trans-kom ISSN 1867-4844 http://www.trans-kom.eu trans-kom ist eine wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Translation und Fachkommunikation. trans-kom 9 [1] (2016): 79-97 Seite 79 http://www.trans-kom.eu/bd09nr01/trans-kom_09_01_06_Ketola_CNA.20160705.pdf Anne Ketola An Illustrated Technical Text in Translation Choice Network Analysis as a Tool for Depicting Word-Image Interaction Abstract The present study inquires into word-image interaction in the translation process of illustrated technical texts. The method employed for this purpose is Choice Network Analysis, which compares the translations of the same source text by multiple translators in order to empirically derive the options, the set of possible solutions, that are available when translating each verbal item. The data of the study consists of eight translations of an illustrated technical text, produced by a group of Master’s level translations students. The study sets out to assess if the options offered by the multimodal source text are based entirely on verbal information or on a negotiation of meaning from two different modes. The analysis implies that visual information could modify verbal information; in the most extreme cases, visual information could cause verbal information being disregarded altogether. This indicates that images can reattribute the meaning of verbal items in translation. 1 Introduction Illustrated texts consist of words and images and are hence multimodal: their message is created in the interplay of two separate modes. Even though translating illustrated texts is commonplace for translators, translation studies have until very recently only examined the verbal dimension of translation (O’Sullivan 2013: 2-3), insinuating, perhaps, that translators only process verbal information. However, a broad range of research has established that when reading an illustrated text, readers process both words and images, and form their interpretation of the multimodal text based on both verbal and visual information (see e.g. Connors 2013; Youngs/Serafini 2013; Schnotz/Kürschner 2008; Schnotz/Bannert 2003; Mayer 2002, 2005; Wasylenky/Tapajna 2001; Hegarty/ Just 1993). As translators, too, start their work as readers, one might suggest that the same argument holds for a translator’s interpretation of a multimodal source text combining words and images. However, the argument remains empirically unexplored. The present study examines how translators process the combination of words and images – referred to in this study as the verbal source text and the visual source text – when translating illustrated technical texts. The definition of an illustrated technical text