translating a guidebook: addressing reader...
TRANSCRIPT
Translating a guidebook: addressing reader expectation A small-scale corpus study of direct reader address in a Swedish-English translation
Author Carina Sjöberg-Hawke Supervisor Jukka Tyrkkö Examiner Jenny Ström Herold Semester Spring 2018 Subject English Level Advanced Course Code 4EN31E
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Abstract This study analyses the comparative frequency of “direct reader address” in English and
Swedish walking guidebook texts. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of
specific linguistic features that constitute “direct reader address”, the study aims to
highlight the importance of considering reader expectation of a text, i.e. the target
culture’s text conventions when translating. The linguistic features in focus are those
which help to establish a familiar relationship between reader and writer and thus set up
an imaginary dialogue. These are: second-person pronouns, first-person inclusive plural
pronouns and verbs in the imperative mood. A translation corpus of walking-guidebook
extracts (10 English originals, 11 Swedish originals and their English translations) and
my own Swedish-to-English translation of such a text were analysed in order to a)
determine to what extent “direct reader address” is used in Swedish and English original
walking guidebooks; b) determine to what extent “direct reader address” is retained and
used in English translations of Swedish walking guidebooks; and c) discuss the
implications of this for translators of such texts. The results of the investigation show
that although “direct reader address” does appear in both Swedish and English original
guidebooks, it is more prevalent in English ones. Imperative verbs are the most common
of all the relevant linguistic features. The results also show that the trend is not only to
retain in English translations what “direct reader address” existed in Swedish originals
but also sometimes to add “direct reader address” for reasons of syntax and idiomatic
usage. The implications are that a target culture’s text conventions are consequential
when translating a walking guidebook because they relate to reader expectation, in
particular in relation to linguistic features of “direct reader address”. To translate well,
and where deadlines allow, it is recommended that a translator’s strategy should try to
address reader expectation.
Key Words direct reader address, English, first-person, guidebooks, imperatives, interpersonal,
personal pronouns, reader expectation, secondary reader, second-person, Swedish,
target reader, text conventions, tourist text, translation, translator strategy
Acknowledgements Thank you to my supervisor, work colleagues and boyfriend for being so supportive,
encouraging and providing valuable feedback during this challenging time.
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 1
1.1 Aim and Scope ___________________________________________________ 3
2 Material and Method _________________________________________________ 42.1 Analysis Material _________________________________________________ 4
2.1.1 The translation – text analysis and translation strategy _________________ 42.1.2 Building the translation corpus ___________________________________ 7
2.2 Data Collection ___________________________________________________ 82.2.1 Counting _____________________________________________________ 82.2.2 Frequency and chi-square test ____________________________________ 8
3 Theoretical Framework _______________________________________________ 93.1 A Translator’s Strategy ____________________________________________ 10
3.1.1 The guidebook genre __________________________________________ 123.1.2 Considering language, culture and the Swedish/English context ________ 14
3.2 Direct Reader Address ____________________________________________ 163.2.1 Second-person pronouns _______________________________________ 163.2.2 First-person inclusive plural pronouns _____________________________ 193.2.3 Imperatives __________________________________________________ 203.2.4 Not addressing the reader directly ________________________________ 21
4 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis __________________________________ 234.1 Direct Reader Address in the Corpus _________________________________ 234.2 Direct Reader Address in the Personal Translation ______________________ 284.3 Implications and Evaluation ________________________________________ 32
5 Conclusion ________________________________________________________ 34
References __________________________________________________________ 36Primary Sources ____________________________________________________ 36Secondary Sources __________________________________________________ 38
Appendix A: Profiling Results of ST and TT ______________________________ 42
Appendix B: Detailed Result Tables _____________________________________ 44
Appendix C: Chi-Square Test Results ___________________________________ 48
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1 Introduction You may be surprised reading this sentence. This paper is of the academic variety; the reader
(you) will likely have expected not to be addressed directly with the second-person pronoun.
This probability is high given personal pronouns tend to rarely occur in academic writing
(Biber and Conrad, 2009:116 Table 5.2). However, over the years, linguistic features typical
of spoken language, such as the English second-person pronoun you, have increasingly been
appearing in written English of many informative texts (Sabater et al, 2001:489). This might
in part be a consequence of the digital world we live in, which has resulted in communication
styles being more instant and in real-time, characteristic of conversation, but, Sabater et al
(2001:490) also suggest that it may be an attempt by many companies and administrative
bodies to approach their consumers on a more familiar level. Removing the unequal power
distribution in the relationship between the participants allows the writer to involve the reader
in the communicative process and perceive the experience as actively participating in the
communication. Essentially, the text is a “site of interaction” (Hoey, 2001:13), where the
writer produces a text which engages the reader and which the reader responds to, a kind of
imagined dialogue that has the atmosphere of a face-to-face conversation (Torresi, 2010:128
cited in Cui and Zhao, 2014).
Texts which invite this kind of interpersonal communication most likely have a conative
function (Jakobson, 1960), i.e. the writer is appealing to and/or persuading the reader to act on
something. One way to achieve this persuasive element in the communication can be to use a
direct form of address, such as with the English personal pronoun you. For example,
Francesconi (2011) noted in her study of a tourism brochure of Malta that personal pronouns
were “pivotal verbal items” in the discourse. It was clear that they were used in the brochure
to establish a familiar relationship between the reader and writer, with the reader being
addressed through the second-person pronoun.
A similar genre within tourism that does this is the guidebook. It not only uses the second-
person pronoun you to directly address the reader, but also the imperative mood of a verb
(typical of the conative function), which is still aimed at the second-person, but the second-
person reference is implicit. Both can be seen in example (1) below, highlighted in italics.
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(1)
Take a trip in an open-top tramcar beside the River Axe on the Seaton tramway,
which runs for 3 miles (4.8km) from Colyton to Seaton via Colyford. You
should see a wide range of birds, including grey herons, kingfishers,
oystercatchers, curlews and egrets. More than 50 different species have been
spotted from the tram in one day. (Viccars, 2013:16)
Example (1) illustrates how guidebook text not only informs a reader about a place of interest,
but also directs the reader about how to reach this place of interest and command/recommend
to the reader what to see and do there. The informative and directive nature of the text is
combined with forms of second-person referencing giving the reader the impression that the
writer is addressing them directly, as in spoken conversation, almost sounding like a real-life
tour guide.
The linguistic features involved in addressing the reader can vary from language to language
and situation to situation. Depending on these, a writer will make careful linguistic decisions
about exactly who and how many readers they are addressing. For example, if personal
pronouns are chosen, one language’s system may only have one lexeme to choose from to
address the recipient but another may have a variety of words because gender, number and
level of formality need to be indicated. Essentially, the features used can be related to the
language used, the situation and the text typology.
A translator has the same decisions to make as a writer, but the context of the target culture
could make decisions more strategic. The translator may decide that they focus mostly on the
linguistic level (like Nida’s (1964) dynamic equivalence) or maybe more on the functional
level (like Reiss and Vermeer’s (2014) skopos theory or Nord’s (2005) translation-oriented
text analysis), or maybe a combination of both. Alternatively, a translator may take a more
dynamic approach through a combination of these while incorporating other extratextual
factors which take into consideration the target culture, e.g. profiling the reader, “reader
characterisation” (Sager, 1997). Whichever translation strategy a translator chooses is likely
to be partly governed by factors outside their control such as the commission deadline; a tight
deadline would limit the time a translator has to analyse the source and target profiles
involved, let alone the reader profile. However, the fact remains that a reader will have
expectations about the translation product as a text, the conventions of its genre and its
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readability and fluency, and therefore, a translator should try to meet those to produce a
successful text.
1.1 Aim and Scope
This study aims to highlight the importance of considering a target culture’s text conventions
when translating, in particular in relation to linguistic features of “direct reader address”, such
as personal pronouns, which help establish a familiar relationship between reader and writer,
in a guidebook context. Material for this investigation includes a translation corpus of
walking-guidebook extracts (of English originals, Swedish originals and English translations)
and my own personal Swedish to English translation of such a text. There are three primary
goals with this investigation:
1. To determine to what extent “direct reader address” is used in Swedish and English
original walking guidebooks;
2. To determine to what extent “direct reader address” is retained and used in English
translations of Swedish walking guidebooks;
3. To discuss the implications for a translation strategy of such texts.
In order to fulfil these goals, both a quantitative and a qualitative research approach have been
adopted. This includes an analysis and discussion of frequencies of “direct reader address”
occurrences in the material. Furthermore, observations of translation choices and strategy are
made on instances of English and Swedish correspondences of “direct reader address” in the
personal translation. Due to practical constraints, this study will only focus on linguistic
features of “direct reader address”.
The remaining part of the paper is organised as follows. Chapter two summarises how the
material, the corpus and translation, was produced and how the relevant linguistic features
were counted. Chapter three examines a translator’s strategy in relation to text conventions
and target culture, and defines “direct reader address”. The results of the investigation follow
in chapter four, with an examination and discussion of the frequencies of “direct reader
address” and the translation strategies involved. The final chapter draws some provisional
conclusions.
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2 Material and Method This chapter explains how this investigation was conducted, starting with a description of the
analysis material used, followed by an explanation of how the data was collected and
compiled.
2.1 Analysis Material
The material for investigation consists of two parts; a personal Swedish-to-English
translation, and a translation corpus developed specifically for this study. The corpus contains
Swedish and English original texts of the walking guidebook variety and also English
translations of the Swedish originals. This section first summarises the source and target text
of the personal translation and the translation strategy that was used. This is followed by a
description of the building of the corpus including how texts were selected and obtained.
