The Place and Role of Translation in English Language Studies

Abstract

The world status of English and its leading role in the international translation system are interrelated socio-cultural phenomena that characterize the era of globalization, and are reflected in the rapid growth of translation studies as an interdisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and practice. The last two decades in particular have witnessed a steady rise in the number of undergraduate and graduate translation programmes worldwide together with the publication of dedicated journals, general overviews, reference works, anthologies, textbooks, and bibliographies. As we approach the fifth decade since the foundation of translation studies, it is important to reflect on the state of the art of the academic study of English language and translation. This is a broad research area that is attracting scholars in fields as varied as literary theory, cultural studies, linguistics, pragmatics, history, critical discourse analysis, philosophy, politics, journalism, multilingualism, educational linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and film studies. Against this backdrop, the present paper surveys five key research domains that are linked together by a running theme that is germane to both translation and English language studies, namely the place and role of translation in our globalized world.