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“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
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Mark Twain,
The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
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The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain
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Mark Twain
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The Necessity of Native Language Know-How
As Mark Twain so wisely states, choosing the right word is important. That’s why, in the translation business, it is considered good practice to always translate into your native language.
Even if one is completely fluent in a second language, ideas and concepts may be phrased slightly differently by native speakers, making sentences sound stilted, awkward, or just plain wrong if a non-native speaker writes them. Some mistakes may cause native speakers a great deal of amusement. Take these examples below (source: linguagreca.com):
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is really a large matter — it’s the difference between a lightning bug and the lightning.” –Mark Twain
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge: “Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.” It doesn’t make sense to English speakers, because “to have children” has the connotation of giving birth to children, which is most likely not what the Norwegians meant.
In a Nairobi restaurant: “Customers who find our waitresses rude ought to see the manager.” Again, we know what the translator is trying to say. But in this case, the sentence sounds like the manager is even ruder than the waitresses.
At a Budapest zoo: “Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.” While this sentence is grammatically correct, the way it is written causes native speakers to think the guard wants to be fed.
Although most translators would not make such amusing mistakes, these examples highlight the importance of linguists working in their native language. Almost right isn’t right at all.
The Almost Right Word: The Move From Medical to Health Humanities
Therese Jones et al.
Acad Med.
2017 Jul.
Abstract
Since the emergence of the field in the 1970s, several trends have begun to challenge the original assumptions, claims, and practices of what became known as the medical humanities. In this article, the authors make the case for the health humanities as a more encompassing label because it captures recent theoretical and pedagogical developments in higher education such as the shift from rigid disciplinary boundaries to multi- and interdisciplinary inquiry, which has transformed humanities curricula in health professions. Calling the area of study health humanities also underscores the crucial distinction between medicine and health. Following a brief history of the field and the rationales that brought humanities disciplines to medical education in the first place-the «why» of the medical humanities-the authors turn to the «why» of the health humanities, using disability studies to illuminate those methodologies and materials that represent the distinction between the two. In addition, the authors make note of how humanities inquiry has now expanded across the landscape of other health professions curricula; how there is both awareness and evidence that medicine is only a minor determinant of health in human populations alongside social and cultural factors; and finally, how the current movement in health professions education is towards interdisciplinary and interprofessional learning experiences for students.
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Infrafintech – Infrastructure finance reimagined is an innovative financial journalism podcast. It’s a serial podcast, meaning each episode builds from the last.
Most podcasts about infrastructure finance and finance, in general, are episodic. Podcasters interview a personality or a panel covers a topic for a given episode. They have a conversation and the audience is like a fly on the wall, gaining insights into how those ideas and trends might apply to their own work.
So why is IJGlobal covering infrafintech?
Our primary focus is covering infrastructure finance at the project level, perhaps uncovering the debt pricing on an 18-year non-recourse loan for a Taiwan offshore wind farm. Or maybe disclosing the short-listed bidders on an M&A transaction concerning the equity interest of a road project company in India.
This first podcast season doesn’t share any project-level details nor does it offer particular insights for sector specialists. Rather, it tells a story about an industry-wide issue – the nexus between infrastructure, finance, and technology.
The word infrafintech, which we coined in a feature in 2021, only appears on the IJGlobal website 4 times. Out of nearly 150,000 news articles and features, infrafintech really doesn’t appear on anyone’s radar.
Talking about the why not to cover infrafintech reveals exactly why we should cover it on our first podcast season … because it’s not on anyone’s radar.
Even well-known business analytics platforms and global fintech databases don’t categorise infrafintech within the fintech industry. The market is undoubtedly small. But that’s today. What about tomorrow? … What about developing a future worth creating?
Infrafintech – Infrastructure finance reimagined puts a stark question to the infrastructure finance industry … Why are we practically the last area of financial services to adopt fintech solutions?
Fintech has significantly enabled and disrupted nearly all aspects of financial services. Yet to date infrastructure finance is the black sheep in the fintech family.
Infrafintech may have its greatest impact in developing markets including those in Asia Pacific, where the need to increase technology investment, lower impact costs, and enhance policy measures is abundantly clear.
This first season targets three audiences – daily users of infrafintech, infrafintech solution providers, and financial backers of infrafintech, whether in the venture capital or corporate venture communities. This triumvirate represents the demand, supply, and financing of the inchoate infrafintech industry.
Episode 1 – The almost right word – focuses on unpacking infrastructure as an asset class and the contours of infrastructure finance.
It is critical that our three audiences share a common foundation of understanding. The venture capital industry, in particular, has tended not to have infrastructure finance in its opportunity set. That’s why we examine what infrastructure is and how the private sector has taken an increasingly expansive view of the asset class.
Entrepreneurs and financiers of infrafintech solutions will need to pick and choose where along the financial value chain to concentrate. Therefore, we also explore infrastructure finance and ways founders can bucket their infrafintech solutions.
It’s easy to lose sight of what is at stake in the financing of large, complex infrastructure assets. We can become disconnected from the human element. In their pitches, founders of infrafintech solutions need to weave in what is at stake – the human element – to capture the imagination of the venture capital and corporate venture communities.
In episode 2, we delve into the challenges facing infrastructure finance to lay the groundwork for what infrafintech startups may pr
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”
— Mark Twain
Recently I stopped reading a book by a new-to-me author because (a) I wasn’t caught right off by the opening, and (b) the author used the word “ineptness.”
“Ineptness.” You know, we actually have a word for that characteristic. The word the author was looking for was “ineptitude.” Making up “ineptness” implies an inadequate vocabulary or suggests the author has no real feel for the English language. Not that I never forget the word I’m looking for, that certainly does happen, but I hope I generally know there IS the right word in my brain somewhere even if I can’t quite fish it out into the open at that particular moment.
This is different, but you know what you see all the time this decade (probably longer)? People keep using “addicting” when they mean “addictive” and “deceiving” when they mean “deceptive” and so on.
Here is a correct sentence using deceiving: “He got in trouble for deceiving his clients about the sound financial foundation of his business.”
Here is a correct sentence using deceptive: “He got in trouble because he was deceptive. He lied to his clients about the sound financial …”
We have BOTH a gerund form / past participle form AND an adjective form of lots of words. When what a writer is looking for is an adjective form, why, there it is! There is no need to press the -ing form into awkward service. Though this kind of thing is not on my top-ten pet peeve list, I guess, I do wish people would stop doing that.
Incorrect, or at least unnecessarily awkward: “Were you out last night, by any chance?” he asked with deceiving casualness.
Especially awkward since we do actually have a word for “casualness.” Several words (and phrases), each of which may very well suit the scene better than “casualness.”
“Were you out last night, by any chance?” he asked with deceptive nonchalance.
“Were you out last night, by any chance?” he asked with deceptive lack of concern.
“Were you out last night, by any chance?” he asked with deceptive indifference.
It’s not that you can’t, or even shouldn’t, use “casualness.” I guess it could be a perfect choice for some sentences, though at the moment I can’t frame a sentence that would benefit from a -ness form when we have perfectly good words like complacence and incuriosity and heaven knows what else sitting right there.
There’s my quibble for the week. Perhaps I will start a new feature: Grammar Quibble Friday.
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