Reflections on the relational in translation as mediated interaction

•Stage translation may be conceptualized as a face constituting process.•Im/politeness on stage may provide evidence of interactional achievement.•The dynamics of relating on stage affect appropriateness judgements.•Evaluations of translated playtexts highlight the importance of the relational.•Concern for the relational overrides politeness orientation concerns. The study attempts to broaden the conceptualization of the relational to include stage translation situations. It uses translator–trainees’ evaluations (as the hearers’ view) to assess rendition of im/polite exchanges in three retranslations of a twentieth century English play. Findings show that translator–trainees’ evaluations of the way intimacy and offensiveness values are rendered in the three target versions of the play are a function of trainees’ level of awareness with respect to the relational dynamics between characters in the play. Translator–trainees seem to increasingly prefer heightened intimacy (connectedness) and offensiveness (separateness), as they become aware of the relational dynamics in the play. Translator–trainees (native speakers of the target language) seem to appreciate instances manifesting the politeness orientation attributed to the target language (Sifianou, 1992), while awareness of the relational dynamics in the play seems to override the importance of polarity orientation concerns. Translation is claimed to be able to provide settings where the relational and the cognitive may be fruitfully researched.11I am indebted to my anonymous reviewers for valuable comments.