Matar o morir....

Matar o morir
de Dificultades gramaticales de Carlos Arrizabalaga

No es lo mismo matar que morir y este caso suele ser ejemplo de la diferencia que establecen los verbos transitivos (donde el significado del verbo pasa a un argumento que llamamos objeto directo o complemento directo) y los verbos intransitivos en los que no se da esta traslación semántica formalizada en la distinta construcción sintáctica.

El periodista debió decir: "hasta matar a su esposa" pero se confunde tal vez por que la nominalización del verbo anula la diferencia gramatical ("hasta la muerte de su esposa"). También sirve como frase hiperbólica para exagerar un esfuerzo extremo: "trabajamos hasta morir", "caminamos hasta morir", y se aplica a la expresión amorosa, como en la letra de la canción de "Nietos del Futuro":

Porque te quiero te quiero así
te quiero hasta morir
lucharé por tu amor
no voy a dejarte ir.

La Academia propone

La Academia propone.

Ya mencionábamos a propósito de los neologismos que no son solamente los hablantes quienes introducen nuevas palabras en la lengua para atender a necesidades expresivas. La Academia también tiene por costumbre lanzar propuestas que unas veces triunfan y otras no (el famoso La Academia propone…). Pues bien, hoy vamos a fijarnos en algunos de estos La Academia propone que pasaron a mejor vida. Repaso para ello los que recogía Manuel Seco en su inestimable Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lengua española (10.ª ed., Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1998). Los años transcurridos nos permiten contemplar estas propuestas con una cierta perspectiva, lo que no es posible con los términos sobre los que mantenemos discusiones parecidas en este preciso momento. Para este artículo me baso en lo que es frecuente en el español de España, aunque me alegraría enterarme de cómo andan las cosas en otros países.

La primera de estas voces es cámping. Como dice Seco: “la Academia propone utilizar en su lugar acampada o campamento” (1998: cámping). La falta de éxito probablemente se debió a que no es lo mismo irse de cámping, de acampada o de campamento, al menos en la variedad de español que a mí me resulta familiar. Un cámping son unas instalaciones en las que cualquiera puede alquilar una parcela para plantar su tienda o caravana, una acampada es la acción de acampar en algún lugar, y un campamento (en el sentido que nos interesa) es una actividad de acampada que se prolonga durante varios días o semanas y está organizada por algún organismo público, empresa o asociación. Más recientemente, en el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (DPD, 2005), la Academia sugiere castellanizar la grafía en campin (con un plural cámpines). Solo el tiempo dirá si tendrá más éxito en este nuevo empeño que en el anterior.

Otra propuesta de castellanización gráfica fue la de kamikaze: “la Academia propone escribirla en la forma camicace, aunque la grafía usual sigue siendo la originaria, kamikaze” (Seco 1998: camicace). Basta una búsqueda en Google para darse cuenta de que la opción camicace es francamente minoritaria. Hoy ya ni siquiera la propia Academia la defiende. En el DPD aún la da por válida, pero recomienda escribirla con ka y zeta. Por otra parte, cabe preguntarse qué hubiéramos ganado si se hubiera impuesto la castellanización. La grafía internacional no parece que nos plantee especiales quebraderos de cabeza, mientras que la forma adaptada nos hubiera alejado de la escritura corriente para esta palabra en las lenguas de nuestro entorno, con lo que se hubiera entorpecido la comprensión mutua.

A los aficionados al espiritismo se les aconsejó en su día que para ponerse al habla con el otro mundo recurrieran a un medio en lugar de ir al médium, que es lo que habían hecho siempre: “La Academia propone medio [...] como equivalente de médium, ‘persona a la que se considera dotada de facilidad para comunicarse con los espíritus’” (Seco 1998: medio). El propio Seco reconocía que la forma adaptada no se usaba. No parece que se haya reactivado desde entonces, aunque se mantenga en el Diccionario de la Lengua Española (DRAE, 22.ª edición, 2001) como acepción número 12 de medio.

En el vocabulario musical también se intentó cambiar de son sustituyendo playback por previo: “Previo es el término que la Academia propone como traducción del inglés play-back, que, aunque de uso general hoy, sería ventajoso y no difícil reemplazar por su equivalente español” (Seco 1998: previo). Yo no he oído nunca a nadie decir que En la televisión se canta mucho en previo. No obstante, el DPD vuelve a la carga, ahora con pregrabado, e intenta que nos acostumbremos a decir: “En televisión normalmente se canta en pregrabado”.

