To summarize, the ideal role of the translator calls for a person who has complete knowledge of both source and receptor languages, intimate acquaintance with the subject matter, effective empathy with the original author and the content, and stylistic facility in the receptor language. However, such an ideal set of abilities is rarely found, and therefore the essential elements in the role of the translator must often be distributed among several persons in various ways. Particularly must such a division of labor be made in situations in which a translator is attempting to reproduce a message in a source language with which he is not fully acquainted, or over which he has not complete linguistic control. In such circumstances the translator's function may be characterized in one of three principal ways : (1) as pioneer、 (2) as midwife, and (3) as teammate.

When functioning as a "pioneer," the translator hammers out the basic form of a translation, largely without the help of others, even though he may have less than complete mastery of the lexical and syntactic resources of the language. He then reads this type of translation to various persons, and on the basis of their responses proceeds to change the selection of words, modify the word order, and in various ways polish up his work. This "pioneer" role is characteristic of missionaries who have gone into areas where there is as yet no written language or literary tradition. In order to translate a text into such a language, the missionary has to take the full responsibility for both preliminary drafts and the task of polishing. In such a situation he succeeds in his task when he knows the indigenous language well and is sensitive to native-speaker criticism, itself frequently not easy to interpret.

The "midwife" role is of quite a different type. In these circumstances the so-called translator serves primarily as a specialist in exegetical and linguistic matters, and native speakers of the language themselves do the actual translating. In many instances of Bible translating, for example, the missionary restricts himself primarily to the tasks of:(1) explaining carefully what the text means; (2) indicating something of the type of communication involved, e.g. conversation, exposition, or narrative; (3) writing down what his helpers suggest as appropriate ways of rendering such passages; and (4) bringing to the attention of his helpers certain obvious semantic and grammatical problems. In this process, the translator is a kind of resource person who, though he may suggest possible ways of rendering the message in the receptor language, relies almost entirely upon his informants for the actual form of the translation. He may do a great deal to prune the message, eliminate obviously extraneous elements, correct evident errors, and even polish the form, but the informants supply the actual forms of expression. In the final analysis they pass judgment on all basic problems of word selection, intelligibility, and style. In such circumstances the missionary translator functions as a kind of technical assistant.

In the "teammate" role, the translator may share more or less equally with others the responsibility for the form of the message in the receptor language. For example, one person may interpret the meaning of the source-language message, another may suggest the equivalent rendering in the receptor language, and a third may be responsible for style. A number of translation committees are set up in this way : one may be an expert on text, another on exegesis, a third on indigenous religious beliefs a fourth on lexical and grammatical structures in the receptor language, and a fifth on style. However the total responsibility is divided, the resulting procedures are essentially the same, namely, a division of responsibility for various aspects of the total work. At the same time, however, some committees are formed, not on the basis of complementary responsibilities, but with cach person theoretically as proficient as any other in all aspects of the work. Such circumstances, though seeming to be ideal, are in practice not only unworkable, but actually undesirable; for it is much better for members of a committee to have related and complementary qualifications recognized by all, rather than for each to be presumably equally expert in all fields. Where there is truly a team, the teammates can be expected to help one another; where too many wish to bè prima donnas, certain persons tend to cancel out the others. The "translator-reviser" system so widely used in most of the linguistic services of international organizations is an apt example of teammate role in translation.

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