dileMMas and Contexts oF JudiCial ethiCs in Court interPreting 1
6. the setuP oF the researCh
7.7 Q uestion 7: dna, s ilicon v alley , uranium and morPhine
Question 7hasproventobethemostproblematicanditsresultsarethemostquestionable.
Inthatquestion,therespondentshadtochoosethecorrectformoffourHungarianwords
oftenmistranslatedintelevisionprogrammes,especiallyininfotainmentanddocumentary
programmes.Inallfourcases,theyhadtheoptiontochoosethecorrectHungarianform,
theenglish-based,incorrectformortheanswer“both”.aftertheanalysationoftheresults
ofthequestionnairesitturnedoutthatthedesignofthequestionmayhavebeenmisleading
forthestudents,andsincethequestionwasnotunambiguous,theresultsmaynotbewholly
representativeoftheknowledgeofthestudents.althoughtheresultsmaynotbeconsidered
valid,I presentthemherekeepinginmindtheabovereservations.
ThefirstexaminedexpressionwastheHungarianversionofdna.ThecorrectHungarian
translationofdnaisDNS,butithappensquiteoftenthatitisleftinitsenglishformin
audiovisualtranslatedprogrammes.
Figure 7:dna
Inthisquestion,aswellasinthefollowingthree,respondentswereaskedtochoosewhich
formtheydeemtobecorrect:dna(whichisborrowedincorrectlyfromenglish),DNS(the
correctHungariantranslation)orboth.asseeninFigure7,54%oftherespondentsthought
thatbothversionsarecorrect,andlessthanhalfoftherespondents(45%)havechosenthe
correctHungariantranslationastheonlycorrectoption.
JuditSereg
ThesecondexaminedexpressionwasSzilícium-völgy,thecorrecttranslationofSilicon
Valley.SinceszilikonisanexistingwordinHungarian,meaninga typeofplasticusedforex-ampleinplasticsurgeries,SiliconValleyisoftentranslatedincorrectlytoSzilikon-völgyinstead
ofSzilícium-völgyintoHungarian.
Figure 8:SiliconValley
Inthatcasethemajorityofrespondents(86%)knowthatthecorrectversionisSzilícium-völgy,andonly33%thoughtthatbothversionsarecorrect.onlya negligible3%havechosen
theincorrectSzilikon-völgy.
Thecaseissimilarwiththethirdexaminedexpression,urán.Theshortversion,uránisthe
correctHungariantranslationofuranium,butitismoreandmoreoftentranslatedtoa longer
formwhichissimilartotheenglishversion:uránium.
Figure 9:uranium
Inthatcase,themajorityoftherespondents(72%)thoughtthatbothversions–theshorter
andlinguisticallycorrecturán,andthelongerversionborrowedfromenglish(uránium)are
correct.
Itisalmostthesamewiththethirdexpression,morfium,whichisthecorrecttranslationof
morphine,a wordthatisoftenmistranslatedtoa formclosertotheenglishone:morfin.
Figure 10:Morphine
Inthislastcase,70%oftherespondentshavechosenthecorrectHungarianversion(mor-fium),only4%theincorrectform(morfin)and26%thoughtthatbothversionsarecorrect.
7.8 Questions 8 and 9: llamaandgeek
IexaminetheresultsofQuestions 8 and 9inonesection,astheyaretheindicatorsofthe
sametypeoflinguisticinputintothetargetlanguage.Inenglishsit-comsandother(mainly
fictional)TVprogrammestheslangwordsgeekandlameareoftenusedininformaloral
context.Geekisa slangwordmostlyusedtodescribea “peculiarperson,especiallyonewhois
perceivedtobeoverlyintellectual,unfashionable,orsociallyawkward”2.Lameinslangmeans
a person“outoftouchwithmodernfadsortrends;unsophisticated”3.althoughtheyhave
norelationtotheoriginalmeaningofthewords,inHungariantheyareoftentranslatedin
audiovisualprogrammes(especiallyindubbing)withsimilarlypronouncedwords.Inthecase
of“geek”theHungariantranslationisoftengyík,whichispronouncedquitesimilarlybutin
Hungarianoriginallymeanslizard.Inthecaseoflame,theHungariantranslationisoften
láma,whichispronouncedquitesimilarly,butinHungarianmeansllama.
Figure 11:Llama Figure 12:geek
2http://www.dictionary.com/browse/geek
3http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lame
JuditSereg
Inthetwoquestions,I askedtherespondentstochoosethemeaningoftheHungarian
wordsgyíkandlámaoutofthreeoptions,allowingthemtochoosemorethanoneanswer.In
thecaseoflámatheoptionswere: ügyetlen, értetlen ember“unsophisticatedperson”,emlősállat
“atypeofmammal”andlomha, lusta“slow,lazy”.Inthecaseofgyíktheoptionswere:alat-tomos, sunyi“sneaky,treacherous”,kocka (ember)“nerd,sociallyawkwardperson”and hüllők egy típusa“atypeofreptile”.
Theresultshaveproventobereallyinterestingespeciallyinthecaseofgyík.Inthecaseof
lámamostoftherespondents(64%)havechosenonlytheoriginalmeaningoftheword,al-though60respondents(20%)includedthemeaningderivedfromthemeaningoftheenglish
wordlame,andtherewere47(16%)respondentswhounderlinedtheanswerlazyaswellas
thatofmammal,whichmightbeanintuitiveanswerbasedonthecharacteristicsoftheani-mal,whichmayseemtobea bitslowandthereforelazy.
However,inthecaseoflizardsuchanassumptioncan’tbethebasisformorethanhalfof
therespondents(51%)choosingnerdasa possiblemeaningforgyíkbesidereptile.36%ofthe
respondentshavechosenonlyonemeaning(lizard)and13%underlinedtheanswersneaky
aswell,whichagainmightbebecauseofthesneakynatureoftheanimal.