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Chapter1
qualitywithdifferentlevelsofattainment.Thisviewoftranslationcom-
petenceas‘acognitivesetofknowledge’,howeverisstillnotkeptclear
fromothertermsandisindeedusedassynonymouswithabilityandskill.
Thequotebelowdemonstratesthiscircularityofthethreetermsdis-
cussed,translationability,skillandcompetence:
Weassumethattranslationcompetenceisnottobeunderstoodonlyas
arepertoire,butratherasarole-specificcompetence.Inthissense,
competenceincludesnotonlythemeans(repertoire)butalsothepur-
portedresult,thatis,competenceisdefinedastheappropriateuseof
specificabilitiesaccordingtosurroundingdemands(McClelland1973),
i.e.,asagoal-orientedbehaviour.InthedomainofTranslationCompe-
tenceitincludesandspecifiesthenotionofcompetenceasability
(Alves,etal.2001:47).
Asindicatedabove,suchterminologicalconfusionallowsforassumptions
thattheremightbearelationofequalitybetweencompetenceandbeing
abletotranslate,whicheverybodywhoknowstwolanguagescando.In-
deed,everybodywhohasaccesstotwolanguagesystemscantranslatebut
theendresultofthetranslationperformancewilldifferdependingwhether
thetranslatorisrelyingonlyonthenaturalabilityorusinghis/hercon-
sciouslydevelopedcompetenceorexpertise.Thisvariabilityintranslation
performance(Séguinot1997)visibleinthequalityoftranslatedtextsisfre-
quentlyunknowntothegeneralpublicwhichhasasimplifiedviewof
translationskill.ToquoteKorzeniowskaandKuhiwczak(1994:11),“It
seemsthattranslationistheskillmostcommonlyexpectedofsomebody
whospeaksaforeignlanguage.Itisgenerallyassumedthatbeingableto
communicateinaforeignlanguagecorrespondstotheabilitytotranslate
fromonelanguageintoanother.Inmanyrespects,thisconvictionresem-
blesthewidespreadopinionaccordingtowhicheveryChinesepersonisan
excellentcook”.Tosafeguardthiskindofmisunderstanding,itisimportant
toviewthethreefrequentlyusedtermsasanevolutionarycontinuum:
PREDISPOSITIONĺABILITYĺSKILLĺCOMPETENCEĺEXPERTISE
Thisevolutionaryperspectivemakesitpossibletoacceptthatallpeople
whoknowtwolanguagesareabletotranslatebuttheirperformancewilldif-
ferdependingonthestagetheyareatonthedevelopmentalcontinuum
demonstratedabove.Consequently,thegenericterm‘translator’hastobe