The Translation of tourist texts 1st Lesson

Tourist communication has been always defined as a process to create a collective imaginary about a place. Nevertheless the tourist language is not considered as a specialist language because it has to be understood by many people (possible customers) The aim is to sell a product, so the tourist communication is based on the binary opposition: familiarity/exoticism creating ‘an elusive something’. This communication mainly intends advertising must-see sights. For this reason the storytelling of a place is fundamental.

Tourist texts consist of a variety of publications Their purpose is to promote a given locality, its tourist attractions, services and facilities. Some examples are: brochures, leaflets, flyers, magazines, periodicals, guidebooks, websites, and, more recently, social networks too.

Tourist texts fulfil two communicative functions: Informative Appellative

Definitions: In the translation of INFORMATIVE texts […] the aim is invariance of content and the translation is deemed successful if the information has been transmitted in full. The translation of APPELLATIVE or operative texts types […] aims to provoke in the target readers identical behavioural reactions to those of the reader of the source text and this translation method is called ADAPTATION.

A tourist text can include several topics: Architecture Customs and traditions Economy Entertainment Gastronomy Geography History of art History Sports

Style English tourist language is usually personal and informal. The imperative tense is much used to invite the public reader to visit the attractions of the place promoted. Italian tourist language is instead more impersonal and formal. Places are generally advertised using passive constructions.

Theme and Rheme THEME: RHEME: the starting point of the communication chosen by the speaker/writer. The theme is what the clause is about. RHEME: the remaining part which develops the theme. The rheme is what the speaker says about the theme. It is the communicative goal of a clause because it represents the information that the speaker/writer wants to convey to the hearer/reader. The rheme fulfils the communicative purpose of an utterance.