Microsoft Word 05 descriptions doc

Summary 

 

This chapter has sketched out the historical and intellectual background of the descriptive 

paradigm of translation theory. The paradigm was mainly developed by literary scholars 

working in relation to smaller cultures. Although based on empirical research, it has a set of 

properly theoretical concepts, many of which can be traced from the Russian Formalists to 

work done in central Europe, to the Tel Aviv School, and to scholars in Holland and Flanders. 

The academic discipline of Translation Studies began to take shape from the exchanges 

between those groups. In general, the descriptive theories oppose the equivalence paradigm in 

that they aim to be non-prescriptive, their prime focus is on “shifts” rather than types of 

equivalence, and they do not undertake extensive analysis of the source culture. They tend to 

be like purpose-based Skopos approaches in that they emphasize the target-culture context 

and the function of translations within that context. They nevertheless differ from purpose-

based approaches in that they see functions in terms of the positions occupied by translations 

within the target systems, rather than with respect to a client or a brief. Descriptive theories 

also tend to concern what translations are usually like in a particular context, rather than he 

ways in which particular translations might differ. They are thus able to talk about the 

consensus-based “norms” that inform the way translations are produced and received. The 

paradigm is thus relativistic in that it is very aware that what is considered a good translation in 

one historical context may not be rated so highly in a different context. The research based on 

those concepts has done much to reveal the vast diversity of translation practices in different 

historical periods, different cultures, and different types of communication.  

 

  

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