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DOI 10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-11
Submission 2016-04-12 | Acceptance 2017-03-18
©2017 | cb Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License 195
Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale [online] ISSN 2499-1562
Vol. 51 – Settembre 2017 [print] ISSN 2499-2232
Representing Venice’s Local Culture
to International Tourists
The Use of the ‘Languaging’ Technique in Websites
in English
Daniela Cesiri
(Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia)
Abstract Venice (Italy) is a popular destination for tourists of any kind; therefore, the goal of the
material promoting the city is to present the city itself and its local culture. The present study con-
ducts a qualitative analysis of websites that promote Venice to tourists using English as the pre-
ferred language of communication. The paper focuses on the so-called technique of ‘languaging’
(in studies on the language of tourism, defined as a term in a local language or dialect which is
provided along with a translation or paraphrase in English). The analysis reveals that the authors of
websites frequently use terms in the Venetian dialect but the translations or explanations provided
fail, to a certain extent, to convey the most interesting cultural connotations contained in the terms
themselves. The authors of the websites, thus, do not help fill the cultural gap between Venice and
the tourists who, in turn, miss the opportunity to establish a real connection with the local culture.
Summary 1 Introduction. – 2 Tourism in Venice. – 3 A Definition of Languaging. – 3.1 Languaging
in the Promotion of Italian Destinations: Some State of the Art. – 4 Corpus and Methodology. – 5 A
Classification of Italian and Venetian Words in the Corpus. – 6 Languaging and Local Food. – 7 Languaging
to Explain Local Culture and Traditions. – 8 General Considerations on the Use of Languaging in the
Individual Websites. – 8.1 The USA Website. – 8.2 The UK Website. – 8.3 Australia. – 8.4 Canada. – 8.5
Lonely Planet. – 8.6 TimeOut Venice. – 8.7 InVenice. – 9 Conclusions.
Keywords English for Tourism. Languaging. Discourse analysis. Venice. Computer-mediated com-
munication.
1 Introduction
Nearly 10 million people visit Venice (Italy) every year, with nationalities
from all around the world (Miraglia 2015, 12). For this reason, the tour-
ism promotion of the city employs many languages but, above all, it uses
English both as the language of native speakers and as a lingua franca,
regardless of the visitors’ mother tongue.
One of the most difficult aspects in tourism promotion is not the actual
language in which the communication between tourism operators and
prospective visitors happens; it is, rather, the techniques used to success-
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fully convey the cultural heritage that makes the destination unique and
worth visiting. The effective promotion of the local culture is, indeed, one
of the most interesting elements that leads tourists to decide whether a
specific package or service provider is worth choosing among myriads of
competitors. This is particularly true if we consider promotion through
websites, which are so many and provide a plethora of possibilities about
the booking of travel, services, tours and accommodation.
This article starts from these preliminary reflections to investigate the
ways in which websites promoting Venice manage to effectively convey the
most typical aspects of the Venetian culture. The use of the technique of
“languaging” (Dann 1996, i.e. the use of foreign words in a text) will be inves-
tigated in websites in English aimed at customers from specific Anglophone
countries as well as customers who use English merely as a lingua franca.1
2 Tourism in Venice
As already mentioned, it has been calculated that nearly 10 million tourists
visited Venice in 2014; of these, more than 1.5 million are Italian tourists
(15% of the total number) and more than 8.4 million are from outside Italy,
constituting 85% of the total number of tourists visiting Venice. Visitors
from outside the country, thus speakers of different languages, clearly
outnumber Italian tourists who might be more likely to possess an at least
minimum knowledge of the local (Venetian) dialect and culture.
Miraglia (2015) illustrates the figures from the Annual Survey conducted
by the City of Venice’s Tourist Board; in describing the typologies of tourists
visiting the city, it also specifies the first nationalities of foreign visitors,
who come from the USA, France, the UK, Germany, China, Japan, Australia,
Spain, Brazil, South Korea, Canada and Russia (in fig. 1, with percentages).
Figure 1. Tourists in Venice in 2014
(Miraglia 2015, 31)
1
The perspective used in the present study has purposely not considered the websites’
transmission of the local culture fr om a multimoda l perspective as the main aim here was,
for the time being, to investigate ‘languaging’ as a solely verbal techniq ue.
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It appears evident, then, that English plays an essential role in the language
of tourism promotion, considering also that tourists who are native speak-
ers of English are outnumbered by those who use English merely to access
information when travelling outside their own country. In this respect, if
managed with full awareness, the use of the languaging technique might
be particularly effective in reducing the cultural distance between visitors
and the local population, thus bringing more clients to the company that
commissioned the website; however, if the authors of the websites fail in the
promotion, for instance with a mismanaged use of local terms or inaccurate
descriptions, this might have the opposite effect of representing the local
culture as something too distant, uninviting, discouraging the prospective
visitors from booking the experience promoted and, thus, losing clients.
3 A Definition of Languaging
Dann defines languaging as “the impressive use of foreign words, but also
a manipulation of the vernacular, a special choice of vocabulary, and not
just for its own sake” (1996, 184). The use of these foreign words might
be chosen by authors of tourism texts to induce feelings of inferiority in
the reader, transforming the writer into a trustful authority. This happens
when the reader is supposed to have little knowledge of the concepts
conveyed by the ‘foreign’ terms.
