Friday, March 31, 2023

Canongate nabs Hahn's book on language and the 'unlikely art of translating Shakespeare' - The Bookseller - Translation

Canongate has nabbed Daniel Hahn’s book on language and "the unlikely art of translating Shakespeare".

Publisher at large Francis Bickmore acquired world rights to If This Be Magic: Shakespeare, Language and the Unlikely Art of Translation directly from the author. The rights have since been pre-empted by Alfred Knopf in North America and by Companhia das Letras in Brazil.

The book, which Canongate will publish in April 2026, explores what it means to translate Shakespeare. The publisher synopsis said: "When we change all the poetry, all the wordplay, all the syntax – all the words! – is it still Shakespeare? And is it still any good? This book by seasoned translator and Shakespeare fanatic, Daniel Hahn, will change the way you think about language itself."

The book will range widely across Shakespeare’s work and different languages to explore what translators have done, and "what is even possible".

Hahn’s latest work is Catching Fire: A Translation Diary (Charco Press), and his translation of A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa (Vintage) won the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award. He has been a judge for prizes including the International Booker Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and was previously chair of the Society of Authors and on the board of trustees of English PEN.

He said: "I first wrote about Shakespeare in translation as an undergraduate, about a thousand years ago, so it feels about time I got around to writing this book. And I can’t believe my luck – I’m just delighted it has landed at Canongate."

Bickmore added: ‘"Who better to write a book about language than a polyglot Shakespeare fanatic with a gift for telling a story? That man is Daniel Hahn and we are so happy that he has chosen to join Canongate’s list."

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Elon Musk Brutally Owned by Merriam-Webster Dictionary - Futurism - Dictionary

We love this for them.

Definition of Burn

While the Twitter world waits for owner Elon Musk's next controversial decree, the trolling geniuses behind the Merriam-Webster dictionary's social presence have provided some much-needed comedic relief.

"People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions," the famous dictionary's account tweeted — a clear dunk on Twitter Blue, the infamous subscription service that may soon be the sole determinator as to whether someone can get a blue verification checkmark.

Musk's Twitter Blue gambit once again made headlines this week after the site owner announced that soon, only those who subscribe to the paid service will be able to be featured in the social network's "For You" suggestions and vote in polls (after near-universal condemnation, he walked it back slightly).

Earlier this month, Twitter announced that the site will begin removing verification from "legacy" verified accounts, or those who got their blue checkmarks from the admittedly fraught system that was in place before Musk took over the site.

Future Tense

As you can imagine, both of these announcements have been met with serious pushback, and perhaps as a half-baked prophecy, Merriam-Webster also joked about a rollback of its own, too.

"It has been brought to our attention that we've been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828," the follow-up tweet read. "Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued."

The jokes didn't stop there, though. When someone asked whether they'd get their $8 back, the account responded with the Merriam-Webster dictionary link to the word "NO" — a clear dig at Musk's mercurial and cash-grabby management strategy.

This is, of course, far from the first time Merriam-Webster's social media manager has garnered press for being hilarious — but we must admit, this one was particularly tickling.

More on Musk: Elon Musk Reportedly Tried to Take Over OpenAI Several Years Ago, But Failed


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Columbia Sportswear ad asking people to ‘be the goat’ in French puzzles Quebecers - Global News - Translation

The French translation for a Columbia Sportswear advertisement slogan in Quebec is turning heads.

The English acronym for ‘GOAT’, which stands for ‘greatest of all time,’ seems to be used in a clever slogan “be the goat,” but the French translation to “soyez la chèvre” isn’t sitting well with some.

People walking by the banner hanging on the side of The Bay in downtown Montreal has some laughing.

“Is it on purpose?” asked Jo Rakotontrasoa, who stopped to take a picture of it. “But it’s funny, I think it’s funny.”

Some are just puzzled.

“I don’t really know. It doesn’t tell me much, honestly,” said Alexandre Beal.

Elodie Guerou didn’t get it at first glance, either.

“I’m a bit confused. Why the goat? I don’t get it,” she said, looking at the banner.

The television ad depicts a mountain goat frolicking and reaching the summit.

“Goats don’t care about being the G.O.A.T, they just care about being a goat,” the ad begins.

Read more: Quebec takes aim at ‘Franglais’ in new ad campaign

More on Canada

In it, the sportswear company is promoting its new hiking shoes.

But some experts say the meaning gets lost in the French translation.

“You don’t translate a slogan like you would a birth certificate or a marriage licence,” said Charles Marcil, a translator.

“You have to be creative, you have to use the idiomatic tools that are available in the target language and this obviously was not done.”

The owner of CFL marketing, Francois L’Espinay, says when crafting a campaign for Quebec, companies need to keep in mind it’s a distinct society. “People from Quebec don’t think alike, they have a special way to live and in advertising. It’s very different,” said L’Espinay.

