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Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo LINGUA, LINGUISTICA E TRADUZIONE INGLESE The functionality of the text A text can be of various types depending on the message it wants to send; for this reason, each text has different characteristics: - A promotional text for advertising tourism (e.g. a brochure), characterised by many adjectives, quality over quantity for the details, nominal phrases, lack of sentences and clauses, determiners, a few verbs to make the text more scientific, the discourse is organised, the dominance of the relational verbs to be and to have used as a synonym of to own, and the purpose of promoting a person, a place, a feeling or a product; - An instruction text type (e.g. a recipe), characterised by many verbs in the imperative form, especially material verbs that imply an action or a movement; - An academic article (e.g. a scientific article), characterised by the dominance of relational processes with the verbs to be and to have. In functional systemic grammar, verbs are called processes, while objects are called participants. Taking a brochure or a museum panel, the text is given by the words, but also by the morphosyntactic elements. The context is given by the images and the text. The text-context relationship is given by two types of culture: the context of culture and the context of situation. The level of culture is people sharing ideas or believe belonging to a specific community; the level of situation is within the culture and it is when you share contents to a specific interlocutor. The context in a museum panel, for example, is the public that will go to a specific exhibition. The language of the target is referring to the target of the communication. The text-context can be represented with a scheme, the non-linguistic level, consisting of culture that it is more generic and situation that it is more specific, and the linguistic level, consisting of semantics, lexico-grammar and phonology/graphology. If the linguistic level is not present, then there is no culture or situation. You produce meanings through semantics, then you decide what kind of sentence you want to use through the lexico-grammar and phonology for the sounds. Then, the register is the sum of field, tenor and mode. The register is the kind of language used to express a specific meaning or context, and it can change according to the cultural environment, the field and the formal or informal expressions. Register is a culturally specific-text type which results from using language to accomplish something. This can be represented with another scheme: - Clause as representation, which identifies the field, so the subject of the discourse; - Clause as exchange, which identifies the tenor, so the relationship between two or more interlocutors; the exchange will vary according to the interlocutor (e.g. the speech between a doctor and a patient is different between the one with another doctor); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Clause as message, which identifies the mode, so how language is used. A more practical example is the sentence Enemies of freedom attacked our country, that for clause as representation consists of actor (enemies of freedom), process (attacked) and goal (our country), for clause as exchange consists of subject (enemies of freedom), finite + predicator (attacked) and complement (our country) and for clause as message consists of theme (enemies of freedom attacked) and rheme (our country). The semantic meaning is given by the clause as representation, the type of mode and sentence is given by the clause as exchange and the clause as message identifies the concept of theme and rheme. The three subjects are: grammatical subject, that of which something has been predicated, having number and person in agreement with the verb, the logical subject, the doer of the action and the psychological subject, which is the concern of the message, what the speaker or writer has in mind to start with. In addition, in clause as exchange, language is a means of constructing interaction. The clause is organised as an interactive event involving a speaker or a writer and a listener or a reader. Both speakers and listeners, writers and readers, engage in social relations and assume discourse roles and speech functions: - Offer, which is an act of giving and involves goods and services (e.g. Would you like some coffee?; I’ll get you some coffee); - Command, which is an act of demanding or asking and involves goods and services. It could be suggestive, such as invitations and recommendations (e.g. Let’s get some coffee, shall we?; You had better come back earlier); - Statement, which is an act of giving and involves information (e.g. I drink coffee and milk every morning; John fears cats); - Question, which is an act of demanding or asking and involves information (e.g. What is your favourite drink?; Do you drink coffee every day?). The mode includes instead: - The channel of communication, which can be oral or written, or a combination of the two forms, such as audiovisional products like radio, tv, books or news; - The medium degrees of spokeness, which includes the number of clauses, and the medium degrees of writteness, so lexical density, nominalised constructions and less grammatical words. In a text, it is possible to use grammatical intricacy, so a complex combination of words, or lexical density, so nominalised strings with no verbs, used only for written language; - The nature of exchange, which is the difference between a dialogic or a monologic text and if the text is spontaneous or prepared. Spoken texts include oral stories, interviews, dialogues, monologues (e.g. a welcome to a country speech or a presentation to the class), phone conversations, discussions, role plays, or any other Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo the forms of grammatical structures and their relationship to one another. So, its grammar is morphology and syntax and grammarians often use made up sentences to illustrate rules. On the other hand, the basic philosophy of a functionalist is a grammar which is a system of human communication and allows speakers to make and exchange meanings. The primary concern is with the functions of grammatical structures and with their meanings in their context. So, its grammar is a lexico-grammar and grammarians aim at using sentences drawn from real world sources, authentic pieces of linguistic evidence. In academia, methodology also becomes a research method applied to textual typologies. This is a British linguistics, in fact one of the controversies is that systemic functional linguistics is non-applicable for the other languages. Specialised translations are analysed by systemic functional grammar. Translation in the tourism field is based on a total rewriting of the text, not on a translation word by word. One branch of this type of translation is audiovisual translation or audio description, an intersemiotic translation that is based on the explanation of a work of art for blind. Blind people usually associate colours with objects or food, so for example when you have to describe in an audio description the colour brown you can associate it with soil. Art Beyond Sight is an American website which provide audio descriptions of paintings for blind. Audio description is when you make the image to words: it uses nonvisual language to convey the visual world. The rank scale for the analysis of the constituents of a phrase is morpheme, word, group or phrase, clause and then the entire text. The principal verb in a clause is called verbal complex, which is part of an entire sentence that, following the example We at Kier recognise the importance in executing the construction works here at 20 King Street in a safe and hazard free environment for both the general public