Abstract：The structure of translator competence is an important topic in translation studies. Although various proposals for the components of translator competence have been made based on logical reasoning over the past 30 years, few empirical studies have explored the relative importance of different components and the factors that affect their importance. This study focuses on the com¬petence of professional translators, and based on a thorough review of previous research and in¬terviews with professional translators, seven components of translator competence were identi¬fied. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to conduct a survey of 154 professional translators in China, distinguishing between in-house and freelance translators, different domains (science and news) and different language directions (English to Chinese and Chinese to Eng¬lish). By comparing the relative importance of each component, the study determined the weights of the different components of translator competence for specific translation tasks. The findings of this study contribute to improving the theoretical framework of translator competence and provide insights for translator training and curriculum planning.
Key words: translator competence; translation competence; analytic hierarchy process; pair¬wise comparison