Languaging is a technique that Jaworski et al. also call “language cross-
ing”, whose function is presented as that of “creating a linguascape of the
travel destination” (2003, 17). The foreign words used in this kind of tour-
ism language usually pertain to the field of eno-gastronomy, or they are
used to represent very specific natural, architectural or cultural elements
of the host community and refer to less-known aspects of the destination
and its culture. Languaging can also include a specific selection of the
vocabulary to meet the writer’s intentions of promoting the destination. In
addition, alliteration and onomatopoeia might be used to enhance the use
of humour to make the promotional message more effective. Another device
is the use of expressions allegedly familiar to the tourists but inserted in an
unusual context, making the message more exotic and, thus, more inviting.
The way words in Italian or in the Venetian dialect are embedded in the
promotional text follows also specific typographical patterns that have also
become typical of the languaging technique: foreign words might be re-
ported in their original form and a definition, a paraphrase and/or a literal
translation in the language of the text (in our case, English) is provided
in brackets immediately before or after the actual term. Other devices to
emphasise these terms are the use of typographical symbols such as single
or double quotation marks (e.g., ‘…’ and “…”), double angled quotation
marks (e.g., «…»), bold type, italics.
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This technique is useful and particularly productive in the language of
tourism promotion because it reduces the sense of strangeness (“stran-
gerhood” in Dann’s 1996 terms) that a foreign tourist might feel towards
the host culture; it also anticipates what the tourist will hear and find
when s/he will visit the actual place. In fact, the concept of ‘stranger-
hood’ conveys the sense of distance that a destination might have from
the tourists’ usual Centre (sic in Dann 1996), i.e. what is most familiar in
their everyday life and culture; it is this distance that the use of languag-
ing seeks to cross, at the same time putting the authors of tourism texts
in the role of ‘experts’ that help the ‘non-expert’, potential tourists fill
the cultural gap.
Considering the ways in which the authors of the texts in the websites
approach tourists through the languaging technique, we might hypoth-
esize that promotion focuses on the elements typical of the ‘authenticity
perspective’ (e.g., see Dann 1996; MacCannell 1977-89; Schudson 1979).
Scholars aim at a tourism that should be less environmentally disruptive,
useful to host communities and that should contribute to a greater under-
standing between visitors and local people. In this perspective, according
to the kind of contact that visitors seek to establish with the host com-
munity, the former can be assigned to four categories, as schematically
represented in figure 2 (by the present author).
Figure 2. The circle individuates the category of tourists targeted by the websites
Organised and Individual mass tourism include those tourists who want
to experience travel destinations with all the safety and comforts provid-
ed by tourism operators. They are in search of novelty but in a “protected
and normalised environment” (Judd 1999, 37), establishing contacts with
the local populations that are authentic but mediated by professional
figures who ensure that nothing is left to chance. The categories of the
‘explorer’ and the ‘drifter’ are described as more adventurous, prefer-
ring to organise the travel experience without intermediaries and to
come into direct contact with the truest and most genuine aspects of
local populations.
Following this categorization, the tourists targeted by the websites are
more likely to belong to the Organized Mass Tourism and to the Individual
Mass Tourism categories (circled, in fig. 2), i.e. those who wish to remain
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as close as possible to their own Centre, to what is most familiar to them,
in opposition to those who seek novelty and adventure, positioning them-
selves on the other side of the continuum shown in figure 2. In this regard,
the languaging technique is particularly productive as it makes the un-
familiar host culture familiar to the tourists especially upon their arrival,
having already experienced from a distance, through the websites, what
they will find and hear at the destination.
3.1 Languaging in the Promotion of Italian Destinations:
Some State of the Art
The technique of languaging has attracted the linguists’ and sociolinguists’
attention in that it provides interesting insights into how distinct cultures
‘collide’ in the language of tourism promotion, and how authors of tourism
promotional texts wilfully play with that collision to attract the readers’
attention, obtaining booking for the promoted destination or experience.
As regards linguistic studies and the investigation of languaging to pro-
mote, or represent, Italian destinations, the literature is not so vast, as it
has encountered a relatively recent interest thanks to the digital medias
that enhance a wider and more global sharing of promotional texts, also
from a distance.
In this regard, we might mention Cappelli’s (2013) study on the use of
languaging in guidebooks, expatriates’ travel blogs and travel articles/trav-
elogues. The qualitative analysis conducted in the paper confirms that the
use of words in the language of the host community has the main function
of reducing the linguistic and cultural distance between tourists and the
destination. Cappelli (2013) also mentions some background studies that
investigate the use of languaging to promote Italian destinations, namely:
Cortese, Hymes (2001), in which languaging is presented in its function of
“positioning” (Cappelli 2013, 353) the individual within a specific social
culture; it is also represented as a kind of “language rooted in memory”
(Cortese, Hymes 2001, 199) that links the individual to the local culture.
Finally, in their analysis of guidebooks, Fodde and Denti (2005) come to
the conclusion that languaging serves to anticipate the real experience
that tourists will live upon their arrival.
In the present article, the term languaging refers to the technique of
using foreign words in the English texts used in the websites. Thus, the
foreign words taken into consideration are not only those in standard
Italian but also, and most importantly, in the local Venetian dialect, along
with the corresponding translation or paraphrase that the authors of the
texts provide.
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4 Corpus and Methodology
The main research question leading this study is ascertaining whether the
websites in English here investigated use the traditional patterns typical
of the languaging technique or they experiment new ones, and whether
they successfully perform the function that is typical of languaging, i.e.
reducing the cultural distance between host and visitor culture, making
the former attractive to the latter. Instances of languaging will be investi-
gated in two kinds of websites; one group of websites explicitly addresses
visitors from English-speaking countries, namely they are:
–
http://travel.usnews.com/, addressing tourists from the USA
(henceforth, USA website);
–http://www.bbc.com/travel (henceforth, UK website), explicitly re-
ferring to prospective tourists from the UK as their target public, even
though it might be argued that the world-renowned BBC company is
consulted as reliable source of information by people from all over
the world using English as a lingua franca;
–
http://www.flightcentre.com.au
(Australia website), for Australians;
–
http://vacations.aircanada.com/ (Canada website), for visitors
travelling from Canada.
