Ενότητα 3: Translation and identity in the EU (Summary)
Translation and Identity in the EU
The unit explores the potential of English-Greek EU documentation versions to register shifts in the linguistic realization of Greek and English, in the EU context, along Hofstede and Hofstede's style dimensions of social behaviour (2005). The goal of the unit is to promote understanding of intercultural variation and to heighten awareness of the potential of translation practice to contribute to the study of intercultural difference.
The relatively narrow range of linguistic shifts between the Greek and English versions of the ΕU data sample are assumed to be a realization of some of the social behaviour style dimensions anticipated in Hofstede and Hofstede's model: namely, (high/low) power distance, collectivism/individualism, (strong/weak) uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/ femininity, long/short-term orientation in social behaviour. The unit partly verifies the position attributed to Greece on the Hofstede and Hofstede international maps: Greek is a high power distance language with collectivistic tendencies and a masculine, strong uncertainty avoidance one. The sample data does not provide evidence of all five style dimensions, as other genres would do, evidently due to the narrow set of shifts allowed across language versions in the EU context. One of the less represented tendencies is the long-term orientation of Greek.
The unit intends to highlight the need for a translation policy, in the supra-national context of the EU, which would ensure sustainability of intercultural variation. Greek EU translators, in Brussels and Luxembourg, agree that the study of intercultural variation facilitates the translators' task, while the EU is aware of the danger of identity suppression through translation process (see year of Intercultural Dialogue, 2008).
