Translation Universals: From Hypothesis to Theory

Abstract

This paper provides a brief introduction to different kinds of hypotheses; explanatory, descriptive and interpretive, following which three approaches to the study of translation products, i.e. prescriptive, pejorative and descriptive, are discussed. The paper concludes elaborating on the potential relation between these approaches and the study of translation universals: specific characteristics which, it is hypothesized, are typical of the translated language as distinct from non-translated language. Such characteristics would be the same irrespective of the translation direction and/or whatever the language pair involved in the process of translation.