PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Post-editing of machine translation (MT) is a workflow that is being used for an increasing number of text types and domains (Koponen, 2016; Hu, 2020; Zouhar et al., 2021),but the sections of text that post-editors need to fix have become harder to detect due to the increased human-like fluency that neural machine translation (NMT) affords (Comparin & Mendes, 2017; Yamada, 2019). This dissertation seeks to address this problem by developing a word-level machine translation quality estimation (MTQE) system to highlight words in raw MT output that need editing in order to aid post-editors. Subsequently, this MTQE system is tested in a large-scale post-editing experiment to determine if it increases productivity and decreases cognitive effort and error rate. This MTQE system is based on two automatically generated features: word translation entropy, generated from the output of multiple MT systems (a feature that has never been used in MTQE), and word class (based on part-of-speech tags). For the post-editing experiment, a within-subjects design assigns raw MT output to participants under three different conditions. Two experimental conditions consist of MT output that has been enhanced with highlighting surrounding the stretches of text that likely need to be edited. In the first experimental condition, this highlighting is supplied automatically by the MTQE system, and in the second experimental condition, this highlighting is supplied by an experienced translator, indicating what text needs editing. The control condition constitutes MT output without highlighting. Participants post-edit three experimental texts in Trados Studio while time-stamped keystroke logs are gathered (which are later integrated into the CRITT Translation Process Research Database (TPR-DB)), and various measures of temporal, technical, cognitive, perceived effort, and group editing activity are used to assess the efficacy and usefulness of highlighting potential errors in the post-editing user (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This dissertation investigates the cognitive processes and performance in human-ChatGPT interaction during machine translation post-editing (MTPE), with a focus on how student translators and expert translators interact with GPT-4 generated translations. The research examines how different post-editing guidelines (light vs. full post-editing) and search conditions (termbase vs. internet search) affect the translation process and quality. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of keystroke logging and eye-tracking data with qualitative assessment of translation quality through manual error annotation. The experimental design simulates a professional translation environment using SDL Trados Studio, involving 46 participants (30 student translators and 16 expert translators) post-editing English-to-Chinese translations generated by GPT-4. To ensure ecological validity, a new research tool, Trados-to-Translog-II, was implemented to integrate keystroke data collected within Trados and eye-tracking data with the CRITT Translation Process Research Database (TPR-DB). The findings reveal that syntactic complexity metrics significantly correlate with translation quality across GPT-4, student translators, and expert translators. GPT-4's output shows greater susceptibility to errors as syntactic complexity increases compared to human translators, with expert translators demonstrating the highest resilience to complex structures. The complexity of GPT-4 output has a more pronounced influence on student translators' performance compared to experts, highlighting the enduring value of expertise in handling difficult translation tasks. The study also finds that students' post-editing performance decreases when conducting tasks with internet search compared to working with a specific termbase. Analysis of students' post-editing interventions reveals significant variations across different tasks, suggesting the need for enhanced training i (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Students of translation must be able to translate in a collaborative language industry. However, contextual constraints can impede the pedagogically sound incorporation of professionally relevant tools into translation practice. In this study, I propose methods for identifying and addressing these constraints and optimizing translation practice through the informed selection and implementation of knowledge-sharing tools that promote the development of technological and personal/interpersonal translation competence. I report on action research conducted in an asynchronous online translation practice course, where problems are documented on interaction taking place via knowledge-sharing tools used to complete translation-relevant assignments. Solutions to these problems are proposed based on data gathered on tool usage and student and instructor discourse, in addition to the experiences, attitudes, and opinions of course stakeholders both in and outside the university. In a first step, a survey is launched to identify the primary affordances of tools professional translators employ to interact with other professionals during translation and of tools educators use for interaction during online translation practice. In a second step, survey responses, learning environment data, student feedback, and instructor reflections are collected with the participation of stakeholders in an online master's-level introductory translation practice course. These data are analyzed to gauge learning using community of inquiry-based indicators of presence, which are related to the knowledge-sharing tools through which interaction occurs during two course assignments. The survey is also used to identify constraints affecting the selection and implementation of tools in these assignments. In a third step, ways are proposed to address the identified constraints while selecting translation-relevant knowledge-sharing tools. The resulting empirically informed optimization of interaction in on (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Drawing on empirical research methods and design from cognitive psychology and translation studies, this dissertation focuses on cognitive effort during the translation process when translation memory is used. More specifically, two questions are addressed by means of an experimental study. The first question is whether the use of translation memory affects the cognitive effort of the translator during the process of translating segmented texts compared to translation without the use of a TM. The second research question addressed in this study is whether translators perceive translation memory proposals as useful to the translation task. Both of these questions are experimentally investigated in an attempt to illuminate the effects resulting from the use of translation memory. This study first provides an overview of translation technology, and outlines key concepts, such as translation memory, post-editing, working memory, and cognitive effort. These concepts are explored within the context of professional translation and the existing literature is reviewed. Next, a novel, Web-based data collection method is proposed to elicit translation process data from Spanish-to-English translators with four to seven years of professional experience. Following this description, the results are presented in light of the two overarching research questions. Moreover, the results are examined in light of Angelone's (2010) notion of triadic metacognitive bundles, consisting of problem recognition, solution proposal, and solution evaluation behaviors. The dissertation concludes by suggesting implications for translation pedagogy, research design, and translation tool design. Finally, the economics ramifications are highlighted, and potential avenues for future research are proposed.

