Translator status

Helpers and opponents in the ongoing battle of an emerging profession

Helle V. Dam and Karen Korning Zethsen

Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University / Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University

The present article is part of a larger project which investigates the occupational status of professional translators. The studies conducted so far within the framework of the project have been based on questionnaires and mainly been of a quantitative nature. The present article reports on a qualitative analysis of the wealth of comments which the translators who participated in the questionnaire studies wrote in response to an open invitation to comment on anything in relation to the study and its subject. In order to structure the translators comments, we have relied on Algirdas-Julien Greimas actantial model. Themes identified as important facilitators of or barriers to status included translator training, recognition of translators expertise, authorization, level of professionalization and income. Keywords: translator status, the translation profession, status parameters, actantial model, helpers and opponents

1.

Introduction

Translator status has received very little attention in Translation Studies as a subject in its own right. Although the literature contains numerous references to translation as a low-status profession (e.g. Chamberlain 1988/2000; Chesterman and Wagner 2002; Hermans and Lambert 1998; Koskinen 2000; Lefevere 1995; Risku 2004; Schffner (ed.) 2004; Venuti 1995), it is only recently that the topic has begun to emerge as an object of empirical research (for an overview of the literature on translator status, see Dam and Zethsen 2008). An example that deserves separate mention is the large-scale research project on strategies of image-making and status advancement of translators and interpreters in Israel that is currently
Target 22:2 (2010), 194211. doi 10.1075/target.22.2.02dam issn 09241884 / e-issn 15699986 John Benjamins Publishing Company

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being conducted by Rakefet Sela-Sheffy and Miriam Shlesinger (e.g. Sela-Sheffy and Shlesinger 2008) a project much is to be expected of, but which is still in progress. In the framework of this project, Sela-Sheffy and Shlesinger convened an international workshop entitled Profession, identity and status: Translators and interpreters as an occupational group in Tel Aviv in March 2009. The workshop has subsequently been documented in two special issues of the journal Translation and Interpreting Studies (Sela-Sheffy and Shlesinger (eds) 2009 and 2010), which contain several articles that touch upon translators status in society (e.g. Chan 2009; Katan 2009b; Monz 2009; Meylaerts 2010). Some of the articles in a thematic section of a recent issue of the journal Hermes edited by the authors of the present article (Dam and Zethsen (eds) 2009) also address translators social status (e.g. Katan 2009a; Koskinen 2009). Thus, the topic is attracting an increasing amount of scholarly attention, but empirical documentation is to a large extent still pending. In an attempt to contribute to the still underresearched but emerging topic of translator status, the authors of the present article have initiated a cumulative empirical project aimed at investigating the occupational status of different groups of professional translators in various occupational, national and cultural contexts. So far, we have carried out three questionnaire-based investigations aimed at charting the occupational status of the three groups of professional business translators which we have been able to identify in relatively large numbers (some fifty or more) on the Danish translation market: company, agency and freelance translators. The three investigations, which have been reported on in detail elsewhere (Dam and Zethsen 2008, 2009a and forthcoming), were conducted over a period of two years and are based on questionnaires completed by forty seven company translators, sixty six agency translators and 131 freelance translators, i.e. a total of 244 translators. An attempt was made to select a sample of translators which was as high-profile as possible: only translators working on the Danish market, holding an MA in specialized translation and/or state authorization and for whom translation was their main occupation were selected to participate in the study. For the company and agency translators it was a further requirement that they must be full-time employees on permanent contracts a requirement that evidently could not be extended to the freelancers. The company translators were also required to be employed in large, international companies with a visible translation function. We took these professionals to be relatively strong groups of translators not least due to their background in the Danish system which in contrast with many other countries has for many years offered a system of state authorization (accreditation) and an MA in translation (cf. Section 2 below). Because of the relatively strong professional profile of the sampled translators, we expected the studies to yield a relatively high-status picture of these particular translators. However, although the findings of the studies did not indicate an extremely low perception

