Is a Translation Still the Same Sentence?

Once a sentence is translated into another language, it is no longer literally the same sentence: its words, sounds and grammatical structure have changed. Yet we still say that the translation expresses the same meaning. Here, sameness is not complete identity like that of a single object. It means that relevant relations have been preserved, perhaps truth conditions, reference, tone, or the utterance’s role in a particular conversation.

Imagine someone near the end of a meeting saying, “It’s getting late.” Both “时间不早了” and “已经很晚了” may be accurate Chinese translations. If the speaker is indirectly suggesting that the meeting should finish, “我们是不是该结束了” may preserve the conversational function even better, despite lacking word-for-word correspondence. Conversely, replacing each word mechanically might retain surface structure while losing the speech act actually performed. Translation therefore reconstructs a relationship under several constraints rather than carrying a fixed object between two vocabularies.

In Word and Object, Quine’s thought experiment of radical translation makes a stronger claim: when confronting a wholly unfamiliar language, several incompatible translation manuals might fit all available behavioural and environmental evidence equally well. This is the indeterminacy of translation. It does not mean that every translation is acceptable, or that understanding is impossible. It challenges the idea that all evidence must select one uniquely correct translation. Later philosophers have disputed how deep this indeterminacy runs. Some argue that context, a shared world and interpretation of the whole language add substantial constraints; others maintain that interpretation can never become absolutely unique.

My judgement is that a translation is neither a copy of the original sentence nor an arbitrary new work. To call them “the same”, we must ask: the same in which respect? Legal language prioritises boundaries of responsibility; poetry must also carry rhythm and association; everyday conversation often asks whether the same communicative task has been achieved. Good translation does not erase difference. When everything cannot be preserved, it makes a disciplined choice about which differences must not be lost.

https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/quine/#IndTra
https://iep.utm.edu/indeterm/