Radical translation
Encyclopedia
Radical translation is a term invented by American philosopher W. V. O. Quine to describe the situation in which a linguist is attempting to translate a completely unknown language, which is unrelated to his own, and is therefore forced to rely solely on the observed behavior of its speakers in relation to their environment. This is primarily meant to be a thought experiment
, for, as Quine puts it, "radical translation is a near miracle, and it is not going to be done twice in the same language."
Quine tells a story (Quine 1960) to illustrate his point, in which
an explorer is trying to puzzle out the meaning of the word "gavagai".
He observes that the word is used in the presence of rabbits, but
is unable to determine whether it means ‘undetached rabbit part’, or ‘fusion of all rabbits’, or 'temporal stage of a rabbit’, or 'the universal ‘rabbithood’
The subject is dealt with in more detail under Indeterminacy of translation
.
Thought experiment
A thought experiment or Gedankenexperiment considers some hypothesis, theory, or principle for the purpose of thinking through its consequences...
, for, as Quine puts it, "radical translation is a near miracle, and it is not going to be done twice in the same language."
Quine tells a story (Quine 1960) to illustrate his point, in which
an explorer is trying to puzzle out the meaning of the word "gavagai".
He observes that the word is used in the presence of rabbits, but
is unable to determine whether it means ‘undetached rabbit part’, or ‘fusion of all rabbits’, or 'temporal stage of a rabbit’, or 'the universal ‘rabbithood’
The subject is dealt with in more detail under Indeterminacy of translation
Indeterminacy of translation
The indeterminacy of translation is a thesis propounded by 20th century analytic philosopher W. V. Quine. The classic statement of this thesis can be found in his 1960 book Word and Object, which gathered together and refined much of Quine's previous work on subjects other than formal logic and set...
.
See also
- Indeterminacy of translationIndeterminacy of translationThe indeterminacy of translation is a thesis propounded by 20th century analytic philosopher W. V. Quine. The classic statement of this thesis can be found in his 1960 book Word and Object, which gathered together and refined much of Quine's previous work on subjects other than formal logic and set...
- Meaning (linguistics)Meaning (linguistics)In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same...
- Philosophy of languagePhilosophy of languagePhilosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
- Radical interpretationRadical interpretationRadical interpretation is interpretation of a speaker, including attributing beliefs and desires to them and meanings to their words, from scratch—that is, without relying on translators, dictionaries, or specific prior knowledge of their mental states. The term was introduced by American...
- W. V. O. Quine