When TRANSLATION means  SURVEY

        When translation means survey 

 The following discussion is going to illustrate the daunting task of translation work for many folks think when somebody is capable to express himself  in many languages  ,then he or she is entitled to do a translation work in connection with these very languages.

Yet the truth is a quite different story .Let us take for instance the topic of this discussion that is ,”When translation means survey “and let us assume the destination language is french: at first look a layman who speaks both english and french will attempt a”word-by-word” translation. In other words he will replace the time adverb”when” by its french equivalent,he will change the word”translation” by its french meaning and in the place of the verb”to mean” and the word ”survey”, he will put their respective French counterparts

Yet as we look more closely at this phrase, some significant details become noticeable.

The first of these details is the phrase wording .When we assess that phrase, it appears that the sentence is incomplete and this simple fact leads to questioning.

Additionally it is stated in the English grammar an interrogative sentence that is uttered in the present simple tense displays out the auxiliary verb “to do” and the question mark .Hence were the phrase under studies a question it might have been worded “When does translation mean survey?”

So the grammatical irregularities of this example fuel curiosity and suspicions .

The second detail that can enhance an accurate translation is the genuine meaning of the phrase under studies . Otherwise said, by its definition the word “translation” which is the process of changing words from one language to another can not just be the equivalent of the word “survey” which is an inquiry or an investigation.

Therefore it is obvious that an english-speaking person will  puzzle about the real sense of that phrase .Then an accurate translation should communicate that same feelings of embarrassment and suspicion to his or her fellowman of the destination language . Meanwhile the translator should make sure key-words of the departure phrase feature out in the translated phrase .Consequently the reaction of folks of the departure language (in this case  english) is identical to the reaction of their counterparts of a different linguistic background(in this case French).

Noteworthy is the fact that the punctuation of the translated phrase is dependable on the grammar rules and on the cultural background of the destination language.

With regards to the exercise stated at the beginning of this discussion, we should remember that in french the feelings of embarrassment and suspicion are expressed as hypotheses either in an interrogative form or they are underlined by the conditional perfect tense .They can also be identified by adverbs such as maybe, perhaps and the like .

Subsequently the french translation of the phrase ”when translation means survey” might be worded as follows : ”Et si en fait de traduction, c’était une investigation…?”

 Thanks for reading.