The Importance of Pragmatic Equivalence in Translation

Abstract

It is important to translate a source language into a target language with syntactic and semantic equivalence. However, it is not enough. There may arise various kinds of translation problems due to the pragmatic and sociocultural differences between source and target language. It is important to capture and convey the pragmatic and sociocultural equivalence between source and target language in translation. In this paper I discuss illocutionary acts and the maxims of the cooperative principle coming into play in communication, explaining how they function in conveying non-literal messages. I suggested various examples of Korean and English expressions the meaning of which cannot be correctly communicated in case they are literally translated. I showed how they must be translated. I argued that it is important to translate a source language into a target language so that a writer’s/speaker’s communicative intention can be properly conveyed without distortion. This paper shows how important it is for translators to be careful to communicate the writer’s/speaker’s communicative intention maintaining the pragmatic and sociocultural equivalence between source and target language expressions, especially when the source and target languages are so different linguistically and non-linguistically like Korean and English.