Introduction

Translation is not something that is confined to the literary realm. Today it is a necessary act that is part of commercial enterprise. We live in a globalized world, which in a way seems to literalize the adage attributed to the Roman philosopher Terence: “I am a human being; nothing human can be alien to me”. The fact that an event is happening in a culture or space that is far removed from ours does not mean that it does not concern us. Unfortunately it is not humanism that is bringing the world together, but the sheer necessity to do business. The world is seen as one huge marketplace that offers infinite possibilities for you to sell your wares. This of course was helped by what is today known as the information technology revolution. The cyber world transcends geographical boundaries and has made communication almost a near-instant process. Michael Cronin points out: “The network underpinned by information technology brings Anglophone messages and images from all over the globe in minutes and seconds, leading to a reticular cosmopolitanism of near-instantaneity” (Translation and Globalization, 49).

What is the language of this world market? How do you communicate to a person with a different mother-tongue, about your goods/services? The necessity to sell has invented a common language of commerce which is English in the world today. This tendency to adopt one language (monoglossia) over multiple others, has a lot of political as well as cultural implications, but here we are concerned about the various aspects of translation in this monoglossic world. What we are looking at is the language of advertisements.

Commercial advertisements through print and electronic media are the avenues that help you to inform consumers about your product. Most of the products of daily use like toothpaste and soap are manufactured by companies which are described as ‘multinational’, but are actually based in the Anglo-American world. So the language of their advertisements also happens to be English. Although English predominates, the necessity to reach out to the non-English speaking world requires the advertisements to be translated across cultures and languages, creatively and effectively.