ABSTRACT
An obvious place to begin a translation course is to examine translation as a process -what it is that the translator actually does. To do this, we must note at the outset a few basic terms that will be used throughout the course:
Text Any given stretch of speech or writing assumed to make a coherent whole. A minimal text may consist of a single word - for instance, the road sign ......U 'stop' -provided this is construed as an independent message. A maximal text may run into thousands of pages. An example of a maximal text in Arabic would be the many volumes of J_......;J I t;-=Jl_:j '-:-'1 • < <.!1_,..1.11_, by the classical Islamic writer <.>~I ~~ ~ J • o ., sometimes referred to in English as Tabari'sAnnals.
