Lexico-Semantic Translation: Yorubaphone, Francophone and Anglophone Perspectives

Abstract

The ability to translate is not always derived from the understanding of the meaning of the word but the 
ability to find a corresponding equivalence in the target language. Most researches in translation studies 
have focused on the linguistic meaning and the problems arising from such translations. It is against this 
background that this paper seeks to investigate some difficulties encountered in the process of 
translating lexical and semantic phenomena within Yorubaphone, Francophone and Anglophone space. 
Drawing on the linguistic approach to translation, which foregrounds the centrality of lexical and 
semantic relationship in translation, this study discusses some difficulties in finding lexical and semantic 
correspondence while translating from Source Text to Target Text. Data were randomly sampled and the 
paper adopts a qualitative method for data analysis. Data were critically analysed using the dynamic 
equivalence translation theory which proposes the closest natural equivalence of a source text in the 
target text. The study concludes that a translator mostly recourses to direct translation such as literal 
translation, borrowing or calque or he may resort to oblique (indirect) translation which consists of 
modulation, adaptation, transposition and equivalence in order to convey appropriate message in 
translation.