The other group of websites is aimed at meeting a wider, generally inter-
national demand from customers using English as a vehicular language;
the websites collected to this purpose are:
–http://www.lonelyplanet.com (henceforth, Lonely Planet);
–http://www.timeout.com/venice/ (henceforth, TimeOut Venice);
–http://www.in-venice.it/ (InVenice), a website based in Italy but
providing information in English in a dedicated version.
The websites included in the corpus are organised into individual sections
and sub-sections sections, accessible from the homepage, that present
the several aspects of the travelling experience to/in Venice. The texts in
the websites were collected in a corpus and, then, a manual search was
conducted to detect all the possible instances of languaging.
The words or expressions, in Italian and in Venetian, thus retrieved were
analysed, qualitatively, with an important differentiation; toponyms (here
intended as words referring to monuments, place names, buildings, and so
forth) were considered only if they are used in Italian or in Venetian even
though a corresponding term in English is commonly attested in English
(e.g. piazza instead of ‘square’).
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5 A Classification of Italian and Venetian Words in the Corpus
Unsurprisingly, words in Italian or in Venetian are used less frequently
than the corresponding terms in English; however, they have a strategic
role in the description of places, buildings and cultural aspects of the
city. As already mentioned, two types of Italian/Venetian words were
distinguished: toponyms and general words that refer to specific names
of buildings and places (e.g., Piazza San Marco, Piazzale Roma, etc.) but
also words in Italian of more general use (e.g., palazzi, gelato, etc.).
These cases are not used in the same way in the several websites or in
the same website, because they alternate between the original term in
Italian and its version in English. For instance, in the USA website, Palazzo
Ducale first appears indicated as “Doge’s Palace” with its name in round
brackets. Then, in the following sub-sections, it is indicated either as Pa-
lazzo Ducale or as Doge’s Palace. The alternation, however, appears to be
used randomly, not for stylistic reasons. The same happens for Piazza San
Marco, alternatively indicated as Piazza San Marco, St Mark’s Square or
San Marco Square, not only in the same website (and this happens in all
the websites composing the corpus) but also within the same paragraph. A
closer look at the contexts and/or sections in which the different versions
of the terms appear does not indicate any particular pattern, strategy or
preference by the authors, nor it is typical of one specific website more
than the others.
Other typical, but renowned, elements of Venice and of the Italian life-
style are used without any paraphrase or translation, as it is the case of
gondola, palazzo, gelato; the plurals of these words are used randomly:
they might appear as gondolas or gondole, palazzos or palazzi, gelatos or
gelati in the section or paragraph without any preference for either form,
perhaps gondolas being the most popular. As for gelato/gelati, this is the
term used in every website to indicate ice-creams, probably preferred
because it indicates the traditional Italian ice-cream made with natural
and seasonal ingredients, opposed to the processed ice-creams sold in
supermarkets or in fast-food chains.
As regards ‘proper’ instances of languaging, table 1 illustrates the
ways in which each website describes to prospective tourists terms that
they will find upon their arrival in Venice, and that aim at filling a gap
in their knowledge of the local culture and language/dialect. The sche-
matic representation in table 1 is useful in that it shows a differentiation
in the way the websites mediate the ‘strangerhood’ element inherent to
the terms themselves.
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Table 1. Instances of paraphrases/translations of local terms in the corpus
Vaporetto ferry/ferries, public waterbus, water bus/buses, water shuttle, waterbus,
vaporetto, steamboat
Doge leader, Doge, duke
Sestiere/i district, neighbourhood(s), division, Venice area(s), sestiere/i
Acqua Alta high water, high tide
La Serenissima the most serene, la Serenissima, the most serene Republic of Venice, the
Serenissima Republic
Cicheti Tapas, Venetian tapas, bar snacks, local version of tapas, small tapas, small
plates, snacks, finger food, small portions of food, Venetian snacks
Calle/i street, backstreets, sidestreets, narrow medieval laneways, lanes, alleyways,
the alleys of the city
Bacari hole-in-the-wall pubs, wine bars, tiny neighbourhood bars, wine bar
bars, Venetian traditional haunt, a middle ground between a tavern and a pub
Osterie small local restaurant, taverns, trattorias, pub-restaurants, osterie
The explanations or the translations that are used in the corpus fall within
the function of languaging that Jaworski et al. call “naming and translating
(e.g. providing labels for local concepts, artefacts or dishes, translating
local place names)” (2003, 9). The techniques accompanying this function
are those shown in table 1, namely “apart using ‘strange’ words, the same
local concepts are also labelled with two, more easily recognizable terms
[…] and these acts of naming also render the exotic more familiar” (16).
6 Languaging and Local Food
Terms for typical local food and eno-gastronomic traditions are used more
frequently than the ‘toponyms’ in table 1. In this case, the “naming and
translating” (Jaworski et al. 2003, 9) function of the languaging technique
employs more creative expressions that should make the local items more
familiar to the foreign visitor, since it is not just a means of transportation
or some historical landmark that is being described but the rituals of a
century-old tradition.
