If an English adjective or adjectival phrase is followed by the abbreviation (ut.), this means that the said adjective, if used attributively, follows (Instead of preceding) the noun it qualifies .
The Hungarian verb entries are given in the third person singular of the present indicative tense, according to the long-established usage of Hungarian lexicography, which has the advantage both of brevity and of indicating the conjugation. The English equivalents of the Hungarian verb entries are offered in the infinitive form (without to). All English strong and irregular verbs are marked with an asterisk, and are listed alphabetically, together with their principal parts, in Appendix I on page 1149. Compound verbs (e.g. become, withdraw) are omitted from this list when their conjugation is identical with that of the corresponding simple verbs (come, draw). The auxiliary verbs shall, will, can, may are given without asterisks. Strong and irregular verbs occurring in the English phrases and sentences of this dictionary bear an asterisk only if their syntactical position in the given context admits of their being inflected.
Those English weak verbs which double their final consonant In the past tense and configuration present participle (e.g. dropped, dropping), as well as those strong and irregular verbs which double this consonant in the present participle (e.g. beginning) have this consonant printed in heavy type (drop, begin*).
All English words of two or more syllables have their stress indicated by italicizing the stressed syllable. English words printed without this stress-mark are to be pronounced as monosyllables.
In a few instances the pronunciation of an English word (or part of a word) which may present difficulties for the Hungarian beginner, is given immediately after the word, in square brackets.
The marking of the stressed syllable and the indication of pronunciation is generally based on Daniel Jones's An English Pronouncing Dictionary (eleventh edition). The phonetic symbols are those used in the Concise English—Hungarian Dictionary, where their -English is given.
The use ef the comma, of brackets and of other symbols
To save space the ~ sign has been used in the dictionary articles whenever the entry-word occurs in phrases and sentences. In the case of Hungarian verbs ending in -ik in the third person singular the ~ sign stands for the uninflected verbal stem. In the entry-word the stem is separated from this suffix by a vertical line.
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In the field of temperature, English has four main divisions: cold, cool, hot and warm. This contrasts with Modern Arabic, which has four different divisions: baarid (‘cold/cool’), haar (‘hot: of the weather’), saakhin (‘hot: of objects’), and daafi’ (‘warm’). Note that, in contrast with English, Arabic (a) does not distinguish between cold and cool, and (b) distinguishes between the hotness of the weather and the hotness of other things. The fact that English does not make the latter distinction does not mean that you can always use hot to describe the temperature of something, even metaphorically (cf. hot temper, but not *hot feelings). There are restrictions on the cooccurrence of words in any language (see discussion of collocation: Chapter 3, section 3.1). Now consider the following examples from the COBUILD corpus of English:6
(1) The air was cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice.
(2) Outside the air was still cool.
Bearing in mind the differences in the structure of the English and hungarian transcription Arabic fields, one can appreciate, on the one hand, the difference in meaning between cold and cool in the above examples and, on the 20 In other words other, the potential difficulty in making such a distinction clear when translating into Arabic.
(b) Semantic fields are arranged hierarchically, going from the more general to the more specific. The general word is usually referred to as superordinate and the specific word as hyponym. In the field of vehicles, vehicle is a superordinate and bus, car, truck, coach, etc. are all hyponyms of vehicle. It stands to reason that any propositional meaning carried by a superordinate or general word is, by necessity, part of the meaning of each of its hyponyms, but not vice versa. If something is a bus, then it must be a vehicle, but not the other way round. We can sometimes manipulate this feature of semantic fields english hungarian transcreation when we are faced with semantic gaps in the target language. Translators often deal with semantic gaps by modifying a superordinate word or by means of circumlocutions based on modifying superordinates. More on this in the following section.
To sum up, while not always straightforward or applicable, the notion of semantic fields can provide the translator with useful strategies for dealing with non-equivalence in some contexts. It is also useful in heightening our awareness of similarities and differences between any two languages and of the significance of any choice made by a speaker in a given context. One important thing to bear in mind when dealing with semantic fields is that they are not fixed. Semantic fields are always changing, with new words and expressions being introduced into the language and others being dropped as they become less relevant to the needs of a linguistic community.
For a more extensive discussion of explanation official certificate translation Hungarian semantic fields, see Lehrer (1974).
