This paper looks into the phenomenon of transfer in translation, by approaching it from a developmental perspective as translational competence grows. Toury claims that transfer (both positive and negative) is a universal concomitant of translation. Since the normative requirements for translation products, as signalled to the translator by feedback, usually view transfer effects unfavourably, the translator learns with time and experience to monitor and reduce these. However, the monitoring process involved is postulated to lead to displacement – it does not necessarily lead to a disappearance of transfer effects, but rather to a shift in the textual units on which this transfer operates, from the lower lexical and syntactic units to the higher textual and discoursal ones. Toury exemplifies this monitoring process by contrastively reconstructing the segmentation process operating on a source text, as revealed through translations by two different translators, a novice translator and an experienced one.