Looking for American "brick-sentence" Thread poster: Maria Drangel
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Hi my friends!
When I am translating I come across them the whole time. Sentences in English, normally American English, where nouns are placed on top of eachother in a way so that it is impossible to interpret which meaning (grammatically) each word has in the sentence. It can be something like "Manager of bla, bla, bla, bla" (and it keeps going and going). Now when I am writing an article about difficulties which translators face during technical translation I just can´t seem to ... See more Hi my friends!
When I am translating I come across them the whole time. Sentences in English, normally American English, where nouns are placed on top of eachother in a way so that it is impossible to interpret which meaning (grammatically) each word has in the sentence. It can be something like "Manager of bla, bla, bla, bla" (and it keeps going and going). Now when I am writing an article about difficulties which translators face during technical translation I just can´t seem to find any such sentence in my work. Does anyone of you have such a sentence to send my way? It would be much appreciated. I hope that you know what I mean - ask if I was too unclear!
Thanks in advance!
/Maria ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
France
Local time: 09:12
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
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| Large terms overview | May 26, 2009 |
Hi Maria,
You mean terms like:
small business management software solutions services
?
Regards,
Gerard
| | | | James McVay
United States
Local time: 03:12
Russian to English
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| Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 09:12
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Maria Drangel wrote:
Hi my friends!
"Manager of bla, bla, bla, bla" (and it keeps going and going). Now when I am writing an article about difficulties which translators face during technical translation I just can´t seem to find any such sentence in my work.
/Maria
Hi Maria,
Are you looking for a sentence or a noun phrase?
Can you give us a full example?
Multi-word phrases are common in English, where the noun phrase head is usually at the end of the phrase, whereas the nouns/adjectives preceding it functioning as adjectives or noun
premodifiers that in some way describe or determine(identify) the noun closer.
In the above example by James:
"Translation business management software suggestions"
suggestions=noun phrase head
software premodifies "suggestions"
translation business management premodifies " software suggestions"
etc. ( you can continue the phrase within a phrase analysis)
It can also be subject to great ambiguities, for example, is it:
1. Software suggestions for translation business management
or
2. Suggestions for translation business management software
Context helps in clearing up the ambiguities.
There is a great tendency for such constructions in English. Whereas what comes before the NP head in English, in Serbian commonly (not always) comes AFTER the NP head, if you want it to make sense.
[Edited at 2009-05-27 12:34 GMT]
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| How about these, from an actual job? | May 27, 2009 |
• The generally accepted activated sludge plant coarse bubble mixing air rate standard
• To help determine your enclosed track stand alone workstation bridge crane’s specific runway support centers, consider the following points:
• Hot stick latch hook model web strap hoists have rings on the hook and latch for use on energized lines.
Regards,
Daniel
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:12
Russian to English
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In memoriam | Can be overdone | May 27, 2009 |
I've seen several examples of "brick-sentences" (never heard this expression before) written by non-native speakers of English who create long terms of this kind with no prepositions, where a native English speaker would break them up with prepositions, not just to make them easier to understand, but because they just would not be written that way in English. Sorry, can't think of an example offhand.
| | | | Niraja Nanjundan (X)
Local time: 12:42
German to English
| Stacked modifiers? | May 27, 2009 |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't what Maria is referring to as "brick sentences" technically known as "stacked modifiers?"
Here's another example:
Voluntary human kidney donor research institution personnel
| | | | | Local English newspapers love this | May 27, 2009 |
Is this the kind of thing you read on local newspaper advertising boards?
Something like:
Leeds triplet abortion mum jewellery theft shocker!
The Yorkshire Evening Post seems to have this down to a fine art, using only nouns to express any news story.
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Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:12
English to Arabic
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| Can I just express my horror! | May 27, 2009 |
Daniel Grau wrote:
• The generally accepted activated sludge plant coarse bubble mixing air rate standard
• To help determine your enclosed track stand alone workstation bridge crane’s specific runway support centers, consider the following points:
• Hot stick latch hook model web strap hoists have rings on the hook and latch for use on energized lines.
Regards,
Daniel
From an actual job you say, Daniel?! Writing sentences like that AND then giving them to unsuspecting translators should be a punishable offence!!
| | | | Maria Drangel
Sweden
Local time: 09:12
English to Swedish
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you everyone who participated in this! I didn´t know it was called "stacked modifiers" that helped a lot and all the other answeres were both helpful and some VERY ENTERTAINING as well! Have a great weekend!
| | | | | lol - and well-parodied in privateye too, though the bbc website's now sliding down that hill too... | Jun 1, 2009 |
Mike Hindley wrote:
Is this the kind of thing you read on local newspaper advertising boards?
Something like:
Leeds triplet abortion mum jewellery theft shocker!
The Yorkshire Evening Post seems to have this down to a fine art, using only nouns to express any news story.
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Mike Hindley wrote:
Is this the kind of thing you read on local newspaper advertising boards?
Something like:
Leeds triplet abortion mum jewellery theft shocker!
The Yorkshire Evening Post seems to have this down to a fine art, using only nouns to express any news story.
It's not only British newspapers that love this kind of "sentence". A couple of decades ago, the New York Post splashed this headline about the notorious murder of the philandering Scarsdale diet expert by his jealous lover, the headmistress of a fashionable girls' school:
POSH GIRL'S SCHOOL HEAD IN DIET DOC DEATH SHOCK.
For their headlines, editors like to combine as many monosyllables as possible (pity about "diet" - not quite a monosyllable - otherwise it would be perfect).
Best wishes,
Jenny
[Edited at 2009-06-02 06:43 GMT]
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