ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how a particular linguistic phenomenon is translated in the context of a globally operating company. It looks at how the second person pronominal T form is translated in IKEA catalogues into many different languages. IKEA’s choice of the ‘T policy’ as its brand is often said to relate to the fact that the T form is associated with positive and egalitarian values in Scandinavian cultures. Avoiding the T form is a straightforward option when it comes to decreasing the pragmatic ambiguity that the use of the T form may cause. The Mainland Chinese and the Japanese translations of the IKEA catalogue do not only tend to remove the T form but also often make the product description vague by not mentioning the customer at all as a person targeted for choosing a particular product.
