Translational Action and Intercultural Communication

Book excerpt: Translation and interpreting studies and intercultural communication have so far largely been treated as separate disciplines. Translational Action and Intercultural Communication offers an overview of a range of different theoretical and methodological approaches to examining the hitherto largely ignored connection between the two research strands. Drawing on three key concepts ('functional equivalence', 'dilated speech situation' and 'intercultural understanding'), this interdisciplinary volume attempts to interrelate the following thematic strands: procedures of mediating between cultures in translational action, problems of intercultural communication in translational action, and insights into intercultural communication based on analyses of translational action. The volume features both contrastive papers and papers which investigate communicative events in actu. The analyses presented deal with a variety of genres and types of interaction, including children's books, speech acts in dramatic text, popular science and economic texts, excerpts from intercultural university encounters, phatic talk, toast giving and medical communication.