Business Websites as a Genre: Rendering Fair Language while Matching Corporate Values and Reader Expectations

Main Article Content

Paola Tosi
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7198-0693

Abstract

This article aims at presenting web content as a genre with specific features, including very precise writers’ and readers’ expectations, diverse functions (skopos), text types and a strong bond with graphics and aesthetics. Business websites are investigated as a prime example of this genre focusing on the main challenges in rendering fair language in the English into Italian translation.  In this genre, language is the mean through which writers—here, companies—can prove to be able to meet the readers’—here, potential customers—expectations in terms of company values. Framing the Italian linguistic and cultural context, the quest for inclusivity and gender-neutral language is evident and extremely relevant, making it a top priority for companies. Responding to the most common requests by corporations, some strategies are presented and their limits commented based on my experience as a practising translator. Linked to the idea of inclusivity, the concept of accessibility of web content is illustrated as a principle to follow to really embrace everybody. Web content is a brilliant case in which the choice of the language to be used reflects the most recent social transformation—sometimes even asking for avant-garde solutions—to meet readers’ expectations

Article Details

How to Cite
Tosi, P. “Business Websites As a Genre: Rendering Fair Language While Matching Corporate Values and Reader Expectations”. Linguaculture, vol. 14, no. 2, Dec. 2023, pp. 166-85, doi:10.47743/lincu-2023-2-0336.
Section
Specialised Genres in Translation
Author Biography

Paola Tosi, University of Milan Bicocca; University of Insubria

Paola TOSI teaches English Language and Translation in University of Milan-Bicocca and the University of Insubria (Como). At the University of Insubria she has been appointed Cultore della Materia (Expert on the subject) for the course Advanced English Language and Translation. She also works for University of Milan and University of Brescia as an English linguistic expert and exam committee member. Having graduated in Conference interpreting, she is also a freelance interpreter and translator and teaches translation courses from English into Italian in higher education institutes for intercultural mediators. She has been an associate member of AITI (Italian Association of Interpreters and Translators) since 2021. In May 2023 she gave a speech entitled Critical skills, ethics and professional values in the training of future intercultural mediators at the University of Insubria (the relevant congress proceedings are going to be published in 2024). In December 2023, her article “Reflexivity in translation: a multi-layered, dialogic, and self-reflexive process” is to be published in the journal Discourses on Culture. Her research interests range from AI in translation and interpreting, translation in the business & marketing and medical field, and the training of intercultural mediators, to inclusive language.

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