Outlining a new linguistic theory of translation

Abstract

In the following article, an outline of a new linguistic theory of translation is given that can be of use to theorists and practitioners alike. The linguistic theories of the 1950s and 1960s were too normative and a-contextual to account for all the forms and aspects of translation; while the ‘skeptical turn’ of Translation Studies has succeeded in unmasking the ideological quality of all theories, but cannot produce a ‘cybernetics’ of translation, an account of how translation is materially done. A new linguistic approach can produce such a practical account, provided that the pragmatic level of analysis is given a prominent role and that a touch of non-scientific skepticism is maintained.