Così lontani così vicini. Il rapporto a distanza tra traduttori UE e lingua italiana

Abstract

The article sets out from the long-distance relationship between the Italian translators working in the EU institutions and their main working tool, the Italian language. Then it goes on to examine the trend - common to all EU language services - to draw up internal rules on vocabulary and grammar, either implicitly through the work of revisers and principal translators or through terminological notes and articles in newsletters. The paper posits that this tendency to prescriptiveness does not only strive to control linguistic correctness as part of a purist deontology, but is also able to bring about innovative changes in language, which go in parallel with the new legal concepts created in the framework of the European law.