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This doctoral dissertation examines Simplification and Explicitation translation shifts within the context of simultaneous conference interpreting from Arabic to English. Traditionally considered distinct alterations in linguistic features, these shifts are redefined in this study as adaptive strategies that interpreters might employ to manage the inherent challenges of real-time language transfer. Simplification, typically characterized by reduced sentence length and simpler vocabulary, and Explicitation, the explicit rendering of implicit information, are the focal points of this research. By integrating advanced machine transcription and corpus analysis tools, the research systematically quantifies these shifts, providing a rigorous examination of their frequency and impact. Four key indicators were employed: Average Sentence Length (ASL) and Lexical Density (LD) to assess Simplification, and Wordcount (WRDC) and Readability (READ) scores to measure Explicitation. The findings reveal that, for Simplification, there were no statistically significant differences between the R-corpus (reference) and T-corpus (target) in terms of ASL or LD. For Explicitation, the WRDC comparison between the T-corpus and S-corpus (source) similarly showed no significant difference. However, a statistically significant difference was observed in the READ scores, with the T-corpus demonstrating lower readability, indicating that the target texts in the T-corpus are generally easier to read and more accessible compared to the texts in the S-corpus. These findings complicate the expected patterns of Simplification and Explicitation in simultaneous interpreting. While translation studies often link Simplification to ASL and lower LD, the T-corpus did not show significant differences. For Explicitation, the significant difference in READ scores suggests that interpreters in simultaneous interpreting may prioritize readability and accessibility, rather than increase complexity. T (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Online participatory translation and localization spread widely with the advent of Web 2.0, and various collaborative translation practices continue to emerge in different contexts (e.g., the entertainment, technology, and software development industries). Collaborative translation also continues to evolve in online education, particularly in massive open online courses (MOOCs), most of which are delivered in English. Therefore, a range of opportunities must be provided to learners with relatively low English language proficiency. Online collaborative translation has been utilized by several prominent platforms such as Coursera, Khan Academy, and edX to increase linguistic diversity and the use of MOOCs in international development. This study explores the online collaborative translation practices evident on educational platforms, with a particular focus on the translation policies of MOOCs' providers, the motivations driving collaborators to engage in these participatory translation initiatives, and the work models implemented by the platforms. Two MOOC providers were identified as case studies, namely Coursera and Khan Academy. This research investigates their respective translation policies, drawing on Gonzalez Nunez's (2013) systematic approach to translation policy as a complex concept that encompasses management, practice, and beliefs. Additionally, this research adopts Engestrom's (1987) activity system model to explain the technologically mediated collaborative translations involving diverse participants and tools on Coursera and Khan Academy, and to identify contradictions within and between the components of their activity system models. It also explores collaborators' motivations through the functional approach, which identifies specific motives driving participation in collaborative translation, alongside demotivating factors. The research employs a combination of methods, including document analysis, observation, questionnaires, and follow-up interview (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, Miami University, 2023, Computer Science and Software Engineering

