Kielentarkastaja käännöskielen konventionaalistajana

Abstract

This article examines the effect of language editing and the language editor on the conventionalization of translations. My data consists of pragmatic texts translated into Finnish and the corrections made in them by the language editor, as well as the arguments given for the corrections. I examine the changes made in the translation during language editing and the resulting increased conventionalization. Conventionalization equals compliance with norms, and all changes aiming at a language free of mistakes and compliant with norms increase conventionalization to some extent. However, this is particularly obvious where several grammatically correct options are available. Here, the language editor appears to opt for wordings that make the translation's language more conventional. In practice, this may include the elimination of non-idiomatic language, conventional word choices, following old recommendations stricter than current practice, or making consistent decisions where norms are fuzzy. I also examine the argumentation for the decisions and look for ideologies that may affect linguistic decisions – what constitutes good language and what kind of language should be aimed at in translations.