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The emergence of crowdsourcing has opened up novel ways to initiate, produce and deliver translations in our digitally connected world. New practices and processes brought up by these phenomena have undeniably impacted different collectives with an interest in translation, such as language service providers (LSPs), professionals, and Translation Studies (TS). It has also been argued that crowdsourcing can impact public perceptions of translation, rising ethical concerns, issues related to the visibility of translation, or whether everyone can potentially translate (McDonough-Dolmaya 2012). This paper analyzes its potential impact on the realm of professional translation, an issue raised several years ago by a European Union Commission publication (2012, 37–38). It critically analyzes whether the much-feared socioeconomic and socio-professional impact on working conditions of professionals is underway or not. It represents an attempt at charting the potential influence of crowdsourcing on the profession through a critical review of existing literature and industry publications.

For over two decades, the localization industry has striven to produce non-culture-specific texts that can be easily localized into most languages. Nevertheless, contrastive studies have shown that certain features of texts can vary between source and target cultures, such as textual structure or genre-specific terminology and phraseology. This study explores these two seemingly contradictory perspectives through a corpus analysis of original and localized Spanish web forms. Following a genre-based approach (Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993; Gamero 2001), the main analysis concentrates on macrostructural differences and the formulation of conventional linguistic forms associated with rhetorical moves. Significant differences are found in the structural, pragmatic, lexical and syntactical configuration of localized texts as contrasted to online forms spontaneously produced in Spanish. The results shed some light on the question of whether texts can be fully internationalized during the development stages and on the inevitable effect of technological and cognitive constraints during the translation process.

During recent years, scholars have stressed the need to combine corpus-based translation studies (CBTS) and cognitive translatology to gain insights into the cognitive foundation for the general features of translated language (Halverson 2010; Alves and Vale 2011). This paper responds to previous calls to test explicitation phenomena on different translation modalities and types (Chesterman 2004a:47), and their cognitive basis (Halverson 2010, 2003). The paper presents a triangulation model on the basis of which hypotheses from descriptive corpus-based studies are generated, testing instruments are developed using previous corpora and the results of experimental studies are triangulated using these same corpora. The empirical study departs from two previous comparable corpus studies that focus on corporate (Jiménez-Crespo 2011a) and social networking sites (Jiménez-Crespo 2013). It uses their results and corpora to develop an experimental design to test the explicitation hypothesis. The study tests and compares explicitation on two production processes (1) translating segments directly or (2) selecting the translation from a range of valid non-translated lexical units identified in the previous study to accomplish the same communicative function. If explicitation is a general or even a universal tendency, it should be similarly present regardless of the genre, translation modality or specifics of the translation process. Although the explicitation hypothesis was confirmed in Jiménez-Crespo (2011a), the results of the present study show that the levels of explicitation vary between different production conditions, with the selection condition producing higher levels of explicitation than the regular translation condition. The results suggest procedural aspects are at play during the production stage.

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Resum: L'objectiu d'aquest article és exposar i discutir alguns resultats de la investigació "Análisis discursivo y funcional de sitios web localizados: características terminológicas" duta a terme entre els anys 2006 i 2007. Presentem exemples de l'anàlisi terminològica contrastiva realitzada a un corpus paral•lel selectiu de llocs web localitzats de l'anglès al castellà, específicament pel que fa a les funcions textuals de claredat (tècnica d'amplificació) i de simplificació (tècnica d'elisió) que presenten els equivalents en castellà dels termes originals en anglès. Amb aquesta investigació aspirem a contribuir a la descripció empírica de la localització de llocs web i aportar directrius i criteris que permetin optimitzar la pràctica de la localització i la formació de traductors i localitzadors professionals. Palabras clave: Terminologia, localització, lloc web, tècniques d'amplificació i elisió.Resumen: El objetivo de este artículo es exponer y discutir algunos resultados de la investigación "Análisis discursivo y funcional de sitios web localizados: características terminológicas" realizada entre los años 2006 y 2007. Se presentan ejemplos del análisis terminológico contrastivo realizado a un corpus paralelo selectivo de sitios web localizados del inglés al español, específicamente en lo que se refiere a las funciones textuales de claridad (técnica de amplificación) y de simplificación (técnica de elisión) que presentan los equivalentes en español de los términos originales en inglés. Con esta investigación aspiramos a contribuir a la descripción empírica de la localización de sitios web y aportar directrices y criterios que permitan optimizar la práctica de la localización y la formación de traductores/localizadores profesionales. Palabras clave: Terminología, localización, sitio web, técnicas de amplificación y elisión. Abstract:The purpose of this article is to present and discuss some results of the investigation "Discourse and Functional Analysis of Localized Websites: Terminological Characteristics", carried out from 2006 to 2007. Some examples of the contrastive terminological analysis of a selective parallel corpus of websites localized from English into Spanish are presented. Especially, data concerning the textual functions of clarity (translation technique of amplification) and of simplification (translation technique of elision) for the Spanish equivalents will be exemplified. Our aim is to contribute to the empirical description of localized websites and provide best practices in order to improve the localization process and the training of professional translators.