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French to English: Chronologie General field: Social Sciences
Source text - French Ce qui paraissait si simple – dresser la chronologie des trente dernières années de la société française – constitue-t-il une entreprise impossible ?
On ne se fait pas faute de suspecter les contemporanéistes de quelque paresse : ils auraient choisi cette période parce qu’ils ne lisent ni le grec, ni le latin, parce qu’ils ignorent la numismatique, l’épigraphie et le maniement du carbone 14, parce que – souffrant d’une carence imaginative – ils ne peuvent concevoir d’autres systèmes de valeurs que ceux qui s’affrontent sous leur regard, etc. Ils peuvent se défendre par bien des arguments dont le plus trivial n’est sans doute pas le plus faible : à savoir, qu’ils ne disposent pas des interprétations de leurs prédécesseurs, puisque 1975, hier même, c’est déjà de l’histoire (et l’on sait qu’en histoire comme ailleurs, l’art et l’habileté des copistes ont survécu aux inventions de Gutenberg). Comme ses confrères, spécialistes de temps plus anciens, l’historien contemporanéiste doit être un peu linguiste, un peu statisticien, un peu démographe, un peu ethnologue (en savoir suffisamment pour rédiger son questionnaire) mais il lui appartient de franchir les frontières de la sociologie, de la science politique, ce qui ne va pas sans effort et sans risque, tant il est vrai que la défense du territoire n’est pas le propre des animaux sociaux. Cependant son problème majeur reste l’énormité de son corpus. Même si son choix se porte sur une étude ponctuelle apparemment bien limitée, de proche en proche, de jour en jour, d’une idée à l’autre, d’une hypothèse à un fait (ou à une série de faits) il voit croître son corpus. Un exemple simple permettra de saisir la redoutable dynamique de cette sédimentation. Soit l’étude de la genèse, de la production et l’exécution d’une loi. L’approche textuelle mobilise déjà linguistique, lexicologie, méthode analytique (ce qui est dit, ce qui est tu). Elle s’efforce de dégager la portée idéologique du message (ce qui est relativement simple) mais aussi celle du contenant (ce qui l’est déjà moins, l’ambiguïté éventuelle de la formulation pouvant procéder soit de la négligence du rédacteur soit du projet calculé de produire un texte susceptible d’une pluralité d’interprétations). La loi elle-même est l’aboutissement de lentes mutations et transformations des mentalités et des mœurs qui ont, implicitement ou explicitement, constitué une sorte d’appel au législateur et qu’il conviendra d’appréhender, à travers les sondages, la presse écrite, parlée, télévisée, etc. Dans quelles conditions la loi a-t-elle été votée ? L’initiative était-elle gouvernementale ou parlementaire ? Dans le second cas, venait-elle de la majorité ou de l’opposition ? Quel fut le rôle des commissions parlementaires ? Comment se sont déroulés les débats (donc analyse systématique des pratiques discursives des intervenants) ? Quels amendements furent proposés, repoussés, adoptés ?
Translation - English Although it would appear to be quite a simple task, is it impossible to draw up a chronology of French society for the past three decades?
