Kitis Eliza. The Pragmatic Infrastructure of Translation

Traducao e comunicacao: Revista Brasileira de Tradutores. — 2009. — No 18. — P. 63-85.In this paper, I consider the various levels of analysis of language from a pragmatic viewpoint, and show how they contribute in distinct ways that need to be taken into account in translating into another language. These pragmatic levels are regarded as constituting the infrastructure of the translation process, and, it is claimed, raised awareness of their multifunctionality in this process must be visible in the translation product. We will focus on the lexical level, the phrasal, and then the sentential, but most importantly, we will need to pay particular attention to the level of performativity, as speakers and writers alike perform in language rather than just speak, write/narrate or translate. However, the ultimate concern will be the desired equivalence, not as has been viewed in most cases at the linguistic level, but at the level of cognition. In other words, our concern will be with the desired equivalence between the cognitive world that is constructed by the text-world in the TL (Target Language) and that of the text of the SL (Source Language). This view takes on board that the text worlds created by all the linguistic features in the specific contexts of their production and consumption also construct specific cognitive worlds, and equivalence should be operative at this metalinguistic level.
Indeed, particular attention must be paid to the sub-textual level, as unarticulated constituents and other non-encoded, but meant, concepts ‘penetrate’ and shape perceptions and interpretations of texts. These ‘unarticulated’ infiltrations need to be ‘transferred’ into the text in the TL.