(Aside: Translators might have preferred that the article carry the title: Ten scientific terms and expressions that scientists wish you would stop misusing.)At first guess, I think I guess that most of these terms have direct equivalents in western European languages and most of those equivalents are misused in much the same way.
Comme en 2012/2013, la traduction de ce nouveau hors-série sera confiée à Steve Dyson, traducteur spécialisé qui nous permet de proposer un magazine en langue anglaise irréprochable, notamment au niveau technique. Un travail remarquable qui a largement contribué au succès de la dernière édition, saluée unanimement par les professionnels et nos confrères internationaux pour sa qualité rédactionnelle et iconographique, ainsi que sa présentation. Tout ce qui fait que désormais, et nous en sommes très fiers et heureux, le Hors série Forces Navales de Mer et Marine/Sea and Navy est devenu le support français de référence, reconnu et attendu par l’ensemble du secteur.Friend and colleague John Smellie of E-Files (John also curates a ScoopIt page) kindly suggested the following translation:
Hoping to repeat the success of our first special issue in 2012/2013, we've already booked Steve Dyson to translate the next one. Steve is a real specialist in naval affairs and his excellent input last time, particularly on a technical level, made the English language version a big hit with naval professionals and fellow journalists around the world — all told us it was well written, beautifully illustrated and perfectly executed down to the last detail.Many thanks to Vincent and his team for the praise and to John for the translation.
De l’Europe à l’Asie en passant par le Moyen-Orient, l’Amérique latine ou encore l’Océanie, nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer que le nouveau magazine de Mer et Marine va réaliser un second tour du monde. Publiée directement en anglais et présentant les produits et savoir-faire des entreprises françaises et franco-européennes du secteur naval, aéronaval et de la sécurité maritime, cette édition 2014/2015 sera dévoilée en octobre prochain, à l'ouverture du salon Euronaval. ... qui se déroulera au Bourget du 27 au 31 octobre.
Comme l’an dernier, avec la première édition de Sea and Navy, version anglaise du hors-série francophone publié en octobre 2012, le prochain magazine traversera les océans pour être présent en 2015 dans les plus grands salons internationaux intéressant les acteurs de l’industrie navale et de la sécurité maritime. Cela, grâce à un accord de partenariat renouvelé avec le GICAN, que nous remercions pour sa confiance. Dans le cadre de sa mission de promotion des industries navales et maritimes françaises, celui-ci va mettre à disposition le nouveau magazine de Mer et Marine sur les pavillons France des différents salons auxquels il participera. Les visiteurs et délégations officielles accueillies sur ces espaces auront ainsi, à disposition, un support de qualité présentant les compétences, références et produits proposés par les industriels tricolores. Les salons prévus sont NAVDEX à Abu Dhabi (22 au 26 février 2015), LIMA à Langkawi, en Malaisie (17 au 21 mars 2015), LAAD à Rio de Janeiro, au Brésil (14 au 17 avril 2015), IMDEX à Singapour (19 au 21 mai 2015), IMDS à Saint-Pétersbourg, en Russie (1er au 5 juillet 2015), PACIFIC à Sydney, en Australie (6 au 8 octobre 2015) et DEFENSE & SECURITY à Bangkok, en Thaïlande (2 au 5 novembre 2015).
Comme en 2012/2013, la traduction de ce nouveau hors-série sera confiée à Steve Dyson, traducteur spécialisé qui nous permet de proposer un magazine en langue anglaise ...
Everyone knows that job ads are an area that attracts the worst sort of grandiose language, especially when they have been put through a headhunter’s mangle that makes every employer “world-class”. But when the company itself can’t describe what its own people do, and can’t say anything clearly about who it wants to fill them, I fear trouble.
Apple’s hitherto nice way with words was almost certainly a part of its success. Perhaps the language helped cause the success, or perhaps the success caused the language. The company’s new, ugly words suggest it has got too big and too corporate to hang on to the things that once made it different. Apple seems to have become at least as Kafkaesque as everywhere else.Only time will tell if Lucy is on the right, which is to say if it is indeed possible to get an insight into strategic wavering and possible loss of direction from the close analysis of corporate communications.This thought often crosses the attentive translator's mind. While many, indeed far too many, see 'business speak', 'corporate guff' and the like as one of the easier categories of translation, a quick glance at the examples quoted by Lucy reveals just how turgid this type of document can be.
