Translation as a Prime Player in Intercultural Communication

摘要

This article is in three parts. Part 1 describes translation in relation to intercultural communication. Part 2 characterizes translation as intercultural communication designed to achieve intercultural understanding, which can be reached along two different paths: overt and covert translation (House 1977). These translation types and the notion of a 'cultural filter' are characterized. Part 3 addresses the impact globalization and global English is having on translation today. Today, we know little about how massive unidirectional translations from English into other languages influence discourse norms in these languages. The paper discusses relevant research into this important issue. While there are some signs that a new kind of overt translation is gaining ground, suppressing cultural filtering and causing Anglophone norms to 'shine through' in translation, other studies show that indigenous discourse norms remain intact.