Direct translation

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oceanbreeze
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:25 pm

Direct translation

Post by oceanbreeze » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:17 pm

Hi all,

Is there another word/phrase for "direct translation", i.e., direct translation from one's mother tongue which often results in a string of meaningless words? I'm sure there is, but it seems to have slipped my memory.

fluffyhamster
Posts: 3031
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

Post by fluffyhamster » Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:15 pm

(Too) literal, incorrect, machine translation?

lolwhites
Posts: 1321
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Location: France
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Post by lolwhites » Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:27 pm

Maybe "transfer"?

Lotus
Posts: 77
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Location: Hong Kong

Post by Lotus » Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:12 am

Gloss?

Stephen Jones
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Post by Stephen Jones » Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:58 am

Word-for-word translation.

revel
Posts: 533
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2004 8:21 am

Post by revel » Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:41 pm

deleted
Last edited by revel on Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Jimbobob
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:11 am

Post by Jimbobob » Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:07 am

revel wrote:"Waste of Time"?
I like it. We'll call it 'Wot?'

MrPedantic
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2006 7:45 pm

Re: Direct translation

Post by MrPedantic » Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:59 pm

oceanbreeze wrote:Is there another word/phrase for...direct translation from one's mother tongue which often results in a string of meaningless words?
Babel Fish?

veranike
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:07 pm
Location: Hungary

Post by veranike » Wed Nov 21, 2007 9:44 pm

loan translation, calque

however I'd rather say word-for-word translation. Interestingly, in my mother tongue, Hungarian the word-for-word equivalent is "mirror translation" :D

woodcutter
Posts: 1303
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:14 am
Location: London

Post by woodcutter » Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:44 pm

A word-for-word translation is just a helpful teaching tool though, I don't think you really see that as an attempt at general translation.

I think the term needed must be written here somewhere - but it depends on the precise situation the OP is thinking of, they are all different.

Macavity
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 10:41 pm

Post by Macavity » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:58 pm

haphazard

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