2.1.1 The translation – text analysis and translation strategy
Four chapters (Olskroken och Redbergslid pp.21-27, Älvsnabben pp.50-55, Spårvagn 5 pp.70-
76 and Donsö och Styrsö pp.128-133) from the Swedish walking guidebook Göteborg till
fots: trottoarturism och spårvägssafaris (Hansson, 2016) were translated into English. Before
the translation was performed, a profile was generated for both source text (ST) and target
text (TT) to determine the text types, the target readers and the commission requirements of
the texts. Both Nord’s (2005) translation-oriented text analysis method and Biber and
Conrad’s (2009) analysis of situational characteristics were applied. A summary of those
results follows (an exact breakdown can be found in Appendix A).
The ST, published in Sweden in 2016, is part of a printed book with text and pictures
interwoven throughout. As its foreword indicates, the aim of the book is to guide Swedish
tourists around Gothenburg in a friendly manner, “Den här guideboken vill vara din
föjeslagare [sic] genom många olika sidor av Göteborg – på tvären och på djupet.” (“This
guidebook wants to be your companion through the many different facets of Gothenburg – in
all directions.”) (Hansson, 2016:2). It is a guidebook with a focus on walking. The ST’s
intended functions are informative, instructive and conative. The text informs the reader about
aspects of Gothenburg, its history, geography, architecture, culture, etc., instructs the reader in
some parts by directing them which routes to take on foot, and appeals to them (conative
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function) to see and do what has been informed and instructed about. Based on the translation
brief, the TT should function in the same way.
The guidebook itself indicates who the addressees, or target readers, of the ST are, that they
are either curious visitors or locals of Gothenburg (Hansson, 2016:2). The TT’s readers would
be the same. However, the target readers of the ST are further defined by the fact that the
information is given in Swedish and thus giving rise to the readers having an expectation
about the language used, the style, then text conventions, based on Swedish language/culture
expectation. The readership of the TT might be much wider since the addressees will be
English-speaking tourists, and English is more widely spoken than Swedish. They are more
likely to be tourists from outside Gothenburg and Sweden and are unlikely to share the same
amount of knowledge about the city and country as the Swedish target reader. This might
require the translation to be more explicit in places, such as when explaining a specific
cultural aspect or Swedish word. However, the English-speaking tourists may also be
locals/residents of the city.
In order to fulfil the function of the book, which clearly places the needs of the target readers
first, it seemed logical to aim at producing what Nord (2005) calls an instrumental translation.
This is a functional translation where the message is reproduced through a text that reads like
an original target language text, rather than a documentary one, where the reader is aware that
it is a translation, typified by literal or word-for-word translations, which, although it may be
awkward, would give the TT reader access to the source language culture while accessing the
ST’s ideas. These two translation products are very similar to House’s (1997) two, but she
labels the instrumental type covert and the documentary one overt. The latter does not try to
be an original and the former should have the status of an original source text. A documentary
or overt translation might appeal to some, but for those readers who want the text to only
function as its function of guide rather than anything else, and want coherency, then a
translation that is more like texts they are used to, whether termed instrumental or covert,
would appeal more. The message of translations which are unlike an original source text may
result in misunderstandings, such as not reaching the destination.
In endeavouring to produce an instrumental translation, Nord’s (2005) three-step approach
was adopted. First, the translation brief was considered, comparing intended text functions,
participants, time and place of text reception, medium and motive of ST and TT, as
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summarised above. Secondly, an analysis of the role of the ST was performed, examining
feasibility of translation, decision on what ST linguistic, structural and even content items
were relevant in achieving a functional translation and what strategy to fulfil the brief. The
final step in Nord’s (2005) translation approach is to establish a functional hierarchy of
translation problems (working top-down).
The differences between the ST and TT amounted to differences between the target readers,
not only of language but also of culture, such as genre conventions and presuppositions. This
meant that items such as reader address, which can vary interlingually (see section 3.2), and
place and street names, which can be easily understood in the source language (SL) but not in
the target language (TL), were some items to be tackled. Decisions on such items were based
on personal experience of the TL, guiding and guidebooks, thereafter supported with
referencing in corpora such as BNC and COCA, as well as Google search. For official terms,
Gothenburg’s tourist website (www.goteborg.com) was utilised. Based on the commission
brief, some content which possibly could be left out in the English version was left in for
editing later. Additionally, the context of some content was made in previous chapters and
thus such content was not explained in the translation where could have been the case.
Translation strategies included: being word-for-word, where the language system allowed for
that, as example (2) illustrates:
(2) Redbergslid är en av Göteborgs
livligaste stadsdelar.
Redbergslid is one of Gothenburg's
most vibrant boroughs.
using more or fewer words in the TL depending on syntactic needs, and adjusting word order
where appropriate too, as can be seen in example (3):
(3) Här låg en stadsdel uppbyggd på 1890-
talet med rader av
landshövdingehuskvarter och mängder
av butiker och småföretag…
Built in the 1890s, this was once a
borough with rows of governor house
neighbourhoods and many shops and
small businesses…
And being explicit when, for example, a road was not clearly a road, as in example (4) below:
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(4) Stanna vid krysset med Åsenliden Continue until you reach the cross on
the road Åsenliden.
This translation, which endeavoured to be an instrumental translation with a focus on the
target readers’ needs, constituted one part of the investigation material. The other part was the
corpus created for this study.
2.1.2 Building the translation corpus
Since part of the goal of this investigation involves obtaining the frequency of certain
linguistic features in a certain genre, additional texts were required to provide more
comprehensive observations. A common practice in translation studies and research today is
to incorporate the use of corpora (Munday, 2012:283ff.). A corpus is a collection of authentic
texts which can provide “access to large quantities of real world data” (Peters, Picchi, and
Biagini, 2000:73); in other words, access to language in use (Lindquist, 2009:1), a helpful tool
for a translator when making natural target language choices of a lexical, grammatical or
structural nature. Consequently, to be able to analyse the actual language in use for “direct
reader address” in this study, a Swedish-English translation corpus was created, consisting of
extracts from Swedish guidebooks and their English translations as well as extracts from
English-written guidebooks. Criteria for selecting the texts were based on the ST and TT
profiles of the personal translation, and are summarised below:
• Genre: guidebooks with a walking focus
• Languages: Swedish originals with English translations and English originals
• Addressees: respective Swedish/English tourists
• Intended functions: informative, instructional, conative
• Motive: to accompany the tourist on a guided tour of the destination
Due to practical constraints, local libraries were the access point for the corpus material.
However, this was limited, in particular regarding the English translations and as a
consequence, it was necessary, to utilise inter-library loans. This proved more time-
consuming than expected and limited the number of and the length of the extracts added to the
corpus. The final count was 11 Swedish originals (20,345 words), 11 English translations (of
those Swedish originals) (23,424 words) and 10 English originals (18,637 words).
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2.2 Data Collection
Having created the corpus, the data then had to be collected, which began with defining
aspects of the method, followed by counting words and features and then calculating
frequencies. Due to the small-scale nature of this study, the data was collected using non-
computational methods.
2.2.1 Counting
Since word counts were being carried out, what counted as a “word” needed to be clarified.
Based on Biber and Conrad’s (2009) work, contractions were counted as one word rather than
two, as were hyphenated words, and individual numbers. Telephone numbers, for example,
also seen as one unit, were counted as one word. This was applied across all analysis material.
The linguistic features which constitute “direct reader address” for this study were also to be
counted. However, first they also needed to be identified and defined (see section 3.2 for
details). Occurrences of a single feature could be realised in more than one way, so features
were counted per feature, whether they were one word or more.
Due to the medium (printed books), and resources available, the counting was performed
manually and each instance of “direct reader address” recorded in a notebook.
2.2.2 Frequency and chi-square test
To be able to compare results, the problem of higher or lower counts in different lengths of
text needed to be addressed. This was done by calculating an average hit count or, as is more
conventionally known, a standardised frequency. Based on Biber and Conrad’s (2009:62)
recommendations, the actual counts of “direct reader address” instances were divided by the
total word count multiplied by the fixed amount of text (in this study 1,000 words). This can
be visualised as follows:
(instances count / total word count) x 1000 = instances per 1,000 words
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So, for example: if 24 instances of “direct reader address” were found in a text with a total
word count of 1,876, then the standardised frequency would be 12.8 (all frequencies rounded
up to one decimal place):
(24/1876) x 1000 = 12.8
To determine whether, based on the amounts of data and the sizes of the differences observed,
it was reasonable to claim that the difference was ‘real’, that is, that the two types of texts (ST
and TT, or English originals and English translations, etc.) really differed (or did not) in the
real world, a statistical hypothesis test, known as the chi-square test (based on guidance from
Lindquist, 2009 and Tyrkkö, 2018) was performed. This p-value (probability value) was
calculated using an online chi-square test calculator (Stangroom, 2018).
Before the results are presented, some of the principle ideas of a translator’s strategy, of text
conventions and of reader expectation need to be outlined. An explanation of the term “direct
reader address” must also be provided.
3 Theoretical Framework Texts are traditionally divided up into the following three categories: text types, genres and
registers. What distinguishes one from the other is a point of discussion for many scholars.
