Re: Colons and translation?

Subject: Re: Colons and translation?
From: Pro TechWriter <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 07:43:43 -0500

Geoff, what a great explanation. I see an article here for someone, maybe
the STC journal. Thanks for writing this. You answered a bunch of my
questions as well, because our standards don't allow parentheses or colons
because of "translation issues." I had always read that using punctuation to
make the meaning as clear as possible was important for translated material,
including parentheses, colons, and semicolons.
Our standards here are different, which confused me. Based on your
explanation, I think I understand the reasons :-)
PT

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:30 AM, Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> wrote:

> Ian Saunders wondered: <<Can anyone tell me whether colons used to
> introduce lists, sequences, etc. cause problems for text localisation/
> translation?>>
>
> I can't speak to problems related to computer-assisted translation,
> but I can tell you (ca. 20 years as a professional French translator)
> that any translator who claims to have difficulty with standard
> English punctuation or grammar should be fired immediately and with no
> sympathy. This is a business for professionals, and amateurs shouldn't
> be playing games; the risks that arise from translation errors are too
> serious to ignore.
>
> <<If they do not have this function in all languages (that are likely
> to require translated versions!), would you expect the person doing
> the translation to deal with them, or would you be expected to modify
> your text in some way before it gets translated (e.g. replace them
> with periods)?>>
>
> The bottom line in translation is always this: Is the meaning clear in
> the original language? If it's not, then you'll always be creating
> problems for your translator, regardless of differences in linguistic
> structure. The fact that a given structure does not exist in a second
> language is irrelevant: either the translator understands the source
> language, with all its quirks, well enough to translate it, or they
> don't. Some natural structures of a language can make the task more
> difficult for speakers of another language, but that difficulty is
> inherent to the job of translation, and those structures should only
> be avoided in speech or untranslated text (where they can cause
> problems for non-translators), not in text that will be translated.
>
> That being said, a good editor can save you tons of money in
> translation -- possibly even enough to cover the costs of editing in
> the long term. Editors can make the wording more concise (reducing
> word count directly reduces costs) and can (if warned that something
> will be translated) be less forgiving about the kinds of acceptable
> vagueness that creep into a language and pose few problems to native
> speakers. For example, phrasal verbs can often be replaced with
> single, more specific verbs, which both decreases word count and
> increases clarity.
>
> One of the biggest mistakes people make is sending material to a
> translator before it's ready for translation. This doesn't mean that
> you should send text for translation only when the product is ready to
> ship; that's often impossible. It does mean that the text should be
> "ready to print" if nothing about the product changes. This means it's
> been reviewed so the facts are correct and edited so it clearly
> presents those facts. That reduces the risk of translation errors, and
> reduces the costly process of change management in two or more
> languages.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
> ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Effective Onscreen Editing:
> http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Colons and translation: From: Saunders, Ian
Colons and translation?: From: Geoff Hart

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