The group focuses in three main objectives: Translation Technologies, Terminology and Documentation. Each one of these subjects is studied from three different points of view: basic research, applied research and its repercussions on the professional world of translation and on didactics.
• Line of research: Translation technologies
• Line of research: Terminology applied to translation
• Line of research: Documentation applied to translation
• Additional line of research: Research evaluation in tradumatica
LINE OF RESEARCH: TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGIES
This line of research is currently established as an autonomous field of research in the studies of translation, and it studies and develops computing tools and resources applied to translation, as well as usage models and its consequences of use.
• Basic research in translation technologies:
The usage of computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools) has proven a fundamental change in the translation process and in the final translation. The main goal of this group is to create a translation model than will use the advantages of translation tools but also will avoid its disadvantages. This model aims to protocol and take part in three different aspects: the translation process, the results of the translation and the design of tools. The development of this field allows advances in translation science, as well as the establishment of knowledge transfer with the professional world of translation.
• Research applied to translation technologies:
From the models established in basic research, and also in studies of concrete cases, an applied research of products and specific genres is carried out. This research allows to go more deeply into the peculiarity of usage of technologies in different sorts of translations, concerning either translation topics or technical peculiarities and specific genres.
• Repercussions on translation technologies and teaching of translation:
Both basic research and applied research allow reaching results that may have important repercussions on translation didactics and more specifically in the use of translation technologies. In this sense, the members of the group go more deeply into a combination of translation methods. In particular, the objectives are two: on the one hand, turning the theoretical translation model with technologies into a didactic model, and on the other hand, going in depth into the learning methods in the use of translation tools and translation training.
LINE OF RESEARCH: TERMINOLOGY APPLIED TO TRANSLATION
The importance of terminology in specialized translation has always been remarked in the science of translation. Not only it revolves around obtaining terminology resources for a specific translation, but also around analysing the role of terminology in the specialized speech and the models that allow a systematization of its conceptualization, analysis, and extraction.
• Basic research in terminology applied to translation:
The basic research that is carried out in the field of terminology applied to translation has two objectives: an in-depth study of the knowledge management systems applied to terminology management, to establish a more appropriate model for multilingual terminology management typical in translation; and the establishment of a conceptualization, analysis and characterization model of the terms in a synchronic and diachronic way. Both objectives should allow a better complementation between terminology and specialized translation.
• Applied research to terminology applied to translation:
Research applied to translation has the objective of facing specific terminology problems in concrete specialized translation situations. The objective is to evaluate the problem and to propose solutions from an experimental or observational research. These problems may arise either from the topic of the translation or the communicative situation (e.g., legal translation), or from the fit of terminology management in the process of translation (e.g., terminology management in the whole process of localization, or in more specific processes such as quality check).
• Repercussions on the teaching of terminology applied to translation:
Both basic research and applied research can reach results that may have an important impact on the didactics of Terminology applied to translation. In this sense, the members of the group go in-depth into the newest teaching methods and the application of the theoretical and methodical principles of terminology applied to the field of translation. In particular, the objectives are two: adapting the theoretical principles of terminology to the translation model of the group and providing students with the strategic competences to solve terminology problems in different translation environments.
LINE OF RESEARCH: DOCUMENTATION APPLIED TO TRANSLATION
In the translation process, documentation provides all the mechanisms and instruments that allow the translator to obtain all the necessary information. The mechanisms and instruments that must be generated in documentation to cover the information needs of the translators are equally important as the solutions that the translator can reach by means of the classic documentation resources.
• Basic research in documentation applied to translation:
The basic research in documentation revolves around mechanisms, instruments and documentation strategies in a translation model. In particular, the objective is to analyse, evaluate and make proposals on how documentation strategies and resources take part in the different phases of translation. Besides analysing in-depth the intervention of these resources, we also evaluate the influence of these resources in the decision taking process of the translator. This research will allow us to establish the repercussion of documentation on the acquisition of expert knowledge by the translator and making proposals to improve the design and the information collected in the usual documentation resources. In this way, the development of a model of knowledge acquisition in translation from documentation processes can be achieved.
• Applied research in documentation applied to translation:
Our applied research on documentation aims to observe, analyse and make proposals to improve the documentation processes and resources in specific translation situations. In these situations, either because of the topic or because of the translation modality, it results more difficult to obtain the information in order to solve translation problems.
• Repercussions in teaching of documentation applied to translation:
Both basic research and applied research can reach results that may have important repercussions in the documentation applied to translation didactics. In this sense, the members of the group are carrying an in-depth research into the newest teaching methods and the learning and application of the theoretical and methodical principles of documentation, as well as the documental model developed in the group.
ADDITIONAL LINE OF RESEARCH: RESEARCH EVALUATION IN TRADUMATICA
Apart from these three lines of research, Tradumàtica group has started a new line of research which allows analysing the quality of the researches that are being carried out. This new line of research, named Research evaluation in Tradumatica, has the objective of creating the necessary instruments to validate the research that is being carried out and, generally, the observational and experimental research in translation.