Evaluation in translation: Critical points in translator decision-making

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In a world of global media and instant communication where translation and interpreting function as a sensitive channel through which new texts and ideas enter a target culture, it is crucial to investigate how such ideas are processed, evaluated and mediated. Where are those 'critical points' in a text where the translator or interpreter's decision may make a real difference to the interpretation and reception by the target audience? What are the factors that affect these decisions? This project sets out to investigating this by going beyond general questions of 'power' and 'ideology' that have occupied translation theorists for the past decade and where the exact the signs of the translator or interpreter's subjectivity are sometimes tenuously identified. This project will instead investigate in detail the ways in which meaning is dynamically negotiated and communicated between writer, translator and reader. It employs new tools of linguistic analysis from applied linguistics (notably evaluation and appraisal theory) that offer the possibility of a more systematic, comprehensive and replicable analysis of the various linguistic expressions of this negotiation. The focus of this project is therefore on identifying and modelling the process of how translators evaluate arguments in a text, on the linguistic signals that indicate this evaluation and on the potentially subjective value systems that are in operation. As well as giving greater insights into the translation process, the findings will have important applications for translator training and for professional translators working with sensitive texts.