[blml] from Vitold

[Konrad Ciborowski]

> Hi all:) 

> 7. When we translated several expressions with modality - we needed even
> to create in Russian several expressions that never were used. 

I think I know exactly what you mean - you're
talking about 'obyazan' - right? 

The biggest problem for our team is the translation of the English
Colored Future as opposed to Pure Future.
And I bet you had the same problem with the Russian version.

It is the huge problem, I mean - really huge.

It is as if you were trying to translate into English
a Polish text that would rely heavily on diminutives 
- in Polish you can create a diminutive from almost 
every single noun that exists, often in multiple versions.
English is absolutely helpless here - if you know
someone who is Polish then ask him to try to explain
to you the difference between "córka", "córeczka", "córuchna",
"córus" and "córa" - technically all of them meaning
"daughter" - and you'll see what I mean.


This exactly the kind of problem we're having with
the Laws.

The difference between "shall" (eg. A request to have calls restated 
shall be responded to only by an opponent.) and "should"
(eg. declarer should clearly state both) simply doesn't
exist in Polish because, ironically, 
the verb "powinien" (shall/should/ought) is that one verb
that doesn't exist in Conditional Mode in Polish 
(or in Russian and I suspect that in most Slavic languages).

In French you at least have "il doit" and "il devrait" but
in Polish you are stuck.

The same huge problem we have with the difference between
"may not" and "must not" - it is impossible to
express this difference in Polish.
Although with negative forms I do have some ideas 
(perhaps we'll use expressions like "it is forbidden" or
"he has no right to...", too early to tell).

But with "he shall do" and "he should do" - I'm at a loss.
So far I haven't come up with anything that wouldn't sound
terribly artificially in Polish (you just can't fill
the laws with a phrase like "it is imperative that" 
repeated over and over everywhere). 

This is exactly what the Russian authors did - they
invented constructs that sound awfully for the Russian
ear (obyazan ne delat'). 

The problem is in fact so big that the author of the Polish
translation of the 1997 laws simply chose to ignore it 
altogether - the preface was removed from the Polish edition
of the 1997 laws and the translation of should/shall, 
may not/must not was done with only stylistic 
considerations in mind.

Our team will meet face to face this weekend and will
discuss the issue at length.




-- 
Konrad Ciborowski
Kraków, Poland

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