'Translation Studies' is an ambiguous concept. It contains at the same
time the idea of translation theory, translation production and that of
translation product. As production, if we consider texts as evidence of a
communicative transaction taking place within a social framework, the way
is open to a view of translating which is not restricted to a particular field.
We could mention literary translation, technical translation or include such
diverse activities as film subtitling and dubbing, simultaneous interpreting,
abstracting and summarising, translating and adapting for children,
advertising or cartoon translation to name but a few. As a product the actual
translations, the regularities and irregularities they evince, the teaching of
translation and the practice of translation criticism are areas that can easily be
included in this general perspective, even though they are quite different