local business, can be decomposed as: - We at Kier is the nominal group; - Recognise is the verbal group; - The importance in executing the construction works here at 20 King Street is another nominal group; - In a safe and hazard free environment is the prepositional phrase; - For both the general public local business is another prepositional phrase. The whole sentence is one clause because there is only one verb, recognise, because executing is part of the previous nominal group. The prepositional phrase is obviously the group introduced by a preposition, while the first nominal group, We, is embedded with the following prepositional phrase, at Kier. Embedding is a syntactic process that allows a unit to be expanded by the inclusion of another unit from a higher rank, the clause, or the same rank, such as a noun or a prepositional group: - Every cup of tea you taste in this country gives you a new energy (you taste in this country is an embedded clause; it has only one main verb, gives, which introduces a defining clause, i.e. a clause that must necessarily exist to support the meaning of the entire sentence); - My sister, whose husband is Australian, is leaving her job to move to the States (whose husband is Australian is a non-defining clause, i.e. a clause that it is not indispensable because omitting it you would understand who or what you are talking about, as for to move to the States). So, embedding is a nominal group expanded with a prepositional or verbal group. The embedded clause is expressed in the text with double square brackets, [[]], while the prepositional embedded phrase is marked with single square brackets, []: - People [[who have been involved in the accident]] have simply broken all the rules (an embedded defining relative clause; the adjective relative is added because of the who); - He is both the man [of spirit] and the man [of the world] (constituted of two prepositional embedded phrases linked to the nominal groups); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - A room [with a view]; - The news [[you gave me yesterday]] cheered me up; - The woman [at the reception desk] is my sister; - People [[who have been involved in the accident]] are all wrong. The clause complex or clausal complex is when you have two or more clauses linked by coordination and/or subordination in a larger structural unit. A clause is potentially any stretch of language centred upon a verbal group. The sum of coordinated clauses, which are independent, and subordinate clauses, which are dependent, with finite verbs and non-finite verbs make a clause complex. Talking about clauses, a finite clause is a main clause or a subordinate clause that must have a verb to show tense. The verb can be in the present tense or past tense. The tense can be changed from the present tense to the past tense or past tense to the present tense. Because the verb in the present tense or past tense is called a finite verb, the clause that contains a finite verb is called a finite clause: - The fishermen are mending their nets (the present tense is used in the main clause); - We dined at a cheap restaurant last night (the past tense is used in the main clause); - We were not allowed in because we arrived late (the past tense is used in the main clause and in the subordinate clause). A non-finite clause is a subordinate clause that is based on a to-infinitive or a participle. It contains a verb that does not show tense, which means it does not show the time at which something happened. There are three types of non-finite clauses: - To-infinitive clause, in which the verb comes after the word to (e.g. He gave up his job to travel the world); - Present participle clause or -ing clause, in which the verb ending in -ing is used (e.g. He is a thoroughly spoilt child being the only one in the family); - Past participle clause, in which the past participle form of the verb is used (e.g. All the children, gathered in that group, were ready to perform a traditional dance). A subordinate conjunction is often used to begin a non-finite clause, such as if, unless or though: - Her appointment, if approved, will make her the company’s first female General Manager; - The police, unless notified, will not carry out an investigation; - The rescuers found the boy, though injured, fully conscious. The complex verbal group is formed by two verbs (e.g. struggling to finish or began to scream); basically, the union of simple and compound verbs. Desemantisation is when the verb in the complex verbal group loses its semantics, even if it is the main verb (e.g. tends to be, in which to be semantises, while tends desemantises). In the translated subtitle, it is the semantic verb that must always be put: it is only the desemantised verb that can be lost justified by systemic functional linguistics. Halliday suggests that the line is probably best drawn where the second verb dos not have the same subject as the first: - I have to try to get to know him; - We are going to have to start eating fried food; - He could have been wanting to communicate something important; - The city seems to be going to be allowed to retain its Circus much as it is. Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo To summarise all these functional labels, it is necessary to analyse some sentences recognising each element: - We at Kier recognise the importance in executing the construction works here at 20 King Street in a safe and hazard free environment for both the general public local businesses (one finite verb, one clause, i.e. for both the general public local businesses, and one embedding because in executing is embedded with a prepositional phrase); - The process of developing a working structure with the public and local business continues and maintains ongoing (two finite verbs and two clauses separated with and, so a clausal complex); - We therefore require feedback, advising us of any measures you feel we should take whilst on this project, as to maintain a correct environment to work and live in (three clauses, two finite verb, four non-finite verbs and one embedded clause, i.e. you feel we should take). The noun can also be modified to the left by various elements, particularly epithets and classifiers. Epithets are the adjectives that give an extra quality to the name, which can be both objective and subjective (e.g. a fascinating Harry Potter book), while classifiers are the adjectives that give extra information to the name, what type or what kind it is (e.g. potable water). Furthermore, logico- semantic relations in clauses are expansion and projection. Expansion is one clause that expands on the meaning of another clause, such as embedding (e.g. When you sleep, all the muscles of your mouth relax); projection is a logico-semantic process that covers mostly the concept of reported speech not from a syntactic perspective but from a conceptual and cognitive dimension (e.g. The manager said: “Do you want a joint account?”). One clause projects another one in the sense that it indicates that the other clause is a second-order use of language, what is said in the projected clause has already been said somewhere else. Projection can also be seen as externalisation, also depending on whether it is paratactic, when there is neither coordination nor subordination, or hypotactic, the complete opposite: - “Haven’t seen much of you”, continued John (a paratactic quote); - The report points out that milk is mostly saturated fat (an hypotactic report); - All I wanted was an admission that she was there (an hypotactic embedding) - And Tim thought, she is thinking about Guy (a paratactic quote) - He hoped to goodness that BA flight would be called soon (an hypotactic report) - Her decision to come back was to do with Bill (an hypotactic embedding). Systemic functional linguistics Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is so called