ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the applications of genre analysis in translation research and training. Following initial interest in text types in the 1970s, genre analysis gained in importance since the 1990s as a consequence of, first, the application of discourse analytical methods and, next, of corpus linguistics to translation research. Genre analysis identifies distinctive features of genres, known as generic conventions, generic structure, and social, communicative, cultural, cognitive and ideological factors behind the use of genres. The main methods used in genre analysis in the past were qualitative but more recently quantitative, corpus-based methods have been used, especially to study lexico-grammatical patterns. The chapter discusses three major models of genre analysis, those of Biber and Conrad (2009), Borja et al. (2009) and Bhatia (1993, 2004), which offer a holistic approach. Translation-oriented genre analysis has focused on identifying differences in generic structures, conventions and expectations across languages and cultures (contrastive rhetoric, textology), as well as strategies for dealing with generic differences between the source language and the target language (genre fidelity, genre violation). Another important area of research invesitgates how genres affect the translators' decision-making process. Genre analysis is also of relevance for translator training, both in the process of ST interpretation and TT production. The internalisation of genre knowledge is an important component of professional translators'ability to perform effectively.
