## What Were They Thinking?! Students' Decision Making in L1 and L2 Translation Processes

## Abstract

In spite of the 'Golden Rule' that translators should only work into their fi  rst language, translation into the second language (L2 translation) is a fact of life in settings involving languages of 'limited diffusion'. Even in countries that use one of the traditionally 'major' languages, research into L2 translation and its training is becoming increasingly topical with the emergence of global translation markets and the worldwide dominance of English. This paper examines novice translators' decision-making in video- and audio-recorded collaborative (group) translation processes in two directions: into the students' fi  rst language (Croatian) and from that language into their second language (English). The study aims to identify and classify the different arguments the subjects use in deciding which of the tentative solutions to translation problems to use in the fi  nal version of their translation. It is hypothesised that similar arguments are used in both directions but with a different distribution. Only the former hypothesis is fully corroborated by the evidence from the verbal protocols.

## 1. Introduction: Why do research on L2 translation?

In many countries that use a 'language of limited diffusion', translation into the second language, or L2 translation, is a fact of life (see e.g. Campbell 1998, Snell-Hornby 1997, McAlester 1992: 292, Pokorn 2005: 37). In such settings the 'Golden Rule' (see e.g. Newmark 1988, Carpenter 1999, Borges 2005, Neilan 2006, Durban 2002, Translation and Languages 2006) that professional translators should only work into their fi  rst language (L1), which translators working with 'major' languages are taught to abide by, is a luxury that cannot be afforded. In countries such as Croatia, whose language is rarely mastered to high levels of competence by anyone other than its native speakers, translation from Croatian has been and remains in the hands of L2 translators. A recent survey, for example, found that 70% of full-time translators and interpreters in that country do more than half of their workload into their L2 English (Pavlovi ć 2007a).

Even translators whose fi  rst language is one of the 'major' languages are more and more frequently required to work out of that language into English, the dominant language of the globalizing world (Cronin 2003: 144-146, Roiss 1998: 378, Schmitt 1990: 101). Indeed, as Snell-Hornby (2009) suggests, it might be useful to abandon the binary opposition between 'minor' and 'major' languages in favour of de Swaan's (2001) metaphor of a 'galaxy of languages'. The Dutch sociologist explains that 98 percent of today's languages - of which there are thousands - are used by less than 10 percent of humankind: he calls these 'peripheral' languages. Peripheral languages are grouped around a 'central' language, much like 'moons circling a planet' (de Swaan 2001: 5). Central languages are usually national languages or offi  cial languages of nation states. If mother-tongue speakers of a central language acquire a second language, it is usually one that is more widely spread and higher up on the hierarchy: a 'supercentral' language, which is compared to a sun circled by planets. Supercentral languages are often those that were imposed in former colonies, and are still used in politics, administration, law, business and higher education. According

* Nataša Pavlovi ć University of Zagreb Ivana Lu č i ć a 3 HR-10000 Zagreb Croatia natasa.pavlovic@zg.t-com.hr

63

to de Swaan, supercentral languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Malay, Portugese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili. Each of these languages (except Swahili) has more than one hundred million speakers, but the language that 'holds the entire constellation together' (de Swaan 2001: 6) is a 'hypercentral' language, English. English, according to de Swaan, is a language with the highest 'Q-value', that is, communicative potential. The author assumes that, given a chance, people will learn a language with a higher 'Q-value'; language learning that goes 'downward' in the hierarchy would be an exception rather than the rule. This, in turn, is a self-reinforcing process, as people tend to favour a language they believe others are learning, as this gives it a higher communicative value.

De Swaan's model can help us to visualise the situation when it comes to availability of translators for particular language combinations. If translation is done 'downward' in the hierarchy, the availability of L1 translators will tend to be higher: there are a lot of Croats achieving high levels of competence in the hypercentral language and some of the supracentral ones with which the country has either historical or present-day ties. (Distance and (non)existent historical ties can obviously override the hierarchy: not too many Croats learning Malay despite the latter language's higher Q-value in the absolute sense.) If translation is done 'upward', the number of mothertongue translators can be expected to be lower: there are few native speakers of English, French, German or Spanish learning Croatian, and fewer still reaching high levels of competence in that language. Nevertheless, the need for translation between certain language combinations exists in both ways: upward and downward in the hierarchy. As a result, 'upward' translation is often L2 translation - even when it comes to supracentral languages in relation to the hypercentral language. This fact makes research on L2 translation a very relevant topic for Translation Studies. For that reason, the past ten to fi  fteen years have seen a growing interest in translation directionality, which topic even became the main focus of forums and conferences (e.g. Kelly et al. 2003; Grosman et al. 2000).

For translation teachers in settings where L2 translation is a regular practice, the main dilemma is, therefore, not whether translators should work into their L2, but rather how to help them do it well. The obvious question is whether L2 translation teaching should be different than L1 translation teaching and, if so, in what way. This in turn begs the question of how exactly (student and professional) L2 translation differs from L1 translation. There are many unconfi  rmed, subjective theories on the matter, but not so much systematic empirical research.

The study I report on in this paper was part of my PhD project, in which I investigated novice translators' L1 and L2 translation processes using group verbal reports that I call collaborative translation protocols (CTP). The overall aim of the project was to compare the processes in two directions along a series of parameters, such as the number and type of problems the subjects encountered, the tentative solutions they considered, the resources they used, their actions and interactions, the decision-making process, and the quality of the fi  nal products. In this paper, I report on the fi  ndings concerning the decision-making process, that is, how the subjects assessed their proposed solutions to a given translation problem. I was interested in the kinds of arguments they used to decide whether a tentative solution was suitable or not, and I wanted to compare those arguments in the two directions of translation. Before I describe the aims, hypotheses and methodology in more detail, I would like to say a few words about recent changes in translation pedagogy.

## 2. Process research and process-oriented translation pedagogy

Over the past decade, translation pedagogy has seen a number of signifi  cant changes. Prescriptive rulings handed down by authoritative teachers seem to be receding in favour of learning environments in which students are exposed to real-life situations and made aware of all the different factors that bring to bear on their translation decisions (see e.g. Kiraly 2000, González Davies 2004, Peverati 2009). This gradual shift from teacher-centred to learner-centred methods has often been accompanied by a move from individual translation as the only type of assignment to inclusion of collaborative assignments and project learning, and from strictly face-to-face to blended or fully virtual environments. Collaborative learning environments with the support of platforms for online learning seem to be increasingly complementing traditional classes focusing on individual translation assignments only.

Another innovation in translation pedagogy has been an increased focus on translation processes, and not just translation products (see e.g. Gile 1995, Gile 2004, Kussmaul 1995). Attempts have been made to employ some of the methods used in translation process research in order to learn more about the kinds of problems translation students are facing and get to the root of typical or frequent errors (see e.g. Hjort-Pedersen/Faber 2009, Dam-Jensen/Heine 2009). Process-oriented translation pedagogy has the advantage of focusing on procedural, rather than declarative knowledge, and the outcome of such learning lends itself to applicability in new situations. It allows teachers to see what the students are struggling with and thus makes it easier to provide help and advice through relevant projects and tailor-made exercises.

The subjects in the study I am reporting on had been exposed to collaborative learning in a blended environment: face-to-face classes in combination with online tasks using the Moodle platform (Moodle 2009). The project that this study was a part of was my fi  rst attempt to investigate their translation processes in depth, and to feed the fi  ndings of that research back into the teaching methods. I will now explain how I conducted the study.

## 3. About the study

## 3.1.  Research questions

The questions I posed at the beginning of my research project were the following: What kinds of translation problems do students encounter when translating comparable texts in two directions? How many in each direction? Is there a difference in the way they use their internal resources depending on the direction of translation? What external resources do they consult and in what way? If given no restrictions on time, how many tentative solutions do they consider per problem in each direction? How do they decide which of the tentative solutions to select for the fi  nal version of their translation? What kinds of arguments do they use? Is there any difference between L1 and L2 translation when it comes to the kinds of arguments used and their distribution? What is the quality of the fi  nal product, and is there a difference in the number and seriousness of the errors in each direction? What are the most common sources of error? What can the distribution of their actions and interactions tell us about their translation styles? Are translation styles related to individual preferences, or to directionality?

In this paper, I report only on a small segment of the project, that segment which had to do with the nature and distribution of arguments used to assess the tentative solutions. The sections on aims, hypotheses, methodology and research design will therefore focus solely on that part of the project (further referred to as 'the study').

## 3.2.  Aims

The primary aim of the study was to investigate the nature and distribution of arguments that novice translators use to assess tentative solutions in L1 and L2 translation processes involving comparable general-language texts. I set out to compare the two directions regarding the nature of the arguments, with a view to proposing a classifi  cation based on the data from the verbal protocols (see section 3.4. for details on methodology). I further aimed to compare the distribution or frequency of such verbalizations, expecting to fi  nd differences between L1 and L2 translation in this respect.

