[Lingtyp] Citing text in European languages without translation

[Mattis List]

Dear Ian,

I think the reason for this practice is the history of the field of
linguistics (in Europe), where lots of the early linguistic work was
written in French, German, and less so in English. French was one of the
languages that were listed as basic conditions (or recommendations) for
starting the study of Indo-European linguistics in Berlin, when I was a
student, although this was never tested. Many people who grow up in an
English academic context studying philosophy still consider it important
to learn German. In German work, we rarely translate English texts, and
some do the same with French texts, even in English journalism, some
journalists consider it as okay to mix some German and French words or
phrases here and there.

Clearly, knowing French and German as a linguist can be an advantage, if
one is interested in reading the classics in the original, such as
Gabelentz (who wrote an excellent Chinese grammar that has not been
translated yet) or Meillet (for his numerous contributions to
methodology), and there are many others. But so are other languages with
linguistic and philosophical traditions, and depending on the subfield,
knowledge of them is almost obligatory. Ideally, all linguists would be
able to read as many of the languages in which scholarly work is
produced as possible. And ideally, all linguists would also write
scientific work in their mother tongue, as this may encourage younger
scholars and students.

As to the practice of not translating: I followed this in my
dissertation, since this was what I had learned: German and French
should not be translated. Having been teaching a lot more in the
meantime, however, and also having been giving courses in different
contexts where this "Indo-Europeanist" tradition differs, I have dropped
it now and provide translations for German and French, as I would do it
for Chinese and Russian. But still, in some cases, journals don't even
allow you to provide translations of the titles in the references (few
style guides include recommendations for translated titles or for
quoting a book you have read in translation along with the original).

Interestingly, the ancient Europe, which we use to justify the mix of
German, English, and French, was apparently not that multilingual as one
tends to imagine it: August Schleicher did not write his famous comment
on Darwin's Origin of Species until he was given a German translation.
Nowadays, he'd probably would have written his comment in bad English,
who knows. I find it difficult to say what is better: embracing
multlingualism in scientific work or embracing English monolingualism,
where all those who do not have English as a mothertongue are also in
disadvantage. Maybe there's a way in the middle. But translations should
always be given into the language in which you write your text (at least
that's what I think now), including titles in the references. We do our
scientific work not only to convince people, but also to give our
colleagues a chance to learn more. By providing a translation, you
provide insights into a work to those who are not able to read it
directly, so one could say it is some kind of a scientific service,
maybe even a duty.

Best,

Mattis

On 26.06.20 05:56, joo at shh.mpg.de wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> In linguistics, it is common to see in-text citation of text written in
> different European languages without giving translation, such as an
> English paper quoting French text without additional translation,
> assuming that the reader is able to read these languages.
> I believe that this practice is problematic and we should not assume the
> readers to be able to read French, German, or other European languages
> (unless the topic of the paper is directly related to one of these
> languages). Why do we assume the reader to read a European language but
> not a non-European language such as Chinese or Turkish? Clearly the
> latter two are also languages used extensively in academic works, why
> should they almost always be given translation when European languages
> like French or German are very often exempted from translation?
> I would like to know your opinion on this. I’m writing this on this
> mailing list because I believe this happens more often in typology than
> in many other subfields.
> 
> Regards,
> Ian Joo
> 
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