Translating politeness on public notices with a directive function in Thessaloniki: A cross-cultural perspective
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)Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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.
Publication history
Table of contents
1.Introduction
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.
The concept of the translation landscape is an adaptation from that of linguistic landscapes and refers to bilingual and multilingual texts that have been purposefully translated from a source language, which is almost always (one of) the official languages of the territory in which the text under discussion is found. As has long been the case, English remains what could be described as Greece’s unofficial second language (see Boklund-Lagopoulou 2003Boklund-Lagopoulou, Karin 2003 “Teaching English in Greece: An Update.” In New Englishes, ed. by Vasilia Bolla-Mavrides, 11–24. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.; Mitsikopoulou 2007Mitsikopoulou, 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. ), since English is the first and principal language that children learn in Greece, use in their personal communication (see Harissi 2010Harissi, Μaria 2010 “English and Translingual Adolescent Identities in Greece.” PhD diss. University of Technology Sydney. and Rothoni 2017Rothoni, 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. ) and, as in other countries, the lingua franca (Pennycook 2012Pennycook, Alastair 2012 Language and Mobility: Unexpected Places. Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters. ) used for international communication. Indeed, English remains the most prolific second language visible on the city’s notices and signs, and certainly the most prominent language into which Greek texts are translated in public spaces (cf. Lees 2021b 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. ).
A significant aspect of the translation landscape is the fact that translations are typically carried out by non-professional translators; specifically, employees of either state or private enterprises or store proprietors who rely on their pre-existing knowledge of English, in order to communicate with visitors to the city or residents who do not understand Greek. Therefore, the identity of the translator as non-native speaker11.The term “native speaker” is not used here to present a translator whose first language is not English as unknowledgeable or inappropriate for translation purposes, nor do I attempt to equate a native speaker with a professional translator. The term is used for practical reasons alone, to refer to a person whose linguistic intuition is under normal circumstances at a level advanced enough to be able to notice pragmatic divergences from the standard language. of English and non-professional translator is indexed through a variety of linguistic and translation choices, including pragmatic infelicities (see Nord 1997Nord, Christine 1997 Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome.), which have been described in translation studies as being among the most serious, as it is not always possible for the error to be detected (ibid., 76), particularly by someone who does not understand the source language. This is also true of politeness strategies used in Greek which, when translated directly into English without the appropriate intercultural pragmatic awareness, may have a different meaning in English, resulting in pragmatic equivalence (see Bührig, House and ten Thije 2009Bührig, 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.; Baker 2018Baker, Mona 2018 In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London: Routledge. ) not being achieved in the target text and the potential for the message to be unintelligible.
House (1997House, Juliane 1997 Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag., 30) has referred to pragmatic equivalence extensively in her model of quality assessment in translation. Specifically, she argues that equivalence “is related to the preservation of “meaning” across two different languages.” By “meaning” she includes semantic, pragmatic, and textual aspects. With regards to pragmatic aspects in particular, she notes that illocutionary force and pragmatic meaning are “of great importance for translation” (ibid., 31). For House, if such meaning is not preserved then this would constitute an error, although it must be noted that she does point out that when judging the quality of a translation, attention must be given to a wide variety of micro-factors, including genre and communicative value; in other words, not just a cold “final judgement” (ibid., 119). However, a more objective – or even prescriptive – view of translation quality assessment can also be observed in professional translation settings such as the European Master in Translation’s competence framework, which stipulates that prospective students must possess competency in language and culture, which encompasses “all the general or language-specific linguistic, sociolinguistic, cultural and transcultural knowledge and skills that constitute the basis for advanced translation competence” (EMT Board 2017EMT Board 2017 European Master’s in Translation Competency Framework 2017. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/emt_competence_fwk_2017_en_web.pdf, 6). Moreover, the British Chartered Institute of Linguists (cited in Munday 2012Munday, Jeremy 2012 Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. 3rd edition. Oxon: Routledge., 49) stipulates the need for “appropriate use of vocabulary, idom, terminology and register.” However, as will be discussed in the following section, it is clear that such frameworks target aspiring professional translators and cannot be easily applied to instances of non-professional translation commonly observed in translated public notices. It is for this reason that I have argued (Lees 2022 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. ) that the same sociolinguistic principle that is applied to language errors should be applied in such instances of translation; namely that:
provided that the message conveyed in the target language is intelligible and fulfils the communicative purpose it was intended for, divergence from the standard norms should be tolerated as opposed to being labelled ‘errors’ with all the stigmatisation that such a label entails.(Lees 2022 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. , 119)
The notices that are of interest to the concept of translating politeness in this paper fall into three distinct general categories, which are directly related to the nature and the environments of the texts themselves: (a) official notices, which appear outside government agencies or on road markings or signs, in other words, placed by official bodies; (b) ad hoc texts, which are usually more temporary in nature (cf. Gorter 2006Gorter, 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. ; Seargeant and Giaxoglou 2020Seargeant, 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. ) and may appear in the windows of either state-run or private enterprises, often translated by employees or business owners; and (c) texts in businesses providing services. The latter category includes menus in restaurants, price lists in car parks, and product labels. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the Greek politeness strategies used in directive notices visible in Thessaloniki’s translation landscape and examine how these strategies have been rendered into English, while examining specific pragmatic elements that may affect the illocutionary force in the translated text.
2.Theoretical background
Politeness has been a highly productive area of research in linguistics ever since the 1970s with Lakoff’s (1973)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. work on the logic of politeness, which centres around the assumption that one should not impose and, in the 1980s, Brown and Levinson’s (1987)Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. seminal work on the concept of face in politeness and universal principals of politeness across languages. According to the framework of the latter, different linguistic strategies which may vary from society to society are used, in order to satisfy the needs of an individual’s face. Positive politeness is associated with intimacy and general closeness, whereas negative politeness describes strategies which maintain the individual’s autonomy and do not create impositions.
