The Top Five EN>PL Translation issues So Far!

Wow, what a week! Last Sunday seems like a long way away, and since then it’s been a non-stop Sajgon on all fronts – hence the lack of new material this week. So, in time-honoured tradition, it’s time to re-heat and re-serve some previous meals in the Bad Microwave. 

To this end, here are my top five issues that have featured on the blog so far. If you’re new to the Article, or have missed a few weeks etc, then just reading these five things will be a shot in the arm for your translating armoury. (Wow, talk about a mixed metaphor). 

Here we go then – five of the most thorny issues in PL>EN translation, as featured on the Bad Article so far (this doesn’t excuse you from reading everything else, top-to-bottom ;)

1. Using in the case of, when in case of is what you want,
2. Mixing up since and from when describing elapsed time,
3. Over-punctuating around brackets,
4. Using persons when people is more appropriate,
5. Over- and mis-use of appreciate and cooperate.

I know it’s a bit tragic doing this kind of thing, but, it’s also quite useful. As our readership increases over time, it can be handy having a look back at previous work. Well, that’s how I rationalise it anyway. Don’t despair though, fresh bułki are on the way!

Article on ECHR and Right to Reputation

Stijn Smet, PhD researcher at the University of Ghent, published an article on ECtHR defamation jurisprudence entitled 'Freedom of Expression and the Right to Reputation: Human Rights in Conflict' in the American University International Law Review (Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 183-236). This is the abstract:

Ever since the European Court of Human Rights has recognised the existence of a right to protection of reputation under the European Convention on Human Rights, a conflict between Convention rights arises in defamation cases. In such situations of conflict between freedom of expression and the right to reputation, the principle of indivisibility of human rights requires that both rights carry a priori equal weight. Yet, the research conducted for this article indicates that the Court engages in preferential framing and incomplete reasoning when attempting to resolve the conflict in its defamation case law. In order to pre-empt such preferential framing and to improve the reasoning of the Court the article proposes a theoretical model for the resolution of conflicts between human rights. The jurisprudence of the Court on the conflict between freedom of expression and the right to reputation in defamation cases is critically analysed through the lens of this model. The article demonstrates how the model might prove to be a useful tool to improve the legal reasoning of the Court in defamation cases.

Report on Legitimacy of the ECtHR

Yesterday, the report 'The Legitimacy of the European Court of Human Right's: The View from the Ground' was presented in Strasbourg'. The research for the report was undertaken by Basak Çali, Anne Koch and Nicola Bruch, political scientists of University College London. The report presents an "analysis of the perception of the European Court of Human Rights in five different political and legal contexts to understand how the Court’s rulings are interpreted and implemented in the domestic setting." Five countries were studied in-depth by way of interviews with key domestic actors (politicians, judges, lawyers): the United Kingdom, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany and Ireland. The clearly written report has includes a lot of very interesting findings and concludes, amongst other, that overall the european court has a 'legitimacy credit' rather than a 'legitimacy deficit'.

For the website of the research project, click here.

The Sunday Review, 01/05/2011

What a wet day it is here in Kraków! Still, rainy days are a great excuse to stay at home and relax, and if you're in-between jobs at the time, so much the better. Today, being both wet and work-free, means that I can sit down and write the weekly review at leisure.

There are a couple of things I wanted to discuss with you about our Bad Article. The first is to review the kind of stuff we're doing here. As we enter our fourth month together, regular readers will know that most of the entries so far have been our little translating 'issues' - mis-use of words, correct use of punctuation, formatting stuff, all that kind of thing. These are the meat and potatoes of the blog, and the articles and other more abstract posts are the vegetables and gravy. I'm not sure where the wine is, I ordered it ages ago but it still hasn't appeared. Anyway.

The thing about our 'issue' posts is that, from my point of view, they're equally applicable to all translators, regardless of age, rank or experience. But I'm also aware that we need to do some more 'hardcore' stuff too, because some of you will not be affected by the simpler stuff. So, in future, I'm going to try and be a bit more proactive and take the time to prepare some heavier stuff. From what I've heard from you all so far, good article usage is of key interest, so as of next week we're going to start a regular series on this topic. Don't expect fireworks all at once; I'm thinking this will be more of  a slow romance, albeit with lots of flowers and nights out at the opera.

On the same note, I had always envisaged doing more of the abstract vegetables too, and although I geed you all up for some interviews and guest columnists, so far we've only heard from our media translator, Dotty. Well, I'm also planning on introducing some opinion pieces, where we take a more 'behind the scenes' look at the translating world. These will be based on my own experience, and I'd encourage you to agree or disagree on those pieces. With a very gruby work commitment now clearing up, I'll have more time to sort all this lovely stuff for you too.

