Pragmatic adaptation

The communicants involved in interlingual communication not only speak different languages but also have different general knowledge, social and historical background and belong to different cultures. This fact has a considerable impact on the translator’s strategy since the most faithful rendering of ST content may sometimes be partially or fully misunderstood by the recipients or fail to produce a similar effect. The translator has to assess the possible communicative effect of the TT. In this case the translator makes pragmatic adaptation of the text to the knowledge, critical abilities and emotional characteristics of the T recipients. This may necessitate modifying and expanding of the original message to make it more understandable to the members of different language-communities. The translator may add some words, explicate some notions or make adequate substitutions to provide appropriate feedback.

A great role is played by difference in customs and living conditions. It stands to reason that the natives of a tropical island can hardly be impressed by the statement that something is as white as snow. Thus, the translator should involve a kind of pragmatic adaptation to preserve the original communicative effect.