| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Off topic: What is translation Thread poster: Philippe Danjoux
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Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 07:23
French to English
I see my job as bridging cultural gaps.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 08:23
Member
English to Turkish
| It's a profession like any other | Oct 17, 2020 |
I really don't see the 'philosophical' side of translating a MSDS file or a contract.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 07:23
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Baran Keki wrote:
I really don't see the 'philosophical' side of translating a MSDS file or a contract.
Well, definitions are, by definition, philosophical.
As for what Philippe meant when he said "philosophical definition", I suspect he simply meant "not a dictionary definition".
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/definitions/
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:23
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Ceci n'est pas une pipe | Oct 17, 2020 |
To take a Kantian-Wittgensteinian approach: a translation is whatever we agree it is. It could be anything - a banana, an international trade agreement, a bad mood - but if we agree it's a translation, then it's a translation. There is no absolute truth: there's only what we all agree on.
I don't know if today is Saturday or not, but since a lot of people seem to all agree that it is, then I'll just follow the herd and accept that for all practical purposes, today is "Saturday".
... See more To take a Kantian-Wittgensteinian approach: a translation is whatever we agree it is. It could be anything - a banana, an international trade agreement, a bad mood - but if we agree it's a translation, then it's a translation. There is no absolute truth: there's only what we all agree on.
I don't know if today is Saturday or not, but since a lot of people seem to all agree that it is, then I'll just follow the herd and accept that for all practical purposes, today is "Saturday".
Non so se oggi è sabato o no, ma visto che molti sembrano d'accordo tutti che lo sia, allora mi limiterò a seguire il gregge e accetterò che, a tutti gli effetti, oggi è "sabato".
Is that a translation of what I just wrote in English - or is it something else?
[Edited at 2020-10-18 08:22 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Philippe Danjoux
Italy
Local time: 07:23
Member (2002)
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Ceci n'est pas une pipe | Oct 17, 2020 |
The problem with the kantian-wittgensteinian approach though, is: how do I know that most people agree about anything at all? Is there not a risk of falling back onto an absolute solipsism of the Cartesian type, "ego-centered"? How do I know that most people agree on today being Saturday - is it not, rather, that I think that most people think today is Saturday because I see that on TV, hear it on the radio, and so on. And what if the other people thought it is Saturday because they saw that tha... See more The problem with the kantian-wittgensteinian approach though, is: how do I know that most people agree about anything at all? Is there not a risk of falling back onto an absolute solipsism of the Cartesian type, "ego-centered"? How do I know that most people agree on today being Saturday - is it not, rather, that I think that most people think today is Saturday because I see that on TV, hear it on the radio, and so on. And what if the other people thought it is Saturday because they saw that that was exactly what I believed? Then I would rely on a conviction in someone whose conviction relies on mine.
How does social agreement come about at all? That is a fascinating issue for me and I'm sure there is some bearing on what it is to translate. As I said from the beginning, in translating, we try to create a frame of mind in the target language reader that is approaching that of the original language reader - theoretically speaking - or again, we try to tell a story that is close enough to the original story for the purpose at issue.
As far as the notion of "herd" is concerned, shall we come back to the notion of a basic "herd instinct" that would tell each individual member of the herd what to say or what to think, in which case an agreement among people is no longer necessary and, in a way, even language is no longer necessary and, that goes without saying, translation.
All this is very interesting, although very abstract. That won't make me translate any better, but that gives me some ideas about my job. ▲ Collapse
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