VAMOS A TRADUCIR LOS MRV (LETS TRANSLATE THE VRM) - LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL INFERENCES DRAWN FROM TRANSLATING A VERBAL CODING SYSTEM FROM ENGLISH INTO SPANISH

TRANSLATING a verbal coding system from one language to another can yi eld unexpected insights into the process of communication in different cultures. This paper describes the problems and understandings we enc ountered as we translated a verbal response modes (VRM) taxonomy from English into Spanish. Standard translations of text (e.g., psychothera peutic dialogue) systematically change the form of certain expressions , so supposedly equivalent expressions had different VRM codings in th e two languages. Prominent examples of English forms whose translation had different codes in Spanish included tags, question forms, and ''l et's'' expressions. Insofar as participants use such forms to convey n uances of their relationship, standard translations of counseling or p sychotherapy sessions or other conversations may systematically misrep resent the relationship between the participants. The differences reve aled in translating the VRM system point to subtle but important diffe rences in the degrees of verbal directiveness and inclusion in English versus Spanish, which converge with other observations of differences in individualism and collectivism between Angle and Hispanic cultures .