Riassunto esame Lingua e Traduzione Inglese 2, prof. Sciacco e prof. Zago, libri consigliati Mastering Advanced English Language (MAEL); Tourism Discourse; Specialized Translation

The main difference between them is that in specialized discourse nominalization is exploited together with pre-modification.

The use of the nominalized form with nominal adjectivation and pre-modification allows the exploitation of syntactic conciseness. The pervasiveness of nominalization in specialized texts seems to point to an aim to convey more objective and precise data, but this favors the organization of textual construction in a theme-rheme pattern: the reintroduction and thematization of already-known elements in a pre-modified and nominalized form facilitates cohesion. The lexical density is the result of the elaboration of a complex syntax, characterized by elementary surface structures and simple syntax vs. complex and long pre-modified noun phrases.

Personal pronouns acquire a special role in guidebooks and similar genres, since they are used to achieve the goal of ego-targeting. One of the most efficient methods used to generate a persuasive text is the creation of a

The personal relationship between the actors of the communicative event is crucial in specialized discourse. It allows for easy agreement and establishes empathy.

One characteristic of tourism language as specialized discourse is the frequent use of superlatives. Superlatives are used with positive terms to convey a sense of excitement for the promoted services and a feeling of distinctiveness and authenticity.

The pragmatic function of verb tenses, mode, and voice is essential in specialized discourse. The choice of verb tenses depends on the communicative purposes. The present indicative tense is widely used in scientific texts, while imperatives are typical in technical handbooks. In tourism language, the present simple tense is most commonly used in tourist guides, brochures, and itineraries to give the impression of a longer and more permanent stay in the city. Imperatives are also frequently used in tourism discourse in the holiday industry.

employed in guides and brochures. The pragmatic purpose of the imperative is not that of giving orders but rather to urge tourists to avail themselves of the chances they are offered. - Modal verbs occupy a special position within specialized discourse modality is realized using expressions which indicate how the world might be (= truth about the world) and should be (= judgement about the world). This includes expressions of necessity, permissibility and probability, and negations of these. In business, modality expresses interpersonal perspectives in which modals as hedging devices are associated with notions of caution, certainty and uncertainty, strengthening and weakening and degree of commitment of the economist. Modality in legal discourse is linked to expressions revealing epistemic and deontic certainties and necessities. In tourism, modality is expressed in the same way whenever the text indicates a contract or legislation. It does not express deontic or epistemic meaning, but rather

A way of behaving, a mode of action to be undertaken by the tourist. So modality prompts an action. The main modals employed are can and will, which convey the idea of possibility and certainty. In these cases, the reference to the tourist you is explicit. There is a difference in the use of you according to the auxiliary employed in the text. Whenever the impression of certainty is conveyed by means of will, if the collocate is an experiential verb, then you has the subject function; if this is not the case, you occupies the object position. Must is also employed and it expresses a nominalized form in such expressions as a must-see, a must-do and a must. This is extremely concise. The nominalized form expresses a necessity but who considers it a necessity or why it is so is not mentioned. When must is used as a nominalization, it acquires a colloquial status and indicates a necessity, something the tourist can't miss. This creates the illusion of a friendly relationship with the writer.

of the tourist text (empathy).- The use of passives in English specialized discourse assures a high degree of depersonalization, which allows the foregrounding of facts, events, results and experiments and thus diminishes the importance of the role of the author. This is a feature which occurs frequently in tourism discourse, whenever the emphasis is on the object of the predicate rather than on the agent of the action. Passives are used to depersonalize discourse which emphasizes the effect or outcome of an action rather than its cause or originator. If tourism discourse targets the tourist directly, the agent may be expressed to clarify who does what. Using the passive voice can be useful to thematize information within the sentences.- Specialized discourse is characterized by features related to the textual framework. These are exploited also in general language, but in specialized discourse seem to be more extensively used. The exception is anaphoric reference, one of the elements that

Better realizes textual cohesion. Anaphora in specialized texts, especially in legal ones, is usually replaced by lexical repetition. The less frequent use of anaphoric reference and the exploitation of lexical repetition is possible in tourism discourse whenever the text has been created as a tourist contract. Anaphoric reference in such type of tourist texts does not refer to the semantic value of the lexical terms expressed but rather reflects the illocutionary purpose of that sentence the communicative intention expressed by the speaker. Conjunctions and connectives have the same pragmatic function as anaphora: they clarify the sentences and illocutionarily orientate the text. When adversative connectives as yet, however, but, on the other hand occur, readers expect to find a subsequent counterclaiming sentence, semantically opposed to the previous one, whereas conjunctions as since, for, because introduce an explanatory sentence illustrating a semantic reason for what is being said.