for two reasons: systemic because the system of choices is fundamental, that is the type of choice, i.e. tenor, field and mode, and functional because it focuses on the production of meanings. Michael Halliday was an internationally recognised scholar who, from the late 1950s, has contributed significantly to theories of language and related areas. Best known for developing systemic functional linguistics, he transformed views about language by making choices a core concept of his theory, where choice in the language system is between meanings rather structures. His most popular work, An introduction to Functional Grammar (1985), shifted the focus of linguistics out of the syntactic age into what we might now call the semiotic age. He was the first linguist to view language as a resource for construing meaning, coining the expression Language as social semiotic in the early 70s. Basic principles in SFL are: - Every act of language is an act of meaning and to mean is to act semiotically within a social system; Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo Material The lion caught the tourist Actor Process Goal Mental I believe you Senser Process Phenomenon Existential There was a storm Dummy subject Process Existent Relational (attributing) Professor was in the lecture Carrier Process Attribute Relational (identifying) Yesterday was the twentieth Identified Process Identifier Behavioural Buff neither laughs nor smiles Behaver Process Verbal They asked him a lot of questions Sayer Process Receiver Verbiage In the fourth sentence, in the lecture is actually not an attribute, but since it is missing it will be defined as such anyway. In this case of relational attributing one cannot reverse the carrier with the attribute, while in relational identifying one can reverse the identified with the identifier. To summarise, the same type of analysis can be done with entire texts formed by several sentences: - Jane followed (material) Alice on the door, with the look of someone who feels (mental) that everything has not been said (verbal); - She waited to see (mental) Alice go (material) in at the door of No. 43. Then she went (material) back into her kitchen, where she examined (behavioural) the smears of blood on the telephone directories and on the table. She wiped (material) the table. Then she decided not to call (material) the police, and went (material) quietly to her bed; - Alice found (material) Philip and Faye exactly as she had left (material) them. But Faye’s eyes were (relational) open, and stared (behavioural), expressionless, at the ceiling; - “I’ve rung (material) Roberta”, said (verbal) Alice. Material processes Material processes are processes of doing and physical actions. There are two types of material processes: - Happening, characterised by the absence of goal; - Doing, characterised with the presence of goal. Participants in material processes involve the actor, i.e. the doer, the goal, i.e. the affected participant, the beneficiary, i.e. client and recipient, and the range. The difference between goal and range is that goal is linked to the creation of something affected of the actor’s action (e.g. My mum made the Christmas pudding); the range relates to the actor, but it is not affected, so it existed since the beginning (e.g. My mum never eats Christmas pudding). Range participants are also those that occur in expressions with verbs such as do, have, give, take or make, for examples in sentences with collocational meanings and idioms (e.g. take a bath or give a hand). Another difference is for the beneficiary, which could be a recipient, usually with the preposition to (e.g. I gave a book to Paul), Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo or a client, usually with the preposition for (e.g. She bought a present for her wife). Both differences can be analysed through examples: - She gave her (recipient) a hand (range); - Morgana played the piano (range); - They played bridge (range); - They build a bridge (goal); - They made mistakes (range); - They made a sandwich (goal); - They serve dinner (range); - They serve the ball (goal); - She crossed the fields (range); - They beat the fields flat (goal); - Diana gave them (recipient) her blood (goal) in the Red Cross Centre; - They gave her blood (goal) to one (recipient) of the survivors; - Jane is giving the lecture (range) to Dave (client). The range specifies the scope of doing: it exists independently of the action or the process and nothing is being done to this element. This process is called delexicalization, the representation of the process shifted onto the participant. Halliday classifies this participant as range because the participant role is less directly related to the process. Mental processes Mental processes are processes of perception, affection and cognition. Here, participants have different names of senser, i.e. the conscious being animate or inanimate that it feeling, thinking or seeing, and phenomenon, i.e. that which is sensed or felt. There are three types of mental processes: - Perception (e.g. perceive, see, notice, observe, feel, smell, taste or hear); - Cognition (e.g. assume, believe, conclude, think, realise, baffle, understand, know, imagine, notice, consider, discover or doubt); - Affection (e.g. enjoy, relish, feel, admire, need, please, worry, impress, fancy, delight, regret, like, fear, dread, favour, love or prefer). The mental process is usually in simple present or past tense, not in the progressive aspect. Therefore, the senser is not always first: - I (senser) hate (process) curly hair (phenomenon); - His curly hair (phenomenon) amazed (process) me (senser). The phenomenon instead can be: - A person (e.g. She liked Alice); - A thing (e.g. She realised her mistake); - A fact introduced by an embedded that clause (e.g. She accepted she could never become a doctor; The fact that her parents didn’t believe her worried her a lot); - A projection (e.g. She thought it was a beautiful country); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - A bidirectional (e.g. I appreciated the ballet dancers; The ballet dancers surprised me). Behavioural processes Behavioural processes are hybrid processes: a material + a mental process. Because it is part mental, the behavioural process involves verbs that are clearly psychological. And because it is part material, the behavioural process permits the progressive, and the clause can be probed with “What did the Behaver do?”. The main participant is the behaver, but may sometimes involve a behaviour. Behavioural processes are typically intransitive, involving only the behaver as participant. If there are two participants, the second participant is behaviour. The behaver can only be human and could vary different aspects (e.g. sing, dance, sit, watch, listen, dream, think, stare, cough, sneeze, yawn, blink, laugh or sigh). Verbal processes Verbal processes are processes of expressing and indicating. They are constituted of many participants: the sayer i.e. the addresser, the receiver, i.e. the addressee or the entity targeted by the saying, sometimes an oblique participant in the prepositional phrase (e.g. I will explain this to him), the verbiage, i.e. the content of what is said or indicated, or the name of the saying (e.g. He told me a silly story), the target, i.e. the entity to which something is being done through words (e.g. He praised her to me) and the projection, i.e. a that clause or a quote: - He (sayer) repeated (process) the warning (verbiage); - I (sayer) explained (process) to her (receiver) what it meant (verbiage); - I (receiver) wasn’t told (process) about my side-effects (circumstance); - The report (sayer) sharply (circumstance) criticised (process) Lilly’s quality-control procedures (target); - She (sayer) answered (process): “Don’t ask, just go” (projection); - He (sayer) reiterated (process) he had