In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a technique for context translation. According to an aspect of the technique, a mapping is consulted. The mapping maps a first message to a second message. The first message comprises a rule-specific error message that indicates one or more rules that were violated by a portion of a document. The second message comprises a context-specific message that sets forth the meaning of the error message in a particular implementation context. The second message is provided as output. Thus, the rule-specific error message is translated into the context-specific message. According to an aspect of the technique, the mapping is not embodied in executable code. As a result, the mapping can be modified without modifying and recompiling the source code of a program that consults the mapping and outputs the second message.