Introducing the special issue on the pragmatics of translation

This special issue on the pragmatics of translation contains eight papers on translation outcomes and processes and highlights a pragmatic angle of understanding the transfer of language phenomena across cultures and intra-culturally. Translation is approached from a broad perspective, including written textual translation as well as other modalities such as signing, oral simultaneous translation or audiovisual translation. The combination of classic pragmatic topics such as the study of im/politeness and identity construction with translation studies shows the challenges that interpreters and translators face in the attempt of rendering the nuances of a source text in a target text. The papers focus on the interaction between cross-cultural pragmatics and the study of the translation as product in its own right. •Relational work is a key challenge for translation.•The relationship between relational work and identity construction is pivotal in translation.•The pragmatic effects of multimodality need attention in translation.•Subtitling changes the fictional artefact and contributes to a new participation structure.•Subtitling constitutes a mode in its own right and displays intercultural mediation.