest a conclusion.

According to Toury, the first step in assessing the position of a translation or a group
of translations on the acceptability-adequacy continuum is to compare different
synchronic translations into one language from the same source text. We could, for
example, compare the way in which different translators have rendered the names of
the characters of Charles Perrault's fairy tales in a particular language. Have they kept
the original names? Have they used unusual, foreign-sounding names or have they
chosen easily recognisable target language names?

Another kind of comparison that, in Toury's view, could be carried out entirely within
the target culture framework and would enable the researcher to establish the
acceptability of a corpus of translated texts, is the study of translations produced at
different periods of time into the same language. For example, we could compare the
way in which different translations of Hans Christian Handerson's fairy tales have
dealt with the names of places.

34
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

Moreover, the analysis of the successive phases of production of a translation by the

same translator would shed light on the concept of acceptability informing the
translator's choices during the process of translating. It may very well be, for istance,
that there may be a progression in each successive draft towards greater fluency and
readability.

Another type of research would be to compare the translations of the same source text
into different languages with a view to assessing possible variations concerning the
acceptability-adequacy dimension in a number of cultures. Munday (2001: 121-123)
for example compares the Italian and Spanish translations of the famous children's
book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. In particular he
analyses the suggestive names of characters and elements related to the school of
magic and sorcery attended by Harry Potter. Munday finds that while the Spanish text
retains the lexical items of the original, the Italian version tends to translate their
sense, plays with words, and changes many of them to create novel humorous effects.

Example: Puurtinen's study of acceptability in translated Finnish children's

fiction

Puurtinen (1989a; 1989b, in Toury, 1995) provides an example of one of the kinds of
analyses envisaged by Toury. She studies the readability of two Finnish translations of
The Wizard of Oz, both published in 1977. One translation is by Kersti Juva, Ozin
velho, the other by Marja Helanen-Ahtola, Oz-maan taikuri.

Initial hypotheses

Puurtinen hypothesises that readability - the ease of reading a text which is determined
by the level of linguistic difficulty - is one aspect of the prevailing linguistic norm of
original Finnish children's literature during the 1970s and 1980s. She infers this from
a significant number of linguistic studies of children's books, an analysis of a sample
of Finnish children's fiction, and from book reviews, which generally stress the
desirability of writing for children in a clear and comprehensible style. On the basis of
these data, Puurtinen hypothesises that readability is an aspect of acceptability in
translated Finnish children's literature. Of course a translator may or may not adopt
acceptability as a general guiding principle and overall strategy. A translator may, in
fact, on the basis of her/his stylistic preferences, opt for another type of strategy or

35
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

concept of translation. The notions of norm, acceptability, and adequacy are to be

intended as probabilistic concepts. They reflect, in other words, tendencies, trends in
the overall written production of translated and original texts in a given culture.

Discussion/Reflection Task1

Do you think that the initial hypotheses put forward by Puurtinen are data-driven or
theory-driven? Or partly data-driven and partly theory-driven? (Please use the
CELSTRAN list to exchange views on this).

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Object of analysis

After formulating her initial hypotheses, Puurtinen proceeds to analyse the syntactic
features which influence readability in both translations. Puurtinen examines in
particular the relative frequency of finite and nonfinite constructions. She focuses on
these specific syntactic features of style because of their link with the clarity and
comprehensibility of a text. A relatively high use of nonfinite constructions, she
argues, renders the style static, complex, difficult to process; while a relatively high
use of finite constructions renders the style dynamic, easy to follow and process,
therefore highly readable.

Finite constructions are:

(1) coordinate clauses (i.e. he slept soundly, then he woke up suddenly)

(2) subordinate clauses (i.e. as soon as they arrived, they asked for a cup of tea).

Nonfinite constructions are:

(1) contracted sentences

36
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

(1a) participial constructions (i.e. having been late for dinner, I had to eat it cold)

(1b) temporal constructions (i.e. having helped myself to a drink, I was ready to go)

(1c) purpose constructions (i.e. to do well in your exams, you must revise all your
work)

(2) premodified participial attributes (i.e. a very well written essay)

(3) 2nd infinitive instructives (i.e. he entered the bathroom singing happily)

(4) premodified gerund (i.e. after carefully considering the job description, I decided
not to apply).

