The Sociolinguistics of Survey Translation

Book excerpt: The Sociolinguistics of Survey Translation presents an overview of challenges in survey translation, introduces a sociolinguistic framework to overcome these challenges, and demonstrates step-by-step how this framework works to guide and evaluate survey translation. Topics covered in the book include the relationship between linguistic rules, cultural norms, and social practices and their impact on survey translation, the role of orthography and semiotic symbols in translation, translation of different types of survey materials, and various stages of translation review and evaluation. This accessible book not only demonstrates how sociolinguistics can be a useful framework to address thorny survey translation problems but also provides practical and useful tools to guide survey translators and survey practitioners as they conduct and evaluate survey translations. Presenting an easy to implement yet comprehensive survey translation methodology and providing practical tools for survey translators, practitioners and students, this book is the essential guide to this fast-growing area.