ITI Language Proficiency & Accuracy 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A translator notices that the source text uses the second-person pronoun ambiguously (singular or plural). What is the appropriate professional response?
- Default to the singular form
- Default to the plural form
- Query the client or use context clues to determine the intended meaning before translating (Correct answer)
- Translate both possibilities and let the client choose in a footnote
Correct answer: Query the client or use context clues to determine the intended meaning before translating
When pronoun reference is ambiguous, the translator should seek clarification or use surrounding context rather than guessing.
Question 2: Which technique involves replacing a word or phrase with a target-language equivalent that performs the same function but has a different literal meaning?
- Borrowing
- Calque
- Functional equivalence (Correct answer)
- Back-translation
Correct answer: Functional equivalence
Functional equivalence replaces a source element with a target element that serves the same communicative function, even if the literal meaning differs.
Question 3: A translator is working on a medical consent form. The source text uses highly technical Latin terminology. For a patient-facing document, the translator should:
- Retain all Latin terms to maintain clinical accuracy
- Replace technical terms with plain-language equivalents appropriate for a lay audience (Correct answer)
- Add a glossary at the end without changing the main text
- Translate Latin terms literally into the target language
Correct answer: Replace technical terms with plain-language equivalents appropriate for a lay audience
Patient-facing documents require language accessible to a general audience, so technical jargon should be replaced with clear, plain-language equivalents.
Question 4: What does 'back-translation' primarily help assess?
- The stylistic elegance of the target text
- Whether the meaning of the target text matches the original source text (Correct answer)
- The speed of the translation process
- Compliance with localization standards
Correct answer: Whether the meaning of the target text matches the original source text
Back-translation (translating the target text back into the source language) is used to verify that the semantic content has been accurately transferred.
Question 5: In the ITI's framework, which competency specifically addresses the ability to write fluently and correctly in the target language?
- Research competence
- Transfer competence
- Target-language competence (Correct answer)
- Thematic competence
Correct answer: Target-language competence
Target-language competence is the ability to produce grammatically correct, idiomatic, and stylistically appropriate text in the language of translation.
Question 6: A source sentence contains a double negative that, in the source language, functions as emphasis. In the target language, double negatives cancel each other out. The translator should:
- Preserve the double negative for structural fidelity
- Use an emphatic single negative or another intensifier in the target language (Correct answer)
- Remove the negation entirely to simplify the sentence
- Add a translator's note explaining the grammatical difference
Correct answer: Use an emphatic single negative or another intensifier in the target language
When a grammatical device functions differently across languages, the translator must find a target-language equivalent that achieves the same rhetorical effect.
Question 7: Which of the following best describes 'collocational competence' in translation?
- The ability to manage translation memory software
- The knowledge of which words naturally co-occur in the target language (Correct answer)
- The ability to search bilingual corpora efficiently
- The skill of managing multiple deadlines
Correct answer: The knowledge of which words naturally co-occur in the target language
Collocational competence is knowing which word combinations sound natural in the target language (e.g., 'heavy rain' not 'strong rain' in English).
ITI Language Proficiency & Accuracy 3
A translator notices that the source text uses the second-person pronoun ambiguously (singular or plural).
What is the appropriate professional response?