“That’s why a lot of even big agencies from the states or wherever, they have problems when they come to Quebec.”

Meanwhile, Columbia officials are not being sheepish.

Read more: TTC riders react to transit agency’s new ad campaign

They say the ad wasn’t meant as a referral to the term “Greatest Of All Time.”

“We certainly don’t want to make that statement, that we’re the greatest of all times. We certainly hope we’re making a great hiking boot that helps people get outdoors,” said Scott Trepanier, the company’s vice-president of brand strategy.

“The intention of the ad campaign is to really be the goat, to be the goat who is getting out there enjoying the outdoors while being stable and protected on the trail.”

Trepanier says they did consult with a Quebec marketing team and they were following language laws.

But for some, the ad remains “meh”.

“Yes,” said Beal, who says the ad doesn’t give him the urge to buy the shoes.

Click to play video: 'The language of signs in Quebec'

The language of signs in Quebec

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Thursday, March 30, 2023

Lost in translation: Why sarkar is taking away Sarkars' lands - Times of India - Translation

BENGALURU: In the hierarchy of government lexicon, the term "sarkar" might signal omnipotence. Not so much the Bengali surname "Sarkar", as 727 Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan settled in Karnataka would testify.
Capture 1

Vibhuti Sarkar, a 65-year-old farmer, is among those who have had their vested land holdings of many decades suddenly flagged as "sarkari", or government property, in a bureaucratic bungle blamed on their "similar sounding" shared surname.
The change in ownership from Sarkar to "sarkari" meant Vibhuti was denied insurance last year for the jowar crop he had sown on five acres in Sindhanur taluk of Raichur district.
Based on his complaint, an inquiry by the revenue department revealed that holdings of 726 other people settled in three rehabilitation camps had been earmarked as government land in the records of rights, tenancy and crops. Updated data available on Bhoomi, the Karnataka government's land records portal, reflected the change.
Sarkar’s land becomes sarkari in Karnataka.

Prasen Raptana, a representative of the 22,000-odd erstwhile refugees settled in four rehabilitation camps of Sindhanur taluk - RH2, RH3, RH4 and RH5 - took up cudgels for Vibhuti and wrote to the Raichur DC last December about the "technical problem". A month earlier, the assistant commissioner of Lingasugur had flagged the issue in a communication to the DC. TOI has a copy of that letter.
All the affected farmers are residents of RH 2, 3 and 4.
"We are having to contend with this strange problem for no fault of ours," said Pankaj Sarkar, another of those caught in the land ownership tangle triggered by an unwelcome "i" being added to their surname.
"We spoke to the tehsildar, who said it was a software problem and had to be fixed in Bengaluru. Why do we have to travel to Bengaluru to fix the problem created by the government?" he told TOI.
Raptana said the 727 farmers were not only having to battle the bureaucracy, but also unable to get the MSP for their crops at government centres, mortgage land for loans and apply for crop insurance.
Sindhanur tehsildar Arun said the DC had already brought the issue to the notice of the survey settlement and land records department for changes to be made in the Bhoomi portal.
Thousands of persecuted Hindus who had fled what was then East Pakistan in 1971 were housed in refugee camps in seven states, including Karnataka. Each family was given five acres of land to make a new beginning.
For Vibhuti and his ilk, learning the difference between "Sarkar" and "sarkari" more than five decades later would certainly count as a fresh start.

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How to Build a Dictionary App Using Python - MUO - MakeUseOf - Dictionary

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How to Build a Dictionary App Using Python  MUO - MakeUseOf

How to Build a Dictionary App Using Python - MUO - MakeUseOf - Dictionary

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How to Build a Dictionary App Using Python  MUO - MakeUseOf

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Elon Musk's new Twitter plans got absolutely wrecked by the dictionary - indy100 - Dictionary

Burn [noun]: a cutting remark intended to embarrass or humiliate someone —used chiefly in the phrase sick burn.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Twitter account did exactly that in response to Elon Musk changing Twitter’s verification rule.

Last Week, Twitter announced that starting April 1, legacy verified users would be losing their blue checkmarks and have to subscribe to Twitter Blue to keep it.

“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks,” Twitter Verified wrote.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Musk added, “Any individual person’s Twitter account affiliated with a verified organization is automatically verified.”

The news was met with mixed reactions, with some believing it makes verification obsolete while others think it is democratic.

Getting in on the debate, Merriam-Webster dictionary decided to troll Musk by tweeting about a joke verification program.

“People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions,” Merriam-Webster tweeted on Tuesday.

People responded to Merriam-Webster's troll of Musk positively.

Later on, Merriam-Webster tweeted, "It has been brought to our attention that we've been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828. Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued."

The legacy Twitter verification program's departure has been part of Musk’s plan since he acquired Twitter last year.

He said removing legacy verification was “more about treating everyone equally” because “there shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities [in my opinion].”

