ABSTRACT
In his influential paper ‘The Name and Nature of Translation Studies,’ Holmes (1988) proposes two main objectives for this discipline: (1) to describe the phenomena of translating and translation(s), and (2) to establish general principles that can explain and predict these phenomena (Holmes 1988: 71). Based on these objectives, he distinguishes between theoretical translation studies and descriptive translation studies (DTS), the latter of which examines the translation product, its function and the translation process. Process-oriented DTS is concerned with the process or act of translation itself. Holmes suggests that this area of study may be called translation psychology, which has been adopted by many Chinese researchers (e.g., Liu 2007). Yet, in the international literature, it has usually been called translation process research (henceforth TPR).
