What it's all about:

This area examines the complex processes and strategies that take place or are necessary to translate a text/speech from one language into another. The focus here is not only on the differences between languages and cultures, but also, for example, on the way in which people translate/interpret, which tools they use, or what influence the working environment has on the processes taking place in the brain when using certain translation tools or when interpreting online from home at a conference. The insights gained here are ultimately also relevant when considering how to efficiently train future professional linguists today.

More specifically:

The focus is on those processes that lie between the source text/discourse and the target language product(s), or are in some cases upstream or downstream of these. It is not only the cultural specificity and language-structural characteristics of the input and output that play a role here, but also the modality and hybridity of the transfer.

Focussing on processes and strategies requires, on the one hand, the consideration of translation in its situational embedding and thus its complexity as well as the interdependence of its variables. The latter results from the complexity of both the addressees of translation and the technologies and translation tools used in the process. The attempt to optimise translation processes and/or strategies leads not only to the consideration and modelling of the (changing) overall context, but also to a focus on cognitive processes of information processing. The resulting examination of questions relating to cognitive load and, in particular, the efficient (re)mediation of translation strategies or modelling of skills relevant to translation have a direct interface with the focus on didactics. Questions about the role of AI and the use of tools in the translation process are in turn directly related to the focus on automation.

Coordination:
Martina Behr, Bianca Prandi

People active in the focus area:
Vladimir Balakhonov
Martina Behr
Pius ten Hacken
Jennifer Konzett
Martina Mayer
Bianca Prandi
Aleksandar Trklja
Katharina Walter