De vertaler als schrijver

Abstract

The translator as a writer: Text production competence as a component of translation competence Most translation scholars and practitioners believe that translators should be able to write. What this writing competence for translators entails and how it differs from the competence of writers remains undiscussed. In this article we compare the relevant literature from translation studies and writing research. Translation competence models do not mention writing competence but refer (implicitly) to text-productive competence. This term emphasizes that the text-production that takes place during the translation process may be more or less source text-oriented and therefore may resemble to a greater or lesser extent other forms of text production. The translator’s text-productive competence seems to be restricted to communicative competence in the target language, building on declarative but predominantly procedural lexical, grammatical, pragmatic and textual knowledge. This communicative competence in the TL cannot be viewed in isolation of the ability to control interference from the source text and source language. The translator’s text-productive competence also appears to build on strategic knowledge. A comparison between the competences of writers and of translators shows that they indeed share many identical knowledge types, skills, abilities and attitudes. Although a number of writing subcompetences bear great resemblance with translation subcompetences, closer examination reveals divergence in their scope, their purpose and organisation.