ABSTRACT
Sociolinguistics is a subfield of linguistics that is concerned with the social meaning of language in use, particularly in relation to social identity and social differentiation. The field encompasses different research traditions that intersect with language-related research in sociology and anthropology. The fact that indexical meanings derive from knowledge of prior contexts represents a challenge for translation, as target-language contexts are by necessity different from source language contexts. As Blommaert notes, “even when the translations would be referentially symmetrical, the indexical meanings generated by both versions would still be very different”. Some studies on translation in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology focus on the role of translators, especially interpreters, in intercultural interactions and in situations of language contact more generally. Sociolinguistic research has increasingly been concerned with the ways in which linguistic difference relates to social inequality, and some of this research has engaged with translation.
