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Il linguaggio delle istituzioni comunitarie tra creazione terminologica e resa traduttiva
Cosmai, Domenico
2000
Abstract
Since the birth of the European Community in 1957, the hectic political activity
of the European institutions has given rise to an ever-increasing terminological
body, to the extent that an overwhelming number of glossaries and handbooks
have been published over the years in order to familiarize citizens with the too
often obscure concepts and expressions employed by the so-called Eurocrats. In
this article we will look at the underlying reasons for the presumed obscurity of
the European institutions' language. In the first part we will analyze some of the
ways in which the creation of the Community lexicon takes place (above all, the
shift of meaning from already existing words to new words with a Community-related
significance, but also metaphors, derivatives and abbreviations). The
second part will be focused on a more translation-related aspect, that is to say
the ways (mostly loan translations) in which newly-coined words are adapted
into the 11 official languages of the Union, in order to create a consistent legal
terminology valid in all 15 Member States. However, as one can imagine, the
adaptation of a lexical unit into the languages and the legal procedures of 15
Member States is a far from perfect process, and can easily lead to
misunderstandings, sometimes with serious legal consequences or simply to a
lack of transparency for the public. Lastly, some cases in point are examined,
with particular reference to the Italian language.
Series
Rivista internazionale di tecnica della traduzione / International Journal of Translation
5
Publisher
EUT - Edizioni Università di Trieste
Languages
it
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