It has traditionally been argued in the literature that the UK is generally made up of a society which orientates towards negative politeness strategies, whereas Greece generally prefers positive politeness (see Sifianou 1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.; Sifianou and Antonopoulou 2005Sifianou, 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. ; Tsakona and Sifianou 2019Tsakona, Villy, and Maria Sifianou 2019 “Vocatives in Service Encounters: Evidence from Greek.” Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 51: 60–89. ). Of course, specific social contexts may dictate otherwise and it is not at all uncommon for British people to use positive politeness strategies and Greek people negative politeness strategies. For example, Bella (2009)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. in her analysis of invitations finds that age is a decisive factor in the use of positive and negative politeness -the latter being preferred by older speakers; the former by younger speakers, whereas university students use negative politeness strategies when writing to university tutors (Bella and Sifianou 2012Bella, 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.). Indeed, more recent research into Greek politeness leans towards context playing a decisive role in the type of politeness used and that the traditional mutually exclusive categories of positive and negative politeness used in Brown and Levinson’s framework make up part of a continuum as opposed to individual categories (see Terkourafi 2009Terkourafi, 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.; Bella 2019Bella, 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 and Ogiermann 2019Bella, Spyridoula, and Eva Ogiermann 2019 “An Intergenerational Perspective on (Im)politeness.” Journal of Politeness Research 15: 163–193. ).
It must be said that Brown and Levinson’s approach to politeness has received its fair share of criticism. For instance, some argue that its principles cannot be applied universally, whether that be to Asian societies (see Ide 1989Ide, Sachiko 1989 “Formal Forms and Discernment: Neglected Aspects of Linguistic Politeness.” Multilingua 8 (2): 223–248. ; Mao 1994Mao, LuMing R. 1994 “Beyond Politeness Theory. ‘Face’ Revisited and Renewed.” Journal of Pragmatics 21: 451–486. among others) or Western societies (see Mills 2003Mills, Sara 2003 Gender and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ; Hickey and Stewart 2005Hickey, Leo, and Miranda Stewart eds. 2005 Politeness in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. ; Eckert and McConnell-Ginet 2013Eckert, Penelope, and Sally McConnel-Ginet 2013 Language and Gender. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ). Moreover, other frameworks for the analysis of politeness phenomena have since been put forward, one of the most prominent being Watts’s (2003)Watts, Richard J. 2003 Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. model of politic behaviour based on Bourdieu’s notion of social practice. In short, politic behaviour is seen as linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour which are socially constructed as appropriate in any particular context of communication with politeness being understood as anything that exceeds the expectations of appropriateness in any given social interaction.
Another significant approach to politeness is Terkourafi’s (2015) 2015 “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. concept of “conventionalisation” represents another significant contribution to linguistic politeness theory, in that it focuses on how socially or individually embraced – or “conventionalised” – phrases which develop through habit may be used by speakers regardless of face threat. Terkourafi judges certain expressions to have been conventionalised as appropriate for specific instances of communication and deviation from such expressions can be viewed as increasing or decreasing levels of politeness, based on the context, the expressions used, and the participants in each communicative instance. Finally, recent developments in politeness theory view politeness as a form of social interaction which goes beyond language and includes non-linguistic behaviour (see Kádár and Haugh 2013Kádár, Dániel, and Michael Haugh 2013 Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ).22.However, for the purpose of this paper, my analysis will focus on linguistic aspects of politeness and how these are rendered from Greek into English.
All the aforementioned approaches offer us extremely useful perspectives on politeness that build on existing theoretical approaches. However, it cannot be disputed that Brown and Levinson’s model remains the most detailed and used to date, having served as a framework on which many international and cross-cultural studies have been based. As will be shown later, in the context of this paper at least, the concept of face needs and face threatening acts provides a useful measure of comparison between Greek texts and their English translations in the translation landscape of Thessaloniki.33.Sifianou and Antonopoulou (2005Sifianou, 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. , 264) have themselves remarked that extensive research in Greek has been carried out using this particular model and that their findings lend support for its related concepts. However, I see no reason why Brown and Levinson’s model cannot be supplemented with aspects of other theories that may help to explain the data under study and advance key theoretical nuances that the same data highlight.
In recent decades, work on politeness in many societies across the world has flourished with each study highlighting ways in which societies and local communities construct politeness and use it in various communicative instances. The Greek context is no exception. Of particular interest to the purpose of this paper are cross-cultural perspectives of politeness that examine Greek and English. Several studies in this area have revealed interesting examples of variation in politeness between the two languages. For example, Marmaridou (1987)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. studied translated Greek passenger announcements into English on board flights of what was then the national Greek carrier, Olympic Airways. She notes in particular certain pragmatic differences between Greek and the English translations, which she attributes to social conventions. For example, in one particular announcement which asks passengers to remain seated, the original Greek offers a form of justification as to why they should do this, whereas in English no justification is given. She interprets this as being necessary for a positive politeness society such as that of Greece, so as “to make a request in Greek without giving reasons would violate the politeness strategy of conveying that speaker and addressee are co-operators” (ibid., 729).44.See Section 4.2 for similar examples of Greek politeness strategies that present the author of the text and the addressee as cooperators. She goes on to mention that the absence of such justification in English is typical of negative politeness societies (ibid., 730).
However, more recent research has shown that Greek politeness strategies are maintained when translated into English. For example, Canakis’s (2003)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. research into the English used in the Greek travel industry observes the development of a new type of Greek English, which retains significant Greek vocabulary, constructions and choices of register, while Sifianou (2010)Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. has shown that considerable divergences from Standard English in the announcements of the Athens Metro (underground) system, which retain both the phonology, vocabulary, and politeness strategies of Greek, which she attributes to the goal of meeting the assumed politeness needs of a trustworthy company in the local context.
