Translation and Negation

Abstract

How is one to tell whether a given text is a translation or, more precisely, whether it is the result of what Roman Jakobson terms ‘interlingual translation’ or ‘translation proper’ (Jakobson 1987, 429)? If this is a question only rarely asked in translation studies, it remains of some importance despite its apparent naivety, since only when a text has been satisfactorily identified as the result of such a practice can one begin to analyse translation effects as distinct from other kinds of intertextual effect. Clearly, even a close resemblance between two texts in two languages is not enough to guarantee that the relationship between these texts is one of translation proper. Something more is needed. According to Jakobson, this something more is an intentional act of interpretation, across the limited difference between two historically existent languages — French and English, for instance. Now, there are two very obvious ways, one external, the other internal, in which this intentional act is generally indicated, and both of them bear upon the ethics of translation.