Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 August 29

= August 29 =

English emphasis
Many people now seem to list things, putting emphasis on the last or penultimate word in each item the list. e.g. i went to CAMBRIDGE, saw my MOTHER, fed the CAT, came HOME, etc. Is there a term for this? Kittybrewster  &#9742;  10:22, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

There is a thing called High rising terminal that might be of interest, not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but it's aronud the ending of spoken sentences in language (english in particular). I'd suggest looking around the linguistics/phoentics links from within as there's a lot of interesting stuff and you might find what you're looking for in the end. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:12, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

"Clown in libertà"
This is the title of a street theatre work that, according to my source text, was awarded First Prize at the 2007 “Sul Filo del Circo” International Festival of Contemporary Circus, held in Italy. The only content-context I have is that it involves three clowns playing music while engaging in feats of acrobalance, juggling, etc. How would you suggest I translate the title in English (and avoid a "faux amis" blooper): Thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 13:34, 29 August 2008 (UTC)
 * "Free the Clown!"
 * "Liberate the Clown!"
 * (? other)


 * I do not know the plot, but I have heard the title translated as Clown in Search of Freedom; I am not sure about its correctness. --Omidinist (talk) 16:18, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Spanish speaker here :-) A direct translation would be "Clown in freedom", meaning "clown being free"... "clown freely expressing himself". Perhaps using the plural "Clowns" would be better. The title is probably an allusion to the Italian expression "parole in libertà" ("words in freedom"), refering to "speaking freely", speaking without holding back for fear of the consequences or for political correctness. But there is a second possible allusion: parole in libertà is also a poetic genre created by the Italian futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Our article on him says:


 * "But his attempts to renew the language of poetry did not satisfy him. So much so that in his foreword to the anthology, he launched a new revolution: it was time to be done with traditional syntax and to move towards "words in freedom" (parole in libertà)."


 * So, a simple Clown in Freedom would have the advantage of retaining the original connotations for those able to grasp them. The more elaborated Clown in Search of Freedom, mentioned by Omidinist above, could -perhaps- convey better the general idea to a public not acquainted with the Italian language :-) I hope this helps, Deborah. - Regards, Ev (talk) 17:26, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Your helpful efforts, Omidinist and Ev, prompt me to explain the seemingly offbase English I suggested above: it's a product of the :ithe: translation I was provided. Mediated translation being suspect by nature, I thought to query the original Italian here, and am glad for the input. Further investigation (of the :he:) is evidently in order! -- Thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 18:56, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Glad to be of help :-) However, the Hebrew title is not a bad choice: they opted for conveying forcefully the spirit behind the original Italian words, and presumably behind the work. Parafrasing the words from our article, we can imagine that


 * the attempts of the work's creator to renew the language of "clowning" did not satisfy him. So, he launched a new revolution: it was time to be done with the traditional rules of the clowning performance and to move towards "clowns in freedom". Using your preferred format :-)


 * From there to cry "Free the Clown!" there is but a small step; it's a translation of the spirit, if not the words. — Supposing the work has anything to do with parole in libertà, of course :-) Best, Ev (talk) 19:27, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


 * If so, I'll offer the following as my provisional translation:
 * The Clowns Set Free! (closest to the word order of the Italian; the pl. subject makes the verb clearly InT.)
 * Set the Clown/s Free! (as the Hebrew version is unaccountably imperative, though the Italian is provided)
 * -- Many thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 06:38, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I just looked at their website (in Italian; English translation in .pdf) -the first thing I should have done- and didn't find a thousand clowns storming the Bastille or proclaiming something akin to "words in freedom". — I'm afraid that I just got carried away with a couple of possible allusions I liked. I'm sorry for all the unnecessary ramblings above.

Possibilities deriving from a literal "Clowns in freedom" -"Clowns being free", "Clowns acting freely" or similar- are not the same... they lack the simplicity & romantic sparkle of the Italian Clown in libertà, the French Clowns en liberté, the Spanish Payasos en libertad or the Portuguese Palhaços em liberdade... My English is not that good, but I can't think of anything.

Which leads us to the Hebrew solution of aiming for the spirit of "clowns expressing themselves in freedom". From what I have seen or thought so far, your "The Clowns Set Free!" is the one I like best, by a large margin :-)

In any case, do pluralize "Clown" into "Clowns", for it refers to three clowns. I tend to forget that Italians often don't pluralize loanwords: for example, to say "the computers are" they would often write "i computer sono", without the final s of the English plural or the final i of the Italian one. — In our case, the website mentions "three funny clowns" as "tre buffi clown" (and not clowns or clowni).

Dear God, now that I think of it, I should be the last person attemting to help with all but the most simple & straightforward of translations :-) Best regards, Ev (talk) 20:09, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm getting the idea of a Discovery Channel type vibe from the title, that would translate something like "Clowns in the Wild". It's straying well into the interpretive side of translation, rather than the stricter translation. Steewi (talk) 02:35, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Acronym request
what is the acronym for postive action telephone hotline —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.213.189.237 (talk) 22:15, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I can only assume it would be PATH, but our page knows it not. --  JackofOz (talk) 23:55, 29 August 2008 (UTC)


 * OP seems not to know what an acronym is. See acronym.--Shantavira|feed me 08:39, 30 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I think the question can be understood in (at least) two ways.


 * 1) If one wanted to create an acronym for "Positive Action Telephone Hotline", what would it be?


 * 2) What acronym is normally used to mean "Positive Action Telephone Hotline"?


 * The answer to the first is of course PATH. IMO the answer to the second is that there is none. I say this because the title "Positive Action Telephone Hotline" shows up zero times in a Google search of the Internet. Wanderer57 (talk) 15:42, 30 August 2008 (UTC)