It is a well-established fact that the performance of Machine Translation (MT) techniques largely depends on the quantity and quality of data available. The lack of a large well-curated dataset is especially a challenge for low-resource languages. The Myaamia language, also known as the Miami-Illinois language, is an endangered Native American language, and there are active efforts being made toward its revitalization. As a part of the revitalization process, the recorded texts are currently being manually translated, which might take up to a decade to translate at the current rate, according to some expert assessments. To speed up the translation process, we developed Myaamia Translator, a Neural Machine Translation (NMT) based machine translation approach, which leverages the state-of-the-art transformer architecture to translate text from Myaamia to English. The contributions of this work are two-fold: first, we use a combination of rule-based augmentation and back-translation augmentation to address the data limitation; and second, we train the model using the large dataset to test its effectiveness in translating a religious Myaamia textbook to English.

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2020, English

The success or failure of any translation depends on who controls the narrative and how faithfully that narrative is presented to the reader. Translative control can either be in the voice of the text or the translator or, in the case of literary translation, an integration (or truce) between the extrinsic force of the original source and the translator's intrinsic interpretation. Determining who sets the narrative paradigms and how best to achieve the desired outcome are vital to any translation. This exploration into own voices examines several translations of Dante Alighieri's La Commedia, analyzes the situational forces inherent in literary translation, and observes the ways each translator transcends the source material to make it his or her own. This essay also looks deeper into other areas of own voices in translation by exploring the connection between literary and pedagogical translation within ESL/EFL classrooms. Contemporary research indicates that many English language educators allow their students to control the narrative in creative writing assignments through first-language translation. Seen as an essential part of the language learning environment, pedagogical guided self-translation is a way to integrate students' own voices, identity, and culture into linguistic acquisition.

PHD, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Translation is an invaluable tool for communicating between cultures and for bridging the “knowledge gap.” Based on this fact, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) claims that the purpose of its translations of media content from the Middle East, mainly the Arabic-speaking world, is to bridge the knowledge gap that exists between the West and Middle Eastern countries. Although MEMRI's stated goal is a generous and worthy one, its translations have attracted criticism from major translation scholars such as Mona Baker (2005, 2006, 2010a) and journalists such as Brian Whitaker (2002, 2007), as well as scholars from history and political studies. The main criticism regarding MEMRI's translations revolves around the question of selectivity, or which texts are chosen for translation. However, no study to date has provided comprehensive evidence to support or refute that charge, which this study aims to do. This study focuses on English translations of texts and video clips that were found in the Saudi Arabia translation archive, published and available online on MEMRI's website. By investigating all the Saudi media sources (e.g., newspapers, TV channels, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) from which MEMRI makes its selection of texts for translation, this study provides statistical evidence as to whether MEMRI's translations are representative of what is being circulated in the source culture (Saudi Arabia) media. Supporting evidence is sought in MEMRI's approach to the translation of titles and in its translation of video clips (subtitling).

