Domestication and Foreignization in Translating Polite Tweets

Abstract

Translation strategies, domestication and foreignization bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps. Domestication adapts foreign texts for target readers, often sacrificing cultural nuances, as seen in historical examples like Rome's assimilation of Greek texts. Foreignization preserves the original text's cultural distinctions. On social media like Twitter, translators face unique challenges with its character limit and specific lexicon. They must decide between domesticating tweets for clarity or foreignizing them to retain cultural elements. This paper explores domestication and foreignization in historical and modern contexts, highlighting their implications for cross-cultural communication and translation on digital platforms like Twitter.