This study aims to breach the gap between literary, general and special-language translation. It is primarily an attempt to present recently developed concepts and methods, both from translation theory and linguistics, in such a way that they could be usefully employed in the theory, practice and analysis of literary translation. Such concepts are the prototype (as against the classical box-like category) and the gestalt (whereby translation is seen as a holistic process). Thus rigid dichotomies such as word vs. sense, or langue vs. parole can be resolved into prototypical concepts interacting in a constant dynamic tension. Thus not only prototype semantics but also scenes-and-frames semantics and the speech act theory can be applied to translation, as is illustrated on the basis of concrete examples. And finally it is shown that literary translation and special-language translation are not two mutually exclusive categories, but can be compared and contrasted on the basis of what they have in common, such as the status of the source text, the function of the target text and the differing priorities of individual styles as against standardized convention.