When you feel down and incomplete,
just take your pen, pencil, guitar, mic, trainers, ballet shoes,Â
and
CREATE.
Regardless of what you love,
everything you do, can make a difference.
#translatorsgonnatranslate
#perlediunatraduttrice
#keepgoing
Today, I want to share with you one of my favourite songs, back to 1999.
I draw inspiration from the lyrics. Who else remembers this song? đ
 Music by Savage Garden
Â
 Lyrics by Daniel Jones, Darren Hayes
Posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2013
Learning how to say no is one of the most useful skills you can develop I found, especially when it comes to living a more productive and healthy life.
Saying no to unnecessary commitments can give you the time you need to recover and rejuvenate. Saying no to daily distractions can give you the space you need to focus on what is important to you. And saying no to temptation can help you stay on track and achieve your health goals. In fact not being able to say no, is one of the most biggest downfalls that successful entrepreneurs claim as their own key mistakes.
But how do we actually get past the urgencies of everyday life and avoid distraction, so that we can focus the things that are really important to us?
It seems like a big task, I wholeheartedly agree. And yet, research is starting to show that even small changes can make a significant impact for a better way of saying no. In fact, hereâs one change you can make right now that will make it easier for you to say no, resist temptation and improve your productivity and your health:
In a research study published in the Journal of Consumer Research, 120 students were split into two different groups.
The difference between these two groups was saying âI canâtâ compared to âI donât.â
One group was told that each time they were faced with a temptation, they would tell themselves âI canât do X.â For example, when tempted with ice cream, they would say, âI canât eat ice cream.â
When the second group was faced with a temptation, they were told to say âI donât do X.â For example, when tempted with ice cream, they would say, âI donât eat ice cream.â
After repeating these phrases, each student answered a set of questions unrelated to the study. Once they finished answering their questions, the students went to hand in their answer sheet, thinking that the study was over. In reality, it was just beginning.
As each student walked out of the room and handed in their answer sheet, they were offered a complimentary treat. The student could choose between a chocolate candy bar or a granola health bar. As the student walked away, the researcher would mark their snack choice on the answer sheet.
Hereâs what happened:
The students who told themselves âI canât eat Xâ chose to eat the chocolate candy bar 61% of the time. Meanwhile, the students who told themselves âI donât eat Xâ chose to eat the chocolate candy bars only 36% of the time. This simple change in terminology significantly improved the odds that each person would make a more healthy food choice.
Makes sense right? Now the findings didnât stop there, here is what happened next:
The same researchers were also interested in how the words âcanâtâ and âdonâtâ affect our willingness to say no when faced with repeated temptations and distractions. After all, most of us can turn down a candy bar once, but eventually we slip up. Similarly, you might be able to focus on your work when youâre pressed for time, but what about avoiding unproductive behaviors on a daily basis?
In other words, is there a way to say no that makes it more likely that weâll stick to good habits and avoid bad ones? You bet!
The researchers designed a new study by asking 30 working women to sign up for a âhealth and wellness seminar.â All of the women were told to think of a longâterm health and wellness goal that was important to them. Then, the researchers split the women into three groups of 10.
Group 1 was told that anytime they felt tempted to lapse on their goals they should âjust say no.âThis group was the control group because they were given no specific strategy.
Group 2 was told that anytime they felt tempted to lapse on their goals, they should implement the âcanâtâ strategy. For example, âI canât miss my workout today.â
Group 3 was told that anytime they felt tempted to lapse on their goals, they should implement the âdonâtâ strategy. For example, âI donât miss workouts.â
For the next 10 days, each woman received an email asking to report her progress. They were specifically told, âDuring the 10âday window you will receive emails to remind you to use the strategy and to report instances in which it worked or did not work. If the strategy is not working for you, just drop us a line and say so and you can stop responding to the emails.â
Hereâs what the results looked like 10 days laterâŠ
The words that you use not only help you to make better choices on an individual basis, but also make it easier to stay on track with your longâterm goals.
Your words help to frame your sense of empowerment and control. Furthermore, the words that you use create a feedback loop in your brain that impacts your future behaviors.
For example, every time you tell yourself âI canâtâ, youâre creating a feedback loop that is a reminder of your limitations. This terminology indicates that youâre forcing yourself to do something you donât want to do.
In comparison, when you tell yourself âI donâtâ, youâre creating a feedback loop that reminds you of your control and power over the situation. Itâs a phrase that can propel you towards breaking your bad habits and following your good ones.
