Lingua inglese II - The Language of Tourism

TOURISM DISCOURSE - ENGLISH II

Tourism can be identified as a cross-cutting sector involving a big diversity of services and professions linked to many other economic activities and policy areas. The Tourism industry is designed to attract as many customers as possible in order to make profit and it involves many different disciplines like marketing, history, geography, sociology, psychology etc. It is also one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world.

Tourism Discourse

Dann (1996) distinguishes tourism texts according to the type of MEDIUM they use (audio, video, written etc.) and to their STAGE in the tourist cycle: pre-trip, on-trip, post-trip.

1. PRE-TRIP includes: Advertisement, Brochures, Leaflets;
2. ON-TRIP includes: Itineraries and Tour Guides;
3. POST-TRIP includes: Trip-report and Reviews.

Besides Dann's identification, tourism discourse can be divided into PROMOTIONAL and SPECIALIZED discourse according to the pragmatic function of the texts. Promotional texts are

dresses the text with persuasive language and enticing descriptions of the destination, highlighting its attractions and unique features. The aim is to create a desire in the reader to visit the location and experience all that it has to offer. 2. Brochures - These are informative materials that provide detailed information about a specific destination, including its attractions, accommodations, activities, and services. Brochures are usually designed in a visually appealing way, with colorful images and catchy headlines to capture the reader's attention. They are often distributed in tourist information centers, hotels, and travel agencies. 3. Travel Guides - These are comprehensive books or online resources that provide detailed information about various destinations, including their history, culture, attractions, accommodations, and recommended itineraries. Travel guides are aimed at helping travelers plan their trips and make informed decisions about where to go and what to do. 4. Press Releases - These are official statements issued by tourism organizations or businesses to announce new developments, events, or promotions related to a specific destination or tourism product. Press releases are usually sent to media outlets in order to generate publicity and attract attention to the destination or product being promoted. 5. Social Media Posts - With the rise of social media platforms, tourism organizations and businesses often use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote their destinations or products. Social media posts can include photos, videos, and captions that highlight the unique features and experiences offered by a destination or product. Specialized discourse in the tourism field includes: 1. Norms and Legislation - These are texts that outline the rules, regulations, and laws governing the tourism industry. They may include guidelines for tourism development, environmental protection, safety standards, and licensing requirements. 2. Contracts and Agreements - These are legal documents that establish the terms and conditions of agreements between different parties in the tourism industry, such as tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, and transportation providers. 3. Conventions and Conferences - These are texts related to the organization and management of tourism-related events, such as conferences, trade shows, and exhibitions. They may include information about the program, speakers, exhibitors, and logistics. 4. Marketing Strategies and Plans - These are texts that outline the marketing strategies and plans for promoting a specific destination or tourism product. They may include market research, target audience analysis, branding, advertising campaigns, and promotional activities. 5. Tourism Planning and Governance - These are texts that deal with the planning and management of tourism destinations or regions. They may include tourism development plans, sustainability strategies, infrastructure development, and stakeholder engagement. In conclusion, promotional texts aim to persuade and attract potential clients, while specialized discourse in the tourism field focuses on communication between experts and specialists in the industry. Both types of texts play a crucial role in the promotion and management of tourism destinations and products.

includes amain text that provides clear information and a slogan or a logo that identifies the destination inorder to remain in the reader's mind (take a look to AIDA principle);

Tourist Guides - They contain information about places from artistic and historical point of viewand also practical information about museum, sightseeing, restaurants, itineraries, food, nightlifeand so on (they are the easiest to translate). They are the longest touristic texts and are written in anarrative way. The language could be both colloquial and formal. They use emotive words andforeign words and idioms in order to confer an exotic flavour to the destination. A destination isauthentic when the pleasure of the tourists from their holyday corresponds to their expectations;

Brochures and Leaflets - Their main purpose is to selling touristic products and are the mostpersuasive texts of tourism. Lexis is extremely simple, understandable and accessible;

Itineraries - They contain descriptive

• Information about the places to be visited and the activities offered to the customers and they are generally printed on a single sheet or paper with short and clear messages divided in paragraphs. All of them use English as LINGUA FRANCA;
• Articles in Specialized Magazines - Similar to Touristic Guides they provide information about locations and also details of various offers;
• In-flight Magazines - They are free magazines provided on planes and they are part of the flight marketing process and present the company as the best expert in the field in order to offer the travelers an higher sense of security.

SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE

A specialized text uses a mixture of lexis, syntactic and semantic features which differ to general language in order to achieve their purpose depending on the type of addressee and field. The main elements that characterized specialized discourse are:

1. LEXICAL Features
• MONOREFERENTIALITY: one only meaning is accepted in order to reduce ambiguity;
• LACK OF

1. EMOTION:

   words have only a denotative function because the text is informative and not persuasive;

2. PRECISION:

   immediately assigned a precise meaning to a word;

3. TRANSPARENCY:

   immediately identified a concept;

4. CONCISENESS:

   the shortest possible way to show a concept by using acronyms, abbreviations, eponyms, blending and zero derivation.

