Dictionaries on line

[Edward M Dumanis]

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, william ryan wrote:
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snip
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> What to do? The lexicographer has to assume some knowledge on the part
> of the user. The calibre of cannon in War and Peace was measured in
> 'linii', lines - how many people now know what lines were as a
> measurement? But that has to be the translation if one is to avoid
> anachronism. Perhaps the only answer in a teaching context is to tell
> students to use good comprehensive single-language English and Russian
> dictionaries at the same time as the R>E and E>R dictionaries.

I have heard of this calibre before but it has never occurred to me that I
did not know what it actually meant.   Now, thanks to Webster, I know
that it is 1/12". Everything depends on the purpose of a translation.
>From my point of view, there is a difference between strict translation
and adaptation where the former is a map between contemporary languages,
and the latter is modification of the text to facilitate reading to cover
a gap in time, age, and so on.
A strict translation is always a translation addressed to the
contemporaries of the original, and adaptation can be used
to facilitate reading of the works distant in time. A translation is
a strict translation either combined with adaptation or without it.
For a strict translation, one would try to preserve all anachronisms, and
translator's footnote/endnote is a very good tool to facilitate reading
without doing any adaptation.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>

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