Abstracts
Abstract
Politeness is an important element in interlingual business communication. Translators use bilingual dictionaries as tools helping then in business discourse across cultures, but dictionaries do not contain the relevant pragmatic information. The functions of dictionaries are used to determine which pragmatic information types are needed when translating business letters. The analysis focuses on a Spanish-English business dictionary and its treatment of politeness in special sections dealing with business correspondence. The findings show that the treatment is insufficient, because users’ business-language competence does not enable them to express the right level of politeness. Bilingual dictionaries should offer a systematic treatment of cultural and genre-specific means of expressing politeness in contrastive, informative texts showing the specific uses of politeness in business discourse. Finally, proposals on what to include and how this can be done are made, with a view to helping translators.
Keywords/Mots-clés:
- business correspondence,
- politeness,
- English,
- Spanish,
- dictionary
Résumé
La courtoisie est un élément très important de la communication dans l’entreprise, et elle joue un rôle essentiel dans toute situation d’utilisation de plusieurs langues. Normalement, les traducteurs emploient des dictionnaires bilingues pour résoudre des problèmes d’ordre culturel, dans le cadre de la communication d’entreprise à laquelle participent habituellement des personnes de traditions culturelles différentes.
Dans la majorité des cas, ces dictionnaires n’offrent pas d’indications pratiques très valables. Ainsi, pour traduire ou rédiger des lettres commerciales en anglais ou en espagnol, un traducteur peut avoir recours au dictionnaire The Oxford Business Spanish Dictionary. Spanish-English/English-Spanish qui offre quelques exemples et explique certaines caractéristiques. Cependant, l’analyse de cette partie du dictionnaire nous montre que l’information est peu utile puisqu’on n’y explique pas les ressemblances et les différences entre les lettres, dans les deux langues.
Ceci pose problème en ce qui a trait à la courtoisie : aussi croyons-nous qu’il serait nécessaire de réorganiser la partie du dictionnaire afin de donner des indications plus adaptées aux besoins des usagers du dictionnaire.
Appendices
References
- Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and S. J. Harris (1996): “Request and status in business correspondence,” Journal of Pragmatics 28, pp. 635-662.
- Bell, R. T. (2000): Translation and Translating. Theory and Practice, London and New York, Longman.
- Bergenholtz, H. and S. Nielsen (2006): “Subject-field components as integrated parts of LSP dictionaries,” Terminology 12-2, pp. 281-303.
- Bergenholtz, H. and S. Tarp (eds.) (1995): Manual of Specialised Lexicography, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins.
- Bergenholtz, H. and S. Tarp (2002): “Die moderne lexikographische Funktionslehre. Diskussionsbeitrag zu neuen und alten Paradigmen, die Wörterbücher als Gebrauchsgegenstände verstehen,” Lexicographica 22, pp. 145-155.
- Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and E. Finegan (1999): Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Longman, London.
- Boxer, D. (1993): “Speech behaviour and social distance: The case of indirect complaints,” Journal of Pragmatics 19, pp. 103-125.
- Brown, P. and S. Levinson (1978): “Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena,” in Goody, E. (ed.), Questions and Politeness: Strategies in Social Interactions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted (1987) as Politeness: Some Universals of Language Usage, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- Christie, G. (2006): “Golden rules of writing well,” Chartered Accountants Journal 85-4: pp. 70-72.
- Flowerdew, J. and A. Wan (2006): “Genre analysis of tax computation letters: How and why tax accountants write the way they do,” English for Specific Purposes 25, pp. 133-153.
- Fukushima, T. (2007): “Simulation in JFL: Business Writing,” Simulation and Gaming 38-1, pp. 48-66.
- Goffman, E. (1972): Relations in Public. Microstudies of the Public Order, New York, Harper.
- Hartford, B. and A. Mahboob (2004): “Models of discourse in the letter of complaint,” World Englishes 23-4, pp. 585-600.
- López, S. and D. Watt (eds.) (2002): El Diccionario de Negocios Oxford. Español-inglés/ingles-español. The Oxford Business Spanish Dictionary. Spanish-English/English-Spanish, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
- Mahboob, A. (1997): “A cross cultural/linguistic study of complaints,” paper presented at the 11th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.
- Mossop, B. (2001): Revising and Editing for Translators, Manchester/Northampton, St. Jerome Publishing.
- Nielsen, S. (1994): The Bilingual LSP Dictionary. Principles and Practice for Legal Language, Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag.
- Nord, C. (2005): Text Analysis in Translation. Theory, Methodology, and Didactic Application of a Model for Translation-Oriented Text Analysis, Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi.
- Pilegaard, M. (1990): “Linguistic politeness in intercultural business communication,” poster presentation at the 1990 IPrA Conference, Barcelona.
- Pilegaard, M. (1997): “Politeness in written business discourse: A textlinguistic perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 28, pp. 223-244.
- Siepman, D. (2006): “Academic writing and culture: An overview of differences between English, French, and German,” Meta 51-1, pp. 131-150.
- Sprague, R. (2007): “Business blogs and commercial speech: A new analytical framework for the 21st Century,” American Business Law Journal 44-1, pp. 127-159.
- Tarp, S. (2004): “Basic Problems of Learner’s Lexicography,” Lexikos 14, pp. 222-252.
- Van Nus, M. (1999): “Can we count on your bookings of potatoes to Madeira? Corporate context and discourse practices in direct sales letters,” in Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and C. Nickerson (eds.), Writing Business. Genres, Media and Discourse, London, Longman, pp. 181-205.
- Vergaro, C. (2005): “‘Dear Sirs, I hope you will find this information useful’: discourse strategies in Italian and English ‘For Your Information’ (FYI) letters,” Discourse Studies 7-1, pp. 109-135.
- Yeung, L. N.T. (1997): “Polite requests in English and Chinese business correspondence in Hong Kong,” Journal of Pragmatics 27, pp. 505-522.
10.7202/012998ar