Natural Lexical Equivalence in Translation: A Semiotic Approach

Abstract

This study has analyzed the process of finding the closest/most natural lexical equivalence in terms of a semiotic approach. Having been analyzed some possible types of equivalence, It has been argued that what is compared is not the linguistic signs but the images made by the words. In this respect the translator starts a play, in trail and error method, to find the closest image or picture of the linguistic form in Target Language (TL) for Source Language(SL) word or linguistic sign. Since the image is abstract the translator is imposed to finish the play in words as he had started with them.