ABSTRACT
Translating as modelling Translating can be seen as a modelling activity in that the result of the operation, i.e. the translated text, commonly claims, explicitly or implicitly, to represent an anterior discourse in a way comparable to the representational function of models. This makes a translation, under its aspect as representation, a vicarious object, a substitute or at least a metatext. Also, like a model, a translation is a derived, second-order product, so that the relation between the translation and its prototype is neither symmetrical nor reversible. Moreover, a translation can stand as a representative or substitute of a source text only if a (collective) subject will recognize it as such. In other words, a translation that goes unrecognized as a translation is, functionally speaking, not a translation at all because its modelling aspect
remains inoperative. Inversely, a translation which does purport to represent a source text and is accepted as such is, functionally speak ing, a translation, even if no prototype can be identified; this is the case with so-called PSEUDOTRANSLATIONs.