First set of findings

Marja Helanen-Ahtola's translation is written in a 'static' style characterised by a

significantly higher number of nonfinite constructions compared with Kersti Juva's
'dynamic' translation. So far the study has been carried out entirely from a target-
oriented perspective and has focused on the empirical analysis of the product of
translation.

Discussion/Reflection Task 2

What conclusions can you draw from the first set of results about the relative
acceptability of these two translations?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

3.5.2 Phase II

The second phase of the methodology, as it has been proposed by Toury, starts with
the identification of the source text and proceeds to comparing the target text and its
source in parallel, that is sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph. The aim is to

37
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

determine the relationship that links a target text to its source. This parallel analysis
can also be used to study shifts that occur in translation vis-à-vis the source text.
Shifts are departures from the original text. According to Toury they can be of two
kinds: obligatory, which are caused by the different grammatical structures of the
source and target languages, and non-obligatory, which are motivated by literary,
stylistic or cultural considerations. Toury warns against the "negative kind of
reasoning" generally associated with the identification of shifts which usually leads to
assessing failures and successes in a translation rather than striving to describe and
understand what translation really entails (Toury, 1995:84). According to Toury, shifts
are to be studied from a descriptive, non judgemental perspective.

Example: analysis of Ozin velho and Oz-maan taikuri versus The Wizard of Oz

The first set of findings in Puurtinen's study show that Ozin velho is characterised by a
'dynamic' or readable style, while Oz-maan taikuri is written in a 'static' or complex
style. In order to discover the possible reasons for the difference between the two
translations, Puurtinen looks first of all at the corresponding structures in the source
text to assess the extent to which the translators' linguistic choices can be attributed to
the textual make-up of the original. Puurtinen compares all the occurrences of the four
categories of nonfinite structures found in each translation (see Phase I) with the
source text's counterparts. Puurtinen hypothesises that that the concentration of
nonfinite constructions in Helanen-Ahtola's translation may result from her attempt at
reproducing the style of the original by replacing source constructions with formally
equivalent Finnish structures, while disregarding their level of difficulty.

Second set of findings

In both translations approximately one third of the nonfinite constructions are formal
equivalents of the source text's expressions. Both translators appear to have adopted
the same strategy in translating nonfinite English structures. The striking difference
between their works is due to Helanen-Ahtola's tendency to render English finite
structures with Finnish nonfinite ones. Whereas Juva, in this particular translation,
tends to reproduce the style of the original work, and, in so doing, she also adheres to
the assumed prevailing linguistic norm in translated Finnish children's literature,
Helanen-Ahtola deviates both from the syntactic features of the original style and

38
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

from the norm of the target culture. The next natural question would be: is this a
regular feature of the style of the two translators?

3.5.3 Phase III

In the third stage of the analysis, the relationship established between source and
target text becomes the basis of generalisations about the norm governing the
relationship of equivalence for the selected pair of texts. Equivalence is not conceived
as an a-priori notion which is based on an absolute criterion of adherence to the source
text; it does not therefore refer to the set of all possible solutions that may be used in a
particular target text, but encompasses the actual relationships that exist between a
translation in a given target culture and the original text in the source culture. This
means that in a descriptive study the researcher will always assume that equivalence
exists. What s/he will uncover is the concrete way in which it is realised in terms of
the balance between invariance and transformation. This type of functional-relational
and culturally determined equivalence in turn constitutes a stepping stone for
discovering the concept of translation which informs the target text examined and it is
defined in terms of the acceptability-adequacy continuum.

Example: comparative analysis of other translations by Juva and Helanen-

Ahtola

In order to tease out the factors affecting the linguistic choices of Juva and Helanen-
Ahtola and arrive at a plausible generalisation about the guiding principle or norm
informing the relationship of equivalence existing between the target texts and their
source, Puurtinen assesses the average frequency of nonfinite structures in four other
translations by Juva and two other by Helanen-Ahtola. From this analysis Puurtinen
establishes that the style of Ozin velho and that of Oz-maan taikuri are consistent with
the translators' previous works. Now it is plausible to suggest that the overall strategy
adopted by Juva is one that leans towards invariance (she keeps close to the textual
make-up of the source text) while Helanen-Ahtola's is one that tends towards
transformation, she deviates from the original and gives rise to an idiosyncratic static
style. During this phase of her study, Puurtinen has moved from the analysis of the
product of translation to that of the process of translating.

