Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down
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0:00 - 0:04Hi! My name is Krystian Aparta,
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0:04 - 0:07and I'm going to talk about
translating terminology. -
0:08 - 0:10So, as translators, we all know
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0:10 - 0:14that because one word
can mean many things, -
0:14 - 0:16we can't just translate a word,
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0:17 - 0:21but we first need to find out
what concept it refers to, -
0:21 - 0:25and then, what words are used for
that concept in our target language. -
0:27 - 0:33And it's usually enough
to look at the context for that. -
0:33 - 0:36So with a word like "mouse"
in the first sentence here, -
0:37 - 0:43from the context, we know that it
refers to just our general domain -
0:43 - 0:46of the knowledge
and experience with mice, -
0:46 - 0:51and in the second sentence, it refers
to a more specialized domain -
0:51 - 0:53of computer devices.
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0:53 - 0:56When we're translating a word like
"mouse" in the first sentence, -
0:56 - 1:00we just go to our general
knowledge of the language, -
1:00 - 1:05and do a so-called "literal"
or "word-for-word" translation. -
1:06 - 1:09But with a word like "mouse"
in the second sentence -
1:09 - 1:11that refers to a specialized domain,
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1:11 - 1:14we can't really do
a literal translation, -
1:14 - 1:17but first, we need to find out...
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1:17 - 1:19Well, if we didn't know
anything about computers, -
1:19 - 1:20we would need to do some research
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1:20 - 1:25and find out what this device
is called in our language. -
1:25 - 1:27And this is important,
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1:27 - 1:32because even though in English one
word can refer to both things, -
1:32 - 1:38in a foreign language the specialized term
can have a different, non-literal translation. -
1:39 - 1:43For example, in Japanese, "mouse"
in the rodent sense is "nezumi," -
1:43 - 1:48and "mouse" as the computer
pointing device is "mausu." -
1:48 - 1:51And you can tell that "mausu"
and "nezumi" are totally different. -
1:52 - 1:58I will refer to a word that refers
to a specialized domain as a "term." -
1:59 - 2:06Now, it's usually easy to tell
that a word or phrase is a term. -
2:06 - 2:09Very often, terms are capitalized.
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2:09 - 2:15So, these two phrases mean
something completely different, -
2:15 - 2:18and they may have a different
translation in your language. -
2:18 - 2:22Like in Spanish, the landmark
sense is "la Gran Muralla China," -
2:22 - 2:25and the literal translation
is "la pared grande," -
2:25 - 2:28which is just some wall
in a house somewhere. -
2:28 - 2:35Also, words that seem difficult or
"sound foreign" are often terms. -
2:35 - 2:39So when we come across a word
like "velocity" or "aperture," -
2:39 - 2:43we sort of get the feeling
that we need to look it up. -
2:46 - 2:53There are cases, though, where it's hard
to tell if a word is actually a term, -
2:53 - 2:58and then we need to, first, find out
if it does work like a term in English, -
2:58 - 3:03and then whether there is an established
translation in our target language, -
3:04 - 3:06or if we have to make up our own.
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3:07 - 3:10And I would like to share
an experience like this... -
3:11 - 3:14that happened when I was
reviewing the Polish translation -
3:14 - 3:18of Janna Levin's talk on
the sound of the universe -
3:18 - 3:19by Kinga Skorupska.
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3:19 - 3:24And this example is used by
the translator's permission. -
3:25 - 3:29At one point in the talk, Janna
Levin uses the phrase "dust lanes," -
3:30 - 3:34which was translated in
Polish as "ścieżki pyłu," -
3:34 - 3:39a literal translation that
basically means "paths of dust." -
3:39 - 3:44And because Janna Levin uses a lot of
specialist vocabulary in her talk, -
3:44 - 3:49I wasn't really sure if
the literal translation would work. -
3:49 - 3:55So, I needed to find out
if "dust lane" is a term. -
3:56 - 3:59I started by googling
"'dust lane' galaxy," -
3:59 - 4:05and these quotation marks are there
to look for this exact phrase. -
4:06 - 4:10And I found this Wikipedia entry
on the Sombrero galaxy, -
4:10 - 4:15which did contain the term
"dust lane" in the same meaning. -
4:16 - 4:20So, this confirmed that "dust lane"
was indeed a term in English. -
4:20 - 4:24Now, I needed to find
the Polish translation. -
4:24 - 4:30And the first thing I did was to go to
the Polish entry on the Sombrero galaxy, -
4:31 - 4:34which contained this sentence,
translated literally as: -
4:34 - 4:40"is partially occluded by a belt
(torus) of nonluminescent matter." -
4:40 - 4:47And at this point, "torus" seemed like a good
enough candidate for "dust lane" in Polish, -
4:47 - 4:51but I wasn't really sure if this was
only a word used in this article -
4:51 - 4:54or the established term in Polish.
