{"id":290,"date":"2014-09-08T15:21:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T13:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.defrent.de\/?p=290"},"modified":"2019-03-29T09:04:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T08:04:26","slug":"translation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/2014\/09\/translation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation isn&rsquo;t  about words \u2014 translation is all about words"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-left shariff-widget-align-left\" style=\"display:none\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-small\"><li class=\"shariff-button mastodon\" style=\"background-color:#ccc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s2f.kytta.dev\/?text=Translation%20isn%E2%80%99t%20%20about%20words%20%E2%80%94%20translation%20is%20all%20about%20words https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defrent.de%2Ffr%2F2014%2F09%2Ftranslation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words%2F via @defrentck@hessen.social\" title=\"Envoyer par Mastodon\" aria-label=\"Envoyer par Mastodon\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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background-color:#79b428; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 27 32\"><path fill=\"#0077b5\" d=\"M6.2 11.2v17.7h-5.9v-17.7h5.9zM6.6 5.7q0 1.3-0.9 2.2t-2.4 0.9h0q-1.5 0-2.4-0.9t-0.9-2.2 0.9-2.2 2.4-0.9 2.4 0.9 0.9 2.2zM27.4 18.7v10.1h-5.9v-9.5q0-1.9-0.7-2.9t-2.3-1.1q-1.1 0-1.9 0.6t-1.2 1.5q-0.2 0.5-0.2 1.4v9.9h-5.9q0-7.1 0-11.6t0-5.3l0-0.9h5.9v2.6h0q0.4-0.6 0.7-1t1-0.9 1.6-0.8 2-0.3q3 0 4.9 2t1.9 6z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button xing\" style=\"background-color:#ccc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xing.com\/spi\/shares\/new?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defrent.de%2Ffr%2F2014%2F09%2Ftranslation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words%2F\" title=\"Envoyer par XING\" aria-label=\"Envoyer par XING\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#79b428; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 25 32\"><path fill=\"#126567\" d=\"M10.7 11.9q-0.2 0.3-4.6 8.2-0.5 0.8-1.2 0.8h-4.3q-0.4 0-0.5-0.3t0-0.6l4.5-8q0 0 0 0l-2.9-5q-0.2-0.4 0-0.7 0.2-0.3 0.5-0.3h4.3q0.7 0 1.2 0.8zM25.1 0.4q0.2 0.3 0 0.7l-9.4 16.7 6 11q0.2 0.4 0 0.6-0.2 0.3-0.6 0.3h-4.3q-0.7 0-1.2-0.8l-6-11.1q0.3-0.6 9.5-16.8 0.4-0.8 1.2-0.8h4.3q0.4 0 0.5 0.3z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button facebook\" style=\"background-color:#ccc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defrent.de%2Ffr%2F2014%2F09%2Ftranslation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words%2F\" title=\"Envoyer par Facebook\" aria-label=\"Envoyer par Facebook\" role=\"button\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#79b428; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 18 32\"><path fill=\"#3b5998\" d=\"M17.1 0.2v4.7h-2.8q-1.5 0-2.1 0.6t-0.5 1.9v3.4h5.2l-0.7 5.3h-4.5v13.6h-5.5v-13.6h-4.5v-5.3h4.5v-3.9q0-3.3 1.9-5.2t5-1.8q2.6 0 4.1 0.2z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button twitter\" style=\"background-color:#ccc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defrent.de%2Ffr%2F2014%2F09%2Ftranslation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words%2F&text=Translation%20isn%E2%80%99t%20%20about%20words%20%E2%80%94%20translation%20is%20all%20about%20words\" title=\"Envoyer par X\" aria-label=\"Envoyer par X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#79b428; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path fill=\"#000\" d=\"M14.258 10.152L23.176 0h-2.113l-7.747 8.813L7.133 0H0l9.352 13.328L0 23.973h2.113l8.176-9.309 6.531 9.309h7.133zm-2.895 3.293l-.949-1.328L2.875 1.56h3.246l6.086 8.523.945 1.328 7.91 11.078h-3.246zm0 0\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><p>A recurring statement in the translation industry is that \u00ab\u00a0translation isn&rsquo;t about words\u00a0\u00bb. To most non-translators, this is somewhat counter-intuitive, because translation is all about words. You take words from one language, do this translation shtick, you get words in another language. Heck, translators even <em>get paid<\/em> by the word in most countries (except Germany, where we invoice by the \u00ab\u00a0standard line\u00a0\u00bb of 55 characters including spaces)!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Still, my colleagues are on to something: \u00ab\u00a0Translation isn&rsquo;t about the words\u00a0\u00bb refers to the fact that translating <em>exclusively<\/em> the words leads to bad translations. Okay, so we have to watch out for differences in grammar and syntax, because the word order has to be changed and we need to affix things to words that are aptly named suffixes and prefixes (or, to encompass both, \u00ab\u00a0affixes\u00a0\u00bb &#8211; go figure). In some languages, those affixes even obliterate the need to tell separately who is doing what: \u00ab\u00a0<strong>I<\/strong> am writing <em>you<\/em> a letter.\u00a0\u00bb &#8211; \u00ab\u00a0<em>Te<\/em> escrib<strong>o<\/strong> una carta.\u00a0\u00bb The Spanish -o Suffix to the verb <em>escribir<\/em> already says that it is <em>me<\/em> who is writing, so the personal pronoun \u00ab\u00a0I\u00a0\u00bb (\u00ab\u00a0yo\u00a0\u00bb in Spanish) drops. Furthermore, I have chosen to use <em>present progressive <\/em>in the English example to emphasise that I am writing <em>right now<\/em>. As-is, the Spanish sentence could also be back-translated as \u00ab\u00a0I write you a letter\u00a0\u00bb (present tense), so maybe, we should clarify by adding \u00ab\u00a0ahora\u00a0\u00bb or \u00ab\u00a0en este momento\u00a0\u00bb to the Spanish present tense sentence or even switch to \u00ab\u00a0Estoy escribiendo una carta para ti\u00a0\u00bb (\u00ab\u00a0estar\u00a0\u00bb + gerund to express an action <em>in course right now<\/em>, and another way to refer to the adressed person).