ABSTRACT
An area of modern linguistics of considerable importance for translation, and on which great hopes have sometimes been placed, is pragmatics. A second area of pragmatics that is claimed to be important for translation is 'speech act theory', which, like presupposition, is a matter of some controversy and dispute in linguistics. In theory, a speech act involves all three of these elements, but in practice linguistic discussion has focused largely on the illocutionary act. The locutionary act is more a matter of pure semantics, while the perlocutionary act probably falls largely outside linguistics. One reason for making the rather crude distinction between linguistic and nonlinguistic presuppositions is to make the point that the latter are of most interest to translators. The translator is being polite. It is, of course, possible to be an 'impolite' translator, and that would have implications for the reader.