However, this paper has already referred to the guidebook as a genre. Therefore, it is
necessary to clarify what this means. This investigation acknowledges the following text
typology definitions: that text type is related to its function (Reiss, 1977/1989; Nord, 2005);
genre to its purpose in a particular situation (Trosborg, 1997); and register to its language
features for its function (Biber and Conrad, 2009). Register experts Biber and Conrad (2009)
distinguish between genre and register by the former having conventional features which are
representative of the whole text (like the opening and closing salutations of a letter) and the
latter varying in the use of linguistic features. As part of their register analyses, they examine
situational characteristics, which are similar to Nord’s (2005) translation brief variables (see
section 2.1.1). This perspective is not new and can be traced back to Michael Halliday’s
systemic functional linguistics (SFL), a discourse analysis model which developed in the
1970s (Munday, 2012:136f.). Essentially, his model is concerned with the lexico-grammatical
choices that a text producer makes since it is these that form the text’s meaning. The meaning
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can be ideational, interpersonal or textual. Each of these are connected to three register
variables, respectively: field (topics/actions of language), tenor (participants/relationships)
and mode (form). The functional focus of Halliday’s model is appealing to translation studies
and has been utilised by many scholars over the years, including Nord (2005) and Baker
(2011). This translation study with a focus on reader address finds the interpersonal and tenor
elements of particular interest.
Consequently, the following chapter reveals what research states about such writer-reader
elements. Firstly, a presentation of past and current approaches to a translator’s strategy in the
context of text typology is provided. This is subdivided into an examination of the guidebook
as a genre and in translation, and a discussion of aspects of language and culture relevant to
the interpersonal and guidebooks, with a focus on the Swedish-English context. The second
half of the chapter is devoted to defining the term “direct reader address” and identifying the
features relevant to it for this study.
3.1 A Translator’s Strategy
According to Sager (1997), a translator’s strategy can be divided into two approaches: the
static and the dynamic. The static approach is the one typical of the past which focussed on
equivalence – a concept which focuses on changing linguistic form but content remaining the
same with vague criteria for the translation such as Reiss’ ‘adequacy’, Toury’s ‘acceptability’,
Nord’s ‘loyalty’ or Baker’s ‘pragmatic equivalence’ (Sager, 1997:26). A common term in the
latter years was functional equivalence, a term Nida (Nida and de Waard, 1986:36) used to
distance himself from his earlier term dynamic equivalence, which he had coined in 1964, an
equivalent effect concept that highlighted a translator focusing on producing a natural
translation rather than having literal accuracy. With functional equivalence, Nida (Nida and
de Waard, 1986) wanted to include the importance of how people interact in cultures. This
idea was furthered by Reiss and Vermeer’s Skopos Theory (2014), which was concerned with
having a translation strategy where purpose, skopos, and function of the TT in the target
culture were at the forefront. This approach moved away from a focus on linguistic features
and instead focussed on communication theory and translation as “an act of intercultural
communication” (Munday, 2012:133). Nord (2005) developed this functional approach
through her two types of translation product: documentary and instrumental (see section 2.1.1
for details). Despite many aspects of both ST and TT being very carefully considered, Sager
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(1997:26) argues that this approach is still part of the vagueness of equivalence, since Nord
(2005) often alluded to ‘loyalty’ of a translation, which Sager (1997:26) claims is part of
vague criteria. Additionally, to be loyal to the writer can be difficult since the writer’s
intention cannot always be known.
Sager (1997) instead advocates translating using a more dynamic approach, whereby the
translation is considered as only “a step in a communicative process between two cultures.”
(ibid.:26). The translator is a mediator between writer and reader, trying to pass on the
message as the writer intended in a form and language that the reader recognises (the genre
culture). When composing, the writer will likely have made linguistic, content and structural
choices based on the usual style of that kind of text and will likely be assuming that their
target reader’s intertextuality is in line with this as it will help communicate the message more
easily. For example, a scientific report writer will assume their reader is familiar with the
basic textual conventions of a scientific report, such as avoidance of conversational linguistic
features such as personal pronouns, contractions and non-specific vocabulary (Monash
University, 2018), and inclusion of text organisation features such as the report being divided
into introduction, theory, method, results, discussion, etc. (University of Wisconsin-Madison,
2018) If the writer deviates from any of this, it could affect communication, since the reader
will possibly be confused by the deviation, it not meeting their expectation. Ideally, writer
intention would be equal to reader expectation but Sager (1997:27) says this is not possible
without the writer knowing the reader and vice versa.
In the translation context, reader can actually involve two types: the primary reader, the
receiver of information of the source text, and the secondary reader, the receiver of
information of the target text (Sager, 1997:28). Even if the target text has a similar type of
audience as the source text, with a translation, the readers are always going to be different in
regards to their language and cultural background. Both writers and readers know the forms
and conventions of texts based on what they have encountered over the years (Hoey, 2001).
However, with a translation, those forms and conventions are unlikely to be that similar for
writer and secondary reader. Additionally, a number of actions and players could arise
between completed source text and the beginning of a translation.
For example, someone other than the writer may request the translation (a commissioner).
This party may have a different intention to what the writer had had. Additionally, the text
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may have undergone machine translation before reaching the translator, giving the translator
both a translator and editor role. However, whatever the situation is by the time the
commission is entrusted to the translator, in order to produce a text which the target reader
recognises in regards to text conventions and can read with ease, the translator would need to
be provided with specific text product details. Sager (1997:26) argues that this would, for
example, mean job specifications that not only include the usual delivery details and price, but
also “a characterisation of the future readers of the translation, their expectations of the
translated text and the use they are likely to make of it.”. This is in a way an extension of
Nord’s (2005) and Biber and Conrad’s (2009) text analysis with a stronger focus on the
addressees.
Hogg, Liao and O’Gorman (2014) underline, in relation to tourist texts, that if cultural norms
of the text, part of the reader’s expectations, are not considered, consequences are two-fold;
not only may the translator fail with their product but the tourism experience could be affected
negatively. As Hogg, Liao and O’Gorman (2014) argue, a dimension of culture/genre
expectation is needed in order to translate effectively. A translator’s strategy should thus
include meeting the genre norms and the readability and fluency of the target language, which
can be summarised as Chesterman terms “product/expectancy norms” (2016). For this
investigation, it is the guidebook norms that are in focus, and in particular those of the English
and Swedish context.
3.1.1 The guidebook genre
A guidebook can be defined as a type of tourist text that is a resource for tourists and
functions as a mediation between the destination and the tourist (Bhattacharyya, 1997). The
perception of a place can be dependent on the information provided and the package that it is
in. A tourist text can be delivered through a variety of media, e.g. brochures, websites, books,
and apps. The conventions of these can differ for each, in relation to layout, language used,
content included, etc. With the main function of a guidebook, like most tourist texts, being to
attract and inform their reader (Hogg, Liao and O’Gorman, 2014), the communicative
function is a combination of persuasive and referential. A persuasive text has the receiver of
information (the tourist) in focus (try to persuade the tourist to visit somewhere and follow
directions) and the referential text, the realities of the world (the information about the
destination) (Trosborg, 1997). Guidebooks are also directive (guiding the reader to and
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around the destination). Walking guidebooks, which this study is particularly focused on, has
a primary focus of guiding the reader to and around the destination on foot.
With the reader so much in focus in guidebooks – they are being guided – it is logical that a
promotional strategy of “ego-targeting” (Dann, 1996) is adopted. In other words, in order to
appeal to the reader, addressing them directly could help single the reader out and make them
perhaps feel unique and different to the wider readership that was intended. To fulfil that kind
of function, “pivotal verbal items” such as personal pronouns (Francesconi, 2011) could be
used. Second-person personal pronouns single out the recipient involving them in the action
(event/task), and thus provide them with a sense that they have a familiar relationship with the
sender of information. In a guidebook, this can help the reader believe they are being advised
and attended to, but Cui and Zhao (2014:26) claim that it is also a way to help with the
processing of information, performing the task and remembering the message.
According to Bhattacharyya (1997), guidebooks have not been a particularly well analysed
part of tourism. This was, however, addressed to some extent in Thurlow and Jaworski’s
study in 2010, where they did a study involving guidebooks, observing that guidebooks are a
quintessential feature and typical genre of tourism. They also highlighted that within the
guidebook genre there is a wide variety of styles, mentioning the different series of
guidebooks that exist with their different but recognisable styles:
…authoritative tone of Baedeker, the picture-book-cum-encylopaedic style
of Eyewitness, the ‘alternative’ off-the-beaten-track ethos of Lonely Planet
and Rough Guides… (Thurlow and Jaworski, 2010:192).
The recognisable style helps to communicate the message. The styles mentioned above will
have influenced the language used by the writers of the books. An authoritative tone is likely
to prompt the writer to use an active voice and authorial presence (either singular first-person
personal pronoun or plural first-person personal pronoun together with verbs of advice such as
recommend or should (see section 3.2). The “picture-book-cum-encyclopaedic style” is likely
to have the writer focus on the facts and avoiding addressing the reader. The “off-the-beaten-
track ethos” is probably the widest category but probably allows the writer to be very friendly
– to engage with the reader – and the communication is probably infused with passion in
14
order to make the “off-the-beaten-track” appealing. The style, though, is not the only aspect of
a guidebook that can be recognisable, the content can be too.
The information conveyed in a guidebook includes practical information on how to get to the
destination and how to get around there, facts about the place/sight in relation to its history,
geography architecture and other cultural aspects, social activities and itineraries are also
commonplace, including tips about places to eat, sleep and shop. Some guidebooks include
some phrase help. With many guidebooks containing most of these communicative stages
(Van Leeuwen, 2005), the reader is helped to recognise the type of text they are reading. This
familiarity helps communicate the message to the reader with some ease. The reader is usually
helped along the way as well with the information provided at the beginning, usually about
the aim of the guidebook and the intended readers who were in mind when the text was
composed, as with the foreword of the personal translation’s ST (see section 2.1.1).
The general target readers of such texts, which was touched upon in section 2.1.1, tend to be
foreign visitors to the destination. These do not necessarily have to be foreign to the country
but just to the city or area. In relation to the latter, the visitors might just be locals of the city
where the destination is but have not visited the particular sight before. The readers of these
texts could also have a different native language to that of the text they are reading. Reader
expectation is thus both language- and culture-related.
