Common and Usual Easily Beat Literal Compatibility

translation_articles_icon

ProZ.com Translation Article Knowledgebase

Articles about translation and interpreting
Article Categories
Search Articles


Advanced Search
About the Articles Knowledgebase
ProZ.com has created this section with the goals of:

Further enabling knowledge sharing among professionals
Providing resources for the education of clients and translators
Offering an additional channel for promotion of ProZ.com members (as authors)

We invite your participation and feedback concerning this new resource.

More info and discussion >

Article Options
Your Favorite Articles
Recommended Articles
  1. ProZ.com overview and action plan (#1 of 8): Sourcing (ie. jobs / directory)
  2. Réalité de la traduction automatique en 2014
  3. Getting the most out of ProZ.com: A guide for translators and interpreters
  4. Does Juliet's Rose, by Any Other Name, Smell as Sweet?
  5. The difference between editing and proofreading
No recommended articles found.

 »  Articles Overview  »  Miscellaneous  »  Common and Usual Easily Beat Literal Compatibility
 »  Articles Overview  »  Art of Translation and Interpreting  »  Interpreting  »  Common and Usual Easily Beat Literal Compatibility

Common and Usual Easily Beat Literal Compatibility

By Marcia R Pinheiro | Published  05/8/2017 | Interpreting , Miscellaneous | Recommendation:RateSecARateSecARateSecARateSecARateSecI
Contact the author
Quicklink: http://deu.proz.com/doc/4408
Author:
Marcia R Pinheiro
Australien
Englisch > Portugiesisch translator
 
View all articles by Marcia R Pinheiro

See this author's ProZ.com profile

Consider the verb to assist.

In Australia, the average individual feels comfortable saying, How Can I Assist You Today?

In Brazil, the average individual feels comfortable saying, How Can I Help You Today?,  instead.

This is again about Cultural Translation: frequency in discourse, and lexicon proximity are important factors, and those could be mathematically measured.


It is nice hearing, How Can I Help You.

Somehow, To Assist makes us wonder about things.

It takes resources away.

To Help, however, comes almost instinctively to mind.

Maybe the native Australian would think the interpreter is better if they hear Assisti-lo instead of Ajuda-lo, since to assist holds more proximity to assistir in terms of shape, sound, and all else than to ajudar, but righter is the heart: the average Brazilian connects much more comfortably to ajudar than to assistir.

Language must target communication: simplifying must be chosen over keeping it literally equivalent.

Voce Tem Cartao de Concessao? is not a good choice because things are more easily communicated by means of Voce Tem Cartao do Governo Australiano?

In the first case, we are being literal, but there is no such a thing in Brazil, so that the NES cannot connect to that in an immediate manner; in the second case, we are going for culture, since who gives concession cards is the Australian government.

Interpreting cannot be the same as translating: more speed in understanding, and more effectiveness in communication are a necessity.

In translation: a printed document is not something the human mind associates with speed.

Interpretation is something completely different from translation, and therefore the techniques of the trades should be different.

With the persistent, and historic denial of the differences between one trade, and another, human kind crawls in what comes to interpreting, and pilots supersonics in what comes to translating.










Copyright © ProZ.com, 1999-2024. All rights reserved.
Comments on this article

Knowledgebase Contributions Related to this Article
  • No contributions found.
     
Want to contribute to the article knowledgebase? Join ProZ.com.


Articles are copyright © ProZ.com, 1999-2024, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content may not be republished without the consent of ProZ.com.