Publications

Publication details [#28819]

Jakobson, Roman. 2012. On linguistic aspects of translation. In Venuti, Lawrence. The Translation Studies Reader. London: Routledge. pp. 127–131.
Publication type
Chapter in book
Publication language
English
Keywords
interlingual translation | intersemiotic translation | intralingual translation | meaning=content | poetry=poem | process=translation process | semiotics | translatability=untranslatability | transposition
Reprint of
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. On linguistic aspects of translation. In Brower, Reuben Arthur, ed. On translation (Harvard studies in comparative literature 23). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 144–151.

Abstract

This essay, written in 1959, introduces a semiotic reflection on translatability. Jakobson questions empiricist semantics by conceiving of meaning, not as reference to reality, but as a relation to a potentially endless chain of signs. He describes translation as a process of recoding. Still, he is mindful of the differences among cultural discourses, especially poetry, which requires translation that is a “creative transposition” into a different system of signs.
Source : Based on editor’s introductory essay