TRANSLATION AND MEANING: A CULTURAL- COGNITIVE ...

These goals can be reached by means of three actions:
1) evaluation of target text with respect to task specifications,
i.e. translation purpose, targeted readers and their
expectations, relation of source text to target text;
2) evaluation of target text as a target language piece of
writing;
3) adjustment of content and form in the light of the evaluation
results (Sager, 1993: 237).
The actions are carried out either by the translator himself/herself, or
by revisers in the translation departments of large organizations. Even in
translation departments, brief or routine texts intended for in-house use are
evaluated and revised by the translator. Only important or long texts that
regulate organization interactions such as contracts and agreements, or texts
intended for publication are evaluated by various revisers and experts, e.g.
lawyers, engineers, doctors, technical writers. The revisers may make the
necessary corrections and adjustments themselves or may pass the
observations to the translator, who then makes the corrections and
adjustments.
When routine texts are translated, for example personal documents
like certificates, diplomas, letters of recommendation or organization
documents like memos and formal correspondence, the translator checks the
text for the desired properties and qualities and makes the modifications at
the same time. With important texts, control and adjustments may be done
at the same time or separately, the actions being performed as many times as
the number of features checked or modified. These features may be content
completion, appropriateness of expression, punctuation, spelling, etc.
(Self) Evaluation is concerned with:
A. the relationship between the source text / source of
information and the target text and the level at which the
relationship takes effect: purpose, content or form;
B. the target text qualities.
A. The evaluator checks the target text for:
• its faithfulness to source text content and form; or
• it similarity of content / style / effect with the source text,
as the case may be.
Specifically, he/she checks the accuracy of content relay, i.e. checks
for omissions, redundancies and changes of meaning. When the similarity of
meaning is checked, the evaluator focuses on the amount of information
relayed from the source to the target text and whether this amount
corresponds to the translation situation. When the target text has to be