INVESTIGATING THE TRANSLATOR AS A SOCIOCULTURAL MEDIATOR

Back to Page Authors: Rabah Cherouana, Amel Afia

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Keywords: translation, language, culture, sociocultural mediator

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Abstract: The translation is transferring the meaning from one language (the source) to another (the target). This process may consist of other details and consequences within the translation from the source text to the target text, something that many people are not aware of. This differentiates bilinguals from professional translators. The research paper sheds light on the main parts of the equation which are the language, culture and the transferrable relation between them in the field of sociocultural translation. Hence, language and culture are separately discussed as well as their relation to translation. On one hand, the aim of this paper is to find out the way and the reason behind the consistent decisions that the translator makes on the cultural meaning like many theories and writers’ views presented with reference to professional translators and to present the value of the study for students of translation on the theoretical side. On the other hand, the practical side is applied by testing six (06) MA students of translation who translated six pretested Algerian cultural expressions into the English language. The results of this study show that the cultural value has a great influence on the translator himself when making the decision for choosing the appropriate words and techniques in translating cultural expressions.

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