Search results for 'tag:Translation tag:Sentence structures' matching tags 'Translation' and 'Sentence structures'

Re: Translation and ambiguity

Clive — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:44:07 GMT

Hi,
Welcome to the Forum.

I am supposed to have only one which should be ambiguous.

Option 1: A 62-year-old man from NÃ¸tterÃ¸y was Wednesday convicted for murder by Agder Court of Appeals.
Option 2: A 62-year-old man from NÃ¸tterÃ¸y was Wednesday convicted for murder of Agder Court of Appeals.

The question is, how can I re-write the sentence structure, or possibly use another word for "by" or "of", to make this an ambiguous sentence in which it will sound like the man was both convicted for the murder by the Court and killed the Court?

You could say
On Wednesday, a 62-year-old man from NÃ¸tterÃ¸y was convicted of murder in the Agder Court of Appeals.

This leaves it somewhat unclear as to whether the conviction was in the Court of Appeals or the murder itself was in the Court of Appeals.

Best wishes, Clive

Translation and ambiguity

Kamira — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:23:21 GMT

Dear language friends,

I am currently in progress of translating a text from Norwegian into English. However, there is one sentence in particular I find hard to translate. The text is about ambiguity, on how the sentence structure can be interpreted as having more than one meaning. When translating the sentence from Norwegian, I get two possible options. However, I am supposed to have only one which should be ambiguous.

Option 1: A 62-year-old man from NÃ¸tterÃ¸y was Wednesday convicted for murder by Agder Court of Appeals.
Option 2: A 62-year-old man from NÃ¸tterÃ¸y was Wednesday convicted for murder of Agder Court of Appeals.

The question is, how can I re-write the sentence structure, or possibly use another word for "by" or "of", to make this an ambiguous sentence in which it will sound like the man was both convicted for the murder by the Court and killed the Court?

Thank you very much for your time. ^_^

Kamira, an eager English student.

Re: Gerund=past vs Infinitive=present or future

Goodman — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:57:20 GMT

Miche wrote:
Hi, JT.
I can see you don't like rules much and I agree with you. Rules are too restrictive, hamper one's "feeling" the language and deprive him/her of the pleasure of speaking the language. That is a major problem with English learners in my country - they can recite mile-long lists of rules but they simply cannot speak. That's because they start thinking of rules whenever they try to say something. However, non-native speakers need guidelines to learn a language. Probably balance is the key.
As for Seyfihoca's "rule", I think it is very interesting. I've never thought about that. I'm just tempted - linguistically - to think of more such words. And if we are to elaborate on Seyfihoca's assumption, I think we can place Mr. M's four examples in a third group - verbs followed by other verbs that express simultaneous actions.

I agree with you with the highlighted points

I think there are several stages of English learning one must go through before he can express thoughts and idea fluently at will. Without question, stage 1 is to learn the grammar. We need to establish that as a foundation so that more learning can be built on it. At that stage, most learners rely on grammar and text books. Whatever the book says, it must be true and for the most part, it is. But once we pass beyond the basics, more and more questions will surface as our English knowledge gradually builds and accumulates on what we learned.

Next level is to build and expand our vocabulary. Many learners depend on the translation of dictionary in their mother tongue, which can be a problem because what the translated meaning means in their mother tongue often donât carry same weight in meaning in English, or even gone completely off âcourse. This can be frustrating as they learn from time to time they are using words incorrectly.

Speaking from experience, this is the time when one has to be ânaturalizedâ, or âimmersedâ in a constant English speaking environment with natives where he can learn speech patterns, sentence structure, how natural English sounds, and proper word usage; if he is motivated to leap to the next level. This process can take years to refine and many learners will develop a feeling of being stuck at the same spot. Unfortunately many learners are satisfied to just have learned these skills to get by and probably reluctant to the take the next level which is to develop an ability to think, to process logic and to make reasonable arguments in English. This will require all of our mental capacity and the acquired English skill we have learned, and stored in our brain, which is actually a lot harder than just talking about it.