Finally, I'd just like to reiterate that if you have a gmail address, or a Google account of any sort, you can use that to 'sign in' here and leave comments, which are always welcome. Remember, this is your blog too, so don't be shy about telling me what you want doing with it! :) 

So, let's proceed through wiosna to letnia with a spring in our step, and look forward to some variation in our diet at Chez Article. For now though, it's time to relax a little before Monday arrives to clobber us all once again...

TTFN,

Jim :) 

bonus za sobota!

Spot the mistake in the picture above and win the respect of your peers! (Cheeky jokes about my favourite Beatle and one of the greatest living drummers will result in immediate disqualification ;).

motive - motif

 

(L) A floral motif. (R) A floral motive. 

Now here’s an interesting thing – using motive when motif is the word we want. It doesn’t happen all that often – and I’ve never seen it happen the other way around – but it’s happened often enough over the years that we can see it’s a definite sore spot that needs some soothing Bad Article cream gently applied to it. Definitions first of all, and at first glance they’re nice and simple:

motive  (n) what induces a person to act in a particular way.motif  (n) 1) theme that is repeated and developed in an artistic work. 2) decorative design or pattern.
3) ornament sewn separately on a garment.

Now let’s play Good Cop/Bad Cop:

Bad Cop:
1a) Our summer collection is enhanced by a striking floral motive.
2a) The first few notes of Beethoven’s legendary Moonlight Sonata form a recurring motive throughout the piece.

Good Cop:
1b) Our summer collection is enhanced by a striking floral motif.
2b) The first few notes of Beethoven’s legendary Moonlight Sonata form a recurring motif throughout the piece.

Remember this very simple rule: If you’re talking about art, music or fashion, then use motif. If you’re talking about criminal activity, or wondering why someone did something, then use motive. ‘Four men were found dead by the side of a road in Poznań today. Police apprehended the killers almost immediately, but it is not yet known what their motive was.’ ‘Did you hear? Aga left her husband, emptied their bank account and took the kids to Sweden!’ ‘Oh no! Why would she do that? What were her motives?’

There's one more thing about all this that you might find interesting: motif is a French word which has connections to motive, but motive is a Latin word, which is all about movement and impetus, both physical and abstract. Weird eh? At any rate, for our purposes – i.e. those of translating in modern English – this is both confusing oraz irrelevant. Or not? What do you think?

 The classic 'dah-dah-dah-dah de dah, dah-de-dah'  you hear whenever Darth Vader appears on screen is a musical motif. Beethoven was also very good at these. Good old Beety.

Go West, Young Man

Hello again friends! How was your Easter break? Full of good things, I hope. Well, we’re back from our little English trip, and thank God too, because Polska is where I like to be, i dzięki Bóg że jestem polakiem! ;)

We were staying down in Cornwall, in the south-west of the country. This part of England is the home of one of (broadly speaking) the two ancient, founding languages of modern Britain. I’m talking about Brythonic (Celtic), which loosely speaking covers ancient English, Cornish and Welsh. The other is, of course, Goidelic (Gaelic), which stems from the Gaels who populated Ireland, Scotland and various associated parts.

The Cornish are a very distinct peoples amongst the British tribes, and their melodic, lilting accent is unlike any other. The ‘West Country’ (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset) is largely agricultural, their farmers once supplying the majority of Britain’s food (before quotas and EECs and EUs and various insane post-war government decisions). Cornwall has a strong sea-faring and fishing culture too - Daphne du Maurier immortalised Cornish tales of smugglers, piracy and adventure in the classic Jamaica Inn, and over time various ship-wrecked Spanish and French sailors integrated themselves into society down there, resulting in a superb blending over time that shows itself in an occasional swarthiness or Latin lilt in the language. I suppose it’s something like what we have in the south of Małopolska and so on, with the border communities in the mountains. At any rate, a trip to the South-West is a real pleasure on all fronts.

Linguistically, we did see a few interesting things, and I wanted to take pictures for you all but I’m a bit shy about whipping it out and waving it around (the camera, that is). Highlights include an amusingly phrased sign in a local Lidl (yes, they’re everywhere), which warned of the dangers of trying to buy alcohol by saying: ‘If you’re lucky enough to look like you’re under 18 years of age, we will ask for proof of identity, in compliance with the law, so please do not be offended.’

Another interesting bit of phrasing I noticed was on an estate agent’s advertising board, outside some newly built flats: ‘12 dwellings available!’ Here, it’s the quaint, almost Tolkien-esque use of dwellings instead of flats or apartments, which caught my eye. Most unusual.

Can’t really think of anything else relevant right now, possibly it’s the huge quantities of chocolate coursing through my system interfering with my brain, so we’ll leave it there. Tomorrow or Friday I’ll put up another word or phrasing issue which has been tickling my mind lately, and then we’ll meet again on Sunday to discuss our plans for the coming week. See you then!
 

map courtesy of Wikipedia, via http://www.planiglobe.com/omc_set.html 

photo - my own, taken on the roads of Cornwall. See? I told you it's fun down there!