ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the question of when and why translation is possible and when translation becomes impossible. It first looks at the philosophical, linguistic and socio-cultural underpinnings of translatability and its limits. Structural differences are of central importance in any comparison of the meaning potential of two languages. Clearly, therefore, given that language structures necessarily change in translation, it is inevitable that any argument concerning the feasibility of translation has to be located at some other linguistic level, i.e., the level of discourse. Conceptions of language within the broader context of culture, whereby meaning is seen as contextually determined and constructed, are not recent developments: they have long been considered inside Russian formalism, Prague School linguistics and British Contextualism. Connotations defy explicit definitions, they vary even within one individual's mind, as her moods and experiences change. Also, connotations cannot be clearly delimited from denotative meanings. Translatability is limited whenever the form of a linguistic unit takes on special importance.