39
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

Activity 1

Now that you have some evidence of the relationship of equivalence between the TT
and ST examined in Puurtinen's study, what is the concept of translation that informs
the two translations? In other words, where would you place each translation on the
acceptability-adequacy continuum?

___________________________________________________________________

The procedures so far outlined, are repeated for every text that is included in a corpus
created on the basis of criteria such as a particular translator, a school of translators,
an author, a period of time, a geographical area, a genre, etc. (Toury, 1995:36-39). The
goal of such an extended study would be to put forward generalisations which are not
limited to a single pair of texts, but apply to a coherent body of translations assembled
according to specified principles. These generalisations would in turn be elaborated by
the theoretical branch and incorporated into partial theories pertaining to a particular
variable, such as area, text type, period of time, etc. Such theories would subsequently
contribute to achieving the ultimate goal of the whole discipline: the formulation of
universal, probabilistic laws of translational behaviour, which will eventually account
for all the variables that have been found to be relevant to translation and translating.

Puurtinen's extension of her study to a corpus of original and translated Finnish

fiction

The initial small-scale study of two translations and their source text has been
invaluable for putting forward hypotheses about the linguistic norm which
characterises a given text genre in a target culture. A preliminary conclusion about the
dominant genre-specific linguistic norm of original and translated children' literature
in Finnish and the relative position of the two translations of The Wizard of Oz can,
however, only be put forward through the systematic analysis of a substantial number
of original and translated texts. To this purpose Puurtinen collects a sample of texts
consisting of 20 translations and 20 original children's books published in 1970-1985.
Her hypothesis is that both the original and the translational samples would show a

40
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

preference towards a dynamic style and the concept of translation prevailing during
that period of time would be one of acceptability.

The comparative analysis of the nonfinite structures used in the first 2000 words of
each text in both samples reveals that while the original works are characterised by a
dynamic style (with less than 30 nonfinite structures), the translations reveal a static
style (with more than 30 nonfinite structures). This finding is illuminating because it
shows clearly how limited and potentially misleading the analysis of a restricted
number of works can be. Puurtinen's hypothesis is only partially confirmed.
Consistently with her predictions children's books originally written in Finnish tend to
prefer a simple syntax, but, contrary to what was assumed at the end of Phase II of her
research, translated children's literature from the English tends to deviate from this
linguistic norm and appears to be informed by the principle of non acceptability. To
assess whether this trend is due to the a general strategy of transformation rather than
invariance, one would need to extend the study even further and analyse the English
source texts in parallel, just as Puurtinen does in her initial detailed study of The
Wizard of Oz and two Finnish translations.

Discussion/Reflection Task 3

In the light of these new findings, to what extent the two translations of The Wizard of
Oz conform to the preferred style exhibited by the sample of contemporary
translations on the one hand and to the style exhibited by original target language
works on the other?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

The descriptive methodology that Toury proposes involves a gradual inductive

progression from observable phenomena realised in real translation products to the
non- observable factors that govern translational behaviour. An example of a non-

41
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

observable factor is the status enjoyed by literary works translated from a particular
source language within the general target language literary production. These factors
cannot be studied directly, they can only be inferred from data gathered from various
sources available in the target culture. For example, while in Italy one novel out of
three is an English translation, in the UK and USA translations of fiction in general
constitute 2-3% of the total publishing output, a small percentage of which is from
Italian. From this data it is reasonable to suggest, at least provisionally, that translated
works from British and American English enjoy a fairly high status in the Italian
overall literary output.

At each stage of this process of gradual discovery of facts about the nature of
translation and translating, hypotheses are formulated on the basis of empirical
descriptions and then verified through further procedures that are first applied to the
initial individual text and then to an expanding corpus within the same target culture
and beyond it, aiming to achieve higher and higher levels of generalisation.

