Cultural Adaptation & Localization Flashcards

Which term describes the process of adapting a translated text so that it feels natural and familiar to the target culture, even at the expense of source-culture flavor?

Answer: Domestication

Domestication, as theorized by Lawrence Venuti, adapts the text to the norms and expectations of the target culture, making it feel as if it were originally written in that culture.

A translator rendering a French text for a US audience changes 'le baccalauréat' to 'high school diploma.' This is an example of:

Answer: Cultural substitution

Cultural substitution replaces a source-culture concept with a functionally equivalent target-culture concept, helping the target reader grasp the intended meaning.

What is a 'cultureme' in translation studies?

Answer: A unit of meaning unique to a specific culture with no direct equivalent elsewhere

A cultureme is a culture-specific phenomenon — an item, concept, or practice so embedded in a particular culture that it lacks a straightforward equivalent in other languages.

In localization, 'locale' refers to:

Answer: A combination of language and regional settings such as date format, currency, and conventions

A locale specifies both the language and regional preferences (e.g., en-US vs. en-GB), governing how elements like dates, numbers, and currency are formatted for a target market.

Which strategy is Lawrence Venuti most associated with advocating for literary translation?

Answer: Foreignization

Venuti advocates foreignization, which preserves the strangeness of the source text to resist the cultural dominance of the target language and make the translator's work visible.

A translator working on a US marketing campaign converts all metric measurements in a French source text to imperial units. This is an example of:

Answer: Localization

Localization adapts a product or text to the linguistic and cultural norms of a specific target market, including measurement systems, currencies, and other regional conventions.

What does 'transcreation' involve that distinguishes it from standard translation?

Answer: Creative adaptation of content to evoke the same emotional impact in the target culture, often diverging significantly from the source

Transcreation (used heavily in marketing and advertising) prioritizes recreating the emotional and persuasive effect of the original, allowing significant divergence from the source text's wording.