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of especially the company translators occupational status, they did suggest a much lower than expected status for all three groups. The question is: why? In order to answer this question, we need to adopt a different approach. Our research efforts so far have largely been aimed at charting the actual stateof-affairs (describing) through quantitative, questionnaire-based surveys. In the next phase of the project, we shall focus more on understanding and explaining the patterns we have found and the underlying mechanisms, using qualitative methods. Through in-depth analyses of interviews and other discourses produced by and about translators and translation, we shall inquire more deeply into the reasons for the low status of the profession. The study reported on in the present article is meant to serve as a bridge between the two project phases, the quantitative questionnaire studies and the qualitative interviews: it reports on a (qualitative) analysis of the comments which the translators who participated in the questionnaire studies wrote in response to an open invitation at the end of the questionnaires to comment freely on anything in relation to the questions, the study or its subject an invitation they eagerly accepted. The output of this analysis the themes and issues identified will serve as input to the semi-structured interview studies which we will engage in in the near future, but the analysis turned out to be sufficiently interesting to deserve an article of its own. Before we proceed to analyzing the translators comments, we shall take a short look at the context in which they were produced: the Danish translation scene, analyzing its level of professionalization from the perspective of the sociology of professions. 2. Translation in Denmark an emerging profession Because Danish is a minority language with some five million speakers, Denmark has from an early date had to face the necessity of translation. From 1910 a system of authorization based on an examination came into force, and at the same time the Danish Association of Translators which still exists was formed. In 1966 Denmark passed the worlds first translators act, which put in place a system of authorization, rights and obligations and a code of translation ethics. This coincided with the introduction of a new MA in specialized translation which led more or less directly to authorization and the right to use the protected title of translatr (referred to in the following as (state-) authorized translator), although a more neutral cover term for trained and untrained translators alike that of overstter continues to exist side by side with the protected title. Despite this relatively encouraging history, it was not until the 1970s that the volume of translation work increased to the point that translation became a full-time, bread-winning

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occupation. Today the Danish translation market is probably among the best organized and best educated national ones in the world, but it is doubtful whether it has developed into a fully-fledged profession as yet. Within the sociology of professions, numerous attempts have been made over the years to develop a theoretical framework to distinguish professions from non-professions and to identify the factors that influence their development (for details, see Dam and Zethsen forthcoming). However, in a recent study the two sociologists Idit Weiss-Gal and Penelope Welbourne (2008) propose to combine the most influential approaches, and list the following eight criteria as indicative of a profession: (1) public recognition of professional status, (2) professional monopoly over specific types of work, (3) professional autonomy of action, (4) possession of a distinctive knowledge base, (5) professional education regulated by members of the profession, (6) an effective professional organization, (7) codified ethical standards, and (8) prestige and remuneration reflecting professional standing. Applied to the Danish translation market, fully meeting especially the following criteria seems problematic to us, based on our own experience and knowledge of the market: (1) public recognition of professional status, (2) professional monopoly over specific types of work and (8) prestige and remuneration reflecting professional standing. Translation in Denmark is probably what would be termed a semi-profession aspiring to become a full profession or an emerging profession as we have chosen to refer to it in the title. A central aim of the present article is to identify the facilitators of and barriers to full professionalization. 3. Data As described in the introduction, our translator-status project so far relies on data collected via questionnaires from Danish company translators, agency translators and freelance translators. At the end of the questionnaires, the respondents were invited to comment freely on anything in relation to the questions, the study or its subject. As many as seventy five of the 244 respondents (31%) chose to write a personal comment, which we take as an indication that the translators feel strongly about the subject at hand. Especially the freelance translators wrote many and extensive comments fifty six of the 131 freelancers (43%) chose to write a comment. Nine of the sixty six agency translators (14%) and ten of the forty seven company translators (21%) added a comment. A few purely technical statements (e.g. you seem to ask the same question twice) were filtered out, but the rest of the unsolicited (in the sense that we did not ask them to answer anything specific) translator comments form the data of the present article.

