Translation Strategies in Software Localisation

The doctoral thesis entitled Translation Strategies in Software Localisation deals with the application of translation strategies in software localisation that enables tracking the impact of software localisation of the target language and culture. The research focuses on the analysis of syntactic / grammatical, semantic and pragmatic translation strategies that were applied in the process of PeopleSoft software translation / localisation in Lithuania. 84 852 translation units / language strings of the American and Lithuanised PeopleSoft versions were analysed with an aim to examine if the localised product changes the target language and culture, and the target language and culture can change the localised product. Translation strategies were explored by means of traditional and sociological perceptions of translation and localisation. The first conception is based on a classical understanding of the process of translation / localisation as an act of communication of man → text → man. Whereas, the second perception or translation and localisation focuses on the interaction of entity → text → man that is grounded by actor network theory. The analytical insights obtained during the research demonstrate that the language and culture of the product affect the target language and culture. Yet, the analysis has proved the impact of the localised product on the target (Lithuanian) language to be narrow, since only 8 strategies out of 30 demonstrated the influence of the localised product on the target language and culture. This is one of the most important findings of the research that does not confirm the initial assumption that the product localised and respectively the source language and culture exert considerable influence on the target language and culture