As part of the new verification system, Musk also said that beginning April 15th, “only verified accounts will be eligible to be in For You recommendations.”

He said this was the “only realistic way” to prevent “advanced AI bot swarms” from taking over.

Additionally, voting in polls will require verification as well.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Olean Rotary provides dictionaries to local students | Cattaraugus County | oleantimesherald.com - Olean Times Herald - Dictionary

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Olean Rotary provides dictionaries to local students | Cattaraugus County | oleantimesherald.com  Olean Times Herald

Merriam-Webster dictionary mocks Musk's Twitter Blue subscription - New York Post - Dictionary

The definition of trolling.

Merriam-Webster made a snide jab at Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue on Tuesday by announcing the launch of a mock subscription-only service labeled “Merriam-Webster Red.”

“People who subscribe to Merriam-Webster Red™ will get exclusive access to the real definitions,” the online dictionary mocked in the joke tweet.

The dictionary alluded to Musk’s controversial Twitter Blue subscription service, which provides patrons the coveted “verified” blue check mark for a fee.

Merriam-Webster’s sarcastic tweet has been viewed over 3.6 million times as of Wednesday.

In a follow-up tweet about two hours later, Merriam-Webster continued the gag by claiming that the phony subscription service had been shuttered.

“It has been brought to our attention that we’ve been giving everyone the real definitions since 1828,” Merriam-Webster noted, stating the obvious.

Merriam-Webster's tweet
Merriam-Webster jokingly called their fake subscription service “Merriam-Webster Red.”

“Merriam-Webster Red™ has been discontinued.”

Musk’s Twitter Blue, which came out in November, allows users to pay $8 monthly or $84 annually for certain perks. Subscribers to the service get the highly sought-after blue checkmark badge, half the number of advertisements and have priority in search, according to Musk.

The billionaire has faced an onslaught of criticism ever since purchasing the social media giant for $44 billion in October.

Merriam-Webster's tweet
Musk has faced an onslaught of criticism ever since he bought Twitter in October.

About 75 percent of the company’s workforce were either laid off or quit in rage due to Musk’s mercurial management style.

Merriam-Webster’s critical tweet comes after it was revealed that only paying subscribers of Twitter Blue will soon be able to vote in polls or appear on Twitter’s “For You” recommendations tab.

Musk announced on Monday that high-profile Twitter users who have had a blue checkmark next to their name as a status symbol will be forced to pay up to $11 a month to keep it.

Merriam Webster dictionary on a table next to an iPhone
Merriam-Webster’s social media team has poked fun at other notable people before, including former President Donald Trump.
Getty Images
Elon Musk
Musk has said that requiring everyone to pay for the check mark was an equalizer.
REUTERS

“It will be glorious,” he tweeted Monday, responding to a Twitter user who noted that Saturday, the deadline that Musk set for verified users to either pay or lose their legacy status, is also April Fools’ Day.

The plan has received pushback from many, including prominent personalities like Monica Lewinsky, who says Musk’s new system enables pranksters to pay for a blue check mark to impersonate her.

She asked, “what universe is this fair to people who can suffer consequences for being impersonated? a lie travels half way around the world before truth even gets out the door.”

Twitter with screen reading "verified account"
About 75 percent of Twitter employees have either been laid off or quit since Musk’s takeover in October.
ZUMAPRESS.com

Musk has said that requiring everyone to pay for their blue check marks — including celebrities — was “more about treating everyone equally.”

Merriam-Webster has long teased prominent figures on social media, including former President Trump, who once mistakenly wrote “smocking” instead of “smoking” in a 2018 tweet.

“Today in Spellcheck Can’t Save You: ‘Smocking’ is a type of embroidery made of many small folds sewn into place,” Merriam-Webster tweeted in response, linking to the entry for the word in the dictionary.

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Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Gabriel García Márquez overtakes Miguel de Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - Euronews - Translation

Move over Cervantes – there’s a new knight in town.

The Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, has announced that Gabriel García Márquez, the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

Not that you should crack out the violins or attack any windmills in his honour, mind you – Cervantes remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades, with 'Don Quixote' still standing as one of the best-selling novels of all time, alongside 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas and J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of books.

The news of García Márquez’s new literary dominance comes as the Instituto Cervantes puts together its new Mapa Mundial de la Traducción (World Translation Map), which will be unveiled at the IX Congreso de la Lengua – the ninth National Spanish Language Congress in Cádiz.

The institute’s new tool, created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, uses metadata to get a clear picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into different languages and to trace the history of translations in Spanish between 1950 and 2022. By tracking trends in the translation, the World Translation Map highlights the authors who have made the biggest impact on global readership.