made no private deals (projection); - I (sayer) swore (process) to uphold Constitution of the United States (projection); - She (sayer) told (process) one interviewer (receiver) that she didn’t mind being recognised (projection); - The owner (sayer) made (process) a public apology (verbiage). Existential processes Existential processes involve existential constructions which are introduced by an empty there in subject position, called dummy subject. The typical verb that is used is to be. Whereas the mental and relational processes resist the progressive, the existential process absolutely forbids it. There is also only one participant in an existential process, the existent. This is simply that which is construed existentially. However, in cases such as On the wall is a handprint, we also have an existential process, although there is no empty there anywhere. Relational processes Relational processes obligatorily require two participants. In a finite clause, you cannot and do not have a relational process with only one participant. Relational processes are concerned with being, Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo the whole clause, oftener referring to the opinion of the participant, and they are usually separated from the rest of the clause by commas; - Conjunctive adjuncts, which are not in included in the mood system analysis. They act as discourse markers and connects and they express textual meanings (e.g. The punctuation on the other hand is reproduced with diplomatic faithfulness). More specifically, mood adjuncts can be divided into several types depending on their meaning: - Probability (e.g. probably, possibly, certainly, perhaps or maybe); - Usuality (e.g. always, ever, seldom, rarely or usually); - Obligation (e.g. definitely, absolutely, at all costs or by all means); - Obviousness (e.g. obviously, positively, of course, surely or clearly); - Intensity (e.g. just, simply, even, merely, really, actually, in fact, quite, almost, nearly or scarcely); - Polarity (e.g. not or n’t as in didn’t). The same thing for comment adjuncts: - Admissive (e.g. frankly, to be honest or to tell you the truth); - Desiderative (e.g. fortunately, unfortunately, to my delight, luckily, regrettably or hopefully); - Entreaty (e.g. please or kindly); - Evaluative (e.g. (understandably, by mistake, curiously enough, mistakenly or unwisely); - Opinion (e.g. in my opinion, from my point of view, personally or to my mind); - Persuasive (e.g. honestly, really or seriously); - Predicative (e.g. to my surprise, surprisingly, as expected, amazingly or by chance); - Presumption (e.g. evidently, apparently, no doubt or presumably). Adding every element, it is possible to identify the mood system including adjuncts: Mood adjunct Subject F- [past] predicator Complement Perhaps the Rolling Stones wrote “Yesterday” Modality Modality is the grammatical resource by which speakers or writers communicate degrees of their opinions. It is a space between positive and negative poles. Finite modal operators express the speaker’s opinion regarding the probability of certainty of the proposition being made or the degree of obligation or necessity of a proposal. As systemic functional linguistics repeatedly makes clear, language is never neutral. When we construct a text we always take into consideration, at least unconsciously and to some degree, the person/s we are interacting with. Power, contact and social roles are some of the factors that influence how we interact with others. Modality is the systemic that allows us to signal kinds of doubt, uncertainty, certainty, necessity or willingness for various reasons. There are two types of modality: - Epistemic modality or modalisation, which is based on certainty, probability, possibility and usuality, i.e. the indicative mood (e.g. may, can or will as modal operators, possibly, certainly or maybe as modal adjuncts, and it is possible that, it is probable that, it’s likely that or I think that as expressions of modality); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Deontic modality or modulation, which indicates degrees of obligation, something required, supposed and allowed to do, or necessity, but also inclination or willingness, something determined to or willing to do (e.g. must, ought to, should or will as modal operators, gladly or willingly as modal adjuncts, and it is necessary that, it is required, it is supposed to or he is willing to as expressions of modality). Can expresses both epistemic and deontic modality, but also capacity or ability: - Those students can speak English (degrees of capacity); - This can’t be Stella. It’s too early (degrees of probability); - You can’t go there! (degrees of obligation, prohibition, lack of permission). Modal operators could be with a finite modal operator in a verbal group (e.g. He may be at home), with a mood adjunct (e.g. He is possibility at home), with a modal operator and a mood adjunct (e.g. He may possibly be at home), with a prepositional phrase (e.g. In all probability, he is at home), and with interpersonal metaphors or cognitive markers (e.g. I think he is at home). Even here, you can combine all the elements to make a general analysis according to the interpersonal metafunction: - That will be Stella (epistemic certainty, finite modal operator, statement); - You should pay your taxes (deontic obligation, finite modal operator, command); - You must definitely take your medicine (deontic obligation, finite modal operator + mood adjunct, command); - That’s probably Stella (epistemic probability, mood adjunct, statement); - That will probably be Stella (epistemic probability, finite modal operator + mood adjunct, statement); - That must be Stella’s (epistemic probability, modal operator, statement); - Shall I close the door? (deontic inclination or willingness, finite modal operator, offer); - I will help you with the washing up (deontic inclination or willingness, finite modal operator, statement); - Stella usually arrives later (epistemic usuality, mood adjunct, statement). The thematic structure The thematic structure is the order in which elements follow each other and appear in the clause, so the division between theme and rheme. Themes can be subjects, complements and adjuncts: - Councils could offer loans to homeowners in Dilnot report proposal; - Record companies plan affordable alternatives; - The celebrated German art photographer Thomas Struth talks to Sean O’Hagan about his London retrospective; - The Latest Bank of England figures show a great amount of money was paid off the UK’s housing debt in the first quarter of 2011. The rheme can be also called new information (e.g. I’m getting tired of you, where I is the theme, while the rest is the new information). The concept of markedness must then be added to all this, which is a bit different from Italian. Unmarked structures are the standard structures that we can recognise in English. As a result, unmarked themes are the grammatical subjects with typical choices of grammar. The theme can be seen as: Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Subject (e.g. You probably haven’t heard the phone); - Heavy Subject, longer than the normal Subject (e.g. The languages that the Eskimo people speak around the top of the world, in distant places such as Siberia, differ quite a lot in details of vocabulary). Marked structures, instead, are atypical themes in the construction of the message according to the language standards. As a result, marked themes are what in a clause occupies the initial position and is atypical, not the grammatical subject. The themes here can be seen as: - Adjunct as theme (e.g. Out of Britain’s 37 most senior judges, only one is a woman); - Complement as theme (e.g. All the rest, we will do for you; Friends like that, I can do without; What I saw inside, I do not want to describe; Particularly significant