Abstract
This paper investigates the linguistic issues involved in the translation of post-colonial text and the role played by the translator in the transfer of equivalence from source text into the target text. The study is restricted to investigating some key linguistic elements in the French-English translation in Soyinka’s (1963) The Lion and the Jewel translated into French by Philippe Laburthe-Tolra as: Le Lion et la Perle. Data for the study are randomly selected on the basis of their linguistic relevance in the text. Despite all that research has shown and documented on Soyinka’s works over the past decades, there is still a lack of sufficient studies that analyze language and translation in his work, thus, creating a condition for further research on his fictional text. The study concludes that translators of post-colonial African literary texts, particularly, The Lion and the Jewel, should be well acquainted with the culture and language of the original text in order to guide against translation loss.
Keywords: Language, Translation, Equivalence, Fiction, Text.
DOI: 10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i01.040
author/Oladimeji, O. A., &Moruwawon, B. S.
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 2(1) | June 2026 |
