The Unit of Translation from the Sociological Viewpoint

Translation has always been considered a type of action. In different periods, translation theorists and practitioners variously described the nature of this action. In earlier theories, the emphasis was on the linguistic properties of translation because translation was predominantly understood as a linguistic type of mediation between the interacting languages. Later, cultural and social aspects of this action were factored in.

Describing translation as action is closely related to the notion of the unit. Indeed, an action can be defined by the minimal set of elements that interact in such a way as to give the action its unique nature. However, identifying the unit of an action may prove controversial because singling out the smallest unit of an action is far from easy. This is because drawing the boundary between what constitutes an action and what is extraneous to it depends on the point of view.