A Teoria Interpretativa da Tradução (Théorie du Sens) revisitada: um novo olhar sobre a desverbalização

Abstract

The Interpretive Theory of Translation, also known as Theory of Sense (Théorie du Sens), appeared in the 1960’s from the thinking of Danica Seleskovitch as an interpreter, teacher, and researcher. Seleskovitch is soon joined by Marianne Lederer. It reaches its heyday in the 1980’s, but in the 1990’s begins to be questioned by empiricist theoreticians, who defend the use of research methods borrowed from the so-called “hard sciences” for interpreting and translation studies, an approach always rejected by both Seleskovitch and Lederer.

Interesting enough, after Seleskovitch’s death ten years ago in 2001, the theory begins to be reexamined by several researchers in interpretation and translation, who begin to establish an interface between the théorie du sens and several other approaches to the study of translation and interpretation. They show that the concept of deverbalization, which is at the core of the interpretive theory of translation, is still very much alive and underlies many other translation and language theories, even when not specifically mentioned. This article intends to discuss these new looks at the concept of deverbalization, showing how alive and up-to-date this concept is in today’s translation and interpreting studies.