More language fun

 

My first translation project for publication was one that I did with my friend, Steve Payne. We translated an article on St. Teresa's family background for inclusion in the first volume of Carmelite Studies, published by the Institute of Carmelite Studies, of which we were the two youngest fellows at the time.

My Spanish was a bit better than Steve's and I did a preliminary translation. Then we polished it up together. In that process, I discovered things that I had written and that seemed perfectly clear to me, that were susceptible to other understandings. Steve was particularly good -- or bad, depending on one's point of view -- at noticing these potential misapprehensions. This knack stood him in good stead when he later became editor of the award-winning quarterly, Spiritual Life.

I will not say that I have learned to avoid all such ambiguities, but I did pick up the habit of noticing them more frequently. Advertisements seem rife with the problem. Because the woman I tutor sometimes is confused by these things, I am even more conscious of them.

A television ad for Humana's Medicare plan highlights the [alleged] small premium you have to pay for the plan. The ad then goes on the tell us that in some areas there is "no plan premium."

We immediately understand -- perhaps without believing it -- that this means I could sign up for the plan and pay no premium. The likelihood of that aside, we assume the phrase "no plan premium" means there is no premium for the plan. On the other hand, the English construction could be heard as "there is a premium for no plan." While this absurdity would seem entirely possible in the world of American health insurance, the written version -- no plan premium -- means what we understand it to mean. If you hear, however, "no plan premium," you might think it meant "no-plan premium." The hyphen [or lack of hyphen] is important to designate which noun -- plan, premium -- is modified by the negative.

I notice that this clarifying use of the hyphen is frequently omitted or misused in signs, headlines and so on today. 

If you are a fan of The Big Bang Theory, you may know Sheldon Cooper has a web show, Fun with Flags. It dawns on me that this post is about as entertaining as that.