Translating politeness on public notices with a directive function in Thessaloniki: A cross-cultural perspective
Abstract
This paper examines notices with a directive function that have been translated from Greek into English in the public spaces of Thessaloniki. In particular, it explores the ways in which Greek politeness is expressed and how this politeness is rendered in the English translation of the original Greek texts. The paper uses photographic data collected in 2020. Using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) concept of face, the methodology used is a combination of the qualitative ethnographic approach employed in contemporary linguistic landscape research and Bourdieu’s habitus approach used in the sociology of translation. The analysis shows that the translations examined often retain aspects of Greek politeness strategies, affecting the message of the English target text to varying degrees.
Keywords:
Publication history
Table of contents
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Greek politeness strategies are rendered into English in translated notices visible in the public spaces of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is Greece’s second largest city with a population of 1,104,460 people, consisting of native Greeks, communities of Europeans from neighbouring Balkan states and Western Europe, and more recently a growing number of people from Asian and African countries as a result of the refugee crisis. The city’s status as a tourist destination has led to many notices and signs throughout the city being translated into other languages that can be understood by visitors, but also residents who do not understand Greek.
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