<p>The implied reader of a novel is the person that the author writes for. In the case of Åsa Larsson’s Swedish detective novel Solstorm, the implied reader is familiar with Swedish politics, history, and geography but also with biblical references and Swedish customs. When the novel is translated into English, The Savage Altar: Innocence will be Sacrificed, there is a new implied reader, the translator’s implied reader. When culture-specific material is either omitted or misunderstood, or a cultural filter changes the material to suit the new target audience, the context of the novel is also changed. The result is a loss of context.</p>

The implied reader of a novel is the person that the author writes for. In the case of Åsa Larsson’s Swedish detective novel Solstorm, the implied reader is familiar with Swedish politics, history, and geography but also with biblical references and Swedish customs. When the novel is translated into English, The Savage Altar: Innocence will be Sacrificed, there is a new implied reader, the translator’s implied reader. When culture-specific material is either omitted or misunderstood, or a cultural filter changes the material to suit the new target audience, the context of the novel is also changed. The result is a loss of context.

Exploring theoretical intersections of translation studies and linguistic landscape studies, this thesis both sums up existing research and presents new ideas, so as to show how the two disciplines can benefit from each other. The main focus of the first chapter is distinctive features of translations in linguistic landscape. The empirical part has several aims. The linguistic landscape of Prague's city centre is examined, above all the use of foreign languages and translations on signs, employing some of the theoretical concepts from the first chapter. The thesis also looks into translativity in linguistic landscape. A selection of translations from Czech to English is then assessed by language specialists who are native speakers of English, helping us identify flaws in the translations.

This study investigates how hedges are used in an American popular science text about the effects of climate change and to what extent their translation to Swedish is retained or modified concerning modal strength. Furthermore, the study seeks to explain the reasons behind translation choices, which affect the level of modal strength and or linguistics alterations in the target text. The method is both quantitative, where the instances of hedging in the source text are counted and categorized, and qualitative, where potential factors affecting the translation choices are analyzed and interpreted. The results of the study show that hedging devices for the most are retained in translation concerning modal strength. However, an exception is the English modal verb may where the modal strength in six out of eight instances is higher in the target text than in the source text. This study suggests that the vague meaning of modal verbs and the fact that Swedish does not have one apparent translation, with a similar grammatical pattern, could have affected the translation choices. Furthermore, linguistic and text conventional adaptions to the target language may be another factor affecting modifications.