Qin Huang, Roberto A. Valdeon
This article examines the role of pragmatics in translation studies. It begins by tracing foundational contributions, such as those of Catford and Nida, who highlighted the importance of context in achieving dynamic equivalence. The article then introduces key pragmatic concepts that have influenced translation research, including speech acts, implicature and inference, the cooperative principle and its maxims, relevance theory, and notably, politeness and impoliteness. Subsequently, it reviews prominent publications that integrate pragmatics and translation, followed by a discussion on translating (im)politeness strategies, encompassing the use of swear words. Finally, the article presents the five papers included in this special section.