Heidi Grant Halvorson is the director of the Motivation Science Center at Columbia University. Hereâs how she explains the difference between saying âI donâtâ compared to âI canâtâ:
âI donâtâ is experienced as a choice, so it feels empowering. Itâs an affirmation of your determination and willpower. âI canâtâ isnât a choice. Itâs a restriction, itâs being imposed upon you. So thinking âI canâtâ undermines your sense of power and personal agency.
In other words, the phrase âI donâtâ is a psychologically empowering way to say no, while the phrase âI canâtâ is a psychologically draining way to say no.
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
âLeonardo Da Vinci
There are situations everyday when you need to say no to something. For example, the waiter who offers you a dessert menu⊠or the urge to skip a workout and stay home⊠or the distracting call of texts, tweets, and updates when you should be focusing on something important.
Individually, our responses to these little choices seem insignificant, which is why we donât make a big deal about telling ourselves that we âcanâtâ do something. But imagine the cumulative effect ofchoosing more empowering words on a consistent basis.
âI canâtâ and âI donâtâ are words that seem similar and we often interchange them for one another, but psychologically they can provide very different feedback and, ultimately, result in very different actions. They arenât just words and phrases. They are affirmations of what you believe, reasons for why you do what you do, and reminders of where you want to go.
The ability to overcome temptation and effectively say no is critical not only to your physical health, but also for your daily productivity and mental health.
To put it simply:Â you can either be the victim of your words or the architect of them. Which one would you prefer?
–
About the Author: James Clear is an entrepreneur, weightlifter, and travel photographer in 18 countries. He writes at JamesClear.com, where he uses proven research and real-world experiences to share practical ideas for living a healthy life. You can get new strategies for sticking to healthy habits, losing weight, gaining muscle, and more by joining his free newsletter.
James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he uses behavior science to help you master your habits and improve your health. For useful ideas on improving your mental and physical performance, join his free newsletter. Or, download his free guide: Transform Your Habits.
1. Translation is a small, niche market. The global market for outsourced language services is worth more than US$33 billion in 2012. The largest segment of the market is written translation, followed by on-site interpreting and software localization. The vast majority of these translation services are provided by small agencies — there are more than 26,000 of them throughout the world. These companies coordinate translation projects in multiple languages simultaneously, often involving many different file types, processes, and technology tools. The words themselves are translated and interpreted by the hundreds of thousands of language professionals scattered all across the globe. Many translators and interpreters also have direct clients, but most are freelancers whose work comes from agencies.
2. The need for translation is fading away. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsestimates that there will be 83,000 jobs for interpreters and translators by 2020 in the United States alone. This job market is expected to grow by 42 percent from 2010 to 2020, significantly higher than the average of 14 percent for all professions. Data from Common Sense Advisory shows that globally, the market has a compound annual growth rate of 12.17 percent.
3. Most translators translate books; most interpreters work at the United Nations. Literary translation and conference interpreting are two of the most visible specializations, but they actually represent very tiny segments of the market at large. Who are the biggest translation spenders? Military and defense agencies spend the most on translation, with the United States routinely spending billions on language services for defense and intelligence initiatives. On the commercial side, some of the largest segments of the translation market are manufacturing, software, health care, legal, and financial services. As a result, freelancers often work in these specialty areas — as financial translators, medical interpreters, legal translators, and court interpreters.
4. Any bilingual can be a translator or an interpreter. The ability to write in English does not make a person a professional writer. The ability to speak English does not make a person a professional speaker. Likewise, the ability to write or speak two languages does not mean that a person can translate or interpret. Plenty of people who are perfectly fluent in two languages fail professional exams for translation and interpreting. Why? Being bilingual does not guarantee that a person will be able to transport meaning from one language and culture to another without inflicting harm in the process. Most translators and interpreters are highly educated, with advanced degrees and training in either translation, linguistics, or a specialty field. Also, while not mandatory, professional certifications are widely recognized and strongly encouraged. In the U.S., translators are certified by the American Translators Association, and a variety of certifications exist for interpreters.
5. Interpreters and translators do the same thing. The all-encompassing term that the general public uses to refer to language professionals is “translators,” but the reality is that translators and interpreters have very different job skills. Translation refers to written language, while interpreting refers to spoken language. Translators must have great writing skills and training in translation, but they must also be adept at using computer-assisted translation tools and terminology databases. Interpreters, on the other hand, have to develop their short-term memory retention and note-taking skills as well as memorizing specialized terminology for instant recall.
