ABSTRACT
In translation studies, there are frequent proposals for conceptual innovation: new concepts, new distinctions, new superordinate categories, new taxonomies, new ways of seeing things, new metaphors. All these are viewed in this chapter as interpretive hypotheses. As such, they cannot be empirically falsified, but they nevertheless can and should be tested pragmatically, in terms of costs and benefits and consequences, and compared to alternatives. Some recent proposals concerning new conceptual boundaries are discussed. Conceptual arguments can sometimes be framed in misleading factual rhetoric, giving rise to non-desirable consequences in the form of fallacious inferences.
