The term ‘medium restricted partial theories’ refers to those concerning machinetranslation and

human translation, oral translation and written translation. ‘Arearestricted’ means the linguistic or
cultural area. ‘Rank’ is understood to mean theword, sentence or text. ‘Text type’ refers to literary,
theological, scientific, and soforth. ‘Time’ refers to the translation of contemporary texts or the
translation ofancient texts. And, finally, the term ‘partial theories that are restricted to
specificproblems’ is understood as referring to problems such as metaphors, cultural refer-ences,
and so forth.

Medium-restricted theories are subdivided into theories of translation as performed by

humans (human translation), as performed by computers (machine translation), and as
performed by both in conjunction (mixed translation). Human translation breaks down into
oral translation or interpretation (with the further distinction between consecutive and
simultaneous) and written translation (Venuti, 2004).

Area-restricted theories are of two closely related types; restricted as to the languages
involved or to the cultures involved. In both language restriction and culture restriction, the
degree of actual limitation may vary. Theories are feasible for translation between Persian
and Arabic (language-pair restricted), translation within Semitic languages (language-group
restricted) or from Slavic to Germanic languages (language-group pair restricted). Similarly,
theories are developed for translation within Swiss culture (one-culture restricted), translation
between Swiss and Belgian cultures (cultural-pair restricted), translation within Eastern
Europe (cultural-group restricted) or between languages reflecting a pre-technological culture
and the languages of contemporary Western culture (cultural-group pair restricted) (Venuti,
2004).

Third, there are rank-restricted theories, dealing with discourses or texts as wholes, but
concern themselves with lower linguistic ranks or levels (Venuti, 2004). The term ‘rank’, in
this context, refers to various linguistic levels such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses,
sentences, and paragraphs. This concept is highly observable in the theory of translation shift
discussed by John Catford in 1965.

“Fourth, there are text-type (or discourse-type) restricted theories, dealing with the problem
of translating specific types or genres of lingual messages” (Venuti, 2004, p. 180). The notion
of text-type corresponds to the concept of ‘genre’ in literature. The text typologies rendered
by Katharina Reiss in 1970s and Peter Newmark in 1980s are instances of such theories.

Fifth, there are time-restricted theories, falling into two types: theories regarding the
translation of contemporary texts, and theories regarding the translation of texts from an older
period (Venuti, 2004). English language, for instance, comprises three periods: old English,
middle English, and modern English. Each of these periods has its own history of translation.
Each period can be selected and the history and literature of translation at that time can be
examined.

Finally, there are problem-restricted theories, confining themselves to one or some specific
problems within translation studies, problems which can range from such basic questions as
the limits of variance and invariance in translation or the nature of translation equivalence, to
such more specific issues as the translation of proverbs and idioms (Venuti, 2004).