When and how to revise?: Building a cognitive dyad of translator and reviser through workflow adjustment

Abstract

The translation production team that consists of a translator and a reviser<br/>can be investigated as a specific kind of (sub)system of socially distributed<br/>cognition, a cognitive dyad; this system is defined as only including the<br/>translation professionals who are directly involved in the drafting of the<br/>translation. Based on interviews with translation professionals, I argue that<br/>this fine-tuned cognitive dyad gets its form not only as a result of its partici-<br/>pants’ characteristics, but also under the influence of other factors, some of<br/>which vary from one project to the next, leading to the flexible formation of<br/>the reviser’s task in particular. The three most important project-specific<br/>influencing factors are the text genre, the translator’s experience and compe-<br/>tence, and the client’s needs and requirements. While genre and the client’s<br/>needs and requirements seem to have a markedly similar impact, mainly<br/>influencing the internal task configuration of the cognitive dyad, the transla-<br/>tor’s experience and competence often leads to non-revision. Trust is an<br/>important element in this process.