ABSTRACT
This chapter explains why the concrete study of translations and translational behaviour in particular socio-cultural contexts has often remained isolated from current theoretical research, and why there is still, on the whole, a wide gap between the theoretical and the descriptive approach. As every translation is the result of particular relations between the parameters mentioned in the scheme, it will be the scholar's task to establish which relations are the most important ones. The scheme is a theoretical and hypothetical one: it shows which relations can play a part in the production and shaping of actual translations, and which ones may be observed in translation description. While describing particular translated texts in some detail, we can point the way to large-scale macro-structural research, or formulate hypotheses to guide such research. By focusing on norms and models the most individual translational phenomenon can be described both as individual and as collective.
