Intercultural Competence in Advertising Translation: Human Mediation vs. AI Limitations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34630/e-rei.vi14.7425Keywords:
intercultural communication, competence, culture, translation, AI (Artificial Intelligence)Abstract
This study examines advertising translation from an intercultural perspective, focusing on the comparison between AI-generated translations and human-mediated localisation and transcreation in the Italian market. Drawing on theories of intercultural communication and intercultural competence, it considers translation as a form of intercultural mediation in which linguistic transfer must be combined with cultural adaptation. The analysis is based on a selected corpus of international advertising slogans, their official Italian versions, and AI-generated translations produced by ChatGPT and Google Translate. Using House’s functional-pragmatic Translation Quality Assessment model, the study shows that AI systems can produce grammatically accurate translations but often fail to preserve the persuasive, rhetorical, and cultural functions of slogans. By contrast, human-mediated localisation and transcreation remain more effective in ensuring communicative impact and cultural appropriateness in advertising.
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