Translation of Slanguage Items: The Case Study of The Catcher in the Rye

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Foreign Languages Department, Faculty of Management and Humanities, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran.

2 M.A. in TEFL, Foreign Languages and Linguistics Department, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University of Sanandaj, Sanandaj, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of Translation Studies, Foreign Languages Department, Tourism Faculty, Higher Education Complex of Bam, Kerman, Iran.

Abstract

This paper investigates the translation of slanguage items, with a particular emphasis on taboo terms, which are widely recognized as posing significant and complex challenges for translators working across different cultural contexts. Focusing specifically on two English-to-Persian translations of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The present study adopts Venuti’s (1995) influential concepts of domestication and foreignization as its primary theoretical and analytical framework. The translations were carefully and systematically analyzed using a combination of contrastive textual examination through SDL Trados Studio and quantitative assessment via Microsoft Excel to determine the frequency, distribution, and patterns of different translation strategies. The results indicate a clear prevalence of strategies such as deletion, euphemism, taboo-to-taboo translation, and taboo-to-non-taboo translation, listed in decreasing order of frequency. While the translators generally followed a target-oriented approach, aiming to carefully observe and respect cultural expectations in the target language, a detailed quantitative analysis of the applied strategies, particularly the unexpectedly high frequency of domestication due to cultural differences between the source and target languages, reveals a more nuanced, complex, and layered reality than might be initially assumed.

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 February 2025
  • Revise Date: 02 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 14 January 2026

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