According to the data from 2000 to 2021, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende ('The House of the Spirits'), and Jorge Luis Borges ('The Aleph') are the top three most translated Spanish authors, with Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa ('The Time of the Hero') following closely behind.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón ('The Shadow of the Wind'), Arturo Pérez-Reverte ('The Club Dumas'), Luis Sepúlveda ('The Old Man Who Read Love Novels'), Roberto Bolaño ('The Savage Detectives'), and Javier Marías ('A Heart So White') complete the list of ten most translated authors.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the new data shows that García Márquez dominates in Arabic and Portuguese, Allende, Vargas Llosa, and Ruiz Zafón are the most translated authors from Spanish to Swedish, while García Márquez, Pérez-Reverte, and Borges take the top spots for translations into Russian.

Cervantes is only the most translated Spanish author in Chinese, while Franco-Chilean writer and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky ('El Topo') tops the French language list.

While Allende is the most translated Spanish author in Italian, English, and German, women are very under-represented on the map.

Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; María Isabel Sánchez Vegara ('Little People, Big Dreams'); Saint Teresa of Ávila ('The Interior Castle'); Laura Esquivel ('Like Water for Chocolate'); Alma Flor Ada ('Where the Flame Trees Bloom'); Anna Llimós Plomer ('Make it with Plants'); Almudena Grandes ('The Ages of Lulu'); Paloma Navarrete ('Other Frontiers, Other Realities'); Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ('Pawns of a House'), and Zoé Valdés ('Café Nostalgia').

The World Translation Map will be unveiled on Wednesday at the National Spanish Language Congress. The event starts today and lasts until 30 March.

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Monday, March 27, 2023

Lawyer slams Oxford English Dictionary for including Māori kupu - Newshub - Dictionary

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Lawyer slams Oxford English Dictionary for including Māori kupu  Newshub

Gabriel García Márquez overtakes Miguel de Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - Euronews - Translation

Move over Cervantes – there’s a new knight in town.

The Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, has announced that Gabriel García Márquez, the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

Not that you should crack out the violins or attack any windmills in his honour, mind you – Cervantes remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades, with 'Don Quixote' still standing as one of the best-selling novels of all time, alongside 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas and J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of books.

The news of García Márquez’s new literary dominance comes as the Instituto Cervantes puts together its new Mapa Mundial de la Traducción (World Translation Map), which will be unveiled at the IX Congreso de la Lengua – the ninth National Spanish Language Congress in Cádiz.

The institute’s new tool, created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, uses metadata to get a clear picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into different languages and to trace the history of translations in Spanish between 1950 and 2022. By tracking trends in the translation, the World Translation Map highlights the authors who have made the biggest impact on global readership.

According to the data from 2000 to 2021, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende ('The House of the Spirits'), and Jorge Luis Borges ('The Aleph') are the top three most translated Spanish authors, with Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa ('The Time of the Hero') following closely behind.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón ('The Shadow of the Wind'), Arturo Pérez-Reverte ('The Club Dumas'), Luis Sepúlveda ('The Old Man Who Read Love Novels'), Roberto Bolaño ('The Savage Detectives'), and Javier Marías ('A Heart So White') complete the list of ten most translated authors.

Getting into the nitty-gritty, the new data shows that García Márquez dominates in Arabic and Portuguese, Allende, Vargas Llosa, and Ruiz Zafón are the most translated authors from Spanish to Swedish, while García Márquez, Pérez-Reverte, and Borges take the top spots for translations into Russian.

Cervantes is only the most translated Spanish author in Chinese, while Franco-Chilean writer and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky ('El Topo') tops the French language list.

While Allende is the most translated Spanish author in Italian, English, and German, women are very under-represented on the map.

Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; María Isabel Sánchez Vegara ('Little People, Big Dreams'); Saint Teresa of Ávila ('The Interior Castle'); Laura Esquivel ('Like Water for Chocolate'); Alma Flor Ada ('Where the Flame Trees Bloom'); Anna Llimós Plomer ('Make it with Plants'); Almudena Grandes ('The Ages of Lulu'); Paloma Navarrete ('Other Frontiers, Other Realities'); Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ('Pawns of a House'), and Zoé Valdés ('Café Nostalgia').

The World Translation Map will be unveiled on Wednesday at the National Spanish Language Congress. The event starts today and lasts until 30 March.

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What Makes A Word A Word? » Science ABC - Science ABC - Dictionary

Table of Contents (click to expand)

Linguists and researchers have made many attempts to define a “word”, without reaching a settled conclusion. Most definitions, however, agree that a word is capable of being spoken and written and it must carry some meaning. Any competent speaker of a language can manage to form new words by using some of these ground rules.

During the coronavirus crisis, many new words and phrases became part of our everyday vocabulary (‘social distancing’, ‘self-quarantine’ and ‘Covid-19’ itself). However, when a preschooler calls sanitizer ‘hanitizer’, we find it cute, but may not consider that a real word.

