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Neologisms in interpreting:
German examples

Extracts from a discussion thread on Lantra-l Jan. 1998. 
Helge: >I would like to ask for your comments about the following.
>I have defined the following "strategies" which interpreters may resort to
>when they encounter a term for which they cannot (immediately) find an
>equivalent in the target language: <snip>

They are possible, but if you really don't know the term it might be safer to with a "direct loan" (the dreaded Neudeutsch) for the time being, until you've had time to do some research. Can save you some embarrassment. For example, I remember being in the middle of a plant breeder conference (FAO), when these guys suddenly start talking about "farmer's privilege" and their attitude about it. Farmers privilege? Privileg des Bauern? Ius primae noctae came to mind, and not only to my mind. Boy am I glad I used Neudeutsch until I found out what the proper term in the context is. Care to guess, btw?
Rene 

Farmer gets to sell christmas tree on the side? No. Maybe that he's got the pleasure to see his date palms dating (and maypoles mating)? But you probably _were_ right: there is the ancient ceremonial right in the coastal regions of Northern Bohemia (qv. Shakespeare) that the owner of a piece of land may tap on a trunk of timber before it is cut down by the chainsaw, known scholarly as *Ius primae knocktis*.

Sorry Helge for corrupting the subject ;-) but I hadda
WernR 

Yep, that would be Asterix approach. But among plant breeders, "farmers privilege" is an extremely important concept (and bone of contention), and it has nothing to do with trying out new maids or plonking on innocent trees. And there is correct German term for it, but you won't guess it or find in general dictionaries (and certainly not in a hurry in an interpreters' booth).

--Rene 

>4. Neologism:
>a) loan translation ("literal" translation of source language term)
>b) direct loans / transfer (source language term is used as is or with some
>modification to make it fit into the target language phonology/morphology
>c) coining of new word (hypothesis: unusual in interpreting; more usual in
>written translation).

What comes to mind is that while German is quite easygoing about importing foreign, esp. English words, there is still the tendency to make them fit in our syntax system, i.e. adding case-marker suffixes, or forming correct tenses with them. Which often yields comic results like "getimed". It is only then actually that the loaning practice really puts itself in question I think. So I would write *chatten* and *Chat* but not *gechatted* and *des Chats* (genitive). And no, I would never write *timen*

Hope this is what you had in mind

nytysk WernR 

rene wrote,
> >Yep, that would be Asterix approach. But among plant breeders, "farmers
>privilege" is an extremely important concept (and bone of contention),
>and it has nothing to do with trying out new maids or plonking on innocent
>trees. And there is correct German term for it, but you won't guess it or
>find in general dictionaries (and certainly not in a hurry in an
>interpreters' booth).

rene: The concept of a "farmer's privilege" is a feature of plant varieties protection legislation which may allow farmers to use seed or otherwise propagate protected plant varieties [See Plant Breeders Rights Act 1994 (Cth) s 17] and a more radical form of this extending to transgenic animals has been proposed for insertion into the EC Directive on Biotechnological Inventions. [R, Nott, "The Proposed Directive on Biotechnological Inventions" [1994 5 EIPR 191.]

it took me less than a minute to find this explanation. i can't say if it would be the same for german, but if you had a partner in the booth, wouldn't it help to have access to the info? i realize you are under pressure at the time - but my point is that technology puts the info at our fingertips if we have wasted enough time on the learning curve to know how to access it).

susan 

>So I would write *chatten* and *Chat* but not *gechatted* and *des
>Chats* (genitive). And no, I would never write *timen*

How about "downloaden"?

Michael 

Interesting. I caught myself using "downloadede" in Danish, for the =
past tense of the verb, in an informal E-mail to friend yesterday. It =
does sound a bit artificial - but I expect that it may not be too long =
before it won't grate on the ear at all.

Hugh 

The thing is that "herunterladen" (sorry, don¹t know Danish) sounds almost as odd as "downloaden" - though not quite as bad as "downgeloaded".

Michael 

Actually, the German term used to be "herunter*ziehen*", before "downloaden" took over.

--Rene 

WernR: >What comes to mind is that while German is quite easygoing about importing
>foreign, esp. English words, there is still the tendency to make them fit
>in our syntax system, i.e. adding case-marker suffixes, or forming correct
>tenses with them. Which often yields comic results like "getimed". It is
>only then actually that the loaning practice really puts itself in question
>I think. So I would write *chatten* and *Chat* but not *gechatted* and *des
>Chats* (genitive). And no, I would never write *timen* <snip>

Right. Fwiw, how do you deal with "recyceln" and "recycelt"? This bothers me to no end, but seems to have become the norm in Germany. The Swiss, I think, have changed it to "rezyklieren", which I dislike less. I still don't understand what's wrong with good old "wiederverwerten".

--Rene 

>>So I would write *chatten* and *Chat* but not *gechatted* and *des
>>Chats* (genitive). And no, I would never write *timen*
> >How about "downloaden"?

That's just what I mean, Mike. I _would_ write it in certain contexts (doing a story for Wired, for instance) although I'd probably prefer the existing translation *sich etw. (vom Netz/von einem Server) runterladen* - which would be Helge's #4a, incidentally. What I'd certainly not write is a conjugated form of the verb: *er downloadet sich das Zeug* or *ich hab's mir gedownloadet/downgeloadet*. See?

and Rene: >Right. Fwiw, how do you deal with "recyceln" and "recycelt"? This bothers
>me to no end, but seems to have become the norm in Germany. The Swiss,
>I think, have changed it to "rezyklieren", which I dislike less. I still
>don't understand what's wrong with good old "wiederverwerten".

That's where the rub is, apparently: as long as the loaned word fits into reading expectations, at least with a bit of imagination (after all, even *chatten* might constitute a significant reading obstacle for people who don't know much English), it works. But with examples like this, my choice would be to go for a nominal phrase: *einem Recyling(-Verfahren) unterziehen* or something like that. And yes, let's first look for existing words that say the same thing.

flexion-gechallengedly
WernR 

>Actually, the German term used to be "herunter*ziehen*", before
>"downloaden" took over.

And don't forget the subcultural "saugen".

Tony 

> Right. Fwiw, how do you deal with "recyceln" and "recycelt"? This bothers me
> to no end, but seems to have become the norm in Germany. The Swiss, I think,
> have changed it to "rezyklieren", which I dislike less. I still don't
> understand what's wrong with good old "wiederverwerten".

I also recall having seen 'weiterverwerten', FWIW.

BTW - this word causes a similar problem in Dutch. In the Netherlands they left it as is: recycling (n) en recyclen (v), whereas in Flanders they use recyclage (n) en recycleren (v), which is easier to inflect. Many compounds are formed with 'kringloop-', which should therefore not be confused with German 'Kreislauf'...

Daniel 

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Helge.Niska@tolk.su.se 1998-08-08