Source-orientation vs. target-orientation as conceptualized in metaphors for translation and the translator

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on some conceptual metaphors and their linguistic manifestations used to refer to perhaps the most famous dichotomy in Translation Studies: that between source-oriented and target-oriented translation. The metaphors are cited from Translation Studies books and articles, from a collection of quotes on translation as well as from non-academic online material. I analyze them in order to highlight in what way they reflect the relationship between the source text and the target text, the role of the translator in establishing this relationship, and the translator’s status associated with this role. The conclusion of this analysis suggests that, though the contribution of metaphors to the understanding of these three matters is unquestionable, further investigation on the topic would be welcome in order to reveal both the multitude of angles the metaphors may still be approached from and their more recent developments in Translation Studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Metaphors for translation
• metaphors for the translator
• source-oriented translations and translators
• target-oriented translations and translators

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Loredana Pungă

Loredana Pungă Loredana Pungă is Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the West University of Timișoara, Romania. Her domains of expertise are Translation Studies, applied and cognitive linguistics. She holds a PhD in Philology from the university where she currently teaches, completed on the basis of research mostly carried out at the Univesity of California, Davis, as a Fulbright scholar. Her publications include three books and eight book chapters in thematic volumes, as well as over fifty articles, most of them published abroad. Loredana Pungă is (co)-editor of three volumes published in the UK and a member of the editorial board of four academic journals indexed in a number of international databases. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Translation Studies series at Politehnica Publishing House, Timișoara.