Propositions on cross-cultural communication and translation
Anthony Pym | Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
Cross-cultural communication can be characterized by a relatively high degree of effort required to reduce complexity, by relatively high transaction costs, by relatively low trust between communication partners, and by relatively narrow success conditions that create points of high-risk discourse. To communicate successfully between cultures would thus require a special kind of risk management. Translation, as a mode of cross-cultural communication, is held to share those same features, as well as at least two specific representational maxims concerning discursive persons and textual quantity. It is argued that the related concepts of complexity, success conditions and risk can describe not only the act of translating as a mode of cross-cultural communication, but also certain features of the professional intercultures to which translators belong. Step-by-step propositions thus synthesize an approach that runs from an analysis of cross-cultural communication to a description of professional intercultures, their sources of power, and the reasons for their apparent lack of power in a globalizing age.
Keywords: communication theory, cross-cultural communication, translation, complexity theory, risk management, intercultures, power
Published online: 21 February 2005
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16.1.02pym
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.16.1.02pym
Cited by
Cited by 23 other publications
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2014.
In Communication across Cultures,
► pp. 187 ff. 
Colón Rodríguez, Raúl E.
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Meta: Journal des traducteurs 65:1 ► pp. 272 ff.
Conde, Tomás
2013. The Good Guys and the Bad Guys: The Behavior of Lenient and Demanding Translation Evaluators.
Meta 57:3 ► pp. 763 ff.
Davies, Eirlys E.
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In The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication,
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Ghosh, Aditi
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Hermans, Theo
2014. Positioning translators: Voices, views and values in translation.
Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 23:3 ► pp. 285 ff.
Liddicoat, Anthony J.
2016. Translation as intercultural mediation: setting the scene.
Perspectives 24:3 ► pp. 347 ff.
Margala, Miriam
2009. Grice in Translation: The Case of Hrabal.
Journal of Universal Language 10:2 ► pp. 87 ff.
Martín de León, Celia
2008. Skopos and beyond.
Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 20:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
McAuley, Thomas E.
2015. Audience Attitude and Translation Reception.
Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 61:2 ► pp. 219 ff.
Mossop, Brian
2005. Pym, Anthony. 2004. The moving text: Localization, translation, and distribution.
Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 17:2 ► pp. 363 ff.
Olohan, Maeve & Elena Davitti
2017. Dynamics of Trusting in Translation Project Management: Leaps of Faith and Balancing Acts.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 46:4 ► pp. 391 ff.
Poupaud, Sandra, Anthony Pym & Ester Torres Simón
2009. Finding Translations. On the Use of Bibliographical Databases in Translation History.
Meta 54:2 ► pp. 264 ff.
Pym, Anthony
2007. On history in formal conceptualizations of translation.
Across Languages and Cultures 8:2 ► pp. 153 ff.
Røvik, Kjell Arne
2016. Knowledge Transfer as Translation: Review and Elements of an Instrumental Theory.
International Journal of Management Reviews 18:3 ► pp. 290 ff.
Scarpa, Federica
2020.
In Research and Professional Practice in Specialised Translation,
► pp. 1 ff.
Scarpa, Federica
2020.
In Research and Professional Practice in Specialised Translation,
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Stecconi, Ubaldo
2019. How translations are willed into existence.
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent 10:3 ► pp. 69 ff.
Sulaiman, M Zain & Rita Wilson
2018. Translating tourism promotional materials: a cultural-conceptual model.
Perspectives 26:5 ► pp. 629 ff.
Sulaiman, M. Zain & Rita Wilson
2019.
In Translation and Tourism,
► pp. 187 ff.
Wang, Vincent X.
2009. Pragmatic shifts in two translations of Fusheng Liuji
.
Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 21:2 ► pp. 209 ff.
Zafiri, Makrina & Evangelos Kourdis
2017. Languages in Contact, Cultures in Contact: Verbal and Iconic Visual Signs in Mother Tongue and Culture as Mediators in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
Signs and Society 5:1 ► pp. 35 ff.
Łabendowicz, Olga
2018.
In Eye Tracking and Multidisciplinary Studies on Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 143],
► pp. 259 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
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