Riformulazione e traduzione nel discorso legale delle migrazioni. Un’interpretazione in ELF

Abstract

This paper intends to investigate some peculiar aspects of the language of law at the present stage of research development in this field, as it has always been considered as one of the most complex in the field of specialized languages. More specifically, it aims to enquire into the role of English as a lingua franca in its wide application in the domain of intercultural and international communication. The study starts by stating the inaccessibility hypothesis (Guido 2008, 2018) as the key to understanding the complex communicative processes occurring in the encounters between text producers and receivers in the Italian legislation regulating Immigration. Currently, the main text adopted by specialists is the Testo Unico delle Migrazioni (1998), henceforth TU, that is here investigated through the main extracts as these are relevant to the receiver’s conditions of legally entering and staying within Italian territory. Drawing upon previous studies, it aims at extending the scope of research, by proposing to apply a cognitive-functional model to text analysis. From a methodological viewpoint, the aim is indeed to propose a critical comparative analysis by linking the actual text to another decree that is currently in force and which was enforced in October 2020. Thus, the main aim is to make visible the original text of the TU as its inaccessibility degrees emerge from the text structure as well as the various intertextual links and diachronia. It follows that processes of reformulation and translation are required in order to simplify norms and recreate the original texts through a simplified form so as to make the new hybrid texts (Provenzano  2008, 2021), accessible also to non-native English speakers (migrants and asylum seekers) as the actual receivers of the texts.