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Our first reading of the data proved very interesting, as a plethora of relevant subjects were brought up and opinions expressed very explicitly. However, it also begged the question of how to structure these (somewhat unruly) data, or small narratives. For this we needed a model for narrative analysis and we chose the French scholar Algirdas-Julien Greimas actantial model. 4. Method the actantial model According to Peter White (2006), the notion of narrative in its strongest formulation holds that all human discourse has a narrative impulse and uses this impulse to construct and maintain social realities. It follows that the narrative approach is relevant when it comes to the construction of social reality in connection with the way translators perceive themselves, their work and their role in society. A narrative, semiotic model may, therefore, be useful for the analysis of translator status. We have chosen Greimas actantial model on the strength of its analytical, structural and explanatory powers. In the context of career counseling Gudbjrg Vilhjlmsdttir and Torfi Tulinius (2009: 1) write that the actantial model proves to be of value as it brings forth the main issues with which the client and the counselor are dealing and they describe the model as a way of formalizing the structure (or set of relations) of the story (ibid, p. 3). In the same fashion, we expect the model to help us bring forth and structure the main issues of translator status as well as their interrelations. Greimas actantial model was originally set out in his book Smantique structurale recherche de mthode from 1966 (in this article we refer to the English translation Structural Semantics from 1983) to illustrate the basic narrative structure of fairytales. Greimas famous model has traditionally been used to analyze fiction, though Greimas generalized it to include all narratives. The model builds on the work by the Russian scholar Vladimir Propp, whose main contribution to narrative theory was to classify characters not on the basis of their individual traits, but on their role in the story (Vilhjlmsdttir and Tulinius 2009: 2). The actantial model consists of six actants, i.e. functions or roles assigned to various entities of a text. The six actants are: Subject: wants or is asked to carry out a project in order to reach a goal Object: the goal sought by the subject Sender: instigates the action (but does not necessarily either help or hinder the project) Receiver: benefits from the action (this may be the subject, but not necessarily) Helper: helps to accomplish the action Opponent: hinders the action

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An actor (the concrete manifestation of an actant in a narrative) may be a person, a thing or an abstract concept, and these may belong to more than one actant at various stages of the narrative. Thus the actants possess a metalinguistic status in relation to the actors (Greimas 1966/1983: 200). Identifying the actants in a text presupposes a functional analysis (Greimas 1966/1983: 200), i.e. although the actantial model, in the first place, is an extrapolation of the syntactic structure (Greimas 1966/1983: 213), the semantic roles may not be identical with the syntactic ones. Between the actants of the model there are three very important relationships, namely: The relation between subject and object the axis of desire The relation between helper and opponent the axis of power The relation between sender and receiver the axis of knowledge In the following, Greimas actantial model will be used to explore who the actors of the narratives are and how these actors are interrelated. Furthermore, we shall use one of Greimas actantial axes the axis of power to demonstrate in detail the helpers and opponents in what we shall metaphorically refer to as the battle of translator status. 5. Analyses The first step was to read all the translators comments, consider the situational context and on this basis to distribute the roles of the six actants of Greimas model. As could be expected, it was fairly easy to fill in the roles of the first two actants (subject and object) as well as the last two (sender and receiver): Subject: Danish translators participating in a questionnaire survey on translator status. Object: to comment on the status of the translation profession in order to increase this status. Sender: two researchers who study translator status Receiver: Danish translators who want to comment on the status of their profession and who would like ultimately to increase this status. The great challenge was the distribution of roles along the axis of power the relation between helper and opponent in the battle of translator status. Or rather in this case in the plural, between helpers and opponents, as both roles were filled with a large number of actors. For practical purposes, we grouped all comments thematically and then analyzed the distribution between helpers and opponents. To make it readable, we have written a cohesive text representing all comments un-

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der each theme (one narrative reflecting many voices), one for helpers and one for opponents. Under each text we have exemplified with a direct quote (translated by us) from the data. Following the quote, we have provided a list of keywords, elicited from the comments. These keywords capture all potentially significant components under each theme and are to serve as input for our future qualitative studies. Most of the themes and views we have elicited from the narratives were expressed repeatedly in the narratives. However, we have not limited our analyses to the views and themes expressed most frequently as we find it important to be open to all angles of the matter, especially as we are to use the keywords brought up as a vantage point for further qualitative studies. However, some of the themes were commented on massively, which will often be reflected in the length of the text under the theme, and this may of course be an indicator of the relevance (or complexity) of the theme in question. Most of the themes are interconnected and therefore there is a certain amount of overlap, but we have tried to structure our results so that together the themes represent a full picture of the data.

