Abstracts
Abstract
When a qualitative leap forward is taken in any scientific discipline, the change is usually accompanied by an increased interest in research. This occurred in Translation Studies in the 1950s and in the 1990s. This paper outlines some of the most important epistemological and methodological questions faced by researchers who want to apply the so called “scientific method” to empirical research in translation. We will discuss the main steps in the research process: designing an experiment, selecting subjects or the object of study, defining experimental and control groups, controlling independent variables, choosing instruments that will measure what we want to measure and which will give us reliable data to analyse. The whole procedure should be intelligible and transparent, the objectives relevant and the results clear.
Keywords:
- Translation Studies,
- methodology,
- scientific method,
- empirical studies,
- criteria,
- critique
Résumé
Dans tout domaine scientifique, lorsqu’un saut qualitatif se produit, il est généralement accompagné d´une véritable passion pour la recherche. C’est ce qui est advenu en traduction, tout d’abord dans les années 1950 et ensuite dans les années 1990. L’objectif de ce travail est d’examiner certaines des principales questions de méthodologie et d´épistémologie auxquelles se trouve confrontée la recherche empirique en traduction lorsqu’il s’agit d’appliquer ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la « méthode scientifique ». Nous étudierons les points essentiels devant être pris en considération au cours du processus de recherche : conception de l’étude, sélection des individus et des sujets de la recherche, définition des groupes expérimentaux et de contrôle, contrôle des variables indépendantes et choix des instruments servant à mesurer les paramètres pertinents afin d’obtenir des données fiables. Une telle procédure devrait être caractérisée par l’intelligibilité et la transparence du processus scientifique, ainsi que par la pertinence des objectifs et la clarté des résultats.
Mots-clés :
- traductologie,
- méthodologie,
- méthode scientifique,
- études empiriques,
- critique
Appendices
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