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--- "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> wrote:
> Others have posted urls for formal resources in SE, but let me briefly don
> my Ambrose Bierce hat here and provide my own definition: "Simplified
> English is a means of writing in such a way as to avoid the need for
> translation and localization, thereby chauvinistically ignoring the rest of
> the world and assuming that the wogs* will learn English if they want to use
> our stuff." >@8^{)}
>
> Okay, back to the pragmatist hat: SE is actually an interesting solution
> when you know that translation and localization may be impractical (e.g.,
> way too expensive for a small company's means), or that your audience is
> already reasonably proficient in English as their second language (e.g., if
> you're writing for Japanese scientists or Hong Kong traders).
Um, Geoff, I thought I had always understood that Simplified English (or at
least some sort of convention for minimizing synonym use) was actually an aid
to clarity in translation. Isn't it always a translation/localization problem
to reconcile different meanings of words and phrases as they cross the language
barrier?
Perhaps SE is used as you suggest, that is, as a way to avoid translations or
provide information without the need for localization; I haven't done
translation work in some time. Still, if for the purposes of facilitating
translation one uses some soft of simplified English, I would expect that use
to make translation/localization easier and less costly.
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