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This study explores the effect of translation strategies on undergraduate students' second language writing in three French composition classes. After the grammar translation method was used in foreign language teaching, translation in the foreign language classroom was banned for a long time. It is now reappearing in those language classrooms and several studies, such as Karoly (2014) and Gonzalez Davies' (2014) show its benefits in the foreign language classroom for enhancing students' grammar as well as their cultural understanding of the language (Machida, 2011). The current study seeks to determine if translation, as informed by translation studies has an impact on students' second language writing, and in particular on the naturalness of their writing. There were eight participants in each group of Fall 2014, 2015, and Spring 2016. The distribution of translation interventions per group was as follows: no intervention in the 2014 class, one in the 2015 class with the transposition translation strategy based on Vinay and Darbelnet's (1995) indirect translation procedures, and several in the Spring 2016 class including formal lessons on Vinay and Darbelnet's indirect translation strategies (e.g. transposition, modulation, and explicitation), approaches such as Skopos theory, as well as translation activities. Students' writings were coded for wrong lexical/grammatical choice, grammatically and semantically deviant sentences, and naturalness before and after the interventions—at the beginning and at the end of the semester for the Fall 2014 class. Three native speakers, concordance search using Concordancier Corpus francais (https://lextutor.ca/conc/fr/), and Google.fr searches with quotes—results specifically included trusted websites or books—were used to evaluate the naturalness of students' writings. Three repeated measures ANOVAs were performed, one for each dependent variable. Due to the small sample size, post-hoc one-tailed paired sample t-tests were r (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This dissertation addresses the need to expand translation scholarship through the inclusion of research into different translation traditions and histories (D'hulst 2001: 5; Bandia 2006; Tymoczko 2006: 15; Baker 2009: 1); the importance of compiling bibliographies of translations in a variety of translation traditions (Pym 1998: 42; D'hulst 2010: 400); and the need for empirical studies on the functional aspects of (translation) paratexts (Genette 1997: 12–15). It provides a digital bibliography that documents what works of Persian literature were translated into English, by whom, where, and when, and explores how these translations were presented to Anglophone readers across three historical periods—1925–1941, 1942–1979, and 1980–2015—marked by important socio-political events in the contemporary history of Iran and the country's shifting relations with the Anglophone West. Through a methodical search in the library of congress catalogued in OCLC WorldCat, a bibliographical database including 863 editions of Persian-English literary translations along with their relevant metadata—titles in Persian, authors, translators, publishers, and dates and places of publication—was compiled and, through a quantitative analysis of this bibliographical data over time, patterns of translation publication across the given periods were identified. A corpus of 223 paratexts (introductions, prefaces, translator's notes, forewords, and afterwords) accompanying 157 Persian-English literary translations were closely read and thematically coded using the qualitative data analysis software, NVivo. The diachronic analysis of the themes by the NVivo Matrix Coding Query revealed significant changes in the paratextual content from a period to another whereby the discourse on the ongoing social and political contexts of Iran significantly increased over time while the topic of translation saw a drastic decrease. The bibliographical analysis revealed an increase in the number of Persian-Engli (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This dissertation describes the evolution of Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS) from the perspective of the Philosophy of Science and examines how to differentiate and choose when faced with two or more competing constructs in an interdisciplinary research enterprise. The work of Larry Laudan is applied to develop a set of criteria to assess conceptual performance. These criteria are applied in two brief case studies analyzing and comparing milestone constructs in the field: translation expertise and translation competence, and translation expertise and situated translation and interpreting expertise (STIE). This study contributes new perspectives to describe the evolution of Cognitive Translation Studies, stressing that scientific progress is interactive and plural, and proposing a shared, comparative conceptual performance model to help CTS scholars navigate that plurality.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, German

In this thesis, I analyze the different obstacles of audiovisual translation, in particular those of dubbing, by reference to the German dubbing of the American Sitcom Friends. One of the main reasons why audiovisual translation is so complex is that it requires interdisciplinary knowledge. Being fluent in the source and target language is not enough anymore, Translation Studies must open up to Communication Studies, Media and Film Studies, Cultural Studies, as well as to Semiotics, Sociology, Anthropology” (Gambier and Gottlieb xii), and possibly other disciplines, in order to provide a sufficient translation that does not lose the entertaining value of the source text, within the new environment of the target language. The following analysis investigates the balance between translating cultural and linguistic aspects, and their effects on humor retention in the target text. Therefore, the first part of this thesis provides an overview of translation theory, and in particular humor translation, and translation of culture-bound references. In the next part, I analyze a selection of dubbing examples from the fourth season of Friends, divided into intra-linguistic culture-bound references and extra-linguistic culture-bound references. After comparing those results, my final claim is that giving precedence to the translation of stylistic devices over cultural references, often results in loss of humor, context, and sometimes even sense. Since humor and socio-critical references are the two main components of sitcoms, the translation of culture-bound reference plays a big part in whether a dubbed version is successful in the target culture or not.

PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Previous studies flagged concerns about a communication gap between translator instructors and students in undergraduate translation practice classes without elaborating on the feedback component. Borrowing the notion of feedback culture (London & Smither, 2002), expanding on Hyland and Hyland's conceptualization of feedback (2006), and utilizing the reviewed literature on effective feedback, the researcher developed an analytical framework to investigate how feedback was situated, shaped, and negotiated in translator education. Feedback is situated by its sociocultural context, shaped by the delivery and focus of its content, and negotiated through the interaction and reflection of its participants. In this qualitative multi-case study, a group of advanced translation practice instructors (n=8) and their students (n=58) were selected from two different university translation programs: one in Saudi Arabia (SA-CASE) and one in the United States (US-CASE). The qualitative data, which involved observations, interviews, and document reviews, were collected, analyzed, and reported using the research three-dimensional framework. Findings revealed that participants within and across the two cases differed in their perception and, consequently, in their practice of feedback. Collective and broad verbal discussions were the norm in the SA-CASE, while individualized and points-based written corrections occurred consistently in the US-CASE. Emerging themes included a pattern of error detection and rater variability, technology-facilitated feedback, market-oriented feedback, conflicting attitudes toward peer feedback, vague understanding of self-feedback, scarcity of feedback on feedback, and varying forms of dialogue. To enhance the feedback loop, the researcher proposes a model that gives students a more interactive role in the feedback process.

