Translation as a communicative unit in language

The status of translation and the translator have changed from onehistorical era to the next, and at the beginning of the 21st century weare confronting the need for a complex understanding of both of them.At the core of this complex understanding is the universality oftranslation. The universality of translation comes from its connectionswith thought processes. As Juri Lotman affirms, “the elementary actof thinking is translation” (Lotman 2000: 143). And he proceeds toemphasise that “the elementary mechanism of translating is dialogue

The status of translation and the translator have changed from onehistorical era to the next, and at the beginning of the 21st century weare confronting the need for a complex understanding of both of them.At the core of this complex understanding is the universality oftranslation. The universality of translation comes from its connectionswith thought processes. As Juri Lotman affirms, “the elementary actof thinking is translation” (Lotman 2000: 143). And he proceeds toemphasise that “the elementary mechanism of translating is dialogue

The need for dialogue can be viewed either at the level ofcomprehensive theoretical understanding or at the level of the deep-seated mechanism of individual behaviour. In the theory of communi-cation, the need for dialogue is tied in a complementary way both tothe needs of an audience, which can be studied in the theory of masscommunication (McQuail 2000), and to various personal needs (self-understanding, enjoyment, escapism) and social needs (knowledge aboutthe world, self-confidence, stability, self-esteem, the strengthening ofconnections with family and friends) (Fiske 2000: 20). Any form ofidentity also depends on the need for dialogue. At the core of personal,national, or social identity is the recognition of the boundary betweenself and other. The boundary not only divides but also unites and thusparticipates in dialogic processes. To a large extent dialogue withinthe boundaries depends on dialogue at the boundaries