Where to stay in the UK and in Italy: a comparative study of the language of holiday accommodation advertisements
Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
Facoltà di Scienze Politiche
Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature anglo-germaniche e slave
Relatore: Prof. Erik Castello
Tesi di laurea di: Beatrice Stellin (Matr. N. 614513 MZL)
3.3.1 - Hostels
| SOURCE TEXT | TARGET TEXT |
| Smart Russell Square is the perfect hostel to reach any destination in London with ease, as it's right in the centre of London and very close to main bus routes and the London Underground. And if you'd rather stay in the hostel, with our friendly atmosphere there's always fun and interesting people to meet and exchange travel stories with. |
Smart Russell Square è l'ostello ideale per raggiungere qualsiasi destinazione a Londra con facilità, perché è proprio nel centro di Londra e nelle immediate vicinanze delle principali linee di autobus e della metropolitana di Londra. E se preferisci rimanere in ostello, con la nostra atmosfera amichevole c'è sempre divertimento e persone interessanti da incontrare e con cui scambiare racconti di viaggio. |
Table 3.8: Extracts from hostels promotional texts taken from the multilingual parallel corpus.
One of the most difficult tasks in translating promotional texts is the use of colloquial language that sounds reader-friendly, but is not easy to render in another language. The example above demonstrates that the promotional text is intended for a wide readership and a large tourist target. The colloquial register is one of the strategies that can be used to reach as many tourists as possible. However, the translations of expressions such as "friendly atmosphere" are usually tricky to translate into Italian because the chosen terms should create the same specific image of the place in the reader's mind. Local culture and colloquial language are not easy to transpose in a target language. In the case being analysed, the colloquial expression "friendly atmosphere" could be translated as "atmosfera calda ed accogliente / informale" rather than "atmosfera amichevole", which seems to be a mere substitution of words rather than a search for real pragmatic equivalents. In addition to this the Italian version, in contrast with the English one, should not use "tu" as an explicit pronominal reference to the reader, because Italian politeness rules are often different from the English ones and the Italian promotional texts tend to address the reader using "voi".
| SOURCE TEXT | TARGET TEXT |
| Il nostro Bar Living Room Café è situato al piano terra del nostro edificio. Qui verrà offerta una abbondante colazione, ottimi aperitivi prima dei pasti e un'ottima cucina italiana. Assaggiate la nostra pasta o le nostre insalate fresche e abbondanti, il tutto a un ottimo rapporto qualità/ prezzo. La sera deliziatevi con una cenetta e terminate la serata con i nostri cocktails o una birra ghiacciata. |
Our bar is called the "Living Room" and you'll find it right downstairs from the hostel! It's the best in Rome to eat a delicious Italian breakfast, with a croissant and cafe, and it's where everyone comes for lunch. Have a tasty plate of Italian pasta, salad or dessert and be sure to come back at night time, when the bar turns into a nightclub and everyone joins us for our weekly pub crawls! |
Table 3.9: Extracts of hostels promotional texts taken from my multilingual parallel corpus.
Table 3.9 illustrates an interesting translation case which implies the adaptation to the target culture, not only through linguistic transfer but also through cultural transfer. As Basset (2002 in de Stasio / Palusci: 2007: 102) outlines, translation is a process of negotiation between texts and between cultures, a process in which all transactions take place thanks to the translator. In this extract, the translator decided to speak about nightclub and the phenomenon of pub crawls, referring to the hostel bar during the night, while in the Italian original version the author suggests having a cenetta and then having a cocktail or a birra ghiacciata. Therefore, it can be said that in this translation the translator bore in mind the expectations of the target readers. As a matter of fact, the translator should not only choose appropriate terms in English taking into account potential connotations but also considers the aspects that should be given emphasis and those that should be given less importance.