Although a good deal of research has been conducted into cross-cultural politeness in the context of spoken discourse, an area that has been less studied is that of politeness in written signs visible in public spaces55.But see Ferenčik (2018). and, to the best of my knowledge, no such research has been carried out in the Greek context. This is true of both linguistics and research in translation studies, which deals with rendering politeness strategies from one language to another (House 1998 1998 “Politeness in Translation.” In The Pragmatics of Transation, ed. by Leo Hickey, 54–71. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. , 2008 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. ; Bruti 2009Bruti, Silvia 2009 “The Translation of Compliments in Subtitles.” In New Trends in Audiovisual Translation, ed. by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 226–238. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. ; Moradi and Jafar Jabarri 2015Moradi, 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.; Sidiropoulou 2021Sidiropoulou, Maria 2021 Understanding Im/politeness through Translation: The English-Greek Paradigm. Cham: Springer. among others), but from the perspective of conventional genres of translation, namely novels, academic texts, and subtitling (see Desilla 2014Desilla, 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 2015Dynel, 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. , 2017 2017 “(Im)politeness and Telecinematic Discourse.” In Pragmatics of Fiction, ed. by Miriam Locher, and Andreas Jucker, 455–487. Berlin: de Gryter Mouton. ; Locher 2020 2020 “Moments of Relational Work in English Fan Translations of Korean TV Drama.” Journal of Pragmatics 170: 139–155. ). Despite their significant contribution to both linguistics and translation studies, for the purpose of this paper, such studies also have the disadvantage of viewing translation as a largely professional activity, thus overlooking the fact that a considerable number of translations are carried out by non-professionals (see Pérez-Gonzáles and Susam-Saraeva 2012Pérez-González, Luis, and Şebnem Susam-Saraeva 2012 “Nonprofessionals Translating and Interpreting.” The Translator 18 (2): 149–165. ), whose knowledge of pragmatic conventions is likely to be more limited than that of a professional.
Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, which combines linguistics and translation studies, has the potential to help us understand who translates for whom, for what reasons, and how translated texts in public spaces are related to the translator, their background, and their linguistic and translation choices. Drawing on both sociolinguistics and pragmatics is useful in this regard. Sociolinguistics, particularly methods used in Linguistic Landscape Studies (see Lees 2021b 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. ) can help establish the connection between the creator – or translator in this case –, the text under study, and the socio-geographical conditions in which translations occur. As Federici (2017Federici, Federico M. 2017 “Sociolinguistics, Translation and Interpreting.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjaer, 295–310. Routledge: London, UK. , 295) notes, “few processes are as concerned as translation and interpreting are with register, channel of communication, tenor, field, function of the message, and social relationships between interactants.” In the same way, a pragmatic approach to translation phenomena can shed light on the ways in which meaning is transferred from one language to another by examining the contextual instances in which the latter is realised (see Tipton 2019Tipton, Rebecca 2019 “Introduction.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Pragmatics, ed. by Rebecca Tipton, and Louisa Desilla, 1–9. Oxon: Routledge. , 4).
Furthermore, since this paper examines public notices which, apart from language, also feature pictures and images, the concept of multimodality is also relevant to how meaning is transferred, an area that has become more and more relevant to translation studies (see Pérez-Gonzáles 2014Pérez-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. ). For example, Stöckl (2004)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. has drawn attention to how images can be more effective than language in maintaining the attention of the reader and how semantic links can be established between text and image (ibid., 19). As will be pointed out in the analysis, the combination of text and image can also facilitate intelligibility in instances where language alone might have distorted the illocutionary force of the original text.
3.Data and methodology
The data that will be discussed in this paper derive from a total number of 338 photographs that were taken with a Panasonic digital camera over the course of my fieldwork in the city of Thessaloniki, expanding from the harbour to the White Tower along Nikis Avenue from West to East, and as far as Agiou Dimitriou Street to the north. In addition, the separate tourist area of Kastra in the upper town of the city was selected, extending from Moni Vlatadon in the West to the Trigoniou Tower in the East. Specifically, my fieldwork consisted of two interventions: The first took place in April and June/July at the time of and immediately after the first lockdown measures in Greece, during which 281 photographs were taken; the second took place during November and December 2020, which coincided with commercial shops reopening over the Christmas period, during which only fifty-seven photographs were taken, owing to the low number of news signs during a time when travel from abroad was significantly restricted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the purpose of this paper, notices with a directive function (see Searle 1969Searle, John R. 1969 Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. ) will be discussed, as signs with this function directly communicate with their target audience and are associated with politeness. Such notices may be those that provide information on what is or is not allowed, as well as guidance on procedures that need to be followed. Of all the photographs taken, a total number of forty-one texts had a directive function. However, since many notices present a considerable degree of overlap and due to the limited space of this paper, twelve indicative examples have been selected for analysis, corresponding to four notices for each analytical category that emerged from the data.