was the way subjects reacted to the third task). Cleft sentences, also known as fronting, are, for example, Wh-Clefts, structures used if we want to focus the attention on one part of the sentence; the focus is on the noun phrase or noun clause, such as in What I have been hearing from some quarters is that maybe this debt limit thing is not really that serious. Another type of cleft sentences are Predicated themes as Cleft sentences or It-Clefts, where the attention is usually on nouns, pronouns but also adverbs: - It is you who has been blamed; - It is a commonplace that women need more care and support; - It was not until last night that we heard of him; - It is by pure chance (theme) that we have already averaged the essays out. The theme is generally placed at the beginning of the sentence, but it may not always be. In fact, it significantly changes position and recognisability depending on the type of sentence you want to analyse. For example, themes in interrogatives are quite different: - What happened to her? ; - After the party, what happened to her?; - Hasn’t he finished his story?; - So on Monday did they get the problem fixed?; - Did you see my glasses?; - Where are my glasses?. The topical thematic position in multiple themes can be occupied by a participant, a process, a circumstance, one of the experiential elements. There are three types of themes: textual themes, interpersonal themes and experiential themes or topical themes: - Well, (textual theme or textual adjunct) surely, (interpersonal theme or mood adjunct) Ken, (interpersonal theme or vocative) grammar (topical theme or subject) is your forte (rheme or finite + complement); - And, (textual theme or conjunction) probably, (interpersonal theme or mood adjunct) they (topical theme or subject) will not be able to come (rheme or finite + modal adjunct); - So, (textual theme or conjunction) daddy, (interpersonal theme or vocative) he (topical theme or subject) doesn’t like it (rheme or finite). Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Elliptical forms of relative clauses for expressive conciseness such as the elimination of relative and subordinate clauses to make the sentence lighter, denser on the level of nominalisation, and long sentences; - Pre-modifications such as nominal adjectivations (e.g. check-in time, destination marketing organisation, escorted all-inclusive tour, fly-cruise package, hub and spoken tour, receptive ground operator or turnaround time); - Nominalisations (e.g. upon arrival at the hotel or Ryanair travel insurance policy wording); - Special use of personal pronouns; - Use of superlative forms (e.g. The young Princess Elizabeth was one of the most famous inmates at the Tower of London; Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world); - Modals and passive forms; - Textual or marked constructions features, the placement of non-finite constructions for instance in a thematic position rather than in a rhematic one, that is, the fronting process, thematisation of non- finite clauses (-ed, -ing or to). Metaphors in tourism discourse In conceptual metaphor theory, metaphors are means to understand one domain of experience, a new, unknown one, a target domain, in terms of another, a familiar one, a source domain. The source domain is mapped onto the target domain. The structural components of the base conceptual schema are transferred to the target domain, thus also allowing for knowledge-based inferences and entailments. An image schema is a recurring, basic pattern in our daily experience. In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor involves mapping our knowledge of entities and activities from one experiential domain onto a different one. So, translation and metaphors are binary concepts: they both involve a source and a target, they both are derivative and they both involve the concept of sameness and difference; the only distinction is that translation transfers a concept, while the metaphor carries across a concept. Metaphors are figures of speech that involve describing an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. They come in various forms, each serving a different function or embodying a different level of creativity and usage. There are different types of metaphors: - Dead metaphors, those that have been used so often that they have lost their original imagery and vividness. They are so commonly used that we no longer notice them as metaphors; they are taken literally (e.g. time is running out, foot of the bed or leg of the table); - Stock metaphors, those that are conventional metaphors that are familiar and widely recognised within a culture. They haven’t necessarily lost their imagery but are well-known and often used (e.g. time is money, a flood of information or breaking the ice); - Recent metaphors, those that are newly coined expressions that are fresh and contemporary. They reflect current trends, technology, and cultural shifts, and often derive from new experiences or innovations (e.g. surfing the internet, the cloud, referring to cloud computing, or viral, describing the rapid spread of information online); - Schematic metaphors, those that are highly structured and often involve elaborate and systematic comparisons. They map one entire conceptual domain onto another, providing a framework to understand complex ideas. These metaphors are frequently used in academic or technical contexts (e.g. the mind as a computer, which involves thinking about mental processes in terms of computational processes); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Original metaphors, those that are novel, creative, and unique to a particular speaker or writer. They provide fresh, unexpected comparisons that offer new insights and perspectives (e.g. Her voice was a melody that danced on the strings of my heart or The city was a jungle, its streets vines of concrete and steel). In general, functions of metaphors in tourism discourse are carrying additional meanings, reducing strangeness, evocative function, persuasive function because metaphors change people’s attitudes more because metaphors appeal to the senses, enliven the discourse, and make it easier to attend to the arguments of the message, but also ideological function. Subsequently, according to Peter Newmark, there are many strategies to translate a metaphor: - Metaphor to metaphor (e.g. Travel through the heart of Scotland to Stirling translated as Attraversa il cuore della Scozia fino a Stirling); - Metaphor to a different metaphor (e.g. The beating heart of the city translated as Il cuore pulsante della città); - Metaphor to simile (e.g. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism translated as La Grande Barriera Corallina è come l’organismo vivente più grande del mondo); - Metaphor to simile plus sense (e.g. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living organism translated as La Grande Barriera Corallina è vibrante ed estesa, come l’organismo vivente più grande del mondo); - Converting Source Language image to sense (e.g. The bustling market was a hive of activity translated as Come un alveare di attività or Il mercato era affollato e vibrante); - Deletion (e.g. The city was a melting pot of cultures translated as La città era un miscuglio di culture). Tourism discourse in the European Union context Tourism discourse from a normative perspective incorporates various lexico-grammatical, rhetorical and discoursal conventions derived from legal discourse, including directives, regulations, decisions, and recommendations. These conventions are characterised by the use of long sentences, passive constructions, nominalisations, specialised lexis, archaic words and Latinisms. Legal language frequently appears in contexts such as protocols on tourism, measures in favour of tourism, policies on tourism, frameworks for tourism, European tourism policy, tourism statistics and measures affecting tourism. This type of discourse aims for conciseness, lacks emotional expression, and maintains monoreferentiality, ensuring that terms are used in a specific and unambiguous manner. Common syntactical patterns include phrases like tourism shall mean, domestic tourism shall, tourism must be, collection shall cover, tourism can be, tourism should be, and tourism sector should. An example illustrating this is found in the context of the European Community Directive 2006/516/EC on Tourism and the Alpine Convention, where it states: “[...] the Court decided to present a special report immediately [...] as a way of contributing to the clarification of the current situation of the measures in favour of tourism.” In general, the verb shall is commonly used for these types of text with many uses: - In first person expressing the future tense (e.g. This time next week I shall be in Scotland); - Expressing a strong assertion or intention (e.g. They shall succeed); - Expressing an instruction, command or obligation (e.g. Every employer shall take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees); - Used in questions indicating offers or suggestions (e.g. Shall I send you the book?); Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Used for emphasising that you are determined that something will definitely happen (e.g. You shall receive all the money that I owed to you); - Used in instructions and legal documents for saying that something must be done (e.g. The Court shall have authority to demand the presence of witnesses). Legalese is a specialised form of language used in legal documents and discourse. It is characterised by its formal, technical, and often complex style. The purpose of legalese is to provide precise and unambiguous wording to avoid misinterpretation and to ensure legal clarity and enforceability. Key syntactical features of legalese include simple sentences separated by semi-colons, complex sentences such as relative clauses, concessive clauses, purpose clauses and if-clauses, or non-finite clauses. Otherwise, modality in EU documents on tourism could be: - Epistemic modality, which expresses the speaker’s judgement of the world in the level of certainty, probability and possibility (e.g. It consists of boating harbours where boat owners can hire a berth in the water or a place on the land for the season or year); - Deontic modality, which expresses the way people should behave in the world in the level of obligation and permission (e.g. The proposal will lead to more comparable and thus more relevant data; A team will work under the direct supervision of a Director); - Dynamic modality, which expresses abilities and willingness that people have in the world in the level of ability (e.g. This would strengthen cooperation with Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Monaco. This would help to ensure that goals of the European Community are shared by regional). Promotional tourism Promotional tourism encompasses a variety of genres in its discourse, including catalogues, brochures, and itineraries. These materials aim to inform and attract potential tourists by highlighting the key features and attractions of various destinations. In addition, inflight magazines and tourism magazines provide engaging content for travellers, while tourist textbooks offer educational insights about different locations. The rise of e-tourism, facilitated through websites, has further expanded the reach and accessibility of tourism information, allowing potential travellers to explore destinations online. In the field of tourism, translation often involves rearranging and interpreting the unique traits of a given destination to make its cultural values accessible to a Target Language audience that may not be familiar with them but is eager to understand and appreciate them. This perspective views translation as a creative form of cultural mediation, where translators are required to exercise a degree of linguistic, textual, and cultural manipulation. The creativity involved in this process is essential, as it ensures the translated material resonates with the new audience while maintaining the original content’s integrity. According to Jeremy Munday, in addition to working competently between two languages, a translator should be a good copywriter. This highlights the importance of not only translating accurately but also crafting the text in a way that is compelling and engaging for the target audience. In the realm of tourism language translation, several principal linguistic devices are employed to effectively convey the essence and allure of destinations to target audiences: - Fixed expressions are fundamental linguistic tools used to ensure naturalness and authenticity in translated texts. By preserving familiar word combinations and idiomatic phrases, translators maintain the integrity and flavour of the original content. Examples of strong collocations and fixed expressions in the domain of English-Italian translation are breathtaking landscape translated as paesaggio mozzafiato, pristine coastline translated as coste inviolate, magnificent desert expanses translated as incantevoli distese desertiche, rugged mountains translated as aspri promontori, lush green valleys translated as vallate lussureggianti, abundant greenery translated as paesaggi verdeggianti or virgin sandy beaches translated as coste sabbiose ricche di spiagge incontaminate; Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo terminology. These specialised terms require careful consideration and may be translated using the aforementioned strategies to ensure accurate and effective communication in the Target Language: - Types of tours and tourism (e.g. agro tourism, incentive tour, rural tourism, space tourism, extreme tours, sustainable tourism, independent travel, self-guided tour, package tour, culinary tourism, Tolkien tour, week-end tour or day trip); - Industry professionals (e.g. guide, event organizer, chef, travel agent, kitchen assistant, airport baggage handler, car valet, tourist information centre assistant, delivery assistant, sports therapist, resort representative, outdoor pursuits leader or air traffic controller); - Accommodation (e.g. standard room, daily average rate, net rate, rack rate, reservation, cancellation, to book, room facilities, SPA, air-conditioning, limited-service hotel, mezzanine, occupancy, vacant, franchise, staff department, check-in or prepaid room). Websites in tourism discourse When designing travel websites, it is crucial to consider several key elements to ensure a seamless user experience and effective promotion. Here are some features commonly found in travel websites: - Functionality, because the user-friendly navigation is paramount. Visitors should be able to easily find information about destinations, accommodations, activities, and booking options. Clear menus, intuitive search functions, and well-organised content contribute to a positive user experience; - Aesthetics, because visual elements play a significant role in attracting and engaging users. This includes high-quality images showcasing destinations, promotional videos highlighting key attractions, and audio guides providing additional insights. Captivating subtitles and descriptive texts enhance the overall appeal of the website; - User Experience, because incorporating travellers’ blogs, reviews, and feedback adds authenticity and credibility to the website. Statistics about popular destinations, trends, and travel tips help users make informed decisions. Interactive features such as maps, itinerary planners, and social media integration further enhance the user experience. When translating websites for tourism purposes, several considerations come into play: - SEO optimisation, because translated texts should adhere to SEO rules to improve website visibility