In:Intralingual Translation: Beyond language and text
Edited by Hilla Karas and Hava Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot
[Benjamins Translation Library 168] 2026
► pp. 165–182
The COVID-19 pandemic
Intralingual translation strategies on the French government site
Published online: 20 February 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.168.08adl
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.168.08adl
Abstract
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, official up to date information on the
situation in France is posted on the French government website info-coronavirus. This information is
provided in French, English and simplified French (known as FALC). This version is based on a simplification or
translation of the source text in standard French. In this study, we compare samples of text in official standard
French with the equivalent sections in FALC, in order to highlight the strategies employed in this method. We also
consider the status of the simplified text with respect to the official text and raise the question of whether the
simplified pages constitute a new semiotic product.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.FALC: Principles and strategies
- 3.Official pages: Standard French and FALC in the pandemic context
- 4.Is the text in FALC a new semiotic object? Concluding remarks and discussion
Note References
References (18)
Amossy, Ruth. 2006. L’argumentation dans le discours [Argumentation in
Discourse], (revised
edition). Paris: Colin, Cursus.
Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, Hava, and Hilla Karas. 2021. “Un corpus de traduction intralinguale: considérations méthodologiques et
théoriques [Intralingual Translation Corpus: Methodological
and Theoretical Considerations].” In Réflexions théoriques et méthodologiques autour de données variationnelles [Theoretical and Methodological Reflections on Variational Data], ed.
by Annie Bertin, Françoise Gadet and Sabine Lehmann. Presses Universitaire de Savoie. pp. 99–115
Canut, Emmanuelle, Juliette Delahaie, and Magali Husianycia. 2020. “Vous avez dit FALC ? Pour une adaptation linguistique des textes destinés aux migrants
nouvellement arrives [You Said FALC? For a Linguistic
Adaptation of Texts Intended for Newly-Arrived Migrants].” Langage et
société 3: 171–201.
Dusi, Nicola. 2015. “Intersemiotic
Translation: Theories, Problems,
Analysis.” Semiotica 206: 181–205.
Ganglof, Doriane. 2015. “Le langage facile à lire et à comprendre [Language Easy to Read and Understand].” Revue suisse de pédagogie
spécialisée 4: 44–50.
Goffman, Erving. 1959/1973. La mise en scène de la vie quotidienne 1, La présentation de soi [The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life], Ed. de Minuit, 1996, ©1973 (French Translation from
English). coll. Le sens commun.
Gottlieb, Henrik. 2018. Semiotics
and Translation. In The Routledge Handbook of
Translation Studies and Linguistcs, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjaer. New York and Abingdon: Routeldge. pp. 45–63.
Huang, Mimi, and Lise-Lotte Holmgreen (eds). 2020. The
Language of Crisis. Metaphors, frames and
discourses. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Karas, Hilla. 2016. “Intralingual
Intertemporal Translation as a Relevant Category in Translation
Studies.” Target 28 (3): 445–466.
Lindholm, Camilla, and Ulla Vanhatalo (eds). 2021. Handbook
of Easy Languages in Europe. (Easy — Plain —
Accessible). Berlin: Frank & Timme.
Maaß, Christiane. 2024. Intralingual
Translation in Easy Language and in Plain
Language. In The Routledge Handbook of Intralingual
Translation, ed. by Linda Pillière, and Özlem Berk Albachten. New York and Abingdon: Routledge. Chapter
14.
Mandl, Benjamin J., and Ben Y. Reis. 2022. “The
Language of Crisis: Spatiotemporal Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic Dynamics on Health Crisis Communications by
Political Leaders”. Digital
Medicine 5:1.
Perelman, Chaim, and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. 1958/2000. Traité de l’argumentation. La nouvelle réthorique [The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on
Argumentation]. Paris: PUF.
Pillière, Linda. 2010. “Conflicting
Voices: An Analysis of Intralingual Translation from British English to American
English”. E-rea 8.1 (viewed October 4, 2023. URL: [URL]
Pillière, Linda, and Özlem Berk Albachten (eds.). 2024. The
Routledge Handbook of Intralingual Translation. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.
Schuster, Michal. 2009. “Hangashat sherutey briut lemiutim leshoniyim: sherut hameturgemanut Kol
La’briut kemikre mivhan [Access to Health Care
for language Minorities: Kol La’briut Telephone Medical Interpreting Service as a case
study]. PhD Thesis, Bar-Ilan University.
Uziel- Karl, Sigal, Tene-Rinda, Michal, and Yalon-Chaimovitz, Shira. 2016. “Negishut hahok vehamishpat beyisrael: hangasha leshonit leanashim im mugbalut sihlit hitpathutit
kemikre mivhan (Hebrew) [Linguistic Accessibility of the Law
in Israel: Providing Linguistic Accessibility to People with Developmental Disabilities — A Test
Case].” Hukim 8: 287–307.