ON THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMATIC PHRASES IN THE MEPs’ DISCOURSE. A CORPUS-BASED INVESTIGATION
ON THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMATIC PHRASES IN THE MEPs’ DISCOURSE. A CORPUS-BASED INVESTIGATION

Summary/Abstract: The “Verbatim Reports of Proceedings” containing transcripts of the speeches held by the MEPs during plenary sessions, which are translated into all EU official languages, offer valuable insights into meaningful aspects of linguistic imaginary. These semi-formal discourses conveying the speakers’ standpoints on various issues are often dotted with language-specific idioms that flavour and imprint them particular tones in rendering the intended messages. The present paper aims at analysing the official Romanian translations of such linguistic features identified in the original English transcripts of proceedings. The translation of idioms can be considered a process that involves “an architectural shaping of information” as the translator is faced with several choices: to use a target language equivalent idiom, to provide a literal translation, to make use of a paraphrase, to borrow it or even to leave it out. The paper also attempts to explain the reasons lying behind these choices and to provide alternatives, where applicable

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