1 Corpus Linguistics for English-Spanish Translation Quality Assessment (TQA): A Case of Applied Corpus Research (ACTRES) * R. Rabadán & N. Ramón University of León, Spain 1. INTRODUCTION This paper sets out to explore the possibilities of designing an effective and efficient tool to contribute to the assessment of translations by using a limited number of language- pair-bound descriptive anchor phenomena, more specifically grammatical, not lexical anchor phenomena. Our proposal applies to narrative texts, although the working hypothesis is that the procedure is useful for any text type provided the data are relevant and appropriate for other textual varieties. The proposal consists of three parts: the first focuses on tool building, on how to obtain descriptive data which are relevant for our applied aim; the second deals with the verification of applicability of these results and the third presents a prototype of a semi- automatic application. Basically this means that the procedure needs to be useful and usable, that is, it must identify the descriptive knowledge that is relevant for the applied needs it is meant to serve, and, its intended users must find the tools efficient and effective for their needs. 2. APPLICABILITY: USEFULNESS AND USABILITY Usefulness is a performance indicator associated with the extent to which tools (technological, conceptual or otherwise) are relevant to the actual needs of a user. When research has an applied goal, not every phenomenon that is interesting from a descriptive point of view is necessarily relevant, but those that tend to be associated with frequent problems in cross-linguistic practice are. The first requirement of an effective and efficient application is its usability -it is imperative to show how descriptive findings can work as an efficient tool for applied purposes. Unlike the usual corpus-based descriptive work, which is not directly usable, in this proposal the procedure, the conceptual tools, and the way to interpret the results must be made available to their final users and be usable (Rabadán 2008). In other words, this is meant to be a contribution to applied TS. 3. THE APPLICABILITY OF DESCRIPTION: ANCHOR PHENOMENA When examined from a cross-linguistic analytical perspective, certain grammatical areas show clear differences in the meanings some of the resources can convey in each of the languages. Empirical data demonstrate that dissimilarity in the way(s) grammatical meanings are conveyed is a constant source of cross-linguistic problems affecting both text processing and production. These features and their unnecessary transference into the other language also mark the difference between translated and non-translated language. These language-specific associations between grammatical meaning and formal resource can be seen as “anchor * Acknowledgement Research for this article has been undertaken as part of the ACTRES program, partly funded by the Ministry of Education and ERDF [HUM2005-01215]. The acronym stands for Análisis contrastivo y traducción English- Spanish “Contrastive analysis and translation English-Spanish”. Dr Ramón- Ángel Fernández is responsible for the computerized application.