6. Translators and interpreters work in more than two languages. One of the most common questions translators and interpreters are asked is, “How many languages do you speak?” In reality, many translators work in only one direction — from one language into another, but not in the reverse. For translators and interpreters, it is better to have in-depth knowledge of just two languages than to have surface-level knowledge of several. Why? Of approximately one million words in English, the average person uses only 4,000 to 5,000 words on a regular basis. People who are “educated” know between 8,000 and 10,000 words. The professions with the widest vocabulary, such as doctors and lawyers, use about 23,000 words. Interpreters and translators who work for these specialized professions often use this kind of advanced technical vocabulary in two languages. Some translators and interpreters do work in more than one language combination — for example, conference interpreters often have several “passive” languages that they can understand. However, translators and interpreters are not usually hyperpolyglots.
7. Translation only matters to “language people.” The need for translation crosses both the public and private sectors. In the business world, executives at companies of all sizes are beginning to recognize that translation is a pathway to enabling more revenue and entering new markets. A recent study found that Fortune 500 companies that augmented their translation budget were 1.5 times more likely than their Fortune 500 peers to report an increase in total revenue. Also, government bodies are increasingly taking an interest in translation. Indeed, even those involved in development and non-profit work need to pay attention to translation. A report on translation in Africa conducted for Translators without Borders in May 2012 showed that greater access to translated information would improve political inclusion, health care, human rights, and even save lives of citizens of African countries.
8. Crowdsourcing puts professional translators out of work. As online communities have become more popular, so has something called “crowdsourced translation.” This phenomenon typically emerges when online community members get excited about a product and want to use it in their native languages. Sometimes, these customers and fans even begin creating their own translations and posting them in user forums. Instead of leaving their customers to pontificate on the best translations amongst themselves, smart companies are giving these communities the ability to easily suggest their translations. Are companies harnessing the work of these volunteers to obtain free labor? Actually, as the research shows, saving money is not a primary motivation — setting up these kinds of platforms can cost companies more time and money than just paying for traditional human translation. They typically pay human translators and translation companies to edit the group-translated content anyway, but they believe the collective approach gives power directly to customers and users, enabling them to have a say in which translations they like best.
9. Machine translation is crushing the demand for human translation. The opposite is true. Machine translation is actually expanding the demand for human translation and fueling the market at large. How? Machine translation — especially the free online kind — serves as an awareness campaign, putting translation squarely in front of the average person. Translating large volumes of information is never free — it comes at a cost, even with machine translation. Machine translation technology and related services make up a tiny percentage of the total translation market. Of course, machine translation can achieve some feats that humans cannot, such as quickly scanning large bodies of text and provide summaries of the information contained within them. However, as with most technologies, humans are needed to use machine translation intelligently. As Ray Kurzweil points out, technologies typically don’t replace whole fields — rather, they more often help fields to evolve.
10. All translation will someday be free. The translation and interpreting industry adds tens of thousands of new jobs to the global economy each year and there is no slowdown in sight. Translators and interpreters are extremely important members of this industry — in fact, they are the very heart of it. However, much like other professional service industries, the translation industry also relies on countless other professionals: project managers, account managers, vendor managers, production managers, schedulers, trainers, quality assurance teams, proofreaders, desktop publishing professionals, engineers, product managers, salespeople, marketers, technicians, and even people who work in procurement, human resources, billing, and IT. Research from Common Sense Advisory shows thatdemand for translation is outpacing supply — so if anything, human translators are becoming even more important. However, they are part of a much larger ecosystem, one that keeps global business churning and international communication flowing.
Follow Nataly Kelly on Twitter:Â www.twitter.com/natalykelly
Cockney rhyming slang is jam-packed with references to fruit, vegetables and other kinds of foods. This East London working-class slang, structured around a simple rhyming system, was the East Londonerâs language code which prevented bosses, the police and other authority figures from understanding what was being said.
Some of the most popular food-related cockney rhyming phrases include âapples and pears,â âbacon and eggsâ and âcustard and jelly.â Below, weâve compiled a fairly extensive list of food rhymes and their East London meaningâŠ
apples and pears
The phrase âapples and pearsâ rhymes with âstairsâ and so is commonly used to refer to anything which might be going on above. You might say to someone, looking for an item theyâve lost, âIt might be up the apples,â meaning it might be upstairs and therefore worth checking.
bacon and eggs
Bacon and eggs rhymes with legs and is used when you want to compliment a woman. You might say, âYouâve got a lovely pair of bacons,â meaning that she has a really good looking pair of legs.
custard and jelly
âShall we watch a bit of custard?â might be a question someone would ask if they wanted to watch the television, as custard and jelly refers directly to the telly (television).
