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Chapter1
quisition.Obviouslytheremustbevastdifferencesbetweensomebody
performingatranslationtaskwhoisonlyafluentbilingual,anovice
translatorundergoingtraining,aqualifiedtranslatorbeginninghis/herca-
reerandaprofessionaltranslatorwithseveralyearsofexperience(Hoff-
man1997).Investigatinghowtheyallcopewiththetaskcanbringimpor-
tantinsightsintotheevolutionoftranslationasahumanskill.
Inviewoftheaboveconsiderations,however,aboutthedevelopmental
natureoftranslationasahumanskill,andtobeconsistentwiththeirimpli-
cationsforthepersonwhoistheagent,thetranslator,itisonlyfairtosug-
gestthattheindividualperformanceofthepersonwhotranslateswillre-
flecttheplaceonthedevelopmentalcontinuumoftranslationasahuman
skill.Thisdevelopmentalperspectivemakesroomforallkindsoftransla-
torsandforallkindsoftranslationsproduced.Thetranslator-in-the-making
isalwayssomewhereonthedevelopmentalcontinuumfrombeingableto
makeuseofthenaturalabilitytotranslatethroughouttheprocessofdevel-
opingspecificskillstowardsachievingtranslationcompetenceandexper-
tise.Yet,thisdevelopmentalviewisnotexplicitlyadmitted.Itisofutmost
importanceinthisworktoemphasizethatinthisstudythetranslatoris
viewedasadevelopmentalentity.Heorshehastocoveracertainrouteof
knowledgeacquisitionandbuildinguphis/herrepertoireofskillstobeable
toproducetranslationuptoprofessionalstandards.Itisadevelopmental
routethatisnevercompletelyfinished(seeShreve1997,PACTE2003)as
whenprovidingtranslationservicesoneisconstantlyforcedtolearnnot
onlynewwordsbutgenerallyacquireknowledge.Asitisknownfromcog-
nitivestudiesacquiringnewknowledgeandlearningnewskillswillalways
havearestructuringeffectontheexistingknowledgeandskills(Anderson
1980,1986,2005,Donald2007b).
Takingthisbroadmindedviewallowsonetoseethebreathoftransla-
tionasahumanskillandmightleadusclosertounderstandingitsmulti-
layeredcomplexdevelopmentalnature.Afterallitisdifficulttoimagine
wherewewouldnowbeintermsofhumanityandcivilizationifitwasnot
forthehumanabilitytotranslate,totransmitknowledgeanddisseminate
achievementsandadvancestoalloratleastmanycitizensoftheworld.
1.6.2.Theroleoftranslators
Itisdifficulttotalkabouttheroletranslatorshaveplayedthroughouthis-
tory(DelisleandWoodsworth1995)withoutrunningtheriskofbeing