The aim of this paper is to analyse the ways in which a Swedish translation of an English text intended as a manual for health practitioners needs to be adapted in order to function as an informative text aimed at patients, their families and other laymen interested in the subject. Focus lies on adaption of terminology, style, and target reader perspective. For this paper, selected parts of an English source text were translated into Swedish, and different adaptions prompted by the change in genre, intended target reader and purpose of the text were noticed and subsequently analysed. In the analysis, it became clear that translation of terminology can be treated through addition, omission or generalization where subject specific terms are not relevant for the intended readers. Under the subject of style, formality level defined through the usage of nominalizations and passives was analysed, and here, modulation and transposition proved useful for adapting the formality level to better fit the purpose of the text. Under the category of target reader perspective, omission, generalization and modulation of different kinds were translation strategies used to turn the focus from the intended ST reader to the intended TT reader. Defining or re-defining the subject of different actions was also necessary to shift the perspective from one intended group of readers to another. Finally, the analysis showed that different kinds of adaption may be purposeful in different situations.

This study analyses the comparative frequency of “direct reader address” in English and Swedish walking guidebook texts. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of specific linguistic features that constitute “direct reader address”, the study aims to highlight the importance of considering reader expectation of a text, i.e. the target culture’s text conventions when translating. The linguistic features in focus are those which help to establish a familiar relationship between reader and writer and thus set up an imaginary dialogue. These are: second-person pronouns, first-person inclusive plural pronouns and verbs in the imperative mood. A translation corpus of walking-guidebook extracts (10 English originals, 11 Swedish originals and their English translations) and my own Swedish-to-English translation of such a text were analysed in order to a) determine to what extent “direct reader address” is used in Swedish and English original walking guidebooks; b) determine to what extent “direct reader address” is retained and used in English translations of Swedish walking guidebooks; and c) discuss the implications of this for translators of such texts. The results of the investigation show that although “direct reader address” does appear in both Swedish and English original guidebooks, it is more prevalent in English ones. Imperative verbs are the most common of all the relevant linguistic features. The results also show that the trend is not only to retain in English translations what “direct reader address” existed in Swedish originals but also sometimes to add “direct reader address” for reasons of syntax and idiomatic usage. The implications are that a target culture’s text conventions are consequential when translating a walking guidebook because they relate to reader expectation, in particular in relation to linguistic features of “direct reader address”. To translate well, and where deadlines allow, it is recommended that a translator’s strategy should try to address reader expectation.