According to Global Language Monitor, in the English language, a new word is born every 98 minutes, about 14.7 per day, 5400 a year. Not all the new ones are added to the standard dictionaries, so does that mean they’re not real?

The question is…when does a word become a real word, and who makes that decision? Let’s find out!

Is It Made Up Of A Series Of Spoken Sounds?

First, quickly scribble down a few letters on a piece of paper. Can you pronounce the string of sounds on its own? If yes, then you have just met the first requirement.

From a linguistic point of view, words are made up of different sounds (or phonemes). For instance, “cat” has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, and /t/. So, together it’s a “pronounceable phonological unit.” Here, the letter-sound c does not make sense on its own, nor do the other individual sounds. ‘Cat’ is a unit that is capable of being pronounced (with meaning) all by itself. So, this word falls in line with Bloomfield’s well-known definition of a ‘minimal free form’.

Also Read: How Did Silent Letters Come Into The English Language?

What About The Words That We Have Trouble Pronouncing?

I can never muster up the courage to pronounce “Freundschaftsbeziehungen”. Yes, that’s a real word, it means “friendship relations” in German. Or “pamplemousse”, which is French for grapefruit. Quite a mouthful, aren’t they? But it doesn’t mean that they aren’t real.

Of course, acquiring a foreign language can be difficult. Studies show that we are born with the natural ability to learn and master all the sounds used in all human languages of the world. Linguist Noam Chomsky believed that learning a language (yes, even the ones that seem so difficult to pronounce) is an innate skill that one develops from birth.

A word is real when it has a meaning in the lexicon (vocabulary or dictionary) of a language. This brings us to its next characteristic.

THEY CANT BE PRONOUNCED
Emojis can neither be broken down into smaller meaningful parts, nor can they be pronounced. So, sorry, emojis…. you just don’t make the cut.

Also Read: Are Some Languages Easier To Learn Than Others?

Does It Have Some Sort Of Meaning?

A word (cats) or its parts (‘cat’ and ‘-s’) should have its own meaning (cat is the animal and –s is the letter for making it plural). Have you invented a new word for a place, person, a way of doing something or a way of describing something? You might have coined a lexical or content word. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives belong to this category.

For a word to be considered real, make sure you can clearly describe its meaning to other people.

Also note that while writing, we keep ‘cat’ separated by spaces from other words (one of its orthographic features). This is why the OED mentions that a word is “typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed”.

However, no definition appears to be set in stone. For example, the written form of Chinese doesn’t have spaces between words. Also, some words cannot be considered “minimal free forms” (e.g., for, and, but, with, it, on, yet) since they make no sense, when used on their own. What independent meaning do they have (what is the meaning of ‘the’)?

London,-,July,5.,The,Dr,Seuss,Bookbench,Sculpture;,One
The word ‘nerd’ was coined by Dr. Seuss to name a creature in his 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo.” What seems nonsensical, funny, and weird today may have a serious denotation in the near future. Image: Dr Seuss BookBench sculpture, London (Photo Credit : -Ron Ellis/Shutterstock)

Does It Primarily Have Any Grammatical Importance?

Even if a word doesn’t seem to convey a lot of sense by itself, it can still be legitimate if it plays a grammatical role.

Some examples are auxiliary verbs (e.g., might, may, will, must), prepositions (e.g., in, at, on, of and to), articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (e.g., or, and, so, for, because, but, yet, as), and pronouns (e.g., he, she, you, we, her, him), which are grammatical or function words. They might not have a so-called “dictionary meaning”. But they can easily fit into larger units of phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Can Anyone Make Up Words? How?

Do you become hangry (angry when hungry) when you skip meals? I do.

‘Hangry’ is an example of a ‘portmanteau’—a fancy term for a word made by blending two or more words or their parts. “Brexit” is a portmanteau (Britain’s exit from the European Union), just as “breakfast” and “lunch” combine to yield “brunch.” The term portmanteau was first used by Lewis Carroll (best known for his ever-popular Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). This is, however, just one of the mechanisms you can use to create words.

Some other processes of word formation include derivation (e.g., kind + -ness → kindness), back formation (‘examine” was formed by taking out the ”-ation” from ”examination.”), conversion (email – noun → to email – verb), compounding (jelly + -fish → jellyfish), abbreviation (Junior → Jr.) and borrowing (French café → “coffee”).

Madrid,,Spain,-,Nov,22,,2017:,Daniel,Radcliffe,,Emma,Watson
J.K. Rowling has popularized many words through the Harry Potter books. Muggle, animagus, Quidditch, Mandrake, Hippogriff are some of them, created by reworking Latin or other words. One of the most popular magic spells “Expecto Patronum” derived from the Latin words ‘expecto’ and ‘patronus’,  means ‘I await a protector.’ (Photo Credit : -Anton_Ivanov/Shutterstock)

So, How Does A Word Enter The Dictionary?

