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Translation, Universals, Mystère

In: Mind, Language, Machine

Author

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  • Michael L. Johnson

    (University of Kansas)

Abstract

In an essay appropriately entitled ‘Understanding as Translation’, Steiner considers the omnipresence of translation in the human use of language. He notices how reading Shakespeare is tantamount to translating him: the historical development of language demands a decipherment between two psychocultural contexts. Likewise, ‘The world of an Austen novel is radically linguistic: all reality is “encoded” in a distinctive idiom’1 that the reader must translate (from ciphertext to cleartext by means of some encicode) in order to understand. But translation — the assumption of an alien vision, the inhalation of an alien voice — is not peculiar to literary experience; indeed, it is co-extensive with the whole human experience of language and essential to it. One who uses language effectively is a translator, an interpreter or, to use Steiner’s polyvalent word, an interprète.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael L. Johnson, 1988. "Translation, Universals, Mystère," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Mind, Language, Machine, chapter 25, pages 149-156, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-19404-9_25
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-19404-9_25
    as

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