3.1.2 Considering language, culture and the Swedish/English context
Linguistic features used for “direct reader address” are culture-specific and thus can even be
sensitive areas for translation. The cultural factor could exist on many different levels
(individual, family, locally, nationally and globally, including publishers’ style). In English, if
a writer chooses to address the reader directly, the writer does not need to make a choice
about which pronouns to use. The lexeme you is used for both the second-person singular and
plural subject pronoun and the second-person singular and plural object pronoun (see section
3.2.1 for more details). In other languages, however, this is not the case. In Spanish, for
example, the lexemes used can depend on gender, number and level of formality (Sabater et
al, 2001; and Estling Vannestål, 2007:317). This is similar in Thai and Indonesian with status
also being relevant (Munday, 2012:153). In Swedish, just as English, there is no gender
marking, but unlike English, Swedish uses different lexemes for singular, plural subject and
object pronouns (Estling Vannestål, 2007:318). Depending on language, then, a text producer
15
will make careful linguistic decisions about exactly who and how many readers they are
addressing.
With some cultures being more interpersonal than others, certain scholars, such as House
(1997), consider that this should be reflected in a translation. House (ibid.:115-117) gave the
example of business communication in Germany where it tends to be preferred that the focus
is on the content, whereas in English the focus is more on relationships and communication
between people, the interpersonal. There has been a vast amount of research into intercultural
communication, which this study certainly leans into, and the interpersonal, which certainly
relates to this study’s reader address focus, is claimed to be part of high-context cultures
(Gibson, 2002:33). Low-context cultures, in contrast, are task-oriented instead. High- and
low-context cultures was a concept created by the anthropologist Edward Hall (1976). His
research was agreed with in House’s (1997) portrait of Germans in business since they are
considered very low down the scale. Sweden (Scandinavia) is considered slightly less low-
context and the UK even more so. According to Hall’s scale, the UK is more interpersonal
than Sweden (Gibson, 2002:33). These categorisations are not absolute and there will always
be some individual deviation. However, to improve communication between individuals of
differing cultures, it can be helpful to have some understanding of the way certain cultures
tend to be.
These culture categorisations could also be applied to textual culture. Hall (1976) presented a
simple example of chemistry and physics scientists tending to have lower-context cultures, i.e.
they are task-oriented, since chemistry and physics are considered hard science fields. This
can be compared to scientists working in the field of ecology where communication is
unlikely to be as explicit since the field is considered a softer science field.. The guidebook is
about the interpersonal, suggesting high-context, but a considerable amount of the language is
straightforward, and explicit, just as in marketing – another persuasive text, suggesting low-
context. Thus, the explicit nature of “direct reader address” would suggest that guidebooks
have a low-context rather than a high-context culture. This could also indicate that if Sweden
is considered more low-context than the UK, as mentioned earlier, then Swedish guidebooks
should be more explicit in nature of “direct reader address”.
In summary, meeting a reader’s expectation is dependent on genre norms of content and style
and a reader’s language and culture (Kelly 1998:36). In the context of translation, this implies
16
that a translator would need not only to profile the typology of the source and target texts, but
also to profile the target reader, and then make decisions on how to translate in relation to
meeting those specifications. With Swedish guidebooks, this could involve correlating the
recognisable relaxed style of Lonely Planet with a Swedish reader’s low interpersonal cultural
manner. Once these aspects have been established, then the codes of the register, the linguistic
features used to communicate the function (“direct reader address”), need to be unravelled for
translation.
3.2 Direct Reader Address
Oxford English Dictionary defines address as “a speech directed at or appealing to a
particular audience; a written copy or account of this” (Oxford University Press, 2018).
Reader address in this paper then refers to written statements directed at a particular
readership. There are various language options that a writer could use to address their readers:
using proper nouns, personal pronouns, impersonal pronouns, “people” nouns (see 3.2.4),
particular verb choices, particular verb forms, and so on. As identified in the previous section,
some of these, in particular Francesconi’s (2011) “pivotal verbal items” such as personal
pronouns, can create a direct form of communication with the recipient; they involve the
reader in an imaginary conversation (Sabater et al, 2001; Torresi, 2010 cited in Cui and Zhao,
2014). Those that do not involve the reader in this way but still convey the same information
are not directly addressing the reader. This particular study is concerned with how the reader
is directly addressed in text and therefore termed “direct reader address”.
The following subsections identify two sets of linguistic features, made up of five types,
which constitute “direct reader address”. As mentioned previously, features which indicate
that the reader is not addressed directly, but in effect could have been, are beyond the scope of
this study. However, the final subsection below will briefly summarise some relevant
information related to this to give a broader insight to the whole and to help understand some
aspects of the results later in this paper.
3.2.1 Second-person pronouns
Essentially, a pronoun replaces a noun or noun phrase to avoid repetition of the noun or noun
phrase (Estling Vannestål, 2007:62). It can either function as the head or as a determiner of a
noun phrase (Smitterberg, 2013). Personal pronouns are used to identify someone or
17
something that is already familiar, so-called anaphoric reference. The lexemes used can
indicate role in speech (speaker/addressee/other), number (singular/plural), gender
(male/female/inanimate/non-human), and even the level of politeness and whether the
pronoun is the subject or object of a verb (Wiese and Simon 2002:3). Some languages have
more features than others to distinguish these characteristics. Spanish, for example, marks
gender in first- and second-person plural pronouns (Estling Vannestål, 2007:317). Swedish
and English do not, though in Swedish, subject and object personal pronouns are
distinguishable by different lexemes. In English, this is less so (see Table 1 below).
The personal pronouns relevant for this study are those that identify the receiver of
information, i.e. those in the second person. Possessive and reflexive pronouns are closely
related in syntax and appearance to personal pronouns (Eppler and Ozón, 2013:23), and thus
should also be a part of the second-person reference features in this study. Table 1 below
summarises the relevant forms for both English and Swedish.
Table 1. Second-person personal pronouns in English and Swedish
personal possessive reflexive
EN/SE subject object dependent independent
2nd
person
singular
EN you you your yours yourself
SE du dig din, ditt, dina dig
2nd
person
plural
EN you you your yours yourselves
SE ni er er, ert, era er
Note. Data for English from Eppler & Ozón (2013:24 table 2.1) and for Swedish from
Larsson (n.d.) and Smitterberg (2013)
As can be observed, in English, the lexeme you is used for more than one function. Swedish,
on the other hand, has a much clearer distinction for each, though the reflexive pronoun and
personal pronoun object forms do use the same lexeme. Swedish has more lexical items than
English for referring to their recipient in the different situations which allows a speaker/writer
to make a clear distinction about their recipient, facilitating more “ego-targeting” (Dann,
1996). The English pronoun you is semantically ambiguous, as Estling Vannestål’s
(2007:357) example illustrates below:
18
(5) Although liver contains a lot of iron,
you should avoid eating it while you’re
pregnant.
…bör bör [sic] man/en/du undvika…
though syntax could help identify, and an inclusion of a noun phrase could be used, as
underlined in example (6) below.
(6) It’s time for you, the city visitor, to experience a less concrete environment.
This specificity highlights the singular nature of the pronoun and thus an individual recipient,
thus targeting the reader slightly more. However, a writer may choose to avoid options such
as example (6) since readers of guidebooks are many and could be singular or plural at any
one time, and using an ambiguous pronoun eases the writer’s decision since it can cover both
options.
In Swedish, there would appear to be no ambiguity since the language uses different words
for each of the singular and plural nominatives and accusatives. Consequently, a Swedish
writer has to make a choice: to address an individual or a group. With the specific nature of
the former, this could be considered more direct in its address than the generic English you.
However, Swedish is not without ambiguity. Plural pronouns can be unclear in their
reference. For example, addressing people with ni can be a polite form of du. This though,
claims Wide (2016:41), is now rare. This is supported by what Swedish authorities advise
their personnel to use in writing: du is preferable when addressing individuals or particular
groups, but ni can be used when addressing many or judicial individuals (Språkrådet, 2014)
(and both without capitals as has sometimes been the case for a more ‘intermediate’ sign of
respect). However, usage changes and this has actually been slightly adjusted from the
previous edition (Stadsrådsberedningen, Regeringskansliet, 2009) where it specified that
addressing people with ni could be a polite form of du. In contrast, an article in 2013 in one of
Sweden’s leading newspapers observed that there seemed to have been a revival of the use of
ni (Lerner, 2013), for example, with people using it in shops. This illustrates how studying
language in use can be particularly important in regard to the expectation of the target reader,
which, in relation to translation, means the secondary reader (Sager, 1997:28).
19
With regards to the possessive and reflexive pronouns, there are some differences between the
two languages: with possessives, English has different forms for heads and determiners of
noun phrases, but Swedish does not; additionally, English tends to use possessive pronouns in
expressions with body parts, clothes, etc., while Swedish prefers the definite form of the
noun; some verbs in Swedish are reflexive when their English equivalent is not (Smitterberg,
2013), such as röra sig ‘move’ and förbereda sig ‘prepare’ (Estling Vannestål, 2007:520).
However, it is not within the scope of this study to examine these pronouns at any depth.
Consequently, although they are included in the linguistic features that constitute “direct
reader address” in this study because they identify the receiver of information, so are counted,
they are not included in the analysis but instead reserved for future study.
3.2.2 First-person inclusive plural pronouns
Another linguistic feature that should be included within “direct reader address” are first-
person inclusive plural pronouns. First-person pronouns allow the sender of information to
refer to themselves. This self-mentioning allows for two functions: firstly, to exert their
authority on the subject matter (when plural, exclusive) and secondly, to involve the reader in
the experience (inclusive plural) (Suau-Jimenez, 2016). Since this study is focussed on the
recipient being addressed, their involvement in an imagined dialogue (Torresi, 2010:128 cited
in Cui and Zhao, 2014), it is the latter which is relevant. As Cysouw (2002:45) explains, “A
minimal inclusive is a category that includes the present speaker and addressee (i.e. inclusive)
but nothing else (i.e. minimal)”. Table 2 below summarises the relevant first-person pronouns
for English and Swedish.
