Translation: from transparency to opacity, from metalanguage to alterity

Abstract

This text presents a theoretical proposal for understanding translation considering three fundamental notions in the field of language studies: opacity, enunciation and alterity. The approach to opacity is inspired by Récanati (1979), as well as its theoretical correlate, the notion of transparency, in the scope of a discussion on the linguistic sign and of the statement. Alterity, on its turn, is presented as a notion that is implied in the idea of opacity, which establishes an alteration in relation to Récanati’s original proposal. Lastly, enunciation is seen through the benvenistean point of view (1989; 1995), whose theorization on metalanguage and on language’s double universe of signification, which makes it singular compared to other semiologic systems, is incorporated to the digression on the two other concepts on which this study relies. Based on these three notions, we study the intra and interlinguistic translations (according to JAKOBSON, 2003) from the hypothesis that translation, in its broad sense, configures itself as a particular language problem, specified by the fact that it establishes a radical alterity (with the other, with the other language, with the translator’s language). The conclusion leads to a discussion on the general anthropological aspects involved in translation when the enunciative perspective of language study is considered.

Keywords

• tradução, alteridade, opacidade, enunciação.