Causes, Translations, Effect
Published online: 1 January 1998
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.10.2.02che
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.10.2.02che
Abstract
Conceptual analysis has a role to play in translation studies, but it is a means, not an end. An empirical paradigm gives central importance to testable hypotheses. Empirical research on translation profiles should result in a translation typology: one such typology is discussed. Translations have multiple causes, and we can already propose some possible causal laws. Three laws of translation effect are also proposed, and various parameters of effect are discussed, together with the associated problems of sampling and prescriptivism. I argue that prescriptive statements are hypotheses about translation effects; as such, they should be tested like any other hypothesis.
Résumé
L'analyse conceptuelle a son rôle à jouer en traductologie empirique, sans être pour autant une fin en soi. L'empirisme accorde la priorité aux hypothèses testables. L'étude empirique des profils traductifs devrait conduire à une typologie, dont nous présentons un exemple. Les causes d'une traduction sont multiples et hétérogènes, et l'on peut distinguer plusieurs lois possibles decausalité traductologique. Nous proposons ensuite trois lois d'effet, tenant compte de plusieurs paramètres d'effets possibles, et de deux problèmes corrélés: l'échantillonnage et le prescriptivisme. Nous soutenons que les déclarations prescriptives sont des hypothèses d'effets traductifs, et qu'elles doivent à leur tour faire l'objet de tests empiriques.
Article outline
- 1.Conceptual Analysis
- 2.Translation Typology
- 2.1.Background
- 2.2.Equivalence Variables
- 2.3.Target-Language Variables
- 2.4.Translator Variables
- 2.5.Special Situational Variables
- 2.6.Default Values
- 2.7.Applications
- 3.Translatorial Causality
- 3.1.Proximate Causes
- 3.2.Aristotelian Causes
- 3.3.Socio-Cultural Causes
- 3.4.Causal Laws
- 4.Translation Effects
- 4.1.Laws of Effect
- 4.2.Parameters of Effect
- 4.3.The Sampling Problem
- 4.4.The Prescriptive Problem
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
References
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