On Text Being The Translating Unit

Though translation studies have not reached the slate of perfection, researchers have made the studies develop dramatically through unremitting efforts. The studies of today no longer regard translation as a static terminal product, namely the target text, but a dynamic communicative process, which is inter-cultural. And the research mode is not confined to the comparison of words or sentences as it used to, but has been expanded to the text level to uncover the translation regular patterns. This mode is called modern text translation research mode and text being the translating unit belongs to its research scope. With text being the unit, the original text can be analyzed comprehensively, including its semantic, pragmatic and functional aspects. On the basis of that, the restructuring of the target text can be operated correspondingly and properly, which is by no means the equivalent word-for-word or sentence-for-sentence translation on the level of word or sentence. This thesis presents a tentative study to expound that translating unit is the text from the perspective of text through the two main processes of translating,namelyunderstanding and transferring. The study method is from dynamic text angle, ie regarding translating as a inter-cultural communication which is accomplished through text. And the expounding of the gist is based on plenty of both English and Chinese examples. There are altogether five parts in this thesis:Chapter one is a brief survey of the studies on translating unit at home and abroad. By comparing and analyzing those different views, the gist of this thesis is presented, i.e. translating unit is the text.In chapter two, the concept of text is explained fully by pulling il in Ihe relationship between context and language from the angle of systemic-functional linguistics. And the scope and levels of text are also defined in this part.The third and the fourlh chapter are the two main parts of this thesis. In these two chapters, the importance of text in understanding and analy/.ing the original text and in restructuring the target text is slated thoroughly and respectively. And in chapter four, thought patterns from the West and Ihe Easl are compared and concluded.The last part is a conclusion of this thesis. The scicntificity and practicality of text being the translating unit is restated. Wilh lexl being the translating unit, either translation practice and translation studies can be operated objectively and comprehensively.