We cannot fail to suspect contemporary historians of sloth - they might have chosen this era because they cannot read Greek or Latin, they do not know numismatics, epigraphy or how to handle carbon-14. Because - due to lack of imagination - they cannot conceive of value systems other than those which they themselves see confronting one another, etc... They can defend their case with many arguments, of which the most trivial is indeed not the least. They admittedly do not have the interpretations of their predecessors at hand, as 1975 and even yesterday are already history (and we know that in history as well as other subject matters, the art and skill of transcribers have survived Gutenberg's inventions). Like his colleagues - the specialists of more ancient times - the contemporary historian has to be somewhat of a linguist, a statistician, a demographer and an ethnologist (at least have enough knowledge of these activities to be able to draw up his questionnaire). But he must go beyond the boundaries of sociology and of political science, which does entail some effort and risk taking since as territorial defence is not peculiar to the social animal. However his major problem is the sheer size of his corpus. Even though he might have chosen a specific subject to study - with apparent boundaries - gradually, day by day, from one idea to the other, from hypothesis to fact (or a series of facts), his corpus grows. A simple example may help to grasp the extremely difficult dynamic of this sedimentation. Let us take the case of the study of the genesis, production and enforcement of a law. The textual approach already requires linguistics, lexicology and analytic method (what is said and what is not). The study endeavours not only to highlight the ideology of the message - this being relatively simple - but also that of the contents, this being less obvious to do. The possible ambiguity of the wording - due either to the writer's negligence or to the planned project - could produce a text likely to have several interpretations. The law itself is the outcome of slow changes and transformations of mentalities and customs which have, implicitly or explicitly, in a way, called out for the legislator. These changes have to be perceived with the help of mediums such as polls, written and oral press, television, etc... Questions have to be raised, such as the conditions in which the law was passed, and whether it was proposed by the government or the parliament. In the latter case, it has to be established if the proposal came from the majority or the opposition, and what the role of the parliamentary commissions was. The way the debate went has to be considered (involving the systematic analysis of the discourse of the contributors), as well as which amendments were proposed, ditched, and passed.
French to English: Comment reconnaître un étranger? General field: Social Sciences
Source text - French Les discussions qui ont eu lieu récemment en France à propos du projet de loi visant à combattre « l’immigration clandestine » en renforçant les contrôles d’identité illustrent bien les contradictions auxquelles se heurte la logique policière d’identification dans les sociétés démocratiques. En proposant un amendement autorisant les policiers à effectuer ces contrôles à partir de « tout élément permettant de présumer la qualité d’étranger, autre que l’appartenance raciale », le député Alain Marsaud a remis à l’ordre du jour une question qui depuis un siècle hante la police : comment reconnaître un « étranger » ? Jusqu’au 19ème siècle, les techniques d’identification reposaient essentiellement sur le « sens commun ». Dans un monde social où les déplacements étaient encore rares, la plupart des gens côtoyaient des individus qu’ils connaissaient directement. Dans ces conditions, seul celui qui était extérieur à cet espace d’interconnaissance était considéré comme un « étranger ». On tentait de cerner son identité en scrutant son apparence physique, ses manières, son costume. Mais ces techniques d’identification étaient fragiles, rudimentaires, relativement faciles à déjouer. D’où les nombreuses tentatives, depuis l’Antiquité, destinées à percer les secrets de l’identité « réelle » derrière les évidences de l’apparence. La physiognomonie de Lavater - conçue comme « l’art de reconnaître les hommes par les traits du visage » - peut être considérée comme le point d’aboutissement de ces tentatives de « rationalisation » du sens commun ; l’équivalence supposée entre le corps et l’esprit étant censée permettre aux policiers de démasquer les criminels. Aujourd’hui encore, l’apparence physique joue un rôle essentiel pour guider l’opinion que nous avons des individus que nous ne connaissons pas. Tous les racismes se nourrissent d’ailleurs de ces formes primaires d’identification. Mais celles-ci, en tant que techniques d’investigation policière, sont apparues de plus en plus inadaptées aux transformations du monde moderne. Avec les progrès de l’industrialisation, les individus sont devenus de plus en plus mobiles. Du coup, le nombre des « étrangers », au sens indiqué ci-dessus, n’a cessé de croître ; tout comme les possibilités d’échapper à la surveillance et au regard policiers. A la fin du 19ème siècle, le problème des « récidivistes » devient la préoccupation centrale des pouvoirs publics, étant donné que les policiers ne peuvent se fier, le plus souvent, qu’à leur mémoire pour reconnaître les criminels. C’est pourquoi, comme le montre Dickens dans l’un de ses romans, ils passent des heures à dévisager les prisonniers. Avec la construction de l’État-nation et l’institutionnalisation de la citoyenneté, le problème s’aggrave car l’identification des individus devient un enjeu social beaucoup plus important qu’avant.
