Thursday, November 21, 2024

12/02 Readings - Aaron

 Schleiermacher's analyses on scientific and literary translations seem very applicable to the type of work we've been doing in this class, since we have faced many of the same issues he has, including approximating the meaning of a word in a different language, create new words that mimic the effect in another language, and overall balancing the authenticity and readability between languages, especially between English and Japanese, two linguistic opposites. 

On the other hand, Deutscher's passage focuses on how people's habitual thought patterns and perceptions are influenced by language and upbringing/ background. I found the example with bridges between Germany and Spain to be very intriguing as in Taiwan and America (where I grew up) there wasn't an "implied" gender of the bridge, but mainly we were communicated its functions, significance, etc. Same thing with spatial orientation, I didn't properly learn about the cardinal directions until I discovered what a compass was. However, with colour perception I can kind of see how the upbringing influences this, as colourblind people may have a different idea of certain colours compared to people without colourblindness. This may also have an effect on translation as translators must consider the target audience/ readers of their texts in order to convey the correct ideas across different languages and not distort the words of the original author(s).

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