Text creation in a multilingual institutional setting

Abstract

Text creation is influenced by situational factors, like the context in which the text is written. In a multilingual institution, the context is especially important, because it is controlled by rules and guidelines. This paper presents a case study conducted in the European Commission and the Directorate General for Translation. The text creation and translation process were reconstructed starting from the published version in the Official Journal of the European Union back to the initial idea. The paper focuses on the impact that external processes have on internal processes. We found that text editing and translation go hand in hand and that translators are part of a cooperative system in which their input is of importance for the source text. Moreover, the impact of the institution is significant, since it determines not only the work processes, but also the linguistic form, technical medium and technical content.