Well I hope you guys donât think I am crazy!

Re: earn my expense

Goodman — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:44:47 GMT

Angliholic wrote:

I keep some money for the tour and I could take some part-time jobs to earn my expense for my dream.

A Taiwanese wrote this. Does it sound right, especially the part in bol? Thanks.

This is a typical "Chinglish" (please pardon the term) sentence structure which is the result of the thought translation process from Chinese to English. The meaning is typically unclear and confusing. But if I have to guess, this is what it means:

I've put aside some money for the trip but I will have to take a few partimes for spending money on my dream trip.

Re: Translation French to English

Mister Micawber — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:25:30 GMT

Yes, it sounds reasonably natural. Some notes:

Use a variety of sentence structures-- complex, compound-complex, etc-- rather than a series of short simple sentences.

Commas go inside of the quotation marks for quotes; as do periods, if the quote is the entire sentence.

Latter, not later

'in charge of the Public Relations Department of the Permanent Secretary of prevention policy' -- something is wrong semantically here.

Doubt, not doubt about

easeâ, says. -- Who says?

police not Police

discourage, not put discourage

encourage needs a direct object

conditional, not conditionally

Please help me check these two thesis abstracts on linguistics about Hakka

Nightstalker — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:36:53 GMT

My high school Chinese teacher asked me to help her translate these two abstracts from Chinese into English. I have finished, but I need to correct them into better English. Please help me. I have to give my teacher the translation. She helped me quite a lot while I encountered the most unfortunate fate in high school days, so I wish I could help her in return. Please help me check one of these two if you have time.

1. Abstract

This study aimed at the morphological comparison of Hai-Lu Hakka and Southern Min including speech sounds, morphology, grammar and culture. The following is the content of this study:

Chapter One Introduction: Presenting the research motive and research method, etc.

Chapter Two Literature Review: Revealing the importance of research in bi-dialects.

Chapter Three The Relationship of Hakka and Southern Min: This chapter presented the overview of historical background, geographical distribution and social contact of the Hakka and the Southern Min.

Chapter Four Phonological Comparison of Hakka and Southern Min: This chapter examined the rules of code-switching and the history of the phonological evolution of both dialects.

Chapter Five and Chapter Six were the morphological comparison of the classification, number of syllables, the composition and the word order regarding Hakka and Southern Min lexical words. It was the hope to find the unique feature words of Hakka and Southern Min as well as those that revealed the linkage of the two dialects.

Chapter Seven Syntax Comparisons: This chapter discussed the dynamic aspect of words as they turned into sentences, including discussions on aspectuality and sentence structure.

In addition, Chapter Eight probed further into lexical items in terms of culture, focusing on the classical words, words with âmaâ, the forbidden words and the borrowed words and the way they reflected the culture.

Chapter Nine Conclusion: this chapter presents the conclusion of this study and suggestion for future research.

This study looks forward to a more rising research attention regarding the languages of Taiwan enabling the development of Hakka and Southern Min to move from the state of co-existence to the common good in this new century.

Key words: Hai-Lu Hakka, the comparison of Hakka and Southern Min, bi-dialects, the languages of Taiwan, morphology

2. The Morphology of Hakka Gender Word âmaâ and the Cultural Interpretation

Abstract:

Language is the symbol of culture. When a dialect has a word that is rare or even unfound in others, this word is considered precious for it often reflects the unique culture of this dialect. Such a word was found in Hakka. It was the gender word âmaâ, which was unusual in other dialects but was habitually used in Hakka as a feature word. On the basis of the research of this study, âmaâ was used with at least eighty Hakka lexical words. This study examined the usage of the lexical words with âmaâ; first, the semantic relationship and morphology of the word âmaâ was discussed before probing into the cultural implication for its extensive use in Hakka. The goal was to uncover the various complicated semantic relationships. This study discovered that âmaâ had as many as 15 lexical combinations and at least 9 extended meanings. It should be noted that in some combinations âmaâ were considered affixes while in others they were only quasi-affixes. In addition to âmaâ, discussions of other gender words in Hakka such as âkungâ, âkuâ and âpoâ were also included in this study.

