Where to stay in the UK and in Italy: a comparative study of the language of holiday accommodation advertisements

Table 3.14: Extracts from luxury hotels promotional texts taken from the multilingual parallel corpus.

As Dann (1996 in de Stasio / Palusci 2007: 99) explains, the writer of a tourist promotional text "chooses an informative and emphatic use of language to maintain the referential and the persuasive function that fulfil the rhetorical task of the language of tourism, a language both of information and consumption."

Accordingly, when translating tourist texts, it is important to take into account both the informative and the promotional intentions of the author of the source text. The translator will then have to cope with the rendition of promotional linguistic features as well as of that of standardised expressions and technical terminology. As the primary aim of the translation of a tourist text is to avoid miscommunication and keep the same message in the target text, translation always involves decision-making processes on the part of the translator. The following are some instances of English expressions which should be translated having in mind these translator's complex tasks, rather than just by substituting words:

Table 3.15: Mistranslations and possible solutions of some translated expressions drawn from luxury hotels promotional texts.

The extracts in Table 3.16 show some examples of rather successful translations and, in particular, instances of how shared knowledge can be built up in tourist promotional texts through specific linguistic choices.

Table 3.16: Extracts from promotional texts taken from the multilingual parallel corpus.

The translator's decision keep the Italian term "Piazza San Marco" in the English version is of interest, since it can be used to communicate the area's attraction and help build a particular image of it. In other words, it has the potential to reflect and construe a local identity and to take on a positive connotation. As Poncini (2002: 141) points out, linguistic choices that help create or build shared knowledge not only increase the readers' awareness but also their appreciation of these features and their value. Keeping rather than translating them involves the visitor in the travel experience and, at the same time, contributes maintaining aspects of local identity.
In addition to this, the use of evaluative language (e.g. enjoy), and reference to the reader (you / your) seem to address him/her directly. In this perspective, it could be argued that the translator's decision to replace "ammirare" with "enjoy" and "visitatori / ospiti" with "you" is appropriate. However, other translated expressions do not seem to sound natural, as the language of most original English tourist texts in my corpus is usually clearer and the register is more informal.

Some examples of these features include:

Table 3.17: Mistranslations and possible solutions of some translated expressions drawn from luxury hotels promotional texts sub-corpus.

While this seems to be a minor point, in five-star luxury hotels the imprecisions may detract from general credibility, even though it is accompanied by high quality graphics and photographs.
All things considered, it can be argued that most of these translated promotional texts are comprehensible and English speaking tourists will not have too much trouble understanding their meaning. However, some parts in these texts are rather inadequate, as they do not take into account obligatory features they have to contain, standardised expressions, technical terminology and different cultural meanings. Obviously, equivalent words for concepts may at times not be available, but the translator should not gloss over these problems, but rather try to find acceptable solutions.