Specialised translation

Jump to content

Specialised translation

Our academic work within specialised translation is unique because we are part of a business school, and because of our responsibility to offer the Norwegian National Translator Accreditation Exam.

Our research focuses on specialised translation in areas that naturally belong within NHH’s field of interest, for example translation of texts pertaining to economics, business administration and law.

The research comprises both theoretical and applied studies and covers a broad spectrum of approaches:

  • Contrastive studies of languages and cultures
  • Discourse studies investigating the socio-cultural context of translation
  • Cognitive studies of the development of professional translation competence
  • Terminological and lexicographical studies

We employ research methods that investigate the translation process as well as the translated text.

The department is developing a multilingual parallel corpus called the Bergen Translation Corpus (BTC), which consists of translations from the National Translator Accreditation Exam (Norwegian into English, French, German and Spanish). This corpus provides an empirical basis for theoretical and applied studies of specialised translation. 

Since 1979, NHH offers the Norwegian National Translator Accreditation Exam on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. The department of professional and intercultural communication organizes this exam annually for various language pairs. Upon successful completion, we grant candidates the right to practise as goverment authorised translators.

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Research Group Members

Ongoing research projects

  • THE BERGEN TRANSLATION CORPUS BTC

    THE BERGEN TRANSLATION CORPUS BTC

    BTC (The Bergen Translation Corpus) is a collection of authentic source texts and their translations produced in the National Translator Accreditation Exam.

    This exam is organized and supervised by NHH on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. The texts are specialised translations in law, economics and technology from Norwegian into English, French, Spanish and German.

    The source texts and their translations are aligned and equipped with metadata for research purposes and are accessible on request.

     

    Contact person: Beate Sandvei

  • CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

    CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AND TRANSLATION IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS

    This PhD project examines the linguistic aspect of how ideas and practices travel within MNCs, and the role of the corporate communication function in international transfer processes. Language use is vital when it comes to eliciting employee commitment to managerial initiatives, and in the case of MNCs, they have to reach a culturally and linguistically diverse workforce. Nevertheless, the interplay between translation and international corporate communication remains under-researched.  

    Local communication officers often act as local intermediaries between headquarters and subsidiaries and are charged with the task of translating corporate messages for local use. The dissertation uses interviews, observations and corporate texts from a French MNC to explore how these professionals experience their roles, and how the texts they translate negotiate compliance to the Group and adaptation to local context and concerns. 

    This project highlights the need to include corporate texts and the corporate communication function in studies on international transfer processes, and demonstrates the usefulness of methods from applied linguistics and discourse studies in International Business research. 

    Contact person: Victoria S. Nydegger Schrøder

Completed research projects

  • Translation Competence Development and the Distribution of Cognitive Effort

    Translation Competence Development and the Distribution of Cognitive Effort

    Professional translation competence as a versatile construct of physical and mental abilities (i.e., sub-competencies) involves more than rendering text from one language into another. This project aimed at capturing the development of professional translation competence during a three-year training period by investigating changes to the distribution of cognitive resources. The study included students of translation in Norway and in Germany. The findings are available in the following publication:

    Hegrenæs, C.F. (2018). Translation Competence Development and the Distribution of Cognitive Effort: An Explorative Study of Student Translation Behavior. Bergen/Norway: NHH Norwegian School of Economics.

    Contact person: Claudia F. Hegrenæs