Enrichissement qualitatif d’ordre sémantique, stylistique, esthétique ou poétique du texte d’accueil par rapport au texte original qui n’a pas pour objectif d’enjoliver ce dernier ou de le métamorphoser mais qui vise à optimiser la valeur communicative et informative du texte pragmatique et la valeur esthétique et poétique d’une oeuvre littéraire tout en préservant les multiples lectures possibles. 

Quant aux notions de perte et de gain, elles découlent elles aussi directement de la conception linguistique de la traduction : l’ensemble de l’extension sémantique d’un mot ne pouvant se retrouver dans la traduction, celle-ci perdrait quelque chose de l’original tandis que la précision apportée au mot par le choix d’une de ses acceptions lui ferait au contraire gagner quelque chose.

1- Dans , gain est l’antonyme de perte et est défini comme une unité d’explicitation : «Nous dirons qu’il y a un gain lorsque la traduction explicite un élément de la situation que LD laisse dans l’ombre». 

2- Un gain n’est pas une faute de traduction contrairement à l’ajout.

Qualitative enrichment of semantic, stylistic, aesthetic or poetic nature of the target text, which does not aim to embellish or transform the source text, but rather to optimize the communicative and informative value of the pragmatic text and the aesthetic and poetic value of a literary work, while preserving multiple possible readings. 

Gain is interpreted from a functionalist point of view, in the sense that it occurs whenever it may be anticipated that the target text is received equally or more efficiently by its readers than the source text by its receptors, in other words, when the former functions in its context as well as or better than the latter. On the contrary, when chances are that the source text may function more efficiently than the target text, one may consider that loss has been recorded in the process of translation. 

1- In ,  gain is the antonym of loss (entropy) and is a phenomenon which occurs when there is explicitation.

2- In translation, gain depends on the relative expressional abilities of the translators. Translators are always in the situation where they are subjected to the pressure to negotiate the differences in meaning that languages entail. Translators need to analyze the relationship between a language and the social context in which it is used. Once translators manage to present a new terminology or concept which can give clarity of the message and surely enrich the target language, the target language will gain something. Gain enables us to the assumption that translators can sometimes produce target text which is far better from the source text by making it clearer and more legible to the readers, for instance, by making “unexpressed situational element expressed” (Vinay & Darbelnet, 2004). Gain will eventually enable the text to be self-sufficient.

In , Mossop suggests a procedure for “dealing with poorly written source texts by identifying the problem in the first place and then thinking of all the possible ways of solving it.”