ill be activated as problematic in the translation process, however one can say that equivalence-problem activation will take place at one or more of the described text-types of the DTM.this point two aspects should be clarified. First, the fact that equivalences are established at text-levels does not mean that they are isolated in and restricted to each of those levels. The text is to be understood as a complex, interwoven network of linguistic relations, and, for instance, the use of a lexical entry in a text does not simply affect the lexical level but may have semantic or pragmatic implications (denotations, connotations, special effects on receivers, etc.). Second, linguistic choices at the different text-levels are the product of a communicative event in which a SL-sender and a potential TL-receiver are involved; therefore conditions and determinants (participants 'competences and socio-psychological characterization, and context) have necessarily been taken into account for fulfilling a communicative purpose. Thus they are somehow' visible 'in the different language choices present in the SL-text. The translator is also embedded in this communicative process and when he translates, ie establishes equivalences, he does so by taking into account again not only the linguistic material of the SL-text, itself but also the conditions and determinants of the SL-text production and those of the TL-text reception. Our working hypothesis for analyzing (describing, classifying, explaining) translation equivalence is that it is a text-bound relation which is linguistically realized in texts and whose only tangible, empirically apprehensible form is the SL and TL texts. Therefore our point of departure and arrival is always a text. Obviously conditions and determinants of the translation communicative process should be taken into account as a resource to resort to when necessary but not as a perennial limbo of speculation which drives one away from the source language text or highlights excessively the role played by the translator.equivalence as envisaged in our DTM could have immediate impact on the work of the professional translator by helping him solve (= define, describe, analyze, explain) translation problems, on teaching translation as an inter-subjective activity where clear parameters can be established as to what may count as a translation, and on the field of translation criticism as it would allow to avoid simplistic, impressionistic (= biased) critiques of translations. In this respect we have already used our equivalence-related DTM for analyzing the translation of a literary text. This is a translation case, as are literary texts in general, where supposedly no textual equivalences could be actually established and, therefore, analyzed. Our initial premise is that no sound translation critique can be carried out if the whole text is not analyzed. The final judgment as to the translation quality as a whole should ...