The interaction between data, description and empirically-derived principles is a

salient aspect of this method of inquiry into the subject matter of translation studies.
Toury stresses the desirability of developing a coherent descriptive methodology in
order to be able to compare results, replicate studies and systematically widen the
scope of our current knowledge concerning the nature of translation.

Puurtinen's research into the syntax of translated and original Finnish works
constitutes a very good example of how the research methods and procedures
proposed by Toury can be applied to reveal new facts about children's literature in
Finland during a particular period of time.

Munday's study of lexis in two different target language translations of the same
source text also provides a small but useful example of the kind of research that is
consistent with Toury's model. As well as literary texts one could study the translation
of film titles from the point of view of their acceptability or adequacy. Popular songs
constitute an interesting text genre to analyse from the point of view of non-obligatory
shifts since they tend to be adapted to suit the prevailing interests of the target

42
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

audience. The translation of taboo words in film dubbing or subtitling can also be a
fruitful area of investigation.

3.5.4 Phase IV

As well as studying individual translations and corpora, Toury puts forward a second-
order object of study: the norms that constrain translational behaviour (see
Sociotranslation, Unit 1). The postulation of this construct is based on the recognition
that the translation activity is embedded in its socio-cultural milieu and fulfills a
function assigned to it by the target community and for which there exist criteria of
appropriate behaviour that guide the translator in her/his choices. Three types of
norms are put forward:

(1) "initial norm", which concerns the choice of adequacy versus acceptability as the
global translation strategy;

(2) "preliminary norms", which concern "translation policy" (the individual works,
authors, text genres, literatures which are the preferred source of translation into a
given language at a particular point in time) and "directness of translation"
(whether it is acceptable in a given culture to translate a work via its translation in
another language);

(3) "operational norms" which govern decisions about the textual make-up of the
translated text, that is the actual linguistic choices made by translator at the level
of lexis, syntax, or discourse (Toury, 1995:56-58).

Since norms are unobservable, they can only be reconstructed. The two main sources
of data are the linguistic regularities observed in the translated texts themselves
(textual sources) and the extra-textual sources consisting of the principles put forward
by the prescriptive theories of translation, the statements made by critics, translators,
editors, publishers and other practitioners working in this field which can be retrieved
from book reviews, academic articles, face-to-face interviews, prefaces in published
translations. However, the statements gathered from indirect sources such as those
listed above are considered less reliable than linguistic evidence because they are
viewed as a by-product of the "existence and activity of norms" (Toury, 1995:65).
Moreover, this data may be biased and inconsistent with real-life performance. To

43
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

conclude, norms are descriptive, rather than prescriptive constructs and are reflected
in the observable regularities of translational behaviour. They guide the translator's
choices and they themselves are dependent on the position assigned to translation in a
given target culture system.

Discussion/Reflection Task 4

To what extent has Puurtinen's research attempted to unveil some of the norms that
inform the behaviour of translators of English children's literature into Finnish
published in the 1970-1985?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

3.6 Descriptive Translation Studies versus Corpus-based Translation

Studies

A parallel can be drawn between Toury's historical-descriptive approach to translation

studies and the principles underlying the corpus linguistics' outlook on language study.
Both embrace an empirical perspective and investigate their respective objects of
study through the direct observation of real-life examples, rather than through
speculations based on intuitive data or a-priori assumptions. Both approaches affirm
that the generalisations derived from empirical evidence can only be valid if based on
the study of collections of texts, not just individual works. Moreover, the nature of the
product and process of translation is discovered by systematic research, that is
research which is not restricted to isolated studies, but it expands continually by
enlarging the initial corpus of texts and finely tuning the initial hypotheses and
preliminary conclusions. Finally, final statements concerning the nature of translation
and translating are expressed in terms of probabilistic rules of behaviour rather than
prescriptive pronouncements.

44
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

There are also differences between the tenets that inform Toury's model and those
which inform corpus linguistics. Whereas, for the corpus linguist, there are no clear
boundaries between theory, data, description and methodology, for Toury these
elements do interact, but are essentially four distinct notions. Theory has, in fact, the
separate function of stating not only what is probable, but also what is possible in
translation. It therefore acts both as an independent source of hypotheses and a
generator of data-driven probabilistic models of translational behaviour.