Bachelor of Arts, University of Toledo, 2007, Linguistics

I argue that as Bible translators worked in non-Western cultures and languages, they, along with the people in these cultures, realized that some words cannot be divorced from their cultural context and connotations. This idea inevitably led them to conclude that each culture also has their own unique viewpoint of God, faith, and reality, which was essentially the birth of contextual theology. This was a major shift from classical theological thought which saw theology as more of a scientific description of God and faith, which implies that it is universal, the same for every person in every culture. I begin by discussing the issue of meaning within the context of translation. What actually happens during translation? Can the meaning of a text actually be transferred to another language? To investigate this idea, I examine two key ideas within translation studies: untranslatability and equivalence, namely what aspects of a text may be untranslatable and what type of equivalence between the source and target language texts is possible and desirable. I conclude that the way in which a translator solves these problems leads to a unique new work of art. Next, I relate this conclusion to the key premise of contextual theology, that theology cannot be separated from cultural context, although each person can gain a deeper, fuller view of God by studying other cultures' theologies. I will particularly focus on the synthesis model of contextual theology, as described by Stephen Bevans, which is particularly well suited to showing the influence of translation theory. Ultimately I conclude that the development of contextual theology would not have occurred without the changes in translation theory prompted by the act of Bible translation.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, Linguistics

The automated translation of one natural language to another, known as machine translation (MT), typically requires successful modeling of the grammars of the languages and the relationship between them. Rather than hand-coding these grammars and relationships, some machine translation efforts employ data-driven methods, where the goal is to learn from a large amount of training examples of accurate translations. One such data-driven approach is statistical MT, where language and alignment models are automatically induced from parallel corpora. This work has also been extended to probabilistic finite-state approaches, most often via transducers. This dissertation introduces and begins an investigation of an MT model consisting of a novel combination finite-state devices. The model proposed is more flexible than transducer models, giving increased ability to handle word order differences between languages, as well as crossing and discontinuous alignments between words. The linked automata MT model consists of a source language automaton, a target language automaton, and an alignment table—a function which probabilistically links sequences of source and target language transitions. It is this augmentation to the finite-state base which gives the linked automata model its flexibility. The dissertation describes the linked automata model from the ground up, beginning with a description of some of the relevant MT history and empirical MT literature, and the preparatory steps for building the model, including a detailed discussion of word alignment and the introduction of a new technique for word alignment evaluation. Discussion then centers on the description of the model and its use of probabilities, including algorithms for its construction from word-aligned bitexts and for the translation process. The focus next moves to expanding the linked automata approach, first through generalization and techniques for extracting partial results, and then by increasing the covera (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

The textual turn in translation studies in the 1980s shifted the focus of translation research from smaller, sub-sentential textual units, such as words and phrases, to global features that run throughout entire texts, such as cohesion, coherence, and other features of textual organization (Neubert & Shreve 1992). Nevertheless, in the current practice of translation, where content is translated by teams of translators using a variety of technologies, such as translation memories and machine translation, the focus often shifts back to sub-sentential segments, threatening the maintenance of a global textual orientation. These realities of the industry make the need for empirical studies of cohesive and other global textual features of vital importance. Additionally, given the explosive growth of machine translation in recent years, it seems relevant to supplement the studies of global features in human-translated texts by similar studies of machine-translated output. This empirical corpus-based study compares the use of cohesive devices and other global textual features across three corpora organized by genre (literary, newspaper, and scientific). Each of these corpora was divided into three sub-corpora based on the method of text production: texts written in English (non-translated texts), texts translated into English from Russian by human translators (human-translated texts), and texts translated into English from Russian by a machine translation tool (machine-translated texts). This study applies a more comprehensive approach than has been used earlier for analyzing global features of texts produced by different methods in corpora of different text-types. It employs the framework for studying cohesive and other global features of texts suggested by Dong and Lan (2010), who combined Halliday & Hasan's pioneering ideas for studying cohesion in English (1976) with Campbell's construct of textual competence (1998). In addition to reference and conjunction cohesive dev (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2011, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