Another aim was to discuss the fi  ndings in such a way that they might prove relevant for L2 translation pedagogy, and to outline avenues of future research.

## 3.3.  Hypotheses

I hypothesised that a) similar types of arguments can be found in decision-making processes in both L1 and L2 translation of general-language texts , but that b) the distribution of arguments differs depending on the direction of translation .

Since much of the research into directionality is still at an exploratory stage, it is diffi  cult to provide solid reasons grounded in previous work that would explain why the hypotheses were formulated in this particular way and not another. A number of studies comparing translation processes along certain parameters seem to have found the same categories of phenomena to be present with different frequency or distribution. Thus Krings (1986) found that the basic categories related to translation strategies were the same in both language directions, but the order of application of the strategies depended on language direction. Similarly, Englund Dimitrova (2005: 123-134) found the same categories for what she calls 'evaluations' of translation solutions in the protocols of students and professionals, but with different distribution. It therefore seemed reasonable to expect L1 and L2 translation protocols to feature the same types of evaluations - or 'arguments', a term that is less likely to be confused with evaluation or assessment of the fi  nal translation product - but with different frequency/distribution in the two directions.

Ultimately, whatever partial evidence or intuition might have inspired the hypotheses is much less relevant than their potential to yield benefi  cial results. The hypotheses above seemed worth testing in that the fi  ndings promised to shed additional light on the differences between L1 and L2 translation and in the long run provide an evidence-based model for L2 translation teaching.

## 3.4.  Methodology and research design

In order to test the above hypotheses, I conducted a series of experiments in which novice translators were asked to translate two texts, one into their L1 (Croatian) and the other into their L2 (English). I used collaborative translation protocols as a method of data collection. CTP is a type of verbal report in which subjects perform translation tasks in groups (in my study, groups of three), working on the same source text (ST) and making translation decisions based on consensus. Collaborative translation of this kind is particularly - although not exclusively - encountered in learning environments. I discuss its advantages and limitations as a research method elsewhere (Pavlovi ć 2009). To fulfi  l the aims of this study, it was of crucial importance to elicit as much verbalization related to the decision-making processes as possible, and to this end CTP proved a very suitable method. For the same reason, the time for the tasks was not limited.

The collaborative translation sessions were video- and audio-recorded. To minimize the anxiety-inducing effect, the camera was placed at an elevated position, out of the subjects' fi  eld of vision. The researcher was not present in the room. Later, the collaborative translation protocols obtained from the sessions were transcribed and the data analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively (see 3.7).

## 3.5.  Subjects

Twelve subjects, working in four groups, participated in the collaborative translation sessions. The same subjects were asked to translate in both directions, from and into their L1, with a view to reducing subject-related variability in the two directions.

The study took place after the subjects had taken their fi  nal-year translation exam (details of the study programme are given in Pavlovi ć 2007b). The reason why these 'novices' were considered particularly suitable for the experiments was that they found themselves at a point 'between the familiar knowledge communities they already belong to and the one that they do not yet belong to but are trying to join' (Bruffee 1999: 75). Their stage of development could be described as that of 'conscious competence' (see González Davies 2004: 40). While their translation competence was expected to be relatively well developed, they were also expected to encounter problems and to be able to articulate and discuss them, explaining and justifying their decisions.

The subjects'  previous  contact  with  translation  had  been  mostly  in  the  educational  setting. They had translated both individually and collaboratively. The latter fact meant that the experimental task was a relatively natural situation for them. It was hoped that doing the collaborative task in the environment of trust 'emanating from community membership' (Kiraly 2000: 77) would help relieve the potential stress involved in taking part in an experiment and thus ensure conditions more like those in the students' regular learning environment. Judging from the recordings, the post-translation questionnaires and unsolicited off-record comments by the students, this seems to have been achieved to a high degree.

## 3.6.  Source texts and brief

The STs were general-language texts belonging to the same type and genre. Both were around 230-word long excerpts from popular travel guides - a guide to Ireland and a guide to Croatia dealing with roughly the same historical period. This type of text is frequently translated in both directions in the Croatian market, which was one of the reasons I decided to use it.

The main challenge was to fi  nd two texts that would be comparable and at the same time not similar enough to cause the 'learning' or 'retest' effect. In order to further counter the retest effect, half of the groups ('A' and 'C') translated into L2 fi  rst, and then into L1, while the others (groups 'B' and 'D') worked in the opposite order. There was no signifi  cant difference found related to the order of the tasks.

To assess their comparability, the texts were pre-tested on comparable subjects with the help of integrated problem and decision reports (IPDR; see Gile 2004). The readability of the two STs was additionally compared with the help of SMOG readability formula (McLaughlin 1969/2007).

Both texts were accompanied by a realistic task description (assignment or 'brief'). The brief included information about the source, the (assumed) publisher and target readers, as well as quality requirement. The two STs, a gloss of the Croatian ST, and the brief can be found in the Appendices section.

## 3.7.  Data analysis

## 3.7.1.  Qualitative analysis

Grounded Theory, an approach to qualitative research developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, defi  nes qualitative analysis as 'a nonmathematical process of interpretation, carried out for the purpose of discovering concepts and relationships in raw data and then organizing these into a theoretical explanatory scheme' (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 11). Qualitative methods are used in a variety of fi  elds and for a variety of research problems, especially in relation to those phenomena that are 'diffi  cult to extract or learn about through more conventional research methods' such as 'feelings, thought processes, and emotions' (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 11). While research on translation processes does yield data that are countable and measurable and therefore quantitatively analyzable, using only those methods would severely limit the achievements of studies involving such a complex phenomenon as translation.

Qualitative methods of description and coding were used in this study to develop the main concepts, in particular the subjects' verbalizations related to proposed translation solutions. Within the framework of Grounded Theory, the central process in the qualitative analysis is the process of coding, which refers to 'the operations by which data are broken down, conceptualized, and put back together in new ways. It is the central process by which theories are built from data' (Strauss/Corbin 1990: 57). This conceptual ordering plays a crucial part in theory building, and in some studies it is an end point in itself.

The analysis that leads to conceptual ordering is an 'interplay between the researcher and the data' (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 67) during which categories are allowed to 'emerge' from the data.

Or,  according to Grounded Theory, 'the data are not being forced; they are being allowed to speak' (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 67).

The conceptual ordering presented in this paper is partly based on the previous work in the area and concepts found in the existing literature on the topic. Against that background, the fi  ndings from my own data were used in order to defi  ne concepts and relate them to each other. In this interplay of the old and the new, an attempt was made not to invent new terminology for its own sake, but at the same time 'to see new possibilities in phenomena and classify them in ways that others might not have thought of before' (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 105). To this latter end, in vivo codes (Strauss/Corbin 1998: 105 and passim ) - names taken from the words of respondents themselves - were used whenever possible to capture the salient property of a concept in a novel, yet easily recognizable way.

In reading this paper, which presents my classifi  cation, together with illustrative examples, the reader should bear in mind that 'any particular object can be named and thus located in countless ways. […] The nature or essence of an object does not reside mysteriously within the object itself but is dependent upon how it is defi  ned' (Strauss 1969: 20, cited in Strauss/Corbin 1998: 104).

## 3.7.2.  Quantitative analysis

In quantitative research, data are collected and/or coded in a way that allows them to be analyzed in terms of measuring, counting and various other mathematical or statistical procedures. For the purposes of this study, I used the following basic methods of quantitative analysis:

- Counting: I counted the number of instances an argument belonging to a particular · category was used in the verbal reports of each group in each direction;
- Percentages: I calculated the percentage of a particular type of argument in the total · number of arguments verbalized in a given translation task;
- Mean values: I calculated the mean value for the occurrence of a certain type of ar-· gument across groups and directions.

More complex statistical operations were deemed inappropriate considering the small size of the sample.

## 4. Findings

## 4.1.  Classifi  cation of arguments

In this section, I propose a classifi  cation of arguments that are used to assess tentative translation solutions in the decision-making process. As I explain in 3.7.1., the classifi  cation that follows is based on the data from the verbal protocols. It also bears some similarities to that used by Englund Dimitrova (2005: 123-134), who follows Hayes et. al. (1987), in her discussion on translation revision. In my contribution, similar types of arguments are grouped around a salient feature, which is often epitomized by the in vivo code used to label each category. Examples are given from collaborative translation protocols 1 in both directions to illustrate a particular category. References are made to Englund Dimitrova's corresponding categories where relevant. A summary of the classifi  cation can be found in 4.1.10.