The interdisciplinary methodology I follow for data collection is heavily influenced by that of the qualitative approach used in linguistic landscapes (see Blommaert and Maly 2014Blommaert, Jan, and Ico Maly 2014 “Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis and Social Change: A Case Study.” Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies 100. Accessed April 15, 2020. https://www.academia.edu/7560835/WP133_Blommaert_and_Maly_2014._Ethnographic_linguistic_landscape_analysis_and_social_change_A_case_study), but is combined with methods from translation studies, particularly that of Bourdieu’s habitus, so as to obtain a more reliable picture of who the translator is, what their social and educational background is, what experience they have in translation (if any), and how they themselves view their own linguistic and translation choices (see Lees 2021b 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. ). The interview process is ongoing and an effort is being made to obtain information for as many photographs as possible which belong to each analytical category. Although this is not always possible due to a significant number of people being unwilling to participate, the advantage of this approach is that it allows the researcher to not just rely on their own interpretation of each translation, but to elicit valuable information either from the translators themselves or those who commissioned the translation project. This logic falls into the category of participant-based ethnography and is used in studies in linguistic landscape (see Androutsopoulos 2014Androutsopoulos, 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.; Martinez-Ibarra 2021Martínez-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. ).
Where possible, responses were gathered either through face-to-face interviews, telephone conversations, or through questionnaires sent via email. The method of interview depended on the preferred choice of the participants, not all of whom were willing to be recorded, for example, whereas some had limited time to meet and sit for an interview. All participants were informed that the purpose of my research was purely academic and that it was not my intention to assess the quality of the translations observed. In addition, a concerted effort was taken not to lead participants to answer in specific ways. For this reason, although specific questions were asked in relation to translation choices, participants were allowed to elaborate freely without specific prompting from me. Such an approach is classed as a semi-structured interview (de Fina 2019de Fina, Anna 2019 “The Ethnographic Interview.” In The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography, ed. by Karin Tusting, 154–167. London: Routledge. ).
Irrespective of whether the interview was conducted face-to-face, online, or via the telephone, the same three-part format was used. Specifically, in the first part information was collected on the participants’ social background, such as age, place of birth, level of education, and foreign language spoken; in the second part details were elicited related to the participants’ academic or professional experience in translation; and finally, the third part required the participant to provide information on the reasons for which the translation was carried out, if any tools or aids were used, such as dictionaries and electronic resources, and whether there is anything they would change about the translation itself. All participants were given the option of participating anonymously or eponymously.
4.Analysis
The analysis which follows concerns the ways in which Greek politeness strategies have been rendered into English in the translated texts visible throughout Thessaloniki’s translation landscape. The twelve notices analysed here derive from a total number of forty-one notices with a directive speech act function (cf. Searle 1969Searle, John R. 1969 Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. ). In other words, notices were chosen that encourage the reader to do or to not do something, as well as the ways in which this something should be done. Pragmatic divergence from the norms of Standard English and a merging of Greek and English politeness strategies are common across all three analytical categories.
4.1Official notices
Official notices are some of the most challenging for the ethnographic researcher to obtain information. This is either because the authorities involved are not willing to share information on how the translation was carried out or because the translation may have been commissioned a long time ago and information is no longer available. What sets them apart from ad hoc texts is their official voice, which derives from a government decision on matters of either safety or finance.
Figures 1 and 2 are two examples of notices that convey the voice of the state informing customers about the legal obligations of businesses and service providers concerning methods of payment. Specifically, according to Greek law, ever since the financial crisis began and in order to limit tax evasion, it is mandatory for commercial businesses to display such notices in a visible location in both Greek and English. At first sight, it would appear that such a notice is simply informing us about our rights; however, after more careful consideration it is clear that the indirect message – or indirect speech act (see Searle 1979 1979 Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ) – is in fact there to prompt us to ask for a receipt as proof of purchase and to ensure that the business selling the product is properly taxed. Moreover, by absolving the customer from any legal responsibility of not paying should a product or service be provided without the appropriate proof of payment, it also encourages the service provider to “do the right thing.” What is interesting in Figure 1 is that the only information that has been translated into English is the information the business is legally required to display; the rest of the text is written entirely in Greek. Moreover, it is worth noting that the text itself, which would appear to have been provided by the government, is what has become the conventionalised text used in the majority of businesses in Greece.
According to Terkourafi (2015) 2015 “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. , conventionalised phrases such as these are considered polite and acceptable by virtue of their conventionalised usage. As she notes (ibid., 15), “with the backing of repeated usage, it achieves politeness much more transparently and almost unequivocally. This explains why it is favored across cultures and why its politeness is hard to undermine.” Despite this, the English translation has certainly not been conventionalised outside of Greece. Therefore, despite the fact that the use of the impersonal noun consumer together with the indirect passive construction is not obliged to pay function as effective negative politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ), therefore limiting any imposition and subsequent face threat, there is no doubt that the translation diverges considerably from the conventions of Standard English, thus compromising the communicative intention. For example, as I have argued elsewhere (Lees 2021b 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. , 479), the word customer would be more appropriate than consumer, as would the phrases proof of payment or receipt, as opposed to the existing notice of payment. Such examples would suggest that the translation, albeit from an official source, has not been carried out by a professional translator or native speaker of English. In addition, the absence of any image, such as a receipt, means that the reader is solely reliant on the text to understand the intended message.
The electronics chain store responsible for the text and translation in Figure 2 has opted for different wording. Unlike the conventionalised text discussed in Figure 1, this text focuses on the payment methods available to the store’s customers and uses deontic modality by means of the verb δικαιούται, ‘dikaioutai’ (is entitled to) which has been rendered into English with the verb may. More specifically, In the Greek text, the negative politeness strategy of indirectness is maintained, thus reducing imposition, whereas unlike in Picture 1, the third-person verb form δικαιούται, ‘dikaioutai,’ is used, a positive politeness strategy which is achieved by “giving gifts” to the addressee (see Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 129). In other words, the addressee is granted an entitlement – the option of payment method –, thus appealing to the addressee’s positive face needs by showing cooperation and understanding. However, this direct transference of strategies from Greek gives rise to potential problems. For instance, verbose expressions such as the ones in Greek are not conventional in English, in which shorter conventionalised phrases such as debit, credit, and prepaid cards accepted.
