The purpose of this master’s thesis, written in French, is to examine some of the challenges that the content marketing genre poses on translation. More specifically, it studies the author’s translation of the medical advice published on the website GammeDolipraneConseils.fr: a site published by the company behind a French line of pain-killers. The functionalist Skopos theory, particularly as described by Christiane Nord, answers for the theoretical background, as well as adding to the understanding of the purpose of the source text. To understand what is being sold, the notion of conceptual metaphor and the previous research made on medical metaphors are used. The translated website was created to make the line Doliprane more visible online, by using search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing. Analysing the skopos (purpose) of the source text allows the translator to understand the text and its distinctive problems. One of the characteristic problems found in this translation, is the balancing between the use of correct terms, which in the case of medical advice creates a sense of authority, and the way that search engines understand, index and show a website to its users. This type of text puts terminology in a new light, as each specialised word becomes more than a term, but also a keyword for the search engine. As shown in the analysis, this can both limit and broaden the way the terms are translated, from using two words (smärta and värk) where there were only one (douleur), or diminish it (using only huvudvärk for maux de tête and céphalée). A content marketing text is, although it is not always obvious, also a part of a campaign that aims to sell. To keep with the genre’s soft-sell approach, the products or services marketed need to be presented in a discrete way. Our translated text tries to sell pain-killers, or more abstractly the decreasing of pain, and the notion of conceptual metaphor helps to analyse and understand how to express this purpose. This translation shows that though there are some concepts that are equal in the source and target language, most are not. Adapting a concept proposed by other scholars, our finds suggest that the concept of PAIN IS A MOVEMENT can complement the recognized concept of PAIN IS A WAR in understanding the expressions of pain and painkillers in Swedish. Furthermore, our examination of the expressions of the decreasing of pain shows that there are more verbs used to express this in French, than in Swedish. The results suggest that the Skopos theory is highly useful when it comes to translating content marketing, and that the functionalist analysis proposed by Nord is particularity helpful in understanding the context, function and purpose of this sort of text – a genre that is increasingly important in our modern world.

The metaphor is known for creating problems when it comes to translation, not only because of cultural aspects but also because of a lack of a unified terminology and theory for translation strategies. This also applies to conceptual metaphors which are the subject of analysis in this paper where an English survival guide to the Japanese culture has been translated into Swedish. As both languages are of the Germanic family, the hypothesis argues that the relation between them is noticeable in the translation work as well as a tendency towards paraphrasing due to a richer vocabulary in the source language. Regarding conceptual metaphors, the aim is to analyse if there are any correlations between the type of metaphor and the choice of translation strategy as well as what factors affects said strategies.  The results not only showed that the distribution of translation strategies supports the preferred order of priority in the background theory but also that there were very noticeable differences within the three metaphor categories. Factors affecting these results were found to differ between the categories due to the distinct differences in the metaphorical structures. These findings suggest that there indeed are correlations between the metaphor categories and their translation strategies. The closeness between the source and target languages were also found to be evident while at the same time indicating a tendency toward paraphrasing.

I uppsatsen kommenteras en egen översättning av utdrag ur Roland Barthes fackartikel Éléments de sémiologie. Denna avser följa Immanuel Wallersteins regler för termöversättning av human- och socialvetenskapliga texter samt riktlinjer framtagna av the Social Science Translation Project (2006). Källtexten präglas av explicita referenser till andra texter. Två uttryck för detta som här tas upp är citat och explicit intertextuella termer (i synnerhet det senare). Den första frågeställningen är om ett mottagande intertextuelt fält kan användas för att översätta dessa. Det visar sig vara ett väsentligt redskap, men inte självtillräckligt eller entydigt. Den andra är hur de med hjälp av detta redskap valda målspråkstermerna förhåller sig till Nuopponens och Pilkes (2016) kriterier för ”goda termer”. Analys av de målspråkstermer som valts, vilka är låneord, visar att olika klasser av låneord har tendens att hänga samman med vissa typer av terminologiska för- och nackdelar. / The thesis is a commentary of my own translation of an excerpt of Roland Barthes article Éléments de sémiologie. Its aim is to follow Immanuel Wallerstein’s rules for translation of terms in social sciences as well as the guidelines developed by the Social Science Translation Project (2006). The orignal text is characterized by explicit references to other texts. Two elements that will be presented in the thesis are quotes and explicitly intertextual terms (with a focus on the latter). The first question is if a receiving intertextual field could be used to translate these elements. It turns out to be a fundamental tool, but not self-sufficient or unequivocal. The second question is how the chosen terms of the target language, with help from said tool, relate to Nuopponens and Pilkes (2016) criteria for ideal terms. An analysis of the chosen terms of the target language, which are borrowings, shows that different groups of borrowings tend to be associated to certain types of terminological pros and cons.

This paper presents dilemmas that arose in the process of translation to Swedish of parts of a French book on children’s emotional development and parenting.  Three specific domains are discussed: 1) The choice of pronoun for child. A new genderneutral personal pronoun that has gained ground in Swedish in recent years presents a practical solution, but implies some editing in order not to be too salient and repetitive. 2) The relationship between author and readers created by an inclusive and personal language. 3) The need in the target text to add « hedges », a form of metadiscourse markers defined by Hyland (1998 :1) as « any linguistics means used to indicate either a) a lack of complete commitment to the truth value of the accompanying proposition, or b) a desire not to express that commitment categorically ».    The problems and the choices made have been put into the context of the functionalist approach to translation presented by Ingo (2007). The feelings of the target text readers have been in focus in all three instances of discussion and the need for translators to be aware of metadiscourse and rhetorical conventions have been explored.

I uppsatsen kommenteras en egen översättning av utdrag ur Roland Barthes fackartikel Éléments de sémiologie. Denna avser följa Immanuel Wallersteins regler för termöversättning av human- och socialvetenskapliga texter samt riktlinjer framtagna av the Social Science Translation Project (2006). Källtexten präglas av explicita referenser till andra texter. Två uttryck för detta som här tas upp är citat och explicit intertextuella termer (i synnerhet det senare). Den första frågeställningen är om ett mottagande intertextuelt fält kan användas för att översätta dessa. Det visar sig vara ett väsentligt redskap, men inte självtillräckligt eller entydigt. Den andra är hur de med hjälp av detta redskap valda målspråkstermerna förhåller sig till Nuopponens och Pilkes (2016) kriterier för ”goda termer”. Analys av de målspråkstermer som valts, vilka är låneord, visar att olika klasser av låneord har tendens att hänga samman med vissa typer av terminologiska för- och nackdelar. / The thesis is a commentary of my own translation of an excerpt of Roland Barthes article Éléments de sémiologie. Its aim is to follow Immanuel Wallerstein’s rules for translation of terms in social sciences as well as the guidelines developed by the Social Science Translation Project (2006). The orignal text is characterized by explicit references to other texts. Two elements that will be presented in the thesis are quotes and explicitly intertextual terms (with a focus on the latter). The first question is if a receiving intertextual field could be used to translate these elements. It turns out to be a fundamental tool, but not self-sufficient or unequivocal. The second question is how the chosen terms of the target language, with help from said tool, relate to Nuopponens and Pilkes (2016) criteria for ideal terms. An analysis of the chosen terms of the target language, which are borrowings, shows that different groups of borrowings tend to be associated to certain types of terminological pros and cons.