## 4.1.1.  'Sounds better'

This group of verbalizations is epitomized by the proverbial 'this sounds better', which all translators and translation teachers are familiar with. The subjects verbalize their attitude towards a tentative solution in vague terms, such as 'good', 'better', 'strange', 'funny', 'clumsy', 'silly', 'iffy', 'great', 'nice', 'disastrous', 'horrible', 'like', 'don't like', 'works', 'doesn't work', 'would (not) fi  t', and so on. Other expressions characteristic of this group are 'maybe', 'perhaps', 'I don't really know', 'I have no idea', 'somehow', 'I can't explain', 'I can't put my fi  nger on it', and so on. The common denominator is that no specifi  c reason is given for the assessment other than a 'feeling' that something works or doesn't work.

1 The protocols have been translated into English for the sake of the reader, with relevant phrases left in Croatian (in bold letters, with a gloss in square brackets). The words in italics were originally spoken in English by the subjects.

Here are some examples:

## Examples from L1 translation:

- (1) S: Something sounds wrong but I don't know what. M:  There's something wrong, isn't there? S: There's something... Like you say, but I can't pinpoint. M:  This zvonici ... The case is... I don't know. S:  Which part do you fi  nd wrong? I also feel something is wrong, but I can't even pin point which part. (2) V: pružila is perfectly OK. It sounds good to me. D [overlapping]: Like this it doesn't look... Yes, to me, too. It's not that bad at all. Although at fi  rst it sounded awful. Examples from L2 translation: (3) N:  That's the least painful. D:  Well, yes! V: It's good like that. N:  It's fi  ne like that. D:  It sounds all right to me. V: There you go. (4) S: But national rulers , that's kind of... Maybe it's possible, I don't know. It sounds strange. (5) N:  I like describe. D: describe works. V: describe is better.

Englund Dimitrova (2005: 123) groups these kinds of arguments under 'non-specifi  ed evaluation', but for her this category includes assessment based on conventional language usage, such as 'you say that'. In the present classifi  cation, the latter arguments are treated as a separate category, which has been labelled 'it is (not) said that way' (see 4.1.2. below).

## 4.1.2. 'It's (not) said that way'

This group consists of arguments evoking target language (TL) conventional usage, such as collocations and fi  xed phrases. Something is (or is not) 'said' in a particular way; a certain word or, especially, collocation is (not) 'used' or is (not) 'in the spirit of' the TL. A word or phrase 'exists' or 'doesn't exist', the subjects 'have (never) heard' of it, they 'have (never) used' it. The key notion is whether something is 'usual' or not. Here are some examples:

Examples from L1 translation (discussions related to the same problem from the protocols of two different groups are given):

```
(1) I:  ... kako bi širio Kristovu rije č [to spread the word of Christ]… How is that said? M: kako bi [in order to] I: širio rije č Božju [spread the word of God] S:  [nodding] um-hm. S:  That's a bit more in the spirit of Croatian. M:  Yes. S:  I think we say rije č Božju [the word of God], and not Kristovu [of Christ] M:  Yes, yes. S:  And they have this [expression]. M: Rije č Božju [the word of God] S:  Or Božju rije č [God's word] whichever is more usual. M: Rije č Božju [the word of God] (2) N: 432. kako bi širio ... Kristovu to say... rije č [word]… but it's not really... V: radosnu vijest [the glad news] D:  Yes, how would that...? N: Kristova [Christ's]... D:  Yes, we would say radosna vijest [the glad news] N [overlapping]: There is [an expression]. D: Kristovu nauku ? [Christ's teaching] N:  Um-hm, that's possible. V: Kristov nauk . [Christ's teaching]
```

```
[in 432 in order to spread Christ's]… I don't know how Examples from L2 translation: (3) I:  I'd put extreme S:  That's, yes, that's a collocation, of extreme importance M:  Yes (4) M: That [adjective] is used of a path. (5) S: You can use that of people, not of areas. (6) N: I have never seen it in any text before. V: Me neither.
```

As I mentioned above, Englund Dimitrova (2005: 123) places these types of arguments under 'non-specifi  ed evaluation'. It seems to me that these arguments are in fact rather specifi  c and indicative of the subjects' high level of familiarity with target language conventional usage.

## 4.1.3.  Pragmatic/textual reasons

In this category, the arguments have to do with text-linguistic or pragmatic notions such as cohesion, coherence, consistency, redundancy, style or register. Even though the subjects generally do not explicitly mention these terms, there are some clues in the verbalizations that place them in this category, such as 'too long', 'informal', 'formal', 'to connect it with what we had before', 'to avoid repetition', 'to emphasize it', and so on. The arguments from this group are predominantly TT-based in that they seem to indicate an effort to create a text that will conform to target norms and text-type conventions.

This group seems to correspond to what Englund Dimitrova (2005: 123) calls 'stylistic evaluation'. Again the examples will help illustrate the category:

## Examples from L1 translation:

- (1) V [pointing at the TT sentence on the screen]: There are too many things inserted. […] When you look at it, it's all cut up.
2. N: It's too much, yes.
- (2) S: Or mnogi od tih tornjeva [many of those towers], I don't know. To connect it to what we had earlier.
4. M: All right
- (3) I:  I think, because the [previous] sentence is longish, it would be easier to say Brian ... Boru […] In this previous sentence you don't know who is doing what to whom, and then on [he] could be Karlo Veliki [Charlemagne]
- (4) M [overlapping]: Like this it's scattered... […] That's the way I'd perhaps [do it]. So that it follows, and we have some kind of continuity.

M [pointing at the TT on the screen]: But, you know, it's too far away...

S: Yes.

- M: ...because at the beginning we have uništio je vikinšku tiraniju [destroyed the Viking tyranny] and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then only in the end do you have the battle and the year, you know.
- (5) S  [overlapping]: Yes, maybe it's better to say središta okupljanja [gathering places] fi  rst because of the emphasis...
- S: That's it. postali su samostani [the monasteries became]. That's better, because it's emphasized. Yes.
- (6) D:  To connect [the two sentences]. That sentence would look much...
- V [overlapping]: To me... I'd continue it.
- D:  It would fl  ow much more smoothly.

## Examples from L2 translation:

- (7) M:
2. Dalmatian cities I: towns . We said towns . M [overlapping]: Because earlier we called them towns .
- (8) S: I would put a full stop here. Um... Because look at how long the sentence is.

- (9)
- (10) D:  This till sounds somehow informal to me.

```
D:  To make it a bit more formal
```

## 4.1.4.  'Rule'

In some arguments, orthographical, morphological or syntactic 'rules' of the TL are either explicitly mentioned or alluded to. The key notions here are 'correct' or 'incorrect'. Englund Dimitrova's (2005: 124) 'rule-based evaluation' seems to be the same category as this.

Examples from L1 translation:

- (1) V: Which is more correct form, podrijetla or porijekla ?
2. S: But we can't put a comma and then poput [like, such as], because poput goes without a comma.
3. D [looking at the screen]: I don't know. (2) N:  The construction with da should be avoided. (3) V: Wouldn't singular be better? svoje blago [their treasure]. I mean... D:  Well, yes. N [nodding]: Um-hm. V: If it's kraljevi [kings]… D:  In Croatian it doesn't have to be plural. V: That's it. (4) M: You have to insert it between the commas. Non-restrictive ... Get it? M: Are you sure? S: Yes, 100 percent. kao [like, as] goes with a comma, and poput doesn't. M: All right.

## Examples from L2 translation:

- (5) S  [looking  at  the  TT  on  the  screen]:  But  it  think  it  should  be THE characteristics  of  a  modern European state . Because you're saying...
2. M [overlapping]: of-phrase
- (6) S: Then there's no article, because power is an abstract noun
- (7) S: the then is used as an adjective, yes.
- (8) D:  And we have the Past Perfect in the same sentence [laughs]. To have the Present, and then the Past Perfect, that would be [laughs].

## 4.1.5.  'Sounds as if…'

A solution proposed for a particular translation problem can be rejected because the subjects argue that, if used, it would mean something other than what they are looking for. Unlike free associations (see 4.1.8.), in which a word or expression triggers off an association unrelated to the task at hand, the arguments in this category have to do with the perceived 'meaning' of a proposed solution, which is typically deemed to be an incorrect rendering of the source. And unlike the 'sounds better' category, the arguments in this group tend to be rather specifi  c, focusing on the perceived nuances of meaning.

