The Translator’s Personality as a Factor of Intercultural Communication in Translating Journalistic Texts

Authors’ names:

Alina Iu. Ivleva, Ekaterina A. Kuznetsova – National Research Mordovia State University, Saransk, Russia

Abstract:

The translation process is a complex phenomenon: it involves various aspects of intercultural communication, affects the cognitive sphere of a person, and therefore requires interdisciplinary research.  Translation has always been central in intercultural communication. Since cultural differences may cause misunderstanding in the process of intercultural communication, leading to conflicts and making it difficult or impossible to conclude international agreements, the translator must appreciate the cultural components of the process. The article examines the role of the translator’s personality from the point of view of intercultural communication. Since in the process of translation translators break down language barriers, from a professional point of view, they act as intercultural communication experts or cultural mediators. Thus, the study focuses on the translator’s personality and their role in translating journalistic texts and preserving the cultural space in this type of texts. Leaning on current research literature on translation as intercultural communication, the authors selected a number of newspaper articles and their translated versions and conducted a qualitative analysis seeking to identify the role of the translator’s personality as well as translation techniques that are crucial for recreating the cultural aspects of a given journalistic text. As a result, they identified a number of translation transformations through which translators adapt texts for foreign language recipients while preserving those texts’ cultural features. Without the translator’s cross-cultural competence which involves knowledge of background information and awareness of differences in systems of values and mindsets of different cultures, translated texts will not retain the communicative effect that the original has on its recipients. The success of intercultural communication depends entirely on the experience, knowledge, and skills of the translator. The theoretical significance of the article lies in its in-depth study of the translator’s personality as a linguistic and cultural mediator in the context of intercultural communication, the discussion of the translator’s status, as well as the choice of material for analysis. The practical value of the study lies in providing a helpful linguistic analysis of the text as well as in that the study’s results may be used by modern translators seeking to improve the quality of their translation and avoid possible errors in translation and interpretation.

Section LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
DOI: 10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2024-68-4-57-75
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Key words translator; intercultural communication; translation; culture; cultural space; journalistic text; article
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