The Concept of Norms

In the long history of translation, such notions as accuracy, correctness, or well-formedness have played an important role in assessing the quality of a translation. Depending on what is understood by translation, these notions have been given different significance. Despite much research over the past 50 years, translation studies has not developed into a homogeneous discipline and there is no agreement on its central concepts. Different approaches exist side by side, each of which focuses on specific aspects, looks at the product or the process of translation from a specific angle, and uses or avoids specific terminology. One of the concepts that has been used differently within translation studies and whose value has been both asserted strongly and called into question, is the concept of norms. Both Gideon Toury and Theo Hermans have contributed substantially to this debate and to the development of the concept of norms in and for translation studies. They are the two main contributors to this CILS issue which is based on a seminar on ‘Translation and Norms ’ held at Aston University in February 1998. Research within translation studies has been concerned with the descriptio