Translation and the Application of Linguistics

Abstract

This article explores some topics at the boundary between linguistics theory and the applied linguistic foundations of the practice of translation. Section 1, The irrelevance of the avant-garde , considers the relation between such academic adventures as semiotics and poststructuralism on the one hand and the theory of language and the practice of translation on the other, and argues that radical antiscientism does not bear on the foundations of translation. Section 2, The irrelevance of the technical , looks at formal syntax and semantics in relation to the concepts of applied linguistics and shows that careful contemporary linguistics cannot underpin an applied enterprise that includes translation studies. Section 3, The substantive hase of translation , indicates (in some detail for translation and at a general level for other applied linguistic activities) the direction that the contemporary integration of various lines of linguistic research is taking vis-à-vis the needs of such applied enterprises as translation, literary studies, language planning, lexicography, and language teaching. Section 3 invokes a concept of substance as opposed to form and thus sets the scene for the concluding section 4, Pragmatics, applied studies, and scientific progress , which argues that it is necessary to take help from linguistics in order to construct the field of translation studies in such a way that practitioners can truly benefit freely from all relevant branches of knowledge, in view of the fact that chaos is an obstacle to genuine freedom.

Résumé

Les sujet étudiés dans cet article se situent à la limite entre la théorie linguistique et les fondements de la linguistique appliquée dans la pratique de la traduction. On y affirme i) qu'un antiscientisme radical ne porte pas les fondements de la traduction ; ii) que la linguistique contemporaine modérée ne peut soutenir n'importe quelle entreprise incluant l'étude de la traduction; et iii) qu'il est nécessaire d'accepter l'aide que la linguistique peut apporter dans le champ des études traductionnelles de façon à ce que les praticiens puissent bénéficier librement de toutes les branches de la connaissance puisque l'on croit que le chaos est un obstacle à la liberté réelle.