Translation Theories_Chapter 1.ppt

Translation Theories译学概论 Chapter One Where to Start? There is no clearly marked starting point for translation studies to begin, because there is no obvious dividing line between traditional and modern, occasional and academic, personal and scholarly discourses on translation. If we regard all reflection on translation as a form of theory, we can trace the Western tradition back to Roman times and beyond. If we want to highlight sustained, serious thought on translation, we can go back at least as far as the Romantic age in Europe. Other cultures will have their own histories. In other words, the starting point is not automatically given. The demand for translation, together with the increasing professionalisation of translation, explains the appearance of institutes for translator training. It is in the context of these institutes that teachers and researchers first began to pay systematic and sustained attention to translation as an object of study. In other words, translation studies as a discipline is a rather new thing. In 1972 an American Scholar, James Holmes was the first to write an essay surveying the various parts and branches of the field in its entirety. His essay ‘The Name and Nature of Translation Studies’ (翻译研究的名与实）, now regarded as a classic, distinguished various kinds of theoretical and descriptive research. Significantly, Holmes began his essay with a discussion of what it takes to create a discipline, followed by a long paragraph on a suitable name for the newborn in different languages (translatology, translation science or translation studies in English? French traductologie? German übersetzungswissenschaft or the neologism Translationswissenschaft?,etc.). His argument rested on “what is the field of research in Translation Studies?” A few people might say it coincides with the comparative literature and lexicology; others think it is similar to comparative and contrastive linguistics; some people even think to some extent, it is equi