Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

Translation is a relational concept in the sense that it envisages
and investigates the multi-dimensional relationship holding between two
different texts in two different languages. Much unabated controversy
arose between various schools of linguistic scholarship as to how a
given verbal message is transferred from one language to another. The
entire corpus, which has been written on translation theory, is
primarily concerned with the administration of this transformational
process. Translation theorists approached the subject from different
perspectives. Despite their initial divergences and inconsistencies,
they formulated their theories in the light of their conception of how
language operates and functions in linguistic-socio-cultural contexts.
Consequently, different approaches to translation have emerged.
1. THE LANGUAGE-ORIENTED APPROACH
In 1965, J C Catford published his book 'A Linguistic Theory of
Translation: A Treatise in Applied Linguistics'. Though a relatively
small book, it has become a much sought after book to which
translation scholars and students often refer. Catford bases his
approach to translation on a theory of language which views language
as a "patterned behaviour". "It is, indeed", he writes, "the pattern
which is language". (1965, p2). His definition of translation as "the
replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent
textual material in another language (TL)" (p20) cuts translation down
to a mere linguistic exercise in which the task of the translator is
delimited to the finding of equivalent TL textual material to replace
63