Sanity check
(introduction and part one)
Recently in my work I've come across the term "sanity check". Judging by the font of wisdom that is Wikipedia, the term is most commonly used in computer science: A sanity test or sanity check is a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanity_testing) .
As this blog is about translation, especially the métier of being a translator, it seems to be a good theme to kick off with in what I hope will be a long-lasting blog run. Blogs have a habit of dying on us and it takes commitment to keep them going!
Third party (French to English)
So "sanity checks" in translation. For the next few blog entries, I'll be applying this term to editing of our own translations. Whenever I go over our work, I often find myself being too indulgent when it comes to the prose of my translation. I leave in words and phrases that are pure "translationese". Perhaps the word exists in English but has a more restricted usage.
Anyway, our tendency is to translate too literally and, to my mind, one such example is the whole business about third parties.
Here's Wikipedia again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_partyThe term seemingly has broad application but is restricted to definite instances. In my opinion, it chiefly tends to occur in legal and insurance-related matters ("third party, fire and theft" being a basic type of coverage for motor insurance in the UK).
My concern as a translator is that the term is used far more widely in French than in English, and recently I've started translating the term "tiers" as an "independent party", an "outside party". To return to the insurance-related example between the brackets, we can guess who the parties are. The first party is the insurer, the second party is the insured and the third party is the guy whose car you've just driven into. Hence, using the term "third party" makes sense here. But very often, it simply doesn't. Indeed, the Collins Robert gives the option of translating "tiers" as "outsider", and has the following example:
Il a appris la nouvelle par un tiers = Somebody else told him the news
So this sanity check no.1. The top quote from Wikipedia describes this process of testing whether a claim is true. In translation, we're checking whether use of a term reflects proper English usage. You're reading through your sparkling prose and you come across an instance where you have translated (tiers) as third party. Is it a legal text? Or about insurance or some other specialist field? If not, my advise would be to choose another, less haughty term.
Comments welcome.
Recently in my work I've come across the term "sanity check". Judging by the font of wisdom that is Wikipedia, the term is most commonly used in computer science: A sanity test or sanity check is a basic test to quickly evaluate whether a claim or the result of a calculation can possibly be true. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanity_testing) .
As this blog is about translation, especially the métier of being a translator, it seems to be a good theme to kick off with in what I hope will be a long-lasting blog run. Blogs have a habit of dying on us and it takes commitment to keep them going!
Third party (French to English)
So "sanity checks" in translation. For the next few blog entries, I'll be applying this term to editing of our own translations. Whenever I go over our work, I often find myself being too indulgent when it comes to the prose of my translation. I leave in words and phrases that are pure "translationese". Perhaps the word exists in English but has a more restricted usage.
Anyway, our tendency is to translate too literally and, to my mind, one such example is the whole business about third parties.
Here's Wikipedia again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_partyThe term seemingly has broad application but is restricted to definite instances. In my opinion, it chiefly tends to occur in legal and insurance-related matters ("third party, fire and theft" being a basic type of coverage for motor insurance in the UK).
My concern as a translator is that the term is used far more widely in French than in English, and recently I've started translating the term "tiers" as an "independent party", an "outside party". To return to the insurance-related example between the brackets, we can guess who the parties are. The first party is the insurer, the second party is the insured and the third party is the guy whose car you've just driven into. Hence, using the term "third party" makes sense here. But very often, it simply doesn't. Indeed, the Collins Robert gives the option of translating "tiers" as "outsider", and has the following example:
Il a appris la nouvelle par un tiers = Somebody else told him the news
So this sanity check no.1. The top quote from Wikipedia describes this process of testing whether a claim is true. In translation, we're checking whether use of a term reflects proper English usage. You're reading through your sparkling prose and you come across an instance where you have translated (tiers) as third party. Is it a legal text? Or about insurance or some other specialist field? If not, my advise would be to choose another, less haughty term.
Comments welcome.
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