The terms in Italian or in the local dialect are usually reported with the
actual term in italics and its translation or description in English, or vice
versa, not always strictly respecting the original spelling or exact meaning,
as it is illustrated in the following examples:
1. “tap water, acqua di rubinetto; flat water, acqua naturale; or spar-
kling water, acqua frizzante or acqua con gas … Cuttlefish (sepia),
clams (vongole), and sea brass (branzino).” (Travel US News Venice);
2.
“crudi (Venetial-style sushi) … folpetti (baby octopus) salad … seppie
(cuttlefish), bottarga (cured tuna roe), folpeti consi (baby octopus in
vinaigrette), sardelle in saor (fried sardines marinated in vinegar and
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onions), polpettine (Venetian meatballs) and baccalà mantecato, a
local favourite consisting of codfish beaten into a creamy paste with
olive oil, often served on a square of grilled polenta.” (BBC Travel);
3.
“moscardini (baby octopus), moeche (soft-shell crabs), and inky sep-
pie (squid) … Locally caught seafood is tagged ‘Nostrano’, as are
seasonal vegetables like Sant’Erasmo castraure (baby artichokes)
and radicchio trevisano (bitter red chicory).” (Lonely Planet Venice);
4. “Going with the flow of la cucina veneta requires a certain spirit of
open-minded experimentation. Not everybody has eaten granseo-
la (spider crab) before, or garusoli (sea snails) or canoce (mantis
shrimps), but Venice is definitely the place to try these marine cu-
rios.” (TimeOut Venice);
5. “fritole, or rather frittelle (similar to pancakes)… moeche (crabs
just after molting)… eel (anguilla in Italian, bisato in Venetian),
shellfishes (canestrei in Venetian), shrimps (canoce), clams (capa-
rossoi), octopus (folpo) and mussels (peoci).” (InVenice).
In example 1, the spelling for cuttlefish, sepia, is adapted to the English
term referring to the colour (originally extracted from the animal) rather
than to the Cephalopod itself, whose name in general language is ‘squid’
(see example 3). In the other examples the literal translation is provided
along with some other information on the kind of food or dish that can help
tourists understand the nature of the recipe, especially in those cases (as
in example 4) where the speciality uses kinds of food that are different
from the usual culinary habits of the prospective visitor.
In other cases, as in example 5, approximation to the presumed culture
of the visitor is provided: the comparison of the fritole to pancakes is
a great approximation since the former are deep-fried spherical sweets
covered in sugar, quite different from pancakes. Another example is the
Venetian term folpo (correct in its variant folpeto, as in example 2), which
is also used in the sense of ‘foolish, stupid person’ (S. Bassi, personal con-
versation). This culture-bound connotation is not even mentioned in the
website, which explicitly presents itself as written from the perspective
of a resident. A similar kind of approximation is contained in the same ex-
ample 2 where crudi are defined as “Venetian-style sushi”, whereas they
are just a selection of raw fish served with a variety of sauces, lemon and
kinds of salt, without any use of rice, as in the original Japanese recipe.
In these examples, the culture-specific element is lost in favour of an ap-
proximation that explains just the basic food or ingredient; the original
meaning and connotation could have been preserved with a very concise
explanation or paraphrase, as it is provided – with greater success – in
some other instances of local food in examples 2 (“sardelle in saor (fried
sardines marinated in vinegar and onions)”) and 3 (“moeche (soft-shell
crabs)”), and in example 4, analysed above.
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7 Languaging to Explain Local Culture and Traditions
In the websites, the authors use the technique of languaging also to de-
scribe and explain complex elements of the local culture and traditions
connected to festivals, celebrations and events, but also of the Venetian
everyday social life. As already shown in the preceding section, the cultural
importance or the socialising dimension of the element described is lost;
its ancient rituals are, thus, transmitted to the tourists with approximate
explanations and superficial descriptions.
This is the case of the cocktail called spritz, very popular in the North-
Eastern Italian regions, but now becoming increasingly popular also in the
rest of the country and abroad. Around the cocktail, served with appetizers
of various kinds and complexity, the younger and older generations have
created a socialising ritual that is used not only with family and friends
but also with new acquaintances to favour group integration and bonding.
In the corpus, as illustrated in examples 6 to 8, the mildly alcoholic drink
is defined merely as:
6.
“spritz (the local aperitivo of wine, soda and Campari)” (BBC Travel);
7. “an aperitivo of white wine, Campari and a shot of seltzer or spar-
kling water; a sweeter version is made with low-alcohol Aperol”
(TimeOut Venice Venice);
8. “a Venetian aperitif that has been exported all around the world,
which is made with prosecco, soda and Aperol, Select, or Bitter”
(InVenice).
Hints are given only to the nature and function of the drink (aperitivo/
aperitif) and the recipe is given without any reference to the socio-cultural
importance that the ritual around it has in the local culture, not even
when this kind of information is explained in sections labelled “Drink like
a Venetian”, as in the case of the TimeOut Venice website.
It is worth mentioning that some websites are particularly concerned
about the manners of the tourists and in the transmission of the rules
for ‘correct, polite behaviour’ towards the local population, performing
the function that Jaworski et al. name “phatic communion – exchanges of
‘mere sociabilities’ and apparently ‘purposeless expressions’ […] a type of
interaction that tourists might typically be expected to engage with hosts”
(2003, 12). In this case, the authors of the texts are anticipating the tourist’s
experience by instructing them what to say and when, mostly using Italian,
not the local dialect. The USA website, for instance, insists on explaining
how first impressions count to Italians, and to Venetians in particular; thus,
they instruct tourists on how to make a good impression, defined as
bella figura […] Dressing well will sometimes even be rewarded by bet-
ter and more prompt service. Bella figura does not stop with physical
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presentation as it extends into a person’s manners and conduct. Avoid
being obnoxiously loud or ostentatious, as this is greatly looked down on
as brutta figura. Learning some Italian and attempting to use it will win
you points with Italians, who are generally patient and happy to help you
learn more. In any kind of store or restaurant, it’s appropriate to greet
and say goodbye to employees – even if you do not buy anything – with
a salve and arrivederci, respectively. Ciao is less formal but equally ap-
preciated. Wherever you go, remember your manners and don’t forget
your pleases, per favore, and thank yous, grazie.