Translation - English Debates have recently taken place in France about the proposed legislation designed to fight "illegal immigration" by increasing identity checks. These reflect the contradictions which police identification procedures are up against in democratic societies. By proposing an amendment, authorizing police officers to run checks on the basis of "any elements permitting to presume alien status, other than ethnicity", deputy Alain Marsaud has put back on the agenda a question which has haunted the police for a century: how to identify a "foreigner"? Up to the 19th century, identification techniques relied essentially on "common sense". In a society where people seldom travelled, most mixed with individuals who they knew directly. In such conditions, only someone who did not belong to this acquaintanceship was considered a "foreigner". An attempt was made at discerning their identity by scrutinizing their physical appearance, behaviour and clothes. However, these identification techniques were insubstantial, rudimentary, and easy to outsmart. Hence numerous attempts have been made since Antiquity to uncover the secrets of "real" identity behind the obvious signs given by appearance. Johann Lavater's physiognomy theory - designed as "the art of defining men by their facial features" - can be considered as the culmination of these attempts to "rationalize" common sense, the presumed equivalence between body and mind supposedly enabling the police to unmask criminals. To this day, physical appearance plays an essential role in influencing the opinion we have of people we do not know. In fact all forms of racism feed on these primary means of identification. However, as police investigation techniques, they have come to be seen as increasingly unsuitable to the transformations of the modern world. Individuals have become increasingly mobile with the advance of industrialisation. As a result, the number of "foreigners"- in the sense mentioned above - has continued to increase, along with the possibilities of escaping the surveillance and the watch of the police. At the end of the 19th century, "recidivists" became the main preoccupation of the authorities, since the majority of the time the police could only rely on their memory to recognise criminals. As Dickens illustrated in one of his novels, it is the reason why they used to spend hours staring at prisoners. With the construction of the nation-state and the institutionalisation of citizenship, the problem is getting worse as identification of individuals is becoming a much more important social issue than it was before.
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Years of experience: 21. Registered at ProZ.com: Apr 2004. Became a member: Aug 2007.
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Bio
Dear Sir or Madam,
I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with you.
I hold a Diploma in Translation (DipTransIoLET) from the London Chartered Institute of Linguists (2006).
My language combinations are the following:
ENGLISH <> FRENCH
SPANISH / PORTUGUESE > ENGLISH / FRENCH
I translate all types of documents, such as websites / newsletters / press articles / short stories / business proposals / official EU documents / contracts / reports, etc. - mainly in the tourism, marketing, general technical, legal, business, financial, social sciences, artistic, cultural and literary domains.
I have also translated a novel (Prisoner of the Rock, by Luigi Ciardelli).
I am perfectly bilingual in English and French, and consider myself native in both languages.
I was born and raised in France and also learned English from the age of two with the English members of my family. I was schooled in a bilingual establishment up to graduation, and I have lived and worked in London for the best part of 18 years.
I also lived in Spain for several years, as well as in Colombia, and I am fluent in Spanish.
I have had extended stays in Portugal and Brazil and had a good command of Portuguese.
Languages have always fascinated me, and living in each of the countries of which I speak the language has allowed me to soak in their culture, which gives me a great advantage in terms of real fluency.
I have an excellent grasp of these languages in every register - from informal, spoken or street language, to formal, business, and varied literary styles.
I am proficient in the use of SDL TRADOS Studio 2015.
Kindest regards,
Clothilde Courtois
Keywords: French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, flexible, competitive, dedicated, tourism, financial, website. See more.French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, flexible, competitive, dedicated, tourism, financial, website, literature, advertising, marketing, environment, social science, art, cultural, article, short story, presentation, report, contract, business proposal, official EU document. See less.
Member since Aug '07
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