The conclusion of this study was that Hakka had a particularly rich gender affixes and it was highly likely to be the results of general personification or deification of the Hakka. Based on the word âmaâ, the unique characteristics of Hakka culture was also revealed to a certain degree.

Key words: Hakka lexical words, feature words, affixes, gender, ma

Note: âma(old lady or granny)â, âkung(elder man)â and âpo(old lady or old woman)â can be shown using the original character and transliteration such as "ma(å«²)". They are the gender affixes for words in Hakka or Southern Min such as âgingerâ, âThunder Godâ and ârocksâ, etc.

Re: Question on using comma (Some more questions)

Wytam — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 15:43:25 GMT

Thanks a lot!

We do have unclear conversation / writing. As I'm taking a translation course, I've to understand the English meaning /sentence structure & then translate it. If this means unclear, it will be translated this way.

Some unsolved queries:

(1) Susan puts some nuts on the chocolate cake in strawberry sauce, which are her favourites.

1a- Is "her favourites" referring to "some nuts"? Is it clear in meaning? Any other possible meaning?

(2) Susan puts a cherry on the chocolate cake in strawberry sauce, which is her favourite.

2a- Could "her favourite" refer to "a cherry"?

2b- Or, is "her favourite" will still inclined to be 'chocolate cake in strawberry sauce' as it is the nearest words to "her favourite".

2c- Could it mean "her favourite" = "a cherry on the chocolate cake in strawberry saurce"? if not, how to present for that meaning?

2d- If "her favourite" is just "the cherry", then "Susan puts a cherry, which is her favourite, on the chocolate cake in strawberry sauce." Right?

2e- If "her favourite" is just "the cake", then "Susan puts a cherry on the chocolate cake, which is her favourite, in strawberry sauce." Right?

2f- In general specking, is it not proper to make such an unclear sentence? Any exception?

Re: please correct my application. please help :-(

Katarina — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:51:57 GMT

ManiacX78X wrote:
Hello,
i study technician engineering in germany and my last english lesson is about 7 years ago. I've wrote an application in german, but i need an english translation too. Therefore i have used the follwing free online translator http://www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html.
But I think there are a lot of mistakes and grammer errors.

Please i need your help to translate it in good english. please help me.

Application:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

with ambition and strength of will I fought by the study and won myself. In the training as the industrial mechanic aroused interest in technical connections solidified itself during the study.

Purposeful coworkers get your renowned enterprise going.

My theoretical and practical experiences correspond to your applicant profile. Gladly I place myself again and again to new challenges.

In order to secure success durably, further training and auxiliary qualifications are necessary. For this reason I acquired knowledge in the range of the motor vehicle and laser technology into trend-setting technologies and existed the teacher qualification test. During the study I worked on different projects such as device construction.

My specialized technical and my know-how help, To realize visions. Likewise sole responsibility and team ability distinguish me. Among my natural kind of nature rank reliability, safe occurrence, good umgangsformen and a maintained appearance. Flexibility, I prove and let mobility and good sprachkenntnisse gladly me your enterprise internationally represent.

I expect to the invitation to a personal discussion gladly and remain yours sincerely from Dortmund

Thanks for help Andreas

Hello Andreas,

You can't really depend on such online translation softwares. You will always end up with innumerable mistakes in sentence structure AND grammar. My advice to you is to try write the application letter in English yourself. Then post it again here to be corrected.

Start your letter with "I am writing to apply for the position of ... " And then you can write in details about your qualifications and experience.

Kat

Re: Thinking in English

Orpheus — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 01:57:58 GMT

A lot of people associate 'thinking in English' with 'not translating' but isn't that a bit 'underestimating' translation? 'not translating literally' is maybe a more appropriate phrase.
If it's about 'not translating literally', would it mean the same, for instance, if I say 'Use English sentence structure, use English vocabulary, use CORRECT English'? Is it just a nicer way to tell people to use correct English?