Versatility?

[alex gross]

Dear Wolfgang,

Thanks so much for your query. The obvious source in this interview is the 
interviewer herself, at that time a noted medical translator named Sandra 
Celt.  I doubt if she would have used the term if she had not just come 
across it in a medical text she had been translating.  Many odd terms can 
crop up in such texts, though none of them detract from the reality that 
German medical terms are often more readily tranparent to their speeakers 
than English ones are.

Very best!

alex

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wolfgang Schulze" <W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
To: "alex gross" <language at sprynet.com>
Cc: <FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: [FUNKNET] Versatility?


> Dear Alex,
> let me just ask one thing: Where did you get the 'German' word 
> "Wuetschwunder" (for contusion ?) from? Being a native of German, I've 
> never heard this term, and I doubt whether it's current among German 
> children either. Any reference for this word? By the way: The German 
> equivalent of contusion would be 'Prellung, Erguss, Quetschung', coming 
> close to English bruise.
> Best,
> Wolfgang
>
>
> Am 19.03.2011 10:39, schrieb alex gross:
>> Suspect some languages may have problems becoming more versatile due to 
>> unconscious esthetic factors, for instance a preference in English for 
>> high-flown latinate names over more basic equivalents, even when such 
>> equivalents might be theoretically available. Which of course can lead to 
>> greater "complexity," though not in a positive way. Gave some examples of 
>> this in a 1987 interview on translating medical terms across Chinese, 
>> English, and German:
>>
>> "A. Take the two bones in our lower arm. The only names we have for them 
>> today are ulna and radius. These are the 'scientific names,' the ones 
>> medical people--and few others--learn. Those bones are important to you 
>> every day, yet you have no everyday way of referring to them at all. But 
>> there is clear evidence from historical linguistics that these bones once 
>> had other names. The ulna was once called the 'el,' the radius possibly 
>> something like the 'spoke.' We know about the 'el' from Seventeenth 
>> Century poetry (maid to lover: 'if I give you an inch, you'll soon take 
>> an el') but also from modern German, where the words are die Elle and die 
>> Speiche."
>>
>> "Even in modern English the place where the 'el' makes a bend or 'bow' 
>> (sich beugt) is called the elbow. In Chinese these words translate as 
>> foot-measure bone (close to the meaning of 'el') and rowing bone. All 
>> bones and all locations in the body have similar down-to-earth names in 
>> Chinese. Which people is likely to be on better terms with their 
>> bodies--one that has names such as these or one where everything is 
>> linguistically off-limits except to doctors? German continues to a better 
>> job here even today with such words as Gehirnhautentzündung and Harnröhre 
>> for meningitis and urethra.
>>
>>    "Q. It also occurs to me that a German child could understand words 
>> like Riss- und Wuetschwunder, whereas an English-speaking child would not 
>> understand 'lacerations and contusions.'"
>>
>> Full text of this piece is available at:
>>
>> http://language.home.sprynet.com/lingdex/chinmed.htm#totop
>>
>> All the best to everyone!
>>
>> alex
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tahir Wood" <twood at uwc.ac.za>
>> To: <FUNKNET at listserv.rice.edu>
>> Sent: Friday, March 18, 2011 8:07 AM
>> Subject: [FUNKNET] Versatility?
>>
>>
>> In the wake of all this discussion about increasing complexity, I wonder 
>> if anyone here has thoughts on versatility. Does language become 
>> increasingly versatile?
>> Tahir
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>
> -- 
>
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> *Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze *
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