1158: Semiotics and 'Virtù' Feb 9, 2018

Part of the reason that translation can be so difficult is that translating something word-for-word does not work. Not only does this attempt fail for idiomatic phrases, which is the most obvious example, but also, since one word can have multiple connotations in one language but not another, sometimes executive decisions about cultural importance or semantics have to be made. In Machiavelli's "The Prince" for instance, the word 'virtù' describes the quality that a good leader should have, but can be translated easily a few dozen ways, including as 'virtue', 'strength' and 'power', but also 'cunning' etc. The reason that there is not a one-to-one correspondence across languages is partly cultural, but at its core it is because all language is arbitrary; there is no more sense in calling pig-meat 'pork', than there is to say 'schweinefleisch', which is why they both mean the same thing in different languages. This observation is key in semiotics, which is the topic for the most recent Word Facts Video, out today: https://youtu.be/ETRNxrPVDvI