Main Issues of Translation Studies2

Holmes
mapped out the new field like a science, dividing it into ‘pure’ Translation Studies
(encompassing descriptive studies of existing translations and general and partial
translation theories) and ‘applied’ studies (covering translator training, translator
aids and translation criticism, amongst others). More priority is afforded to the
‘pure’ side, the objectives ofwhich Holmes considers to be twofold (1988:71):
1. to describe the phenomena of translating and translation(s) as they manifest
themselves in the world of our experience, and
2. to establish general principles by means of which these phenomena can be
explained and predicted.
Here Holmes uses ‘translating’ for the process and ‘translation’ for the product. The
descriptions and generalized principles envisaged were much reinforced by Gideon
Toury in his Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond (1995) where two tentative
general ‘laws’ of translation are proposed: