This chapter concerns collaboration in the translation workplace, specifically the joint construction of a central workplace resource, a client guidelines document, by two translators. Using conversation analysis, the moment-to-moment interaction between the translators is analysed as they engage in decision making with regard to the contents of the document. Considered from the perspective of distributed cognition, the decision-making process is distributed between the participants through their interaction with each other and with material artifacts. The analysis shows how decisions about how to resolve epistemic uncertainty emerge interactively, how material resources are made relevant in the decision-making process, and how authority is jointly constructed. The chapter also discusses how the collaborative document revision contributes to the development of the cultural-cognitive ecosystem of the workplace.

This chapter concerns collaboration in the translation workplace, specifically the joint construction of a central workplace resource, a client guidelines document, by two translators. Using conversation analysis, the moment-to-moment interaction between the translators is analysed as they engage in decision making with regard to the contents of the document. Considered from the perspective of distributed cognition, the decision-making process is distributed between the participants through their interaction with each other and with material artifacts. The analysis shows how decisions about how to resolve epistemic uncertainty emerge interactively, how material resources are made relevant in the decision-making process, and how authority is jointly constructed. The chapter also discusses how the collaborative document revision contributes to the development of the cultural-cognitive ecosystem of the workplace.

The last special issue of Target focusing on cognitive aspects of translation was published in 2013 (25:1) and edited by Maureen Ehrensberger-Dow, Susanne Göpferich, and Sharon O’Brien. More than a decade later, we are pleased to revisit this field of research with a new special issue as it presents us with the possibility of observing and highlighting continuities within the field as well as taking stock of some theoretical and methodological developments.

Many of the topics and focuses in the current special issue were foreshadowed in 2013. For example, Hanna Risku and Florian Windhager’s (2013)   launch of the notion of ‘Extended Translation’, which puts a spotlight on the interdependence of action, social and material environment, interaction, and cognition, has gained momentum. In the current issue, the socio-cognitive theoretical perspective is reflected in Álvaro Marín Garcia’s approach to modelling cognition in Multilectal Mediated Communication (MMC). Further, Juliane House (2013)   called for a linguistic-cognitive orientation in Translation Studies which could be employed to examine the processes of comprehension and re-verbalization in the translator’s mind. Her call is echoed in Rhona Amos and Martin J. Pickering’s examination of language processing during simultaneous interpreting using insights from psycholinguistic studies. Finally, Inger M. Mees, Barbara Dragsted, Inge Gorm Hansen, and Arnt Lykke Jakobsen (2013)   presaged the professional importance of adopting new technological advances and learning hybrid practices, with an examination of oral translation with speech recognition. In the current issue, Elena Davitti and Anna-Stiina Wallinheimo follow in this vein by studying upskilling in interlingual respeaking and the cognitive and interpersonal factors that influence success.

With the multitude of stakeholders in the language industry and its ever-increasing technologization, it appears that any truly productive analysis of cognitive aspects of multilectal mediated communication (MMC) (Halverson and Muñoz 2020) ‘in the wild’, needs to take into account the social and material conditions and constraints of such activities (cf. Risku 2010). Focusing on interactive decision making in real-life technical translation and audio description processes, this paper presents an empirical analysis of how language professionals jointly construct intersubjective agreement (Garfinkel 1967, Lindström et al. 2021) on decisions in the processes of producing translated texts and audio description scripts. Specifically, the paper zooms in to the interaction between human participants and between participants and technology/artifacts through a microanalysis of collaborative decision making in MMC. The data analysed comprise video recordings of face-to-face interaction, and real-time electronic interaction.

Connecting to socio-cognitive research within CTS (Muñoz 2010, 2016, Risku 2010, 2014, Risku, Apfelthaler and Windhager 2013, Risku and Rogl 2021), the study uses theoretical points of departure emphasizing the interdependence of human actions and interactions and the material environment for cognition, primarily Distributed Cognition (Hutchins 1995, 2006). Specifically, the notion of shared cognition (Resnick, Levine and Teasley 1991) is used to understand decision making as an interactional achievement, and the notion of cognitive artifacts (Hutchins 1999) serves to conceptualize the role of material objects in socio-cognitive processes. Importantly, cognitive artifacts are not seen to merely serve as external aids for individuals’ cognitive processing, but to constitute components of cultural-cognitive systems that reflect previous activities and structure current and future ones. 

Methodologically, the paper develops the use of interaction analysis in CTS (Hirvonen and Tiittula 2018). It takes as point of departure the basic tenets of conversation analysis (Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson 1974, ten Have 2007), and uses multimodal interaction analysis (Hausendorf, Schmitt and Kesselheim 2016, Broth and Keevallik 2020) and microethnography (Streeck and Mehus 2005) to cater analytically for the integration of material resources in human interaction. The paper zooms in on two aspects of interactive decision making deemed central to socio-cognitive conceptualizations of MMC activities: how decisions are interactively co-constructed among the participants, and how cognitive artifacts are integrated into the decision-making process. Through a detailed analysis of moment-to-moment activities, the paper develops current understandings in CTS of how cognitive processing can be seen as distributed among language professionals and how they orient towards cognitive artifacts in decision-making processes.

