Philosophy of Language, Translation Theory and a Third Way in Semantics

Essays in Philosophy 8 (1):7-28 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper I address anew the problem of determinacy in translation by examining the Western philosophical and translation theoretic traditions of the last century. Translation theory and the philosophy of language have largely gone their separate ways (the former opting to rebrand itself as “translation studies” to emphasize its empirical and anti-theoretical underpinnings). Yet translation theory and the philosophy of language predominantly share a common assumption that stands in the way of determinate translation. It is that languages, not texts, are the objects of translation and the subjects of semantics. The way to overcome the theoretical problems surrounding the possibility and determinacy of translation is to marry the philosopher of language’s concern for determinacy and semantic accuracy in translation with the notion of a “text-type” from the translation theory literature. The resulting theory capable of explaining determinacy in translation is what I call the text-type conception of semantics (TTS). It is a novel alternative to the salient positions of Contextualism and Semantic Minimalism in the contemporary philosophy of language.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

An Archimedean Point for Philosophy.Shyam Ranganathan - 2011 - Metaphilosophy 42 (4):479-519.
Truth as translation – part a.Hannes Leitgeb - 2001 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 30 (4):281-307.
Commensurability, Comparability, Communicability.Thomas S. Kuhn - 1982 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1982:669 - 688.
Translation as translating as culture.Peeter Torop - 2002 - Sign Systems Studies 30 (2):593-604.
Testing the Precision of Legal Translation: The Case of Translating Islamic Legal Terms into English. [REVIEW]Rafat Y. Alwazna - 2013 - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique 26 (4):897-907.
The Pedagogue as Translator in the Classroom.Stephen Dobson - 2012 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 46 (2):271-286.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-01-22

Downloads
58 (#246,960)

6 months
7 (#174,572)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references