In that chapter the author tries to sketch a tentative rationale for a branch of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), by putting forward a set of ordered principles and guidelines for its gradual establishment, on the one hand, and for its operation, on the other. The step-by-step expose of the principles themselves will be accompanied not only by small scale illustrations for this or that point in the presentation, but also by a corresponding step-by-step unfolding (in small type) of an exemplary ’study in descriptive studies', focusing on one common type of textual-linguistic phenomenon (namely, the use of binomials of synonyms and near-synonyms) as it has presented itself in literary translation into Hebrew during the last hundred years or so.