Unit of Translation
(or Translation Unit)
A term used to refer
to the linguistic level at which ST is recodified in TL.
“the smallest unit of SL which has an
equivalent in TL”
(Barkhudarov)
…unit of translation can itself
“have a complex structure”, although “its parts taken individually are
‘untranslatable’
, in that no equivalents can be established for them in
TT”
Barkhudarov (1969) argues that the entire text can sometimes serve
as the unit of translation, although in practice limits this to the case of
poetry;
In a similar way Koller (1979/1992) restricts this possibility
to poetry and advertising.