Sifianou (2010)Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. observes similar examples of this in the announcements of the Athens underground system and attributes this choice to “assumed formality and politeness needs” (ibid., 32). Moreover, it could be argued that the transferred deontic modality through the verb may could be taken as an imposition on the customer’s freedoms, due to the verb in question being associated with non-symmetrical permission giving, e.g. ‘you may be seated.’ As such, the shorter conventionalised strategy (see Terkourafi 2015 2015 “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. ) would be the safest option. Again, such choices would reveal that the translation has been carried out by a non-native speaker. Unfortunately, it was not possible to obtain any information related to the translators and how the target text had been produce. As in the example in Figure 1, the reader must rely on the text alone, as no image accompanies the translation.
Finally, Figures 3 and 4 are examples of the voice of state authorities prompting people to comply with safety measures; to limit the spread of Covid-19 in the case of Figure 3 and to avoid accidents in the workplace in the case of Figure 4.
Both texts use the present imperative, which in Greek is used to signify habitual or progressive action (Sifianou 1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press., 126). It has been documented that directive speech acts and direct imperatives have the potential to be seen as face threatening: directives (or requests) because they “imply intrusion on the addressee’s territory and limit freedom of action” (ibid., 99) and direct imperatives, as they “stand out as clear examples of bald-on record usage” (Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 95). In the case of Picture 3, the use of the word please in both Greek (παρακαλώ, ‘parakalo’) and in English serves to minimise the imposition of the direct imperative. Although the equivalent Greek word is not always related to requests (Lees 2014Lees, 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.), its use here is typical of signs, whose addressees are more than one individual and is indexical of social distance (Sifianou 1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press., 191) and, therefore, serves to mitigate the imposition of the imperative. In this sense, the Greek politeness strategy has been successfully rendered into English with its illocutionary force preserved, despite the subsequent direct translation of the word keep from the Greek τηρείτε, ‘tireite,’ which would have been better rendered as observe.
I spoke to former employee of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Thessaloniki, Giorgos Skiadaresis in May 2021. Although he had told me that similar notices had been translated by the guards who work for the Ephorate, therefore non-professional translators, on this occasion he was not sure, since he had since left office. However, he was able to tell me that texts such as these are translated “in order to be read by foreign visitors.” The examples of non-professional translation observed in the translation landscape of Thessaloniki are indicative of the fact that translation is used as a means for everyday people, who do not work as translators, to communicate with visitors and residents in Greece who are do not know Greek. This tendency can be likened to the trend observed in interpreting (cf. Angelelli 2014Angelelli, 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. ), where more non-professional interpreters are being engaged in circumstances where a professional would normally be involved (see Lees 2021b 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. , 2022 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. )
The use of both παρακαλώ and please is notably absent from Figure 4, which instructs the addressee to take the necessary precautions to ensure a safe working environment. However, it should be noted that such cases are considered to warrant the use of the direct imperative without any threat to face needs, since such constructions have been designed to warn and, therefore, are in the addressee’s interest (Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 98). Moreover, it can be said that the use of such imperatives is highly conventionalised in English, thus removing the need of the translator to be concerned about face needs.66.This would also fall under Watt’s (2003Watts, Richard J. 2003 Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 21) definition of politic behaviour as something that is constructed as being appropriate for this specific context. It would also suggest a certain level of risk taking and skill on the translator’s part who has used the imperative form to translate the indirect constructions used in Greek,77.I use the term “risk taking,” since indirectness is generally seen as being a marker of politeness (Sifianou 1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press., 113) and the decision to translate using the imperative in English would suggest a level of knowledge of such an acceptable convention. Of course, a more cynical analysis could attribute this to the translator having consulted similar texts from what is a ubiquitous genre, albeit with the exception of the incorrect spelling of the plural form of the noun, rule. such as “wear protective gloves” for “υποχρεωτική χρήση γαντιών προστασίας,” ‘ypochreotiki chrisi gantion prostasias’ (lit. ‘mandatory the use of gloves of protection’). Such constructions are conventionalised in Greek for notices of this nature, just as imperative forms are in English.
In addition, the use of the imperative in English focuses on the addressee and conveys a sense of urgency, which could be seen as an application of a culture filter, used in examples such as these to adhere to differences across cultures (see House 1997House, Juliane 1997 Translation Quality Assessment: A Model Revisited. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag., 95), although it is unknown whether this was the idea of a translator working for the Port Authorities or whether such renderings were simply found and used from another source. It can therefore be said that the appropriate degree of politeness has been used in both languages with respect to socio-pragmatic differences and conventionalised forms, resulting, particularly in the case of the English translation, in efficient communication being prioritised over face needs (see Terkourafi 2015 2015 “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. ). The Port Authorities of Thessaloniki were not available to comment.
4.2Ad hoc notices
Ad hoc notices in my data mainly consist of texts that have been translated by non-professional translators, such as business owners or employees, who rely on their knowledge of English to communicate with non-speakers of Greek. This finding is in line with related research that looks at similar notices in Linguistic Landscape Studies (see Ferenčík 2018Ferenčík, 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. ). Figures 5 and 6 below are two examples of ad hoc notices that have been translated to convey the necessary safety measures to avoid the spread of Covid-19. Both notices appeared following the initial easing of the first lockdown in Greece during the summer of 2020. Figure 5 shows a notice outside a popular clothes store along Tsimiski Street, Thessaoniki’s main shopping area, whereas Figure 6 has been placed in the entrance of the White Tower, Thessaloniki’s principal landmark and a popular tourist attraction throughout the year.
