Transcript Diapositiva 1

LINGUISTIC AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES IN THE
LANGUAGE OF TOURISM
PREMODIFICATION
Premodification is a left-dislocation of terms with an
adjectival function which modifies the qualities of the
properties of the head-noun.
This may create complex nominal groups whose
modifiers are nouns which have acquired an
adjectival role
EXAMPLE 2
CHECKED BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE
The baggage allowance rules stated herein (the baggage allowance rules
which are stated herein – Air Canada Ticket)
Example 3
Visit the best-preserved theatre (Visit the theatre which is preserved in the
best possible way – Greek Itineraries)
Example 4
An EU recommended tourism policy (a policy which is recommended by the
EU – Ryanair)
EXAMPLES OF PREMODIFICATION IN THE
LANGUAGE OF TOURISM
1. Check-in time
2. Escorted all-inclusive tour
3. Fly-cruise package
4. Hub and spoke tour
5. Destination marketing organization
Ex. “Located in a carefully restored 200-year-old traditional stone
house”
(Greek Itineraries)
Nominalization involves a high level of
lexical density, which derives from the
eleaboration of a complex syntax.
Elementary surface structures and very
simple sintax are sometimes changed
through the use of complex and
premodified noun-phrases, which leads to
a far longer sentence length than in general
language
EXAMPLE:
If you wish to board the aircraft as part of
the first boarding group you can purchase
a Priority Boarding voucher for GBP
2.00/EUR 3.00 per passenger / per one way
flight through a Ryanair Call Centre
(subject to call centre opening hours) or at
your departure airport up to a 40 minutes
prior to the scheduled departure time.
(Ryanair Ticket)
SYNTACTICAL FEATURES / VERB TENSES
The pragmatic function of verbs makes their
choice essential in specialized discourse.
Due to the communicative purposes of
specialized discourse texts, the present indicative
tense seems the most widely used, especially in
scientific texts, whereas imperatives appear to be
typical of technical handbooks.
In the LANGUAGE OF TOURISM,
the present simple is the most
frequently exploited tense, especially in
tourist guides, brochures and itineraries
because it gives the stay in the city (or
other tourist place) a more permanent
and lenghty time spam
The IMPERATIVE is another typical feature of
Tourism Discourse in the holiday industry, and
is mainly employed in guides and brochures.
The pragmatic purpose of the imperative is
not that of giving orders but rather to urge
tourists to avail themselves of the chances
they are offered
EX. Enjoy a pleasant stay at our special
Airport Lounge (Easyjet)
MODALS
Modal verbs occupy a special position within specialized
discourse. Modality is realized using expressions which
indicate how the world might be (truth about the world) or
how the world should be (judgement about the world).
This includes expressions of necessity, permissibility,
probability, and negations of these.
In Tourism, modality is expressed in two main
different ways
1) When the text is an expression of a contract (“terms
and conditions”) or legislation, modality performs the
same deontic modality (how the world ought to be
according to certain norms, rules, laws) of LEGAL
DISCOURSE, i.e revealing deontic certainties and
necessities
2) When the text directly targets tourists, it does
not express deontic or epistemic meaning, but
rather a way of behaving, a mode of action to be
undertaken by the tourist.
MODALITY PROMPTS AN ACTION:
EX. Alongside Italy’s treasures, you’ll find plenty to keep
you busy in the countryside. You can ski in the alps, hike
the Dolomites, or dive off Sardinia golden coast. Adrenalin
junkies can catch fireworks on Sicily’s volatile volcanoes
(Lonely Planet.com/Italy)
The verbs WILL and CAN convey ideas of possibility
and certainty
MUST
Also employed, though less extensively than will and can,
the verb does not express a modal but rather a
NOMINALIZED FORM in such expression as “a must-see”,
“a must-do”, or simply and even more colloquially “ a must”.
The shortened and concise nominalized form expresses an
“implicit necessity”:
It acquires a colloquial status and indicates a necessity,
something the tourist absolutely cannot miss if he/she
wishes to have an authentic experience.
