UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA Programa De Doctorado: Lingüística Aplicada Noviembre, 2014
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UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOLOGÍA INGLESA Programa de doctorado: Lingüística aplicada Noviembre, 2014 TESIS DOCTORAL THE DISCOURSE OF TOURISM AND NATIONAL HERITAGE: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY FROM A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE Claudia Elena Magyar Volumen I Directora: Dr. Rachel Whittaker The discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective ii Abstract Claudia Elena Magyar To my family iii The discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective iv Abstract Claudia Elena Magyar THE DISCOURSE OF TOURISM AND NATIONAL HERITAGE: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY FROM A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ABSTRACT This thesis presents a research study in the field of online tourism promotion. It focuses on the national online promotion of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, in two different types of websites –institutional and commercial– from three countries, Great Britain, Spain and Romania. The study analyses the way each country presents its national landmarks and combines various modes to create a virtual brochure with a promotional message from both institutional and commercial positions. For this, it studies the organization of the websites and their webpages, as well as the lexico-grammatical and visual features of the promotional messages. Results of the different analyses are interpreted from a cultural perspective. The theoretical framework for the analysis is Systemic Functional Linguistics. The linguistic text is analysed following Halliday’s theory of the metafunctions (1985, 1994; Halliday and Matthiessen 2004). Thus, the analysis focuses on the ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings of the verbal message. Analysis of the visual text applies Kress and van Leeuwen’s model (1996, 2006), studying the same types of meanings realised visually. The results of the different analyses are compared from two perspectives: in relation to the types of websites and to the countries in which they were produced. Comparison between institutional and commercial websites reveals a pattern in which the similarities seem to be related to characteristics typical of web organization and layout, tourist promotion and specific topic, while differences reflect the types of websites and their functions. However, when the websites are compared from the point of view of the different countries, a number of national characteristics of web promotion, common to the two functions of websites are revealed. These are further interpreted from a cultural point of view, showing that the findings can be accounted for by the context dimension of cultural variability (Hall 1976, 2000; Hall and Hall 1990). The British and Spanish sets of i The discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective websites are, in general, consistent with the literature on intercultural communication consulted (Hall 2000; Würtz 2005; Neuliep 2006; Şerbănescu 2007), whereas the Romanian sets do not follow the pattern for its usual classification as a high-context culture, but combine features of both low- and high-contexts. The consistencies seem to indicate the stability of British and Spanish cultures. At the same time, departure from the cultural contextual patterns exists in all the cases analysed. These inconsistencies can be explained by cultural changes and influences due to globalization, and internal changes in terms of politics, economy and society. They also indicate that cultural patterns can be affected by the medium of communication (Internet) and the context of communication (types of promotion). Findings from the thesis emphasize the need for an understanding of multimodality and interculturality in online tourism promotion, especially as applied to creating an image or brand for a country's successful international promotion They show that Systemic Functional Linguistics offers a useful tool from both theoretical and practical perspective which can be applied to areas like composition of promotional messages, online promotion, tourism discourse and its strategies, or intercultural communication. Key words: Intercultural communication, Multimodality, Online communication, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Tourism promotion. ii Spanish presentation Claudia Elena Magyar ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful to a number of persons for their support during my research period. First of all, I thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Rachel Whittaker, for her guidance and suggestions. I am grateful for her dedication and time, in spite of her busy schedule. She has supported me not only for this