ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a set of theories that are based on equivalence but do not assume that the relation is natural or reciprocal. For these theories, if you translate from language A into language B, and then back-translate from language B into language A, the result in language A need not be the point from where you started. This means that directionality is a key feature of translational equivalence, and that translations are thus the results of active decisions made by translators. Whereas the sub-paradigm of natural equivalence develops categories of translation procedures, the sub-paradigm of directional equivalence tends to have only two opposed poles, for two opposed ways of translating (usually “free” as opposed to “literal,” although there are many versions of these concepts). Since translators must decide how they are going to translate, there is no guarantee that two translations of the same text will ever be the same. The logic of this view will be seen at work in theories of similarity, in Kade’s typology of equivalence, and in the classical dichotomies of translation strategies. We close the chapter with a short presentation of relevance theory, which remains a theory of equivalence, and a consideration of equivalence as a functional social illusion. After all, what people believe about equivalence may be more important than any actual testing of its existence.