Helpers/opponents:
As mentioned, these two actant groups were filled by a large number of actors. The following boxes each contains a theme, the helpers and the opponents of translator status within the theme, authentic quotes from the data as well as keywords for the theme as a whole.
Translator training Helpers Danish translator training is of a high quality and Danish translators are generally better qualified and have a better reputation than translators in other countries Opponents Too many practicing translators have not been trained as translators at all or have only got a BA degree [not an MA degree as required to become a state-authorized translator] and may therefore make bad translations. In addition the quality of Danish translator training has deteriorated. People in general are not aware of how long it takes to become a stateauthorized translator and that the training is at university level. They think that a BA in languages/bilingual secretary is the same as a state-authorized translator and consider translators as slightly higher ranking secretaries who are able to use a dictionary. Also they are not aware of the LSP specialization of state-authorized translators, but think they translate literature.

[In Denmark we have] train- Bad translations delivered by BAs/bilingual secretaries ing at a high level (people do not know the difference) [between BAs and MAs].

Translator status 201 Keywords Level of training, peoples knowledge of the level of training required, translators without proper training, slightly higher ranking secretaries Authorization Helpers The Danish translation profession is protected by its system of authorization. It generates respect to tell people that you are a state-authorized translator, and state-authorized translators have a much higher status than merely de facto translators, especially among professionals like lawyers and economists. Opponents State-authorized translators do not enjoy the same status as other state-authorized professions such as accountants and lawyers. The authorization is undermined by the fact that translator (translatr) is an unprotected title abroad. Also the recent [failed] attempt by the Danish authorities to abolish the authorization system for translators has not benefitted the cause. People do not know what it requires to be a state-authorized translator, what it is, and the skills an authorized translator possesses. They are unable to distinguish between a de facto translator, e.g. a bilingual secretary, and a state-authorized translator. Seriously, we have requests from people who just want us to authorize a translation they have made themselves, because it is required by the authorities. Could you imagine anybody calling a lawyer or a state-authorized accountant to ask them just to stamp/sign a legal letter they had written themselves or a financial statement they had audited themselves, with the same explanation?

Usually it generates respect to tell people that you are a state-authorized translator

Keywords Importance of authorization, peoples knowledge of the requirements for authorization, peoples knowledge of the difference between de facto translators and state-authorized translators, the relative value of translators authorization (as compared to that of e.g. accountants and lawyers).

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Expertise Helpers Especially permanent clients and/ or clients who have themselves an academic degree and who depend on translators (such as doctors and lawyers) understand what quality is and consider translators as experts and treat them with respect and appreciation. Opponents Too many people do not recognize translators as experts. They think that translation is automatic one-to-one transfer of terminology and that speaking two languages means that you will also possess translation competence (whereas they are impressed when it comes to interpreting skills). It is considered easy to learn a foreign language and people are surprised that translators only translate between two languages. Many Danes overrate their own linguistic abilities, especially as concerns the English language. People do not understand that it takes time to translate and they think that translating is the same as typing a text. Language especially if it is Danish and English is something we all master, the attitude seems to be. And if you know two languages, you can also translate between them. Of course none of this is true.

Many of our clients greatly respect our abilities

Keywords Translators as experts, myths about translation competence, myths about language skills, the nature of the client (differences e.g. between permanent clients and others), appreciation. The importance of translation Helpers Some clients understand the significance of translation and therefore of translation quality. Opponents Many people underestimate the significance of translation. They do not understand the importance of correct translations and of involving the translator in the entire process if important messages are to be communicated. Translation is considered a necessary evil and not something which may add value to a company. Furthermore, very few people are aware that a large part of what they read, watch or listen to has been translated at some point. People outside the profession only understand the importance of quality translations once they have experienced fatal consequences of bad translations.

