Translating politeness on public notices with a directive function in Thessaloniki: A cross-cultural perspective
ChristopherLees
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
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.
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.
References
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.
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. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
Baker, Mona
2018In
Other Words: A Coursebook on
Translation. London: Routledge.
Bella, Spyridoula
2019 “Offers
in Greek Revisited.” In From Speech Acts to Lay Understandings of
Politeness: Multilingual and Multicultural Perspectives, ed. by Eva Ogiermann, and Pilar Blitvich, 27–47. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bella, Spyridoula, and Eva Ogiermann
2019 “An
Intergenerational Perspective on (Im)politeness.” Journal of Politeness
Research 15: 163–193.
Bella, Spyridoula, and Maria Sifianou
2012 “Greek
Student E-mail Requests to Faculty Members.” In Speech Acts and
Politeness Across Languages and Cultures, ed. by Leyre R.
de Zarobe, and Yolanda R.
de Zarobe, 89–114. Bern: Peter
Lang.
Blommaert, Jan
2013Ethnography,
Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol, Buffalo,
Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
2003 “Teaching
English in Greece: An Update.” In New
Englishes, ed. by Vasilia Bolla-Mavrides, 11–24. Thessaloniki: Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki.
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson
1987Politeness:
Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bruti, Silvia
2009 “The
Translation of Compliments in Subtitles.” In New Trends in
Audiovisual Translation, ed. by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 226–238. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
Bührig, Kristin, Juliane House, and Jan D. ten Thije
2009 “Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication. An Introduction.” In Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication, ed. by Kristin Bührig, Juliane House, and Jan D. ten Thije, 1-6. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Canakis, Costas
2003 “Welcome
to Mytilene’s Airport: Investigating New English in the Greek Public Transport
Context.” In New Englishes, ed.
by Vasilia Bolla-Mavrides, 25–54. Thessaloniki: Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki.
Canakis, Costas
2018 “Contesting
Identity in the Linguistic Landscape of Belgrade: An Ethnographic Approach.” Belgrade
Bells 10 (11): 229–258.
Cenoz, Jasone, and Durk Gorter
2006 “Linguistic
Landscape and Minority Languages.” International Journal of
Multilingualism 3 (1): 67–80.
de
Beaugrande, Robert-Alain, and Wolfgang Dressler
1981Introduction
to
Textlinguistics. London: Longman.
de
Fina, Anna
2019 “The
Ethnographic Interview.” In The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic
Ethnography, ed. by Karin Tusting, 154–167. London: Routledge.
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.
Dynel, Marta
2015 “Impoliteness
in the Service of Verisimilitude in Film
Interaction.” In Participation in Public and Social Media
Interactions, ed. by Marta Dynel, and Jan Chovanec, 157–182. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Dynel, Marta
2017 “(Im)politeness
and Telecinematic Discourse.” In Pragmatics of
Fiction, ed. by Miriam Locher, and Andreas Jucker, 455–487. Berlin: de
Gryter Mouton.
Eckert, Penelope, and Sally McConnel-Ginet
2013Language
and Gender. 2nd
edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
2017 “Sociolinguistics, Translation
and Interpreting.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies
and Linguistics, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjaer, 295–310. Routledge: London,
UK.
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.
Georgalidou, Marianthi
2008 “The
Contextual Parameters of Linguistic Choice: Greek Children’s Preferences for the Formation of Directive Speech
Acts.” Journal of
Pragmatics 40: 72–94.
Gorter, Durk
2006 “Introduction:
The Study of the Linguistic Landscape as a New Approach to
Multilingualism.” In Linguistic Landscape: A New Approach to
Multilingualism, ed. by Durk Gorter, 1–6. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
Harissi, Μaria
2010 “English
and Translingual Adolescent Identities in Greece.” PhD
diss. University of Technology Sydney.
Hickey, Leo, and Miranda Stewart
eds.2005Politeness
in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
House, Juliane
1997Translation
Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Gunter
Narr Verlag.
House, Juliane
1998 “Politeness
in Translation.” In The Pragmatics of
Transation, ed. by Leo Hickey, 54–71. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
House, Juliane
2008 “(Im)politeness
in English as Lingua Franca Discourse.” In Standards and Norms in the
English Language, ed. by Miriam Locher, and Jürg Strässer, 351–366. Berlin: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Ide, Sachiko
1989 “Formal
Forms and Discernment: Neglected Aspects of Linguistic
Politeness.” Multilingua 8 (2): 223–248.
Jaworski, Adam, and Crispin Thurlow
2010 “Introducing
Semiotic Landscapes.” In Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image,
Space, ed. by Adam Jaworski, and Crispin Thurlow, 1–40. London: Continuum.
