Re: OT: Any english speakers here?

In article <72ptlaFrerupU2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Paul Carmichael <wibbleypants@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm just dabbling in this translation lark. Got to do courses and exams
etc., but it can't hurt to practise.

Apparently, the key doobry is that the translated piece has to read as
though it was originally written in that tongue. As opposed to "don't
shoot your fridge in the street" (no tire la nevera en la calle).

A work that I've recommended before and do not hesitate to recommend
again is David Crystal's _The Cambridge Encyclopædia of Language_
(Cambridge Univ. Press). Aside from dialect continua and the processes
of learning languages (with due deference given to Noam Chomsky), he
also recounts how (IIRC, 'cos my copy is in the cellar) Samuel Becket
translated one of his shorter pieces into French, and then back into
English. The result was apparently borderline unintelligible.

So, can anyone cast an eye over this piece and tell me if the english
version sounds "English" please?

http://paulcarmichael.org/trans%20es-en%20netbooks.doc

â?¢ 'to judge by ..', I'd have put, 'judging by ..'
â?¢ following sentence begins with 'and', but that's no longer the
no-no that it used to be
â?¢ 'machines overheating' --> gerund, so the 'machines' (which
functions nominatively), needs a final apostrophe
â?¢ 'on the 10th March'. In Standard English, one does not use
ordinals for dates, so, '.. on 10 March ..'
â?¢ '20 euro' - here attributive, so hyphenated; I'd play it safe
and write the number 'en toutes lettres' (see, Beav? I can't
remember how to write that in English?)..

Other than that, it sounds 'English', yes (if by 'English', you mean
'written by a native speaker').

D.
--
des | 'what does it matter what he posts?'
.

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