The use of conjunctions and positive connectives expresses positive semantic polarity in the text, whereas adversative connectives reflect the negative semantic polarity assigned to the text.

The textual framework of a specialized text depends on the sequence of theme (= items introducing the topic or theme) and rheme (= items containing an expansion of what has been presented in the thematic position).

The theme-rheme positioning overlaps with the semiotic 'given-new' distribution within any text. A given item of information usually coincides with the theme, whereas any new item usually corresponds with the rheme.

In English, the theme generally matches the subject of the sentence and occurs in the initial position. The thematic pattern of authors in specialized discourse follows the same conventions which characterize general language.

→Chapter 4 The dynamic structure of society is closely reflected in discourse. So to carry out any linguistic analysis of this issue, all

background information has to be taken into consideration. All (specialized) texts have a hidden skeleton forming the textual pattern of the document. The type of skeleton affects the type of conceptual, rhetorical and linguistic aspects. The pragmatic function of the document under investigation determines the choice of the conventional framework characterizing the textual genre. To categorize textual typologies within tourism discourse, the pragmatic function of the text has been investigated, allowing an open classification of tourism texts. This label texts and genres. Tourist text types are hybrid genres which share various linguistic and discursive strategies belonging to other genres and thus exploit interdiscursivity. Dynamism has a dominant role in the elaboration of genres which embed more than one code and resort to multimodality. The language of tourism is thus a deal more than a metaphor. The language of tourism attempts to persuade, lure, woo and seduce human beings, and, in

Doing so, convert them from potential into actual clients. Four major theoretical approaches are generally adopted to understand the language of tourism and tourism itself as a social phenomenon:

1. The authenticity approach
2. The strangehood approach
3. The play approach
4. The conflict approach

The authenticity approach derived from criticisms of the tourist industry, which considered tourism as being based on escapist fantasy. From the perspective of authenticity, the motivation behind tourism is a search for authenticity. The language of tourism enhances the impression of authenticity through explicit expressions, describing what is native and typical of the destination. This authenticity is fictitious because the real destination has been manipulated and commercialized.

The strangehood approach emphasizes the search for something different and for new experiences. The desire for something new and exotic is reflected in the language of tourism, mainly in descriptions of places and people.

The comments of tourists on the destination form a discursive background contributing to arousing potential tourists' expectations of the location itself. The tourists' verbal accounts of their holiday experience placed on the internet are not merely a feedback to the services provided but also show that comments and opinions may be consulted before the actual experience is decided on.

The play approach is identified with the concept of the recreational tourist. Its main feature is the search for the out-of-the-ordinary when travelling. Tourism itself is seen as a game. This approach provides tourists with experiences which do not match up with the cultural and environmental conditions of the visited destinations: the play perspective avoids any contact by the visitor with the native culture. What is important is the spectacle and holiday resorts compete in providing a variety of visual experiences. People are prepared for what they will see by the media and by tourism.

communication channels, which create in the tourist’s minds a place in which they can ‘live’ a holiday experience and what such a place offers. According to the conflict approach, the world appears to be divided between the familiar (us) and the strange (them). The strangeness of what is exotic can be played down trough language. Language aims to make what is unknown become less fearsome and dangerous and sets it in representation of figures of the past. The discourse connected to this becomes a set of stereotypes. Language is not even trying to be accurate but declares that things are real because it places them in a context of timelessness. This language does not describe, it reconstructs, reassembles and shapes the unknown. The four perspectives have different theoretical points of departure but may converge where there is a shared appreciation of the importance of language. They might even be present simultaneously in complex text types.

- The genres and texts to be

The analyzed have been selected very carefully. Traditional tourism literature has the following genres: tourist ad posters, catalogues and brochures, in-flight magazines, tourist guides. Tourist ad posters are indicated in full detail; catalogues, brochures and in-flight magazines are quoted with the initial of the genre.