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Wouter VERKERKEN wondered: <<Slightly different question about the use
of gerunds in headings. I have heard that gerunds produce bad results
after automatic translation.>>
This is possibly a problem if you're using Google to translate from a
language you don't actually understand, and can't be bothered to hire a
professional, but in machine-assisted translation, a human mind should
always be reviewing the translation or picking the correct translation
from a list of "memorized" options, and such problems should never
arise. If they do, fire your translator--they're incompetent--and hire
a pro.
<<As a Dutch native speaker I can understand that it would not be a
good idea to translate, for example, "Installing x" literally into my
mother tongue. Does anyone have input on this issue?>>
I work professionally as a French to English translator, and I can tell
you that nobody who knows what they're doing will do literal
translations unless their primary goal is to amuse their friends and
lose their clients. Translation involves preserving the _meaning_, not
the words*, and anyone who tells you otherwise shouldn't be doing
translation for a living.
* There are, of course, exceptions. For example, you don't translate
company names and other proper nouns unless you've confirmed with the
author that this is necessary (e.g., there's an official translation
for the target country) or helpful.
Moreover, in some cases you don't even translate the meaning, but
instead choose a wording that accomplishes the same goal in the target
language that the author was trying to accomplish in the original
language. That's very true in advertising, for example, and often true
in literary translation as well (e.g., some metaphors or jokes don't
translate between cultures).
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