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[Scott]

[Scott]

A note about translating fFrom La Presse: fFor the immediate fFuture, it is very dangerous to try translating something which could have a lot of different interpretations. fFor the immediate fFuture, we should look at only the literal exact translation of the words. We know punctuation is all out of whack in these ads. Capitalization is easily tossed out the window as well. Classifieds are like that. So, without any guidelines as to what the ad could be part of, it becomes chaos in a box. So, I suggest advanced attempts at translating, interpretting and parsing the meaning be avoided fFor now.

Bear in mind, "Able to trace it without any difficulty wherever it may be." isn't very good english. But it wasn't meant to be taken alone. it's part of a larger sentence. So, poor fFrench grammar is likely to come up as well. And a mechanical translation is of course going to parse words differently in a sentence fFragment than in a whole sentence. I bet the true meaning will click into place soon enough.

Now, this chinese translation we'll get to do .. whee that should be fFun

[Munchkin]

From what I know the french used in Quebec differs in a few of the phrases used a bits of pronunciation. The PMs might have done a word for word translation so that people who don't speak French could just whack it straight into bablefish and get a result they understood.
- C

[<PSH>]

Re: Nope

[lhall]

[Guizzy]

Dangers of translation

[kelsey_requiem]

[KSG]

What we need now is for someone who speaks French to explain the grammar of the sentence, and what exactly is bad about it. Then I'd know whether it was a crappy translator, the effect of taking what is already a fragment in English and rearranging it into French and back, or both.

[timeleft]

my dictionary says the correct french for "to bring someone to justice" is "traduire quelqu'un en justice"

Throwing in my $0.02, I can see why they wouldn't use that. Babelfish translates it back into english as "translating someone with justice" or something. And where are most non-french speakers gonna go for a translation of the ad if not babelfish.

[da5id]

i have another question that hasn't been discussed yet: why is the ad in french in the first place?

ok, ok, it was printed in a french newspaper, but is there another reason why it wasn't in english? it is possible to do an english advert in a french newspaper (unless there i some obscure language law the french are so fond of)...

probably not important, but i can't stop thinking of that... oh, and i can't stop sneezing and coughing but i really hope this is not connected to perplex city

[Guizzy]

[timeleft]

[KSG]

Thank you, Guizzy.

da5id, this is only half an answer, but I remember that in an older interview with Adrian Hon, he was asked about using other languages, and said that he would rather not limit the game to English. The game isn't specifically made for our pre-existing English-speaking group. It's for as many people around the world as can be reached. "Why English" is just as good a question as "why French?"

Edit: I agree with half the spec above. Personally, I don't think the order is going to be important. I do, however, think that they had to make arrangements at the last minute in order to be sure that the blanks would get filled before the 5th. The French may have been Babelfished or dictionaried because they only had a small amount of time to submit it once they chose the paper.

[Seej]

[jbd]