También se intentó sustituir el software por programas: “La Academia propone que en lugar de esta palabra se diga programa, aunque no ha obtenido mucho éxito, debido a que en informática ya se usa programa en otro sentido” (Seco 1998: software). Finalmente, software entró en el DRAE, aunque en el DPD se sigue insistiendo en que lo cambiemos por otras palabras siempre que haya ocasión.

Y para los aficionados al mundo de la economía y de la empresa tenemos, por último, truste para evitar trust: “El inglés trust (que en España se pronuncia corrientemente /trust/ o /trus/) significa ‘combinación financiera que reúne varias empresas bajo una dirección única, y que ejerce un influjo preponderante en un sector económico’. La Academia propone adaptar la palabra inglesa al español en la forma truste” (Seco 1998: truste). Hoy el DPD menciona este intento, pero para reconocer su fracaso y desaconsejarlo definitivamente.

Naturalmente, no todas las propuestas académicas han tenido tan mala fortuna (y de ello nos tendremos que ocupar otro día); pero, en el fondo, la Academia propone y el hablante dispone.

[Blog de Lengua Española de Alberto Bustos, La Academia propone]

Facility - a term sometimes confusing for beginner translators

Term of the Day
facility

General: Permanent, semi-permanent, or temporary commercial or industrial property such as a building, plant, or structure, built, established, or installed for the performance of one or more specific activities or functions.

Banking: Arrangement under which a bank or supplier extends an advantageous service (such as an overdraft or deferred payments) to a customer.

Lodging: Accommodations, bars, restaurants, meeting rooms, and other core physical features attached to a hotel.
facility is in the Banking, Commerce, Credit, & Finance, Real Estate & Buildings and Shipping, Transport, & Travel subjects.
facility appears in the definitions of the following terms: refitting, mailmerge, dislocated worker, special needs trust, and microbridge.

Plain English Language Writing as a US official policy

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Institutes of Health - The Nation's Medical Research Agency



Plain Language
Introduction to Plain Language at NIH

Plain language is grammatically correct language that includes complete sentence structure and accurate word usage. Plain language is not unprofessional writing or a method of "dumbing down" or "talking down" to the reader. Writing that is clear and to the point helps improve communication and takes less time to read and understand. Clear writing tells the reader exactly what the reader needs to know without using unnecessary words or expressions. Communicating clearly is its own reward and saves time and money. It also improves reader response to messages. Using plain language avoids creating barriers that set us apart from the people with whom we are communicating.

Part of the NIH mission is to reach all Americans with health information they can use and to communicate in a way that helps people to easily understand research results. The NIH fully supports the Plain Language initiative, which has its origins in a Federal directive that requires agencies to incorporate plain language elements in the development of communications materials for the public. The NIH is committed to the use of plain language in all new documents written for the public, other government entities, and fellow workers.
Celebrating Plain Language at NIH

Plain Language logo Health literacy incorporates a range of abilities: reading, comprehending, and analyzing information; decoding instructions, symbols, charts, and diagrams; weighing risks and benefits; and, ultimately, making decisions and taking action. The concept of health literacy also extends to the materials, environments, and challenges specifically associated with disease prevention and health promotion. The NIH Office of Communication and Public Liaison leads an agency-wide “Clear Communication” Initiative. Its aim is to cultivate a growing health literacy movement by increasing information sharing of NIH educational products, research, lessons learned, and research in the area of health literacy. Part of the “Clear Communication” program is the NIH Plain Language Initiative and annual Plain Language Award program, which recognizes excellence in NIH Plain Language communications. NIH employees may nominate any type of NIH communication product—letters, brochures, Web sites, press releases, scientific papers, and reports. NIH also wants to recognize internal documents, such as memos, forms, newsletters, and manuals.

The annual NIH Plain Language Award ceremony honors outstanding NIH communication products including revised websites, fact sheets, multi-media presentations, and other materials, including items designed for Spanish-speaking audiences.

Plain Language/Clear Communication Awards Program 2010-2011 Submissions

Starting this year, we are pleased to have the addition of Institute and Center (IC) Coordinators (DOC - 25KB) to the program to help with the submission process. The primary responsibilities for the coordinator include:

* Fielding any questions about the submission process, including helping submitters determine the right category for each submission.
* Entering all award submissions for an IC using the online awards submission form.
* Collecting copies of submissions for any product not available online to facilitate the awards review process.

