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intersemiotic - springs from and pools into language, which is an
extremely complex and fast-growing human activity, The theory-
practice dichotomy constitutes yet another problem with which
translation theorists and practitioners are confronted. The problem
is summarized in a couple of queries: which should assume first
priority, theory or practice? Should we, at the very outset, look
into the diverse corpus of translation texts before we formulate a
theory according to which texts are to be translated? Or should we
start off by formulating a theory of translation and see how far it is
applicable to various types of translatable texts?
Joseph Graham ( Translation Spectrum (ed.) M G Rose, 1981, pp23-
24) maintains that "the problem of translation is theoretical in the
strict sense, being a problem in and of theory, not just the right
theory but the right kind of theory, which turns out to be the only
real kind. The logical consequence would then be a methodological
p p-esv. t-1." 4nAk
deference, since any substantial theory of translation presumes, if it
does not actually assume, some formal inquiry concerning the general
principles of accomplishment, the very principles which define an
object and specify a method of study." Likewise, Katz, ( Meaning and
Translation : ed. by F Guenthner and M Guenthner-Reutter, 1978, p191)
explicitly states that, "The standard approach to the fundamental
principles of a theory involves familiar steps of successive
abstraction from empirical generalizations". Katz adopts a philosophy
of scepticism in his endeavour to formulate a semantic theory of
natural languages.
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