In French , it means [mark=#FFFF99]‘traduction’ as a noun[/mark] and ‘a [mark=#FFFF99]traduire’ as a verb[/mark]
In Arabic, it means: [mark=#FFFF99]الترجمة من لغة إلى أخرى[/mark]
one looks at it as an ‘art’ especially when the scholars of last century were preoccupied with the translation of literary text as [mark=#FFFF99]a pastime [/mark]
and another looks at it as a ‘profession’ where the majority of translators [mark=#FFFF99]are professionals[/mark] engaged in making a living rather than a pastime. This is mainly clear in the translation of [mark=#FFFF99]technical, medical, legal and administrative texts. [/mark]
“Translation is the [mark=#FFFF99]replacement[/mark] of a representation of a [mark=#FFFF99]text[/mark] in [mark=#FFFF99]one language [/mark]by a representation of an [mark=#FFFF99]equivalent text in a second language.” [/mark]
Using the Six Wh-Questions in looking for Equivalence in translating a text.
1. What ? Is the message contained in the text, the content of the signal, the propositional content of the speech [mark=#FFFF99]acts.[/mark]
2. Why? Orients us towards the intentions of the [mark=#FFFF99]sender,[/mark] the purpose for which the text was issued.
3. When? Is concerned with the[mark=#FFFF99] time[/mark] of communication realised in the text and setting it in its historical context; contemporary or set in recent or remote past or future.
4. How? Is ambiguous as it can refer to:
a): [mark=#FFFF99]manner of delivery[/mark]: the tenor of the discourse; is it serious or ironic?
b)-[mark=#FFFF99] medium of communication[/mark]; the mode of the discourse : is it oral or written?
5. Where? Is concerned with the [mark=#FFFF99]place[/mark] of the
communication; the physical location of speech event realised in the text.
6. Who? Refers to the [mark=#FFFF99]participants involved [/mark]in the
communication; the [mark=#FFFF99]sender and receiver[/mark](s). Both spoken and written reveal the characteristics of the speaker or writer as an individual.
That the Translation should give a [mark=#FFFF99]complete transcript[/mark] of the ideas of the [mark=#FFFF99]original work.[/mark]
That the style and manner of writing should be of the [mark=#FFFF99]same character with that of the original.[/mark]
That the Translation should have all the[mark=#FFFF99] ease of the original composition.[/mark]