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to a certain system, to another semiotic entity, belonging to a
different system. Such a process is fundamentally inter-semiotic
or inter-textual. Despite the fact that either entity belongs to a
different code, they both share one thing in common, transferable
over the systemic or semiotic border. This thing in common, which
Toury calls 'the invariant under transformation', is the core of
all communication. Toury then postulates that the resultant entity
has a twofold nature: (1) it is part of the semiotic system, the
target or the receptor system to which it belongs; (2) it is the
representation of another entity, belonging to another system, by
virtue of the 'invariant' common to it and to the initial entity.
Applied to translation, this intersystemic, intersemiotic, or
inter-textual approach holds true, to a considerable extent, to the
communication of a source message into the receptor language. The
source message is the initial semiotic entity, whereas the target
message is the resultant entity in another sign code. Both
entities have one thing in common, that is, 'the invariant under
transformation'. The operation performed on this invariant is one
of transfer, usually entitled adequacy, equivalence, or
correspondence, depending on the type and goal of the transfer.
Communication, however, does not only imply the 'invariant'
common to both source and receptor messages. It is a far broader
concept than mere transfer. Toury adds a cross-cultural dimension
to the communication process, re-defining communication as "the
communication of verbal messages across a cultural-linguistic
border". (ibid, p15) Translational communication involves not
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