Neither Morpheme nor Transleme … Revisiting the Unit of Translation, Semiotically

Abstract

Against the background of the disparities and disagreements across the spectrum of theory and practice about the unit of translation (UT), the purpose of this paper is to postulate that a semiotically -defined UT can fulfil the need of a concrete, viable and stable UT. Labelled textlet, the proposed UT is based on the semiotic triad of the sign, its meaning and its user. As a semiotic sign, textlet represents a particular meaning on the basis of similarity or dissimilarity to other textlets within the text. A textlet is a functional unit with an oppositional value defined by the communicative differences this opposition is capable of producing within texts.