Tagging categories
Thread poster: Roland Nienerza
Roland Nienerza
Roland Nienerza  Identity Verified

Local time: 16:49
English to German
+ ...
Jan 29, 2013

I very much appreciate the tagging opportunities for translation quality as they have been developed over the last contests.

Yet whenever I make use of this system I am a little surprised about the categorisation that is proposed for starting a tag.

A,- For LIKE there are three options given -

1,- Flows well, 2,- Good term selection and 3,- Other.

Options 2 and 3 are plausible. - But with option 1,- "Flows well" there is a bit of a hitc
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I very much appreciate the tagging opportunities for translation quality as they have been developed over the last contests.

Yet whenever I make use of this system I am a little surprised about the categorisation that is proposed for starting a tag.

A,- For LIKE there are three options given -

1,- Flows well, 2,- Good term selection and 3,- Other.

Options 2 and 3 are plausible. - But with option 1,- "Flows well" there is a bit of a hitch.

Here one sees again what has been discussed already before with regard to the question whether a nicely written target text is meritorious just for "flowing well" even if the translation is far to free, distorted or even wrong. -

I think it does not have to be debated that even a completely wrong translation - and anyone in the business knows that there are such - may not only flow well but even flow goorgeously - and still be wrong. -

Most LIKES are in that first category "Flows well" - and I saw quite a number which seemed to be exactly based on the "nice read", very independently from what was in source.

Actually, the difference between Option 1,- and Option 2,- is only that the first relates to several words or whole sentences and the second mainly to just one word. But this differentiation is already clear by the number of words highlighted for the tag. - If it is only one word, one would not talk of "flowing" well or not but just wether the term is adequate or not.

In my view the two first options could be merged into "Precise and adequate" - because these two qualifications are the only admissible ones for a translation, in as much as it does not really make sense to say "Not very precise" or "Parially or wholly wrong - but flowing well". -


B,- For DISLIKE there are eight options given -

1,- Spelling, 2,- Grammar errors, 3,- Mistranslations, 4,- Omissions, 5,- Inconsistencies, 6,- Syntax, 7,- Punctuation and 8,- Other.

This assembly is somewhat casually drafted, to call it nicely.

There are 7 one word terms, only one, "Grammar errors", has two words. - Why not just "Grammar" in one word too? Or, the other way round, having also "Spelling errors", "Translation errors", "Syntax errors", "Punctuation errors" and "Other errors"? -

And, on top of it, the list comes not only in quite a hurly-burly or higgledy-piggledy array but the very relevant categories as Redundance and Style or Register are completely missing.

And I am very much puzzled, whenever I start such a tag, in seeing the plural with "Grammar errors", "Mistranslations", "Omissions" and "Inconsistencies".

It is clear that the person who drafted this collection of possible errors considered them as categories, i.e. mistakes falling into the "category" of "Grammar errors" or "Mistranslations" etc.

But. - Whenever a tagger highlights something that he considers as incorrect, i.e. either a single word, a group of words or even one or more sentences, he will always wish to complain just about one case of a mistake, i.e. one spelling error or one grammar erroror one mistranslation or one omission etc.

That the plural for these categories is wrong in this context becomes even clearer when clicking on an already existing tag in order to see what the tagger thought to be wrong and possibly to agree or to disagree. - In most cases it will only be one word and on clicking on that one tagged word one reads "Mistranslations" or "Inconsistencies" or "Ommissions" etc. - instead of, as one would have expected, just "Mistranslation" or "Inconsistency" or "Grammar mistake" etc., all in the singular. And even if there are several words tagged, they still will always be just one mistake or one error at a time, and not mistakes or errors.

This will have been a bit of thoughtlessness of the person who drafted that drop-down menu. - But it is very confusing to be confronted with this inadequacy at any time when creating or opening a tag.

I would propose this correction in the drop-down menu for DISLIKES , with adequate and consistent wording, systematic array and necessary completion -

Punctuation, Spelling, Grammar, Syntax, Omission, Redundance, Mistranslation, Register, Style, Other.

But.- Taking at least all plurals out off the present, rather topsy-turvy list would aready be a nice improvement.


BTW.- I had reported this matter already a few years ago in a support ticket - and got the somewhat melancholy reply that it would be "added to the "backlog of ideas". As it had never come out of the "backlog of ideas" I have again reported this now, a few days ago, in another support ticket, mentioning that this had already been "added to the backlog of ideas". -

And, as expected, with nonchalance and easy-going I was again told that this matter had been "added to the backlog of ideas".

Maybe a discussion here could get this out of the "backlog of ideas" and onto the track of improvement.


Roland Nienerza

[Edited at 2013-01-30 16:02 GMT]
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vaglo
vaglo
Local time: 21:49
English to Russian
one thing unclear for me about tagging Feb 5, 2013

Isn't syntax a part of grammar? At least that's what I was taught at university. Why having the TWO options then instead of one -- i.e. grammar.

 
Roland Nienerza
Roland Nienerza  Identity Verified

Local time: 16:49
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
You are perfectly right! Feb 5, 2013

Syntax is indeed a part of Grammar - and I have been taught this too.

What is needed is either "morphology" + "syntax" or just "grammar" for short. And if it would be just "grammar" fort short, possibly the best solution, the tagger could then simply state in his comment whether a - supposed - mistake relates to "morphology" - also currently called "inflection" - or to "syntax" - also currently called "sentence structure" - etc.

I had not mentioned this point in
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Syntax is indeed a part of Grammar - and I have been taught this too.

What is needed is either "morphology" + "syntax" or just "grammar" for short. And if it would be just "grammar" fort short, possibly the best solution, the tagger could then simply state in his comment whether a - supposed - mistake relates to "morphology" - also currently called "inflection" - or to "syntax" - also currently called "sentence structure" - etc.

I had not mentioned this point in my posting as I did not wish to make it too complicated. - But if there was the much desired overhaul of the categorising system it would certainly be a good idea to take this into account - or the "to-do-list" or the "backlog of ideas".
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