Although Toury's notion of 'assumed translation' has been criticized form many quarters, it remains an important contribution to the methodology of Translation Studies. To ensure its survival, it may be revised an a more radical version of it adopted. This can be done by building on the groundwork provided by Searle's account of 'the construction of social reality'. After illustrating why a revision of the notion is necessary, the author demonstrates how this would be done in a Searlean framework. She then discusses what this would mean for the identification of translations for empirical investigation. Finally, she looks for areas in which this approach may be related to current work in the sociology of translation, specifically research inspired by Bourdieu.