International Translation Day 2020: Finding the words for a world in crisis

2020年国际翻译日:为危机中的世界寻求精准的沟通(Finding the words for a world in crisis)

2020-09-28 15:10 Wordbee Translator

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Two months ago I made a promise to Wordbee’s content manager: I wasn’t going to mention the words coronavirus, COVID-19, or pandemic anymore in my articles and instead focus on more positive topics. But …  The theme of this year’s International Translation Day (which, like every year, will be celebrated on September 30) is “Finding the words for a world in crisis”, and the official poster is an illustration of COVID-19. The image is meant to capture the importance of unity and solidarity to counterbalance the current crisis. So, I am to break my promise. Gladly, I dare say, because, if the 2020 pandemic has made one thing clear, it is that the work of translators, terminologists and interpreters has helped (and will continue to help) immensely in the effort to contain the virus.   Resourcefulness  There have been many generous initiatives within the translation and localization industry. Starting from the activities developed by Translators without Borders  to the Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies project that saw Wordbee’s technological contribution as well as Translation Commons‘ volunteer linguists. Many professional translators donated their time to this project and translated resources for producing needed medical supplies like face masks and ventilators. TAUS made the Corona Crisis Corpora available for free. It is the result of a collective industry effort: participating companies contributed with their own translation memories covering this domain. Argo Translation designed free COVID-19 signage and made it available in 22 languages. The signage can be used for prevention and safety in almost any business setting. Terminologists did their part, too. At EU level, The Terminology Coordination Unit of the DGT started collecting COVID-related glossaries available online.    Language in a time of crisis There is undoubtedly a correlation between language and society. Language records and keeps track of every single social change. When we are faced with a new concept, language must change in order to express it. This is how neologisms are born.   #coronaspeak Two weeks ago I had the chance to talk to Tony Thorne, a lexicographer and Visiting Professor at King’s College London, about corona-related neologisms, which he started recording almost as soon as the pandemic started using the tag #coronaspeak. He noticed that the new words came in three successive waves: the first wave consisted of medical and scientific language crossing over into everyday conversation (viral load, herd immunity, intubation, social distancing). The words of the second wave were terms meant to illustrate the reactions of people experiencing the new reality of quarantine and working from home (new normal, quarantini, locktail hour, zoom fatigue etc.). The third wave – still ongoing – has been dominated by government messaging: slogans, mantras, catch phrases and the like. The English language isn’t the only language that flourished during the peak of the pandemic. At the end of April 2020, there were over 7,000 new words in Dutch. Dutch lexicographer Ton den Boon has been keeping track of these neologisms in his Coronawoordenboek (Corona Dictionary). French professor and politician Olivier Duhamel published Les “mots” du Corona, while in Italy the Treccani Institute started collecting the COVID-related neologisms on its website. I am sure new terms have blossomed in other languages as well. How about your language?   #inclusivelanguage Language can influence our way of perceiving reality, focusing on some aspects that, without a word or a reference expression, would remain in the background and would be less perceptible. In the wake of the #MeToo and the #BlackLivesMatter movements, the hashtags #inclusivelanguage and #inclusivewriting have been appearing on the social media scene lately.  Linus Torvald, the creator and principal developer of the Linux kernel, has approved a new terminology that bans the use of terms like master/slave, blacklist and so on. His example was followed by GitHub, the Microsoft-owned hosting platform for software development. The Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary has been working at revising the meaning of words like “racism” and “housewife” as well as cleaning up any sexist stereotypes in their publications.  On a more technological note,  MIT has taken offline a massive dataset to train AI systems that were “blamed” for using racist and misogynistic terms to describe people. Both the Linguistic Society of America and the United Nations have published guidelines for inclusive language/writing that include terminology to address mixed groups containing non-binary persons or persons with disabilities. Whether in time of peace or unrest or health crisis, linguists have always had an important role in recording, using, and encouraging the choice of accurate and factual words. This is never going to change.  On a personal note, I’ll now stop writing about coronavirus. Hopefully for good.
两个月前,我向Wordbee(翻译管理系统)的内容经理承诺:我不会再在文章中提冠状病毒,COVID-19或大流行等词,而是会专注于更积极些的话题。然而…… 今年国际翻译日(每年的9月30号)的主题是“为危机中的世界寻求精准的沟通”,而且官方海报的插图就是新冠病毒。这一形象是要表达团结一致平衡当前危机的重要性。 所以,我要食言了。令人高兴的是,我敢说,是因为如果说2020年的疫情表明了一件事的话,那就是笔译员,术语学家和口译员的工作在遏制疫情中发挥了巨大的作用,并且将继续发挥作用。 足智多谋 在翻译和本地化行业内已经有许多慷慨的倡议了。从无边界译者组织发起活动开始,到Wordbee作出技术贡献的开源新冠肺炎医疗用品项目以及美国翻译公益联盟Translation Commons的志愿语言学家们。许多专业的翻译人员为这个项目贡献了他们的时间,为生产所需的医疗用品,如口罩和呼吸机等提供了翻译资源。 翻译自动化用户协会(TAUS)免费提供了冠状病毒危机语料库。这个语料库是一个行业共同努力的成果:参与公司各自贡献了自己覆盖该领域的翻译记忆库。阿尔戈翻译公司(Argo Translations)设计了免费的新冠肺炎标牌,并翻译成了22种语言。该标语可以用于几乎所有商业环境中的安全防护。 术语学家也做出了自己的贡献。在欧盟水平上,电信总局的术语协调股开始在网上收集与冠状病毒有关的词汇。 危机时期的语言 语言与社会之间无疑存在着相关性。语言记录并跟踪每一个单一的社会变化。当我们要表达一个新的概念时,必须要改变语言。新词就是这样诞生的。 和冠状病毒有关的表达 两周前,我有机会与一位词典编纂者,伦敦国王学院(King's College London)客座教授托尼·索恩(Tony Thorne)讨论与新冠病毒相关的新词,几乎是在疫情刚开始时,他就开始用“coronaspeak”(与冠状病毒有关的表达)这个标签记录新词了。 他说,新词连续出现了三波:第一波是日常对话中的医学和科学语言(如病毒载量,群体免疫,插管,社交距离等)。第二波的词汇是说明人们在经历隔离和在家工作的新现实时的反应(如新常态,检疫,隔离期,Zoom疲劳等)。第三次浪潮仍在进行中,主要是政府的信息:标语,口头禅,流行语等等。 英语并不是唯一在疫情高峰期繁荣的语言。2020年4月底,荷兰语新词超过7000个。荷兰词典编纂者顿登文(Ton den Boon)一直在他的《新冠词典》中记录这些新词。法国教授,政治家奥利维耶·杜哈梅尔(Olivier Duhamel)出版了《新冠“词语”》一书,而在意大利,特雷卡尼研究所开始在其网站上收集与新冠疫情相关的新词。我相信其他语言中新术语也是纷纷出现。你说的语言情况如何? 包容性语言 语言可以影响我们感知现实的方式,让我们把注意力集中在某些方面,而这些方面如果没有词或参考表达,就会留在背景层面,不容易被感知。 “我也是”(MeToo,美国反性骚扰运动)和“黑人的命也是命”运动(Black Lives Matter)之后,最近社交媒体上又出现了包容性语言和包容性写作的标签。 Linux内核的创建者和主要开发者林纳斯·托瓦兹(Linus Torvalds)批准了一种新的术语,这种术语禁止使用诸如“master/slave”(主人/奴隶),“blacklist”(黑名单)等术语。微软的软件开发托管平台GitHub也随之效仿。 《韦氏大词典》和《牛津英语词典》一直致力于修订诸如“种族主义”和“家庭主妇”等词的含义以及消除其出版物中具有性别歧视的成见。 从更高的技术层面来说,麻省理工学院已经下线了一个庞大的数据集,以便训练人工智能系统。这些系统曾被“指责”描述人时使用了种族主义和厌恶女性的术语。 美国语言学会和联合国都公布了包容性语言/书写准则,其中包括处理包括非二元性别者或残疾人在内的混合群体的术语。 无论是在和平时期,动乱时期,还是在健康危机时期,语言学家在记录,使用和鼓励选择准确和符合事实的词汇方面一直扮演着重要的角色。这永远不会改变。 就个人而言,从现在起,我不再写冠状病毒了。希望永远不会再写了。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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