Erin McKean

I posted earlier this week an article about Erin McKean. Within that article I collected all the videos of this talented lexicographer. Feel free to visit http://leximaniac.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/erin-mckean/ and listen to she has to say.

Moving and something more

I am moving this blog to wordpress. The latest article there concerns an Obamism I found while reading about the Princeton incident on ABC news. Read the post here: http://leximaniac.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/obamism-a-teachable-moment/

Vendor - Client Relationship

I stumbled across this really priceless video. No matter how eloquently we might write or how many cartoons we can draw, this sums up our work as translators so nicely.
Enjoy!

Interesting lexicographical and linguistics resources

Λεξικά & Σώματα Κειμένων (Corpora)

Λεξικά Γ. Μπαμπινιώτη (Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας)
Λεξικό της Κοινής Νεοελληνικής (Ίδρυμα Μ. Τριανταφυλλίδη)
Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας
Λεξικό της Παλαιάς Γαλλικής (Lexique d’ancien français)
Σώμα Κειμένων της Αγγλικής (British National Corpus)
Σώμα Κειμένων της Ισπανικής (Corpus del Español)
Σώμα Κειμένων της Ιταλικής (Corpus e Lessico di Frequenza dell'Italiano Scritto)
Σώμα Κειμένων τής Νέας Ελληνικής (Ινστιτούτο Επεξεργασίας του Λόγου)

Γλωσσολογικοί Σύλλογοι & Οργανισμοί

Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB)
Gesellschaft für Semantik
The Philological Society
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kognitive Linguistik (DGKL)
Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
European Association for Lexicography (EURALEX)
Centre for Research on Language Change (CRLC)
Société Internationale de Linguistique Fonctionnelle (SILF)

Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου, Daydream

So I was cleaning my desk and found an undated ditty I wrote and since I don't believe in keeping post-its, I am publishing it here ...




I spend my nights with thoughts of you
with smells and sounds of another time
when lips were locked
and embraces tight
when the night flew by
like a good wine in chilled glasses


I think it sounds too much Hallmark-like but then again I think I am entitled moments of utter corniness (sic) :)

Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου, Shattered

Shattered

I walked by a mirror today
What a revelation!
I looked into my eyes, the eyes of a stranger
I touched my lips, are they really mine?
Detachment, isolation, fear

A bell tolls somewhere bringing me back to "life"
and I walk by again
looking away ...

July 9th, 2008

Published also on Translatum - Favourite Poetry - Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου

Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου, Καιρός

Μισάνοιχτη πόρτα
κλειστό παράθυρο.
Μ' ακούς; φωνάζω απ' έξω
«Ποτέ», μου λένε από μέσα.
Κάθομαι στην πόρτα
κοιτάζω ευθεία,
κοιτάζω κάτω,
κοιτάζω τον εαυτό μου σε μια λακούβα νερό
σαν μια Αλίκη.

Ακούστε με! φωνάζω
Εδώ είμαι! λέω.
Χτυπάω την πόρτα
Σπάω το παράθυρο ...

Ένα λουλούδι άσπρο
στη γωνία κοιτάω
σπασμένα παράθυρα
και φεύγω μακριά.

Ένα δάκρι, στον κόσμο,
«Μια ελπίδα», λέω,
μυρίζω το λουλούδι και ξαφνικά
όλα φαίνονται να έχουν χρώμα και νόημα.

(7 Μαρτίου 2000)

Published also on Translatum - Favourite Poetry - Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου

Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου, Τι να 'ναι η ποίηση;

Τι να 'ναι η ποίηση;

Σα μικρό παιδί που παίζει στην τραμπάλα,
είναι η ποίηση.
Σα παιδί που όταν πέφτει κλαίει, γιατί
έγδαρε το γόνατό του.
Σα μωρό που ξέρει μόνο το εγώ
Σαν ηλιαχτίδα που παίζει κρυφτό
στο μάγουλό σου.
Αυτό είναι ποίηση.

10 Νοεμβρίου 2008

Published also on Translatum - Favourite Poetry - Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου

Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου, Λάθη

ΛΑΘΗ

Κι αναγνωρίζω
το δικαίωμά σου στη ζωή
Κι αναγνωρίζω
το δικαίωμά σου στη ψυχή
Κι αναγνωρίζω
Το δικαίωμά σου στα λάθη σου
Κι εσύ;
Εσύ κοιτάζεις τον ουρανό
και χαμογελάς, γιατί όλα, λες,
είναι φτιαγμένα για σένα.

10 Νοεμβρίου 2008

Published also on Translatum - Favourite Poetry - Βαλεντίνη Καλφαδοπούλου

Machine Translation and International English

I woke up today with the odd feeling that something will happen to either brighten my day or completely destroy my mood. Well, both happened... I usually get notifications through Google News about translation. I read this interesting take on International English and how (in the opinion of that person) it would help minimizing (even eradicate) the need for translation. I am quoting the whole article for your reading pleasure :)

Speaking an international language
Published Date: 12 January 2009

A SHEFFIED-BASED expert on making complex documents – including software manuals – understandable by all has come up with a low cost solution for companies that are put off having an international web presence by translation costs.
Mike Unwalla, founder of TechScribe, says companies could reduce, or even eliminate, expensive human translation by using what's called "International English."

International English uses fewer words and simpler grammar than a native speaker, making it easier for foreigners with a smattering of English to understand and for computers to automatically translate.

"For business purposes, one simple word can be used as an alternative to different words that have related meanings," explains Mike Unwalla.
"For example, the word 'think' can be used as an alternative to believe, consider, deem, feel, reckon, regard, suppose, and suspect." International English goes further than that, however.

While the sentences "Set up the computer" and "Set the computer up" mean the same thing, the second would be more easily understood by a foreigner, says Mike and would be easier for a computer to translate correctly into other languages.
TechScribe has launched a new service to 'translate' websites into International English and has set up a website – International English – to show companies some of the pitfalls of using standard English and the benefits of using International English.

(Source: The Star)

My conclusion at the time was that I understand what he is trying to achieve and in some sense what he calls international English is my version of simplified English, i.e. the form that machine translation engines would "understand" and translate into a form of any foreign language that people could understand (perhaps). But then I saw a thread in Translatum (translation forum, where I hang out, about a bizarre translation on a Philips package (namely the translation of the phrase "Complete PC tune-up kit" in French as "Compléter la trousse d'air en haut de PC"). I am including here the sentence reported by Selenia; you can also visit the thread yourself by clicking here. Selenia's message is in Greek: "Από αγορά προϊόντος Philips....έχουμε ακόμη τη συσκευασία ! Ακόμα προσπαθώ να καταλάβω τη λογική του μεταφραστή ! Πρόκειται για σετ καθαρισμού, οθόνης, cd player κ.λπ" (Translation: From a Philips purchase .. we still have the packaging! I am still trying to understand the translator's logic! [The product] is a cleaning set for monitors, cd players etc).

So I thought to myself, "do you think a company like that would ever use machine translation?", and promptly proceeded to go to a machine translation engine. To my surprise, this is what Philips must have done because the sentence "Complete PC tune-up kit" is translated as "Compléter la trousse d'air en haut de PC" in the machine translation! Here is the visual:


I am still trying to understand how a big company like that would ever use machine translation but there is also the doubt on whether the agency they might have contracted did not go and use the machine translation in order not to pay the minimum fee to its translators. Would there be a way to state this sentence in "International English" so that it would give a comprehensible result from a machine translation engine? I leave the final conclusion to all of you.