loaf of bread
If youâre ever told to, âuse your loaf,â in the East End of London, itâs because youâre being told to âuse your headâ or to think/act smarter. âHeadâ rhymes with âbread,â and so the phrase is shortened from âuse your loaf of bread (head)â to âuse your loaf!â
mince pies
When a guy from the East End of London wants to chat up a lovely lady that he sets his eyes on, he might say, âYouâve got lovely mincies.â âMince piesâ, rhymes with âeyesâ and⊠the conclusion to be drawn from the rest is quite clear.
peas in the pot
When you walk into a room and someone says, âItâs a bit peasy in here,â they mean that itâs a bit hot. âPeas in the potâ rhymes with âhot,â hence the use of the phrase, âpeasy.â
plates of meat
âPlates of meatâ rhymes with âfeet.â You might hear someone say, âBe careful of me (my) plates,â if theyâre frightened that someone else is about to stand on their feet.
potatoes in the mould
A shortened version of âpotatoesâ in the East End of London is the word âtaters.â The phrase âpotatoes (taters) in the mouldâ rhymes with âcoldâ and is used when someone is feeling a little nippy. You might hear someone say, âItâs a bit taters in here.â
rabbit and pork
If you happen to be spending a lot of time with someone who talks and talks and talks and never seems to want to just be quiet, you might want to say, âWow! You can really rabbit, canât you!â The phrase ârabbit and porkâ rhymes with âtalkâ and is used to talk about the big chatterboxes in our lives.
tea leaf
âHeâs a little tea leaf,â is used to accuse someone of being a âthief.â
As is made evident from the examples above, the parts of the rhymes which donât actually match the sound of the word they are referring to is the word that is normally used in Cockney Rhyming Slang. For instance, in âbacon and eggsâ, âeggsâ rhymes with âlegsâ, but âbaconâ is the part of the phrase which is used when you want to tell a woman she has a lovely pair of âbaconsâ (legs).
By opting for the section of the rhyme which doesnât actually rhyme, the secret meaning of the phrase was kept even more of a secret amongst the working classes of East London. Secrecy to Cockney Rhymers means everything.
Cf. original:Â http://www.transpanish.biz/translation_blog/examples-cockney/
In un mondo in cui spirito di servizio e galanteria sono ormai un retaggio perduto di austeniana memoria, sopravvive nonostante tutto un cavalier servente, Highlander dei giorni nostri armato non di spada ma di dizionario: costui (o costei, non perdiamoci in sottigliezze di genere) Ú il traduttore.
Dal latino tradĆ«cere (letteralmente: âcondurre al di lĂ â), il traduttore staziona a cavallo fra due lingue, due mondi, due culture diverse, teso nello sforzo continuo di mettere in comunicazione una parte con lâaltra, travasando forme e contenuti con la mano piĂč ferma che gli riesca di trovare: il pericolo di far traboccare stile e parole Ăš infatti costante, e il punto non Ăš tanto evitare che trabocchino, quanto piuttosto non farli traboccare eccessivamente.
Ma anche se qualcosa va perduto, inevitabilmente, in ogni traduzione, lo specialista nella rimozione delle barriere linguistiche cerca sempre di servire il testo nel modo piĂč fedele possibile, rendendolo al meglio nella lingua dâarrivo (âtarget languageâ, Ăš cosĂŹ che la chiamano gli addetti ai lavori; anglicizzarsi Ăš cool e fa tendenza, di questi tempi); o almeno, servire il testo dovrebbe essere lâobiettivo di un traduttore come si deve, uno tutto dâun pezzo. Ma non Ăš facile, e questa rubrica si propone di rendere piĂč o meno lâidea di quanto non lo sia; la lingua-campione scelta per questa carrellata di perdite e grattacapi traduttivi Ăš lâinglese, di competenza di chi scrive e, probabilmente, al giorno dâoggi, un poâ di tutti quanti.
Tra una tappa e lâaltra di questo viaggio interlinguistico ci si concentrerĂ prevalentemente sui risvolti letterari della traduzione, senza perĂČ escludere altri ambiti, dal cinematografico al televisivo, come succede in questa prima puntata, dedicata allâinizio degli inizi: il titolo.
Chi ben titolaâŠ
Ovviamente, qualunque cosa, sia essa un libro o un film, comincia dal principio, che nel nostro caso Ú il titolo; citazione extra-testuale, gioco di parole accattivante, anticipazione sibillina, il titolo Ú il biglietto da visita di un qualsiasi prodotto letterario o cinematografico, e tradurlo, a volte, diventa una missione impossibile davanti alla quale pure Tom Cruise batterebbe in ritirata.
