Cover not available
Part of
Pragmatics and Translation
Edited by Miriam A. Locher, Daria Dayter and Thomas C. Messerli
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 337] 2023
► pp. 121–146

Chapter 6
Politeness in notices translated from Greek into English in Thessaloniki’s public spaces from a cross-cultural perspective and translator/student translator evaluations

| Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
This chapter examines notices that have been translated from Greek into English and are visible in the public spaces of Thessaloniki. It uses photographic data collected during ethnographic fieldwork in the city in 2020, a time that coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and an increased number of signs. By drawing on Brown and Levinson’s concept of face and more recent discursive approaches to politeness, the chapter explores the ways in which Greek politeness is expressed and rendered into English and how a group of translation students and translation professionals perceive the degree to which the Greek source texts have been successfully rendered into English.
Keywords: translation, politeness, pragmatic awareness, directive signs, translation landscape
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and theoretical background
  • 2.Data and methodology
    • 2.1Data description
    • 2.2Methodology
    • 2.3Participants and their background
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Translated notices
    • 3.2Participant perceptions
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.337.06lee
References (42)
References
Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2014. “Computer-Mediated-Communication and Linguistic Landscapes.” In Research Methods in Sociolinguistics: A Practical Guide, ed. by Janet Holmes, and Kirk Hazen, 74–80. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Angelelli, Claudia. V. 2014. “Introduction: The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies.” In The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies, ed. by Claudia V. Angelelli, 1–5. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Antonini, Rachele, Letitzia Cirillo, Linda Rossato, and Ira Torresi (eds). 2017. Non-professional Interpreting and Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bella, Spyridoula and Eva Ogiermann. 2019. “An Intergenerational Perspective on (Im)politeness.” Journal of Politeness Research 15: 163–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2013. Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Μary, and Kira Hall. 2005. “Identity and Interaction: A Sociocultural Linguistic Approach.” Discourse Studies. 7 (4–5): 585–614. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Canakis, Costas. 2007. Εισαγωγή στην πραγματολογία: Γνωστικές και κοινωνικές όψεις της γλωσσικής χρήσης. [Introduction to Pragmatics: Cognitive and Social Aspects of Language Use]. Athens: Eikostos Protos.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. n.d. “Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).” Accessed March 28, 2023. [URL]
de Fina, Anna. 2019. “The Ethnographic Interview.” In The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography, ed. by Karin Tusting, 154–167. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Desilla, Louisa. 2014. “Reading Between the Lines, Seeing Beyond the Images: An Empirical Study on the Comprehension of Implicit Film Dialogue Meaning Across Cultures.” The Translator 20 (2): 194–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferenčík, Milan. 2018. “Im/politeness on the Move: A Study of Regulatory Discourse Practices in Slovakia’s Centre of Tourism.” Journal of Pragmatics 134: 183–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giannakopoulou, Vasso. 2012. “Πρώτες σκέψεις για μια κοινωνιολογία τα μετάφρασς στην Ελλάδα.” [Preliminary Thoughts on a Sociology of Translation in Greece]. Syn-Theses 5, ed. by Titika Dimitroulia: 15–27.Google Scholar
House, Juliane. 1997. Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
Krug, Manfred, and Katrin Sell. 2013. “Designing and Conducting Interviews and Questionnaires.” In Research Methods in Language Variation and Change, ed. by Manfred Krug, and Julia Schüter, 69–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, Robin. 1973. “The Logic of Politeness: Or, Minding Your P’s and Q’s.” In Papers from the 9th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, ed. by Claudia Corum, T. Cedric Smith-Stark, and Anne Weiser, 292–305. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Lees, Christopher. 2014. “Η ευγένεια στον προφορικό λόγο της Νέας Ελληνικής: Η περίπτωση των στοιχείων παρακαλώ και συγγνώμη.” [Politeness in Spoken Modern Greek: The Case of Please and Sorry]. In ΟπροφορικόςλόγοςσταΕλληνικά [The Spoken Language of Greek], ed. by Dionysis Goutsos, 163–182. Kavala: Saita Publications.Google Scholar
. 2021a. ““Please Wear Mask!” Covid-19 in the Translation Landscape of Thessaloniki: A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to the English Translations of Greek Public Notices.” The Translator 28 (3): 344–365. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2022. “A Sociolinguistic Approach to the Concept of Translation Error in Non-Professional Translation Settings: The Translation Landscape of Thessaloniki.” Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 8 (2): 114–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Locher, Miriam A. 2006. “Polite Behaviour Within Relational Work: The Discursive Approach to Politeness.” Multilingua 25: 249–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020. “Moments of Relational Work in English Fan Translations of Korean TV Drama.” Journal of Pragmatics 170: 139–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Locher, Miriam A., and Richard J. Watts. 2005. “Politeness Theory and Relational Work.” Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1): 9–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marmaridou, Sophia. 1987. “Semantic and Pragmatic Parameters of Meaning: On the Interface between Contrastive Text Analysis and the Production of Translated Texts.” Journal of Pragmatics 11 (6): 721–736. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nord, Christine. 1997. Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar
Panhellenic Association of Translators (PEM). n.d. “Translators and Interpreters in the Public Sector.” Accessed March 28, 2023. [URL]
Pérez-González, Luis, and Sebnem Susam-Saraeva. 2012. “Nonprofessionals Translating and Interpreting.” The Translator. 18 (2): 149–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, John R. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1979. Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidiropoulou, Maria. 2021. Understanding Im/politeness through Translation: The English-Greek Paradigm. Cham: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sifianou, Maria and Eleni Antonopoulou. 2005. “Politeness in Greece: The Politeness of Involvement.” In Politeness in Europe, ed. by Leo Hickey, and Miranda Stewart, 263–276. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sifianou, Maria, and Angeliki Tzanne. 2018. “The Impact of Globalisation on Brief Service Encounters.” Journal of Pragmatics 134: 163–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sifianou, Maria. 1992. Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
. 2000. Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Culural Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sifianou, Μaria. 2010. “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2009. “Finding Face between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft: Greek Perceptions of the In-group.” In Face, Communication and Social Interaction, ed. by Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, and Michael Haugh, 269–288. London: Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar
. 2015. “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tipton, Rebecca. 2019. “Introduction.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Pragmatics, ed. by Rebecca Tipton, and Louisa Desilla, 1–9. Oxon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watts, Richard J. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari (eds). 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Götz, Andrea
2023. Chapter 3. Adding connectives to manage interpreted discourse. In Pragmatics and Translation [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 337], ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.