IS THERE ANYTHING LIKE A UNIVERSAL TYPOLOGY OF TRANSLATION SOLUTIONS FOR CULTURE-SPECIFIC ITEMS?

Rendering culture-specific items (CSI) into another language has always been a challenge for translators for obvious reasons: CSIs are context-dependent text elements carrying a connotative meaning in the source culture. For the same reason, several typologies are available, like Newmark’s (1988), Tomaszkiewicz ́s (1993), Valdeon ́s (2008), or Pedersen ́s (2011). Newmark’s typology has been generally accepted by experts in translation studies and translation pedagogy. Tomaszkiewicz ́s (1993) eight strategies are based on exploring subtitling in films; Valdeon ́s taxonomy (2008) based on audiovisual mode comprises strategies resulting from preservation and from substitution. Pedersen ́s taxonomy (2011) involves source-language-oriented and target-language-oriented ones. These can be juxtaposed with Pym’s (2016) taxonomy, which he calls a typology of translation solutions for many languages. He (ibid) assumes them to be behavioral, problem-based, potentially conscious, intersubjective and starting from the most general and basic translation solution: to change something. With the arrival of something new, a couple of questions may arise: Why do we need still another classification? How is this approach different? Our basic premise is that Pym’s typology is more user-friendly (i.e. translator-friendly). The present paper aims to compare and contrast the existing typologies and in doing so streamline the current trend in the translation theory.