Relatore: Professor Bruno OSIMO - Bruno Osimo, traduzioni ...

SUBJECTS’ BACKGROUND AND SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL
FACTORS
As has been mentioned in the previous sections the unexpected features
of the subjects’ behaviour in the experimental task may be explained by their
personal histories. In addition, social-psychological factors, such as Goffman’s
(1961) notion of role distancing, may also provide explanations. I will begin
with a discussion of the subjects’ personal histories as an explaining factor and
then move on to describing the types of behaviour which I see as potential
displays of role distancing in the present data.
The first example of a subject’s personal history as an explanation deals
with one of the non-professional translators, Laura. As was mentioned in
section 4. 1., Laura had written her doctoral dissertation in English. In her
professional career she had also reported on her research both in English and
in Finnish, i.e. she had considerable experience in reporting her own thoughts
in two languages. Nida argues (1964: 242) that ‘if a person is to serve as a
translator, – he must have had a good deal of experience in language shifting’.
Although Laura had had no experience in translating, which she explicitly
pointed out in the background questionnaire, she had accumulated a great
deal of experience in language shifting. As a consequence, Laura also seemed
to have moved away from the ‘school translation’ approach to translating and
was able to produce a relatively fluent and idiomatic Finnish text.
Furthermore, Laura can also be regarded as an experienced writer, which
makes her a less ‘naive’ language user than the other non-professional
translators in the present data.
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