Abstract

Philippe d’IRIBARNE
Between french and english: the staging of a company

Comparing the French and North-American versions of Lafarge industrial Group’s Principles of Action, provides an insight on the way discourse is influenced by culture. When one analyses the gaps between the words used in each version corresponding passages (such as “métier” for “business”, “citoyen” for “member of our communities”, “Nous nous engageons” for “We are committed”, “initiative” for “convictions”, or when dealing with client relations, “offrir” for “provide”), one realizes that these differences are not a matter of chance. The gaps reveal two contrasting manners for the company to stage its relations to the outer world and to its personnel, each of them inspired by the country’s prevailing vision of the proper way for living and working together. On the American side, contractual relations are combined with a shared feeling of belonging to a moral community; on the French side, while the personnel is bound to the company by a sort of noble allegiance, everyone is invited to behave according to the duties imposed upon them by their social positions. The writers themselves, immersed as they were in either of these contexts, must have been influenced by their own visions of man and of society in their quests for the proper formulations, with the result that the expressions they chose match their respective visions.

Keywords: self-presentation, culture, French, English, company, translation.

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