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Article published In: The Metalanguage of Translation
Edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer
[Target 19:2] 2007
► pp. 327–336

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In defence of fuzziness

 | University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Published online: 18 January 2008
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https://doi.org/10.1075/target.19.2.10pok
In Translation Studies the definitions of the concepts native speaker and mother tongue have been uncritically adopted from linguistics and are regarded as defined and clarified as far as their meaning is concerned, despite the fact that neither linguistics nor translation theory can offer an objective and water-tight definition of the terms. A similar desire for univocal terms can also be detected in the claims for the need of one, universally accepted term for the same phenomenon where various competing terms already exist and are in use.
Although some linguists have already expressed their doubts in the justification of some of the fundamental linguistic concepts, as Rajogopalan has observed, a lot of them are still happy working with such discreet entities thus making linguistics perhaps the most “19th century” of the academic disciplines taught in universities today. Unfortunately, this could also be stated for some currents in Translation Studies, despite the fact that translation research can and should provide the most suitable field where such axiomatic truths are challenged. The article questions this desire for the univocal and argues that it is high time we all learn to live with more fuzzy definitions.
Résumé
La traductologie a adopté, sans critique, les définitions de locuteur natif et de langue maternelle, formulées en linguistique. Elle les considère ainsi de sens exact et transparent alors que ni la linguistique ni les théories en traduction n’en offrent de définitions objectives et incontestables. Il y a un attrait similaire pour des termes prétendument univoques et universellement acceptés qui désigneraient des phénomènes pourtant déjà chacun dénommé par plusieurs termes concurrents. Selon Rajogopalan, malgré les doutes de quelques linguistes sur les justifications avancées pour certaines notions fondamentales en linguistique, nombre d’entre eux se contentent encore de ces unités discrètes, faisant dès lors de la linguistique une des disciplines les plus « 19ème s. », enseignées aujourd’hui dans les universités.
Malheureusement, cela s’applique également à quelques tendances en traductologie qui pourrait et devrait pourtant être le domaine le plus apte à remettre en cause de telles vérités axiomatiques. Notre article interroge ce désir d’univocité et plaide pour une acceptation concertée de définitions plus indéterminées.
Article outline
  • 1.Terminology and power
  • 2.Mother tongue
  • 3.Native speaker
  • 4.Translating into a non-mother tongue?
  • 5.Conceptual diversity: An added value
  • References
References (31)
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