Translation and theories

pp. 49-71

in: Jay F. Rosenberg, Linguistic representation, Berlin, Springer, 1974

Abstract

I remarked in Chapter I that the fact of a multiplicity of languages raises the question of the extent to which languages are effectively intertranslatable. Since some philosophers, notably Quine, have argued for severe limitations in principle on the enterprise of translation, I concluded that an adequate theory of linguistic representation needed to address itself to the question of the limits of interlinguistic translation. I shall begin this chapter with an investigation of that question and, in particular, of Quine's arguments.