'artifact of translation'

Posted by Ward on June 20, 2004

In Reply to: Gaining the diploma posted by R. Berg on June 20, 2004

: : : I cam across this sentence written by a German engineer: "Soon I went to the Technical University of Berlin, where I studied mechanical engineering gaining the diploma in june 1999."

: : : Is 'gaining the diploma' an artifact of translation or is the phrase used in English.

: : Sounds like "an artifact of translation" (I like that phrase).
: : Usually, at least here in the NE part of the US of A, you would hear "I earned my degree...".

: "Gaining the diploma" is a fancy way of saying "graduating." Properly, high schools grant diplomas; colleges and universities grant degrees.

The phrase 'artifact of translation' is a gem! To Noam Chomsky and others, the structure of a language suggests deeper relationships in terms of the way we think and construct ideas. When we go from one language to another, these structures come along sometime, and they are a reminder that there is never really a perfect 1 to 1 relationship between the different constructs.