THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSLATION STUDIES AS A DISCIPLINE – FROM LINGUISTICS TO COGNITION

Resumo

We are reading repeatedly in many articles that Translation Studies (TS), i.e. research regarding the transference of texts into another language, were not yet a fully fledged discipline of its own. However, this opinion gets weaker the more publications are coming out in this area. No longer are studies on translation and interpreting only an appendix of language learning, rather they have grown into a special discipline. This is particularly true, if we don‟t define a discipline by the application of only one method of research, a so-called research paradigm. In TS a great variety of approaches and methods is visible, and they all are valid as they contribute to a better understanding of the complex problematic linked to translation.Whereas no unique research paradigm is yet given for TS, the subject of the studies is clear: translating written texts or interpreting spoken messages. But here, again, there is a variety of research objects: translation as a product (the finished translation to be compared with the source text), translation as a process (analyzing strategies of translation), and translation in its function (questioning the translational environment). TS as a field of scholarly activities has already been defined by Holmes (1988).The methodology applied is also very varied. In applied TS the focus is on translator training, and the discussion concerns translational tools, pedagogical means and translation criticism. More theoretically oriented approaches in TS apply descriptive analysis in order to find out translation universals, such as explicitation, or the interlinguistic relationship between languages. Lexicology and corpus studies fall into this field. Empirical studies also look at the influences of translation in the target language with its literary system, as well as on the ideological implications of the translators‟ work. And process-oriented studies apply introspection to question the thinking of the translator as a person and try to analyze cognitive strategies. There is more than one definition of the concept of translation.