Both notices reveal some interesting aspects of the translation of politeness. In the case of Figure 5, the use of the phrase μας λείψατε, ‘mas leipsate’ (we missed you) is a positive politeness strategy which establishes a sense of familiarity and intimacy between the store and the addressees, the customers. In this sense, it functions as a useful marketing strategy, in that it attempts to make the customers feel valued (Lees 2021a 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. ). It could be said that the phrase is a softening introduction to the request or directive that follows, namely to keep a safe distance from other customers. However, as seen in Figure 3, any potential face threat that could arise from the imposition of the directive is mitigated with the use of both παρακαλώ and please. Despite this, the use of the adverb πολύ, ‘poly’ (lit. much), which intensifies the request, cannot be rendered into English in the form of a word and therefore, the urgency that it conveys in the source text is compromised in the translation. Despite this, the politeness strategies of both the original and the translated text achieve their communicative intention for both audiences.
As I have noted elsewhere (Lees 2021a 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. ), the phrasing of the translation is ambiguous, as the phrase “keep your distance” could be taken to mean avoiding the store altogether. This could be seen as a face threatening act, implying that the customer is not welcome. This is partly due to the fact that the Greek adjective απαραίτητες, ‘aparetites’ (necessary) before the noun for ‘distance’ has not been translated. In Greek, this adjective serves as a form of justification which is commonly used in Greek to avoid any sense of imposition (see Marmaridou 1987Marmaridou, 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. ; Sifianou 2010Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. ). Some rephrasing in English, such as “please keep a safe distance between other customers” would have been helpful in clarifying the intention and avoiding any insult to the positive face needs of the customer which have already been met with the introductory phrase. However, the same introductory message of the notice together with its location and the shared knowledge of pandemic regulations would likely not affect intelligibility. The quality of the material would suggest a more professional translation, albeit perhaps not by a native speaker of English. However, this could not be verified, as company policy dictates that there can be no participation in research projects of this kind.
Figure 6 is an interesting example of direct politeness transfer from Greek into English with the potential to distort the illocutionary force of the source text. Specifically, in Greek, the use of the first-person plural has been used as opposed to the imperative. This occurs in Greek when the speaker – or author – does not wish to appear authoritarian or imposing and wishes to encourage the addressee to do something in a polite and inclusive way (Sifianou and Tzanne 2018Sifianou, Maria, and Angeliki Tzanne 2018 “The Impact of Globalisation on Brief Service Encounters.” Journal of Pragmatics 134: 163–172. , 169). It also has the effect of presenting both speaker and addressee as co-operators (cf. Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 125). However, in English, such a politeness strategy does not exist and would likely be seen as either patronising or a statement of what the employees themselves do to stop the spread of the pandemic. If the message were taken to be patronising, then this could potentially lead to face threatening action. However, I would argue that the message and its function are intelligible by virtue of the notice’s situationality – or emplacement (Scollon and Wong Scollon 2003Scollon, Ron, and Suzie Wong Scollon 2003 Discourse in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. , cited in Blommaert 2013Blommaert, Jan 2013 Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters. , 43)88.In de Beaugrande and Dressler’s (1981)de Beaugrande, Robert-Alain, and Wolfgang Dressler 1981 Introduction to Textlinguistics. London: Longman. work, the term situationality refers to the environment in which the text occurs as contributing to the understanding of a text. Similarly, the term emplacement (see Scollon and Wong Scollon 2003Scollon, Ron, and Suzie Wong Scollon 2003 Discourse in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. ) refers to the concept of geosemiotics and concerns the connection between the location of a sign or notice and its expected or unexpected semiotic system. For example, in the case of a museum such as the White Tower, it is not unexpected for there to be a notice informing visitors about relevant rules and regulations. – and multimodal nature; in other words, with the aid of its photographs providing visual stimulus for the addressee. However, it is clear that the politeness strategy represents a significant divergence from the norms of Standard English, in the specific Greek politeness strategy used does not exist in English and therefore fails to achieve pragmatic equivalence in the target language. Indeed, in my discussion with a senior member of staff at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in July 2020, who produced the translation, it transpired that the translator was an employee of the museum who had lived in Canada and was therefore given the responsibility of translating the notice, a trait which is common in the translation landscape of Thessaloniki; in other words, knowledge of language is given greater importance over translation competence (see Lees 2021a 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. ).
Figures 7 and 8 are examples of another sub-category of translated texts in Thessaloniki’s translation landscape which relates to notices inside churches. Their position inside church buildings and courtyards serves to remind us that churches, aside from their function of places of worship, can also serve as tourist attractions seeking money, as Figure 7 shows us.99.As Jaworksi and Thurlow (2010Jaworski, 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., 6) remind us, “space is not only physically but also socially constructed, which necessarily shifts absolutist notions of space towards more communicative or discursive conceptualizations.”
The text, which has been translated into English and other languages reflecting the demographics of visitors, advises a candle can be paid for by inserting money into the slot indicated by the arrow on the notice. As is typical for such notices, the official language of the state, Greek, appears first, followed by English, the lingua franca, and other languages of countries whose citizens often visit Thessaloniki appear below.1010.See Cenoz and Gorter (2006)Cenoz, Jasone, and Durk Gorter 2006 “Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages.” International Journal of Multilingualism 3 (1): 67–80. and Canakis (2018) 2018 “Contesting Identity in the Linguistic Landscape of Belgrade: An Ethnographic Approach.” Belgrade Bells 10 (11): 229–258. for a discussion on the order of languages on signs in the linguistic landscape. In my communication with a senior employee of the church in September 2020, it transpires that the translations were carried out many years ago and it is not known who actually translated the texts. What the senior employee of the church could tell me, however, is that the translations were done, in order for visitors from other countries to be able to understand what is written on the notices. Despite this lack of information on the identity of the translator, it is easy to discern that the translation has not been carried out by a seasoned professional or native speaker. The incorrect spelling of the verb drop, together with the semantic role of theme for the word price, which can be dropped, represent a word-for-word translation from the Greek with no or little adjustment to the conventions of the target language. Despite this divergence from Standard English, the politeness strategy of mitigating imposition by using please, a conventionalised form of politeness on signs and notices (Sifianou 1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press., 191) is used, meaning that no face threatening occurs. However, this is not the case in Figure 8 below.
