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Establishingcommongrounds
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nologicalconfusionwheretermsliketranslationability,translationskill,
translationcompetenceortranslationexpertiseareusedalmostinter-
changeablyasmeaningthesame.Distinguishingbetweentheminthis
workisimportant.
1.5.Translationasapredisposition,ability,skill,competenceandexpertise
AsobservedbyCarroll(1993:3),“[a]lthoughthetermabilityisincom-
monusagebothineverydaytalkandinscientificdiscussionsamongpsy-
chologists,educators,andotherspecialists,itsprecisedefinitionisseldom
explicatedorevenconsidered.Itisawordthatseemstobeacceptedasa
sortofconceptualprimitive,andinfactitisintimatelyrelatedtosuch
commonlyusedwordsasableandthesimplemodalauxiliarycan(Carroll
1993:3).Whatismore,asnotedbyCarrolldictionariesseemtobeoflittle
helpinprovidingexactdefinitionofthetermandfrequentlyarecircularin
theexplanationstheygive.TheAmericanHeritageDictionary,forexample
definesability,“asaqualityofbeingabletodosomething;physical,men-
tal,financial,orlegalpowertoperform”(ł)butableisdefinedas“having
sufficientability”.Furthermore,somedictionarydefinitionsof“able”
thoughbringconfusionespeciallywhentheygivesynonymssuchas:skill,
faculty,talent,capacity,cleverness,efficiency,aptnessorcompetence
1.In
dictionariesofPsychology,especiallythemoremodernones,thetermabil-
itydoesnotoccurasanentryalthoughitisfrequentlyusedinnumerous
contexts(EncyclopedicDictionaryofPsychologybyHarréandLamb
1983).Inolderdictionaries,thetermisusuallydefinedas“actualpowerto
performanact,physicalormental,whetherornotattainedbytrainingand
education”(EnglishandEnglish1958).Carrollsuggeststhatthemostlogi-
callyandsemanticallyjustifiedviewofabilityisthatof“potential”(Carroll
1993:4)opentoindividualvariation.
Itseemsthattheterminologicalconfusionbetweenability,skillandcom-
petenceisalsopresentintheliteratureontranslation,andalthoughthisprob-
lemwillreoccurinfurtherdiscussions,itisimportanttogiveitsomeatten-
tionbeforethemajorargumentdevelops.Letusanalyzethefollowingquote:
Harris(1977)andHarrisandSherwood(1978)proposedtheconceptof
naturaltranslation,whichissaidtobeanabilityofbilinguals,thatis,it
isaderivativeofbilingualismandappearsasbilingualismdevelops.
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1http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ability