Interpreting vs. Translation

Interpreting and translation are two closely related linguistic disciplines. Yet they are rarely performed by the same people. The difference in skills, training, aptitude, and even language knowledge are so substantial that few people can do both successfully on a professional level.

On the surface, the difference between interpreting and translation is only the difference in the medium: the interpreter translates orally, while a translator interprets written text. Both interpreting and translation presuppose a certain love of language and deep knowledge of more than one tongue.

The Skill Profile of Technical Translators

However, the differences in skills are arguably greater than similarities. The key skills of the translator are the ability to understand the source language and the culture of the country where the text originated, and, using a good library of dictionaries and reference materials, render that material clearly and accurately into the target language. In other words, while the linguistic and cultural skills are still critical, the most important mark of a good translator is the ability to write well in the target language.

However, even bilingual individuals rarely can express themselves in a given subject equally well in both languages; and many excellent translators are not fully bilingual to begin with. Knowing this limitation, a good translator will only translate documents into his or her native language, and this is why we at RIC International absolutely require it of our technical translators, in addition to their subject matter expertise.

An interpreter, on the other hand, has to be able to translate in both directions on the spot, without using dictionaries or other supplemental reference materials. Interpreters must have extraordinary listening abilities, especially for simultaneous interpreting. Simultaneous interpreters need to process and memorize the words that the source-language speaker is saying now, while simultaneously outputting in the target language the translation of words the speaker said 5-10 seconds ago. In addition, interpreters have to posess excellent public speaking skills, and the intellectual capacity to instantly transform idioms, colloquialisms and other culturally-specific references into analogous statements the target audience will understand.

Interpreter Qualifications

Interpreting, just like translation, is, fundamentally, the art of paraphrasing – the interpreter listens to a speaker in one language, grasps the content of what is being said, and then paraphrases his or her understanding of the meaning using the tools of the target language. But just as you can not explain to someone a thought if you did not fully understand that thought, neither can you translate or interpret something without mastery of the subject matter being relayed.

It simply can not be overstated: when choosing an interpreter, his or her expert knowledge of the subject matter is equally as important as the interpreting experience. (See the section "Why Subject Expertise Matters for Technical Translators" for a more detailed discussion of the importance of subject matter knowledge for technical translators and interpreters).

For further information, you can download this document:

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2002/summer/art02.pdf

Mr. Oviedo

Grammatical Knowledge Test

Here there is a challenge: Read the following sentence to discover just two of its componentes:

The Simple Subject and the Simple Predicate.

"Those high white curtains which hid from the eyes the bed placed as if in the rear of a sanctuary; the scattering of light silk counterpanes, of quilts with flowers, of embroidered bedspreads, of linen pillowcases, this scattering under which it disappeared in the daytime, as an altar in the month of Mary under festoons and flowers, and which, in the evening, in order to go to bed, I would place cautiously on an armchair where they consented to spend the night; by the bed, the trinity of the glass with blue patterns, the matching sugar bowl, and the decanter (always empty, since the day after my arrival, by order of my aunt who was afraid to see it "spill"), these instruments, as it were, of the cult-almost as sacred as the precious orange blossom liqueur placed near them in a glass phial-,which I would no more have thought of profaning nor even of possibly using for myself than if they had been consecrated ciboria, but which I would examine a long time before undressing, for fear of upsetting them by a false motion; those little crocheted open-work stoles which threw on the backs of the armchair a mantel of white roses that must not have been without thorns since every time I was through reading and wanted to I noticed I remained caught in them; that glass bell on which, isolated from vulgar contacts, the clock was babbling privately for shells come from far away and for an old sentimental flower, but which was so heavy to lift that when the clock stopped, nobody but the clock-maker would have been foolhardy enough to undertake to wind it up; that very white guipure tablecloth which, thrown as an altar runner across the chest of drawers adorned with two vases, a picture of the Savior, and a twig of blessed boxwood made it resemble the Lord's Table (of which a priedieu, placed there every day, when the room war "done," finished evoking the idea), but whose frayings always catching in the chinks of the drawers stopped their movement so completely that I could never take out a handkerchief without at once knocking down the picture of the Savior, the sacred vases, the twig of blessed boxwood, and without stumbling and catching hold of the priedieu; finally, that triple layer of little bolting-cloth curtains, of large muslin curtains, and of larger dimity curtains always smiling in their often sunny hawthorn whiteness, but in reality very irritating in their awkwardness and stubbornness in playing around the parallel wooden bars and tangling in one another and getting all in the window as soon as I wanted to open or close it, -a second one being always ready if I succeeded in extricating the first to come to take its place immediately in the cracks as perfectly plugged by them as they would have been by a real hawthorn bush or by nests of swallows that might have had the fancy to settle there, so that this operation, in appearance so simple, of opening or closing my window, I never succeeded in doing without the help of someone in the house; all those things which not only could not answer any of my needs, but were even an impediment however slight, to their satisfaction, which evidently had never been placed there for someone's use, peopled my room with thoughts somehow personal, with that air of predilection, of having chosen to live there and delighting in it, which, often the trees in a clearing and the flowers on the road side or on old walls have".

