Literal meaning in translation

Abstract This article presents a new perspective on the literal versus free translation debate in Translation Studies; central to this still influential debate is the notion of objectively definable literal utterance meanings. A critique of this notion is given in the light of findings from the study of metaphors and other speech figures. It is investigated how concepts relate to words and how language relates to thought. Finally, a tentative model of the translation process, excluding the notion of literal meanings, is set up on the basis of Reddy's and Lakoff's investigations concerning metaphors.