Terminologia della Traduzione

Translation is becoming an ever-expanding field of investigation and is attracting increasing interest among scholars from various disciplines and schools of thought. These developments within translation studies reflect the interdisciplinary trend that characterises almost every academic discipline today, cutting across all areas of the humanities and sciences. This has led to a great breadth and depth of coverage, making plurality and diversity the most prominent features of translation studies today. As a consequence, translation studies and the terminology used to describe it are characterised by a plurality not only of conceptualisations, orientations and applications but also of terminology. Yet, behind this plurality lies unity – the unity of the discipline as a scientific object and as a field of research. The same is true for translation terminology, the main concern of which is the need for standardisation and uniformity with that of multilingual diversity. Translation terminology is the set of units of expression which allow specialised knowledge within the field of translation studies to be represented, acquired, stored, communicated and transferred effectively and unambiguously both intralingually and interlingually. Thus, possessing specialised metalingual competence in the field of translation terminology means knowing how the world of translation is perceived and represented, what the terms mean and how to use them properly. Terminologia della Traduzione is based on the original four-language version, which offers an exhaustive and coherent presentation of the multiple components of translation studies via its terminology in French, English, Spanish and German. Both volumes share a descriptive approach and put into practice the fundamental goals of terminology, namely, to search, select and order the terms used in the various areas of translation studies in order to normalise their form and content for more effective communication. The aims are to provide clear and consistent definitions of the most widely used concepts in translation with particular regard to applied translation studies and to establish the limits between different terms. Terminologia della Traduzione is independent and self-standing within an Italian setting in that the focus is clearly on the terminological resources available in Italian translation studies. At the same time, it follows the general rationale and format of the source text and each entry includes the corresponding terms in the four original languages for reference and comparison. This form of presentation was thought to be the most practical and efficient in guaranteeing a monolingual description of the state of affairs in translation terminology in Italy while at the same time allowing cross-referencing with a multilingual textbook of corresponding terminology in French, English, Spanish and German.