Uncovering the creative process: from inception to reception of translated content using machine translation

Project Information

INCREC

Grant agreement ID: 101086819

DOI

10.3030/101086819

EC signature date 17 May 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2028

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 993 643,00

EU contribution

€ 1 993 643,00

Coordinated by

RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INCREC (Uncovering the creative process: from inception to reception of translated content using machine translation)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2026-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The new machine translation paradigm, neural machine translation, has drastically changed society’s perception of technology and the act of translation. It has also motivated a series of claims by research labs and the media implying that machines will soon decode the transfer of one language to another, thus driving professional translators out of their jobs. Creative content producers, such as streaming platforms or publishing houses, are now exploring, testing or using neural machine translation. Yet little is known of the constraints this technology poses to translators’ creative process and how such constraints impact the users. The need to understand this has become essential to sustain translation richness, translators’ job satisfaction, authors’ and directors’ reputations, and the user experience.
INCREC aims to uncover the creative stages of professional translators to understand how technology can be best applied to the translation of literary and audiovisual texts, and to analyse the impact of these processes on readers and viewers. The research project is articulated in four work packages that cover two broad areas: inception and reception of literary and audiovisual translation. To better understand this complex process, INCREC triangulates data from eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud interviews, translated material, and questionnaires from professional translators and users.
Thus, INCREC develops a new theoretical framework that encompasses a) creative stages in translation, b) classification and mapping of translation problems which require a higher level of creativity and cognition, as well as a classification of the solutions to these problems c) understanding how machine translation is most effectively used during this creative process, and d) understanding user attention to creativity in translated literary texts and films. This is achieved using a new combination of methods from different disciplines.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

INCREC explores the macro processes (stages of creativity) and micro processes (units of creative potential) of the machine-aided translation of creative content. Four work packages (WPs) cover the intersection of two interdependent areas: inception from translators and reception by users, divided into two domains that make up a high percentage of current creative-content consumption: literary and audiovisual (AVT) translations. To explore this complex phenomenon, it uses a mixed-method approach, triangulating data from sources used in varied disciplines (e.g. translation, psychology, media, literary studies): eye-tracking, retrospective think-aloud (RTA) interviews, and questionnaires. Understanding the effects of technology on translators and the user experience has become a matter of urgency in view of the increasing amount of interlingua communication mediated by technology that we, as a society, are exposed to, but also it is a key aspect to understand and sustain translation jobs and improve translation training.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Previous research has looked at creativity in a fragmentary way, either as a complementary skill or as a by-product of translation. This project places creativity at centre stage, and on a level with recent technological developments in machine translation. INCREC will gather empirical data about creativity based on testimonies from professional translators and users. This data will allow for the development of a theoretical framework of the creative process in translation, with defined creative stages, and influencial factors, as well as, micro-level characteristics, such as units of creative potential or creative shifts for both literary and audiovisual translation. This could be applied in future research studies, and in other language combinations or genres. It also offers methodology from different disciplines, i.e. psychology, to better understand the relationship between creativity and translation reception, and this could be complimented in the future by new technology such as physiological measures (e.g. facial expression analysis, electrodermal activity, magnetic resonance imaging).
The research project will provide empirical data that might indicate if, when, and how MT should be provided to creative translators and this is fundamental information for the publishing and entertainment industry, as it moves to more diverse multilingual solutions, but also to tool developers of translation solutions. The research group will work with the latest technology, but also the project can help develop better tools and commercial practices by extensive dialogue with the industry. Better tools, in turn, create better translated products.
By improving the tools and workflows, the work of creative translators will improve, not only by highlighting the value-added role of translators (which directly impacts payment), but also because new or improved tools for more creative content will facilitate their work. This will contribute to job satisfaction and the enjoyment that creativity provides while ensuring the best possible setting for the translated content. The research project engages with teams of professional translators and reviewers from several language combinations, facilitating the exchange and dissemination of knowledge within a network of professionals.
The new theoretical and methodological approaches of the research project will open a new line of research that will benefit scientists from MT and Translation Studies. Information on macro and micro-processes could contribute to improvements in MT quality. The project is interdisciplinary from the outset, with the collaboration of MT experts from the Computational Linguistic Group at University of Groningen. The results will be of immediate benefit to this community, as the work and exchange of data will happen within this group. Further, understanding the translation creative process will help develop training programmes that foster and develop creativity within the translation discipline.
The data gathered also has an indirect societal impact because it will show the user experience in relation to different translation modalities, and this could indirectly contribute to maintain the use of more creative language, and, thus, heighten the enjoyment of translated products.