Political discourse in translation: A corpus-based perspective on presidential inaugurals

Political discourse has been the subject of increasing interest in recent decades with the development of ideological and rhetorical criticism focusing on US presidential speeches, especially after the events of 9/11. Indeed, extensive research literature already exists in the field of American presidential rhetoric. The same cannot be said for studies of political texts available in translation. Currently, translation studies seems to be more concerned with the politics and the politicization of translation than with the translation of political texts, which have been examined more from a synchronic perspective than a diachronic one. Using a diachronic parallel corpora of Italian translations (published in books and newspapers) of a specific genre of US presidential speech, the inaugural address, this study highlights recurring translation strategies as well as problems, related to culture-bound and value-laden political terms, style, and phraseology. This research also seeks to contribute to the definition of political language as a language for specific purposes.