2. SEMANTIC Features

1. METAPHORIZATION:

   is a language strategy that use a figure of speech called metaphor in order to say concisely what in other words would need long explanation. Metaphorization uses CATACHRESIS which concerns the use of a word with a new meaning like a neologism;

2. ELLIPTIC SIMILES:

   a strategy that tend to omit element in order to achieve a greater effect;

3. PARADOXES AND PUNS:

   are "giochi di parole" that tend to exaggerate a concept and they are used especially in slogan to persuade the customers.

3. SYNTACTIC Features

• CONCISENESS:

  is referred to the omission of phrasal element such as articles, preposition etc. Generally,

view of the subject (it is recommended, it is said, it is believed); RHETORICAL QUESTIONS: are used to engage the reader and make them think aboutthe topic (why not take advantage of this offer?); REPETITION: is used to emphasize a point or to create a sense of urgency (don't missout, book now!); RHETORICAL DEVICES: such as alliteration, parallelism, and antithesis are used tocreate a memorable and persuasive message (sail, sun, and sand; explore, experience,enjoy); DIRECT ADDRESS: using the second person pronoun "you" to directly speak to thereader and create a personal connection (you deserve a vacation); EVIDENCE/STATISTICS: using facts and figures to support claims and make theargument more convincing (over 90% of customers recommend our services).view of the author (you will be met=sarete accolti); PERSONAL PRONOUNS: are used in order to establish an empathic relationship between the writer and the reader and achieve the goal of EGO-TARGETING, which is a technique that through the use of pronouns WE and YOU tend to assure the reader to be the only addressee of the message; SUPERLATIVE FORM: used to transmit a sense of authenticity to the destination or also to give the impression to be the best in the world in the field (like in-flight magazines); CONJUNCTIONS: are used to clarify the sentence and avoid relative or subordinate clauses; THEME/RHEME: are the two part in which an English sentence is composed. The theme is the topic of the sentence while the rheme is the way in which the author talk about it, what he is saying about it, the goal of the utterance. Generally theme comes at the beginning while rheme comes at the end of a sentence. This sequence makes the text more CHOESIVE and COHERENT. CHOESION: is the union of

part of the writing in order to make the reader capable to associate concepts together using language strategy and signals like repetition of words (in addiction/however refers to a sentence of idea previously mentioned);

COHERENCE: is a semantic property of the discourse that use logical or natural connection in order to facilitate the interpretation of the writing. It is composed by Pronouns, Synonyms, Transitional Words (also/but/moreover) and Repetitions or Parallels to help the reader to follow the discourse;

FUCNTIONS OF THE LANGUAGE OF TOURISM ELABORATE by JAKOBSON

Jakobson distinguishes six communication functions, each associated with a dimension or factor of the communication process:

1. Emotive: contextual information - SENDER
2. Phatic: auto-reflection - COMMUNICATION CHANNEL
3. Conative: self-expression - RECEIVER
4. Poetic: vocative or imperative addressing of receiver - MESSAGE
5. Metalinguistic: checking channel working - CODE
6. Referential: checking code working - CONTEXT

Emotive Function concentrates the attention on the SENDER of the message. It comes when the sender has as purpose the expression of his feelings.

The Phatic Function is concentrated to the COMMUNICATION CHANNEL and it is used to maintain the attention of the receiver using phrases like "are you following/listening/hearing me?".

The Conative Function concentrates the attention on the RECEIVER in order to influence his behavior by using imperative forms or verbs to persuade, recommend, order, permit like "Go ahead!".

The Poetic Function is concentrated on the MESSAGE and enhances the significant using rhetorical tropes like metaphor, allegories etc. obliging the receiver to recode the message.

The Metalinguistic Function refers to the CODE itself and it appears when the code speaks about the code like in a caption.

The Referential Function is concentrated on the CONTEXT and it comes when an information about the context like "the flight lives at 5.oo p.m." is

AIDA PRINCIPLE

AIDA is an acronym used in marketing and advertising that describes a common list of events that may occur when a consumer engages with an advertisement.

• A - Attention/Awareness: attract the attention of the customer.
• I - Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on demonstrating advantages and benefits like features as in traditional advertising;
• D - Desire: convince customers to buy the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs;
• A - Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

WEB TRANSLATION

The main purpose of translation is make an original text familiar and near to the target culture; domesticate a text means make it more similar as possible to the initial language not only for linguistic reasons but also taking into consideration the culture of the foreign country. To reach this goal and also the attention of the reader it is used a strategy called CODE-SWITCHING. It is a switching between two languages.

varieties used in the same conversation. The use of foreign words or idioms of another country and social-cultural context is called LANGUAGING. This concept refers to a translation strategy called LOCALITATION that tends to take into account not only linguistic elements but also other features of the language in which the text is translated, such as cultural, social, and political ones, and so on.

CORPUS LINGUISTICS

CORPUS refers to a collection of texts belonging to or identifiable to a particular genre or a specific historical period. CORPUS LINGUISTICS is a methodology that investigates a complex domain of texts like tourism discourse because it is a hybrid genre influenced by a variety of other disciplines such as art, geography, sociology, history, economy, etc. To analyze such a complex corpus, we have to divide it into several SUB-DOMAINS or REGISTERS. A register is a variety of language that is appropriate to a specific situation. Register variation could be in:

A. FIELD: Field refers to the

subject