Investigating the nature of economy in translated text

The study of translation today covers a broad spectrum of perspectives that reflect the diversity of approaches to be encountered in interrelated disciplines, such as linguistics, semiotics, cultural studies and literary studies, to name the most contiguous. As a result, the term translation spans a vast range of interpretations, the most far-reaching being that translations constitute a genre of their own and should be studied as self-standing texts before, or even without, any comparison with the source text. This approach to translation, based also on computerised corpus techniques, suggests that translated text presents features of linguistic behaviour that are the result of the mediation process. The present investigation into the nature of economy in translated text indicates that the term "economy" takes on different shades of meaning and significance according to whether the various multifaceted aspects of translation - socio-cultural, economic, political, ideological, are called into play. Within a broader notion of translation even such an apparently straightforward concept as economy needs to be redefined and rewritten.