The 'sounds as if' category corresponds to Englund Dimitrova's 'semantic evaluation' (2005: 123). The examples should provide an illustration:

Examples from L1 translation:

- (1) S: I  think  it's držali [kept].  Because č uvali would  mean  that  they  sat  on  the  chests  and  looked after them.
- (2) M: Because...
3. S: It sounds as if the boats were from Scandinavia. Yes, that's exactly it!
4. I:  Yes.
- (3) I:  Should we say skupine Vikinga [groups of Vikings]?
6. M: Man, that sounds like a sports team!
- (4) I: tiranija sa sjevera
8. [tyranny from the north] S: That sounds as if it had been brought in by the wind [laughter].
- (5) M: That sounds as if he was walking through the forest and la-la-la… Get it?
- (6) M: pretežno [mostly] makes me think so much of a weather forecast that…
11. S: Weather forecast, you're right.
- (7) M: I wouldn't say u nedostatku [in the absence of], because that would be like they ran out of...
13. S: Yes, it has a kind of negative connotation.
14. M: They ran out of stone, they no longer had any, and so they stopped building.
15. S: And what about u odsutstvu [in the absence of]?
16. I:  It's more like somebody's gone on holiday.
17. M: It's more of people.

## Examples from L2 translation:

- (8) M: Maybe there's a better word, apart from neglected ? That's more like...

S: children

- M: Yes. [...] neglected , left to die.
- (9) M: Maybe invade ?
- S: Nah, that's violently. This is just... [shrugs]. You know, they came, they took...
- (10) D: Maybe strengthens its position. This secures its position sounds a bit as if we fought a war there with someone. I mean, we did...

V: Sorry?

- D:  When we say secure it's as if we pushed somebody away. And strengthen might be...
- (11) D: To me, military force is like an army. It sounds as if it were an army.

## 4.1.6.  'What they wanted to say'

In arguing for or against a tentative solution, the subjects sometimes refer back to the source text, either to seek or offer explanations of particular ST elements, or to interpret what they perceive to be the ST 'meaning' or ST author's 'intention'. The group jointly constructs the 'meaning' of the ST and its parts. This 'meaning' is used as an argument in monitoring (parts of) the target text. Here are some examples:

Examples from L1 translation:

- (1) D: Does this travelled widely mean that he traveled širom Francuske i Italije [all over France and Italy] or that he traveled puno [a lot]?
2. V:  I think it can be either.
3. D: Yes, but I don't know whether it refers to...
4. D: If they had meant širom [all over], would they have said he travelled widely THROUGH France , or...?
- (2) M: Do they mean ljude pojedina č no [people as individuals] or narod [people, nation]?
6. I: ljude . The people who lived there on that island were peaceful 90 percent of the time, and then they would start fi  ghting. Because there were those feuds.
- (3) S:  I don't know whether he's comparing it to Rome […] or if he means Rome - I fi  nd that very confusing.
8. I: He wants to say that the Romans didn't get as far as there…
9. S:  Oh, right!
10. I: …and they didn't set up their roads, their cities, their aqueducts…
- (4) D: I don't know what they wanted to say with this but .
12. V:  Right.
13. D: It's like... He thought he would give them a good thrashing, but then... But he himself died in the battle as he was praying for...
- (5) I: What I think he wanted to say by this ' trackless forests' is that this was an island full of trees, there were no roads, there were no… I mean, this is 432.

## Examples from L2 translation:

- (6) I:  What do they want... what do they mean by this najkasnije u IX. stolje ć u [in the 9 th century at the latest]?
2. S: That means...
3. I [overlapping]: As in no later than...?
4. M [overlapping]: najkasnije u IX ....
5. S  [overlapping]: ...basically...
6. M [overlapping]: It is not known when exactly, but no later than the 9th century...
7. I [overlapping]: Right.
8. M [overlapping]: ...it became an independent state

- S [overlapping]: It could have been before that, but that was at the latest. As far as they know from historical...
- (7) M: Maybe fortifi  es ?
- S [overlapping]: strengthened its position
- I: Yes. It's like gained power
- S [overlapping]: secured its position , no, not secured ...
- I: Because it means that it was more powerful than Venice.
- (8) S [overlapping]: its position ... I think it's ON the Adriatic
- M: I'd also say it's on
- S: Because what is meant is the coast... the coastal part.
- M: Because they mean the Adriatic coast, probably
- S: Yes.
- M: I doubt they mean the sea.
- S: No, no.
- (9) I:  Because he means Croatian... […] and not... Because in 1102, we had Pacta Conventa , the Union with Hungary... […] In 1102, Croatia enters the personal union with Hungary […] ...its kings be ing crowned with a separate Croatian crown... whatever .

Englund Dimitrova (2005: 124) terms these kinds of arguments 'ST-based evaluation', but there is a partial overlap with another one of her categories, namely, 'intention-based evaluation'. For her, 'intention-based evaluation' refers to the ST author's intention but also brings the TT reader into the picture. I have deemed it more appropriate to group together the arguments evoking the ST meaning and ST author's intention on the one hand, and those involving TT reader considerations on the other. In the former category, the key expressions are '[this] means [that]', '[the author] means', '[the author] wanted to say'. In the latter (see 4.1.7.), the consideration is 'do they [the readers] know?' 'will they understand?'.

## 4.1.7.  Target text reader

This group of arguments is related to 4.1.3. in that the considerations are pragmatic. Here, however, the reader of the target text is explicitly mentioned and used in deciding which tentative solution to select. The aim is to make the text accessible to the TT reader. All the examples in this group are from L1 translation.

- (1) I: u svojim karakteristi č nim brodovima [in their characteristic ships]
2. S: Yes, because more or less everybody knows... every educated person knows what a Vi king ship looked like.
3. M: Well...
4. S:  You know, you take a history book, open it up and leaf through it a little.
- (2) M: One would assume that if someone is reading this that they know what sjeverna Skandinavija [northern Scandinavia] is.
- (3) I:  And how about we write najslavniji irski kralj ? [the most famous Irish king]
7. S: Yes.

- (4)

```
M: Well, yes. There's nothing else... I:  To an average Croat... S: Absolutely! M: It doesn't mean anything anyway... S [overlapping]: It's not important what kind of kings high kings are, if they are especially high ... [laughter] as if they were tall . So najslavniji irski kralj , right? N:  But do the average readers know what iluminacija [illumination] means? D:  Well, if they are going to Ireland and are reading this... V: Because it's ornamenting the initials... I don't know. Maybe you [N.] are right, maybe we could... Maybe they are going to Ireland and they don't know it. [laughs] […] D: sa č uvani su i neki od prekrasno ... iluminiranih ... [preserved are also some of the beautifully illuminated] V: No, that will sound to people as if they were lit up... I mean, What ? […] Because OK, we do know, but... N:  Yes.
```

## 4.1.8.  Free association

My data yielded two additional types of arguments that seemed not to have been present in Englund Dimitrova's protocols. I have labelled them free association and personal preference. The fi  rst group consists of verbalizations in which a tentative solution evokes a free association, not strictly related to the task at hand. Here are some typical examples:

Examples from L1 translation:

```
(1) D: uto č išta [refuges, sanctuaries]. N:  What was it that Quasimodo shouted...? While he was in the church... D: Sanctuary, sanctuary ! N:  Ah, yes.
```

## Examples from L2 translation:

```
(2) I: to be called king , in brackets, rex S [laughs] I: Rex, the dog S: Yes . (3) I: of the mighty... Mighty Max. (4) S: on the Dalmatian coast. 101 Dalmatians .
```

## 4.1.9.  Personal preference

In the fi  nal group of arguments, the subjects verbalize their personal preference for one (type of) solution. Other researchers (e.g. Hansen 2006: 24) have also noticed that translators' decisions are sometimes infl  uenced by their 'liking' or 'disliking' particular words, phrases or structures in the TL. The difference between this category and 'sounds better' is that in the former the subjects voice their general like or dislike for certain words or structures, while the latter always refers to a particular proposed solution.

Here are some examples from our protocols (both from L2 translation):

- (1) S: I like of-phrases , but within limits.
2. M: I'm allergic to of [phrases] and I always try to avoid them...
3. S: I generally like them, but if they are not needed…
4. M: Because to me they sound childish... Those sentences with many of-phrases sound as if they were written by a child.
- (2) D:   I like this, Frankish . I like that word.

## 4.1.10. Summary of the classifi  cation

Table 1 presents a summary of the categories described and illustrated above. The left-hand column presents the category label, and the right-hand column gives the key notion of each category.