Some clients understand the potential significance of a good translation. Keywords

Recognition of the importance of translation, significance of translation quality.

Translator status 203 Level of professionalization and status in society Helpers Opponents The translation business does not have the profile of a serious profession. It is invisible in society as such and only enjoys a low level of prestige, respect and recognition. Respect and recognition of the importance of translation, and consequently status, are something you constantly have to fight for, it is not a given. People are surprised that you can make a living by translating and think that translators sit at home and translate literature. The training institutions, the trade organizations and associations, and translators in general have not been good enough at marketing the profession and the skills and job opportunities provided by an MA in translation. The profession suffers from long-term image problems which it seems impossible to change. Even among state-authorized translators, quality is not consistent and some translators do not update their knowledge and skills. Finally, not all translators run their business in an honorable way (and pay VAT and taxes) which may also affect the image of the profession. It is so annoying that we have not been good enough at marketing ourselves as a serious profession delivering an important service. Keywords Professionalization, visibility in society, recognition, respect and prestige, inconsistent quality among state-authorized translators, translators engaging in unprofessional behavior. Income and the price of translation Helpers Danish translators earn more than their colleagues abroad. Opponents Translators earn far too low salaries, especially comsidering the training required. Non-qualified translators as well as agencies, especially foreign ones, dump the prices and clients are more interested in saving money than in quality (and at present the financial crisis makes clients try to lower the price). People generally find translation expensive as they do not understand or recognize the time and the expertise involved. Translators themselves may have to take part of the blame for the lack of respect and status because they dont demand sufficiently high fees. Translators earn a lousy salary

[Danish translators] earn more than translators in other countries

204 Helle V. Dam and Karen Korning Zethsen Keywords Size of salary, dumping of prices, clients interest in quality vs. money, clients perception of translation as expensive, clients recognition of the time and expertise involved in translation, translators ability to demand a proper fee. Employment or freelance situation Helpers Freelancers have direct contact with the client, translation assignments which are not too big and a certain degree of freedom only to keep clients who value their work. In a company where a staff translator may translate for the same people for many years it may be possible to gain respect with time. I do have clients who really appreciate the product I deliver (these are the clients I keep) [freelancer comment] Keywords Direct contact with the client, the size of translation assignments, freedom to choose clients, agencies as intermediaries. Translation as such Helpers It is good fun to translate and it provides inner satisfaction. Considering the low external status it is necessary that translation provides inner satisfaction Keywords The inner satisfaction of translating, translation technology, standardized assignments. Female occupation Helpers Opponents Translation is a female occupation with all it entails of e.g. low income and status. A translator is considered a housewife if she works freelance or a secretary/coffeemaker, with a slightly higher status, if she works in a company. Opponents Huge, standardized translation assignments involving varying degrees of machine translation are boring. Huge, standardized assignments involving a certain degree of de-skilling (+ boring) as a result of translation technology. Opponents Translation agencies which pass on assignments to freelancers do not always treat the translators with respect and try to force them to lower their prices.

Agencies boss translators around and force them to lower their prices

Translator status 205 Even as a state-authorized translator with my own successful agency for 14 years, I am still considered as something of a housewife who plays with translation because maybe I worked as an au pair in England at some point. Keywords Female occupation, housewife, secretary.