Table 2. Plural first-person personal pronouns in English and Swedish
personal possessive reflexive
EN/SE subject object dependent independent
1st
person
plural
EN we us our ours ourselves
SE vi oss vår, vårt, våra oss
Note. Data for English from Eppler & Ozón (2013:24 table 2.1) and for Swedish from
Larsson (n.d.) and Smitterberg (2013)
Since each language uses one lexeme for inclusive and exclusive meaning, only the context
and syntax can help determine which meaning it has. In other words, the collocation of two or
20
more lexical items can help determine the pronoun’s identity. For example, if a verb of advice
such as recommend is used after the plural personal pronoun we, it is clear that the pronoun is
exclusive because the recipient is being advised (the recipient is the object of the verb).
However, even the ‘inclusive’ can be unclear. The pronoun could be referring to all humans
or just the sender and receiver, but again, the context, as Estling Vannestål’s (2007:357)
example below shows with the adverbial ‘In Sweden’, can help identify the meaning (the
pronoun’s clusivity).
(7) In Sweden we dance around the
midsummer pole.
I Sverige dansar man/vi…
However, just as the ambiguous nature of the English you and the fact that it covers all
recipients, it perhaps does not matter that the inclusive we is also ambiguous. The greater
inclusivity includes the lesser inclusivity, and so the reader is included either way. The reader
is likely to interpret it as referring to them.
In summary, first-person inclusive plural pronouns together with the second-person pronouns
mentioned in 3.1.1 constitute the second-person referencing features of the term “direct reader
address”. The final feature involved is detailed in the next section.
3.2.3 Imperatives
An imperative is a type of grammatical mood which signals a command or request (Eppler
and Ozón, 2013). It is therefore typical for giving directions, one of the communicative
functions of a guidebook. It is a natural component of texts with a conative function since the
imperative requires a receiver – the imperative used by the sender is commanding/requesting
something of someone, the receiver – and thus a very relevant linguistic feature for this study.
The imperative in English varies from Swedish in that it does not have any inflection forms
(Eppler and Ozón, 2013:74). However, this is not relevant for this study, as the focus is only
on whether it is being used, not the form it takes. In this respect, there is little difference
between the two languages, and both only use it in the present tense (in some languages, such
as Latin, there are other tenses too) (Gill, 2018).
21
Typically, in an imperative statement, there is a lack of a subject, but when the subject is
included as in Eppler and Ozón’s (2013:201) example below, the result is a more emphatic
tone:
(8) You(,) pipe down.
In summary, the feeling of being spoken to, provided by the use of second-person pronouns is
amplified with the inclusion of imperative use because the recipient is expected to respond (to
visit the sight, to try the food, to turn left at a certain point).
3.2.4 Not addressing the reader directly
Investigating to what extent “direct reader address” is used and retained in a text, which
includes the examination of source text and target text correspondences, results naturally in
needing to be aware of what language is used when a writer chooses not to address their
reader directly. Although a guidebook writer may not want to address the reader directly, they
will still have to fulfil the purpose of informing and giving directions. Alternatives to using
“direct reader address” features could be the use of impersonal pronouns such as one in
English and man in Swedish, the use of certain “people” nouns, e.g. “visitors”, or the use of
the agentless passive (Altenberg, 2004:94).
Using an impersonal pronoun avoids specifying a particular person. This explains why the
English second-person pronoun you, an ambiguous pronoun, as pointed out in section 3.2.1, is
also considered an impersonal pronoun. English also uses the pronoun one for generic person
referencing, but, these days, it is considered very formal, particularly in spoken language
(Carter et al, n.d., Estling Vannestål 2007:357). The Swedish counterpart to English one is the
pronoun man. Unlike the English one, the generic man is very common in Swedish, and is
often translated into you (Altenberg, 2004), as example (9) shows:
(9) En så mycket ”finare” brygga att bada
från hittar man nämligen inte i Skåne.
(Sandbring, H. and Borg, M. 2006a:22)
You will not find a better jetty to swim
from anywhere in Skåne. (Sandbring,
H. and Borg, M. 2006b:20)
However, man is not the only neutral pronoun used in Swedish. According to Dahl (2013),
man also has a number of alternatives in some areas of Sweden, such as en, han ‘he’ and du
22
‘you’, the latter being ascribed to the influence of English. Moreover, as part of the debate of
only using gender-neutral pronouns, the word hen has now entered the language as an
alternative to man (ibid.). Whichever is used though, the function is the same, to provide a
generic sense rather than specific. English does not have an equivalent to hen, but plural
pronouns such as they and them are becoming increasingly more common with gender-neutral
options becoming popular alternatives (Estling Vannestål, 2007:360). They and even people
can also be useful vague words in English to generically refer to those not nearby in time and
space, similarly, the case of the English generic phrase those who and the Swedish equivalent
de som.
As a less formal option, just like English you, Swedish du is commonly used for advice and
instructions (Estling Vannestål 2007:357; Smitterberg, 2013) – appropriate for current study –
which was also indicated in section 3.2.1 in relation to advice given to authorities about which
pronoun to use. The plural second-person ni in Swedish could also function generically, since
it can indicate many rather than one specific person, and in that sense is similar to the English
you. The inclusive pronouns Swedish vi and English we could also be alternative impersonal
pronouns since they could encompass everyone. However, if any of these are used, the reader
is likely to interpret them as referring to them directly since they are the receiver and these
words encompass them. Therefore, should a writer wish to avoid addressing the reader
directly, man and one would be the better options.
However, as mentioned, English one is often considered too formal and therefore, it could be
more apt for the writer to use the passive voice, which is a useful linguistic structure when the
person doing the action is not known, common in academic writing where the person tends to
be irrelevant with the focus on processes and results instead (Estling Vannestål, 2007:446):
(10)
[ibid.]
The study was performed in 1984-1985 on a series consisting of the total
population born in 1923 or earlier.
A guidebook writer is unlikely to know exactly who they are informing or providing
directions for, so there would naturally be a generic sense. According to Estling Vannestål
(2007:358), it is more common for sentences containing man to be translated into passive
sentences to avoid the use of the formal one.
23
In summary, “direct reader address” is an umbrella term for this study which applies to
linguistic features used by writers to address their recipients directly, and this term will now
be acknowledged and used as an approved term for the remainder of this thesis. The term
includes second-person referencing features second-person personal, possessive and reflexive
pronouns and first-person inclusive plural pronouns and verbs in the imperative mood. As
stated though, due to practical constraints, only second-person personal pronouns, the first-
person inclusive plural pronouns and imperatives will be included in the following analysis.
4 Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis The following chapter incorporates the idea and concepts from the previous chapter into the
results of this investigation. The empirical results are presented in the first part together with a
few specific examples. The second part of the chapter analyses the personal translation in
relation to the results of the corpus results, observing whether the TT is successfully an
instrumental translation and typical of an original English guidebook. This will be done
through an examination of some of the correspondences of direct reader address in the ST and
TT. The full results – instances and frequencies – of the corpus and personal translation can
be accessed in Appendix B. Appendix C provides the chi-square test results.
4.1 Direct Reader Address in the Corpus
The total number of direct reader address instances per 1,000 words (the standardised
frequencies) in each of the three subcorpora – ENGLISH ORIGINALS, SWEDISH ORIGINALS and
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS – are shown in Table 3. Direct reader address occurs most frequently
in the subcorpus ENGLISH ORIGINALS (33.5).
Table 3. Direct reader address standardised frequencies (instances per 1,000 words) in each of the subcorpora.
FREQUENCY
ENGLISH ORIGINALS 33.5 SWEDISH ORIGINALS 17.2 ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS 17.6
The difference between the occurrence frequency in ENGLISH ORIGINALS and the others is
considerable; double the amount. This would indicate that direct reader address is common in
English walking guidebooks in comparison to Swedish ones. The almost identical frequency
24
of the occurrences in SWEDISH ORIGINALS and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS suggests little change
has taken place during translation; this could be viewed as a sign that the translators remained
loyal to the STs, being rather word-for-word, and consequently the translations must be more
documentary than instrumental (Nord, 2005). With half as many occurrences of direct reader
address in ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS compared with ENGLISH ORIGINALS, the evidence suggests
that translators focus on producing a ST-close rendition rather than original-language-like
text. The fact that the translations are more similar to the source texts than originals in the
same language is supported by a chi-square test of independence, which shows the
disproportionate correlation between ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS and ENGLISH ORIGINALS to be
significant at the p < 0.00001 level (see Appendix C for details). This is further supported by
the similar occurrence frequencies between the source and target texts (SWEDISH ORIGINALS
and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS) not being significant1. To gain a more comprehensive insight
into why this might be, an examination of some Swedish and English correspondences can
help. However, before that, it is necessary to look further into the frequency results for the
individual features of direct reader address in each of the subcorpora as well as the results of
direct reader address for individual texts within the whole corpus.
Figure 1, below, distinguishes between the different linguistic features that constitute direct
reader address in this study in each of the subcorpora: first-person inclusive plural pronouns
(1st PP), second-person pronouns (2nd PP) and imperatives (IMP).
Figure 1. Occurrence frequency (per 1,000 words) of each linguistic feature of direct reader address in the three different subcorpora.
