Transferring implied values of the Latvian source text diminutives into English: Piloting translation guidelines with novice translators

Abstract

During ongoing research on linguistic means and translation solutions for transferring into English the implied values of Latvian diminutives in literary translations, Guidelines for translators, which might assist them in their decision-making process, have been drafted and piloted. The aim of the present paper is to find out what revisions of the draft Guidelines devised for transferring implied values of the Latvian source text diminutives into English may be required on the bases of analysis of the feedback and translation solutions chosen by novice translators piloting these Guidelines.

The draft Guidelines were piloted during a student translation experiment, where its participants worked in pairs or groups of three, translated selected fragments from Latvian prose texts, and recorded their Dialogue Think Aloud Protocols (DTAPs). Afterwards, they completed a questionnaire, reflecting on their translation process and the usefulness of the draft Guidelines in their decision-making process.

The analysis of the anonymously coded and processed experiment data (translations, DTAPs, questionnaire answers) shows that the participants considered and took into account the advice of the draft Guidelines. They used various stylistically marked parts of speech and other linguistic means, thus being able to convey the nuances expressed by source text diminutives in almost 85% of the analysed cases. As a result, it can be concluded that, from the experiment participants’ perspective, no major revisions of the draft Guidelines are required. The next stage of this research is obtaining the opinion of translator trainers on the draft Guidelines in the translator training process.