The author’s intended message is embedded in the words and expressions of a text, and is communicated to the reader. In response, the reader mobilizes as much knowledge he/she can under given circumstances and reasons out the message the author produced. And, thus, themessage is fully understood. As such, through the act of communication, the reader is able to understand the connotative meaning because he/she shares with the author certain information or knowledge accumulated in the memory. Therefore, the more knowledge the author and reader share, the better the reader understands and author’s intended message. Often times, the translator is doomed to anguish over how he/she should reexpress into target language the sociocultural knowledge(presupposition) that a society shares. In particular, how should one translate the underlying message in a sentence or context, which the reader of the source text understands using the knowledge he/she shares with the author? This paper defines translation as an act of communication through which the translator searches for equivalence, and specifies on how to translate presupposition or sociocultural knowledge, ingrained in the source text.
