Unglued about zlepenec

[R. M. Cleminson]

As I said before, context is all, and none of the suggestions seems to work perfectly in these contexts.  If you want a single English word with all the connotations of Slovak zlepenec, then -- barring a stroke of genius by some other Seelanger -- I don't think you're going to get one.  If you want a simple translation, in the sense of something that conveys the meaning accurately without trying to preserve all the metaphorical or connotative aspects of the original, then I think what you're dealing with is "an unstable coalition".  Semantically that works in all these sentences, though I admit it fails properly to convey the overtone of contempt in the first of them, for example.

----- Pôvodná správa -----
Od: "Martin Votruba" <votruba+slangs at PITT.EDU>
Komu: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Odoslané: piatok, 25. november 2011 0:33:28
Predmet: Re: [SEELANGS] Unglued about zlepenec

Dear colleagues, thank you all, you have helped me a lot with this. If anyone can still find the time, could you, please, consider the "fragility" of zlepenec in political contexts, where that implication comes to the foreground.

Here's the list by frequency and then alphabetized. Would any of the words and phrases be more likely to go together with comments predicting that the glued-together hack job is likely to get unglued (and be expressive to boot)?

For instance, the commentators and combative politicians do not use the word gula's~, although it can have the same implications as in English, because no matter how incongruous, goulash will not disintegrate back into its constituent parts, nor does the word imply the likelihood of disintegration.

2x a grab bag + a rag-bag
2x a hodgepodge
2x a mishmash
a chunk
a clump
a gallimaufry
a hash
a hunk
a lumping together
a motley assemblage
a patchwork
a wad
a clumped-together X
a ragtag X
a slap-dash X
a X chunk
a X clump
a X lump

Examples of comments:

Of course they're coming apart, they're just a zlepenec.
The pre-election zlepenec was put together for purely utilitarian purposes.
The parties formed a zlepenec that will fall apart as soon as the election is over.
Such a zlepenec can't hold together for even a year after the elections.
The zlepenec contains parties from the permissive Greens to the forbidding Catholics.
You formed a zlepenec, that's why you're already breaking up.

Would premodifiers like flimsy, brittle (probably not frail, fragile, etc., which can lean toward sympathy) help?


Martin

votruba "at" pitt "dot" edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________________________________________________

http://zajtrajsie.sme.sk - tipujte najblizsie sportove vysledky aj politicke udalosti

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------