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Topic: Indeterminacy of translation

	Willard Van Orman Quine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Indeterminacy of translation also applies to the interpretation of speakers of one's own language, and even one's own past utterances.
		And while Quine does admit the existence of standards of better and worse translation such standards are peripheral to his philosophical concern with translation, hinging upon such pragmatic issues as speed of translation, and the lucidity and concision of the results.
		The central thesis underlying the indeterminacy of translation and other extensions of Quine's work is ontological relativity and the related doctrine of confirmation holism.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/W._V._Quine (2080 words)

	Social and Ideological Contexts of Translation and Translation Research II, Saturday 29 April 2000
		His thesis for their reciprocal translation involves (Notebook 11, §47), rather than a privileged position, what may be more properly regarded as a higher level of generalisation, capable of incorporating the valid results obtained by other schools of thought.
		Intralinguistic translations are thus able to enrich from the outside the philosophy of praxis, or other philosophies that he envisaged must eventually supplant it, a process the first translator into English of the translatability notes defined as characterising Gramsci’s "open Marxism" (Marzani, 1957).
		In Quebec, translation is an important symbol of the power struggle at work between two official languages of unequal stature in an officially bilingual country where English is the language of a vast majority while French is a minority language spoken by a majority of the population of Quebec.
	www.art.man.ac.uk /SML/ctis/events/Conference2000/ideology2.htm (2451 words)

	20th WCP: Davidson and Indeterminacy of Meaning
		I argue that IM leads to the nontrivial thesis of the indeterminacy of language ascription which is not captured by the mundane examples of indeterminacy of measurement that Davidson frequently cites.
		The indeterminacy is a consequence of the thesis of the underdetermination of theory by experience, as well as Quine' s behaviouristic view of language and his rejection of the analytic/synthetic distinction.
		The indeterminacy of translation implies that a sentence can be rendered true according to one acceptable system of interpretation and false according to a second, equally acceptable system of interpretation.
	www.bu.edu /wcp/Papers/Lang/LangBagh.htm (3478 words)

	Willard Van Orman Quine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Any hypothesis of translation could be defended only by appeal to context: to seeing what other sentences a native would utter.
		But the same indeterminacy will appear there: any hypothesis can be defended if one adopts enough compensatory hypotheses regarding other parts of language.
		The key point is that more than one translation meets these criteria, and hence that no unique meaning can be assigned to words and sentences.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Willard_Van_Orman_Quine (2080 words)

	Language Log: Incommensurability and indeterminacy
		The thesis is that divergent translation manuals can be set up between natural languages such that they all are compatible with empirical facts but nevertheless diverge radically from each other in what sentences they prescribe as translations of sentences in the foreign language.
		The thesis of indeterminacy of translation is not that it is hard to find out what foreign sentences mean, or that the evidence available to us, finite beings as we are, is always incomplete.
		From Quine's writings one gathers that the thesis of indeterminacy of translation is a protest against the uncritical appeal to meanings and analyticity that characterised the logical positivists.
	itre.cis.upenn.edu /~myl/languagelog/archives/001398.html (784 words)

	Translation and Intercultural Studies (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		As the references cited make explicit, all of this is held to relate to Quine's thesis of 'indeterminacy of translation', which has been widely discussed for the past twenty years.
		According to Quine, there is no fact of the matter in such cases as these, and therefore no sense to the construction of a theory of language and mind that tries to establish that the rules of grammar assign phrases in one or another way in mental representations.
		His "main point", he writes, is that "indeterminacy of translation is equivalent to indeterminacy of the transition from functional organization (in the sense of machine table, or whatever) to psychological description."
	isg.urv.es /library/papers/chomsky.htm (406 words)