in Target Language search engines. This involves using relevant keywords, meta tags, and optimised content structure to rank higher in search results; - Localisation, because texts should be localised to resonate with the target audience. This includes adapting language, cultural references, measurement units, and currencies to suit the preferences and norms of the target culture. Rewriting or reformulating content may be necessary to ensure it aligns with cultural sensitivities and preferences; - Technical terminology, because specialised terms specific to the tourism industry must be accurately translated and integrated into the website. This ensures that information about destinations, accommodations, and activities is conveyed effectively to users; - Slogans and idioms, because promotional slogans, phrases, and idioms should be translated in a way that preserves their intended meaning and impact in the Target Language. This requires linguistic creativity and cultural insight to ensure that translated elements resonate with the target audience and effectively attract tourists. By incorporating these features and considerations, travel websites can effectively engage users, promote destinations, and facilitate seamless interactions for travellers across different cultures and languages. Linguistic and stylistic devices in promotional tourism are instead intensifiers, usually Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo an adverb added to an adjective (e.g. totally unique place or utterly gorgeous), rhetorical questions, repetitions and list of three, usually a question that does not require an answer (e.g. Want stunning scenery utter peace, total relaxation?), slogans, usually a catchphrase or a sentence that sums up a product or a person (e.g. Your own private movie is waiting) or logos, usually a graphic mark or a symbol representing the brand. Translation Studies Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet, in their seminal work from 1958, introduced a framework comprising strategies and procedures to guide translators in their craft. Their model delineates between strategies, which represent the overall orientation of a translated text, and procedures, which are specific techniques applied at various points within the text. Examples of strategies include free translation, idiomatic translation, domestication, and localisation, each reflecting a different approach to conveying meaning across languages. Procedures, on the other hand, encompass direct translation techniques such as literal translation, borrowing and calque, which involve directly importing words or phrases from the Source Language, as well as oblique translation methods like transposition, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation, which involve restructuring or modifying elements of the Source Text to better suit the Target Language and culture. Peter Newmark expanded upon this framework in his Textbook of Translation (1988), offering a taxonomy that categorises translation methods and procedures. Translation methods pertain to the overall approach adopted for the entire text, while translation procedures are applied at the level of sentences or smaller linguistic units. This taxonomy provides translators with a structured framework for analysing and executing translations, ensuring accuracy and fidelity to the original text while also accommodating linguistic and cultural nuances inherent in the Target Language. Translation encompasses various techniques and approaches to convey meaning from one language to another. These techniques range from direct methods like borrowing and calque to more nuanced strategies such as: - Borrowing, which involves directly transferring terms from the Source Language (SL) into the Target Language text. Examples include words like computer, internet, bulldozer and sushi. Calque, on the other hand, entails translating SL terms literally into the TL. An example is fin de semaine from French to English, which directly translates to weekend; - Literal translation, which is often used when there is a high degree of familiarity between the languages involved. However, more complex cases require oblique translation techniques: - Transposition, which is one such technique, involving changing one part of speech for another. This can be obligatory or optional. Common examples include converting verbs to nouns or adverbs to verbs to maintain the essence of the original meaning; - Modulation, which involves altering the semantics or point of view of the SL to better fit the TL. For instance, I will give it to you can be modulated to Puoi prenderlo in Italian; - Idiomatic translation, also known as equivalence, which deals with expressions like proverbs, sayings, and idioms, which may have entirely different stylistic and structural forms across languages. An example is Comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles in French, which translates to Like a bull in a China shop in English; - Adaptation, which is necessary when cultural references in the SL don’t exist in the TL. This involves substituting cultural elements with ones familiar to the target audience. For example, using cyclisme for the French, cricket for the English, baseball for Americans, or calcio for Italians to convey similar concepts or messages. Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo Talking about Newmark’s textual and culture-bound shifts, these are: - Transference, thus a loan by transliteration, associated to borrowing; - Naturalisation, thus a loan with adaptation to the pronunciation norms of the TL; - Cultural equivalent, thus approximate translations where a SL cultural word is translated by a TL cultural word (e.g. Montecitorio as the Italian Westminster); - Functional equivalent, thus something that gives an explanation or a generalisation of a cultural term by stating its function (e.g. baccalaureat translated as French secondary school leaving exam); - Descriptive equivalent, thus something not to be confused with the former as it offers merely a description (e.g. i.e., Samurai: the Japanese aristocracy from the eleventh to the nineteenth century); - Componential analysis, thus the splitting up of a lexical unit into its various sense components to compare it with the TL term; - Synonymy, thus a near TL equivalent to an SL word in a context, where a precise equivalent may or may not exist; - Through-translation, thus a calque or a loan translation, basically a literal translation; - Shifts, named also transposition, thus grammatical recategorization; - Recognised translation, thus the official translation of a term; - Translation label, thus a provisional translation, often literal, usually for a new institution; - Compensation, thus the compensation of a loss of meaning in another part of the sentence; - Reduction, thus a translation procedure which Newmark defines as imprecise, resulting in a reduction of the ST; - Notes, additions and glosses, thus ways to add new information on a given item. The functional theories of translation, prominent during the 1970s and 1980s, marked a significant departure from purely linguistic typologies to a more nuanced consideration of cultural aspects within target contexts. Several key scholars contributed to this shift, each emphasising different aspects of translation theory. Katharina Reiss, for instance, underlined equivalence at text levels, highlighting the importance of understanding the language functions inherent in different text types. Meanwhile, Mary Snell-Hornby proposed an integrated approach to text types in translation, aiming to bridge the gap between linguistic theory and practical translation techniques. Hans Vermeer introduced the skopos theory, which posits that translation depends on the purpose or function of the Target Text, prioritising the intended communicative goal over strict adherence