....

janekane (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:33 pm I have toyed with translate.google.com from time to time.

Start with a sentence in one language, say, English, and translate it into another language into another language into another language into another language into another language into English and compare the original English sentence with the final one.

Sometimes, when I have done that, the plausible meanings of the original and final English versions contradict one another.

....

If I do not actually understand any word-based language, does it matter which word-based language I use?

Pues, sí, más o menos.

I, too, have used the online translation tool, and sometimes it's fun just to see how ridiculous the translations get. For example, type in "shredded beef" in English, translate to Spanish, then translate what it gives back to English. You get "meat of a destroyed cow." It's not a tool I'd want to use for serious work, but I suppose it beats having no translation at all.

I heard of a test case once used for a machine translator for Russian and English. The test phrase, in English, was "Out of sight, out of mind." After translation to Russian and back to English, it came out "Blind, insane." Quite logical, I suppose.

Word-based languages do have their pitfalls.

Sandi

Allways good to read your post Janekane. I noted your comment above, prehaps you could solve the Cat paradox in a satisafactory way in a linguistic manner but the cat parradox is merely a tool used to illustrate the the complexity of quantum suposition. It should not be relied upon as an acurate model of the quantum world or the macroscopic one. Its solution as a model may well not transfer well onto the systems it crudely tries to illustrate.

Happy New Year

I was kind of surprised that someone did not understand "Should Not". That one is easy. If you fart in a crowd, all of them will tell you that you Should Not Have.

If you fart in a crowd turn to the person next to you with an accusing look and say 'Really?' then move away from him, Rene would be proud.

or

Blame Moi,

River

I bought an electronic translator when I took my first job in South America back in the mid-90s. I tried Sandi's exercise once when I was trying to tell something. I inputted 'step-grandson,' translated to Spanish and then translated that back to English. It came back as 'dried fruit.' I figured I would probably get punched out or laid during the year.

I do sometimes write for a Spanish language pub. For that, I write in English, use Google translate and change what I know is wrong and then submit that. They are happier with that than with something in English which they have to totally translate. When I do use Google translate for other languages, it is a bit rocky. Usually I can figure out what they are saying, mas o menos, but it sometimes is a stretch.

Perhaps Rene Descartes had been scolded the day before by the bishop that if he should keep thinking the way he has been then he will be dead...

Which then led him to this further revelation.

Lamortde (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:02 am Si «je pense donc je suis» est vrai, est «je bais

janekane (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:33 pm e donc je suis une bite, intrinsèquement vrai?

Becomes, in English:

If "I think therefore I

am" is true, "I kiss so I'm a dick, intrinsically true?

Google is making the same error in colloquial translation that I made just over thirty years ago.

Unfortunately I made it in addressing a lady, the wife of the local fire chief. That gentleman was standing beside me and behaved, under the circumstances, with extreme restraint.

In the decades between my text books being written and me learning from them the verb had changed common meaning from "kiss" to "fuck".

Certainly "I fuck therefore I'm a dick" was true then, I suspect that it still is.

And even then "bite" is more purely anatomical than in English usage so the intended sense still doesn't quite come over.

...

calmeilles (imported) wrote: Fri Jan 04, 2013 2:00 pm In the decades between my text books being written and me learning from them the verb had changed common meaning from "kiss" to "fuck".

Certainly "I fuck therefore I'm a dick" was true then, I suspect that it still is...

That made me laugh.

There's all these little pitfalls in the spoken language.

Not so much in written language.

Now the quote in French is funny.

Lamortde (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:02 am Si «je pense donc je suis» est vrai, est «je baise donc je suis une bite, intrinsèquement vrai?

Cela dépend de la bite tu as embrassé. Certains sont morts bites, queues certains sont vivants et certains sont juste des têtes bite.

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