Translation and Norms

This issue deals with translation and norms. Norms are models of correct or appropriate behaviour and of correct or appropriate behavioural products. Since translational behaviour is contextualised social behaviour, translational norms are understood as internalised behavioural constraints which embody the values shared by a community. Gideon Toury and Theo Hermans, the main contributors to this volume, have been highly influential in the development of the concept of norms as an analytical tool in studying translations. They argue that all decisions in the translation process are primarily governed by norms and illustrate the interplay between the translator's responses to expectations, constraints and pressures in a social context. Describing translation as norm-governed behaviour in a social, cultural and historical situation raises a number of issues. For example, how do we reconstruct norms from textual features? What is the relationship between regular patterns in texts and norms? How do translators acquire norms? Do they behave according to norms? These are some of the issues raised and discussed in the two main contributions, in the debates and in the responses by Andrew Chesterman, Daniel Cite, Anthony Pym, Douglas Robinson and Sergio Viaggio.