Poll: Have you studied the semantic and/or syntactic differences between your source and target languages? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you studied the semantic and/or syntactic differences between your source and target languages?".
This poll was originally submitted by Ma.Elena Carrión de Medina. View the poll results »
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I wrote about both, as well as other characteristics of language, in my doctoral thesis and various journal articles.
[Edited at 2017-11-12 09:35 GMT] | | | Mario Chavez (X) Local time: 20:46 English to Spanish + ... Those differences are just the beginning | Nov 12, 2017 |
Whoever studies a language in depth will stumble on semantics, lexicogrammatical and other linguistic aspects of a language. Then, by din of deliberate or indirect comparison, one will detect differences when studying a second or third language. But languages are not just repositories of words and sentences. They never were. They carry many other passengers across the bridges that separate languages, facial expressions being one category. If you go by the semantic load of an express... See more Whoever studies a language in depth will stumble on semantics, lexicogrammatical and other linguistic aspects of a language. Then, by din of deliberate or indirect comparison, one will detect differences when studying a second or third language. But languages are not just repositories of words and sentences. They never were. They carry many other passengers across the bridges that separate languages, facial expressions being one category. If you go by the semantic load of an expression and disregard the metalinguistic features it contains or refers to, your interpretation of the text will be incomplete. ▲ Collapse | | |
How can one learn a language without syntax and semantics? | |
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and keep on studying it on my own. To Mario: You make a lot of sense, for once. | | | I took a pragmatic stance | Nov 12, 2017 |
No, I never studied them formally. Instead, I am always exercising my skill in understanding the ideas behind the words in phrases, and expressing them as a speaker of the target language (I translate in both directions) would naturally do it. Keep in mind that I began translating professionally decades before computers, the Internet, etc. came up. Something then led me to the misbelief that a p... See more No, I never studied them formally. Instead, I am always exercising my skill in understanding the ideas behind the words in phrases, and expressing them as a speaker of the target language (I translate in both directions) would naturally do it. Keep in mind that I began translating professionally decades before computers, the Internet, etc. came up. Something then led me to the misbelief that a professional translator must translate in both directions, and still preserve the same natural fluency, regardless. This caused me to relinquish translating from two languages (IT/FR) that I still speak, as I wouldn't be able to translate INTO them with the same natural fluency as I'd translate FROM them into PT. Nowadays I see many translators working only FROM EN with a significantly lesser fluency in it than I had in these two I discarded. The only catch is that I MUST understand the ideas behind the source text. This forced me to declare off-limits a few areas of human knowledge, of which I don't understand squat, not even in PT. I list these areas boldly as "not served" on my web site. ▲ Collapse | | |
Yes, both. Plus, I attended the course in contrastive analysis of English and Serbian during my studies. It was one of the toughest exams
[Edited at 2017-11-12 14:50 GMT] | | | Mario Chavez (X) Local time: 20:46 English to Spanish + ...
Yetta J Bogarde wrote: and keep on studying it on my own. To Mario: You make a lot of sense, for once. Ms. Bogarde, I fail to see the need for personal assumptions, ironic or otherwise. | |
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Tina Vonhof (X) Canada Local time: 18:46 Dutch to English + ... Not consciously studied | Nov 12, 2017 |
Not studied in the sense of taking courses or studied on my own. A few books were helpful along the way but mostly I learned as I went along and I'm still learning new little things every day. That's what keeps translation so interesting. | | | Andy Watkinson Spain Local time: 02:46 Member Catalan to English + ...
Really? Yep. Words in Spanish are rather different to English words and even those that look the same don't always mean the same thing. Suppose that covers semantics. Syntactic? Well, in Spanish I can say "Came Juan yesterday" without anyone batting an eyelid.....so again, that's different. Only someone who's totally clueless could possible ask such an inane question. | | | Mario Freitas Brazil Local time: 21:46 Member (2014) English to Portuguese + ...
I have deeply studied both languages and the respective grammar, spelling, etc. So I did study the differences, equivalences, variations, etc. But I have never taken a specific course or subject in this topic, and I think that would be the kind of course non-fluents or non-natives would need.
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