Moreover, DTS accepts a variety of methods of analysis, so long as they are empirical
(that is based on authentic texts rather than invented examples); rigorous (that is
replicable, valid, and reliable), descriptive (that is not evaluative), and are conceived
within the discipline of translation studies.

In DTS, it is admissible, for example, to corroborate evidence gathered directly from

texts with introspective data collected via the technique known as think-aloud
protocol (TAP) (see Shutttleworth, M. 1997, pg.171, 172). This involves the
translators verbalizing everything that comes into their minds while they work on a
particular translation. Their verbal report is recorded or videoed and then analysed
with a view to studying the mental processes that underlie given translation strategies,
choices, or preferences.

Methodology is therefore considered just another dimension of DTS, not an integral

part of its definition, as is the case for corpus linguistics, whose object of study is
created by the methodology itself.

Furthermore, because the aim of Corpus Linguistic Research is to unveil the

interaction between the three elements of language function, meaning and form, the
only legitimate data are real-life spoken and written texts.

Any form of research into the mental processes of the language user inferred via
techniques such as TAP, for example, lies outside the discipline, and so does the
investigation of extra-linguistic sources of data, such as historical information,
reviews, critical evaluations, etc.

45
Translation Research Methods October 2011
Unit 3 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham

In Toury's model, on the other hand, since the aim of DTS is to explore the
relationship between function, product and process of translation, the study of the
decisions made by the translator - as revealed by manuscripts, typescripts, corrected
proofs - and the experimental investigation of the process of translating (through
techniques such as TAP) are considered appropriate and consistent with the empirical
approach that characterises DTS. The experimental methods, in particular, are praised
for offering "relative controllability of variables" and "high rate of replicability"
(Toury 1995: 222). An example of an experimental research design can be one in
which different groups of subjects selected according to given criteria (i.e.
professional translators and translator trainees) are asked to translate the one text in
the same target language under the same conditions as if it were a classroom test, with
a view to analysing differences and similarities in the strategies they adopt.

Finally, there are also differences with regard to the relationship between descriptive
and applied studies in DTS and corpus research respectively. The methodology
developed by corpus research in translation studies is equally valid and legitimate for
descriptive and applied studies, the two branches of the discipline interact with one
another and share the same analytical tools and outlook on translation. In Toury's
programme for translation studies on the other hand, the applied branch, or, more
precisely, the "Applied Extensions", is separate from the rest of the discipline in terms
of aims, outlook, object of study, and research methods.

3.7 Conclusions

The aim of Descriptive Translation Studies is to describe the relationship between the
function, the product, and the process of translation.

The research methods employed by DTS are empirical and rigorous. They rely
primarily on the linguistic analysis of authentic samples of target texts and source
texts. The empirical linguistic data are substantiated by research into extra-textual
information gathered from external well documented sources.

The methodology of DTS is largely compatible with the methodology developed by

corpus-based translation studies.

46
Translation Research Methods October 2011
 Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham Unit 3

3.8 Commentaries on activities

Commentary on Discussion/Reflection Task 2

Kersti Juva's translation conforms to the general preference in original Finnish

children's fiction of 1970s-1980s for a highly readable, clear, and comprehensible
written style, while Helanen-Ahtola's version deviates from this trend. Juva's
translation is therefore more acceptable than Helanen-Ahtola's within the Finnish
target culture.

Commentary on Activity 1

Juva's translation is acceptable, it conforms to the linguistic norm prevailing in the

target culture as it has been assessed independently through the study of original
comparable texts in the target culture and book reviews. The overall strategy adopted
by Juva is one of invariance, she keeps close to the syntax of the original text.
Assuming that the original text is representative of the children's books in the source
culture, Juva's translation is both acceptable and adequate. This may seem a paradox
only if one regards the two notions as discrete, absolute categories. But if one
correctly views them as aspects of a continuum or rather of two intersecting continua
(acceptable-non acceptable and adequate-non adequate), it is possible to say that a
given translation is relatively acceptable and relatively adequate. It will therefore
occupy a position close to the acceptability pole and the adequacy pole. On the other
hand, Helanen-Ahtola's translation is relatively non acceptable and relatively non
adequate, her work can be positioned near to the non acceptability and the non
adequacy pole.

47
Translation Research Methods October 2011