Posts Tagged french
Why Translation Can be Difficult
Do you sometimes wonder why certain materials are badly translated? One of these reasons why translation is difficult is a phenomenon known as polysemy: the many meanings that a single word can take.
For example, In English, the word plain can take on the following meanings:
- ordinary / undecorated: a plain white shirt
- easy / simple to understand: plain English
- a level area of land: great plains
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The European Union – A Linguistic Tower of Babel
The story goes that after the destruction of the Tower of Babel, mankind was confounded by having to speak a multitude of languages and thus, any attempt at unified objectives would come to naught. It seems, however, that some 2,000 years later, The European Union is spawning a whole industry in translation services in order to keep up with the languages used in the decision making process.
With some 20 officially recognised sovereign languages, the EU’s inclusive philosophy renders the task of running the European Parliament a truly formidable one. The problem is highlighted by two interesting facts; firstly, only around 40% of Europeans are multilingual and secondly, 20 languages yield a total of around 190 possible language combinations (e.g. German-French, Czech-Greek, Danish-Dutch etc).
Tags: french, language, languages, linguistic, linguists, special, translate, translation, translation agencies, translation services, translations, translator, translatorsRelated posts
Do You Wanna be a Linguist – Learn Spanish or French Now!
If you want to learn a second language, you should learn French or Spanish. Why? Because French is the most commonly spoken language in the world after English…
French is seen by many as the language of love. I don’t know why but French seems to be a synonym of romance. It is true that Paris is a beautiful place, don’t you want to have a walk on the champs Elysées?
Spanish is also a language that you should consider. French is my native tongue, but Spanish sounds more romantic than French to me.
Tags: english, france, french, french words, language, languages, learn french, learn spanish, school, study, traduction, translate, translation, translator, writingRelated posts