Philosopy and Translation: The Special Case of German

Abstract

Philosophical texts do not figure prominently in the discussions within the general area of translation studies. This might be due to their alleged obscurity and ambiguity, but what is interesting is that the relatively few contributions on this particular subject – the translation of philosophical texts – tend to focus on the translation of German texts into other languages, predominantly into English. In this article these two aspects will be approached from tow angles: firstly the particular qualities of philosophical texts which have been identified by other researchers will be discussed and secondly a speciality of the German language – i.e. the parenthetical structure, (Satzklammer) which is very present in German philosophical texts will be scrutinises with regard to its cohesive potential. It will be argued in this article that the parenthetical structure adds considerably to translation of German philosophical texts as it cannot be transmitted and that alternative means lack the particular power of cohesion, which means that the translations in question become even more obscure than the original.

Keywords

• Tradução
• Filosofia
• Ambiguidade
• Alemão
• Satzklammer