This article sheds light on two different perspectives on the boundaries of the cognitive system and the consequences of their adoption for Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS). Both are represented by different approaches within the cognitive scientific cluster of approaches referred to as situated or 4EA (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended, and affective) cognition. The first, the person-centred perspective, takes individuals as a starting point and describes their interactions with their social and material surroundings. The second, the distributed, extended perspective, takes the joint activity of different situated actors and material artefacts as its starting point and depicts this socio-cognitive unit as the object of analysis. With this article, we do not seek to advocate the use of one over the other. Rather, we attempt to offer a coherent interpretation of how the cognitive process of translation can be studied and interpreted as a situated activity either from the perspective of individual actors or from a larger, distributed, and extended angle that considers people and the relevant social and material environment as a system. Specifically, we discuss what is to be gained if translation is studied from a distributed cognitive perspective. To this end, we illustrate key aspects of the discussion using empirical examples from current field research in which both an individual and a distributed perspective are applied to analyse interaction in a translation workplace.

Increased attention to joint decision-making processes in professional text production practices, specifically different forms of translation, has contributed to our knowledge of the role of interaction and tool use in processes of multilingual mediated communication. The aim of this paper is to further advance research within this realm by examining joint decision making in translation processes both from an empirical and a methodological point of view. For the empirical part, we present analyses of interaction where different actors jointly attend to problems in different translation settings – audio description and technical translation – and show how decisions are made interactively and through the participants’ mobilisation of different communicative resources, including technological artifacts. In order to explore the role of knowledge and responsibility in joint decision making, particular attention is given to manifestations and negotiations of epistemic status and stance and deontic rights in the empirical data. Given that the empirical data comprise both face-to-face interaction and digital interaction (Instant messaging), methodological reflections are also made, and we discuss the potential of conversation analysis and micro-ethnography for investigating joint action in different forms of multilingual mediated communication. 

This dissertation explores translators’ interactions with social and material resources in the translation process. The general aim of the study is to contribute to the knowledge about cognitive translation processes in naturalistic settings, with a specific focus on the ways in which translators interact with social actors and technological resources. The empirical material was collected using an ethnographic approach, which combines field observations, interviews, and the collection of documents and digital communication. The fieldwork was carried out in the Swedish translation office of a global language service provider company.

The study is positioned within cognitive translation studies and employs a socio-cognitive theoretical framework. The main theoretical point of departure is extended translation, which outlines factors relevant to analyses of socio-cognitive aspects of translating and posits assumptions about the relation between translation, cognition, and environment. Extended translation draws on situated approaches to cognition developed within the cognitive sciences. In the present study, perspectives from situated cognition and distributed cognition are highlighted. A theoretical concept that has proven especially valuable as an analytic lens is that of "scaffolding", in cognitive scientist Andy Clark’s sense. For Clark, scaffolding denotes the role of social and material external structure for accomplishing otherwise less easily attainable goals.

The analyses focus on interaction within the social network in the workplace, interaction with mnemonic artifacts, and interaction with query management resources. The results show that, and how, translators in need of assistance with regard to translation-related difficulties create conditions for collaboration by framing translation problems in specific ways. Problem-solving processes are shown to unfold through interaction between translators, which includes joint attention to input from material resources. Translators also interact with translation memory (TM) technology to modify situation-specific conditions for decision making. Moreover, translators use their social network to evaluate TM content, and they take action to manage and manipulate TM content. Considered in light of the assumptions put forward by distributed cognition, the analysis of the latter activities suggests that remembering processes unfold at the level of the workplace, rather than at the level of the individual. Finally, the results suggest two ways in which query management resources are exploited in the translation process: to support problem solving and to counteract undesired predicted responses from other actors, such as claims and complaints. Both these activities involve interaction with social actors.

In summary, the results show how translators in the workplace interact with, and modify, external resources to create support for problem solving, remembering, and decision making in the translation process. By redefining the object of study from translators’ internal computation to their interactions with external resources, the study contributes to the growing body of knowledge of situated, extended, and distributed aspects of translating. The study also makes a methodological contribution by using an ethnographic approach to study socio-cognitive aspects of translating.

Syftet med den här artikeln är att problematisera begreppet samarbete i översättningssammanhang. Begreppet har lyfts fram i den översättningsvetenskapliga litteraturen som en central komponent i professionellt översättningsarbete, men definitionerna av begreppet skiljer sig åt. I artikeln redogör jag för olika perspektiv på begreppet samarbete, dels från en allmän tolkning av begreppet, dels från ett översättningsvetenskapligt perspektiv. Begreppet samarbete diskuteras också utifrån ett antal empiriska exempel från min pågående forskning, som syftar till att utforska professionellt översättningsarbete som social och kollektiv praktik. Sammanfattningsvis mynnar diskussionen ut i ett förslag till nyansering av begreppet samarbete, där typiska antaganden om t.ex. delade målsättningar som en komponent i interaktion mellan aktörer visar sig otillräckliga. Istället föreslås en initial uppdelning i samarbetsorienterade praktiker och proaktiva praktiker.