Table 1. Summary of the classifi  cation

| Label                      | Key notions                              |
|----------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| 'sounds better'            | 'feeling'                                |
| 'it's (not) said that way' | usual/unusual                            |
| pragmatic/textual reasons  | formal/informal clear/unclear long/short |
| 'rule'                     | correct/incorrect                        |
| 'sounds as if'             | inappropriate                            |
| 'what they wanted to say'  | faithful/unfaithful                      |
| TT reader                  | accessible/inaccessible                  |
| free association           | reminiscent                              |
| personal preference        | I like / I dislike                       |

## 4.2.  Distribution of arguments

This section describes the distribution of arguments in the two directions of translation. Table 2 shows the number of occurrences for each type of argument, as well as the total number of verbalizations related to tentative solutions for each group of subjects in the two tasks. The middle columns provide total and mean values, as well as percentages for each direction. The fi  nal two columns show cumulative fi  gures for both directions in all groups (total values and percentages).

|       | Group A   | Group A   | Group B   | Group B   | Group C   | Group C   | Group D   | Group D   | Total   | Total   | Mean   | Mean   | %     | %     | Total   | %     |
|-------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|---------|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------|---------|-------|
|       | L1        | L2        | L1        | L2        | L1        | L2        | L1        | L2        | L1      | L2      | L1     | L2     | L1    | L2    | L1+L2   | L+L2  |
| SB*   | 43        | 29        | 39        | 21        | 51        | 34        | 100       | 84        | 233     | 168     | 58.25  | 42     | 32.91 | 34.71 | 401     | 33.64 |
| WTS   | 52        | 46        | 20        | 19        | 26        | 25        | 31        | 18        | 129     | 108     | 32.25  | 27     | 18.22 | 22.31 | 237     | 19.88 |
| As if | 37        | 18        | 18        | 10        | 22        | 12        | 22        | 14        | 99      | 54      | 24.75  | 13.5   | 13.98 | 11.16 | 153     | 12.84 |
| P/T   | 29        | 21        | 10        | 8         | 23        | 12        | 21        | 24        | 83      | 65      | 20.75  | 16.25  | 11.72 | 13.43 | 148     | 12.42 |
| Said  | 23        | 12        | 12        | 4         | 16        | 8         | 15        | 6         | 66      | 30      | 16.5   | 7.5    | 9.32  | 6.2   | 96      | 8.05  |
| Rule  | 15        | 5         | 13        | 7         | 18        | 15        | 17        | 6         | 63      | 33      | 15.75  | 8.25   | 8.9   | 6.82  | 96      | 8.05  |
| Free  | 7         | 1         | 1         | 3         | 7         | 9         | 5         | 3         | 20      | 16      | 5      | 4      | 2.82  | 3.31  | 36      | 3.02  |
| TTR   | 1         | 2         | 1         | 0         | 4         | 0         | 6         | 1         | 12      | 3       | 3      | 0.75   | 1.69  | 0.62  | 15      | 1.26  |
| PP    | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0         | 3         | 6         | 0         | 1         | 3       | 7       | 0.75   | 1.75   | 0.42  | 1.45  | 10      | 0.84  |
| Total | 207       | 134       | 114       | 72        | 170       | 121       | 217       | 157       | 708     | 484     | 177    | 121    | 100   | 100   | 1192    | 100   |

*SB= 'sounds better'; WTS= 'what they wanted to say'; As if= 'sounds as if'; P/T= pragmatic/textual considerations; Said= 'said that way'; Rule= 'rule'; Free= free association; TTR= TT readers; PP= personal preference

Table 2. Distribution of arguments

Table 2 shows that in the verbal protocols of all four groups considerably more verbalizations are found in the L1 translation task than in the L2 translation task. This is true of the total fi  gures, as well as for almost all individual categories. Therefore, one of the major fi  ndings of the study was that in L1 translation the subjects in all four groups had more to say about tentative solutions than they did in L2 translation.

Staying with the global picture, the overall distribution of arguments represented by cumulative fi  gures for both directions is shown in Figure 1. Percentage fi  gures have been rounded for clarity's sake, while more precise fi  gures can be found in Table 2.

Figure 1. Distribution of arguments in both directions (cumulative fi  gures)

<!-- image -->

It can be seen from the diagram in Figure 1 that the arguments belonging to the 'sounds better' category constitute more than one third of all arguments observed in the protocols. They are followed by verbalizations that evoke ST 'meaning' or ST author's intention ('what the author wanted to say'), accounting for 20 percent of all arguments. 'Sounds as if' arguments and pragmatic/

textual considerations come next with a 13- and 12-percent share respectively. Categories 'said that way' and 'rule' were each found to make up 8 percent of all arguments, while free association, TT reader and personal preference jointly constitute the remaining 4 percent.

Before I discuss these fi  ndings, let me compare the distribution of different types of arguments in the two directions of translation. The comparison is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Distribution of arguments in L1 and L2 translation (%)

<!-- image -->

As can be seen from Figure 2, the two directions show remarkable similarities when it comes to distribution of arguments belonging to different categories. In both directions of translation, 'sounds better' is at the top of the list, accounting for more than one third of all verbalizations related to tentative solutions. Also in both directions, the second most frequent arguments were found to be those evoking the ST 'meaning' ('what the author wanted to say'). The category 'sounds as if' comes next in L1 translation, followed by pragmatic/textual considerations, while in L2 translation the order is reversed. The difference between the two categories, however, is rather small in both directions. The next two groups of arguments also come close to each other in frequency. They are 'said that way' and 'rule', with fi  gures for L2 translation only slightly in favour of the latter category. Free association comes next in both directions of translation, followed by TT reader considerations and personal preference. The last two are again reversed in order in L2 translation, but the difference is again rather small.

To go back to the hypotheses (3.3.), similar types of arguments were found in both directions, as expected, but the distribution of those arguments was also found to show remarkable similarities, which had not been expected.

Having said that, it is worth inspecting the differences - however small - between the two directions a bit more closely. The fi  rst thing that stands out is the fact that ST 'meaning' accounts for a larger share of all arguments in L2 translation than it does in L1 translation (22.31% compared to 18.22%). This fi  nding is surprising when we recall that in L2 translation the ST is a text in the subjects' fi  rst language. Another unexpected fi  nding is that TL 'rules' are evoked more frequently in L1 translation, where one would expect a greater degree of unconscious, intuitive knowledge of the 'correct' target language usage than in L2 translation. When we compare the fi  gures for the 'sounds as if' and 'said that way' categories, we see that they are higher in L1 translation, suggesting that the subjects might have been slightly more aware of semantic nuances and of conventional usage in L1 translation; no big surprises there. What might be considered unexpected is that pragmatic/textual reasons seem to have played a bigger role in L2 translation than they did in L1 translation. Finally, the TT reader is rarely mentioned, especially in L2 translation. Groups B and C do not mention the TT reader in their L2 translation at all. The next section offers a discussion of these fi  ndings.

## 4.3.  Discussion

One of the main fi  ndings of the study was that in L1 translation tasks the subjects, on the whole, had more to say about tentative solutions than they did in L2 translation tasks. This fi  nding could be related to another fi  nding that emerged from my project (Pavlovi ć 2007b), namely that in L1 translation the subjects tended to rely more on their internal resources than in L2 translation. In L1 translation, more tentative solutions were put on the table for discussion than in the other direction, and more of them were produced spontaneously, that is, without external resources. More solutions to choose from and a greater tendency to rely on internal resources seemed to have generated more discussion. In L2 translation, on the other hand, fewer tentative solutions were proposed, and the subjects showed a more pronounced tendency to rely on external resources. This combination seems to have resulted in less discussion in this direction of translation. Another, closely related explanation might be what I have labeled 'optimization quotient', and which I found to be greater in L1 translation. This indicator, which is based on the data from the collaborative protocols obtained in my research project, signals that in L1 translation the subjects tended to choose later solutions for their fi  nal product. In other words, having unlimited time at their disposal, the subjects kept looking until they arrived at a solution they could be satisfi  ed with, and in L1 translation this happened at a later stage than in L2 translation. I return to these issues below.

The 'sounds better' arguments might prove to be an indicator of unconscious processing. The issue of conscious versus unconscious processing is a central - and thorny - issue in research into translation processes. Additional terms, such as 'automatic', 'routine', 'non-routine', 'intuitive', 'strategic', 'controlled' and 'uncontrolled' are also used, showing the importance and diffi  culty of such distinctions in translation process research. Intuitive decision making could be seen as the result of all the past experiences with translation in general, or with particular text types or target languages. The various skills or 'rules' might have been consciously learned in the past but then internalized to the point where they escape exact defi  nitions or explanations (see discussion on 'unconscious competence' in González-Davies 2004). Something can simply 'sound good' or 'better' than something else, it can sound 'strange' or 'awful'. In both L1 and L2 tasks in my study, the subjects' 'ear' - for want of a better word - seems to have played a crucial role in making translation decisions.

