Recent research in Translation Studies states that in this age of globalization, migration and translation are deeply connected in which participants translate between languages, cultures, habits, and thoughts. And yet, we still witness an aggressive push away from a language studies approach in translation claiming that it is too prescriptive in its theory. This presentation will revisit the discussion about the impact of the so-called “language proper” on the ‘cultural turn’. Specifically, it raises concerns about the convenient misunderstanding between the concepts of ‘language’ and ‘linguistics’ in the history of Translation Studies. How do we define language outside of linguistics?