The Translation of Authoritative Statements: a Discussion

Abstract

I define authoritative statements as non-literary texts which derive a large measure of their authority either from the political, social or academic status of their authors and/or from the high quality of their writing. All official, administrative and legal texts - where each proposition is a `performance' or a `speech act' an indication of action to be taken - come within this field. Political, philosophical, sociological, psychological, scientific, technological, historical texts are only included if they are by authors whose word is `law' in the field concerned, or if they are well written in the sense that the language closely and succinctly embraces thought which itself closely embraces reality, that "proper words are used in proper places". The translator is qualified and has to make this assessment since he is engaged in the same practice. He not only has to be sensitive to and a critic of language ; he also has to write well himself.