1p<0.703301
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
ENGLISHTRANSLATIONS
SWEDISHORIGINALS
ENGLISHORIGINALS
OccurrenceFrequency
Subcorpo
ra
1stPP 2ndPP IMP
25
Of the three features, imperatives occur frequently in all the subcorpora, but are particularly
abundant in ENGLISH ORIGINALS (26.1), just as was the case for this subcorpus having the
most overall direct reader address occurrence frequency. However, whereas the occurrence
frequency of direct reader address is double the others, the frequency of the imperatives is
approximately three times higher than in the other two subcorpora. It is therefore reasonable
to say that as well as direct reader address being very common in English walking
guidebooks, it would also seem that imperatives are the preferred choice for addressing the
reader directly, perhaps not unexpectedly for a text that gives on-foot directions to a
destination. In contrast, Figure 1 also illustrates that although second-person pronouns are
used slightly more in SWEDISH ORIGINALS (8.9 vs 7.9) and imperatives more in ENGLISH
TRANSLATIONS (9.3 vs 8.0), the differences are minor and the picture suggests to a greater
extent that there is more of a balance of the two linguistic features.
For all subcorpora, the use of first-person inclusive plural pronouns is extremely low, almost
non-existent, indicating that the focus is more directly on the reader than on having the writer
along for the journey in the imagined dialogue (Torresi, 2010:128 cited in Cui and Zhao,
2014). The highest frequency of these features occur in the translation of a Malmö city guide
(Agrelin, 2007b). This is quite interesting as its source text contained no instances of direct
reader address at all, suggesting that the translator felt some interaction was necessary in the
English, that the genre required it, though not a specifically chosen recipient indicator like
you.
In ENGLISH ORIGINALS, personal pronouns do not seem to be the “pivotal verbal items” as
Francesconi (2011) had observed in her tourist brochure, at least not explicitly. Imperatives
are a form that implicitly contain a second-person personal pronoun (see section 3.2.3).
However, whether the features used are imperatives or pronouns, there is still a high
frequency of direct reader address, indicating that “ego-targeting” (Dann, 1996) is transpiring.
In SWEDISH ORIGINALS, where second-person pronouns are used more often than imperatives
(8.9 vs 8.0), the realisation of these are almost completely in the form of the singular du. Only
in Lindberg (2015a) do the plural versions appear (and curiously intermixed with the use of
the singular).
26
Turning to the occurrence frequencies of each text in the corpus, there is clear evidence of
direct reader address being prevalent in this study’s genre focus. Figure 2 below illustrates
clearly how many of the texts in ENGLISH ORIGINALS have a high frequency of direct reader
address (many have over the whole subcorpora’s total frequency of 33.5).
Figure 2. Occurrence frequency (per 1,000 words) of direct reader address in 10 ENGLISH ORIGINALS.
As mentioned previously, imperatives are the preferred linguistic choice in this corpus, and do
constitute the majority of the direct reader address figures. In fact, Buckley and Buckley
(2007) only have instances of imperatives (63 instances – 57.4 frequency per 1,000 words).
Nine out of ten texts have higher occurrence frequencies of imperatives than second-person
pronouns (see appendix B for details), though one of these (Duncan, 2006) has much more of
an equal distribution of imperatives and second-person referencing (13.2 to 12.3 respectively).
The exception is Quinn and Felix (2007), which actually has a slightly higher frequency of
second-person references (9.6 vs 6.2), but their overall frequency of direct reader address is
also quite low in comparison to many others (16.5) (though this is fairly similar to the overall
result of the other two subcorpora – SWEDISH ORIGINALS (17.2) and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
(17.6)). These different results will have affected the high imperative frequency (26.1) in the
English Original subcorpora overall, but this is a consequence of the small size of the corpus.
A different impression is given below in Figure 3. The bar chart presents the occurrence
frequencies of direct reader address in SWEDISH ORIGINALS and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Berry(2012)Clarketal(2016)Turnbull(2015)Wilson(2014)
BuckleyandBuckley(2007)Duncan(2006)
Filouetal(2016)Viccars(2013)
HancockandFoster(2014)QuinnandFelix(2007)
OccurrenceFrequency
English
orig
inals
27
Figure 3. Occurrence frequency (per 1,000 words) of direct reader address in the translations of the corpus (SWEDISH ORIGINALS and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS). Translations have been distinguished by author(s).
The variation between individual texts is quite considerable. Those in SWEDISH ORIGINALS
appear to fall into two different types; one type having very high frequencies of direct reader
address and the other, relatively low frequencies. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS, on the other hand,
appear to have a more even spread. For both subcorpora though, the results of two translations
particularly attract attention: Alesmark and Joelsson, and Hoffmann. Both have particularly
high frequencies of direct reader address in both the Swedish and English versions but the
other texts in the subcorpora have considerably lower frequencies, all below half of the
aforementioned two. The total frequencies of the subcorpora have thus perhaps been skewed,
and should perhaps be lower. However, this would only further highlight the substantial
difference between the high usage of direct reader address in ENGLISH ORIGINALS (33.5)
compared with the others.
In addition to the above, Figure 3 also illustrates that the occurrence frequencies of the
Swedish source texts in question are approximately the opposite of the English target texts’
frequencies, in that Alesmark and Joelsson’s source text has a higher frequency than its target
0 10 20 30 40 50
DambergandEk
Agrelin
HässlerandGranath
SandbringandBorg
Sandbergetal
Bjurulfetal
Lindberg
Vessberg
Grundsten
Hoffmann
AlesmarkandJoelsson
OccurenceFrequency
Textsb
yAu
thor
SwedishOriginals
EnglishTranslations
28
text (48.4 vs 40.4) and Hoffmann’s source text has fewer than its target text (39.9 vs 44.8).
Remove the high discrepancies and the outcome is still similar for the subcorpora, with
SWEDISH ORIGINALS and ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS still having similar frequency levels, though
SWEDISH ORIGINALS have slightly lower ones in comparison to ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS this
time. The difference now, though, to ENGLISH ORIGINALS is even more markedly different; 3-
4 times higher rather than twice as high. Additionally, if Clark, Hutchison and Bruno (2016),
which has a very low direct reader address frequency in comparison to the rest (3.3), was not
included in ENGLISH ORIGINALS, then the total frequency would in fact be slightly higher,
marking an even greater difference between this subcorpora and the other two.
In summary, ENGLISH ORIGINALS represent a general pattern of direct reader address in
English walking guidebooks. SWEDISH ORIGINALS vary, and their translations adhere to their
sources, consequently not correlating to the result of ENGLISH ORIGINALS. This suggests an
overall translation strategy of equivalence in regard to addressing the reader. To expand on
this, some examination of the occurrence frequency results together with an analysis of
English and Swedish correspondences of direct reader address in the personal translation is
required.
4.2 Direct Reader Address in the Personal Translation
The total number of direct reader address instances per 1,000 words (the standardised
frequencies) in the personal translation are 23.3 for the ST and 20.6 for the TT. These figures
are similar to but also different from the corpus results. They are similar in that they are also
lower than ENGLISH ORIGINALS but they differ in that the Swedish text has a higher frequency
than the English one, even though the frequencies are very close in number. This suggests that
perhaps some attempt at avoiding a literal product (documentary translation) has transpired
during translation. However, considering the aim was to try to produce an instrumental
translation (section 2.1.1., p.7) and considering the result of ENGLISH ORIGINALS, there is a
question mark over what the translator may have done during translation that resulted in a
reduced frequency. The frequency of first-person inclusive plural pronouns in the translation
is also very low as with the corpus.
Taking into account the results of the corpus analysis and the above ST/TT empirical result,
this section moves into a qualitative analysis, examining what has transpired between ST and
29
TT; whether a Swedish second-person pronoun has been translated into the exact same feature
in English or if alternative features have been used or perhaps restructuring has occurred. This
analysis will see if the translation has succeeded in producing an instrumental rather than a
documentary translation. For additional evidence, large and well-known contemporary
reference corpora such as BNC and COCA are also referred to.
Table 4 below lists the English correspondences of Swedish du and Swedish imperatives (to
simplify analysis, this translation assessment focuses on just the singular, subject, second-
person personal pronoun du).
Table 4. English correspondences of Swedish du and Swedish imperatives in the TT
du (17) Imperatives (73) you (17) English imperatives (65) no verb (7) No verb with sentence change (1)
Reviewing the correspondences of the linguistic features of direct reader address from
Swedish into English, the initial impression is that the translation has been fairly loyal to the
source text, with very little deviation from the original, just in relation to the imperatives. The
chi-square tests which had previously not shown any significant correlation between source
and target texts, proved to do the same for the ST and the TT of the personal translation2;
occurrence frequencies are too similar.
The differences between the ST and TT in regards to imperative usage is mostly related to
syntax in the respective languages, as example (11) illustrates below:
(11) Fortsätt Danska Vägen upp till
Ingeborgsgatan, ta till höger, sedan
Sankt Pauligatan ett kort tag åt höger
och därefter till vänster in på
Lundgatan.
Continue along Danska Vägen until you
reach the street Ingeborgsgatan. Turn
right, then walk along Sankt Pauligatan
for a short while on the right before
turning left into the street the street
Lundgatan.
2p<0.350473
30
The translation has also divided up the ST’s one long sentence into two for greater coherency.
In regards to the language choices, whereas the ST uses only imperatives (Fortsätt, ta), the
TT has combined imperatives with second-person personal pronoun use. Examining the first
imperative instance (FortsättàContinue), had a word-for-word rendering occurred, the
English text would not have flowed naturally. The directional preposition along is required
after the verb continue and although using up to for upp till would have been possible, the
rendering until you reach is more natural in the context. This is observed to be a fairly
common phrase in this study’s corpus and a search in BNC (Davis, 2004-) confirms this with
50% of 64 hits being a part of guidebook-type text. A couple of the until you reach hits
specifically follow the word along or another phrase indicating direction. The second half of
the ST, which starts with an imperative instance (ta) has led to quite a change in the TT: two
additional verbs. One in the imperative (walk) and one in the gerund form (turning – as a
consequence of following a preposition). These additions were deemed necessary for
syntactical reasons as the English would not have been idiomatic by indicating the changes in
direction with only prepositional directions.
