Language Policy and Translation

In his 1997 paper “Culture Planning and Translation,” Gideon Toury underlined the relevance of language policy, then a branch of sociolinguistics, to the study of translation, which he defined as a norm‐governed, socio‐cultural practice. The chapter focuses on how Toury's insights contributed to the emergence of a challenging new sub‐field of translation studies. Based on Reine Meylaert's premise that there is no language policy without a translation policy, the sub‐field draws on research in sociolinguistics, sociology, linguistic anthropology, economics, political theory, political philosophy, cultural studies, and translation studies to address questions such as: to what extent do language policies rely on translation to facilitate communication between authorities and their multilingual constituencies? To what degree can a translation policy uphold, challenge or undermine unequal power relations between languages and their speakers inherent to a given language policy? While researchers initially tended to focus on official translation policies, recent studies have also focused on semi‐official and non‐official policies to better explore the vital role translation plays (or not) in protecting linguistic diversity, language rights, integration, and, more broadly, the principle of participatory citizenship on which contemporary democracies must depend for their survival.

Citizenship · Focus (optics) · Language industry · Language policy · Politics · Premise · Relevance (law) · Translation (biology) · Translation studies