ABSTRACT
THESIS: A useful way of thinking about translation and language is thattranslator’s don’t translate words; they translate what people do with words. Translation and linguistics
It may seem strange to hold off discussing language until this late in a book on translation. Translation is, after all, an operation performed both on and in language. In Latin translation used to be referred to as translatio linguarum, the translation of languages, to distinguish it from other kinds of translation, like translatio studii, the translation of knowledge, and translatio imperii, the translation of empire.
