Translation as Rational Communication (B07)

• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232722074

B7 focuses on the specific linguistic properties of translation, i.e. non-randomly occurring linguistic features that distinguish translations from original productions, also referred to as translationese. Our overarching research question is to what extent translationese effects can be described and explained in an information-theoretic framework of rational communication. Our approach is corpus-based using selected models of information content (surprisal, entropy); specifically, we investigate the interplay of surprisal and (working) memory, which is a crucial factor in simultaneous interpreting.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1102: Information Density and Linguistic Encoding
• Applicant Institution: Universität des Saarlandes
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Ekaterina Lapshinova-Koltunski; Professorin Dr. Elke Teich