The poster visible in Figure 8 is in the courtyard of Thessaloniki’s Catholic Church, attended by a small number of Greek Catholics, but also a large community of foreign nationals, the largest of which is made up of Albanian nationals, who live in the city and are of the Catholic faith. In my interview with Maximilian Andrei in October 2020, a Romanian citizen and employee of the parish office in charge of the services carried out in English, he informed me that he is not aware of who carried out the translation and does not know whether the translation is correct or not, although he believes it is. However, he told me that texts are translated, so that non-speakers of Greek are able to understand important information about Mass and when services take place. When asked if he might know whether a priest or a translator would have been given the text to carry out, he suggested that it could have been a church secretary who was proficient in English, again suggesting that knowledge of the target language, as opposed to professional translation experience, is often a deciding factor when selecting someone to translate in the translation landscape.1111.Secretaries in Greece are not required to have formal translation qualifications or experience, although it is common for employers to expect them to be able to translate. The translation of politeness, without the use of the word please, is appropriate in both languages, since this could be seen as advice in the spirit of Christianity from the church to members of the congregation. This could be seen to be further enhanced by the text’s multimodal features; namely, a picture of Jesus Christ, serving as a reminder of the person for whom the day must be kept holy. As such, addressees in either language would not see this as an imposition that would normally be the case in directives such as these (cf. Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 98). Indeed, it could be said that such examples are both politic (Watts 2003Watts, Richard J. 2003 Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ) and conventionalised (Terkourafi 2015 2015 “Conventionalization: A New Agenda for Im/politeness Research.” Journal of Pragmatics 86: 11–18. ), as they express socially expected relations between church, as teacher, and member of the congregation – or “flock” – as pupil.
4.3Texts in businesses providing services
Notices in this category are typically of a more permanent nature than those discussed in the previous section. They have usually been produced by the proprietor of an individual business, the head office of a larger business, such as a chain store, or outsourced to another company who specialises in graphic design or translation. An interesting finding is that all the examples of this category make use of the imperative. As pointed out in the previous section, although Brown and Levinson (1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 100) class imperatives as typical examples of bald-on-record language use, their use in advertising is prolific. Indeed, research shows that imperatives are an integral feature of advertising, which, as opposed to being seen as commands resulting in imposition, function as markers of advice or recommendation (see Pennock-Speck and Fuster-Marquéz 2014Pennock-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. ). This would also appear to be the case in written advertisement-related texts, in Greek as well as English.1212.However, it should be noted that all the examples seen here use the second-person plural, which could be considered either to refer collectively to all target readers or to be the use of the polite plural. In Greek – as in other European languages – the polite plural signifies respect and social distance, thereby minimising the imposition of the directive. See Sifianou (1992Sifianou, Maria 1992 Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press., 61–63) and Georgalidou (2008)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. for discussions on the use of the polite plural in Greek.
Figures 9 and 10 are indicative examples of this. Figure 9 in the window of Pull & Bear, the same clothes store as the one observed in Figure 9, shows a text which prompts customers to collect the orders they have placed on line in the store, whereas Figure 10 from a popular cafe encourages customers to visit the cafe’s garden area. Pull & Bear does not participate in research and therefore could not offer any inside insight into the translation process and nobody was available for comment in the cafeteria. Both texts achieve their communicative intentions by using the same direct imperative strategy in both Greek and English, a strategy which is acceptable in both languages, as the imperative is taken to be a form of encouragement acceptable in advertising. As a result, the illocutionary force is maintained in the target text.
However, it is worth mentioning that if the polite plural were not used in the Greek source text, it is likely that the imperative would be seen as an inappropriate form of address. This is especially the case for the text in Figure 9, which is not complemented by a phrase such as secret garden, which makes it clear in Figure 10 that the author’s intention is to convey the idea of a pleasant experience, hence the use of the imperative as a form of encouragement. For example, Sifianou and Tzanne (2018)Sifianou, Maria, and Angeliki Tzanne 2018 “The Impact of Globalisation on Brief Service Encounters.” Journal of Pragmatics 134: 163–172. have shown that the polite plural is the default practice in service interactions in Greece, although this can switch to the informal singular (T-form), usually in encounters where the employee was older than the customer or when both employee and customer were both of a young age. Although this data refers to spoken interactions, written notices also address their audiences directly (see Ferenčík 2018Ferenčík, 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. ). One notable exception to the use of the polite plural in advertisements is when companies deliberately target younger addressees, such as mobile telephone companies promoting student packages and deals. However, in these cases, if the use of the plural does not refer to more than one addressee, it could have been selected for reasons of politeness, since the texts address a broader audience of various age groups.
Figure 11 would seem to use a similar strategy, combined with a financial enticement to entice the prospective customer. Specifically, the Greek text, “καθίστε με τιμές πακέτου,” ‘kathiste me times paketou’ could alternatively have been translated as ‘sit down [for a coffee] for the price of a takeaway.’ Since this particular cafe is very popular with the city’s students, not least because it is located directly opposite Aristotle University’s main campus, the use of the T-form would be legitimate here to refer to each customer individually. It could even be seen as a positive politeness strategy to form solidarity with the city’s youth. However, during my conversation with an anonymous employee of the cafe in question in May 2021, it was revealed to me that the English text had been developed as a play on words of the standard phrase take away. According to the employee, the intention was, during the financial crisis that Greece was hit particularly hard by, to inform customers that they could sit down and have a drink for the same price that they would pay for taking a coffee away. The communicative intention is also made clear by the multimodal notice featuring a smiling waitress and two cups of take away coffee and the illocutionary force of an invitation to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee is preserved in both languages.
