ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we complete the introduction to translation loss by looking at implications of the crucial fact that translating involves not just two languages, but a transfer from one whole culture to another. Of course, one of the defining characteristics of a culture is its language or languages: among the ‘culturally relevant features’ (p. 21) that make a text what it is are linguistic features. To that extent, the degrees of freedom considered on p. 16 all reflect a greater or lesser degree of constraint in transferring messages from culture to culture. We shall take it as read that if a literal translation is acceptable (as it so often is), the translation operation is culturally neutral. In this chapter, we look at translation procedures that are less neutral, chosen by the translator in the light of general cultural differences that go beyond purely linguistic differences. The two overlap, of course, and are often inseparable (especially in communicative translation, which we look at both in 2 and here).