Your IC Coordinator will enter submissions online on behalf of your IC. Please submit your product submissions directly to your respective IC Coordinator using the Submission Form (DOC - 25KB). All submission(s) are due to your IC Coordinator on or before Monday, November 22, 2010, 5:00 p.m.

This year submissions will be limited to up to three products per submitter. If possible, we would like to see at least one product in each category (DOC - 36KB) per IC. The eligibility timeframe is fiscal year September 30, 2009 through October 1 2010. Submission products must be produced and completed during this eligibility timeframe.

2009-2010 NIH Plain Language/Clear Communication Awards Ceremony

The 2009-2010 NIH Plain Language/Clear Communication Awards Ceremony was held Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 9:00 a.m., Masur Auditorium, Bethesda Maryland and featured Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing and Contributing Editor, Wired magazine. View the Archived Award Information.

The NIH Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL) in the Office of the Director is responsible for external and internal communications and also directs the clear communication and plain language initiatives. Archived awards information is available at: http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/plarchive/index.htm.

Tips for Using Plain Language:
Illustration showing a man and his doctor, the doctor is saying, 'Well, yes, I suppose I could explain the test results in 'plain English' -- but then you'd know how sick you are'

Certain hallmarks characterize plain language. These include common, everyday words, except for necessary technical terms. Other hallmarks include the use of personal pronouns; the active voice; logical organization; and easy-to-read and understand design features, such as bullets and tables.
1. Engage the reader.

* First, consider who the reader is. Often, there is more than one reader.
* Consider what the reader needs to know. Organize content to answer the reader's questions.
* Write for the appropriate reading level.

2. Write Clearly. Use common, everyday words whenever possible.

* Word Choices:
o Use common, everyday words
o Use other personal pronouns such as "you"
o Use "must" instead of "shall"
o Avoid using undefined technical terms
o Use positive rather than negative words
o Avoid using gender-specific terminology
o Avoid long strings of nouns

* Verb Forms:
o Use active voice
o Use action verbs
o Use the present tense

* Structure:
o Use parallel construction
o Be direct
o Avoid using unnecessary exceptions

3. Display Material Correctly

Appearance is an important aspect of clear communication. If a document is pleasing to the eye, it will be more likely to attract your reader's attention. Appearance can also be an aid to the reader, improving comprehension and retention. There are four main aspects of appearance:

* Organization. Strong, logical organization includes an introduction followed by short sentences and paragraphs. Organize messages to respond to reader interests and concerns.
* Introduction. In lengthier documents, use an introduction and a table of contents to help the reader understand how a document is organized.
* Short sentences and paragraphs. Sentence length should average 15-20 words. Sentences that are simple, active, affirmative, and declarative hold the reader's interest. Generally, each paragraph should contain only one topic. A series of paragraphs may be used to express complex or highly technical information. The more writing deviates from a clear and to-the-point structure, the harder it will be for the reader to understand what is being conveyed.
* Layout. Layout includes margins, headings, and white space. Provide white space between sections to break up text and to make it easier for readers to understand. Use headings to guide the reader; the question-and-answer format is especially helpful. Try to anticipate the reader's questions and pose them as the reader would. Use adequate margins.
* Tables. Tables make complex information readily understandable. Tables can help the reader see relationships more easily. They may require fewer words than straight text.
* Typography: Typography relates to fronts and typographical elements used for emphasis, such as bullets or italics.

4. Evaluate Your Document

To ensure that you are communicating clearly, evaluate the document or have another person read it and offer suggestions for clarification. Look over the document for:

* Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation;
* Inclusion of appropriate devices, such as dating, page numbering, and consistency;
* Visual appeal;
* Consistency and effectiveness of layout and typographical devices (avoid overuse); and
* Line breaks that inadvertently separate part of a name or date in a way that reduces clarity.

Where Can I Learn More?

* Plain Language.gov http://www.plainlanguage.gov/
* Proceedings of the Surgeon General's Workshop on Improving Health Literacy, September 7, 2006, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthliteracy/toc.html
* 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, http://nces.ed.gov/naal/
* National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education: http://nces.ed.gov/
* Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Summary of Literacy and Health Outcomes: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/litsum.htm
* The PRISM Toolkit, Group Health Research Institute
http://www.grouphealthresearch.org/capabilities/readability/readability_home.html

Contact Information

For more information, contact the NIH Plain Language staff at: plainlanguage@od.nih.gov
Plain Language Act

Senate Passes Braley Plain Language Act Bill to Simplify Public Documents Receives Unanimous Consent “The bill requires the federal government to write documents, such as tax returns, federal college aid applications, and Veterans Administration forms in simple easy-to-understand language…” Read more >>

This page was last reviewed on October 5, 2010 .

