Tourism communication: the translator’s responsibility in the translation of cultural difference

Tourist discourse can be considered as a specialised type of cross-cultural communication. The subject of this work is the degree of intervention translators are asked to exercise in order to achieve successful communication. Their task is not that of demonstrating their knowledge on specifi c subje...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mirella Agorni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Instituto de Investigación Social y Turismo 2012-05-01
Series:PASOS Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.pasosonline.org/Publicados/10412special/PS0412_02.pdf
Description
Summary:Tourist discourse can be considered as a specialised type of cross-cultural communication. The subject of this work is the degree of intervention translators are asked to exercise in order to achieve successful communication. Their task is not that of demonstrating their knowledge on specifi c subjects, as, rather, their capacity of mediating it, so as to make it available to a type of tourist who is necessarily different from that targeted by the original work. Hence, translators should learn to dose the amount of information tourists will be able to take in. Theoretical assumptions will be illustrated by means of a comparison between a tourist text in Italian and its translation into English. It will be demonstrated that translators’ decisions at linguistic and explanatory level allow a more or less substantial degree of reader involvement, and consequently affect the promotion of tourist destinations.
ISSN:1695-7121