RE: [xmca] review of Italian translation of Thinking and Speech: In defence o...

Message from Francine:
 
The process that translators go through in deciding what word to use
involves decisions about the standard meaning of the word in the original language,
various alternative and subtle meanings of the word in the original language,
and what nuance of meaning is appropriate for
the context of the sentence, or even the conceptual framework, being put forth.
 
For example, I once took some Vygotsky translators to task (in my review for the
American Library Association) because they translated chelovek as man instead of
human being and therefore translated the impersonal Russian pronoun sebya
as his (instead of recognizing that it is a gender neutral pronoun in Russian -
yevo would be the masculine pronoun.) I found it significant that the text in Russian
allowed for the translation (and interpretation) that tools were invented by primitive
human beings (allowing for the possibility that cavewomen, as well as, cavemen
were inventing scrapers and blades out of stone and bone.) Could Vygotsky have
intended to include women? In the Russian text was it Vygotsky who chose to use
chelovek (which the Oxford Russian-English Dictionary defines as man or human being
and the gender neutral pronoun sebya.)
 
Intriguing alternative translations.
 
Since my keyboard does not include the Cyrillic alphabet, was my choice of English
lettering for the Russian words appropriate?
> From: TVMathDude who-is-at aol.com> Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 22:36:07 -0400> Subject: Re: [xmca] review of Italian translation of Thinking and Speech: In defence o...> To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu; the_yasya@yahoo.com> CC: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu; ZinchRAE@mtu-net.ru; borlogic@orexovo.net> > This discussion is at the heart of my concern that translating from one > culture to another not only loses a lot in the conversion, but hides the beauty > or clarity of the original text. It is very frustrating to read an early > translation of Vygotsky and think you are beginning to understand the relevance of > his thinking to the way I teach only to get a hold of a later translation > and wonder which is better? While it may slow down the reading and take many > more pages, we may need to have more explanation of the difference of the > meaning of the Russian word and the English word that is used to translate it.> > Roger> > > > **************Vote for your city's best dining and nightlife. City's Best > 2008. (http://citysbest.aol.com?ncid=aolacg00050000000102)> _______________________________________________> xmca mailing list> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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Received on Tue Jun 10 14:06 PDT 2008