Research Unit

Empirical and Quantitative Translation and Interpreting Studies

Acronym
EQTIS
Duration
19 April 2019 → Ongoing
Group leader
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • Translation studies
    • Interpreting studies
Keywords
Communication Interculturalism Linguistics Translation Studies Dutch English French German Spanish Contemporary Comparative Language and text analysis Quantitative
Description
EQTIS has a strong expertise in corpus compilation and multifactorial corpus studies of written and audiovisual translation as well as conference and dialogue interpreting. The team was at the forefront of using multifactorial research designs and statistical techniques in translation and interpreting studies, and it has organised several summer schools and workshops around this topic. Currently, the EQTIS team is increasingly working towards more multi-methods research designs, combining corpus data with keystroke logging and eyetracking data. The team has offered advice and counselling to other research centres in these areas, including in the area of corpus compilation. Our research activities are sub-divided in three research strands: 1. Corpus-Based Translation Studies We use parallel and comparable corpora to study language use and language variation in different translated genres, which are translated from different source languages. In recent years, we have explored the use of complex statistical models (logistic regression, mixed-effects modeling, corrrespondence analysis, hierarchical clustering, random forest modeling) to find out which linguistic and contextual factors have a dominant effect on translation behavior. For more information on this strand, contact gert.desutter@ugent.be. 2. Corpus-Based Interpreting Studies We are one of the few research centres in Europe who take a corpus-based approach to interpreting studies in an attempt to verify a number of received ideas about simultaneous interpreting, such as factors of cognitive load, effects of interpreting strategies and pragmatic marking, and to explore new dimensions of interpreting research, such as gender, and the comparison between interpreting and translation. For more information on this strand, contact bart.defrancq@ugent.be. 3. Process-Based Translation Studies We use quantitative and qualitative findings from empirical research into translated and post-edited language use and investigate relations to both cognitive and social reading and translation process data such as translation onset time, pause behaviour, eye movements, translation competence level, interaction with translation technological tools, translation direction, and language and translation norms. For more information on this strand, contact sonia.vandepitte@ugent.be. Research tools Next to our publications and presentations, our team develops corpora, corpus tools and statistical techniques: 1. Ergonomics for the Artificial Booth Mate (EABM), a corpus-assisted interpreting tool: http://www.eabm.ugent.be Dutch Parallel Corpus 2 (as of 2021 available to the research community) for the translation directions French >< Dutch and English >< Dutch, with many translator- and project-related metadata. More information can be found on this website: https://dpc2.ugent.be/ 2. Advanced interface for the (first version of the) Dutch Parallel Corpus (available as of 2012): as part of the Comure project, an interface was built to query the Dutch Parallel Corpus. Contact Gert De Sutter for more information and access. 3. Profile-Based Correspondence analysis: as part of the Comure project, dr. Koen Plevoets built a profile-based extension to the standard technique of correspondence analysis: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/corregp/.