Email your answers to:

moviedo@ufg.edu.sv

Generative Grammar

Generative grammar is a notion that was developed in 1950s by Noam Chomsky. Although numerous scholars disagreed with Chomsky’s claims he gained many supporters and the idea was both developed and challenged at the same time. His works have exerted considerable influence on psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, applied linguistics as well as language methodology, and with time ‘generative grammar’ received broader meaning than it initially had.

Based partially on mathematical equations generative grammar is a set of rules that provide a framework for all the grammatically possible sentences in a language, excluding those which would be considered ungrammatical. A classical generative grammar consists of four elements:

1. A limited number of non-terminal signs;

1. A beginning sign which is contained in the limited number of non-terminal signs;

1. A limited number of terminal signs;

A finite set of rules which enable rewriting non-terminal signs as strings of terminal signs.

The rules could be applied in a free way and the only requirement is that the final result must be a grammatically correct sentence. What is more, generative grammar is recursive, which means that any output of application of rules can be the input for subsequent application of the same rule. That should enable generating sentences as the daughter ofthe father of the brother of his cousin.

Chomsky considered language to be a species-specific property which is a part of the human mind. Chomsky studied the ­Internal-language, a mental faculty for language. He also wanted to account for the linguistic competence of native speakers and the linguistic knowledge of language present in language users’ minds. As he argued:

People know which sentences are grammatically well formed in their native language
They have this knowledge also of previously unheard sentences

So they must rely on mentally represented rules and not only on memory

Generative grammars might be regarded as models of mentally represented rules

The ability to acquire such sets of rules is most probably uniquely human.

Moreover, Chomsky argued that people posses a kind of Language Faculty which is a part of human natural biological qualities. The innate linguistic knowledge that enables practically any child to learn any of about 6000 existing languages (at a given point in time) is sometimes known as the Universal Grammar. This theory is often supported by the arguments that creole languages are created in a natural way and their users invent their own linguistic systems. What is more, it appears that creole languages share certain features even despite the distances that not allows for contact of two different creoles.
Down-loadable material:
http://prr.hec.gov.pk/Chapters/234-3.pdf

Common writing mistakes and errors

When someone is going to write a document, owing to an enormous variety of reasons, errors and mistakes commonly appear.

If talking about mistakes, the solution is easy. Why? Well, the author has just simply to look for the solving factors in the knowledge he/she already has.

Why do I affirm this? A mistake is no more than the misapplication of a rule that we already master, but due to some factors we use it in a wrong way. Therefore, if we just think consciously about it, we are to get to the correct usage because that is part of our register.

What is really delicate is when talking about errors. An error is based on an assumption, in Linguistics called overgeneralization, in which we take for granted that a rule which prescribes the usage of any part of speech or even a complete structure could be used the same way a similar one is. What is taking place in this case actually is the complete lack of knowledge on how we must well apply such language components.

The delicate aspect is not because we do not know how to use vocabulary, Spelling, Syntax, etc. It is because Semantics is affected as well. This simple aspect affects the message conveyance considerably, making it obscure, doubtful, and sometimes even completely opposite if compared with the original author’s intention.

The implication of this kind of mistakes creates misunderstanding, communication problems, and in general, the main objective of the language is not reached.

All of the languages suffer this “infection” made by their users, but it becomes more delicate if referred to/made by public figures, in whose case the message is not a family one, but a public one, and in some cases it even has state scopes.

Let us analyze this official Spanish document:

http://www.mined.gob.sv/downloads/Circulares/Circular11-2010.pdf

See paragraph # 3:“…daños severos a la infraestructura…” the used preposition (“a”) is not the adequate one. The same happens in next paragraph.

See paragraph # 5, line # 3, in the section of “RECOMENDACIONES”: …los conocimientos que faltan desarrollarse…” The re is a problem of concordance in terms of number.

Pay attention to the final paragraph to page # 2, line # 5:”… de conformidad a la ley…”

During the class session, we are analyzing the “Circular # 10" that presents writing problems regarding contradiction, lack of harmony and coherence.