Purtroppo, non tutti i titoli si prestano a traduzioni immediate come The Da Vinci Code (Il codice Da Vinci), Pride and Prejudice (Orgoglio e pregiudizio) e The Lord of the Rings (Il signore degli anelli); e allora, il traduttore Ú solo con il suo dramma, oppure a volte, come vedremo, gli viene richiesto di rispondere a direttive editoriali ben precise.
Un esempio emblematico della difficoltĂ di tradurre i titoli Ăš quello di The Catcher in the Rye, che dizionario alla mano diventerebbe âIl ricevitore nella segaleâ, titolo che nessun lettore italiano riconoscerebbe lĂ per lĂ , e nemmeno riflettendoci su. Il titolo corrispondente nella nostra lingua, infatti, Ú Il giovane Holden, il romanzo di Salinger sullâalienazione adolescenziale che, per lo stile e il linguaggio peculiari che ne hanno fatto la fortuna, promette crisi traduttive che vanno ben oltre il problematico titolo. E cosĂŹ, mentre lâoriginale inglese Ăš un riferimento al verso di una poesia storpiata dal protagonista, e fa leva su due termini piĂč che popolari nel linguaggio corrente americano (il âcatcherâ, infatti, Ăš un ruolo del baseball, e il âryeâ rimanda al ârye whiskeyâ), la traduzione italiana Ăš lâinsipiditĂ fatta titolo; dâaltronde, âIl ricevitore nella segaleâ avrebbe senzâaltro fatto sgranare gli occhi ai possibili lettori.
Peggio ancora quando, invece, i titoli originali possiedono un doppio significato, derivano da un modo di dire o sono costruiti con un gioco di parole: Ăš questo il caso di The Man with Two Left Feet, racconto del grande umorista inglese P.G. Wodehouse, tradotto letteralmente con Lâuomo con due piedi sinistri, che non significa assolutamente niente ma che, complice il mondo surreale e i personaggi sgangherati di Wodehouse, riesce a passare inosservato. Per la cronaca, in inglese âavere due piedi sinistri significa âballare malissimoâ.
Lâultimo esempio letterario presentato qui Ăš il titolo di un (meraviglioso) thriller di Agatha Christie, Crooked House, che letteralmente dovrebbe essere reso con âCasa stortaâ; la âstorturaâ a cui allude questo titolo inquietante riguarda da vicino lâinsospettabile assassino di turno. Lâedizione italiana recita à un problema (sottinteso: tradurre questo titolo).
Ma il cinema regala spunti altrettanto interessanti: un esempio su tutti, il caso dei vari âSe fai qualcosa, io faccio qualcosâaltroâ, che annovera, fra gli altri, Se mi lasci ti cancello, Se scappi ti sposo, Se cucini ti sposo, e la variante a parti invertite Se ti investo mi sposi?, titoli che suonano piĂč o meno minacciosi alle orecchie di celibi e nubili impenitenti, perchĂ© non serve scappare cosĂŹ come basta preparare unâomelette, lâaltare Ăš lĂŹ a un passo. Sarebbe forse superfluo chiarire che non uno solo di questi titoli, in originale, minacciava lo spettatore (i titoli in inglese sono, rispettivamente, Endless Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,Runaway Bride, Time Share e Elvis Has Left the Building). La scelta traduttiva âserialeâ adottata dallâItalia mirava certamente a creare un filone di prodotti che, richiamandosi lâun lâaltro, avrebbero suggerito allo spettatore una familiare continuitĂ ; peccato che lâimproprioSe mi lasci ti cancello sia un film di diversi significato e levatura, e che sia finito nel calderone dei minacciosi âSeâ perâŠnon si sa bene quale motivo.
Lâelenco di film con titoli italiani che, confrontati con lâoriginale inglese, strappano un sospiro perplesso allo spettatore Ăš piuttosto lungo, e se a volte lo stravolgimento Ăš inevitabile, altre volte viene il sospetto che si sarebbe potuto evitare: esemplare, in questâultimo caso, il primo capitolo della fortunatissima saga dei âPirati dei Caraibiâ, intitolato The Curse of the Black Pearl (âLa maledizione della Perla Neraâ), e tradotto con La maledizione della prima luna, sostituendo alla nave del pirata Jack Sparrow la âprima lunaâ che innesca la maledizione; perchĂ© se ne sia sentita la necessitĂ , non si capisce bene.
