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Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Translation and the Meaning of Everything

by David Bellos and Professor of French Studies David Bellos
Hardback
Publication Date: 11/10/2011

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A "New York Times" Notable Book for 2011 One of "The Economist"'s 2011 Books of the Year People speak different languages, and always have. The Ancient Greeks took no notice of anything unless it was said in Greek; the Romans made everyone speak Latin; and in India, people learned their neighbors' languages as did many ordinary Europeans in times past (Christopher Columbus knew Italian, Portuguese, and Castilian Spanish as well as the classical languages). But today, we all use translation to cope with the diversity of languages. Without translation there would be no world news, not much of a reading list in any subject at college, no repair manuals for cars or planes; we wouldn't even be able to put together flat-pack furniture. "Is That a Fish in Your Ear?" ranges across the whole of human experience, from foreign films to philosophy, to show why translation is at the heart of what we do and who we are. Among many other things, David Bellos asks: What's the difference between translating unprepared natural speech and translating "Madame Bovary"? How do you translate a joke? What's the difference between a native tongue and a learned one? Can you translate between any pair of languages, or only between some? What really goes on when world leaders speak at the UN? Can machines ever replace human translators, and if not, why? But the biggest question Bellos asks is this: How do we ever really know that we've understood what anybody else says in our own language or in another? Surprising, witty, and written with great joie de vivre, this book is all about how we comprehend other people and shows us how, ultimately, translation is another name for the human condition."
ISBN:
9780865478572
9780865478572
Category:
Translation & interpretation
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
11-10-2011
Language:
English
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Country of origin:
United States
Pages:
373
Dimensions (mm):
206x150x33mm
Weight:
0.57kg
David Bellos

David Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature at Princeton University, where he also teaches Comparative Literature.

He is the author of many books and articles on nineteenth-century fiction, alongside biographies of three icons of French culture in the twentieth century: Georges Perec, Jacques Tati and Romain Gary.

He is also a well-known translator and the author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation.

David Bellos was recently awarded the rank of officier in the Ordre National des Arts et des Lettres for his services to French culture.

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