This concern is found only in the USA website and only to a certain ex-
tent expressed also in the InVenice website, which makes a list of ‘don’ts’
more related to the respect of civil regulations, such as how to behave
and dress in churches, respect the buildings and the city in general, not to
feed pigeons, not to swim in the canals, how to dress properly around the
city despite it being on the water (“but it is not a seaside resort”, InVenice
website), what to do with a backpack when on a crowded vaporetto, and
so forth, but this is all expressed in English without any use of specific
terms in Italian, like in the USA website.
8 General Considerations on the Use of Languaging
in the Individual Websites
The analysis conducted so far has considered individual instances of lan-
guaging found in the corpus in general. The present section differentiates
the instances of languaging used in the individual websites and provides
some general considerations on the approach to the local language and
culture showed as regards the nationality, specified or presumed, of the
perspective tourists.
The function of the languaging technique in the corpus is to make for-
eign tourists accustomed to the ‘terminology’ and culture they will find as
well as to underline the strong local identity still kept in Venice, despite
depopulation and the city’s role of mass tourism destination. In addition,
it was also stressed in the previous sections that the use of languaging is
limited to specific semantic fields. In fact, except for the USA website, that
adds also expressions in the function of “phatic communion” (Jaworski et
al. 2003, 12), the terms in Italian or in Venetian pertain to the semantic
categories of toponyms, streets or alleys, landmarks, popular traditions re-
ferring to the local culture and, especially, to its eno-gastronomic heritage.
If we have to make a distinction in the relative frequency of usage of the
languaging technique in the several websites consulted, we can certainly
affirm that, among the websites addressing specific nationalities, the USA
and the UK ones make a greater use of languaging. As for the websites
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addressing visitors with an unspecified nationality, the Lonely Planet and
the InVenice websites are the ones that use languaging with a greater
frequency than the others.
8.1 The USA Website
In the USA website, the instances of languaging are explicitly signalled
and separated from the text in English with italics for words in Italian
or in Venetian and the translation or the paraphrase in English reported
in round brackets (e.g., “Water taxis bob along, drifting underneath the
Ponte degli Scalzi (Bridge of the Barefoot)”), or separated by commas,
as in the passage on «bella figura» («and don’t forget your pleases, per
favore, and thank yous, grazie»). In some, although rare, cases they are
also highlighted from the rest of the text through the use of double curved
quotation marks, especially when the words are employed to explain lo-
cal words of practical usage during the stay, as in the following quotation
from the USA website:
Residents generally speak Italian with a Venetian dialect, which can be
unrecognizable – even to native Italian speakers. Ca, a shortened form
of the word “casa”, is used to describe many private residences and
palaces. A street or calle in Venice, (pronounced ka-lay), is different
from the “via” or “strada” streets elsewhere in Italy.
This example contains an interesting reference to the correct pronun-
ciation of the term calle, an indication which is unique to the rest of the
corpus as this is the only case in which it appears. Italics as a typographi-
cal convention is particularly productive, and the USA website employs
it specifically to indicate names related to eno-gastronomic traditions, as
the following extract clearly illustrates:
Venice Dining
With such close ties to the water, it should come as no surprise that fish is
the main component of Venetian cuisine. Cuttlefish (sepia), clams (vongo-
le), and sea bass (branzino) are popular ingredients, which can be found in
many of the area’s most well-known dishes, including frutti di mare. Tra-
mezzini is another Venetian specialty: These triangular sandwiches, with
a range of fillings from cheese to meats, can be found at cafes throughout
the city. Wash it all down with prosecco, a sparkling (and local) white wine.
For the best bang for your buck, try to avoid the San Marco area or
any establishment that solicits tourists off the street. Instead, try one of
the smaller establishments – such as traveler-recommended Ristorante
La Caravella – tucked away on one of the many hidden side streets.
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You could also dine at a bacaro, a smaller wine bar with lower prices,
authentic cuisine and more character.
In this passage, all the terms in Italian or in Venetian are indicated in
italics, except for the name of the restaurant. The explanation of non-
English terms is given in plain English either in brackets or before the
local name. In other cases, local terms are just inserted in the description.
If, visually speaking, the resulting effect might seem confusing in its lack
of a homogeneous writing style, in the conveyance of the promotional
message this patchy style is effective since it gives the text the ‘aroma’
of exoticism typical of the “naming and translating” function (cf. Jaworski
et al. 2003).
8.2 The UK Website
In the case of the UK website, words in Italian and in Venetian are followed
by an explanatory paraphrase together with the textual strategies already
seen in the USA website, namely: italics, round brackets containing the
translation, double curved quotation marks and explanation between com-
mas. Another similarity is the use of local words to indicate architectural
or topographic elements and for eno-gastronomic traditions.
Venice is one of those places that everyone has seen before they visit.