"Machines and dictionaries translate words. But it takes a thinking, reasoning human being to translate what words mean. Consider how you would translate the simple command “Shoot”, depending on whether the person doing the shooting is a soldier, a footballer, a photographer, a gambler throwing dice, or a friend with something to tell you that you are eager to hear. The key here, as in all translation, is context."
We know the majority of Australians are opposed to a local tipping culture. ...Some words hide more meaning than others.
the head of the Restaurants and Catering Industry Association of Australia, John Hart, conceded that when it comes to tipping, it’s too late.
... “You can’t overlay what is the highest wage cost base in the world with a tipping culture. That has pushed us to point where there is virtually no latitude for customers to leave a tip. The propensity to leave a tip is minimal.”
The lack of a tipping culture in Australia is largely down to our wage structure which sees a minimum wage (around $17 an hour) mandated on hospitality pay. This is in stark contrast to the United States, where there is a strong tipping culture but minimum hospitality wages of between $2 and $3 an hour.
The hospitality workers’ union United Voice acting national secretary David O’Byrne said ... “Staff in the US are effectively begging for a weekly wage. You can’t plan your life, you can’t get a loan and you get caught in a poverty trap. My first job was as a porter in a hotel and you got tips from time to time but you can’t plan what that’s going to be.
I’ve spoken to workers in the US and it’s not a dignified life. In Australia, tips are a gratuity and people who go to work deserve to have dignity. There’s no substitute for decent wages, training and culture.”
... the word “passion” properly refers either to a strong sexual attraction or to the suffering of Jesus Christ at the time of the crucifixion, neither of which are terribly appropriate in an office setting.then went on to add:
... the passion fashion was just another tiresome example of language inflation. Just as companies refer to all employees as “talent”, even when they are lazy and mediocre, and just as they talk flatulently of “astounding” and “enchanting” customers, they also insist on passion as an entry ticket to any job. It is brainless and bogus ...Lucy is, once again, offering excellent advice.
The question I'm currently asking myself is how our scientific understanding of language can be put into practice to improve the way that we communicate anything, including science?
In particular, can you use linguistics, cognitive science, and psycholinguistics to come up with a better style manual—a 21st century alternative to the classic guides like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style?
The problem with any given construction, like the passive voice, isn't that people use it, but that they use it too much or in the wrong circumstances.
Ironically, the aspect of writing that gets the most attention is the one that is least important to good style, and that is the rules of correct usage.
The first thing you should think about is the stance that you as a writer take when putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
A lot of Strunk and White's advice depended completely on their gut reactions from a lifetime of practice as an English professor and critic, respectively. Today we can offer deeper advice, such as the syntactic and discourse functions of the passive voice—a construction which, by the way, Strunk & White couldn't even consistently identify, not having being trained in grammar.
Many people get incensed about so-called errors of grammar which are perfectly unexceptionable.
Another bit of psychology that can make anyone a better writer is to be aware of a phenomenon sometimes called The Curse of Knowledge. It goes by many names, and many psychologists have rediscovered versions of it, including defective Theory of Mind, egocentrism, hindsight bias, and false consensus. They're all versions of an infirmity afflicting every member of our species, namely that it's hard to imagine what it's like not to know something that you do know.
Personal responsibility occupies Nicole Vincent's centre stage. But the closer she looks the more complex it appears. The times aren’t helping: pills and potions are being used to sharpen the wits in a very modern race to be the best. When simply being good may not be good enough, where does this leave responsibility? Should we expect more from Superman than Clark Kent?Most of the discussion focuses on questions of responsibility raised by performance enhancing drugs and aids. Professor Vincent mentions transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a physical aid described in Want to enhance your brain power? (subtitled: Research hints that electrically stimulating the brain can speed learning) by Emily Singer in the 26 June 2008 issue of MIT Technology Review and many subsequent articles.
The grammatical sense of the word is actually older (from the 14th century: it’s related to genre and genus, i.e. type, kind, origin) and the meaning was extended in the 15th century to the human phenomenon. For a while, this extension led to gender being used as a euphemism for “sex,” where both words could refer to social or biological differences, but starting in the 1960s, feminist writers began using gender to refer to the social distinction and sex to refer to the biological one, presumably to make it easier to talk about these two phenomena separately.
Incidentally, the conflation of the grammatical and natural meanings of gender is responsible for the confusion of English speakers learning a foreign language with a “gender system.” “What,” the learner inevitably remarks to themself, “is so darn male or female about plates and bowls anyway?” The answer is nothing.