Some researchers have observed that subjects with a higher degree of 'translational profi  ciency' or more experience make target text evaluations that are more specifi  c than non-professionals. Kova č i č (2000: 101), for example, remarks that 'more experienced translators were more specifi  c and more articulate in their evaluative judgments, the protocols differed both in the quantity (or, more signifi  cantly, ratio) of evaluative versus other statements and the presence of an addressee'. Tirkkonen-Condit (1997: 69) posits the following tentative hypothesis: 'that the proportion and specifi  city of evaluations of the target text increases with translational profi  ciency', and concludes that 'laymen and students tend to give judgment in terms of 'good' or 'no good', while professionals and teachers tend to specify their choices in more accurate terms' (Tirkkonen-Condit 1997: 76). In a study involving eight subjects - four professionals and four students - Englund Dimitrova found that 'the relative proportion of Non-specifi  ed evaluations diminishes with growing experience' (2005: 125).

However, there are two reasons why we should be cautious about taking for granted that the specifi  city of evaluations correlates with the level of profi  ciency. One is that in the protocols on which these remarks are based, subjects with longer experience may have had higher stakes in terms of professional 'face' (see Jakobsen 2003: 77). Kova č i č (2000: 101) points out that the presence of an addressee was more prominent in the protocols of more experienced translators. This suggests that their verbalization was, at least in part, intended for the benefi  t of the researcher and not solely an internal monologue spoken aloud. Tirkkonen-Condit's study also emphasizes the existence of an addressee. She points out herself that the 'professionals and teachers approached the experimental situation as an opportunity to display their knowledge' (Tirkkonen-Condit 1997: 81). Furthermore, for teachers the greater specifi  city can be attributed to pedagogical habit, although Tirkkonen-Condit (1997: 78) argues against this conclusion.

There is another reason why it might be advisable to be sceptical about associating higher profi  ciency with more specifi  c evaluative statements. It could be argued that for high levels of competence, evaluations such as 'good' or 'no good' would often be 'good enough'. In other words, highly-skilled practitioners would have an intuitive 'feeling', based on years of experience with similar situations, a large amount of feedback received over the years, and the familiarity with translational norms. This feeling would tell them whether something is 'good' or 'no good' - further specifi  cations may be a waste of time. If pressed for explanations, practitioners may be able to come up with some plausible explanations, which may or may not have to do with actual reasons for their 'feeling' that something is 'better' than something else. In part, this has to do with the way individuals have learned the skill, i.e., to what extent rationalization and theorizing have been part of their training and work experience. 2

In the few studies conducted so far (including my own) the samples have been rather small. Further research is obviously needed in this area before we are able to say to what extent the proportion of 'sounds good' category of arguments correlates with higher or lower translation competence. It would be necessary to compare larger numbers of subjects at various levels of translation competence - students, novice translators, experienced translators - to see whether the proportion of 'sounds better' arguments remains the same or changes with experience. It would also be crucial in this respect to systematically correlate the arguments used with the quality of the fi  nal product. For now, the fi  nding that these arguments are found in equal measure in both directions of translation seems interesting enough to deserve future attention.

It is also very interesting to note that the subjects' verbalizations related to the perceived 'meaning' of the source text - 'what the author wanted to say' - are very much present in the protocols of both directions of translation. For Groups A and D, they are slightly more plentiful in L1 translation, but the remaining two groups discussed the source text meaning in almost as many instances in their L2 task as they did in L1 task. Overall, the share of this type of argument in the total fi  gures for a particular direction is in fact higher in L2 translation than it is in L1 translation. This fi  nding - which may not prove to be typical of all language pairs, text types or domains, and all levels of L2 competence - would seem to challenge the traditional axiom about the importance or  diffi  culty  of  'ST  comprehension'  being  associated  exclusively  or  even  predominantly  with L1 translation. In this respect, the fi  nding from this study seems to confi  rm what Beeby Lonsdale (1996: 50 and passim ) observes: 'Problems of meaning [in L2 translation] are just as likely to arise from misunderstanding the SLT [source language text] as from insuffi  cient competence in the TL [target language].' Research involving other methods, such as those aimed at measuring the cognitive load in processing comparable source texts in the two directions of translation should shed more light on this issue. A recent study (Pavlovi ć /Jensen 2009), which involved student and professional subjects whose translation processes in two directions were monitored with the help of an eye-tracker, was unable to prove the hypothesis that in L1 translation the processing of ST text is more demanding in terms of cognitive effort than it is in L2 translation.

I found the evocation of explicit 'rules' of standard language to be just as frequent - or even more so - in L1 translation tasks as it was in L2 tasks. One would expect 'correct usage' to require less discussion when it comes to L1 than L2, since in the latter case these rules tend to be acquired more consciously (Hansen 2003: 35). The fi  ndings in my study may be related to the specifi  cities of this particular L1; the insecurities Croatian translators (and language users in general) experience regarding their own standard language may be more pronounced than is the case of languages with a more stable sociolinguistic past. As HAZU (2007), the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, admits in a document entitled 'The Croatian Language',

2 Cf. Shön's discussion in 1987: 24-5. Also, see Nisbett/Wilson 1977 for a discussion on the subjects' (lack of) awareness of motives for their actions. Nisbett and Wilson's view has been contested by Ericsson and Simon (1984/1993), but only insofar as stringent conditions are applied to verbal protocols.

[…] most Croats have developed an awareness of the fact that their standard language is not the same as their everyday spoken language or any of its dialects or varieties […]. Most Croats are aware that their standard language needs to be studied systematically.

The verbalizations further indicate that the subjects have a highly developed sense of textual and pragmatic aspects of both target languages (L1 and L2). In both directions of translation, considerations such as the level of formality, cohesion and coherence, consistency, and so on, are rather frequently mentioned (in 12-13% of all arguments). It might be hypothesized that translators at lower levels of L2 competence and/or with less experience in translation would not give these matters as much consideration as did my subjects. For more experienced translators, these arguments might be expected to play an even more important role (Englund Dimitrova 2005: 125). Again, further research should show whether the share of arguments belonging to this category increases with translation experience, and if it correlates with higher quality output.

An important difference between the two directions of translation seems to be in the verbalizations that I have labelled 'sounds as if' and 'said that way'. In the case of the former, as I explained in section 4.1.3., subjects reject a particular tentative solution because to them it 'means' something other than what they 'need'. In the latter case, the proposed solution is at odds with typical target-language usage: a word or, more typically, a collocation is unusual, or perhaps even 'doesn't exist'. Tentative solutions that 'mean' something other than what the translator is looking for, and solutions that are 'not said that way' are thus rejected. On the other hand, those tentative solutions are selected which conform to the subjects' idea of what is 'needed' and their experience of usual expressions in the target language. Both of these categories of verbalizations are more abundant in L1 translation. This is where 'native competence' seems to have an edge over L2 competence (at least at this level of L2), providing more stringent output monitoring and, as a result, urging the translators to keep looking until a satisfactory solution is found.

In both directions, the subjects rarely mentioned the target-text reader (only 18 times in the whole study). When the TT reader is mentioned, it is more frequently done in L1 translation. Two groups never mention the TT reader in their L2 translation tasks. This is all the more surprising if we recall the fact that all the groups were given a brief in both L1 and L2 translation tasks, in which the target readership is explicitly defi  ned (Croatian visitors to Ireland and English-speaking visitors to Croatia respectively). When it comes to the latter, it could be argued that it is very diffi  cult even for experienced translators to envisage a TT reader when translating into English as a global language (see Snell-Hornby 1997). But the fact that the TT reader was so rarely mentioned even in L1 translation suggests that the problem lies elsewhere. This fi  nding has led me to conclude that during the course of their studies the subjects were not made aware enough of the importance of the brief (whether explicit or implicit) and, in particular, of the target readership. It is worth noting that the brief itself was never mentioned in any of the verbal protocols, even though the subjects had been acquainted with the concept during their coursework.

Some subjects made decisions based on personal preference for a target-language word or structure. This category, although accounting for only a tiny proportion of all arguments in either direction, was associated with some translation errors and this makes it worth commenting on. The verbal protocols revealed why certain errors occurred: because the translator liked a phrase and wanted to use it, or because she disliked a structure and tried to avoid it at all costs.

Finally, a brief comment on the category of free associations. A total of 36 such verbalizations were encountered in the protocols from the study - a small but not insignifi  cant number. Although at fi  rst glance they seem to be comments unrelated to the task at hand and as such nothing but distractions, the impression that could be gained from the protocols is that they, too, play an im- portant role and should not be discounted. It seems that these free associations serve a twofold function. The fi  rst one is to enhance brainstorming through introduction of unusual ideas, thinking outside the box. In addition, the free associations, like joking, seemed to be a way of maintaining a positive, creative and cooperative atmosphere in which differences of opinion were less likely to be perceived as face-threatening (see Kussmaul 1995: 48). However, at this point these observations are just conjectures that would need to be studied further if any conclusions were to be drawn.