National Institutes of Health - Home PageNational Institutes of Health (NIH)
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20892 HHS - Home PageDepartment of Health
and Human Services USA.gov - government made easy

* ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE
* OCTOBER 6, 2010

Rare Find: a New Language
As Native Tongues Rapidly Become Extinct, Linguists Discover an Exotic Specimen
By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
[LANGUAGE] Chris Rainier

A Koro speaker talks to National Geographic Fellow Gregory Anderson in Arunachal Pradesh, India, as he makes a recording of the language.

In the foothills of the Himalayas, two field linguists have uncovered a find as rare as any endangered species—a language completely new to science.

The researchers encountered it for the first time along the western ridges of Arunachal Pradesh, India's northeastern-most state, where more than 120 languages are spoken. There, isolated by craggy slopes and rushing rivers, the hunters and subsistence farmers who speak this rare tongue live in a dozen or so villages of bamboo houses built on stilts.
Audio: Listen to Koro

I saw the man

The man saw me

I didn't see the man

The man didn't see me

I gave pig to man
Koro for Beginners
Koro word
(phonetic ) English translation
jew-prah head
ko-play four
soo-fee six
poh-lay bird
leh-leh pig
may-nay sun
may-pah night
keh-peh nose
moo-yoo rain
oh-foh older sister
kah-plah-yeh thank you/you're welcome

--National Geographic

The language—called Koro—was identified during a 2008 expedition conducted as part of National Geographic's Enduring Voices project. The researchers announced their discovery Tuesday in Washington, D.C. So many languages have vanished world-wide in recent decades that the naming of a new one commanded scientific attention.

"Their language is quite distinct on every level—the sound, the words, the sentence structure," said Gregory Anderson, director of the nonprofit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, who directs the project's research. Details of the language will be documented in an upcoming issue of the journal Indian Linguistics.

Prized for its rarity as an unstudied linguistic artifact, the Koro language also offers researchers a catalogue of unique cultural experience, encoded in its mental grammar of words and sentence structure that helps shape thought itself.

Languages like Koro "construe reality in very different ways," Dr. Anderson said. "They uniquely code knowledge of the natural world in ways that cannot be translated into a major language."

In an era of globalization, languages have been disappearing by the hundreds, edged out by English, Chinese and Spanish or suppressed by government practices. Of the 6,909 known languages, about half are expected to disappear in this century; every two weeks, the last fluent speaker of a language dies. This newest, with only 800 or so speakers, may be no exception.

"Even though this is new to science, this language is on the way out," said linguist K. David Harrison at Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia. Many younger villagers, often educated at boarding schools where only Hindi or English are spoken, are abandoning their parents' language. "Young people are not speaking it in the villages," Dr. Harrison said. "If the process continues, Koro will almost certainly become extinct."
[LANGUAGEmap]

Even as languages disappear, many of them have never been identified or named. In search of that hidden diversity, linguists have been pushing deeper into remote regions and analyzing known language groups more thoroughly.

In China last year, researchers identified 24 languages in a region where previously only one had been reported. Recently, the scholarly compendium of known languages, called Ethnologue, added 83 previously unidentified languages from 19 countries.

As a matter of formal classification, Koro belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family, a group of some 400 languages that includes Tibetan and Burmese, the linguists said. Some 150 Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in India alone.

The language has no written form. Its only permanent monuments are the voice recordings made by researchers during the expedition, which they hope to use in compiling an online dictionary. Since the villagers have no access to the Internet, however, the dictionary and other digital records of Koro may only be of academic interest.

Eyak is an indigenous Alaskan language that has an unlikely ally- a 21 year old Frenchman named Guillaume Leduey. WSJ's Jim Carlton reports.

This newest addition to the global catalogue of known languages eluded notice until now because travel in the region is restricted by government permit and few linguists have ever worked there.

Moreover, it was masked by the unusual language diversity of the area, where so many languages are spoken that they seem to intermingle effortlessly in streams of thought. Indeed, the local Koro speakers themselves didn't consider theirs a separate language, even though it is as distinct from those spoken by other villagers as English is from Russian, the researchers said.

The researchers hope their work will aid efforts to preserve the endangered language. "If we care about the diversity of ideas and knowledge, then we should be concerned about losing these languages," Dr. Harrison said. "We are losing an immense body of knowledge."

Write to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com