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Article published In: Target
Vol. 10:2 (1998) ► pp.231–266

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What Is a Translating Translator Doing?

 | Government of Canada Translation Bureau and York University School of Translation
Published online: 1 January 1998
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.10.2.03mos
Abstract
Translating is here defined as the quoting, in sequential chunks, of the wording of a written, oral or signed text, with an imitative purpose. These features distinguish it from other sorts of language activity—intralingual paraphrasing, re-expressing of ideas, fictive quoting, speaking from a script, ghostwriting—and thus provide an object for a theory of translation production. The defining feature 'quoting ' is taken to involve demonstrating to someone selected features of the source text. Thus the translational quoter is engaged in a dual activity: quoting OF the source text (rendering work) and quoting TO the readers or listeners (pragmatic work). The texts commonly called translations arise from some combination of rendering, pragmatic and non-translational work.
Résumé
On propose de définir l'acte de traduire comme le fait de citer, l'un après l'autre, et avec une visée imitative, les fragments et phrases qui constituent un texte écrit, oral ou signé. L'acte traductif se distingue ainsi d'autres types de production linguistique, comme la paraphrase intralinguale ou la ré-expression d'idées, et on parvient ainsi à définir l'objet d'une théorie de la production traductive. Le définisseur «citer» est à prendre dans le sens d'une démonstration de certains traits choisis du texte de départ. Le traducteur-citeur s'engage dans une activité à deux volets : citation DU texte de départ (il rend ce texte) et citation adressée AUX lecteurs ou auditeurs (travail pragmatique). Les textes communément appelés «traductions» sont produits par une combinaison de plusieurs sortes de travail linguistique : travail rendant le texte de départ, travail pragmatique, travail non traductif.
Article outline
  • 1.Defining Translation: Five Criteria and Four Deadends
  • 2.Translating Is Quoting
    • 2.1.The Translator as Rapporteur
    • 2.2.Indirect Reporting, Exact-words Quoting, Fictive Quoting and Free Direct Quoting
  • 3.Translational Rewording Is Sequential
  • 4.Translating Has an Imitative Purpose
  • 5.The Interlinguality of Translating
  • 6.The Duality of Translational Quoting
    • 6.1.Rendering
    • 6.2.Pragmatic Work
    • 6.3.The Primacy of Rendering
  • 7.Philosophical Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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