The green canals and famous bridges; the warmly coloured palazzo
(grand residences) and narrow alleyways; the breathtaking openness
of Piazza San Marco, the arched prow of a gondola and the gentle wake
behind a vaporetto (waterbus) – all have been immortalised in mediums
as classic as Canaletto’s paintings and as mainstream as Facebook pho-
tos. And for every traveller who has been disappointed in a destination
upon arrival, there is a happy visitor in Venice, where the city looks
exactly as it is supposed to. Venice is both a well-preserved monument
and a living, breathing, sinking city, full of contemporary art, traditional
crafts and high culture.
In this extract, two words are highlighted in italics, the first one palazzo
is followed by a definition in English, even though it can be presumed that
the word itself might be very familiar to prospective tourists coming from
the UK, a country where the architectural Italian tradition is historically
well rooted. However, the paraphrase serves also the educational purpose
of indicating the meaning of the Italian term, probably to the benefit of
tourists with a lower-level education, or to the youngsters. The second
term (vaporetto) indicates a typical local means of transportation and is
rendered with the closest term in English, defining its nature of public
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transport using waterways instead of streets. The second extract below
illustrates the use of textual strategies to highlight instances of languaging
pertaining the field of food and eno-gastronomic traditions.
Visitors have long been enthralled by Venice’s floating palaces and fabu-
lous art. But its seafood-rich lagoon and garden islands also provide
a taste of Venetian life – from cicheti (tapas) and fish dishes to rich,
creamy gelati.
Best for seafood
Alongside the Rialto fish market, deli-diner Pronto Pesce specialises in
crudi (Venetian-style sushi) and seafood salads. Grab a stool and a glass
of wine with folpetti (baby octopus) salad, or enjoy yours dockside along
the Grand Canal. Saturday lunchtimes are all about the much-lauded
fish risotto (Rialto Pescheria, San Polo 319; closed Sun & Mon; fish
salads from £7).
Neighbourhood restaurant Ristorante Ai Do Farai in Dorsoduro was
once one of the oldest wine bars in Venice; now a small restaurant,
regulars pack into the wood-panelled room hung with football scarves.
Try the tris di saor sarde, scampi e sogliole (sardines, prawns and sole
in a tangy marinade) or the tasty pasta with clams, mussels and prawns
(00 39 041 277 03 69; Calle del Cappeller, Dorsoduro 3278; closed Sun;
mains from £15).
In the original text in the website, the names of the two restaurants (‘Pron-
to Pesce’ and ‘Ai do Farai’) are highlighted through a hyperlink, leading to
the restaurants’ websites, while names of traditional dishes and food are
not signalled with italics but just followed by a paraphrase or a transla-
tion in brackets.
8.3 Australia
The Australian website contains a very limited use of languaging. The oc-
casional reference to monuments and landmarks is provided using Italian
or local words, which are either not highlighted at all or highlighted with
bold type, as in the example below:
The Arsenale, Chiesa di San Giorgio Maggiore and I Frari are other
Venetian monuments you shouldn’t miss out on. For a touch of art, the
city’s Gallerie dell’Accademia traces the development of Venetian
art from the 14th to the 18th century and showcases the work of some
true Italian greats. Lastly, a gondola ride on one of the city’s beautiful
waterways is all but a rite of passage for any visitor to Venice.
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A specific section, “Like a local”, contains instances of languaging refer-
ring to food and local traditions.
If you want to save some money at lunch, do as the locals do and eat
standing up. Most eateries are at lunchtime stocked with cicchetti,
which is the Venetian form of tapas. Popular dishes include tramezzini
(triangular sandwiches), polpette (minced fish or meatballs) and a whole
range of antipasto. Simply select a few items by pointing at what you
want and you’ve got yourself a meal. Just remember though that if you
decide to sit at a table and be waited on the price will be more expensive
than if you order and consume your food at the bar.
In this extract, the Italian terms are not singled out from the rest of the
text but are followed by a paraphrase in English, except for the word an-
tipasto, probably because it is now a familiar word to the average Austral-
ian tourist. In addition, this passage contains the approximation of some
socio-cultural implications that was already noticed in the other websites.
The typical ‘tradition’ of eating a quick lunch standing up is certainly due
to the reduced size of public places and shops in Venice, a peculiar aspect
of the city that is not pointed out by the website, in this as in any other
section, thus reducing the impact that the information could have on the
future visitors and their ‘cultural training’ before travelling to Venice.
An important omission regards the sentence “simply select a few items
by pointing at what you want and you’ve got yourself a meal”. If the USA
website abounds in advice on how to sound polite to the locals, in this
quotation the instructions might lead to some cultural misunderstanding
between the Australian visitors and Venetians since there is no indication
on how to order even a quick snack as cicheti without using a polite lan-
guage but merely by pointing at the desired food, which might be consid-
ered as a rude practice by the locals.
8.4 Canada
In the website addressing Canadian tourists, the use of languaging is
reduced to a minimum, as in the Australian case. Local words are used
to indicate very famous aspects, buildings or landmarks but with minimal
paraphrases, as it is shown in the following extract, in which names of
landmarks are reported partially in Italian, partially in English but without
any clear textual distinction for the former.
Along the small inner canals, you’ll arrive to Fondamente Nuove, a long
series of ancient foundations that represents the northern boundary of
the city of Venice, where you will be able to view the northern side of
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the Lagoon, San Michele’s island, Murano and Burano on the landscape.
The extract shows also that names in Italian for typical elements of the city
are given in italics with a paraphrase in English but without many other
details: “gaze at the thoroughfare of passing gondolas, vaporetto (water
buses) and water taxis – all jostling for space on the water”.