For further information, please log in these Web Sites and consult the information there.

http://www.scn.org/cmp/errors.htm

http://www.scn.org/mpfc/ers.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/apeci/enerc/Errores%20comunes%20en%20la%20redaccion%20cientifica.pdf

http://gruposantillanapr.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=140&category_id=648&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=91&vmcchk=1&Itemid=91

http://comunicacion.unab.cl/pdf/normativa_redaccion_periodistica.pdf

http://www.studyenglishgrammar.com/english-tips/six-common-mistakes-in-english-writing.htm

Latin and Greek Contributions to English Lexicon

The English vocabulary development activities and resources in this and related sites are based primarily on Latin and Greek elements that are included in thousands of English terms and expressions. A very small number of schools currently provide learning situations and activities that include vocabulary etymology and histories; therefore, it is advantageous for students to learn more about English development, as well as, oxymora (a.k.a. oxymorons), stories, pleonasms (redundancies), and other related terms that are provided online with this Focusing on Words site.

To know the origin of words is to know how men think, how they have fashioned their civilizations. Word history traces the paths of human relationships, the bridges from mind to mind, and from nation to nation.

The English Language Is Truly International!
Some of the words in English can be traced to a remote past; some have histories that began yesterday or are even beginning today. Slow changes, swift new coinages of science or slang, ancient or recent borrowing from many tongues; together they give flexibility, power, and beauty to English, the richest and most widespread language of all time.

Remember, words are the tools with which you think, communicate, and learn. The more words you know, the better you can think, communicate, and absorb knowledge; not just about English, but about everything that is important to you.

The more limited your vocabulary is, the harder survival is in our global-economic society; and certainly you want more than just to survive. It is an indisputable fact that your chances for success increase with the size and applications of your vocabulary.

Building a larger vocabulary doesn't require you to spend hours memorizing definitions; however, it does require that you become word-conscious, that you have a curiosity about words, not only about their meanings but especially about their origins.

A large volume of current English words were developed in the Modern English period
Without considering the immense number of words that we have constantly borrowed from every language with which English-speaking people have been in contact, we owe a large volume of our words to the period that we call "Modern English", beginning, roughly, with the sixteenth century.

Scholarship, previously limited largely to the clergy, was opened to just about every one, and the study of classical learning became the ultimate way to be educated.

Writers and thinkers sprang up from every walk of life, and did not hesitate to select, or to choose, their words from the Latin of Cicero, or Horace, or Ovid, or Seneca.

Many also went to the Greek of Aeschylus, or Plato, or Plutarch to derive their words. It is thus chiefly through these writers and their unceasing stream of successors that the great bulk of words derived directly from Latin and Greek ancestry and meanings have entered our language.

From this practice also has descended our present custom of looking to one or another of those languages for the formation of new words, especially those of scientific nature.

Why is an extensive vocabulary such an important asset?
As stated earlier, words are the building blocks of thought. They are the means by which we understand the ideas of others and express our own opinions. It is only logical then that people who know how to use words concisely and accurately find it easier to achieve their aims.

In fact, you should realize that formal education has less relationship to vocabulary achievement than you might expect, indicating that people can improve their word power on their own. This and the related linking sites will show you how to expand and to improve your English vocabulary skills. Now, it is up to you to take advantage of these rich vocabulary resources!

"What the elements are to chemistry, what the sounds are to music, are words to language. However, words are not only the elements of a language but also of the history of the people speaking it. They are important milestones along the way leading to the majestic Palace of Human Knowledge".

Dr. Ernest Klein,

Get your dictionary:

http://hotfile.com/dl/26433120/b05fc34/WPro_6.03_Full_All.part1.rar.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/26433198/764b544/WPro_6.03_Full_All.part2.rar.html

The Importance of Reading

It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity. People would spend hours reading books and travel to lands far away-in their minds. The only tragedy is that, with time, people have lost their skill and passion to read. There are many other exciting and thrilling options available, aside from books. And that is a shame because reading offers a productive approach to improving vocabulary and word power. It is advisable to indulge in at least half an hour of reading a day to keep abreast of the various styles of writing and new vocabulary.

It is observed that children and teenagers who love reading have comparatively higher IQs. They are more creative and do better in school and college. It is recommended that parents to inculcate the importance of reading to their children in the early years. Reading is said to significantly help in developing vocabulary, and reading aloud helps to build a strong emotional bond between parents and children. The children who start reading from an early age are observed to have good language skills, and they grasp the variances in phonics much better.

Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become a healthy addiction and adds to the information available on various topics. It helps us to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days of yore and makes us sensitive to global issues.

Reading provides detailed information on Reading, Home Reading, Reading Glasses, Reading Comprehension and more. Reading is affiliated with Educational Games.