Translation is the activity of understanding the meaning of a text in one language, known as source text or ” target text “, to produce a text with equivalent meaning in another language, known as translated text or “target text “. The outcome of this activity, the translated text, is also called a translation. When translation is conducted orally, it is known as interpretation. The study of the theory, description and application of translation and interpreting is called translatology.
Hurtado says: “Translation is a skill, a know-how that consists of knowing how to go through the translation process, knowing how to solve the translation problems that arise in each case. Translation is not so much knowledge as know-how. In this sense, following Anderson’s (1983) distinction between declarative knowledge (knowing what) and procedural or operational knowledge (knowing how), we will have to qualify the knowledge translate as an operational type of knowledge that is acquired primarily through practice.