Lexicon, then, plays a key role in our usage of language. Lexicographers are dictionary authors and editors who write or edit dictionaries. They decide which words will be added to the dictionary or removed from them by referring to lots of magazines, newspapers and other published materials.

For a word to be considered for inclusion in the dictionary, certain rules are followed by lexicographers, as pointed out on Dictionary.com.

A new entry might be accepted if it is:

  1. “…used by a lot of people.
  2.  …used by those people in largely the same way.
  3. …likely to stick around.
  4. …useful for a general audience.”

Clearly, a child-invented word like ‘hanitizer’ would have to receive widespread acceptance and also last for at least several years to become “official”.

Also Read: Has The Internet Changed Languages Around The World?

What About The Words That Don’t Get Into The Dictionary?

Parents and children often make up nicknames to lovingly call each other (e.g., sweetums, bubby-doo, itty bitty). They may not have meaning for the general public, but they can mean a lot to the people using them.

Furthermore, prescriptive linguistics (the rules that show preferred usage of a language) come from institutions or people who may not have access to languages used by poor, marginalized and disadvantaged people, including indigenous communities.

Many endangered languages in the world have only a few speakers left. Busuu, a language of Cameroon, had just 3 speakers of the language in 2005, but now it is extinct. A dictionary may not include words from such less spoken and rare languages. You may also not find technical jargon, informal (slang) or dialect forms in a dictionary.

So obviously, just because a word does not get into the dictionary does not mean it is not a real word.

A Final ‘Word’

Defining a word is not a simple job, as linguists don’t agree on what constitutes a word. Still, the beautiful thing about a language is that it can always grow and thrive. This is how it will survive the winds of time. Institutions and experts recognize the needs of a language’s users, while setting the language standards for the future. Thus, the decisive powers remain with us, the people.

How well do you understand the article above!

Can you answer a few questions based on the article you just read?

Your answer:

Correct answer:

References (click to expand)
  1. Aikhenvald, A. Y., Dixon, R. M. W., & White, N. M. (Eds.). (2020). Phonological Word and Grammatical Word. (A. Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, & N. M. White, Eds.), []. Oxford University Press.
  2. How Does A Word Get Into The Dictionary?. Dictionary.com
  3. Passos, M. de L. R. da F., & Matos, M. A. (2007, October). The influence of Bloomfield’s linguistics on Skinner. The Behavior Analyst. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
  4. Minimal free form definition and meaning - Collins Dictionary. The Collins Engl
  5. Ghasemi, B., & Hashemi, M. (2011). Foreign Language Learning During Childhood. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier BV.
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Márquez overtakes Cervantes as most translated Spanish-language writer - The Guardian - Translation

The solitary denizens of Macondo appear to have proved too much for a famously insane knight errant, according to research that shows Gabriel García Márquez has overtaken Miguel de Cervantes to become the most translated Spanish-language writer of the century so far.

However, the genius who gave the world Don Quixote – and with him the first modern novel and a byword for impractical idealism – can take comfort in the fact that he remains the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades.

The findings emerged after the Instituto Cervantes, which promotes Spanish language and culture around the world, began crunching data to put together its new World Translation Map.

In order to build up a picture of which Spanish-language writers were being most widely translated into 10 different languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish – the institute consulted the Online Computer Library Center’s WorldCat database, which contains 554,858,648 bibliographic records in 483 languages.

Using that data, it has put together a searchable map of works translated from Spanish between 1950 and the present day. The start date was chosen to take into account el boom, when Latin American writers including García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes and Julio Cortázar broke through to worldwide acclaim in the 1960s and 1970s.

Raquel Caleya, head of culture at the Instituto Cervantes, said the map would be enlarged in the future to take as many languages as possible.

“The idea was to distill all that data to make that information available and searchable for the public,” she said.

“We wanted to help researchers – and anyone else – to analyse and visualise large quantities of information in a more efficient way. It will allow us to know what people are reading, what they’ve read – and to pay tribute to the all the translators who are working to disseminate books translated from Spanish since 1950.”

Caleya said that as well as identifying trends, the map would also help the Instituto Cervantes to develop policies to make sure authors writing in Spanish are accessible to readers all over the world.

A glance at the 10 most translated authors across all 10 languages from 2000 to 2021 shows García Márquez at number one, followed by Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cervantes, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Luis Sepúlveda, Roberto Bolaño and Javier Marías.

However, the results over the map’s entire timeframe look rather different. Cervantes pips García Márquez to the top spot, with the late Colombian Nobel prize winner finishing ahead of Allende, Borges, Vargas Llosa, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Fuentes, Pérez-Reverte and Ruiz Zafón.

The 2000-2021 map also reveals interesting differences between languages. The Chilean-French film-maker and writer Alejandro Jodorowsky is the most translated Spanish-language writer in French, while the two writers most translated into English are Allende and the Spanish children’s author Isabel Sánchez Vegara.

