ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of speech acts in translation. After illustrating the importance of contextual meaning, the main contributions to speech act theory are reviewed, focusing on what is crucial in a translational perspective. Awareness of how utterances can be used to carry out different social actions, of the roles of interactants, and of the differences between the speaker’s meaning and utterance meaning is shown to be necessary before translating texts. Examples are drawn from the translation of written texts, dubbing and subtitling, with cursory references to interpreting.