project, but throughout all my degree. After more than ten years of collaboration, I can say that she has become my ‘spiritual mother’. I am grateful to the ‘Sysfling’ and ‘Sys-func’ discussion groups for providing me the possibility to put forward my doubts related to the linguistic analysis of the texts. A large number of persons clarified my doubts and contributed to the final result of the thesis. These are, in alphabetical order: Jorge Arús Hita, Elissa Asp, Tom Bartlett, John Bateman, David Banks, Margaret Berry, Alice Caffarel-Cayron, Martin Davies, Shoshana Dreyfus, Suzanne Eggins, Lise Fontaine, Peter Fries, Carlos Gouveia, William Greaves, Astika Kappagoda, John Knox, Christian Matthiessen, Nicolas Moore, Beatriz Quiroz, David Rose, Anke Schulz, Bradley Smith and Geoff Thompson. Also from the list, my special thanks go to Laura Hlavacka and Michael O'Donnell, for their constant answers, and to Gordon Tucker, for his suggestions, and for making me believe more in my analyzing skills. I thank also Thomas and Meriel Bloor for including one of my examples from the discussions in their new edition of The Functional Analysis of English. I want to express my gratitude also to: Morten Boeriis, Tuomo Hiippala, Geoff Thompson and Gordon Tucker, for agreeing to review my thesis as experts for the requirements of a European Doctorate. I thank them for their time, interest and support. I also thank all the people, too many to name personally, who have contributed to the development of this paper, in one way or another. My special thanks go to Ainoa Cerezuela, Ciprian Chirilă, Daniel Dejica, Cristi Gașpar, Sorin Gheța, Monica Mitroi, Flavia Munteanu, Elena Petrovici and Cristina Rașcu. I am particularly in debt to Sorin Ciutacu and Carlos Sanz Mingo for their personal encouragement and help with bibliography and to Carlos also for editing the Spanish text. Last but not least, I am mostly in debt with my family, especially my husband, mother and brother, who supported me with their love and understanding and helped me overcome the hardest moments. iii The discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective iv Spanish presentation Claudia Elena Magyar SPANISH PRESENTATION RESUMEN EL DISCURSO DEL TURISMO Y PATRIMONIO NACIONAL: ESTUDIO CONTRASTIVO DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA CULTURAL Esta tesis presenta un estudio de investigación en el campo de la promoción turística por internet. Específicamente, analiza la promoción nacional por internet de los Sitios Patrimonio de la Humanidad de la UNESCO, en dos tipos de sitios web – institucional y comercial – de tres países, Gran Bretaña, España y Rumanía. El estudio analiza el modo en el cual cada país presenta sus objetivos turísticos nacionales y combina varias modalidades para crear un folleto virtual con un mensaje promocional desde ambas posiciones, institucional y comercial. Para esto, estudia tanto la organización de los sitios web y sus páginas, como las características léxico-gramaticales y visuales de los mensajes promocionales. Los resultados de los diferentes análisis se interpretan desde una perspectiva cultural. El marco teórico utilizado para el análisis es la Lingüística Sistémico-Funcional. El texto lingüístico es analizado siguiendo la teoría de las metafunciones de Halliday (1985, 1994; Halliday y Matthiessen 2004). Así, el análisis se centra en los significados ideacional, interpersonal y textual de los mensajes verbales. El análisis del texto visual aplica el modelo de Kress y van Leeuwen (1996, 2006), estudiando los mismos tipos de significados realizados visualmente. Los resultados de los diferentes análisis se comparan desde dos perspectivas: en relación con los tipos de sitios web y con los países de donde proceden. Las comparaciones entre los sitios web institucionales y comerciales revelan un patrón en el cual las similitudes parecen relacionadas con las características típicas de la organización y disposición de la web, promoción turística y tema específico, mientras que las diferencias reflejan los tipos de sitios web y sus funciones. Sin embargo, cuando los sitios web se comparan desde el punto de vista de las diferentes culturas, se revela un número v The discourse of tourism and national heritage: a contrastive study from a cultural perspective de características nacionales de la promoción en línea, comunes en las dos funciones de los sitios web. Estas características nacionales se interpretan más a fondo desde un punto de vista cultural, mostrando que los resultados pueden ser explicados por la dimensión del "contexto" de la variabilidad cultural (Hall 1976, 2000; Hall and Hall 1990). Los córpora de sitios web británicos y españoles son, en general, congruentes con los estudios sobre la comunicación intercultural consultados (Hall 2000; Würtz 2005; Neuliep 2006; Şerbănescu 2007), mientras que los córpora rumanos no siguen el patrón de su clasificación