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Subject:Contractions difficult to translate? From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Mon, 25 Jan 1999 08:33:42 -0700
Chris Hamilton noted that <<When this issue has come up before, one
of the points made was that contractions make for more difficult
translations. I don't have the personal experience to judge whether
that is true, but it seems like it's at least possible>>
To reiterate my earlier comment, the problem with contractions is
that they're not always clear; for example, "I'd" can be "I had", "I
would", or (very unlikely) "I did". That kind of translation really
can be difficult if the context doesn't make it clear what the author
meant. In all other cases, a translator who can't handle one of the
most common types of English punctuation needs to seriously
upgrade their professional skills.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