8.5 Lonely Planet
The Lonely Planet website, along with the InVenice website, addresses
tourists with an unspecified nationality; they both make a consistent use
of languaging. The elements that are indicated using Italian or Venetian
words pertain to the usual semantic fields of the city landmarks and build-
ings, eno-gastronomic traditions and cultural rituals in general. The sec-
tions of the website are presented as mini-guides written by (almost) resi-
dential authors that present themselves as authoritative persons, experts
in describing Venice and its culture to the future visitors. Also in these
cases, however, the authors do not refer to the inmost cultural significance
of the elements described, thus failing to convey exactly the real nature
of local traditions. On the other hand, the translations given to elements
of the city landscape are quite correct and precise, as in the case of the
following extract:
Yet Venice isn’t a one-stage venue. The dazzling pageantry continues
at I Frari, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Scuola Grande di San Rocco and, of
course, Teatro La Fenice. And if you think your walk-on part at these
attractions is exhilarating, wait until you step backstage – which is never
more than a sotoportego (passageway) away. In narrow calli (streets) off
the thoroughfares to San Marco, you’ll glimpse the behind-the-scenes
creativity that keeps the whole production afloat: artisans at work in
their studios, cooks whipping up four-star cicheti (Venetian tapas) on
single-burner hotplates, musicians lugging 18th-century cellos to cham-
ber-music practice. Here the volume is turned down, and you can hear
the muffled sounds of intermission – neighbours kissing hello and Ve-
ronese spaniels trotting over footbridges.
This passage shows suggestive images of everyday life in Venice, provid-
ing correct translations of the local terms sotoportego (in this case also
spelled correctly) and calli, but it fails to convey the more local aspect of
cicheti, generally defined (as in many other cases in the websites) as ‘ta-
pas’. These are defined as “small Spanish savoury dishes, typically served
with drinks at a bar” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary), which might
apparently have the same function as the Venetian preparations but the
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latter have an older tradition and a socialising function for people of all
ages (not necessarily implicit in the Spanish term) that the ‘residential’
author misses to explain.
Another passage contains the same alternation between exact rendering
of a local word and imprecise explanation of a local phenomenon:
You may have heard that Venice is an engineering marvel, with marble
cathedrals built atop ancient posts driven deep into the barene (mud
banks) – but the truth is that this city is built on sheer nerve. Reason-
able people might blanch at water approaching their doorsteps and flee
at the first sign of acqua alta (high tide). But reason can’t compare to
Venetian resolve.
In this case, the first element in italics (barene) is translated and explained
correctly, while the second one only partially covers the phenomenon of
acqua alta, which is more accurately indicated in the other websites. The
translation, obviously, does not prevent tourists from understanding the
phenomenon but it does not fully convey its real nature, thus keeping the
explanation at a very superficial level, where it needed greater details es-
pecially as regards how to deal with high water during the flooding period.
As for languaging used to refer to eno-gastronomic elements and tradi-
tions, the Lonely Planet follows the same path trodden by the other web-
sites, providing the Venetian words in italics, followed by a translation or
paraphrase in English, but without going beyond the description of the
ingredients or a literal translation.
Those visitors may never get to see Venice in its precious downtime,
when gondoliers warm up their vocal chords with scorching espresso on
their way to words, and mosaic artisans converge at the bar for tesserae
shoptalk over a spritz (prosecco-based drink).
Neither rain nor high tides can dampen high spirits at Venice’s twice
daily happy hours, when even the most orthodox fashionistas will gamely
pull on stivali di gomma (rubber boots) over their stylish artisan-made
shoes, and slosh out to the bar to get first dibs on cicheti (traditional
bar snacks). How come ‘happy hour’ lasts five hours a day, and why not
so close at the first high tide signal? ‘There’s only one Venice’, explains
one host as he pours another glass of fizzy Veneto prosecco well past the
mark for un ombra (half-glass) [sic]. ‘We might as well enjoy it.’
In this passage, the description given by the author seems to be one of a
fictional Venice rather than a real one, omitting that rubber boots are now
made of every colour and print and that not all Venetians wear artisan-
made shoes; the impression given by the author is, therefore, of a tale
meeting the now outdated stereotypes on Venice rather than the account
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of a residential author. The reference to spritz and to un’ombra (in the
original text, also very inaccurately written without the apostrophe) is
given only to their composition rather than to links with the history of the
city (as in the case of the ombra of wine), keeping again the description
at a very superficial level.
8.6 TimeOut Venice
The TimeOut Venice website makes a slightly less consistent use of lan-
guaging, if compared to the other two websites, LonelyPlanet and In-
Venice. In the case of TimeOut Venice languaging is used once more for
monuments and typical experiences, as in the sentence “most Venetians
agree that some of the city’s best gelato is served in Boutique del Gelato,
a tiny outlet on busy salizzada San Lio”. However, in cases such as this
the Italian or Venetian words are not highlighted from the rest of the text.
Languaging is also used, as in all the other websites, to indicate land-
marks, as in the following passage:
But it’s St Mark’s basilica (Basilica di San Marco), often seen as the
living testimony of Venice’s links with Byzantium; Doge’s Palace, once
Venice’s political and judicial hub; and Torre dell’Orologio, a clock tower
built between 1496 and 1506, that are, not just the square’s, but some
of the city’s main attractions.
The usual technique of using italics to highlight the local term is here sub-
stituted by hyperlinks to the websites of the institutions mentioned. Only
in one case, “Basilica di San Marco”, the translation in English is provided
in round brackets. “Doge’s Palace” is not translated but a description of its
function is given, while “Torre dell’Orologio” is indirectly translated after
the comma and only some hints to its history are given, even though these
elements occur in the paragraph for the first time in the text.
