Tahar Moulay University – Saida -
Faculty of Letters, Arts and Languages
Department of English
Module: Translation
Having discussed methods of translation, it is high time now to introduce the process of
translation: “how translators proceed in translation”
The process of translation:
The process of translation (or translating) describes how we proceed at translating
something in practice, when we put pen to paper to start translating. It is the organized stages
of translating in application. At translating a sentence or a longer text for example, do we
proceed a word by word? a phrase by phrase? a clause by clause? a sentence by sentence? Or
a text by text? In fact we do not proceed this way, we proceed a unit by unit. Each unit is
called “a unit of translation”
The unit of translation:
A unit of translation is any word, or a group of words that can give either a small
or a large part of the meaning of sentence. Therefore, it is a unit( or a part) of meaning
which can be taken together and understood independently. This means that it can be one
word (like: thus, yet, therefore, actually...and other adverbials at the beginning of the
sentence) a phrase (e.g. collocations like: pass a law ( ), brain drain (
),ect; and idioms such as: tall order ( ), a clause (e.g. “1” she did not come to work
yesterday “2” because she was sick ) ( ) : two clauses, two
units. A sentence e.g. the man who paid me a visit last week when I was a way, was an
old friend of mine ( ) this example is
regarded as one unit because the main clause ( i.e. the man was an old friend of mine ) is
devided into two parts: one at the beginning of the sentence ( i.e. the man ) and another at the
end of it ( i.e. was an old friend of mine ). Thus, the main verb of the sentence ( i.e. was)
occurs towards the end of the sentence, away from its subject (i.e. man). In Arabic, we start
the sentence with this verb (i.e. ) which means that we have to read the whole English
sentence before starting translating.
( H. Ghazala.2008).