6. Discussion of results If we summarize the results, the translators, when expressing themselves freely on a subject of their own choice (but within the framework of the overall theme of the questionnaire), write about training and authorization, expertise, the importance of translation, professionalization, income, their employment or freelance situation, the nature of translation and about the fact that translation is mainly a female occupation. In a Danish study of occupational status conducted in 2006 the first of its kind since the 1950s a representative sample of 2,155 Danes over eighteen years of age assessed the prestige of ninety nine common jobs in Denmark (translators were not included).1 The study identified four main parameters which currently determine status in a Danish context: (1) education/expertise, (2) level of income, (3) visibility/fame and (4) power/influence. These are the four parameters which have formed the basis of our questionnaire studies and it could be expected that these four areas would all be covered by the themes of the narratives. The first parameter of education and expertise (including authorization and to a certain degree professionalization) was dealt with extensively in the narratives. Although there are positive voices which comment on the high quality of Danish translator training, the protective and respect-generating system of stateauthorization and the recognition as experts which translators get from certain permanent clients, there are also indications that these factors are considered positive especially when seen in relation to conditions in other countries (which are considered worse). The opponents of high status can on the whole be summarized as lack of awareness in society about what constitutes translation competence and its complexity as well as lack of recognition of the importance of translation. Consequently, many people do not distinguish between a de facto translator, e.g. a bilingual secretary or a translator who has not received any training at all, and a state-authorized translator. Translators are not considered experts and their occupation does not range as a proper profession. The second parameter of income was also commented on frequently and very explicitly, and again the only helper is the fact that translators in other countries

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are considered worse off. As far as opponents are concerned, translators earn a salary which is far too low if their level of expertise is taken into account. Generally it is not, as we have seen above, and the translators also complain of agencies and unqualified translators who force prices down. This is probably also a consequence of the lack of awareness and recognition of the importance of translation and the expertise required to make a translation of sufficient quality. The third parameter of visibility/fame is commented on to a certain degree. The only helper which can be elicited is the direct contact with clients and, especially, the translators visibility to permanent clients and colleagues. In sharp contrast to this we have their lack of visibility (both as regards the lack of understanding of the importance of translation and physically, the image of the translator working at home, isolated) and recognition in general. We have the image problems generated by the lack of knowledge, as described above, of what it takes to be a qualified translator and in particular of the significance of translation in modern Danish society. Fame is clearly not an issue in connection with LSP translators and has not been commented on. The fourth parameter of power/influence is however not mentioned at all. It is of course closely connected with the other three parameters, but it is not explicitly mentioned in any of the narratives. Probably because it is simply not considered relevant or important (for empirical evidence of the lack of importance translators seem to attribute to influence in a status context, see Dam and Zethsen 2009a: 26 and 32). Only one translator (a company translator) comments on the subject indirectly by saying that her chances of obtaining a managerial position in future are not based on her skills as a translator, but on other competencies. One might also claim that the freedom (to a certain degree if you are a breadwinner) to keep only the clients who appreciate your work constitutes some kind of power or influence. The above findings are corroborated by the results of our quantitative analyses on translator education and expertise, cf. Dam and Zethsen (2008, 2009a and forthcoming). In addition to the four parameters, the narratives revealed other themes relevant to the translators, namely the nature of translation and the fact that translation is mainly a female occupation. In relation to the former it is mentioned that translation as an activity is interesting and provides some satisfaction in itself. This may not be a status helper unless some respect and recognition is in fact generated by the intellectual effort required. On the other hand, it may be a status opponent that some assignments tend to get larger and more standardized and involve the use of translation technology, which may result in a certain degree of de-skilling and support the view of translation as an automatic, non-creative, routine activity. Translation being a female occupation is frequently mentioned as an opponent to high status, as people equate translators with housewives or secretaries. Equally

