ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at what translation is and how it has been described over its long history. Then, it examines a number of age-old questions about translation. Translation is a procedure where an original text, often called 'the source text', is replaced by another text in a different language, often called the 'the target text'. New ideas about translation arose in the Christian era of late antiquity, where a distinction was first made between texts embodying different degrees of 'authority'. In medieval times, the German translator of the Bible, Martin Luther, openly dared to challenge the dogma of complete faithfulness to the original, suggesting instead a much freer formulation whenever necessary. Computer-mediated translation output can be very useful and sufficient in quality for highly specialized scientists, for whom the exact wording and stylistic finesse is less important than quickly getting access to the meaning of a text. Languages are culturally anchored in that they both express and shape cultural reality.