Finally, the usual semantic field of food and drink are expressed through
languaging along with some advice on how to behave like a local:
4. Drink like a Venetian – and go on a secret wine tour
To the usual Italian breakfast, light snacks, pastries and alcoholic bev-
erages routine, Venice contributes its own specialities: the ombra and
the spritz. The former is a tiny glass of wine – bianco or rosso – which
is knocked back in no time and is often the whole point of a giro di om-
bre – an ombra-crawl around selected bacari (the accent is on the first
‘a’). A spritz is an aperitivo of white wine, Campari and a shot of seltzer
or sparkling water; a sweeter version is made with low-alcohol Aperol.
Also flowing freely into Venetian glasses are prosecco, the bubbly white
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made in the hills of the Veneto region, and spento, a bubble-free version
of the same wine.
And for true Venetian oenophile immersion, discover the wine cellars
that only the locals know about – together with a healthy dose of chic-
chetti (Venice’s version of tapas) – on a covert wine tour of Venice with
worldwide city-tour specialists Urban Adventures.
In this extract, more information than in other websites are provided on
some background facts on specific traditions or pronunciation advice on
the local terms that was found only in the USA website.
8.7 InVenice
In the case of InVenice, it is worth mentioning that this is a website in Ital-
ian with a dedicated version in English. The use of Italian and Venetian
words in the latter version pertains to the same semantic fields as in all
the other websites, giving greater details in the paraphrases or explana-
tion of the terms, with some exception in the successful conveyance of
the real meaning of the terms (see, e.g., example 5, § 6). In the InVenice
website, languaging is again limited to monuments, topographic elements
and food-related terminology. However, it describes more numerous and
different traditions, as in the following passage, in which the experience of
a gondola ride is described in far greater detail than in the other websites:
Today there are two main reasons for taking a gondola: there is the
“gondola da parada“, a sort of ferry boat that Venetians use mainly to
cross the Grand Canal, and the gondola “da nolo”, for hire, that offers
the classic gondola tour.
In this website, words in Italian or in Venetian are highlighted using bold
type and in double quotation marks but it also employs italics and bold
type to indicate specific terms, with a particular history, as in the case of
the following extract (bulleted list as in the original):
–
The baìcoli are typical biscuits which were once sold in a tin box
but they can now easily be found in cardboard boxes. They are dry
biscuits, cut into very thin layers, which were once eaten during long
journeys by ship. They are cooked with a few simple ingredients such
as flour, yeast, sugar, butter and eggs. They’re fantastic when dipped
in creamy eggnog, hot chocolate, coffee or a sweet wine.
–Next in line are the bussolai buranelli which are either circular or
“S” shaped. They are a specialty from Burano and are made with eggs
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and butter. Perfect for completing a meal, especially when served
with a sweet wine.
–Zaleti too are Venetian biscuits that are cooked with polenta flour
and raisins. The name comes from the flour’s yellowish color. They are
served with sweet wine usually at the end of a meal in the historical
center taverns.
–A Venice Carnival is not complete without the fritole, or rather frit-
telle (similar to pancakes2), a dessert whose origins date back to the
Renaissance and in 1700 it became the national cake of the Venetian
State! You can find them made the Venetian way, which is simple and
made only with raisins, or they come filled with cream or zabaglione.
–[…] The baci in gondola which are strongly tied to tradition, and
tremendously romantic, are made with two soft white pastry layers
held together by dark chocolate.
–And if you’re in the mood for overdoing it you should try the gigantic
colored spumiglias which dominate the bakery windows. It’s like
eating a cloud of sugar!
In this list, reported as it appears in the original website, italics and bold
type are used only for the names of the sweets indicated in their original
Venetian spelling, without any form of Italianization. In the last bullet
point, however, an Anglicization is present with the final ‘s’ used for the
plural, instead of the plural in Italian ‘spumiglie’.
9 Conclusions
The present article investigated how websites in English use the languag-
ing technique to transmit the meaning and connotations of the local culture
of the city of Venice. As it was already ascertained by Fodde and Denti
(2005) for guidebooks, the websites here analysed showed that the use
of languaging is used by the authors of the texts to anticipate what visi-
tors will actually experience once arrived at the destination. One of the
variables taken into consideration to account for variation in the use of
languaging technique was the presumed nationality of the perspective
tourists, since four websites purposely address specific nationalities from
Anglophone countries while three address a general, international public
2
See example 5, § 6.
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who uses English purely as a lingua franca. In this regard, the qualitative
analysis showed that all websites use Italian and Venetian words to refer
to names of buildings and landmarks, elements of the city landscape, terms
for food and drink, local festivals and traditions with a strong cultural con-
notation. The distance from Venice (i.e., the nationality) of the prospective
visitors does not influence the use of languaging with the only exceptions
of the InVenice and the USA websites. They both pay particular attention
to instruct tourists on the use of ‘good manners’ probably in the attempt
at preventing contrasts between tourists and the host culture.
The preferred techniques to explain terms and expressions in Italian
or in Venetian are literal translations and/or paraphrases. Reporting local
words, providing a description and an explanatory paraphrase help au
-
thors reach the familiar element that could, in turn, help tourists reduce
the distance between their own national culture and the most unusual
aspects of the host destination. In this regard, the websites occasionally
fail to describe, in an effective way, the cultural significance of the tradi-
tions described. By doing this, they also fail to convey important details
on the host culture that could facilitate the contacts with the local popu-
lation. Thus, the websites seem to miss the main goal of the languaging
technique, which Dann (19996) indicates as the reduction of the cultural
distance between visitors and host community.
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