	Indeterminacy of translation and the problem of explicating meaning
		For a translation to be correct in the ordinary sense, it has to obey a multitude of irrelevant constraints like conservation of phrase structure, frequency of use, emotional connotation, cumbersomeness of pronunciation etc., which are to be taken into account when the correctness of a translation is to be determined.
		His indeterminacy thesis is quite intricate, and it does not have the character of a logical or philosophical proposition, but is more like a rationalised description of the principles involved in actual translation and language learning.
		Since indeterminacy due to scope ambiguity is not what Quine has in mind and has never been taken as a serious threat against the notion of analyticity, it may be expedient to work with meanings that are defined so as to spare us qualms about that sort of ambiguity.
	www.nickbostrom.com /old/quine.html (12851 words)

	Radical Translation (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Further, in such a case, this translation is the one that should be used, not because it is the "correct" one, but because it reduces the cognitive gap between the aliens and ourselves and makes possible our thinking of the aliens as relatively like ourselves, thereby facilitating communication.
		The stipulation in the definition of "for a given speaker" is of course problematic for all situations of translation from a non-native language to one's native tongue.
		This, therefore, is the argument for Quine's theory of the indeterminacy of radical translation.
	www.ugcs.caltech.edu /~abszero/quine.html (2455 words)

	Willard Van Orman Quine - Encyclopedia, History, Geography and Biography (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		There are only questions of "better" and "worse." These too are not questions of "accuracy" as that would ordinarily be construed: theories of translation are better or worse as they more or less successfully predict future utterances, and translate according to a more or less simple scheme of rules.
		The central thesis underlying the indeterminacy of translation and other extensions of Quine's work is ontological relativity and the related theory of confirmation holism.
		The premise of confirmation holism is that all theories (and the propositions derived from them) of what exists are not sufficiently determined by empirical data (data, sensory-data, evidence); each theory with its interpretation of the evidence is equally justifiable.
	www.arikah.com /encyclopedia/W.V._Quine (1528 words)

	Quine on Indeterminacy of Translation
		Indeterminacy of reference: Gavagai could mean “temporal stage of a rabbit” rather than rabbit (or, if not enough opportunities for checking present themselves, it could even refer to a fly that often eats rabbit shit.
		Indeterminacy of translation: “the English sentences prescribed as translation of a given Jungle sentence by two rival manuals might not be interchangeable in English contexts.”
		Searle calls Quine’s argument for indeterminacy of translation a reductio of linguistic behaviourism, which was one of his assumptions.
	spruce.flint.umich.edu /~simoncu/225/quine.htm (737 words)

	Meaning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		W.V. Quine argued for the indeterminacy of translation; that is, that it is in principle not possible to be absolutely certain of the meaning that a speaker attaches to an utterance.
		All that can be done is to examine the utterance as a part of the overall behaviour of the individual, and to use these observations to interpret the meaning of any utterances.
		He proposed translating the sentences of a natural language such as English into first-order predicate calculus, and using the Truth-conditional semantics thus obtained as the definitive meaning of the utterance.
	www.wikipedia.org /wiki/Meaning (2587 words)

	Learn more about W. V. Quine in the online encyclopedia. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		But the same indeterminacy will appear there: any hypothesis one likes can be defended if one adopts enough conpensatory hypotheses regarding other parts of language.
		The central thesis underlying the indeterminacy of translation and other extensions of Quine's work is ontological relativity.
		The premise of ontological relativity is that all theories (and the propositions derived from them) of what exists is not sufficiently determined by empirical data (data, sensory-data, evidence); each theory with its interpretation of the evidence is equally justifiable.
	www.onlineencyclopedia.org /w/w_/w__v__quine.html (959 words)

	Mariano García-Landa : Let us talk about translation (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Translation theory, echoing the millenary experience of text translators and the daily experience of conference interpreters, says that translation has nothing to do with languages.
		In these schools, translation training is just linguistic teaching, you are given to translate a text in English or in French or in German or in whatever language and the teacher will correct your errors due to the fact that you do not know yet properly that particular language.
		As text translators we are original writers and as conference interpreters we are original speakers and, therefore, we are the owners of the copyright of the text or the speeches that we produce.
	www.garcialanda.com /translation.html (6226 words)

	quine: terms explained (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Indeterminacy of translation refers to the inability to ever fully translate the meaning of a word from one language to another.
		While the physical ostension that a native makes to an object when she says a word can be noted, it cannot be known for sure what she is speaking about without understanding the conceptual foundations that the language exists upon (see inscrutability of reference).
		Therefore, while translations can be inferred with a decent amount of accuracy, there is never a certainty that all meanings are understood in all contexts.
	www.rit.edu /~quine/indeterminacy_translation.html (379 words)

