1887
image of The semiosis of style
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Coinciding with the momentous FIFA World Cup 2022, over 200 signature Haute Couture and creations were displayed at the M7 design and innovation hub in Doha to pay homage to Valentino Garavani and celebrate the heritage of the Italian luxury fashion house Valentino, in its largest exhibition to date. Informed by a text linguistics perspective and a functional approach to translation, this case study takes a close look the translation of wall texts into Arabic at the exhibition (October 2022–March 2023). The analysis addresses cross-cultural communication challenges, focusing specifically on the rhetorically motivated arrangement of linguistic elements in exhibition texts, and their semiotic interaction within the multimodal art gallery space. The paper highlights the importance of considering the semiosis of the exhibition space in the translation of wall texts, where language and art meet, and the content of the message becomes inseparable from its form.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25021.alo
2026-04-24
2026-05-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. About Qatar Creates
    About Qatar Creates. Qatar Creates. https://www.qacreates.com/en/about-us
  2. Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. L.
    (1990) Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual review of Anthropology, –. 10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.000423
    https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.19.100190.000423 [Google Scholar]
  3. Borrelli-Persson, Laird
    (2022, September). “Pierpaolo Piccioli on Forever Valentino, the theatrical and sweeping exhibition exploring the House’s codes and values that opens in Doha this October”. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/pierpaolo-piccioli-on-forever-valentino-the-theatrical-and-sweeping-exhibition-in-doha-qatar
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Clifford, J.
    (1997) Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Englund Dimitrova, B.
    (2005) Expertise and explicitation in the translation process. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/btl.64
    https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.64 [Google Scholar]
  6. Guillot, MN.
    (2014) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics and Translation: The Case of Museum Texts as Interlingual Representation. In: House, J. (eds) Translation: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Palgrave Advances in Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. 10.1057/9781137025487_5
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137025487_5 [Google Scholar]
  7. Halliday, M. A. K.
    (1985) Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hooper-Greenhill, E.
    (2000) Museums and Interpretation of Visual Culture. London: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Kjeldsen, A. K., & Jensen, M. N.
    (2015) When words of wisdom are not wise. A study of accessibility in museum exhibition texts. Nordisk Museologi, (), –.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Mendes, Silvano & Rees-Roberts, Nick
    (2015) New French Luxury: Art, Fashion and the Re-Invention of a National Brand, Luxury, (), pp.–, 10.1080/20511817.2015.1099343
    https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2015.1099343 [Google Scholar]
  11. Molodychenko, E. N., & Spitzmüller, J.
    (2021) Metapragmatics and genre: Connecting the strands. Russian Journal of Linguistics, (), –. 10.22363/2687‑0088‑2021‑25‑1‑89‑104
    https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-1-89-104 [Google Scholar]
  12. Nakassis, C. V.
    (2012) Brand, citationality, performativity. American Anthropologist, (), –. 10.1111/j.1548‑1433.2012.01511.x
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01511.x [Google Scholar]
  13. Neather, R.
    (2008) Translating tea: On the semiotics of interlingual practice in the Hong Kong Museum of Teaware. Meta: Translators’ Journal, (), –. 10.7202/017984ar
    https://doi.org/10.7202/017984ar [Google Scholar]
  14. (2022) Translation, memory, and the museum visitor. InS. Deane-Cox & A. Spiessens (Eds.), The Handbook of translation and memory (pp.–). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003273417‑13
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003273417-13 [Google Scholar]
  15. Hall, S.
    (1980) Encoding/decoding. InS. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, Media, Language (pp.–). London, UK: Hutchinson University Library.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M.
    (2013) Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203431269
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203431269 [Google Scholar]
  17. House, J.
    (2012) Text linguistics and translation. Handbook of translation studies, , –. 10.1075/hts.3.tex1
    https://doi.org/10.1075/hts.3.tex1 [Google Scholar]
  18. Irvine, J. T., & Gal, S.
    (2000) Language ideology and linguistic differentiation, inP. V. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, politics, and identities (pp.–). Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. Y.
    (1997) Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of language and social psychology, (), –. 10.1177/0261927X970161002
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X970161002 [Google Scholar]
  20. Olohan, M., & Baker, M.
    (2000) Reporting that in translated English: Evidence for subconscious processes of explicitation?. Across Languages and Cultures, (), –. 10.1556/Acr.1.2000.2.1
    https://doi.org/10.1556/Acr.1.2000.2.1 [Google Scholar]
  21. Pym, A.
    (2015) Translating as risk management. Journal of Pragmatics, , –. 10.1016/j.pragma.2015.06.010
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2015.06.010 [Google Scholar]
  22. Qatar Museums
    Qatar Museums (2022–2023) Forever Valentino [Exhibition wall texts]. Doha, Qatar.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Ravelli, L.
    (2006) Museum Texts: Communication Frameworks. Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Sandell, R.
    (2005) Constructing and communicating equality: The social agency of museum space. InS. MacLeod (Ed.), Reshaping museum space: Architecture, design, exhibitions (pp.–). Taylor & Francis.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Scollon, R., and Scollon, S. W.
    (2003) Discourses in place: Language in the material world. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203422724
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203422724 [Google Scholar]
  26. Séguinot, C.
    (1988) Pragmatics and the explicitation hypothesis. TTR: traduction, terminologie, rédaction, (), –. 10.7202/037024ar
    https://doi.org/10.7202/037024ar [Google Scholar]
  27. Silverstein, M., & Urban, G.
    (Eds.) (1996) Natural histories of discourse. University of Chicago Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Smithsonian Institution
    Smithsonian Institution (2021) Guide to interpretive writing for exhibitions. Smithsonian Exhibits. https://exhibits.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SI-Guide-to-InterpretiveWriting-for-Exhibitions.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Spitzmüller, J.
    (2015) Graphic variation and graphic ideologies: A metapragmatic approach. Social semiotics, (), –. 10.1080/10350330.2015.1010323
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2015.1010323 [Google Scholar]
  30. Sturge, K.
    (2007) Representing others. Translation, ethnography and the museum. St. Jerome. 10.4324/9781315760421
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315760421 [Google Scholar]
  31. Swales, J. M.
    (1990) Genre analysis. Cambridge university press.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Theodoropoulou, E. and Alós, J.
    (2018) ‘Expect amazing! Branding Qatar as a sports tourism destination’, Visual Communication, 10.1177/1470357218775005
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357218775005 [Google Scholar]
  33. Valentino
    Valentino (2022, October28). Valentino: A perspective. Valentino. https://www.valentino.com/en-us/experience/forever-valentino-doha-exhibition
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Watermeyer, R.
    (2012) A conceptualisation of the post-museum as pedagogical space. Journal of Science Communication, (), . 10.22323/2.11010202
    https://doi.org/10.22323/2.11010202 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25021.alo
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.25021.alo
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: English-Arabic translation ; multimodal ; markedness ; semiotics ; art exhibition text
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error