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4:54 - 4:59And to find out about this,
I did another Google search, -
4:59 - 5:03this time in Polish,
for "torus galaktyka." -
5:04 - 5:08And I found this Wikipedia
entry on the Seyfert galaxy, -
5:09 - 5:14containing this sentence,
which literally translates as: -
5:14 - 5:19la la la, "closest vicinity of the active
core (known as a dust torus)." -
5:19 - 5:21And there!
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5:21 - 5:25I thought I was done,
and this was my translation: -
5:25 - 5:30"dust lane" translates as "torus
pyłowy" or "dust torus" in Polish. -
5:31 - 5:36But then I thought they
may not be that similar. -
5:36 - 5:40Because as much as a "lane,"
usually being straight, -
5:40 - 5:42can sometimes be used
for something circular, -
5:42 - 5:46a "torus" is always like a circle.
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5:46 - 5:51So, I needed to find out
if the term "dust lane" in English -
5:51 - 5:55was really used for
something circular, -
5:55 - 5:58like a "torus" would be.
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6:00 - 6:04I went to Google again, and did a
search for "'dust lane' galaxy," -
6:04 - 6:06but this time an image search.
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6:06 - 6:09But all it gave me were these
pretty images of galaxies, -
6:10 - 6:13but nothing to confirm
or disconfirm my idea. -
6:14 - 6:16Then, I did another search,
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6:16 - 6:19for "'straight|long' dust lane',"
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6:19 - 6:23and this straight
line works like "OR." -
6:25 - 6:29This is because we don't usually
refer to circles as "straight" or "long." -
6:30 - 6:35This brought me to a page containing
images and descriptions of galaxies, -
6:35 - 6:39and one of the descriptions had
the phrase "long dust lane" in it. -
6:40 - 6:45But comparing the descriptions and
images for other galaxies on this page, -
6:45 - 6:51I saw that they were
all pretty similar. -
6:51 - 6:57So, "dust lane" did refer to something
circular in all these images. -
6:57 - 7:01And there, I had my term.
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7:01 - 7:03"Dust lane" was translated
as "torus pyłowy," -
7:03 - 7:06or literally "dust torus," in Polish.
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7:08 - 7:13As translators, you probably go through
investigations like these all the time. -
7:13 - 7:16But I wanted to share
this story, because... -
7:18 - 7:23Outsmarting a talk that wants
to hide away a term from me -
7:24 - 7:30is, to me, one of the most exciting
parts of the process of translation. -
7:31 - 7:32Thank you.
- Title:
- Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down
- Description:
-
A run-through of a presentation given at the Open Translation Project workshop at TEDGlobal. Get the presentation (PPT) at: http://timetravel.net46.net/Krystian_Aparta_terms.ppt
I talk about why it's important to track down terms when translating, based on a term that I found in the Polish translation of Janna Levin's TED Talk entitled "The Sound the Universe Makes." You can watch the talk (and take a look at the translation) at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/janna_levin_the_sound_the_universe_makes.htmlImage credits:
SLIDE 2: mouse (animal) -- Salssa http://www.sxc.hu/photo/985046 mouse (computer) -- Mustafa Kilic http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1279442
SLIDE 3: mouse (animal) -- Bas van de Wiel http://www.sxc.hu/photo/757748 mouse (computer) -- Alen Stojanac http://www.sxc.hu/photo/206809
SLIDE 4: the Great Wall -- Webnut Shen http://www.sxc.hu/photo/777650 the great wall -- Maciej Nitka http://www.latimeria.pl/ni
SLIDE 5: background -- Svilen Milev http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1158788
SLIDE 6, 7: Janna Levin, "The sound the universe makes"
SLIDE 9, 12, 14 -- NASA/ESA/STScI
SLIDE 10: Yassine Mrabet
SLIDE 13: lane -- Library of Congress, LOT 13407, no. 025 torus -- Endolith http://www.endolith.com
SLIDE 16: text and images by Paul J Shulte http://sols.unlv.edu/Schulte/Astronomy/SBb.html
SLIDE 17: background -- Richard Styles http://www.sxc.hu/photo/605324 - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TED Translator Resources
- Duration:
- 07:39
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symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down | ||
symbolt edited English subtitles for Krystian Aparta: How We Track Terms Down |