In his article 'On Linguistic Aspects of Translation', Roman Jakobson distinguishes three types of translation:

(1) Intralingual translation, or rewording (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same language).

(2) Interlingual translation or translation proper (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language).

(3) Intersemiotic translation or transmutation (an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems).

Having established these three types, of which (2) translation proper describes the process of transfer from SL to TL, Jakobson goes on immediately to point to the central problem in all types: that while messages may serve as adequate interpretations of code units or messages, there is ordinarily no full equivalence through translation. Even apparent synonymy does not yield equivalence, and Jakobson shows how intralingual translation often has to resort to a combination of code units in order to fully interpret the meaning of a single unit. Hence a dictionary of so-called synonyms may give perfect as a synonym for ideal or vehicle as a synonym for conveyance but in neither case can there be said to be complete equivalence, since each unit contains within itself a set of non-transferable associations and connotations.

Because complete equivalence (in the sense of synonymy or sameness) cannot take place in any of his categories, Jakobson declares that all poetic art is therefore technically untranslatable:

Only creative transposition is possible: either intralingual transposition—from one poetic shape into another, or intralingual transposition—from one language into another, or finally intersemiotic transposition—from one system of signs into another, e.g. from verbal art into music, dance, cinema or painting.

What Jakobson is saying here is taken up again by Georges Mounin, the French theorist, who perceives translation as a series of operations of which the starting point and the end product are significations and function within a given culture. So, for example, the English word pastry, if translated into Italian without regard for its signification, will not be able to perform its function of meaning within a sentence, even though there may be a dictionary 'equivalent'; for pasta has a completely different associative field. In this case the translator has to resort to a combination of units in order to find an approximate equivalent. Jakobson gives the example of the Russian word syr (a food made of fermented pressed curds) which translates roughly into English as cottage cheese. In this case, Jakobson claims, the translation is only an adequate interpretation of an alien code unit and equivalence is impossible.

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