Change in the Interpretive Potential of a Text in Translation

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of changes in the interpretive potential of a text when translated from one language into another. The authors analyze aspects of interpretive potential such as the recipient’s worldview, the recipient’s perception of the author, and the information of the text as perceived by the recipient. Particular attention is paid to the mechanism of changing interpretive potential in translation, which is based on the variability of the recipients’ interpretive capacities—subjective in nature, including those of the translator—as well as on objective linguistic and socio-cultural differences between the source text and the translation. The process and essence of this transformation are illustrated by a model developed by the authors, which represents three main stages: 1) the emergence of the interpretive potential of the source text; 2) the translator’s choice of one interpretation of the source text under the influence of subjective factors; 3) the emergence of the interpretive potential of the translated text. The analysis suggests that the content of the source text is not fixed or unambiguous but is formed in the reader’s consciousness as a result of the interaction of individual features. Translation, in turn, is not simply the transfer of meaning but a process of interpretive selection that simultaneously eliminates some possible interpretations and generates new ones by embedding the chosen interpretation within a different linguistic and cultural system.