An analysis of the correspondences of the linguistic features of direct reader address from
English into Swedish give a different impression. There is an indication that the translation
has been less loyal to the source text than was first thought, with a number of additions of the
second-person pronoun you in the target text, replacing other linguistic features in the source
language, as presented in Table 5 below (to simplify analysis, this translation assessment
focuses on just the singular, subject, second-person personal pronoun you). This correlates
with the occurrence frequency of second-person pronouns which increased from ST (4.7) to
TT (7.0).
Table 5. Swedish correspondences of English you and English imperatives in the ST
you (39) Imperatives (76) du (19) Swedish imperatives (68) finns (5) no verb (5) prepositions (8) verbs in simple present (3) ligger (2)
man (3) stanna vid (1) rör sig (1)
31
The table shows that there are several more differences than with the other correspondences.
Using the second-person personal pronoun you indicates a choice to address the reader rather
than avoid it which a word-for-word option would have done. Part of the choices though are
also related to a lack of clarity if the target text had followed the source text’s wording. The
next example (12) highlights how the target text uses you instead of the literal translation
‘there is/are’, an existential phrase.
(12) Runt omkring finns det specialbutiker
av alla slag – från bokhandel till
ostbutik, från textil till juvelerare.
All around, you’ll find many different
specialised shops – selling everything
from books to cheese and textiles to
jewels.
The English uses the second person pronoun with a will + verb construction. This is likely a
result of the fact that English commonly uses such a phrase after the adverb here. A search in
COCA (Davis, 2008-) found 133 hits for here there is versus 69 hits for here you’ll find. This
does not seem to support what was just stated. However, the majority of the 133 are not in
relation to indicating the locality of a sight as opposed to the 69 hits. In example (13) below,
the English has used the same solution as example (12) even though the Swedish this time
uses the reflexive verb röra sig corresponding to English’s ‘move’.
(13)
Här rör sig Lisebergsbesökare… Here…you’ll find Liseberg visitors…
The translation decision here was based on the fact that it is unidiomatic in English to say that
visitors are ‘moving around’ in a specific locality as the Swedish means.
English you is sometimes the translation of the Swedish generic pronoun man rather than the
exact equivalent one, which is considered too formal these days (see section 3.2.4) as shown
in example (14) below:
(14) På tillbakavägen kan man ta en genväg. On the way back, you can take a
shortcut.
However, man actually appears in the ST 13 times. On the other occasions, rather than using
you, the translation combines sentences, utilising reduced clauses, uses passive constructions
32
or uses nominalisations, and these were typically and logically within the text where the
function is informative rather than persuasive or directive.
Interestingly, with the imperatives, the Swedish correspondences of some of the English
imperatives are in the present simple tense. Below, example (15) gives an instance of this,
highlighting the relevant features in the ST and TT:
(15) Efter bron fortsätter huvudturen till
vänster och bakom de låga
bostadslängorna.
After the bridge, continue the main tour
to the left and behind the low rows of
houses.
In the Swedish, the underlined noun phrase is the subject of the sentence and hence the
present simple tense of the verb is used. In the English, the translation uses a verb in the
imperative as is considered the norm in these types of directional content parts of the
guidebook, and thus the noun phrase of the ST becomes the object of the clause instead of the
subject.
4.3 Implications and Evaluation The data of the study has indicated that direct reader address is prevalent in English-original
walking guidebooks, but together with a comparison of the source and target corpora of the
corpus, also indicates that translators do not necessarily have the reader expectation/target text
conventions in mind.
However, there are many variables. Analysis of individual texts indicate variation within total
frequencies, and some of them perhaps skewing the results. This deviation can be a
consequence of a small-scale study and thus indicates a need for further study on a larger
scale. The fact that there are differences of occurrence frequencies within a set of language-
originals also indicates that, as Sager (1997) highlighted, author/publisher involvement could
play a role in relation to style as well as just genre and language conventions. In a future
study, a logical next step would be to survey translators of guidebooks to find out what they
base their choices on, how much of a role the translation brief plays and how much they
consider reader expectation.
33
With respect to genre, there are some results of the personal translation which signify that the
level of text analysis in future studies perhaps needs to be more precise. The selection of
sections in the ST were not based on any specific considerations which might explain the
variance between the texts. The ST consists of four chapters (provided by the ST author) and
one result that was striking for this text, and significant to such a study, was that two of the
four chapters did not contain any instance of the Swedish pronoun du. The chapters in the TT,
on the other hand, did contain instances of the English pronoun you, though only a few. The
two chapters in question are Älvsnabben (Hansson 2016: 50-55) and Spårvagn 5 (Hansson
2016: 70-76). Both chapters involved being guided around the city while on transport, the
former on a ferry, the latter on a tram. The function of these chapters are much more
informative than directive, which could explain the low occurrence frequencies of direct
reader address and also indicate that these lesser walking guide texts may have skewed the
figures. This could even indicate that there might be similar issues with the corpus texts used
and might help explain why Alesmark and Joelsson’s text and Hoffmann’s text stood out (see
section 4.1, p.28).
It is interesting to note that the second-person pronouns in Swedish have been realised in the
singular form rather than the plural (apart from in one text as mentioned) which makes it more
specific in its address than English. This would corroborate what was hypothesised in section
3.1.2, that Swedish guidebooks might have a more explicit nature of direct reader address than
English ones. Conversely, being more specific is an indication that the writer is building a
relationship with the reader more, just as high-context cultures do. According to Hall (1976),
the UK is more high-context than Sweden and the more ambiguous English pronoun you does
provide a not-so explicit nature of direct reader address while still building a relationship with
the reader. However, the English material in this study is British. According to Hall (ibid.),
the US is very much a low-context culture, which is different from what this study indicates –
what would the task-oriented US culture effect have on the outcome of direct reader address?
Further study could investigate the connections between cultural identity and personal
pronouns in guidebooks, especially in relation to different types of English.
The corpus analysis has highlighted the fact that direct reader address seems to be prevalent in
English walking guidebooks and fairly frequent in Swedish ones too. However, the fact that
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS of Swedish walking guidebooks resulted in quite a substantially
different occurrence frequency than the ENGLISH ORIGINALS signifies that translators might
34
resort more to literal translation strategies rather than a procedure of textual analysis, which
could highlight a target language’s textual conventions for the specific text at hand. In other
words, the translations are not as instrumental or covert as they could be had the translators
endeavoured to try to recreate/reproduce/represent as an English original; had they, the data
may have been more similar between ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS and ENGLISH ORIGINALS.
Due to practical constraints, this study only focused on linguistic features of direct reader
address. However, as correspondence results in the personal translation have highlighted, it
could be interesting to develop the study and open the scope up to include occurrence
frequencies and ST-TT correspondences of linguistic features that do not address the reader
directly, such as generic pronouns and the passive voice. Orthographic features such as
exclamation marks, sometimes connected with imperative usage, could also be of interest.
The results highlight a clear relevance of text analysis ahead of translating due to the
importance of cultural text conventions when a translation is to be as similar to an original
text type as possible. However, the results are affected by and could be slightly skewed due to
various factors, identification of text type, different English types, other cultural/linguistic
aspects. Another source of uncertainty in this study is the manual method, which could have
resulted in miscounts. The next step would be to expand the size of the study in relation to
material and consequently, turn to computational methods for data collection. This would also
facilitate an analysis of English-Swedish correspondences for all types of reader address.
5 Conclusion This study set out to determine to what extent direct reader address is used in Swedish and
English original walking guidebooks and to what extent it is retained and used in English
translations of Swedish walking guidebooks. The results of this investigation show that direct
reader address is used in Swedish and English original guidebooks but is more prevalent in
English ones, and that imperative usage is the most prevalent of the three different types of
linguistic features which constitute direct reader address (second-person pronouns, first-
person inclusive plural pronouns and verbs in the imperative mood). The results also show
that direct reader address is retained and used in English translations of Swedish walking
guidebooks and that the trend is to retain what was there (what the results of the English
correspondences of the Swedish linguistic features showed) and to add some direct reader
35
address at times (what the results of the Swedish correspondences of the English linguistic
features showed).
The study also set out to discuss the implications of these results for a translator’s strategy of
such texts and the findings of this research signify that a translator should try to be more
dynamic (Sager, 1997) and so perhaps consider a target culture’s text conventions when
translating a walking guidebook, in particular in relation to linguistic features of direct reader
address. These features help to establish a familiar relationship between the reader and writer,
to set up an imagined dialogue, as if being guided around by a real-life guide. Moreover, they
are evidently utilised prevalently in English-written walking guidebooks. Since these text
conventions are typical of many guidebook styles, and so recognisable, i.e. reader expectation
will be for these conventions when reading a guidebook, then it is recommended that a
translator take this into consideration when translating a guidebook, to take the time (if
possible in this quick deadline world) to profile the source text and target text in relation to
the commission translation brief and the target culture reader expectation/text convention.
Considering the small scale of this study, further studies do need to be carried out in order to
validate these results. It is hoped that this study inspires further comparative studies within
reader expectation, direct reader address and translation in tourism, to provide a potential
contribution to producing a translation that meets a target reader’s genre expectation.
36
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Appendix A: Profiling Results of ST and TT 1. Based on Biber and Conrad’s (2009) situational characteristics ST TT Participants Addressor Addressee Onlooker?