## 5. Conclusions and avenues of further research

The study was conducted in order to investigate the nature and distribution of arguments that novice translators use to choose between the various tentative solutions in L1 and L2 translation processes of comparable general-language texts. The following two hypotheses were tested: a) similar types of arguments are used in decision-making processes in both L1 and L2 translation; and b) the distribution of arguments differs depending on the direction of translation. As can be seen from the Findings section, the fi  rst hypothesis was fully corroborated by the data: the same categories of arguments can be observed in both directions of translation. When it comes to the second hypothesis, the distribution was indeed slightly different in the two directions, but not as different as it had been anticipated.

During the course of the main project, the subjects' translation products in the two directions were evaluated by external evaluators, as I describe elsewhere (Pavlovi ć 2007b). The quality of the translations was found to be better in L1 translation, as could have been expected. The slight differences in the decision-making process between the two directions, which I describe in this paper, might prove to be relevant for the resulting differences in quality. At this stage of my research, it is still too early to make any defi  nitive conclusions in this respect. Before any clear correlation between the nature and distribution of arguments and output quality is established, it is diffi  cult to 'translate' any of the fi  ndings into recommendations that could be directly applied in translation pedagogy. However, I believe that the classifi  cation I offer in this paper can facilitate the analysis of verbal protocols, making this kind of research less time consuming and therefore more feasible for practitioner researchers. For example, time can be saved if the researcher does not have to transcribe the protocols in their entirety but instead can only focus on certain features of interest, perhaps with the help of a checklist.

Verbal protocols offer an invaluable insight into translation processes in general, and the decision-making aspect of those processes in particular. They can be used in practitioner research in many ways: as a diagnostic tool (to get to the root of the students' procedural mistakes or most frequent specifi  c errors), as a monitoring tool (to monitor the students' progress over the years spent studying translation, or to check the effects of a new teaching method), to learn about the students' translation styles and thus to help them get to know their strengths and weaknesses, and so on. For example, this study indicated that the students were insuffi  ciently aware of the importance of the brief and of the TT readership, which had immediate relevance for my future translation classes. The fi  nding that the ST plays an important role in L2 translation confi  rmed my suspicions and prompted me to introduce a number of changes in the way I teach L2 translation. Warning students against seeing translation as an opportunity to use their favourite words, phrases or structures in texts where they do not necessarily fi  t is another instance of immediate applicability of the fi  ndings.

If this paper raises more questions than it offers answers, I hope it will stimulate other researchers to take up some of the issues I have discussed here. The research I have described could be taken further in a number of ways. Larger number of students at different levels, as well as professional translators with varying levels of experience could be enlisted as subjects. Individual tasks, using different data-elicitation methods, such as think-aloud, eye-tracking or keystroke logging, could replace the collaborative translation protocol. Different language pairs and text types could be tested, and so could different, more refi  ned hypotheses. A systematic attempt to correlate verbalizations with output quality could be made.

Research on translation processes is slow, and the samples are often small compared to other kinds of research. For that reason, it is necessary to gather evidence from many different studies, conducted with different methods, in order to gradually build a more complete picture of 'what goes on in translators' minds' (Krings 1986) while they translate. This contribution, however inconclusive, is hopefully a step in that direction.

## References

- Beeby Lonsdale, Allison 1996: Teaching Translation from Spanish to English: Worlds beyond Words . Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.
- Borges, Arthur 2005: Should I become a translator? [online]. http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article39.htm (accessed December 2006).
- Bruffee, Kenneth A. 1999: Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge . Baltimore/London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Campbell, Stuart 1998: Translation into the Second Language . London/New York: Longman.
- Carpenter, M. S. N. 1999: The Freelance Translation Profession. Lecture Given Within the Framework of a Series of Conferences on Trades and Professions, University Rennes 2, November 20, 1999 [online]. http://mcarpenter.chezalice.fr/translation.htm (accessed January  2007).
- Cronin, Michael 2003: Translation and Globalisation. London/New York: Routledge.
- Dam-Jensen, Helle/Heine, Carmen 2009: Process Research Methods and Their Application in the Didactics of Text Production and Translation. Shedding Light on the Use of Research Methods in the University Classroom. In transkom, Journal of Translation and Technical Communication Research 2(1), 1-25.
- De Swaan, Abram 2001: Words of the World . Malden: Blackwell Publishers.
- Durban, Chris 2002: Translation, Getting it Right. A Guide to Buying Translations. Milton Keynes: Institute of Translation and Interpreting [online]. http://www.fi  t-ift.org/download/getright-en.pdf (accessed June 2007).
- Englund Dimitrova, Birgitta 2005: Expertise and Explicitation in the Translation Process . Amsterdam/Philadelpiha: John Benjamins.
- Ericsson, Karl Anders/Simon, Herbert A. 1984/1993: Protocol Analysis. Verbal Reports as Data .  Cambridge, MA/ London: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Gile, Daniel 2004: Integrated Problem and Decision Reporting as a Translator Training Tool. In JoSTrans 2:2-20 [online]. http://www.jostrans.org/issue02/art\_gile.pdf (accessed March 2005).
- Gile, Daniel 1995: Basic Concepts and Models for Translator and Interpreter Training . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
- González Davies, Maria 2004: Multiple  Voices  in  the  Translation  Classroom. Amsterdam/Philadelphia:  John  Benjamins.
- Grosman, Meta/Kadric, Mira/ Kova č i č , Irena/Snell-Hornby, Mary (eds.) 2000: Translation into Non-Mother Tongues. In Professional Practice and Training. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.
- Hansen, Gyde 2006: Retrospection Methods in Translator Training and Translation Research. In JoSTrans 5 [online]. http://www.jostrans.org/issue05/art\_hansen.pdf (accessed February 2007).
- Hansen, Gyde 2003: Controlling the Process: Theoretical and Methodological Refl  ections on Research into Translation Processes. In Alves, Fábio (ed.), Triangulating translation. Perspectives in Process Oriented Research. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 25-42.
- Hayes, J. R./Flower, Linda/Schriver, K. A./Stratman, J. F./Carey, Linda 1987: Cognitive Processes in Revision. In Rosenberg, S. (ed.), Advances in Psycholinguistics, Volume 2. Reading, Writin,g and Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 176-240.
- HAZU, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti [the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences] 2007: Hrvatski jezik [The Croatian Language] [online]. http://www.hazu.hr/hrv\_jez.html (accessed May 2007).
- Hjort-Pedersen, Mette/Faber, Dorrit 2009: Uncertainty in the Cognitive Processing of a Legal Scenario: A Process Study of Student Translators. In Hermes, Journal of Language and Communication Studies 42, 189-211.
- Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke 2003: Effects of Think Aloud on Translation Speed, Revision and Segmentation. In Alves, Fábio (ed.), Triangulating translation. Perspectives in Process Oriented Research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 69-95.

