|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
So, untranslatable means that there is no one-to-one correspondence between word a in language X with word b in language Y?
I think there is more to it than that. I think the article makes the point that Although the definitions seem fairly precise, the problem is trying to convey the local references associated with such words, says Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, which carried out the survey
I can't think of any examples, but I know there are words in English that people who use it as a second language can use, but don't seem to really get all the nuances that a native speaker can understand.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Jurga Zilinskiene
Which book in the H2G2 trilogy of five was she mentioned in?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Although the definitions seem fairly precise, the problem is trying to convey the local references associated with such words
I'd argue that this is true of any word in another language, and quite a few of the ones in ours. So much personal and societal baggage (connotations) invested in those tiny little bits of air. I remember a Steve Martin joke about how the French are really strange, they have a different word for everything. (Later recycled by Quentin T. in Pulp Fiction as a discussion by murderers of foreign hamburgers.)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Hi Jim,
this is true of any word in another language, and quite a few of the ones in ours. My reaction was rather similar to yours - but it's really a matter of degree. If I want to use, in a German text, the notion corresponding to gobbledegook, and need a full paragraph to render it, the effect is all but gone. Btw I suspect German has no word for gobbledegook because this would cover too much of it..
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
trying to convey the local references associated with such words
Which brings us back to the unanswered (and only implicitly asked) question: Is change up a decent American translation of googly. Certainly it isn't a good translation in the literal sense, but in the metaphorical sense it preserves the sports metaphor and it preserves the idea of something unexpected. I would suggest that there is really no need for a literal translation of googly.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
If I want to use, in a German text, the notion corresponding to gobbledegook, and need a full paragraph to render it, the effect is all but gone.
How about Kauderwelsch? But yes, I agree with you.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
6 Spam
I can't imagine they'd include the capitalized version as that which is "traslationally challenged" (otherwise I'm sure we could come up with more/difficult examples), and the newest use of 'spam' as an email category is equivalent to "junk" or "garbage"... which can't be that *hard, can it?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
Kauderwelsch does not cover the "posturing" aspect of gobbledegook - it is incomprehensible by default rather than intentionally.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I was unaware that gobbledegook had to be intentionally incomprehensible.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,371
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
882
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