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frequently it is pointed out that state-authorized translators do not enjoy the same status as other state-authorized professions such as accountants and lawyers (traditional male professions). If we return to the professionalization criteria from Section 2 and in particular to criteria 1 (public recognition of professional status), 2 (professional monopoly over specific types of work) and 8 (prestige and remuneration reflecting professional standing), which from the outset seemed problematic to us in the context of the Danish translation market, it is evident from the narratives that these are indeed not fulfilled. However, what has also emerged from our analyses is the fact that criterion 4, the possession of a distinctive knowledge base, may in fact be of central importance in the translators battle for professionalization. It is not that the state-authorized translators do not possess a distinctive knowledge base they do to a very large degree and they are fully aware of this themselves. It is rather the fact that many clients and people in general do not understand or recognize their possession of this knowledge base, and this is what all the themes of the narratives relate to in one way or another. This leads us to conclude that the general lack of awareness/recognition of the level of expertise required to translate may in fact be the heart of the matter the overall reason why translator status is relatively low. It still remains to be investigated why there is such a general lack of understanding of what it actually takes to be a good translator. In a paper we presented at the 2009 Tel Aviv workshop mentioned in the Introduction, Profession, identity and status: Translators and interpreters as an occupational group, we set out four main hypotheses as regards the relatively low status of the translation profession (Dam and Zethsen 2009b). These hypotheses, presented below, were based on the large amount of Translation Studies literature we had read in connection with our project: 1. The history of translation: In historical terms, translation has only become a profession very recently. In a European context, translation was not traditionally a breadwinning discipline, but the pursuit of gentlemen of leisure or clergy. 2. The nature of translation: There is of course no denying that translation contains an element of reproduction, which may lead some people to conclude that it is mechanical and non-creative. 3. The identity of the translator: The fact that it is a predominantly female occupation and possibly the personality of the persons who are drawn to the profession (cf. the idea of translators habitus of voluntary servitude) (Simeoni 1998) may have a negative impact on the status of the professionals. 4. The training of the translator: In many countries, academic translator training and research is a relatively new thing. Translator training has often been

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and still sometimes is coupled with the acquisition of secretarial skills. This hypothesis refers to late professionalization and, as such, is closely connected with hypothesis 1. Together with the overall results of the present study, these hypotheses will form the basis of our future qualitative studies. 7.

Conclusion

The purpose of this research was to study in detail the unstructured narratives produced by seventy five Danish business translators in connection with a major questionnaire study. The results are to be used as a vantage point for further and more in-depth qualitative studies involving e.g. semi-structured interviews with translators. Our study of the translator narratives was carried out using the framework of Greimas actantial model, and especially the axis of power the relation between helpers and opponents proved very relevant in our search for factors which may influence or explain the relatively low status of translators. The themes and keywords identified will be taken forward to the next step of our project and will methodologically strengthen our first all-qualitative study, as the themes which will be brought up in, say, a semi-structured interview will not have been thought up introspectively by us as researchers, but will have been generated by translators themselves. All helpers and opponents in the battle for translator status either empower or disempower the translators, and all significant helpers and opponents therefore need to be identified and studied if the emerging profession is to win the battle for recognition. We do, however, consider it a major step forward that our study has revealed that the lack of awareness/recognition of the level of expertise required to translate (and consequently of the many potential risks of unsuccessful communication which every act of translation entails) is a major barrier to full professionalization and therefore highly detrimental to translator status.

Note
1. http://www.ugebreveta4.dk/2006/36/Baggrundoganalyse/Danskernesnyerangorden.aspx (accessed 23 June, 2010).

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References
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Rsum
Larticle qui prcde sinsre dans un projet plus large consacr au statut du traducteur professionnel en termes doccupation au travail. Les observations lances jusquici dans le cadre du projet ont t dveloppes sur la base de questionnaires, qui sont de nature principalement quantitative. Notre article fournit une analyse qualitative de limmensit des donnes livres par les traducteurs qui ont particip dans lenqute. Ils ont t pris de commenter nimporte quel sujet en relation avec soit lenqute mme, soit le sujet. Afin de structurer les commentaires manant des traducteurs, nous nous sommes servies du modle actantiel dAlgirdas-Julien Greimas. Parmi les thmes retenus soit comme des relais importants, soit comme des barrires ngatives en rapport avec le statut du traducteur, retenons: la formation du traducteur, la reconnaissance de lexpertise du traducteur, lautoristion, le niveau de professionalisation ainsi que les salaires.

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Authors addresses
Helle V. Dam, Ph.D. Department of Language and Business Communication Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University Fuglesangs All 4 8210 AARHUS V Denmark hd@asb.dk Karen Korning Zethsen, Ph.D. Department of Language and Business Communication Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University Fuglesangs All 4 8210 AARHUS V Denmark kkz@asb.dk