Publication details
The Same Though Different: Tobacco Health Warnings in EU Member States
| Title in English | The Same Though Different: Tobacco Health Warnings in European Community Member States |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Health warnings on tobacco products represent a text type which, though limited in size, obtain wide exposure and have remained unchanged for an extensive period of time. Referring to the text of Directive 2001/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5th June 2001 on "the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products", which represents a recent attempt on the part of the EU to unify health warnings on tobacco products in its member states, this article focuses on the translation of the warnings into several national languages published in the Official Journal of the EU. It outlines the development of tobacco health warnings as a specific text type and notes some of the structural possibilities for the linguistic realization of such warnings. By comparing the wording of the mandated tobacco health warnings in several European countries, the article points out the existence of subtle differences between the various language versions. These differences are classified into several types: some motivated by different structural requirements of the respective languages and others by different choices in the process of translation. Most importantly, in several instances the differences result in a reduced degree of equivalence; consequently, consumers in various countries may be warned of the same fact in a significantly different manner. |
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