Researching translation competence: The expert problem

Abstract

Attempts at the definition of translation competence started to be more vigorously made as late as in 1980s. The reason for more intensive efforts was the need to add some scholarly, viz., more explicit and tangible value to the concept. The lack of a clear, unambiguous and, first of all, one definition of competence resulted in a whole spectrum of potential suggestions and postulates concerning this concept. Existing approaches to competence cover a variety of aspects from the wide spectrum of linguistics, psycholinguistics or cognitive studies and concentrate on numerous manifestations of competence that are considered as priorities (depending on the field of research). In this article a selection of relevant definitions shall be presented. The comparison of research perspectives could eventually—ideally or even idealistically—result in a new look on the issue of translation competence. The omnipresent variety of competence components, being the result of a plethora of field-varied research, is the reason for constructing componential models of translation competence; these are to cover new situations and phenomena the translators are challenged with. Moreover, as translation competence is perceived to be manifested rather by professional and experienced (expert) translators than non-professional and inexperienced (non-expert) ones, in the latter part of the article the focus of our considerations shall be shifted to expert vs non-expert translator performance.