This paper seeks to expand the notion of translation in order to accommodate not only polysemiotic text types, e.g. film and TV, but also nonverbal types of communication. Without denying the importance of the spoken or written word, our aim is to promote a wider, ’multidimensional’ understanding of translation. As a means to that end, conceptual tools are provided for dealing systematically with any type of translation encountered today, by establishing a semiotically-based taxonomy of translation. In addition to the strictly semiotic distinctions between various types of translation, a main distinction is found between inspirational translation (e.g. audio description) and conventionalized translation (subtitling and dubbing, for instance), yielding a total of 30 types of translation.