[blml] "board" vs. "deal" (opinion poll)

[Robert Geller]

March 3, 2008

Dear BLMLers (especially DSC members or people 
involved in translating the Laws),

I'm hoping you can help me out.  As you know I'm one 
of several people working on checking and editing the 
Japanese version of the 2007 Laws.  

First, a general philosophical question.  I'm sure that in 
principle everyone agrees that the translators of the Laws 
ought to respect the original English version and not make 
arbitrary changes to the meaning. But in many cases the 
2007 Laws (like earlier versions) have various minor flaws.  

Q1.When it appears clear to the translators that 
there are minor flaws in the laws, should they:
A.	Nonetheless strive to translate the
	 Laws as closely as possible.
B.	Aim at a reasonable translation, but use
	 commonsense to make minor changes as needed.
C.	Other (please specify)

Next let's look a concrete example.   This is not really 
important one way or the other in itself, but serves as 
a litmus test.   Let's consider the case of "board" 
and "deal."  As I'm sure most BLMLers know (see 
definitions, excerpt in attached file), the "definitions" 
section of the 2007 Laws allows either to be used 
interchangeably as the unit of the bidding and play 
of a board.   In looking at the English version of the
 2007 Laws it seems that most of the time "board" 
is used as the unit of play, but once in a while "deal" 
is also used (I suspect the latter is mostly a holdover 
from the rubber bridge laws, but some may result from 
a reluctance to use the word "board" twice in one sentence.)

Anyway in the cases where "deal" and "board" are used 
in an interchangeable sense I'd like to use one term only in 
the Japanese edition.  Since "board" is used more often by 
far in the present edition, and also because "board" is more 
familiar to ordinary Japanese players and directors than "deal," 
I'd like to use "board" in all such cases.   (Needless to say, 
in the cases where "deal" is use to indicate the distribution 
of the cards I'd leave this as is.)  To assist you in understanding 
what I mean I've gone through the English edition (see next two 
pages) and indicated each place where I'm proposing to replace 
"deal" by "board" in the Japanese edition.  

Q2. What is your opinion of the proposed change?
A.	Strictly forbidden.  "Deal" may not be replaced by "board" 
	even where the meaning is unchanged. 
B.	No problem.  Such minor commonsense alterations are OK.
C.	Other (please specify.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Bob

-----------------------------------------------------
Robert (Bob) Geller,     Tokyo, Japan        geller at nifty.com
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