Ccaps Blog

Rosiane’s last post left my academic soul restless.

This blog gives us a good opportunity to exchange ideas and for you, the reader, to know better what is going on in our minds. As a translation student at PUC-Rio, I could not pass up the opportunity to add to Rose’s discussion. Did you know that in our program we have a course called Translation Theory? Not to mention the Theories of Meaning course that I still have not taken.

I agree with the premise meaning is in constant production. Although many times the words are waiting to be translated, meaning is not concretely stuck to one idea—although they are arbitrarily agreed upon. It is up to us, as translators to interpret and give new meaning to speech and to find those that accept the ideas we are trying to convey.

Recently, a colleague of mine asked how to say abraço in English. To give a quick answer, I said that it was “hug.” But we have to keep in mind that language was not born from a translation project and as such, one word is not tied to another in regards to its meaning. For example, Brazilian culture allows us to end conversations with “beijos e abraços,” but in English it is not customary to bid farewell by saying “kisses” or “hugs.”

Like Rose said: the word “saudade” does not have an equivalent in other languages. If we think about it, IN PRINCIPLE, no word has an exact equivalent meaning in another language. It is the cultures and contexts that more or less define the sphere of meaning.

In European Portuguese, the word “rato” (meaning a computer mouse), represents more than a simple object; it represents an adverse linguistic attitude towards foreign expressions. And so it is and as so I will follow… This notion of constant production and interpretation of meaning is where my loyalty resides.

How do your ideas contribute to mine and Rosiane’s? Any volunteers for Part 3 of this discussion?

Related posts:

1. Making the Impossible Possible

Posted in 08/12/2009 at 3.57 pm.
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