Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 3. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 29)
Albert Péter Vernes: Translation as Interpretation
Translation as Interpretation Albert Péter Vermes While we obviously have an intuitive knowledge of what makes a translation a translation, if we want to be able to provide a systematic and explicit characterisation of the nature of the translation process, it will have to be done, as is claimed, for instance, by Steiner (1975/1992) and Gutt (1991), in terms of a suitable theory of communication. This paper argues in favour of this approach and shows how translation can be explicated within the bounds of relevance theory, along the lines presented in Gutt (1991). 1 Translation as Interpretation: A First Approximation Today it is commonly accepted that translation is more than just mere manipulation of language or linguistic utterances —it is a form of interlingual or, in a wider sense, intercultural communication. The essential question here is how translation is different from other forms of communication. One specific characteristic of communication through translation is, of course, that it involves, apart from the original or source communicator, an extra communicator, the translator, who mediates between the source communicator and the target of the translation process, the target audience. In this respect, translating seems similar to the situation where in a noisy place somebody has to render the words of the person standing on his right side to the one standing on the left because under the circumstances they cannot communicate with each other directly, even though they may share a common language. What makes the rendering of the message necessary here is that there is noise in the channel of communication, which blocks the transfer of information between the communicator and the audience. There are then other situations in which the signal gets through to the audience, who is, moreover, familiar with the code, yet it does not seem to make sense to him. This might happen, for instance, in the case of sophisticated texts on elaborate topics (such as linguistics or communication), where the reader, although familiar with the language, will be 1 I am grateful to Dr. Pál Heltai for his valuable comments and questions. Rger |ournal of English Studies, Volume III, 2002 129-142