- Kelly, Dorothy/Martin, Anne/Nobs, Marie-Louise/Sánchez, Dolores/Way, Catherine (eds.) 2003: La direccionalidad en traducción e interpretación. Perspectivas teóricas, profesionales y didácticas . Granada: Editorial Atrio.
- Kiraly, D. C. 2000: A Social Constructivist Approach to Translator Education. Empowerment from Theory to Practice . Manchester: St. Jerome.
- Kova č i č , Irena 2000: Thinking-Aloud Protocol - Interview - Text Analysis. In Tirkkonen-Condit, Sonja/Jääskeläinen, Riitta (eds.), Tapping and Mapping the Process of Translation: Outlooks on Empirical Research. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 97-110.
- Krings, Hans Peter 1986: Was in den Köpfen von Übersetzen vorgeht . Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
- Kussmaul, Paul 1995: Training the Translator . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- McAlester, Gerard 1992: Teaching Translation into a Foreign Language - Status, Scope and Aims. In Dollerup, Cay/ Loddegaard, Annette (eds.), Teaching Translation and Interpreting .  Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 291297.
- McLaughlin, G. Harry 1969: SMOG Grading - a New Readability Formula. In Journal of Reading [online]. http:// www.harrymclaughlin.com/SMOG\_Readability\_Formula\_G.\_Harry\_McLaughlin\_(1969).pdf (accessed March 2007).
- Neilan,  John:  How  to  become  a  translator  [online].  http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/translation/articles/how-to-become-translator.html (accessed December 2006).
- Newmark, Peter 1988: A Textbook of Translation . New York/London/Singapore: Prentice Hall.
- Nisbett, Richard E./Wilson, Timothy DeCamp 1977: Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes. In Psychological Review 84(3), 231-259.
- Pavlovi ć , Nataša 2009: More Ways to Explore the Translating Mind: Collaborative Translation Protocols. In Göpferich, Susanne/Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke/Mees, Inger (eds.) Behind the Mind. Methods, Models and Results in Translation Process Research. Copenhagen Studies in Language (CSL) 37, 81-105.
- Pavlovi ć , Nataša 2007a: Directionality in Translation and Interpreting Practice. Report on a Questionnaire Survey in Croatia. In Forum 5(2), 79-99.
- Pavlovi ć , Nataša. 2007b: Directionality in Collaborative Translation Processes. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Tarragona: Universitat Rovira i Virgili [online]. http://www.tesisenxarxa.net/TDX-1210107-172129/
- Pavlovi ć , Nataša/Jensen, Kristian 2009: Eye Tracking Translation Directionality. In Pym, Anthony/Perekrestenko, Alexander (eds.), Translation Research Projects 2 . Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, 93-109 [online]. http://isg. urv.es/publicity/isg/publications/trp\_2\_2009/chapters/jensenpavlovic.pdf (accessed September 2009).
- Peverati, Costanza 2009: Professionally Oriented Translation Teaching in a Modern-Language Faculty. An Exploratory Case Study. In Pym, Anthony/Perekrestenko, Alexander (eds.), Translation Research Projects 2. Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group, 173-189 [online]. http://isg.urv.es/publicity/isg/publications/trp\_2\_2009/chapters/peverati.pdf (accessed September 2009).
- Pokorn, Nike 2005: Challenging the traditional axioms. Translation into a non-mother tongue . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Roiss, Silvia 1998: Didaktische Überlegungen zur Verbesserung der Methodik in der Hin-Übersetzung Spanisch ASDeutsch ZS. Unpublished PhD thesis. Universidad de Salamanca.
- Schmitt, Peter 1990: Was übersetzen Übersetzer? Eine Umfrage. In Lebende Sprachen 3, 97-108.
- Shön, Donald 1987: Educating the Refl  ective Practitioner . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Snell-Hornby, Mary 2009: Mind the GAB! On the Changing Role of Translation Studies in a Globalizing World. Paper delivered at the symposium Challenges of Translation Studies in a Globalizing World , University of Maribor, Slovenia, 15-17 October 2009.
- Snell-Hornby, Mary 1997: Released from the Grip of Empire: Lingua Franca as Target Culture. In Vega, Miguel Angel/ Martín-Gaitero, Rafael (eds.), La palabra vertida. Investigaciones en torno a la traducción . Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 45-56.
- Strauss, Anselm 1969: Mirrors and Masks . Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
- Strauss, Anselm/Corbin,  Juliet  1998: Basics  of  Qualitative  Research:  Techniques  and  Procedures  for  Developing Grounded Theory. Second Edition . London: Sage.
- Strauss, Anselm/Corbin, Juliet 1990: Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques . London: Sage.
- Tirkkonen-Condit, Sonja 1997: Who Verbalises What: A Linguistic Analysis of TAP Texts. In Target 9(1), 69-84.
- Translation and Languages. Translation Agencies: How to Choose a Good Translation Agency for your Job [online]. http://www.translation-and-languages.com/translation-agencies.html (accessed December 2006).

## Appendices

## Source text 1: L1 translation (English-Croatian)

The Golden Age

Christianity had been brought to the island by an English-born rustic missionary, St Patrick, who had been kidnapped as a youth and taken to Ireland to tend sheep. Later, he travelled widely in France and Italy, returning to Ireland in 432 to spread the word of Christ through the trackless forests. He found, in this land of which he was to become the patron saint, a largely peaceable people, though there was intermittent feuding between various provincial kings.

In the absence of a Roman substructure of towns and cities, monasteries became centres of population. The kings kept their treasures there, which made the monasteries a target for plundering bands of Vikings, who sailed to Ireland in their high-prowed ships from northern Scandinavia. Tall round towers, many still standing, were built by the monasteries to serve as lookouts and refuges as well as belfries. Also surviving are some of the monks' exquisitely illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells , which the Vikings, being unable to read, ignored. Ireland's strong tradition of storytelling dates from this period. It can be seen on the many sand-stone high crosses, designed to teach Bible stories by means of elaborate carvings.

The Norse tyranny was destroyed at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 by the most celebrated of the High Kings, Brian Ború, who saw himself as Ireland's Charlemagne. But he himself died in the battle as he was praying for victory.

## Brief accompanying ST1

Source text: an excerpt from Ireland, Insight Guides. Sixth (updated) edition.

ST publisher: APA Publications, Langenscheidt Publishing Group, 2005.

TT publisher: Profi  l International (a leading Croatian publisher).

Target readers: Croatian-speaking visitors to Ireland.

Quality requirement: To produce a publishable Croatian translation of the text.

Resources: All the resources available

## Source text 2: L2 translation (Croatian-English)

Hrvatska u doba narodnih vladara (do 1102.)

Najkasnije u IX. st., za vladavine Trpimira, Domagoja i osobito Branimira, Hrvatska poprima obilježja suvremene europske države, postaje samostalna kneževina i, što je bilo od iznimnoga politi č kog i gospodarskoga zna č enja za budu ć nost hrvatske države, u č vrš ć uje se na Jadranu. Gospodarski razvoj i proces kristijanizacije (osobito intenzivan u IX. st.) glavni su č imbenici u procesu stvaranja hrvatske države. Krš ć anstvo se me đ u Hrvatima širilo iz razli č itih središta: iz Rima, Akvileje i bizantskih gradova na dalmatinskoj obali, odnosno posredstvom frana č kih i bizantskih misionara, a ne može se zanemariti niti utjecaj slavenske misije Svete bra ć e Ć irila i Metoda (od posljednje č etvrtine IX. st.). Pokrštavanjem stanovništvo ulazi u zajedni č ku krš ć ansku civilizaciju koja se na ovim prostorima razvijala pod hrvatskim imenom, premda su papa i strani kroni č ari Hrvate do X. st. uglavnom nazivali 'Slavenima'.

Hrvati vjerojatno sve do X. st. nisu uspjeli prodrijeti u primorske gradove Kotor, Dubrovnik, Split, Trogir i Zadar, te ne otoke Rab, Osor i Krk, koji su ostali u rukama Bizanta.

Tomislav (oko 910. - oko 928.) je prvi hrvatski vladar kojega papa naziva kraljem (rex). Povijesni izvori govore o velikoj vojnoj snazi tadašnje hrvatske države i spominju pobjede Tomislava nad Ma đ arima i vojskom mo ć noga bugarskog cara Simeona (893.-927.). Tomislav je proširio svoju vlast na me đ urje č je  Save  i  Drave,  a  sadržaj  papina  pisma  'ljubljenom  sinu Tomislavu' naslu ć uje da je hrvatski vladar imao nekakav utjecaj i na dalmatinske gradove.

## Brief accompanying ST2

Source text: An excerpt from Hrvatska, Turisti č ka monografi  ja ( Croatia, Tourist Monograph ). ST publisher: Turisti č ka naklada Zagreb, 2000.

TT Publisher: Blue Guide - A&C Black (London) and WW Norton (New York).

Target readers: English-speaking visitors to Croatia.

Quality requirement: To produce a publishable English translation of the text.

Resources: All the resources available

## Source text 2: gloss (with minimal adaptation)

## Croatia at the time of national rulers (until 1102)

By the end of the 9 th  century, during the reign of Trpimir, Domagoj and in particular Branimir, Croatia acquired the characteristics of a modern European state, became an independent principality and, which was of extreme political and economic importance for the future of the Croatian state, strengthened its position on the Adriatic. Economic development and the process of Christianization (especially intense in the 9 th century) were the main factors in the process of creation of the Croatian state. Christianity among the Croats spread from various centers: Rome, Aquileia and the Byzantine cities on the Dalmatian coast, as well as via Frankish and Byzantine missionaries, and the infl  uence of the Slavic mission of the saintly brothers Cyril and Methodius (until the late 9 th century) cannot be disregarded either. By adopting Christianity the population entered the common Christian civilization that in this region developed under the Croatian name, although the Pope and foreign chroniclers mainly referred to Croats as 'Slavs' until the 10 th century.

Until the 10 th  century Croats probably didn't manage to enter the coastal cities of Kotor, Dubrovnik, Split, Trogir and Zadar or the islands Rab, Osor and Krk, which remained in the hands of Byzantium.

Tomislav (c910-c928) was the fi  rst Croatian ruler to be called 'king' ( rex ) by the pope. Historical sources report on the great military power of the Croatian state at the time, mentioning Tomislav's victories over the Hungarians and over the army of the powerful Bulgarian emperor Simeon (893-927). Tomislav spread his power to the area between the rivers Sava and Drava, and the content of the pope's letter to his 'beloved son Tomislav' suggests that the Croatian ruler had a certain infl  uence over Dalmatian cities as well.

88