Conceptual translation: Script theory over equivalence theory

Abstract

Unlike most translation studies that mainly focus on describing problematic areas and issues translators oftentimes encounter and thus suggesting or even prescribing some practical solutions and techniques, this study essentially targets the conceptual mechanism that can to some extent explain possible choices made by translators and students of translation. Therefore, this paper is by no means an endeavor to provide any translation assessment or any pedantic instructions of methods and strategies to follow; rather, the researcher has explicitly endeavored to offer some insights into understanding the symptoms and rationales of making choices while translating any text, based on translators’ schematic behavior that can be best tackled by script theory that shoots far beyond the mere semantic and pragmatic constraints. The study, therefore, attempts to extend the scope of translation studies from the traditional domains of cultural studies and applied linguistics interests into a higher intermediate Sweetserian conceptual analysis of pragmatic behavior and ultimately into some more comprehensive Schankean schematic paradigms.