A Contact Linguistic Analysis of Translation-Induced Changes

Abstract

The past decades have witnessed a shift in translation studies from linguistically oriented approaches to culturally oriented ones. Unlike traditional linguistic studies, which aims to achieve linguistic equivalence between the source language (SL) and the target language (TL), as proposed by Eugene A. Nida (1964), culturally oriented approaches to translation studies advocated by Susan Bassnett (1988), and Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere (1990), deny the possibility of absolute linguistic equivalence and, instead, focus on the loss and gain in the TL. Toury (1995) even goes a step further in refuting translation equivalence by championing descriptive translation studies. He views changes in the translated texts as facts and shows a great concern about how to describe the changes. As a result, the turning focus of translation studies manifests a shift of research interests from equivalence to change.