1. Types of hypotheses
   1. Interpretive hypotheses
      1. An interpretive hypothesis is based on the concept as. If we want to understand something new or complicated, a good way to start is to consider what it seems to be like, what we might compare it to. Hence the usefulness of metaphors in science.
   2. Descriptive hypotheses
      1. A descriptive hypothesis makes a claim about the generality of a condition. That is, it claims that all instances of a phenomenon X have feature Y
   3. Explanatory hypothesi
      1. An explanatory hypothesis proposes an explanation for a given phenomenon
   4. Predictive hypothesis
      1. a predictive hypothesis claims that under given conditions, this phenomenon will occur
2. Models of translation research
   1. comparative model
      1. a static, product oriented one, centred on some kind of relation of equivalence.
      2. aligns translations either with their source texts or with parallel (untranslated) texts and examines correlations between the two.
      3. This way of looking at translation underlies the contrastive approaches taken by scholars such as Catford and Vinay & Darbelnet
      4. The problem of translation is primarily seen as one of alignment: the task is to select the element of the target language which will align most closely (under contextual constraints) with a given element of the source language.
      5. The comparative model is useful for charting clear equivalences, for instance in terminology work. It is also useful for discovering cases of complex equivalence or lacunae
      6. A more recent variant of the comparative model is used in corpus studies which compare translations with non-translated, parallel texts.
      7. The goal of research based on a comparative model is therefore to discover correlations between the two sides of the relation.
      8. Comparative models allow statements about language-pair translation rules (Catford), about language-system contrasts, or about translation product universals.
      9. Comparative models help us to describe the translation product and its relation with the source text and with non-translated texts,
   2. process model
      1. It represents translation as a process, not a product and introduces the dimension of time and is thus a dynamic model.
      2. Process models are useful if what you are interested tn is the sequential relations between different phases of the translation process.
      3. They allow us to make statements about typical translation behaviour .. such as the micro-level use of time (e.g. the TRANSLOG project, see 4.3 ), or the temporal distribution of different translation ,tasks (Mossop 2000), or decision-making in a sequence of choices that we can represent as a flow diagram (following Krings 1986 )
      4. Process models are also used when the research focus is on the translator's problem-solving procedures
      5. process models help us to describe the production process
   3. causal model
      1. translations are explicitly seen both as caused by antecedent conditions and as causing effects on readers and cultures
      2. Only the causal model can accommodate all four types of hypotheses, and it is hence the most fruitful model for future development in translation studies.
      3. almost all causal influences are fiItered through the individual translator's mind, through particular decisions made by the translator at a given time.
      4. A causal model is the richest and most powerful of the three models discussed here, because it also contains the other two
      5. The source text and source language are present in the model as part of the causal conditions of the translation. And the dynamic time element is automatically present in any cause-effect relation
      6. However,the most important reason for the primacy of a causal model is a methodological one: it encourages us to make specific explanatory and predictive hypotheses.
      7. This model helps us to explain why the translation looks the way it docs, or what effects it causes
      8. But a translation also has effects, it, too, is a cause, an influence.
      9. Dimensions of Causation:
         1. Translator cognition or translation act (Toury, 1995)
            1. the translator's state of knowledge, his/her cn1otional state. attitude towards the task, and his/her self-image as a translator, n1aybc even the translator's personality and life experience as a whole.
         2. Translation task or translation event (Toury, 1995)
            1. Relevant here are the source text~ the client~s instructions, the translator's computer programs and dictionaries, the deadline, etc.: everything that affects the concrete translation process from the client's initial phone call to the final delivery of the translation and payment of the bill.
         3. The socio-cultural level
            1. Here, influential factors have to do with norms, translation traditions, history, ideology .. general economic goals .. the status of the languages involved. Factors here may affect the choice of particular texts to be translated, or the choice by the client of a particular translator, or the decision by the translator to translate in a particular way.