More bad uses of scientific language

George Boole

To continue with the previous post, I’ll add here a few more cases of bad translations between English and Spanish, many of them due to the existence of false friends between those languages. In other cases, the English word is used as-is, although there is a Spanish word that can be used instead.

English word	Incorrect Spanish translation	Correct translation	Word in column 2 means:
Argument	Argumento	Discusión	Reasoning
Assume	Asumir	Suponer	To take responsibility
Balance	Balance	Equilibrio	Balance is a bookkeeping term
Command	Comando	Instrucción	Attack group in enemy territory
Deadlock	Deadlock	Interbloqueo
Default	Por defecto	Por omisión
Eventually	Eventualmente	A la larga	Occasionally
Font	Fuente	Tipo de letra	Fountain
Instance	Instancia	Ejemplo	Petition
Overflow	Overflow	Desbordamiento
Overload	Overload	Sobrecarga
Password	Password	Contraseña
Relocation	Relocación	Reubicación
Requirement	Requerimiento	Requisito	Requerimiento has legal connotations
Resume	Resumir	Reanudar	Summarize
Router	Router	Enrutador
Script	Script	Guión
Skills	Skills	Conocimientos
Slot	Slot	Ranura
Sort	Sort	Ordenar
Topic	Tópico	Tema	Cliché
Utility	Utilidad	Herramienta	Usefulness

A special case of bad translation is provided by logical connectives, which are the same in mathematical language, but different (as words) in English and Spanish. There are four different logical connectives between the different parts of a sentence:

·         Negation: ~A is true if A is false, and vice versa (~A is false if A is true).

·         Conjunction. A∩B is true if and only if both are true simultaneously.

·         Inclusive disjunction. A∪B is true if at least one of the two is true.

·         Exclusive disjunction. A≠B is true if exactly one of the two is true. This means that either A is true and B is false, or A is false and B is true. Since the truth values ​​of A and B must be different, when joined by exclusive disjunction, for their combination to be true, this connective can be represented by the mathematical inequality sign.

Mathematical notation is adequate for expressing things unambiguously. Natural language is much less precise. The usefulness of logical connectives for speaking about true or false statements is evident. In fact, it dates back long before its formalization by George Boole, and is probably as old as human language. The downside is that different languages ​​have adopted different criteria for expressing connectives, which can lead to translation errors. English and Spanish address the problem thus:

Connective	English	Spanish
Negation	not	no
Conjunction	and	y
Inclusive disjunction	and/or	o
Exclusive disjunction	or	o... o...

In many Spanish texts, it is becoming fashionable to use the form "y/o" to represent inclusive disjunction. It is used, not only when translating from English, but also when writing texts directly in Spanish. As the table indicates, this is a translation error.

The form "and/or" is foreign to Spanish grammar, so it should be avoided. On the one hand, it is difficult to pronounce. On the other hand, it introduces in written texts a symbol (/) that is used for other purposes. Finally, it is unnecessary, for the "A o B" construction represents its meaning.

This post has been built from two previous Spanish posts: Abusos del lenguaje científico y Conectivos lógicos, o la invasión de la forma y/o

Thematic Thread on Linguistics and Medicine: Previous Next

Manuel Alfonseca