Blog

12
Feb

Proz.com February free webinar week

ProZ.com free webinars offers registered ProZ users the opportunity to attend workshops and informational presentations on CAT Tools and products for free.

Don’t forget to attend the Meeting Clients at Proz webinar. I had the chance to attend it few months ago and it was really useful. Only one thing, I believe that there is a more appropriate name for this webinar: Improve your Proz profile. Feel free to send us your comments.

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11
Feb

What do translators do?

Source: theguardian.com

Howard Curtis, winner of the Marsh award for children’s literature in translation, explains that translation is about more than putting words from one language into another

What do translators do? Of course, they take words written in one language and put them into other words in another language, trying to give the same meaning. But it isn’t always as simple as that. Languages work in different ways, we don’t say things the same way in different languages.

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11
Feb

Why Wikipedia’s grammar vigilante is wrong

We all have our grammatical bugbears. If you’re anything like me, they’ll irritate you, but you’ll let them go. No one wants to be the smart-arse constantly reminding people that it should be “fewer” and not “less”. But for software engineer Bryan Henderson, that kind of defeatism just doesn’t cut it. Every Sunday night, before he goes to bed, he tracks down and expunges the 70-80 new instances of “comprised of” that have appeared on Wikipedia in the past 7 days, according to Medium. He is a super-pedant.

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10
Feb

How spelling keeps kids from learning

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less to do with teaching style and quality than with language. Simply put, written English is great for puns but terrible for learning to read or write. It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring the English-speaking participants to wear blindfolds.

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09
Feb

About infinitives

The “rule” against splitting infinitives appeared in the 1800s, but it wasn’t initially put forth as a rule. See what was on Henry Alford’s mind when he advised against the construction.

Splitting infinitives is a grammar topic, but the “rule” you may have learned against splitting infinitives isn’t as hard-and-fast as you might imagine.

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06
Feb

How to improve & enlarge your vocabulary

Source: Guardian

Words define the shape and scope of our understanding. Learn a word such as “aglet”, the little plastic end to a shoelace, and you’ll be better able to recognise and enjoy something familiar and unremarkable. Learn the word “tarantism”, a disorder characterised by the uncontrollable urge to dance, and you’ll gain the ability to recognise and describe a trait in yourself or a friend. And, of course, words such as these are simply fun to know.

Learning vocab can, however, be tricky. If we don’t know the best way to retain new words, we can forget what we’ve learned.

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05
Feb

Is it time we agreed on a gender-neutral singular pronoun?

Some argue we need one gender for socially progressive reasons. Others simply want one to perfect their writing. But so far more than a hundred attempts have failed.

Language, like life, feels easier to deal with if we arrange it into binaries: Wrong/right; Gay/straight; Labour/Conservative. Terms lurking between the two poles are often unfairly maligned. We’re often wary of anything that is neither one nor the other: Justifiable homicide; Bisexual; The Liberal Democrats.

The same goes for him/her. We seem far more comfortable when people are either men or women. The reality is different. There are people who self­-define as neither, as gender-non­binary. To those who see gender as a construct, this makes perfect sense. But the English language fails to reflect it.

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04
Feb

36η Ετήσια Συνάντηση Τομέα Γλωσσολογίας

Ο Τομέας Γλωσσολογίας του Τμήματος Φιλολογίας του Αριστοτελείου Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλονίκης διοργανώνει την 36η Συνάντηση Εργασίας στις 24-25 Απριλίου 2015, με αντικείμενο την Ελληνική Διαλεκτολογία. Οι θεµατικοί άξονες του συνεδρίου θα είναι: (α) Αρχαίες ελληνικές διάλεκτοι, (β) Μεσαιωνικές και νέες ελληνικές διάλεκτοι, (γ) Διάλεκτοι και γλωσσολογική θεωρία, (δ) Βαλκανική διάσταση των νεοελληνικών διαλέκτων, (ε) Κοινωνικές διάλεκτοι της νέας ελληνικής, (στ) Διάλεκτοι και εκπαίδευση.

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03
Feb

What does a “flap” look like?

Regardless of the reliability and the subject of this video, I’m sure it will help you understand what a “flap” is, as it presents a huge plastic eye, the flap of which is practically… movable!

 

02
Feb

Universitat Pompeu Fabra – Online terminology course

The course looks at the fundamental role that terminology plays in documentation, lexicography, linguistic normalization, language teaching and linguistic engineering. Knowledge, skills and resources for each of these areas is explored. The course materials have been developed by the IULATERM group at the Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada (The University Institute of Applied Linguistics) of Pompeu Fabra University. All teaching staff have extensive academic and professional experience in this area.

Starting date: 8 April 2015 Finishing date: 24 July 2015
The programme will be taught in English.

 Fees: Price: 1440 € – Only credit and debit cards accepted.

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