On the indivisibility of linguistic and cultural knowledge in intercultural communication. A reflection on forms of address in the Polish subtitles for Downton Abbey

The article argues for the necessity to consider linguistic and cultural knowledge as indivisible in the process of translation understood as intercultural communication. The theoretical background is the constructional approach to language, including Construction Grammar and elements of Frame Semantics, which in its very architecture includes the assumption that linguistic and cultural knowledge form a continuum, and that language resources activate cultural knowledge, thus providing translation studies with a framework conducive to integrating linguistic and cultural aspects of translation analysis. The issue is illustrated with an analysis of some cases of translating forms of address in the Polish subtitles for the TV series Downton Abbey, focusing on distortions in intercultural communication caused by overlooking the indivisibility of linguistic and cultural knowledge in interpreting the source text and choosing target-language resources to render it. The article also suggests some implications of the constructional approach and the indivisibility of linguistic and cultural knowledge for the notion of translation competence.