to the Source Text. In the 1990s and beyond, Christiane Nord further developed functionalist approaches to translation, offering a text-analysis model rooted in this tradition. This period also saw the application of discourse analysis, often in conjunction with SFL, to Translation Studies, enriching the understanding of how language functions in different contexts. Roman Jakobson’s framework of language functions provides a foundational perspective for understanding the communicative aspects of translation. These functions include: - Emotive function, which relates to the expression of feelings or the author’s state of mind through interjections like Bah! or Oh!; - Conative function, focusing on the impact or reaction on the addressee, often conveyed through imperatives such as Use Trados, you will see the benefits!; - Referential function, centred on conveying content-based information about objects or events in the context, as exemplified by the statement Water boils at 100 degrees; Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Intralingual Translation or Rewording, which involves interpreting verbal signs using other signs of the same language. For instance, simplifying complex language or rephrasing sentences within the same language for clarity; - Interlingual Translation or Translation Proper, which interprets verbal signs by means of signs from another language. It is the traditional form of translation where content is translated from one language to another; - Intersemiotic Translation or Transmutation, which involves interpreting verbal signs using signs from nonverbal sign systems. Audio Description falls under this category, as it translates visual information into verbal descriptions. Audio descriptions for accessible museums are again of other two types: - In-museum tours, because in a museum, people may easily spend an hour standing and walking through an exhibition; - Virtual tours, because if the museum website offers a selection of works from its permanent collection, audio tour stops can be longer than in-museum tour stops. Visitors will listen to the verbal descriptions at their leisure, probably sitting down. So they will be more inclined to listen to longer stops. Types of audio descriptions could be live audio descriptions, which offer a multisensory experience, a touching tour, often incorporating tactile elements to enhance the visitor’s understanding and connection to the exhibits, or recorded audio descriptive guides. These pre-recorded guides provide consistent and detailed descriptions, allowing visitors to explore at their own pace. Audio verbal description is a key tool for making museums accessible to visually impaired visitors. It uses language to convey the visual world, helping to navigate through the museum, explain works of art, and provide access to visual aspects of performances. There are some general features for the analysis of an audio description: - Introduce a brief description of gallery spaces and museum architecture; - Create a sense of welcome and encourage a future relationship with the museum; - Incorporate navigational and orientation cues. At the same time, it is important to underline some specific features, highlighting distinct characteristics that warrant closer examination: - Standard information found on a museum’s object label or panel, such as artist, nationality, title, date, dimension and the location of the work; - General overview, such has subject, form and colour; - The orientation of the listener with directions; - The description of techniques; - The use of specific words; - The use of the focal point; - The provision of vivid details; - Refer to senses other than sight; - Use analogies. When crafting advertisements for artworks, it’s crucial to adhere to certain linguistic principles to effectively convey information and descriptions. Here are two key guidelines: Professoressa Alessandra Rizzo - Use simple sentences that are direct and encapsulate a single thought or image. Avoid complex structures like complex sentences, complex-compound sentences, and non-defining clauses with which, that, who, while or when. Instead, opt for two simple sentences whenever possible (e.g. Instead of The sky, which extends across the entire top of the painting, is blue, it is preferable The sky is blue. It extends across the entire top of the painting); - Use active verbs to maintain clarity and engagement. Passive constructions can introduce ambiguity and require listeners to mentally unravel the information (e.g. Instead of Having been influenced by Cubism, the young artist’s work was reflective of its principles, it is preferable Cubism influenced the young artist, and his work reflected its principles). In the realm of museum settings, the linguistic nuances within advertisements play a pivotal role in conveying meanings effectively. For example, lexical density refers to the proportion of lexical words relative to the total word count in a text. These words carry the crux of meaning, offering insights into the text’s subject matter. Grammatical words, on the other hand, contribute minimally to content comprehension. For museum ADs, which aim to articulate visual stimuli into verbal narratives, a high lexical density is anticipated, as it ensures informative and substantive communication. Another setting is semantic and textual complexity because, given the intricate and at times abstract nature of the concepts encountered in museum exhibits, ADs necessitate a heightened level of semantic and textual complexity. This complexity demands a specialised lexicon and deliberate lexical choices laden with descriptive richness. By leveraging nuanced language, ADs can effectively capture the essence of the artwork and engage visitors in a meaningful dialogue. While simplicity in language aids the active process of listening to ADs amidst the museum’s bustling environment, excessively brief or oversimplified content risks diluting the intended message. Striking a balance between clarity and depth is paramount. Concise sentences facilitate swift comprehension, enabling visitors to navigate the museum space seamlessly. However, an overemphasis on brevity can undermine the AD’s ability to encapsulate the artwork’s essence fully. When structuring descriptors for artworks in advertisements, various adjective-noun constructions play a crucial role in elucidating their characteristics. Here’s an overview of these structures and how they contribute to lexical density: - Adjective + noun construction, a format, coupled with determiners, such as a ragged edge, which succinctly captures specific attributes of the artwork, offering a clear and tangible description; - Adjective + noun sequences, like fine bronze chain, which allows for a nuanced portrayal of the artwork’s features, enhancing the richness of its depiction; - Evaluative and colour adjectives, because incorporating evaluative and colour adjectives, as seen in a brilliant warm white and green patina, adds depth and vibrancy to the artwork’s portrayal, enriching the viewer’s sensory experience; - Lexical rows, employing lexical rows, such as made from an ancient, battered bronze bowl or a kneeling, naked woman, which facilitates detailed and multifaceted descriptions, fostering a comprehensive understanding of the artwork’s composition and context; - Noun modifiers used with adjectival function, like stone statues, which enhances specificity and clarity in describing the artwork’s material and form. ADs expository texts are characterised by high lexical density, comprising informative and descriptive adjectives. Avoiding linguistic vagueness and opting for specificity over generality is imperative in substituting visual images with textual descriptions. A rich, descriptive, and varied vocabulary is essential to concretely convey the meanings encapsulated within museum labels/panels.