The link between artificial intelligence (AI) and translation, as well as the repercussions of this complex relationship have enjoyed increased attention in today’s post-human translation studies. This paper problematizes how AI, with a special focus on machine translation (MT) and its current trends in the wake of the technological turn, has transformed the concept of translation, and has ultimately resulted in the emergence of new translator roles and competences. We aim to cast a fresh conceptual light on how and why AI continues to challenge the translation industry, imply what benefits and threats it may bring for language professionals and offer a theoretical model of the new roles of the human translator. We claim that the translator’s positioning on the cline between a utopian and dystopian future is a function of factors influencing their changing roles. From a utopian perspective, we view technology as an aid to the human translator where the translator’s toolkit of competences is augmented by CAT tools, neural machine translation (NMT), post-editing and revision skills as well as experiential learning. In the dystopian interpretation of the translator’s job, AI completely takes over the role of translators and phases them out on the grounds of speed, precision and cost. Despite inspiring some outlandish visions, the article emphasizes the idea that although AI has been radically transforming the translation industry of the 2020s, it is still difficult to predict to what extent it is going to ultimately redeem or destroy translators.

The paper homes in on the analysis of culture-bound items in the English translation of the Slovak novel Rivers of Babylon (1991) which contains unique lexis symptomatic of the (post)-communist linguistic scene. By its focus on the transplantation of the Slovak culturally-marked lexis into English, the study is sensitively responsive to Cronin's appeal (2006) that in order to stand out in the globalized world it is necessary to start to pay heed to the local. The paper draws on the premise that when dealing with cultural asymmetries between languages cultural transplantation is inevitable, which supports the interpretation of translation as an essentially cultural practice (see Hermans, 2007). Ongoing research has shown that intercultural competence and awareness, arising from experience of cultures, are far more complex phenomena than they may seem to the translator. So far, less attention has been paid to the Central European context with focus on the Slovak culture transfer. The paper aims to investigate the character of the translation techniques used for the transfer of Slovak culture-bound items based on Pym's cutting-edge model of translation solutions (2016). The study also attempts to research the extent to which the local colour of the Slovak start text has been preserved in the English literary translation. Based on the corpus analysis, it may be argued that the translator tends to the reduction of the cultural expressiveness by domestication of culture-bound items in the target culture. The research findings are part of cultural translation and are instrumental in shedding fresh light on how Slovak culture may be reported to English culture.

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The paper zooms in on terminological and conceptual scrutiny of selected eight English lexical semantics terms with the aim of pointing out their terminological synonymy, which is often misrecognized by English linguistics undergraduates. Does a ‘loose synonym’ denote in lexical semantics the same thing as a ‘partial synonym’ or ‘cognitive synonym’? Is the cognitive content of the term ‘false friend’ identical with that of a ‘pseudosynonym’ or ‘paronym’? What aspects of the semantic continuum are shared and non-shared by the selected terms? These questions are at the core of this contribution which can serve didactic purposes of English linguistics teaching. The desk research findings are part of semantic and lexicographic studies and aspire to forewarn English linguistics undergraduates of conceptual misinterpretations in common lexical semantics terms. The paper operates from the perspective of cultural linguistics across the Anglophone semantic continuum. It is based on a tailored Sharifian’s premise [2015] that the metalanguage of English lexical semantics is a repository of cultural conceptualizations that leave traces in its current terminological practice. The study suggests that some English lexical semantics terms offer a considerable space for their synonymic treatment, however, to the detriment of their correct conceptual decoding. The credit of the paper lies in raising undergraduates’ awareness of metalinguistic terminology but also in increasing their conceptual fluency in the selected terms.

This paper addresses the translator’s role from an ideological standpoint and seeks to show that the actions of translators are not completely arbitrary and may be influenced by a wide array of factors and especially ideologies. The basic assumption is that translators can detach texts neither from the ideologies of the source nor the target culture. This study results from qualitative research, namely a critical conceptual analysis of the selected theories of translation studies (Baker, 2006; Lefevere, 1992; Venuti, 1995). The conceptual reflection implies that translations serve as an infinite source of culture and history, serving the target but not the source culture. The critical discourse analysis of English translations of two selected novels that contain the ideologies of socialist and post-socialist era, and the Nazi ideology, suggests that the tendencies in translation strategies vary depending on diffusion of the languages, and awareness of the target culture and history.