The Information Theory of Translation

abstract:New ideas and theories continue to emerge in the fast-changing field of translation studies. This article attempts to conceptualize translation beyond the linguistic confinement. It begins by reviewing the mainstream translation conceptualizations. It adopts information as the fundamental concept underlying translation and reveals concepts like source and target text, meaning transfer, and language to be more of special cases of the information-based concept of translation; translation is, as a result, expanded to include not only human actions of creation and behaviors, but also actions of other life forms, inanimate or artificial substances that are capable of meaning-making. The article thus proposes the information theory of translation (ITT). It defines translation as a meaning-making process of an agent within its specific informational boundary and time limit to achieve goals. Finally, key problems in translation studies are discussed.