Kádár, Dániel, and Michael Haugh
2013Understanding
Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
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.
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 Ο προφορικός λόγος στα
Ελληνικά [The Spoken Language of Greek], ed.
by Dionysis Goutsos, 163–182. Kavala: Saita
Publications.
Lees, Christopher
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.
Lees, Christopher
2021b “The
Translation Landscape of Thessaloniki’s Kastra Neighbourhood: Some Qualitative Findings from a Cross-disciplinary Approach to
Translated Texts in Public
Spaces.” Target 33 (3): 464–493.
Lees, Christopher
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.
Locher, Miriam
2006 “Polite
Behaviour Within Relational Work: The Discursive Approach to
Politeness.” Multilingua 25: 249–267.
Locher, Miriam
2020 “Moments of Relational Work in English Fan Translations of Korean TV Drama.” Journal of Pragmatics 170: 139–155.
Mao, LuMing
R.
1994 “Beyond Politeness Theory.
‘Face’ Revisited and Renewed.” Journal of
Pragmatics 21: 451–486.
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.
Martínez-Ibarra, Francisco
2021 “An
Analysis of How Business Owners Use Valencian and Spanish in the Linguistic
Landscape.” In Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-Speaking World.
Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 35, ed.
by Patricia Gubitosi, and Michelle
F. Ramos-Pellicia, 294–312. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Mills, Sara
2003Gender
and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mitsikopoulou, Bessie
2007 “The
Interplay of the Global and the Local in English Language Learning and Electronic Communication Discourses and Practices in
Greece.” Language &
Education 21 (3): 156–170.
Moradi, Negar, and Mohammed
Jafar Jabarri
2015 “Translation
of Negative Politeness Strategies from English into Persian: The Case of Novel
Translation.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English
Literature 4 (2): 143–150.
Munday, Jeremy
2012Introducing
Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 3rd
edition. Oxon: Routledge.
Nord, Christine
1997Translating
as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches
Explained. Manchester: St.
Jerome.
Pennock-Speck, Barry, and Miguel Fuster-Marquéz
2014 “Imperatives
in Voice-overs in British TV Commercials: ‘Get This, Buy That, Taste the Other.’” Discourse
&
Communication 8 (4): 411–426.
Pennycook, Alastair
2012Language
and Mobility: Unexpected Places. Bristol, Blue Ridge
Summit: Multilingual Matters.
Pérez-González, Luis
2014 “Multimodality
in Translation and Interpreting Studies: Theoretical and Methodological
Perspectives.” In A Companion to Transation
Studies, 1st edition, ed. by Sandra Bermann, and Catherine Porter, 119–131. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Pérez-González, Luis, and Şebnem Susam-Saraeva
2012 “Nonprofessionals
Translating and Interpreting.” The
Translator 18 (2): 149–165.
Rothoni, Anastasia
2017 “The
Interplay of Global Forms of Pop Culture and Media in Teenagers’ ‘Interest-Driven’ Everyday Literacy Practices with English in
Greece.” Linguistics and
Education 38: 92–103.
Scollon, Ron, and Suzie
Wong Scollon
2003Discourse
in Place: Language in the Material
World. London: Routledge.
Seargeant, Philip, and Korina Giaxoglou
2020 “Discourse
and the Linguistic Landscape.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse
Studies, ed. by Anna
de Fina, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou, 306–326. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Searle, John
R.
1969Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy
of Language. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Searle, John
R.
1979Expression and Meaning: Studies in the
Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Sidiropoulou, Maria
2021Understanding
Im/politeness through Translation: The English-Greek
Paradigm. Cham: Springer.
Sifianou, Maria
1992Politeness
Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
Sifianou, Μaria
2010 “The
Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural
Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46.
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.
Sifianou, Maria, and Angeliki Tzanne
2018 “The
Impact of Globalisation on Brief Service Encounters.” Journal of
Pragmatics 134: 163–172.
Stöckl, Hartmut
2004 “In
between Modes: Language and Image in Printed Media.” In Perspectives
in Multimodality, ed. by Eija Ventola, Cassily Charles, and Martin Caltenbacher, 9–30. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
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.
Terkourafi, Marina
2015 “Conventionalization:
A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of
Pragmatics 86: 11–18.
Tipton, Rebecca
2019 “Introduction.” In The
Routledge Handbook of Translation and Pragmatics, ed. by Rebecca Tipton, and Louisa Desilla, 1–9. Oxon: Routledge.
Tsakona, Villy, and Maria Sifianou
2019 “Vocatives
in Service Encounters: Evidence from Greek.” Acta Linguistica
Hafniensia 51: 60–89.
Watts, Richard
J.
2003Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.