Oggigiorno, in ogni caso, il problema titolo Ăš spesso arginato, soprattutto per quanto riguarda generi popolari fra gli adolescenti, dal fantasy al paranormal romance: se lapidario e attraente, il titolo originale non viene tradotto affatto, o al massimo Ăš accompagnato da un sottotitolo chiarificatore nella lingua dâarrivo. Quindi abbiamo Twilight, Hunger Games eShadowhunters, titoli invariati tanto nelle versioni letterarie quanto nelle loro trasposizioni cinematografiche; lâultimo citato non Ăš lâoriginale, ma per il pubblico italiano si Ăš scelto comunque di mantenere un titolo inglese, estrapolandolo dalla trama. Insomma, sarĂ per il fascino esotico della lingua straniera, sarĂ perchĂ©, ancora una volta, si tende al richiamo seriale intertestuale, ma Twilight e gli altri volumi della saga, tutti dai titoli rigorosamente âcongelatiâ, non hanno avuto alcun problema a diventare veri e propri cult fra le giovanissime. Che poi, una dodicenne con una cultura media, âCrepuscoloâ, forse, non sa neanche cosa significhi.
Se questa prima fase di âriscaldamentoâ vi Ăš piaciuta, non perdete il prossimo appuntamento; strada traducendo, ne vedremo delle belle!
Mariachiara Eredia
Word histories: conscious uncoupling
Simon Thomas Simon Thomas blogs at Stuck-in-a-Book.co.uk
Published4 April 2014
Category
Tags celebrity, concious uncoupling,word histories, word trends
Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin (better known as an Oscar-winning actress and the Grammy-winning lead singer of Coldplay respectively) recently announced that they would be separating. While the news of any separation is sad, we canât deny that the report also carried some linguistic interest. In the announcement, on Paltrowâs lifestyle site Goop, the pair described the end of their marriage as a âconscious uncouplingâ. So⊠what does that mean?
The phrase was picked up by journalists, commentators, and tweeters around the world. Some called it pretentious, some thought it wise, others simply didnât know what was going on. Letâs have a look into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and see what we can learn about these words.
Conscious is perhaps the less controversial word of the pair. A look through the Oxford Thesaurus of English brings up adjectives like aware, deliberate,intentional, and considered. But did you know that the earliest recorded use ofconscious related only to misdeeds? The OED currently dates the word to 1573, with the definition âhaving awareness of oneâs own wrongdoing, affected by a feeling of guiltâ. This sense is now confined to literary contexts, but it was only a few decades before the general sense âhaving knowledge or awareness; able to perceive or experience somethingâ became common. The idea of it being used as an adjective referring to a deliberate action came later, in 1726, according to the OEDâs current research.
The verb uncouple has an intriguing history. The current earliest evidence in the OED dates to the early fourteenth century, where it means âto release (dogs) from being fastened together in couples; to set free for the chaseâ. Interestingly, this is found earlier than its opposite (âto tie or fasten (dogs) together in pairsâ), currently dated to c.1400 in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In c.1386, in the hands of Chaucer and âThe Monkâs Taleâ, uncouple is given a figurative use: âHe maked hym so konnyng and so sowple / That longe tyme it was er tirannye / Or any vice dorste on hym vncowple.â The wider meaning âto unfasten, disconnect, detachâ arrives in the early sixteenth century, and that is where things rested for some centuries.
The twentieth century saw another couple of uncouples â one of which is applicable to the Paltrow-Martins, and one of which refers to a very different field. In 1948, a biochemical use is first recorded â which the OED defines âto separate the processes of (phosphorylation) from those of oxidationâ. But six years earlier, an American Thesaurus of Slang includes the word as a synonym for âto divorceâ, and this forms the earliest example found in theOED sense defined as âto separate at the end of a relationshipâ. Other instances of uncouple meaning âto split upâ can be found in a 1977Washington Post article and one from the Boston Globe in 1989.
So, despite all the attention given to the term âconscious uncouplingâ, people have been uncoupling in exactly the same way as Gwyneth and Chris â and using the same word â since at least 1942. So perhaps not quite as controversial as some commentators suggested.
Cf. original:Â http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/04/word-histories-conscious-uncoupling/
It is often said that real professional translators translate only into their âmother tongueâ because only ânative speakersâ are fully competent in âtheir languageâ. I wish to question these linguistic myths.
What does âmother tongueâ mean?
The meaning of the expression âmother tongueâ is ambiguous.
Admittedly, the only language that monolingual speakers generally claim to know is that of their mother. They first learnt that language through interaction with their mother, at an early age.
But the world is diverse. Some people first learned their fatherâs tongue. Some did not have parents. Some were raised by people who spoke different languages.