	Radical Translation
		But, even though this is what the linguist eventually does, the method ``does not in principle settle the indeterminacy between ``rabbit,' `undetached rabbit part'...'' and so on.
		Translate words from the cluster differently, and each of the proposed translations for ``gavagai'' emerges unscathed.
		This is indeterminacy of translation, and it ``cuts across extension and intension alike.
	www.hum.utah.edu /~phanna/classes/ling5981/autumn03/web/webnotes/quine/node15.html (537 words)

	20th WCP: Kripkenstein: Rule and Indeterminacy
		First, Wittgenstein and Kripke's indeterminacy applies to a single individual in isolation and this indeterminacy disappears when the single person is brought into a wider community.
		Second, in Quine's problem, two translation manuals are distinguishable; while Wittgenstein's hypotheses, such as 'plus' and 'quus' and many others, are indistinguishable for the subject's past and the subject would never aware of the distinctions.
		Goodman's hypothesis of 'grue' is quite different from the above two indeterminacy in terms of both objective of introducing the concept and the usage of it.
	www.bu.edu /wcp/Papers/Lang/LangLiu1.htm (4357 words)

	Globalization and the Limits of Translation
		First, we will explore the character of translation, not just between languages, but also among (1) modes of production: music, dance, written and oral discourse, (2) disciplines of knowledge, and (3) local practices.
		While modernity and coloniality, from the 16th to the 20th centuries, imposed homogenous languages, coherent nationalities, and strict disciplinary domains, the 21st century is already witnessing a strong move toward linguistic border crossing, and an emphasis on interdisciplinary pursuits.
		Translation, the geopolitics of knowledge and the coloniality of power.
	www.duke.edu /~wmr/globalization.htm (797 words)

	A n u k r i t i . N e t - Post Graduate Diploma in Translation Studies
		Divergentist translation theorists begin their project by doubting the possibility of a serious semantic analysis that can sustain convergentist models of the fundamentalist or foundationist type.
		While it is difficult to characterize this position as a model of translation, there is a sense in which such authors do make a case for a negotiate, diplomacy-like view of translation.
		In New mark, it becomes a distinction between communicative translation, a pragmatically oriented task of serving a particular audience and taking liberties with the SL text if necessary, and the narrower enterprise of semantic translation, with maximally high standards of semantic accountability.
	www.anukriti.net /pgdts/course411/ch4g.html (646 words)

	translation: Philosophy Forums
		I was thinking again about the Dada movement, as I usually do, and the thought of translation and original text came upon me and another thought of evolution of human speech.
		Think about the first speakable languages and how those words no longer even mean their "rough" translation of today.
		What you end up with is your own version of how you think their utterances should be translated, not exactly the same as they intend.
	forums.philosophyforums.com /comments.php?id=1781&page=last (681 words)

	Indeterminacy and Assertion
		This paper will appeal a recent argument for the indeterminacy of translation to show not that meaning is indeterminate, but rather that assertion cannot be explained in terms of an independent grasp of the concept of truth.
		Crucial to Massey's attempted proof of indeterminacy is, of course, the claim that the force of the speaker's utterances is up for grabs in just the same way that their meanings are.
		Quine is precisely right to assume that "force is determinate in a way that sentence-mapping translation is not." There are certain sorts of behavior which we can simply characterize as asserting, [25] and truth is understood (though perhaps not defined) in terms of that.
	www.yorku.ca /hjackman/papers/ind-and-ass.html (4778 words)

