Building and Enhancing Intercultural Communication in Museum Spaces through SFL and Translation Studies

The chapter explores the fruitful interface between Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation Studies in the field of museum translation, an area which has received less attention in both disciplines. After offering an overview of the context in which museum translation takes place, with special attention to the European and Italian settings, it examines translation practices in museum spaces, taking the city of Bologna, Italy, as an illustrative case. The chapter combines a context-oriented methodology, based on interviews with museum professionals, and a theoretical approach, arguing in favor of an SFL-informed translation training for museum translators. Through practical examples taken from three museums in Bologna, it shows how a linguistic analysis in terms of textual, interpersonal and ideational meanings might help the translator produce an effective target text, with a view to meeting the challenges of multilingualism, accessibility and inclusion. which current museum translation should foster and achieve.