Moreover, the expression âmother tongueâ poses an ideological problem, because some people imply that their mother tongue is the mother of their identity, as if, without it, they would not be âtheir true selvesâ.
Such a claim can bring people together, as in the case of the Irish slogan ânĂ tĂr gan teangaâ (no land without language).
But we must not forget that romantic slogans can also be used to discriminate towards the Other.
The Nazis, for instance, used mother tongue fascism to justify linguistic discrimination towards multilingual Jewish Germans. They claimed that these multilingual speakers were perverting the âmother tongueâ because they were not true ânativeâ German speakers.
I will let you reflect on what âperverting a tongueâ might mean and move onto my second question.
Whoâs the ânative speakerâ?
One can only marvel at the term ânative speakerâ. This bizarre expression implies either that we were born speaking â a rare achievement â or that we were born into a language. My non-native instinct tells me weâve got a metaphor on our hands.
Obviously, ânative speakerâ does not imply that we are linguistically autonomous from birth. In fact, nothing much happens linguistically in the first year of our lives. Any parent of a young child will confirm this: what first happens with your newborn is communication.
When we use the term ânative speakerâ, we imply that a person has alegitimate competence in a given language.
But how do we make it legitimate? By being born with it, or by acquiring it? In other words, does native legitimacy come from innate or learned behaviour?
As sociolinguist Deborah Cameron recently pointed out, UK statistics suggest that the test for British citizenship applicants advantages native speakers of white European ancestry. So it would seem that there are different types of native speakers and that they are not all legitimate.
Interestingly, discourses that promote the ânative speakerâ concept are often qualified with adjectives like âpureâ, âperfectâ, âauthenticâ or âuniqueâ.
Letâs take a look at translators
Some of us have developed a high level of oral or written comprehension in various languages, but cannot speak or write such languages as âcorrectlyâ as ânative speakersâ would. Some of us can even write languages that we cannot speak.
Sounds weird? Try speaking like Julius Caesar. While we can read him and write like him, no one really knows what this true native Latin speaker sounded like.
In any case, we donât need to interact with living people to read or write a language â be it ancient or modern. These activities involve a different type of language use than, say, buying a pint for your mates on a Friday night.
Indeed, it has to do with how we use languages. Since we do not speak like we write, conversation plays a limited role in the work of most professional translators. Speaking like a true native is therefore far less important than having excellent writing skills.
The second mother tongue
Using the language of your mother on a daily basis does not make you a professional translator. And English has in common with many minority and endangered languages the fact that most of its speakers were not âborn into itâ.
While these ânew speakersâ are often criticized by those who claim to be ânativesâ â for their mistreat of language conventions, ie illegitimate use â some of these new speakers reach a level of competency that is so high that their new language becomes their language of habitual use â a fact that ITIâs Code of Professional Conduct takes into account.
Such competency allows them to claim certain legitimacy, at least in some areas of language use. They may not be able to have a laugh in that language at the pub on a Friday night, but they can translate medical reports that most ânativesâ would simply not understand.
As a group of intellectuals commissioned by the EU once put it, some people are capable of adopting a âsecond mother tongueâ. Language diversity is not about building walls between languages. It is about recognising the diversity of use human beings make of their tongues.
About the author:
Pierre Fuentes is a French translator and a registered architect who works mostly with texts in the fields of architecture, design, property and construction engineering. He suffers from lingophilia, having been severely exposed to English and Spanish and, to a lesser extent, to several other languages, including Galician, German and Irish.
Ăcrit par NJI
Lauréat dans la catégorie senior
Escargoter : Prendre son temps.
Lauréat dans la catégorie junior
Se mĂ©mĂ©riser : (verbe pronominal, 1er groupe) Se vieillir au moyen d’habits hors d’Ăąge.
Ex : Elle pourrait ĂȘtre jolie si elle ne prenait tant de soin Ă se mĂ©mĂ©riser.
Prix spécial du jury
TĂŽtif : Le contraire de tardif : un rĂ©veil tĂŽtif ; et l’adverbe dĂ©rivĂ© : tĂŽtivement.
ll n’a pas Ă©tĂ© facile de choisir les gagnants. Les critĂšres Ă prendre en compte
Ă©taient nombreux : inventivitĂ© lexicale, qualitĂ© sonore et visuelle du mot, clartĂ© de la dĂ©finition, facilitĂ© d’utilisation, possibilitĂ© d’entrer un jour dans la langue courante, respect des normes linguistiques…
Les trois laurĂ©ats respectent l’ensemble de ces critĂšres. Peut-ĂȘtre intĂšgreront-ils un jour les dictionnaires ?