	Anthropology, Indeterminacy and Incommensurability (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		This is what leads Quine to stress that the translator imposes as much as he/she discovers; he/she imposes upon the native his/her ontology in order to assimilate the native's behaviour (verbal and non-verbal).
		According to Quine, the inscrutability of reference is the basis for the indeterminacy of translation.
		Interpretation (as well as translation) of other cultures, domains of discourse, etc., has to do with our ability to recognize similitudes in others, that is, to realise the importance of those patterns of behaviour common to all of us.
	www.hottopos.com /convenit6/jareno.htm (5190 words)

	Gavagai. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Ultimately Quine affirms the 'indeterminacy of translation' - we cannot provide certain radical translations (and since translation is, for Quine, much the same as understanding, we can never be sure we have correctly understood any linguistic utterance either).
		First, problems of translation and misunderstanding are not as exceptional as all that.
		One can liken Quine's attitude to translation to Hume's puzzlement over induction - it seems to work: indeed, without it we should be in grave difficulty, but why it works is an utter mystery.
	www.consciousentities.com /gavagai.htm (842 words)

	philosophy questions 18
		translators working to translate a tribe's language, we would be unable to come up with a single
		translator could never know whether he was right to translate 'gavagai' with any single english phrase
		Moreover, the indeterminacy must spread to pyschological states (beliefs desires, etc.) which are in
	www.philosophos.com /knowledge_base/archives_18/philosophy_questions_18122.html (302 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		This means that, after considering all evidence and criteria of translation, there still exists numerous and incompatible translation functions between any given pair of languages.
		We will see by the end of this section that the Indeterminacy of Radical Translation produces a kind of ripple effect which extends across the theoretical space of communication in general, thus having repercussions into interpretation within a single language and even within a single idiolect.
		Thus the philosophical stakes of the Indeterminacy of Translation are rather high.
	www.science.uva.nl /pub/theory/illc/researchreports/MoL-2000-05.abstract.txt (239 words)

	Quine on Indeterminacy of Translation
		Searle calls Quine’s argument for indeterminacy of translation a reductio of linguistic behaviourism, which was one of his assumptions. Searle’s argument:
		Reason why Davidson rejects total: translatability is a criterion of languagehood, so if something cannot be translated, it isn’t a language (and therefore a conceptual scheme).
		SUM: something is a language, and associated with a conceptual scheme, whether we can translate it or not, if it stands in a certain relation (predicting, organizing, facing, or fitting) to experience. Thus, the CHALLENGE is to say what the relation is and be clearer about the entities related.
	spruce.flint.umich.edu /~simoncu/325/quine.htm (1081 words)

	Synopsis of 'Identity and Predication' (pt. 1 of 2)
		Quine's notorious 'indeterminacy of translation' thesis states that 'manuals for translating one language into another can be set up in divergent ways, all compatible with the totality of speech dispositions, yet incompatible with one another' (WO, 27).
		The indeterminacy thesis was intended not only to characterize translation, but also (and more importantly) concepts of the theory of meaning (reference, denotation,extension, and the related notions of satisfaction and truth).
		The translator is not subject to the demands of semantic explanation.
	mind.ucsd.edu /syllabi/95-97/strawson-evans/ip1.html (2188 words)

	Ephilosopher :: General Philosophy Forum :: Gavagay (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		You assume that the translator knows nothing of the native language he is trying to determine.
		Since, for Quine, meaning and understanding were all essentially matters of translation, this supported his more general case against intentionality and meaning in any rigorous scientific or philosophical project.
		THe problem is that the translator in the story can't deduce exactly what the native means by 'gavagai'.
	www.ephilosopher.com /phpBB_14-action-viewtopic-topic-1156.html (669 words)

	Brown CS: Colloquium
		While a number bitexts are widely available, they do not begin to cover the broad range of topics or languages one might wish to be able to translate.
		Thus, statistical translation models would be far more useful if they could be trained without the need for bitexts.
		In fact, the statistical framework most commonly used in the work with bitexts, the "source-channel model" can be applied in principle to learning translation models without the use of bitexts.
	list.cs.brown.edu /events/talks/moore.robert.html (260 words)

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