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Looking for a career change and feeling "passionate" about languages and translation?
Thread poster: Philippe Etienne
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 08:37
French to English
. Nov 18, 2022

Dan Lucas wrote:

Tom, it may not be your primary argument here, but I believe that you are stating explicitly something that most intellectually curious people understand implicitly. That is, everything becomes interesting if you look at it closely enough.

Dan

I don't think it's possible with dry legal and financial texts, for me. But I have often found myself plunging into worlds I barely knew of. Once I had to translate a text for a company that makes crates for travelling art exhibitions, and I learned more about crates than I ever would have thought possible. Like, there are two different words for the dividers preventing champagne bottles from rattling in their crates, depending on whether the "teeth" face upwards or downwards. I would never want to work for a company that makes crates, but the few days I spent researching their text was a fascinating glimpse into their world.
 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:37
English to Latvian
+ ...
different thoughts Nov 19, 2022

Michele Fauble wrote:

Interesting.


Essentially the study is about a very simple thing – center-embedded clauses are bad writing. This is a common knowledge, but it is also good to show evidence that it is not only a stylistic issue but something that makes it harder for readers to understand the text. Why lawyers don't care and often uses them? Probably because they are not trained to be good writers and they follow the tradition that doesn't put emphasis on clarity. However, I would expect translators to be more professional and avoid such phrasing whenever possible.

I have reviewed many legal documents in Latvian and found that the national laws almost never use center-embedded clauses. Apparently good lawyers are aware of good writing practices and follow them diligently. On the level of ministries and local government, center-embedded clauses unfortunately are quite common. Latvia is a relatively poor country and people who work in local government may not be that well trained or are not professional writers.

Although no translator has ever disagreed with me that center-embedded clauses are bad and should not be used, I regularly get to edit translations that contain them. I find them very jarring. Please, think more about the target reader when translating.

[Edited at 2022-11-19 08:30 GMT]
 
Sadek_A
Sadek_A  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:37
English to Arabic
+ ...
... Nov 20, 2022

Kaspars Melkis wrote:
center-embedded clauses are bad writing

[Edited at 2022-11-19 08:30 GMT]

Can you kindly provide examples of the same, along with your corrections of them?

Rachel Waddington
 
Kaspars Melkis
Kaspars Melkis  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:37
English to Latvian
+ ...
in Latvian only Nov 22, 2022

Sadek_A wrote:

Kaspars Melkis wrote:
center-embedded clauses are bad writing

[Edited at 2022-11-19 08:30 GMT]

Can you kindly provide examples of the same, along with your corrections of them?


Sure, but all those examples are in Latvian. Are you interested in them?

Adieu
 
Jocelyne Cuenin
Jocelyne Cuenin  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 08:37
Member (2012)
German to French
+ ...
Enquête de l'hebdo Marianne sur le travail spéculatif Nov 24, 2022

https://www.marianne.net/societe/bosser-gratos-pour-de-la-visibilite-ou-un-contrat-potentiel-cette-arnaque-qui-se-repand-dans-le-monde-du-travail
Pour compléter l'article cité par Philippe Étienne au début.
 
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Looking for a career change and feeling "passionate" about languages and translation?







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