Translation Studies and Terminology (TraST)

Based on the results of the International Evaluation of Research and Doctoral Training at the University of Helsinki 2005-2010, the quality of research of the group was estimated as ‘excellent’, and the societal impact of research and development projects got the mark ‘outstanding’.

PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:
Research questions in Translation Studies and terminology typically rise from various fields of society. Therefore, researchers often have to reach out to other disciplines to find answers, use their methods and work in transdisciplinary cooperation with experts from other fields, e.g. law, marine technology, forestry, environmental science and computer science.

Translation research plays an important part in society. Translation and interpreting influence the development of written language, literature and society itself. They are also important from the point of view of language politics, language rights and minority languages. Translation research provides information on the writing process as well as quality of texts, not to mention communication between different cultures. This information is applicable to different types of texts, e.g. documents, literature or audiovisual texts, and helps raise the quality of translations and thus promote cultural exchanges and cultural exports on international markets. The theoretical research performed by the community develops theoretical models and methods of research for applied studies. Translation research is also needed to ensure the continuation of high-quality translator education.

Terminological and multilingual research help develop tools the translators need, e.g. term banks and applications for computer assisted translation. Applied terminological research benefits the discipline in question, since it clarifies its concept systems and terminology.

The following projects have outside funding: SpeechText, a research on print interpreting; Finnish-Russian forestry dictionary (Suomalais-venäläinen metsäsanakirja); Multilingual Dialog; the ContentFactory; and EU MOLTO, a multilingual on-line translation project.

As was mentioned above, one of the focal points of the researcher community is the research and research training seminar. Moreover, the RC has arranged nine national and seven international conferences in 2005–2010. The RC also has four publication series.

During the evaluation period, ten people have completed their doctoral training. At the moment, there are 18 active postgraduates.

Responsible person: Liisa Tiittula, Department of Modern Languages

Participation category: 5