MUST
The use of the nominalized form of MUST is
another linguistic strategy to create the
illusion of a friendly relationship with the
writer of the tourist text, thus lowering any
defensive (financial or practical) walls the
potential consumer may have built.
Agreement, obtained through empathy, is
thus created and is the first step towards cooperation (while performing a highly
persuasive function)
VERBS / PASSIVE FORMS /DEPERSONALIZATION
Use of passive in specialized discourse is not very common
although it appears when a higher degree of
DEPERSONALIZATION is required for specific pragmatic
purposes.
It allows the foregrounding of facts, events, results and so
diminishes the importance of the role, opinions and feelings of the
author (subjectivity vs objectivity)
Such a feature often occurs in tourism discourse, whenever the
emphasis must be in the object rather than on the agent of the
action:
PURPOSE: TO CONVEY A SENSE OF (IMMUTABLE) TRUTH.
EXAMPLE – PASSIVE
“Upon your arrival you will be met by our host and
transferred to your hotel”
Here, the pragmatic purpose of the passive is to
emphasize both the tourist as person being taken care of
and the Tour Operator who takes care of the Tourist, so that
the tourist/reader feels reassured and protected by a sense
of loyalty.
1) When tourism discourse is specialized passives are
used to depersonalize discourse and emphasize the
facts (effects, outcomes) rather than its cause or
originator (Gotti, 2003)
( Tickets are non-transferable and name changes
are not permitted – Air Canada Ticket)
2) When tourism discourse targets the reader/tourist
directly and so the discourse is PROMOTIONAL, the
agent is also expressed in order to convey the idea
that the tourist will not be left to his / her own devices
AND to clarify organizational purposes (it makes all
details of the organization clear and understandable,
so as to confer a strong idea of professionality )
PERSONAL PRONOUNS – EMPATHY
Personal pronouns, such as we and you, are often employed to
achieve the goal of EGO-TARGETING (highly and subtly
persuasive):
London is our main course but we also serve up wonderful side
dishes in the shape of Explorer days to Stonehenge, Oxford,
Bath, Hampton ecc. If you know the score and just want to
know what’s on when – just click here for a table, laid out in
chronological order, of all the out-of-town trips we’ll be running
in the Summer 2009 London Walks programme
(London Walks, Tourist Guides)
By using we and you, the author establishes a direct relationship
with the reader. By creating a personal relationship with the reader
the text becomes highly persuasive: the recipient is drawn into the
text and EMPATHY is established, generating identification, loyalty
and, especially, desire to buy the product.
Destination Guide: London, England
London is a city where you’ll find a whole world of history and culture in each
of its colorful streets. As in other cities in Europe, London has an incredible
ethnic mix, which gives a certain edge to this area of the United Kingdom.
On travelling through this fascinating city, you’ll find a large number of tourist
attractions, among which are Westminster Abbey (a church where the remains
of the Royal Family are buried and where important marriages are usually
held), the Tower of London, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Kew Royal
Botanical Gardens, the Greenwich National Maritime Museum and the British
Museum, as well as the numerous parks scattered throughout London.
London
From its Roman core to its Olympic edges, its ancient abbeys to its iconic
skyscrapers, London is an extraordinary time capsule of human history and a
cross-section of all human life. London now confidently assumes the mantle
of Europe’s cultural capital and that of one of the world’s great cities,
crowning itself Emperor-style by hosting its third Olympic Games in 2012.
London has been called a ‘world in one city’ and that’s not
just empty rhetoric. The brilliant feat carried off here is
that while immigrants, the city’s lifeblood, continue to
flow in and contribute their energy and cultures to the
capital’s already-spicy melting pot, London nevertheless
feels quintessentially British, whether it’s those boxy
black cabs, the red double-deckers or those grand
symbols of Britain – the mother of all parliaments at
Westminster, the silhouette of Tower Bridge above the
muddy Thames or the now world-famous London Eye,
barely a decade old.
Don’t miss these essential sights of course, but equally
ensure you partake in what really makes London great: a
pint and a plate of fish ’n’ chips by the river, a day in the
park or a night out in Soho or Shoreditch. Take a deep
breath and prepare to fall in love with the British capital.