Recent Developments in Translation Studies as Seen from Three Representative Books Published in the 1990’s Dan SHEN
Abstract: In the field of translation studies, despite the existence of multiple approaches, two trends of development seem to have been dominating in recent years: one based on linguistics in the wide sense; the other marked by a historical-descriptive orientation. While the two trends of development are contrastive with each other, they share one thing in common, namely, both being essentially empirical, forming a contrast to translation studies with a somewhat ‘purely’ theoretical orientation. The present paper offers a discussion of some recent developments in the field by way of reviewing three representative books published in the 1990’s. Through the present review, we may get a glimpse not only of the characteristics of the two major trends of development, but also of certain features of the theoretical versus the empirical orientation. Key words: translation studies, developments, representative books
