Translation of Polysemous Words in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse: A Case Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the various responses of professional and novice translators toward translating polysemous verbs. To this end, 20 students studying English Language and Translation Studies took a pretest as well as a posttest on translation. The data analysis showed that professional and novice translators react differently toward translating polysemous verbs. The results also illustrated that novice translators are mostly trapped in the first meaning impression mainly selecting primary sense rather than secondary senses for their translation equivalents.