Like-Blog
Presenting you the most interesting translation solutions
Why Like-Blog? Now, first of all, this blog is a blog that you should like (and read regularly) – at least, if you are interested in translation. Then, the topic discussed here is one in which the meaningful likeness between a text and its translation in the language pair English-German plays a key role. On this page, I will take a close look at some interesting translation solutions that I have come across in the course of my work as a translator and translation scholar.
A translation solution is only as good as the arguments that support it. This means that any translation criticism, whether positive or negative, needs to be justified. The quality of a translation solution shows only when we compare it to other possible translation solutions in a given translation situation. Therefore, a translation critic should not only say why a translation solution is bad, but also demonstrate what a better solution might look like. I will try to stick to these principles of translation criticism. So if you have any questions regarding my line of argument or if you disagree, please, let me know your opinion by phone at +49 4171 6086525 or by e-mail to bittner@businessenglish-hamburg.de. So much for the introduction. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog!
Adverb or adjective? (May 2019)
The little word “just” is best known as an adverb. In this function, it acquires its many different, though somewhat similar, meanings from various contexts: This is just right – meaning: precisely; We’ve just met – meaning: very recently; It’s just next to the car park – meaning: directly; He read it just last week – meaning: only; Here you can just be yourself – meaning: simply; It just might work – meaning: possibly. And there are still more examples that we could mention. The versatility of the adverb “just” seems to be boundless. It is not unlikely that this adverbial versatility is at the root of the following translation error.
In “Rethinking Marx” by Peter Gumbel, an article that appeared in Times Magazine of 29 January 2009, one sentence begins: The intellectual debate about how to fix capitalism to ensure a more stable and just economic system [....]. In an unpublished German translation, this was rendered as follows: Die intellektuelle Debatte, wie man Kapitalismus so umsetzt, dass dabei ein stabiles und rein wirtschaftliches System garantiert ist, [....]. Disregard for the comparative is irrelevant in the given context because it does not entail any significant change of meaning. Clearly wrong, however, is the translation of “just” as an adverb: in the source text, this word is an adjective! We might correct the translation: Die intellektuelle Debatte, wie man Kapitalismus so umsetzt, dass dabei ein stabileres und gerechteres Wirtschaftssystem garantiert ist, [....].
This translation error is interesting in spite of its obviousness if we analyse the possible reasons. There is, first of all, the frequency of the adverb “just” as opposed to the adjective “just”. Even without a corpus search, it is almost certain that the adverb is much more frequent (and, thus, more familiar to the translator) than the adjective. While this might be the most important cause of the error, there may be two additional reasons. The translator can be reproached for not having a sufficient grasp of English constructions featuring “just” and for neglecting the semantic context. Let’s begin with the latter issue: A purely economic system (“rein wirtschaftliches System”) implies a system that is not purely economic – an interpretation that does not make any sense in the given context. As regards the “just”-constructions, the meaning of the word in a nominal expression (“a [....] just economic system”) in which “just” comes before an attributive adjective* is usually that of the adjective “just” (in German: “gerecht”). An adverbial meaning is more likely if “just” is followed by a predicative adjective*.
* An attributive adjective goes before a noun, e.g. the large house. A predicative adjective is – as the name implies – part of the predicate: The house is large.