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1.3Translatinglanguages—Translatingcultures
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thatunolanguagecanexistunlessitissteepedinthecontextofculture;and
noculturecanexistwhichdoesnothaveatitscenterthestructureofnatural
language”.
Bassnett(1991:13-14)alsoelaboratesonthissubjectandstressestheimpor-
tanceofthiscoexistencebystatingthatlanguageisutheheartwithinthebodyof
culture”,withthesurvivalofbothaspectsbeinginterdependent.Whiletransfer-
ringmeaning,linguisticnotionsareseenasbeingonlyapartofthetranslation
processanduawholesetofextra-linguisticcriteria”(Bassnett1991:13-14)must
alsobeconsidered.Lateron,hepointsoutthatuthetranslatormusttackletheSL
textinsuchawaythattheTLversionwillcorrespondtotheSLversion”(Bass-
nett1991:23).AnattempttoimposethevaluesystemoftheSLcultureontothe
TLcultureisadangerousmatter.Tus,whiletranslating,thetranslatorshould
considernotonlythelexicalimpactontheTLreader,butalsothemannerin
whichculturalaspectsareperceived,andmakedecisionsconcerningtranslation
accordingly.
Bednarczyk(2002:21)isoftheopinionthatwhentranslatingatext,which
isreadbypeoplebelongingtothetargetculture,thetranslatorisatthesame
timeamemberofanaudiencebelongingtothesourceculture.Consequently,
thetranslationisinfluencedbothbythesourceandtargetculture.Tesource
cultureinfluencestheauthorofaparticulartextinmanyways:hislherlanguage,
itsstructureandidioms,metaphorshelsheuses,referencestotheliteratureand
realityinwhichhelshelives.Tereferencesmayconcernnotonlythenative
literaturebutalsotheforeignone.GoodexampleswouldbeTeBibleorancient
Greekmyths.Whenitcomestoreality,thereferencesmayconcernthepolitical
andsocialissueswhichinfluencetheauthor,althoughhelsheisnotalwaysaware
ofthisinfluence.Teissuesmaybeverytraditionalorevenhistoricalbutalso
up-to-the-minute(Bednarczyk2002:21).Tesamehappenstothetranslator.
Hislhertranslationisapartofhislhernativeliteratureashelsheisinfluenced
bythetargetcultureinthesamewayastheauthorisinfluencedbythesource
culture.Moreover,thetranslatorenrichesthetargetculturewiththetranslated
literature(Bednarczyk2002:18).
Tabakowska(2002:25)agreesthatculturalbarriers,whichofenposesig-
nificantproblemsfortranslators,result,amongotherthings,fromdiferencesin
thelexiconandpragmaticconventions(suchaspoliteformulasoraddressative
forms)oftwogivenlanguages.Sheemphasisesthefactthatculturally-deter-
minedcategorisationofnon-linguisticrealityisreflectedinthelackofvocabu-
laryequivalence,andtheuseofdiminutivesisuoneoftheobviousexamples”of
this(Tabakowska2002:25,27-28).Asacognitivist,sheisoftheopinionthat
interlingualtranslationinvolvesaclashbetweentwoculturesratherthantwo
languages,andthetranslatorbecomesamediatorbetweenthem(Tabakowska
2002:26).