1.7 Working as a staff translator
Before you consider working as a freelance, you would be well-advised to gain at least a couple of years' experience as a staff translator - if you are fortunate in being offered a position. This offers a number of advantages:
• An income from day I and a structured career path.
• On-the-job skills development under the watchful eye of an experienced translator or editor. This will save you many attempts at re-inventing the wheel.
• Access to the reference literature and dictionaries you need for the job.
• The opportunity to discuss translations and enjoy the interchange of ideas to the extent not normally possible if you work in isolation as a freelance.
• An opportunity to learn how to use the tools of the trade.
If you work with a large company you will have the opportunity of gaining experience and acquiring expertise in that particular company's industry. You will have access to experts in the relevant fields and probably a specialist library. If you are fortunate, you will be involved in all stages of documentation from translation, proof reading and checking through to desk top publishing. You will also be able to view your work long term.
If you work for a translation company, you will be exposed to a broader range of subjects but will not have the same close level of contact with experts. Your work may be restricted to checking and proof reading initially so that you can gain some feeling for the work before starting on translation proper. The smaller the company the more you will be exposed to activities that are peripheral to translation. This in itself can make the work more interesting and heighten your sense qf involvement.
Your choice will be determined by what jobs are on offer and what your own skills and aspirations are. I would advise working for an industrial or commercial company first since working in a translation company often demands more maturity and experience than a newly-qualified translator can offer.
You may wonder how many words a translator is capable of producing in a day. Having worked together with and consulted other translation companies, the norm for
10
HOW TO BECOME A TRANSLATOR
a staff translator is around 1500 words a day or 33,000 a month. This may not seem a lot but there is more to translation than initially meets the eye. Individual freelance translators have claimed a translation output of 12,000 words in a single day without the use of computer-aided translation tools! The most I have completed, unaided, is just over 20,000 in three days. These are rates that are impossible to sustain because the work is so mentally draining that quality starts to suffer.
Working as a staff translator should provide a structured approach to the work and there should be a standard routine for processing the work according to the task in hand. Paperwork is a necessary evil or should I say a useful management tool and, if used properly, will make organisation of your work easier. Some form of record should follow the translation along its road to completion. This is considered in detail on Page 98.
1.8 Considering a job application
Any salary figures quoted in a book will, by their very nature, hungarian intensive course district 19 rapidly become outdated. Surveys are carried out from time to time on rates and salaries by the ITI with results published in the ITI Bulletin. Present figures (1998) range from about £14,000 as a starting salary for a freshly-graduated trainee translator to somewhere in the region of £17,500 for a staff translator with at least three years' full-time experience.
As in any job, the salary you can command depends on your experience, expertise, any specialist knowledge you may have and, not least, your own negotiating powers. Results of surveys are published from time to time by the professional associations. Job adverts also give some indication of what salary is being offered.
When considering a position as a staff translator make sure that you get a written offer which encloses a job description to indicate your responsibilities, the opportunities for personal development and training, and a potential career path. Don’t forget that you are also interviewing a potential employer to determine whether he can offer the type of work and career development that you are looking for. The following is an actual example of a job offer made to a fresh graduate without any professional experience.
nun* |
nctic |
Explanation of Pronunciation |
Kx.tmplrs |
o |
[O] |
a short, half-close version of the above [oi] sound; it is like the [o] sound in November and politics, but it should be pronounced a little more rounded French o: monter, pomme German o: Obst, kochen |
toll [toll] |
e |
[ex] |
long, half-close; as in Scottish pronunciation of day, name ; care should be taken to pronounce this sound in a level tone and it should not change into an [i]-like sound French e: the, ete German ee, e: See, lebt |
kep [ke:p] |
e |
M |
a short, half-open sound as in Northern English pronunciation of get, met, pen or in Southern English pronunciation of cat, mat French e: mettre, sec German e: Bett, Herr |
ember [embsr] |
a |
[a:] |
long, open; considering its tone-colour it is most approximate to the Northern English pronunciation of a in the words back, pan, but the Elungarian sound is a long one; it is also very like the aa in baa (the imitation of a sheep’s bleat) French a, ah: pdte, ah ! |
tal [tail] dish |
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