Later developments in equivalence The notion of equivalence remained as a key issue in translation throughout the 1970s and beyond. For instance, Chesterman (1989) notes that 'equivalence is obviously a central concept in translation theory' while Bassnett (1991) devotes a section to 'problems of equivalence' in the chapter entitled 'central issues' of translation studies.

Mona Baker, in In Other Words, structures her chapters around different kinds of equivalence - at the levels of the word, phrase, grammar, text, pragmatics, etc. , but with the proviso that equivalence 'is influenced by a variety of linguistic and cultural factors and is therefore always relative'

Equivalence and criticism Kenny (1997) summarizes criticism that has targeted the 'circularity' of the definitions of equivalence: 'equivalence is supposed to define translation, and translation, in turn, defines equivalence‘. As might be imagined, scholars working in non-linguistic translation studies have been especially critical of the notion of equivalence.

Fore example, Bassnett summarizes the major problem as she sees it: Translation involves far more than replacement of lexical and grammatical items between languages . . . Once the translator moves away from close linguistic equivalence, the problems of determining the exact nature of the level of equivalence aimed for begin to emerge. (Bassnett 1980/91: 25)

tertium comparationis The biggest bone of contention in the comparison of an ST and a TT is the so-called tertium comparationis, an invariant against which two text segments can be measured to gauge variation.

The problem of the inevitable subjectivity that the invariant entails has been tackled by many scholars from a range of theoretical backgrounds. In chapter 4, we discuss taxonomic linguistic approaches that have attempted to produce a comprehensive model of translation shift analysis.

Chapter 7 considers modern descriptive translation studies; its leading proponent, Gideon Toury, has moved away from a prescriptive definition of equivalence and, accepting as given that a TT is 'equivalent' to its ST, instead seeks to identify the web of relations between the two.

Yet a prescriptive discussion of equivalence continues Yet a prescriptive discussion of equivalence continues. For example, translator training courses inevitably have this focus: errors by the trainee translators are often corrected prescriptively according to a notion of equivalence held by the trainer. For this reason, equivalence is an issue that will remain central to the practice of translation, even if translation studies and translation theory has, for the time being at least, marginalized it.