In his linguistically thought-provoking Guardian article under the heading “Back to prep school“, Andy Bodle reckons that Harry Blamires, the author of The Penguin Guide to Plain English, is far from alone in thinking we are in “an epidemic of prepositional anarchy”.
His bottom-line advice is to “check the dictionary”, although interestingly (and perhaps contradictorily?), he also refers to Google Ngram Viewer as a tool for trying to determine which version can be regarded as ‘more correct’, in cases where several ‘legitimate’ options exist, e.g. bored with/of, obsessed with/by, identical with/to.
Further reading: comprehensive Wikipedia page on prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions and adpositions.
Chez Herbert
/in Language, Translation /by HE TranslationsAn old school friend, who is a Francophile and usually spends the summer in southern France, had a summer holiday in Reunion Island this year and sent this photo with the caption “Die Folgen des Brexit” (Brexit consequences).
Dining philosophers problem
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsLinguistic research relating to the translation of the German term Nebenläufigkeit led to the conclusion that the English term is concurrency (not concurrence) and to further reading on the dining philosophers problem and Edsger Dijkstra, who is described as one of the very early pioneers of the research on principles of distributed computing.
Apostrophe again
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsA picture says more than a thousand word…
Today’s CPD reflections: “hard-worked”
/in Language /by HE TranslationsA recent e-newsletter for language professionals contained the term “hard-worked”. It made me pause and reflect, possibly because at first glance I may have read it as “hard-working”, and I’m tired of politicians going on about “hard-working families”.
Further ‘research’ seems to indicate that the term isn’t particularly common, although – not entirely surprisingly – there is an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, as a subheading under the very long entry for “hard”. Note in particular the oxen example in the OED.Continue reading full article…
Raketenwissenschaft
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsOb sich das – offensichtlich vom englischen Begriff rocket science abgeleitete/’übersetzte’ – Wort Raketenwissenschaft (gelesen hier, Erläuterung hier) im deutschen Sprachgebrauch einbürgern wird? Hmm, wohl eher nicht… In den Duden ist es bisher jedenfalls noch nicht vorgedrungen.
Farmers Market (no apostrophe, probably)
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsAssociated Press Style tip: “farmers market or farmer’s market? We prefer farmers market as a descriptive, rather than a possessive with an apostrophe”.
No time to ‘research’ British style/grammar sources right now, although here’s an example from Cornwall.
Any comments?
per cent or percent?
/in Language, Translation /by HE Translations%
Across the board, dictionaries suggest that percent, written as one word, is American English, whereas per cent, written as two words, is British English. The European Commission (Directorate-General for Translation) English Style Guide concurs, although it is not prescriptive and notes that per cent is normally [blog author’s emphasis] written as two words in British English. Wikipedia even goes as far as describing the frequency of use of the two-word form in British English as “sometimes”. In any case, the online free dictionary suggests that the use of the two-word form is diminishing. No evidence is given for this statement, but it would be in line with the (in many case entirely ‘sensible’) trend of compounding. Not to mention the fact that, from a German Prozent perspective, the one-word form simply ‘feels more natural’.
Wort des Tages: Lohnkluft
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsLaut Google ist der Begriff Lohnkluft ebenso weit verbreitet wie die Lohnkluft-Praxis, und die besagte Kluft ist weiterhin erstaunlich tief bzw. groß oder hoch – siehe z.B. Deutsche Welle-Bericht von 2014 oder diverse Artikel in Die Presse.
Preisfrage: Wird die Lohnkluft-Praxis ‘aussterben’, bevor der Begriff in den Duden übernommen wird?
An epidemic of prepositional anarchy?
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsIn his linguistically thought-provoking Guardian article under the heading “Back to prep school“, Andy Bodle reckons that Harry Blamires, the author of The Penguin Guide to Plain English, is far from alone in thinking we are in “an epidemic of prepositional anarchy”.
His bottom-line advice is to “check the dictionary”, although interestingly (and perhaps contradictorily?), he also refers to Google Ngram Viewer as a tool for trying to determine which version can be regarded as ‘more correct’, in cases where several ‘legitimate’ options exist, e.g. bored with/of, obsessed with/by, identical with/to.
Further reading: comprehensive Wikipedia page on prepositions, postpositions, circumpositions and adpositions.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
/in Translation /by HE TranslationsContinuing Professional Development (CPD) for translators is about refining and expanding one’s existing skills and subject knowledge, keeping up-to-date with commercial and linguistic developments, learning new technologies and contributing to the profession. The benefits of CPD are multiple and include:
CPD comes in many different forms and can be formal or informal CPD. The website of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting lists examples from both categories. It goes without saying that professional translators carry out informal CPD routinely on a daily basis. Occasionally, they even find time to reflect on it. One of the trademarks of professional translators is endless intellectual curiosity in a wide range of different and often challenging subjects.
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