This paper examines the well-known literal translation hypothesis and discusses its significance for translation theory. The hypothesis claims that as translators process a given text chunk, they tend to start from a literal version of the target text, and then work towards a freer version. The idea has been implied or explicitly studied by many scholars, and does not seem to have a single source. After some preliminary conceptual analysis an optimal formulation of the hypothesis is proposed. The paper then assesses the hypothesis in terms of the kinds of wider significance any hypothesis can have. The criteria discussed are testability, relations with other hypotheses, applicability, surprise value and explanatory power. Some of Englund Dimitrova’s research (2005) on the hypothesis is discussed. A rather different study by Nordman (2009) is argued to have implications for the broader contextualization of the hypothesis.
2024. Testing the unique item hypothesis with phrasal verbs in Chinese–English translations of Lu Xun’s short stories: the perspective of translation directionality. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11:1
2021. Information and Entropy Measures of Rendered Literal Translation. In Explorations in Empirical Translation Process Research [Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, 3], ► pp. 113 ff.
Carl, Michael
2021. Micro Units and the First Translational Response Universal. In Explorations in Empirical Translation Process Research [Machine Translation: Technologies and Applications, 3], ► pp. 233 ff.
2021. Comparing the Effect of Product-Based Metrics on the Translation Process. Frontiers in Psychology 12
Yang, Zhihong & Defeng Li
2021. Translation Competence Revisited: Toward a Pedagogical Model of Translation Competence. In Advances in Cognitive Translation Studies [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 109 ff.
Heilmann, Arndt, Tatiana Serbina, Daniel Couto Vale & Stella Neumann
2017. EEG and Universal Language Processing in Translation. In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, ► pp. 232 ff.
Jakobsen, Arnt Lykke
2017. Translation Process Research. In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition, ► pp. 19 ff.
Bangalore, Srinivas, Bergljot Behrens, Michael Carl, Maheshwar Ghankot, Arndt Heilmann, Jean Nitzke, Moritz Schaeffer & Annegret Sturm
2016. Syntactic Variance and Priming Effects in Translation. In New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 211 ff.
Płońska, Dagmara
2016. Problems of Literality in French-Polish Translations of a Newspaper Article. In New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 279 ff.
Risku, Hanna, Jelena Milosevic & Christina Pein-Weber
Schaeffer, Moritz, Barbara Dragsted, Kristian Tangsgaard Hvelplund, Laura Winther Balling & Michael Carl
2016. Word Translation Entropy: Evidence of Early Target Language Activation During Reading for Translation. In New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 183 ff.
Bangalore, Srinivas, Bergljot Behrens, Michael Carl, Maheshwar Gankhot, Arndt Heilmann, Jean Nitzke, Moritz Schaeffer & Annegret Sturm
2014. The paradoxical invisibility of translation in the highly multilingual context of news agencies. Global Media and Communication 10:1 ► pp. 53 ff.
Davier, Lucile
2017. Bibliographie. In Les enjeux de la traduction dans les agences de presse, ► pp. 303 ff.
2013. The Significance of Hypotheses. TTR 24:2 ► pp. 65 ff.
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