<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, even a very easy sentence can pose translation problems that go beyond \u00ab\u00a0translating words\u00a0\u00bb. What my colleagues <em>mean<\/em> when they say that \u00ab\u00a0translation isn&rsquo;t about words\u00a0\u00bb is that <strong>translation is about meaning<\/strong>. In an ideal world, the reader of a translation would get the exact <em>same information content<\/em>, their own lingual <em>sign<\/em> for the same <em>denotation<\/em>, as\u00a0 the science of <a title=\"Wikipedia (EN): Semantics\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Semantics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">semantics<\/a> would put it. For the IT crowd out there: You know that this <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-291\" src=\"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/12x12.png\" alt=\"12x12\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" \/> is the same as this <code>MB5!.1PT*&amp;@H````-24A$4@````P````,\"`,```!AJZS5````&amp;71%6'13;V9TM=V%R90!!9&amp;]B92!);6%G95)E861Y&lt;&lt;EE\/`````903%1%F&lt;R9````&lt;Z-5L```M`\"-)1$%4&gt;-IB8$0\"#(P,&lt;(#)863$Q&lt;&amp;M!\\Q@Q,7!I@&lt;)``08`!!T`#5X:ZCY,`````$E%3D2N0F\"\"`<\/code> (UUEncoded) or this <code>iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAwAAAAMCAMAAABhq6zVAAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAAZQTFRFmcyZAAAAc6NVsAAAACNJREFUeNpiYEQCDIwMcIDJYWTExcGtB8xgxMXBpgcJAAQYABB0ADV4a6j5AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC<\/code>(Base64). Language translation is very comparable to that: <strong>It looks totally different, but it means the same<\/strong>. In the real world, language shapes the way people think (and vice-versa). Even words that seem to mean the same thing might be interpreted differently by different cultures or they can have different <a title=\"Wikipedia (EN): Connotation\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Connotation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">connotations<\/a> (implied instead of expressed meaning).<\/p>\n<p>The all-important <em>meaning<\/em> part is where professional translators get to earn their money. They don&rsquo;t just need foreign-language and foreign-culture skills, but also relevant knowledge about the field they work in. It is also the reason translators keep getting back to their clients and ask them for <strong>context, background resources or a straight answer <\/strong>to clarify a source text meaning. They want to be sure to render the correct meaning in the target language, and you would be surprised how often texts are <em>ambiguous<\/em> and <em>unclear,<\/em> or full of uncommon and unexplained abbreviations. It is no wonder either that a good legal translator will know (at least) two languages <em>and<\/em> two legal systems and their respective terminology, their style and their specific way of structuring texts. I have had a look into German and French court orders and I can tell you: Things will show up in utterly different sections than you are used to &#8211; and my quick look didn&rsquo;t even stumble on the fundamental systemic differences between Common Law and Civil Law. All I know is: I will safely stay with IT and IT-related Marketing texts, that is the league I play in. Conversely, my colleague Karen, specialised in Finance, scratches her head when confronted with IT translation work. This means: <strong>For each industry and field of work, you would better find a fittingly specialised translator for the job<\/strong>. They are language experts, but they are also adepts in your field.<\/p>\n<p>If all is well, the translator has converted all meaning correctly into the target encoding system, er, language. For some translations, this is enough and he will send it back to the client. \u00ab\u00a0<strong>Translation isn&rsquo;t about words<\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb has been satisfied. For other translations, especially those you want to publish to a wider audience, this might not be enough. The <em>raw translation<\/em> will be edited into a finer text. That&rsquo;s when the saying gets turned upside down: Now, it&rsquo;s \u00ab\u00a0<strong>translation is all about words<\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb again, because your translator will spend a good amount of time on <em>wording<\/em> it just right. He will try out synonyms or even change whole sentences several times until he is satisfied that the meaning is not just <em>transported<\/em> <em>correctly<\/em>, but that it is <em>transferred in the most moving, lucid and fitting manner and tonality<\/em>. This may happen most often for marketing or literary translations, but even for technical translations, I keep changing the \u00ab\u00a0finished\u00a0\u00bb translation to make it sound \u00ab\u00a0more German\u00a0\u00bb or because I decide to split a sentence to raise legibility. You won&rsquo;t get industry knowledge combined with this kind of raised language awareness from engineers or bilingual secretaries. Besides, those people have other jobs to fulfil.<\/p>\n<p>Convinced to hire a pro? If you want to know more about what Christopher K\u00f6bel can do for you on the IT\/Marketing translation front, <a title=\"DeFrEnT: Contact Form (EN)\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defrent.de\/kontakt\">get in touch with DeFrEnT<\/a> <em>\u2026it\u2019s different!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recurring statement in the translation industry is that \u00ab\u00a0translation isn&rsquo;t about words\u00a0\u00bb. To most non-translators, this is somewhat counter-intuitive, because translation is all about words. You take words from one language, do this translation shtick, you get words in another language. Heck, translators even get paid by the word in most countries (except Germany,<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"blog-btn\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/2014\/09\/translation-isnt-about-words-translation-is-all-about-words\/\" class=\"home-blog-btn\">Lire la suite<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,31],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-de","category-ueber-defrent","tag-fuer-kunden"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Christopher K\u00f6bel","author_link":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/author\/defrenter\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1323,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/1323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defrent.de\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}