Introducing Translation Studies

Theories and Applications

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Chapter 7

Systems Theories

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of descriptive approaches to translation, beginning with Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory, which shifted focus from linguistic equivalence to the role of translated literature within the broader literary and historical systems of the target culture. Building on this, Toury established the foundations of Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS), proposing a target text–oriented methodology that combines linguistic analysis with cultural context to uncover patterns of translational behaviour. His goal was to reconstruct the norms governing translation practices and, ultimately, to identify probabilistic laws that could inform both theory and practice. The chapter also discusses the contribution of the Manipulation School in the 1980s, which emphasized the interplay between theory and empirical case studies, notably through Lambert and van Gorp’s structured model for translation description. Chesterman’s later work on translation norms further refined these ideas, reinforcing the descriptive, data-driven approach to understanding translation within its sociocultural and literary context.

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Research Questions

  1. Consider the position of translation in the polysystem of your own country. Would you say that it occupies a primary or secondary position? Have there been noticeable changes over the years? What might have caused these changes? As far as translated literature’s own polysystem is concerned, are there variations according to genre, SL, etc.?
  2. Look at the different case studies given in Toury’s Descriptive Translation Studies (2012). What elements do they have in common? What studies could you carry out to test or extend these findings?
  3. Analyse suitable ST-TT pairs and compare the results. How feasible are Toury’s proposed laws of translation and Chesterman’s S-universals and T-universals?
  4. Find other examples of studies which seem to support or challenge Toury’s laws of standardization and interference. Pym’s article ‘On Toury’s laws of how translators translate’ (Pym 2008, see Further Reading) discusses the commonplaceness and contradiction in the two laws through the concept of social conditions and translator risk-avoidance. What examples can you find to support or challenge this possible unification? What extra-linguistic variables seem to condition the laws?
  5. Find examples of audiovisual translation that contain dialects or sociolects. Is there a pattern to the way they are translated? What does this indicate about the norms involved in the translation process? Compare with dialogue translation in other genres, such as novels and plays.

Video Summary

Further Reading

Explore the chapter further using our combined reading list and free reading section.

Pym, A. (2008) ‘On Toury’s laws of how to translate’, in A. Pym, M. Shlesinger and D. Simeoni (eds)Beyond Descriptive Translation Studies, Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 311–28. 

Pym, A. (2010) Exploring Translation Theories, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, ch. 5. 

Schäffner, C. (1998) ‘The concept of norms in translation studies’, Current Issues in Language and Society 5.1–2: 1–9. 

Chang, Nam Fung (2011) In defence of Polysystem Theory, Target 23:2, pp. 311-347 

Hermans, T. (1998). Translation and Normativity. Current Issues In Language and Society, 5(1–2), 51–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/13520529809615503

A key figure in the Manipulation School and systems theories described in this chapter, Theo Hermans here provides a detailed exploration of the potential of norms as a tool for the analysis of historical translation. He further discusses the theoretical implications of a norms-based approach, incorporating work by Luhmann and Bourdieu.

Laviosa, S. (2004). Corpus-based translation studies: Where does it come from? Where is it going? Language Matters, 35(1), 6–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10228190408566201 Laviosa summarizes the growth of early corpus-based translation studies and importantly links it to investigations of central phenomena such as translation universals from the descriptive studies tradition.