Order Revisiting the tasks of the translator

(Abstract of the report at the International conference on “Translation and Transnational Processes” held at AUL on April 14-15. 2005)

Translation has always been associated with the development of economic, political, scientific and cultural relationships between communities where different languages are spoken. What has changed, however, is the growth and present scope of the translation industry. With the multiplication of global production and information networks, nations have become increasingly interdependent. The alliance between economy and communication has been made possible through the computer revolution. However, communication has taken precedence, thus becoming the grid through which the economic variables now determine the organization of the world system. As a result, translation factors prominently in the development of products and services, which are simultaneously targeting multilingual markets. There is an increasing demand for technical translation. At the same time, (he complex new realities of the global market have created new forms of translation such as internationalization and localization (of software, video-games, websites...). Globalization has also changed the ethno-linguistic component of many countries. Immigration has generated new interpretation needs, notably court and community interpreting (e.g. in administrative and medical environments]. With the exponential growth of documents to be translated, there is a renewed interest for automated translation, which some perceive as a way to bridge the international information and knowledge divide. The word "globalization" elicits a vision of a world dominated by English, it is admittedly the leading language of the world as it is the language of trade and international relations. English is also the source language of almost 50% of all translations recorded {Index Translationum). In-the New World Order, which operates as a market, languages and literatures do not compete on a level ground. Hence the paradoxical task of the translators, which is both to de-babelize and re-babelize the world.