There is often a significant disjunction between how software designers envision the use of their application programs and how the software is actually understood, perceived, and employed by end users. When this disjunction occurs, software tools and technology fail to meet user needs or expectations and do not fulfill business objectives. This study investigates this disjunction in a translation agency. Some researchers have argued that many software system designs fail because insufficient attention is paid during the design phase to the social and cultural context of how and why people actually work with software applications in their organizational settings. These researchers argue that the development of usable and useful software thus depends on receiving organizationally meaningful and actionable information from end users both during the design process and during the refinement and upgrade cycles of the software. Regrettably, this information, which is essentially ethnographic in nature, is not easy to obtain using the normal methods of requirement specification. This dissertation argues that ethnography can make a significant contribution to the success of the design process and serve as a valuable requirement specification method. The research focuses on the use of translation tools by translation professionals at the agency and uses detailed ethnographic description to document the movement of translation objects (texts, data objects) through the organization and between participants by describing the workflows, processes, and tasks that must be performed with the translation tools. The study uses microethnography to investigate the use of specific features of the translation tools and makes recommendations for translation tool design. There is some evidence in the literature to suggest that many software tool designers find it difficult to translate ethnographic research findings into software design decisions. The dissertation proposes a model for analy (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

In the current global business environment many endeavors are undertaken as projects. Translation, localization and other language services are no exception and must be viewed and studied as services performed in a projectized environment. If they are not, there will continue to be gaps between the way translation is taught and researched (as an isolated activity) and how it is performed in the business world (as part of projects). The existence of these gaps not only prevents translation practitioners from recognizing and communicating the value of the service that they provide, but also diminishes the value of the training that future translators receive. Lack of understanding of the context in which translation is performed limits the opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between translation studies and other disciplines in the academic environment, and between organizations and divisions within a given organization in the business environment. This study proposes to contribute to the research on translation in project contexts by examining risk management, which is an important area of focus for organizations and professionals in many sectors, but which is largely ignored in the language industry. This study first provides an overview of the language industry, explores key concepts, such as risk, uncertainty, project management, risk management and maturity model, and explains the role and relevance of risk management in the language industry. It then reviews existing risk management frameworks developed by project management and risk management practitioners, including the framework developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Next, a model of risk sources developed specifically for application in translation and localization projects is presented and discussed. The theoretical discussion is followed by a case study in which PMI's project risk management framework is implemented and the proposed model of risk sources is applied in a real (open full item for complete abstract)

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

Scholars of Translation have recently started to turn their attention to literary traditions beyond Western traditions of translation, acknowledging the need for translation between the Arabic language and its cultures, and the languages and the cultures of the outside world. Arabic has a long history of translation, reaching back to the Golden Age of Arabic civilization, known in Europe as the dark ages. This study is an attempt to bring the Arabic translation tradition to the discussion around translation theory. It covers seven decades of literary translation activities from 1947 to 2016. The scope of this study encompasses the translations into English of works of Arabic literary fiction during three distinct periods: 1947–1967; 1968–1987; and 1988–2016. The first period marks the first noticeable attempts to translate modern Arabic literature; the second period witnesses the expansion of translation Arabic literature due to political unrest in the Middle East; and the third period marks a global recognition of Arabic literature with the awarding of the Nobel Prize for literature to Naguib Mahfuz in 1988. This project entailed the creation of a comprehensive bibliography of translated works of Arabic fiction published from 1947 to 2016. This bibliography provides information not only about the translation flows of Arabic novels and short stories, but also about the authors of the original works and the translators of these works, as well as the date and place of publication. This project also entailed the compilation of comprehensive corpus of all of the paratexts written by translators that accompanied the published translations of works of Arabic fiction published from 1947 to 2016. The corpus underwent extensive thematic analysis facilitated by the electronic qualitative analysis tool NVivo. The study's quantitative findings reveal that translations increased in number over time, with nine translations published in the first period, 83 in (open full item for complete abstract)