- From: CE Whitehead <cewcathar@hotmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:55:04 -0400
- To: christophe.strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be, w3c-translators@w3.org
- Cc: www-international@w3.org
Thanks for your info on the French (I think you are right; I think you have to repeat "quelque chose"--"des cas où il est possible que >se passe quelque chose"; I'll have to check with a French speaker!) ; but google and systrans are doing personal pronouns improperly in any case, also! Thanks. --C. E. Whitehead cewcathar@hotmail.com > >Hi, > >At 16:56 8/06/2007, CE Whitehead wrote: > >>Systrans is getting more like Google neither does impersonal pronouns >>properly! >> >>* * * >> >>Example 1: >> >>Original (French) text: >> >>"Il va pleuvoir le dimanche, n'est pas? A-t-il quelque chose que je peux >>faire?" >> >>Systrans: >> >>"It will rain Sunday, is not? Does it have something which I can do?" >> >>Google: >> >>"It will rain Sunday, is not? Does it have something which I can do?" >> >>(I would translate the sentence as: >> >>"It's going to rain Sunday, right? Is there anything I can do?") > >As far as I know, your translation of the second sentence would have been >correct if the French original had been "Y a-t-il ...". >"a-t-il" can mean "does he/it have..." > > >>(...) >>* * * >>Example 2-3 >> >>Original Text: >> >>"S'il est impossible que quelque chose se passe, a-t-il des cas où il est >>possible qu'elle se passe?" >> >>(...) >>Translating French > English (google and Systrans again the same!) >> >>"If it is impossible that something occurs, does it have cases where it is >>possible that it occurs?" >> >> >>(I'd translate the above, French > English, as "If it is impossible that >>something will happen, are there cases where it is possible that it will >>happen" but it's my French I'm translating so the original may not sound >>perfectly native but I think it's o.k.) > >Same problem with "a-t-il" as above, AFAIK. >Moreover, I can't make sense of "des cas où il est possible qu'elle se >passe". What is "elle" ("she") supposed to refer to? I doubt that you can >refer back to "quelque chose" by means of "elle" in the second clause, and >that you can use "elle" with "se passer" if that verb is used in the sense >of "to happen". Yes, I agree now it does sound funny; but French is not my first languages > >So who is "doing" pronouns improperly? > > >Best regards, > >Christophe > > >-- >Christophe Strobbe >K.U.Leuven - Dept. of Electrical Engineering - SCD >Research Group on Document Architectures >Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 bus 2442 >B-3001 Leuven-Heverlee >BELGIUM >tel: +32 16 32 85 51 >http://www.docarch.be/ > > >Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm > > _________________________________________________________________ Make every IM count. Download Messenger and join the i’m Initiative now. It’s free. http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=TAGHM_June07
Received on Friday, 8 June 2007 15:56:18 UTC