10 mots nominés dans la catégorie senior
– Afrancien : (n. et adj.) Français d’origine africaine ou Africain de France (ethnologie). Qui est propre aux Français d’origine africaine. Relatif aux Français d’origine africaine.
– Bussoter : Attendre le bus.
– Krealinker : Partager une idĂ©e crĂ©ative sur un support de communication virtuel (rĂ©seau social, forum…).
– Escargoter : Prendre son temps.
– Gremcher : Faire son grincheux boudeur.
– Lalaliser : (verbe du 1er groupe) 1. Chanter “la la la” quand on ne peut pas se rappeler les paroles. “Tu connais cette chanson, c’est la la la la …”. 2. Utiliser trop souvent l’expression “Oh lĂ lĂ ”. “Il m’Ă©nerve, il lalalise sans cesse.” 3. Traiter avec lĂ©gĂšretĂ©. “Il ne faut pas lalaliser ce problĂšme.”
– Cordiamicalement : Contraction de « cordialement » et « d’amicalement ».
Formule de politesse se plaçant en fin de texte avant son propre nom. A utiliser quand la relation avec la personne visĂ©e, sans ĂȘtre dĂ©jĂ amicale, est toutefois plus que simplement cordiale.
– Jeudredi : (nom masculin) S’emploie Ă la place de jeudi. Façon de positiver la fin de semaine en renommant le jeudi : plus tout Ă fait jeudi mais pas encore vendredi. Peut Ă©galement ĂȘtre employĂ© pour accĂ©lĂ©rer la venue du week-end. Ex. “Superchouette, aujourd’hui c’est jeudredi”.
– Maisnif : Odeur caractĂ©ristique d’une maison.
– S’enrĂȘver : S’embarquer dans un rĂȘve Ă©veillĂ© (en gĂ©nĂ©ral contre son grĂ©…).
10 mots nominés dans la catégorie junior
– Textoter : (verbe) Communiquer par texto. Ex : Il textote sans arrĂȘt avec ses amis.
– Se mĂ©mĂ©riser : (verbe pronominal, 1er groupe) Se vieillir au moyen d’habits hors d’Ăąge. Ex : Elle pourrait ĂȘtre jolie si elle ne prenait tant de soin Ă se mĂ©mĂ©riser.
– Se miroiriser : Se regarder dans le miroir.
– Scolarophobie : (nom fĂ©minin) Phobie de l’Ă©cole.
– Shopivore : (nom masculin et adj.) Se dit de quelqu’un qui est addict au shopping. Ex : Il passe son temps dans les magasins ! C’est un vĂ©ritable shopivore.
– Uhuter : (verbe transitif) Coller avec de la colle en bĂąton.
– Empreinter : Emprunter des chemins oĂč on laisse son empreinte.
– Saladiner : (verbe intransitif, 1er groupe) Manger une salade au dĂźner. Ex : Maman, je saladine avec mes copines aujourd’hui !
– Flemmitude : (n.f.) Attitude molle qui consiste Ă traĂźner les pieds et Ă vouloir rester dans son lit. Ex : Cet Ă©lĂšve fait preuve d’une trop grande flemmitude, dit le professeur.
– Peurophobie : (nom fĂ©minin) La peur d’avoir peur.
10 mots nominés pour le Prix spécial du jury
– Mamimosas : Grand-mĂšre qui adore les fleurs.
– AccordĂ©ontologie : Morale Ă©lastique.
– Mondemoisil : Titre donnĂ© aux jeunes garçons et hommes non mariĂ©s (mĂȘme principe que pour mademoiselle, sauf que le « ma » et le « elle » ont Ă©tĂ© mis au masculin).
– Marmoufler : Pantoufler comme une marmotte (ou marmotter comme une pantoufle) pendant un ou plusieurs jours d’affilĂ©e.
– BaĂŻe-baĂŻe : Se quitter avec un pincement au cĆur. Douleur provoquĂ©e par la sĂ©paration.
– Vexpresso : Etat d’une personne qui se vexe instantanĂ©ment avec ou sans sucre.
– Malabarbe : Homme barbu.
– Esquivarder : Bavarder pour esquiver une tĂąche ennuyeuse.
– TĂŽtif : Le contraire de tardif : un rĂ©veil tĂŽtif ; et l’adverbe dĂ©rivĂ© : tĂŽtivement…
– Adverboulimique : (adj. ou nom.) Se dit d’un rĂ©dacteur qui fait un usage excessif des mots modalisateurs. C’est un auteur trĂšs, trop, si, tant, tellement, plus… un vĂ©ritable adverboulimique.
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