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, who used his gourmand detective Pepe Carvalho to chronicle a changing Spain, makes the top 10 only in Italy, where Andrea Camilleri named his own detective, Inspector Montalbano, in honour of the Spanish writer.

Caleya said that while Allende was doing very well in the rankings, women as whole were very under-represented on the map. Its top 10 female authors are: Allende; Sánchez Vegara; Saint Teresa of Ávila; Laura Esquivel; Alma Flor Ada; Anna Llimós Plomer; Almudena Grandes; Paloma Navarrete; Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Zoé Valdés.

“I do miss the women, which is why we’d like to look for and find more, although there are some in the rankings,” said Caleya.

She said it was also interesting to see how the big names of el boom had fared over the years.

“You can also see that some boom authors age better than others depending on how much they’re still being translated,” she said. “Julio Cortázar was very translated at one time and then that went down. Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel prize, but even before that, everything he wrote was being translated. The Nobel is still great global publicity.”

As well as trends – a 20% rise in translation of Spanish-language authors in 2003, which could be attributed to the interest generated that year by the death of Vázquez Montalbán and Pedro Almodóvar winning an Oscar for his screenplay for Talk to Her – other factors are in play.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude was a phenomenon in its own right, but when Bill Clinton said Gabriel García Márquez said was one of his favourite authors, that had an effect,” said Caleya. “It’s a bit like when Clinton said the best sunset in the world was in Granada – and Granada filled up with Americans.”

The World Translation Map, which has been created in collaboration with the Spanish government’s directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University’s Digital Humanities Laboratory, will be unveiled in Cádiz on Wednesday at the ninth National Spanish Language Congress.

However the map evolves in the future, Caleya is certain that one author and his best-known work will always remain fixed points.

“The Quixote is a universal classic, but if many of the works of our creators writing in Spanish in our century also become universal classics, then that’s very welcome,” she said. “But the Quixote is unbeatable and always will be – no matter how many Nobels there are.”

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Saturday, March 25, 2023

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors' - Taiwan News - Dictionary

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An American, long-term resident of Taiwan discovered late last year that a children's "Hello Kitty" English-to-Chinese dictionary has over 70 "egregious errors."

Despite efforts to alert the company of the mistakes, the book is still on sale.

The 46-year-old writer and podcaster Eryk Smith, who lives in Kaohsiung, told Taiwan News he was working last fall with an 84-year-old student who wanted to refresh his English. The student showed him a copy of an English-to-Chinese dictionary that he wanted help with.

The dictionary, titled "Children's Illustrated Dictionary" (Hello Kitty 兒童英漢辭典) is printed by ACME Cultural Enterprise Co. (世一文化事業股份有限公司) and is the most recent edition, printed in June 2020.

Smith noticed mistakes in the dictionary, including typos, parts of speech, and example sentences. For instance, the entry for "rice" was spelled "rest."

The word "imagine" was listed as a verb but has the letter "n" for noun in English. The example sentence for "birthday" read "Happy birghday."

Under the "Revision Editor" notes in the front of the book, the word "Language" is misspelled as "Languagc." Smith observed that there are dated usages not appropriate for children, such as references to smoking.

Smith said that after reading through the dictionary twice, he found over 60 "egregious errors." In October last year, he contacted the publisher and notified them of the typos.

He said he was initially offered a refund for the NT$320 (US$10.50) cost of the dictionary that his student's secretary bought from Kinokuniya. Smith was not satisfied with this response.

Instead, he advised the company to recall the dictionaries because it's "not just embarrassing for you, but for Taiwan in general, and also for Taiwan's education system." He added that it "flies in the face of the government's Bilingual 2030 campaign."

Company representatives said they would get back to him in a week or so, but failed to do so. In January, he shared his findings with Johanne Murray, who is a lecturer in the Department of English at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages and PhD candidate of business management at National Sun Yat-sen University.

Murray told Taiwan News that she was shocked at what she described as a "poor product that doesn't deserve to represent the Made-in-Taiwan brand." She compiled a 47-page PDF annotating many of the more blatant errors, discovering another 10 mistakes in the process, bringing the total number of typos in the dictionary to at least 70.

In January, Murray sent the PDF to two local educators and an official at the Ministry of Education (MOE). However, over two months later, she has yet to receive a response from any of these individuals.

Murray said of the error-ridden book: "It shows a lack of concern for consumers, their brand name, and their partner Sanrio."

She added that as a parent she would be really upset if she discovered her child was exposed to such content, and as a teacher, she would not want to give it out to her students.

Smith informed a government official who contacted the company about the matter. A company representative sent a response via the social media app LINE acknowledging that there had been errors in the dictionary.

Furthermore, it said the editor had been notified, and after discussions were held with their foreign consultant, the corrections would be included in the next edition.

