Indirect translation: theoretical, methodological and terminological issues

Abstract

whether the source languages can also be detected. Finally, the author asks whether these same tools may be used to investigate the features of indirect translations and determine their similarities to the languages of their source texts. This specific study is right at the forefront of computational analyses of translational corpora, and the findings, i.e. (using cluster analysis) that indirect translations may be similar to the ultimate source language, or the mediating language, or neither, is an important result. Finally, the dissertation also demonstrates the richness of mixed methods design for the investigation of translational phenomena. This too is a trend that is being witnessed in many areas of TS, and its execution here is exemplary. The empirical results as a whole also provide interesting perspectives not only on the linguistic features of indirect translations, but on the extent of ITr of prose texts from Greek into Finnish in this period (13 texts), the motivations and processes that a translator uses in working with several source texts in a compilative ITr, as well as the attitudes toward ITr in Finland during the period in question (viewed negatively, though considered necessary in some cases). One of the most intriguing theoretical reflections in the dissertation is the author’s querying of the notion of ‘source text’, which in the data investigated here becomes problematic in many regards. Ivaska links her reflections to others interested in the same question, and it will be interesting to see the continuation of this particular discussion from the unique perspective of ITr.