The possibility of paraphrase within a language is a source of expressive flexibility and also provides for vital latitude in the translation process. Part I of the book looks at kinds of dissimilarity between expressions and ways in which this can be overcome. The modification of the underlying "Smysl-Tekst" model (Mel'chuk) concentrates above all on deep syntactic structure and the so-called lexical functions. A broad system of paraphrase is then developed for German and applied to Russian-German translation, establishing a catalogue of motives for obligatory paraphrastic translation in the process. The concluding section is given over to a part-formalized analysis of German translations of a passage from Anna Karenina. The main objective of the study is to provide a foundation for multi-language explanatory-combinatorial dictionaries and for translation phrase-books.