The company claimed the typesetting had been outsourced to an outside company. It acknowledged that there were many mistakes after proofreading and if readers find errors they are welcome to report them to the publisher via email. It also pledged to reply and deal with the issues.

On Saturday (March 25), Taiwan News purchased a copy of the 2020 edition at the Hess Bookstore in Taipei City's Zhongshan District and all the reported errors were present. ACME Cultural Enterprise Co. has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment on why it has yet to recall the defective dictionaries.

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Birthday" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Rice" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Imagine" listed as both a noun and verb. (Eryk Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Language" misspelled. (Eryk Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Lap" misspelled. (Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
"Hand" misspelled. (
Eryk Smith photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
Cover of book purchased at Hess Bookstore. (Taiwan News photo)

Taiwanese 'Hello Kitty' English-Chinese dictionary has 70 'egregious errors'
Last printed page of book. (Eryk Smith photo)

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The New World Translation Released in Moore - JW News - Translation

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The New World Translation Released in Moore  JW News

Four minifigures we need from the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary - Brick Fanatics - Dictionary

A LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary with exclusive minifigure is coming later this year and there are plenty of potential minifigures to take that spot. 

As revealed earlier today, the first LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary is coming on September 5, 2023. It joins DC, Star Wars and NINJAGO, all of which feature exclusive minifigures, offering an idea of what to expect. 

Looking at the previous LEGO visual dictionaries, the minifigures have all been an alternate version of a recognisable character from Teen Wu to Luke Skywalker with his medal and Finn in a bacta suit.

Keeping these criteria in mind, here are four minifigures that we’d like to see take the spot in the first LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary.

4 – Classic Iron Man 

Iron Man’s classic yellow and red armour from the comics has only been depicted with a Mighty Micros minifigure before.  

While a Marvel Cinematic Universe suit appears to have been inspired by the design, a proper minifigure for the iconic armour could be a good pick for the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary. 

3 – Ravager Thor 

The draft cover of the LEGO Marvel Visual Dictionary features both Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics minifigures and this book may be a chance for some obscure costumes and characters from the films.  

Thor’s Ravager outfit from Thor: Love and Thunder is one such costume that was not featured in the two sets based on the film. 

2 – President Loki 

The Loki Disney+ series featured several variants of the titular character including President Loki in a formal suit and a badge advertising his campaign. 

While his headpiece may require a new piece or better left out, the variant would be a good pick for the exclusive minifigure as the series only received a pair of LEGO Collectible Minifigures despite its potential. 

1 – Werewolf by Night 

As the Finn in a bacta suit minifigure proved, newer characters are eligible for exclusive minifigures in the LEGO visual dictionaries. One of the more recent Marvel Studios projects that have had no representation in the LEGO portfolio is Werewolf by Night.  

This could be due to the tone of the special presentation, though the LEGO Group has released multiple werewolf minifigures before and the visual dictionary could be the best place to represent the project, or at least the character as seen in the comics. 

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links.

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Friday, March 24, 2023

French language defenders sue Notre-Dame over English translations - The Connexion - Translation

French language defenders are suing Notre-Dame cathedral for only translating signs into English.

They filed a complaint against the landmark at a Paris court on Monday (March 20), which is International Francophonie Day, an annual celebration of the French language and Francophone culture.

Read also: Make sense of La Francophonie

The association behind the complaint, Défense de la langue française, argues that only translating signs into English promotes the international dominance of the language. 

It has already been successful at enacting change at another Paris landmark: it made the same complaint against the Eiffel Tower. Signs in Spanish, alongside the English and French ones, will now be introduced. 

Their campaign has the law on its side. A 1994 French regulation states all public buildings must translate signs into at least two languages. 

Many of the panels explaining reconstruction work at Notre-Dame, following the devastating 2019 fire, are written in English and French. 

Not the first time that the use of English language causes controversy

Historically, it is not solely the translation of signs into English that causes dispute in France, but equally the use of anglicism.

Read also: ‘Language police’ jump on anglicised use of French word ‘juste’

One example was in 2019 when the mayor of Marennes-Hiers-Brouage in the Charente-Maritime, Mickaël Vallet, leads a personal counter-attack of anglicisme and bans a promotional campaign from the telecom company Orange from his town until they rename their Orange Truck a Camion Orange.

He went as far as to say that anglicisms were an attack on French citizens.

In the end, Orange agreed to rename their truck 'camion-fibre', something he was very proud of.

As well as the current dispute with Notre-Dame, the association Défense de la langue française is also targeting 20 other public bodies, including the national postal agency, La Poste, over the name of its banking service, “Ma French Bank”. 

You can find out more about the association (in French) on their website here.

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Franglais ou Frenglish? The history of French resistance to English

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Comment: Why use anglicisms when we have perfectly good French words?

€50million Notre-Dame Cathedral landscaping project approved in Paris

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