July 23, 2007

Mother tongue intervention

Reports came in with phrases such as 'the people who are against the decision are mass enemies' [ganashatru] (enemies to the people), 'he took his birth in 1952' [janma grahan] (was born), 'villages went into the wombs of the river' [nadir gharbha] (washed away by river erosion), and 'the government is planning a single-mouth system of education' [ek-mukhi shiksha] (unified or single-track education), 'I express my firm faith that I can do this' [drirha bishwas] (I am confident), 'he used to make girls prostitute' (he forced girls into prostitution), and the like.

Linguistically speaking, such instances are called mother tongue intervention. Learners of foreign languages try to frame phrases in keeping with the order, sense or syntax of the first language. Culture translation happen in words, but in phrases --- expression for expression, or expression for sense.

Once an editor corrected a copy using with the phrase 'stand in elections' which was, the next day, wrongly thought of as an example of mother tongue intervention by many. But it was not.

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