Single author, expert in topic Many tourists No
Single translator, has knowledge of topic Many tourists No
Relations among participants Interactiveness Social roles Personal relationship Shared knowledge
Imaginative dialogue Author has the authority on subject Strangers to each other, so difficult to know; readers will have a varying degree of knowledge about the destination, some aspects yes, some not.
SAME
Channel Mode Specific Medium
Writing book
SAME
Production Circumstances Revised and edited SAME Setting Shared time and place? Place? Time?
No Public Contemporary
SAME
Communicative Purposes General Specific Factuality Expression of stance
Describe, inform, explain, persuade, edify, direct, recommend Direct tourists to destinations – how to get there, what to see Persuade them of sights to visit – why interesting, describe with flourish, give opinion Recommend sights to see Inform, describe, explain a sight and its context – what are seeing some opinion but mostly factual overt stance (recommendations)
SAME, though the target text reader will probably need to understand some names, terminology and culture specific details, such as an historic event, which involves some specific clarification purpose that the ST won’t need.
Topic (influence vocabulary choice most) General Specific
Guidebook Walking tours
SAME
43
2. Based on Nord’s Translation Brief (2005) ST TT Profiles Intended text functions Addressees Time and place of text reception Medium Motive
• Informative, transmitting information about various aspects of Gothenburg. It has a conative function, since it is appealing to tourists to act on what they read (visit these places, etc). • Purchasers of the book are likely to be Swedish-speaking tourists (locals and non-locals), those interested in discovering more about Gothenburg, specifically, other areas, and doing this on foot. Some information presupposes some knowledge about Sweden or Gothenburg. • Published in Sweden in 2016. • 4 chapters from a printed paperback book of 176 pages with photos on many pages. • Purpose of persuading the addressees to buy the book, visit the places, follow the instructions, see Gothenburg.
SAME SAME, but English-speaking ones and are more than likely the majority coming from outside Sweden. TT in UK or Sweden (according to author who is translation’s commissioner). The 4 chapters with same format. SAME
44
Appendix B: Detailed Result Tables 1. Corpus (divided up by subcorpora) ENGLISH ORIGINALS
Word counts
All Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
2nd PP Instances [Standardise Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
IMP Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
1st PP Instances
Berry, 2012 1648 70 [42.5] 25 [15.2] (21 you-sub, 2 you- obj, 2 your) 45 [27.3] 0 Clark, Hutchison and Bruno, 2016 2428 8 [3.3] 1 [0.4] you-obj 5 [2.1] 1 we, 1 our Turnbull, 2015 1691 73 [43.2] 11 [6.5] (9 you-sub, 1 you-obj, 1 your) 62 [3.7] 0 Wilson, 2014 2146 40 [18.6] 15 [7.0] (3 you-obj, 7 you-sub, 5 your) 25 [11.6] 0 Buckley and Buckley, 2007 1097 63 [57.4] 0 63 [57.4] 0 Duncan, 2006 2195 59 [26.9] 27 [12.3] (1 your, 1 you-obj, 25 you-sub) 29 [13.2] 2 we 1 our Filou et al, 2016 1841 102 [55.4] 13 [7.1] (7 your, 1 yourself, 1 you-obj, 4 you-sub) 89 [48.3] 0 Viccars, 2013 2087 87 [41.7] 7 [3.4] (2 you-obj, 5 you-sub) 79 [37.9] 1 we Hancock and Foster, 2014 2047 99 [48.4] 18 [8.8] (2 you-obj, 10 you-sub, 6 your) 81 [39.6] 0 Quinn and Felix, 2007 1457 24 [16.5] 14 [9.6] (12 you-sub, 1 you-obj, 1 your) 9 [6.2] 1 we
Total 18637 625 [33.5] 131 [7.0] (93 you-sub, 14 you-obj, 23 your, 1 yourself) 487 [26.1] 7 (5 we, 2 our)
45
SWEDISH ORIGINALS
Word counts
All Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
2nd PP Instances [Standardise Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
IMP Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
1st PP Instances
Lindberg, 2015a 3916 48 [12.3] 25 [6.4] (1 ditt, 2 dig, 8 du, 9 ni 5 er) 19 [4.9] 4 vi Alesmark and Joelsson, 2015 3122 151 [48.4] 116 [37.2] (92 du, 22 dig, 1 dina, 1 ditt) 35 [11.2] 0 Hoffmann, 2008 1855 74 [39.9] 0 74 [39.9] 0 Vessberg, 2001a 1339 22 [16.4] 7 [5.2] (6 Du, 1 Dig) 15 [11.2] 0 Damberg and Ek, 2005a 1772 0 0 0 0 Sandberg, Carlberg and Bergström, 2010a 1459 7 [4.8] 7 [4.8] du 0 0 Hässler and Granath, 2007a 1806 6 [3.3] 0 6 [3.3] 0 Grundsten 2008 1275 30 [23.5] 25 [19.6] (24 du, 1 dig) 5 [3.9] 0 Agrelin 2007a 1651 0 0 0 0 Bjurulf, Edelstam and Fredriksson, 2013 1074 6 [5.6] 0 6 [5.6] 0 Sandbring and Borg 2006a 1076 5 [4.6] 2 [1.9] (1 du, 1 din ) 3 [2.8] 0
Total 20345 349 [17.2] 182 [8.9] (138 du (132 du, 6 Du), 26 dig, 4 poss (1 din, 2 ditt, 1
dina) 9 ni, 5 er) 163 [8.0] 4 (4 vi)
46
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
Word counts
All Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
2nd PP Instances [Standardise Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
IMP Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
1st PP Instances
Lindberg, 2015b 3900 54 [13.8] 26 [6.7] (14 you-sub,7 you-obj, 5 your) 26 [6.7] 2 we Alesmark and Joelsson, 2016 3246 131 [40.4] 84 [25.9] (73 you-sub, 1 you-obj, 8 your, 2 yourself) 47 [14.5] 0 Hoffmann, 2009 2276 102 [44.8] 14 [6.2] (13 you, 1 your) 87 [38.2] 1 we Vessberg, 2001b 1825 21 [11.5] 7 [3.8] you 14 [7.7] 0 Damberg and Ek, 2005b 1990 4 [2.0] 4 [2.0] you 0 0 Sandberg, Carlberg and Bergström, 2010b 2033 8 [3.9] 0 8 [3.9] 0 Hässler and Granath, 2007b 1972 20 [10.1] 10 [5.1] you 10 [5.1] 0 Grundsten 2009 1523 29 [19] 14 [9.2] you 15 [9.8] 0 Agrelin 2007b 2081 8 [3.8] 0 0 7 we 1 us Bjurulf, Edelstam and Fredriksson, 2014 1201 10 [8.3] 5 [4.2] you 5 [4.2] 0 Sandbring and Borg 2006b 1377 26 [18.9] 20 [14.5] (1 yours, 14 you-subj, 1 you-obj, 4 your) 6 [4.4] 0
Total 23424 413 [17.6] 184 [7.9] (154 you-sub, 9 you-obj, 18 your, 2 yourself,
1 yours) 218 [9.3] 11 (10 we, 1 us)
47
2. Personal Translation
ST
Word counts
All Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
2nd PP Instances [Standardise Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
IMP Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
1st PP Instances
Olskroken och Redbergslid 1187 50 [42.1] 9 [7.6] (8 du, 1 dig) 38 [32.0] 3 vi Älvsnabben 952 2 [2.1] 0 1 [1.1] 1 vi Spårvagn 5 1113 13 [11.7] 0 10 [9.9] 3 vi Donsö och Styrsö 1042 35 [33.6] 11 [10.6] (9 du, 2 dig) 24 [23.0] 0
Total 4294 100 [23.3] 20 [4.7] (17 du, 3 dig) 73 [17.0] 7 (7 vi) TT
Word counts
All Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
2nd PP Instances [Standardise Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
IMP Instances [Standardise
Frequency (per 1,000 words)]
1st PP Instances
Olskroken and Redbergslid 1653 51 [30.9] 15 [9.1] (14 you, 1 yourself) 35 [21.2] 1 we Älvsnabben 1386 5 [3.6] 1 [0.7] you 3 [2.2] 1 we Tram 5 1582 20 [12.6] 4 [2.5] (3 you 1 your) 13 [8.2] 3 we Donsö and Styrsö 1454 49 [33.7] 23 [15.8] (21 you, 2 your) 25 [17.2] 1 us
Total 6075 125 [20.6] 43 [7.1] (39 you, 3 your, 1 yourself) 76 [12.5] 6 (5 we, 1 us)
48
Appendix C: Chi-Square Test Results The following results were acquired using the online chi-test calculator (Stangroom, 2018). N.B. df=1 (degree of freedom is 1) for a 2x2 table, p-value < 0.05 would be significant. 1.
ENGLISH ORIGINALS ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
Words in books minus instances 18012 23011 Total instances 625 413 p-value < 0.00001 (significant)
2.
ENGLISH ORIGINALS SWEDISH ORIGINALS
Words in books minus instances 18012 19996 Total instances 625 349 p-value < 0.00001 (significant)
3.
SWEDISH ORIGINALS ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
Words in books minus instances 19996 23011 Total instances 349 413
p-value < 0.703301 (not significant)
4.
ST TT
Words in books minus instances 4194 5950 Total instances 100 125
p-value < 0.350473 (not significant)
5.
ENGLISH ORIGINALS TT
Words in books minus instances 18012 5950 Total instances 625 125
p-value < 0.00001 (significant) 6.
SWEDISH ORIGINALS ST Words in books minus instances 19996 4194 Total instances 349 100 p-value < 0.006318 (significant)
7.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS TT Words in books minus instances 23011 5950 Total instances 413 125 p-value < 0.126409 (not significant)