Finally, in Figure 12, the imperative has been used in the same way as in the other examples. However, in this case, it is a safety notice in a petrol station and therefore, could be seen as an imposition – the voice of authority telling the customer how to behave safely. For instance, it is worth noticing the difference between this text and the notice we discussed in Figure 6. In Figure 6, the first-person plural was used as a way of connoting inclusivity and mitigating the imposition; in this case, a direct imperative is used, albeit in the polite plural.1313.Although no one was able to confirm my hypothesis, I assume that in this particular case, the plural is used for the purpose of conveying politeness as opposed to multiple addressees, as the space of the petrol station is such that it does not allow for more than one customer at a time. It therefore would appear to address each customer individually. What has been added here in Greek is a justification, “για την ασφάλειά σας,” ‘gia tin asfaleia sas’ (for your safety), supplemented by photographs of what needs to be done to ensure safety. As we have already seen, justifications are commonly used in Greek as a positive politeness strategy, so as to reduce any face threats that could result from an imposed limit of freedom without an appropriate reason (Marmaridou 1987Marmaridou, 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. ; Sifianou 2010Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. ). However, the English translation does not convey this justification and simply maintains the imperative by requesting that the customer “think safety.”
In terms of translating politeness, however, it does not diverge from expected or even conventionalised norms, since the directive is in the interest of the customer’s safety (cf. Brown and Levinson 1987Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson 1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , 98). An employee of the petrol station told me in May 2021 that the sign is very old and he is unaware of who carried out the translation. However, he was able to tell me that the text was translated “so that tourists can understand.” This again highlights the role of English as a global language which is used in a variety of contexts, not just in businesses typically connected with tourists, such as restaurants and hotels, but also in businesses such as petrol stations providing practical services.
5.Conclusions
This paper has shown the ways in which politeness is rendered from Greek into English in the form of public notices visible around the city of Thessaloniki. What makes this paper different from other work done on Greek and English politeness phenomena is that it analyses politeness in written as opposed to spoken texts, while it approaches the phenomenon from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining methods from both linguistics and translation studies. Although the analysis revealed several examples of divergence from the norms of the standard target language, intelligibility was generally maintained throughout and no instances of obvious face threats were noted. Theoretically, exceptions to this could be examples such as Figures 5 and 6, which could be seen as expressing a desire to be rid of the customer and to be condescending respectively. However, as I have argued, the intention of the author of the text is often clear by virtue of situationality, the notices’ multimodality, and the addressee’s awareness of the current pandemic safety requirements. This means that the potential face threat is mitigated by means of additional non-linguistic contextual factors.
Indeed, divergence from the standard conventions of the target language, a foreign language to Greek speakers, is to be expected, particularly due to the majority of texts being translated by non-professional translators and non-native speakers of English. In many ways, this serves as a realistic reflection of how language users rely on their linguistic resources, as well as how the cultures these linguistic resources represent come into contact with each other (cf. Blommaert and Maly 2014Blommaert, Jan, and Ico Maly 2014 “Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis and Social Change: A Case Study.” Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies 100. Accessed April 15, 2020. https://www.academia.edu/7560835/WP133_Blommaert_and_Maly_2014._Ethnographic_linguistic_landscape_analysis_and_social_change_A_case_study). Figures 5 and 6 were both fitting examples of this, since the illocutionary force of both could be seen as different to that of the original Greek text. Moreover, supplementing Brown and Levinson’s framework with other approaches to analysing politeness such as Watts’s concept of politic behaviour has the potential to offer a broader explanation concerning the way that language is deemed appropriate in specific contexts in both source and target language, as seen in Figure 8, where the context of church addressing congregation allows for direct instructions, which may otherwise be considered patronising, especially when observing religion cannot realistically be said to benefit the physical health or safety of the reader, which would be grounds for more direct language in Brown and Levinson’s framework. Terkourafi’s concept of conventionalisation can also help the analysis of examples such as Figures 1 and 2.
Other examples of politeness in the translation landscape support findings in previous research into politeness in Greek and English, such as the use of justification in Greek as a positive politeness strategy to reaffirm that speaker and addressee are co-operators (see Marmaridou 1987Marmaridou, 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. and Sifianou 2010Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. ) and verbose phrasing in both English and Greek, a form of expression which appears to be associated with politeness perceptions (Sifianou 2010Sifianou, Μaria 2010 “The Announcements in the Athens Metro Stations: An Example of Glocalization?” Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (1): 24–46. ) in Greece and has been rendered into English when briefer expressions would have been more appropriate (Figures 1 and 2). To conclude, the translation landscape provides an insight into how languages and cultures interact with each other, the extent to which norms are known and adhered to, and how divergences represent the complex identities of human beings, formed in the social environment of their place of origin, but also as they come into contact with other societies and cultural norms, including issues of politeness. Future research in this area could include observing the translation process in some of the key analytical categories noted in this paper in combination with more detailed interviews at each stage of the translation process.
Funding
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the participants who took part in my research and provided me with their invaluable perspectives on translation. Thanks and acknowledgements also go to John Benjamins for allowing me to reuse Figure 1 (Lees 2022 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. ), and Taylor & Francis for Figures 5 and 6 (Lees 2021a 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. ). Finally, I would like to thank Professor Emerita, Maria Sifianou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for our insightful exchange on matters of politeness, particularly regarding Greek and English.