Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a literal translation can be the least faithful
Following each dictionary word can drop the act the sentence was performing.
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From the opening
A literal translation follows local dictionary senses and source word order as closely as it can. The procedure looks faithful because every piece seems accounted for, yet it can be the version that least carries what the sentence was doing. The opening covers why piece-matching can lose force, how idioms break under a glossary, and when a crib is the right tool.
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Inside
- Why piece-matching can lose force
- How idioms break under a glossary
- When a crib is the right tool
- What an utterance was doing
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Word-for-word rendering versus sense-for-sense rendering
- Idiom as a unit a glossary splits apart