Istunpa Sankys Laitalla
Here's an interesting exercise you can do. Follows a list of words from §§93–4 of the Philosophische Untersuchungen. It in turn is followed by a list of the words used, in the Philosophical Investigations, to translate the words in the first list; the second list, however, is out of order with respect to the first (that is, the first word in the second list is not necessarily the translation of the first word in the first list).
merkwürdiges; Merkwürdiges; Seltsames; merkwürdiges
remarkable; queer, queer, queer
What is the correspondence, do you think? Does, perhaps, "remarkable" translate "Seltsames"? The numbers would, in that case, match up.
The translators have done something that in ordinary circumstances would be kind of odd, but which here makes sense, I suppose—only they haven't done it consistently. I just noticed a word italicized in the English, but that's not the odd thing. The odd thing is rendering phrases like "ein deutscher Satz" as "an English sentence", or "er habe … eine Gruppe von vier Zeichen als OBEN gelesen (oder gedeutet)" as "he has … read (or interpreted) a set of five marks as A B O V E". But then in §165 we have "ein deutsches gedrucktes Wort" translated as "a German printed word", which caused me much confusion when, in §168, I read "That is how it is when I read English and other languages"—I thought Wittgenstein, known to me as a native speaker of German, was talking about what it's like to read second (third, fourth, nth where n ≠ 1) languages. But actually the original is "wenn ich Deutsch und andere Sprache lese".
Comments
on 2007-01-16 6:17:19.0, Austro commented:
There is no way that "remarkable" translates as "Seltsames". "Remarkable" can only possibly be to 1 or 4 on the list. What would fascinate me is the ensuing context of the rendering of that then Substantiv "queer".
and, further, on 2007-01-16 6:26:54.0, Austro commented:
That rendering of "Er habe..." as "He has..." is distinctly dodgey too. The conjuntive indicates reported action. So that habe should be "had," no?
and, further, on 2007-01-16 7:47:49.0, ben wolfson commented:
That sentence begins "Angenommen, er habe …", if that makes it more plausible.
"remarkable" is actually 2: "Warum sagen wir, der Satz sei etwas Merkwürdiges?" becomes "Why do we say a proposition is something remarkable?".
and, further, on 2007-01-16 8:34:31.0, Austro commented:
Yes it does. So the Subjunctive is not for reporting action but the hypothetical...still would one not say.."Assume he has...?" Because the past tense sunjunctive would be "Angenommen, er hätte..."
I have trouble with that capital M.. it makes the "Merkwurdiges" into a noun. But still.
and, further, on 2007-01-16 14:21:32.0, ben wolfson commented:
But Austro, the translation is "assume he has read". Wouldn't "Angenommen, er hätte ... gelesen" be "assume he had read"?
I have trouble with that capital M.. it makes the "Merkwurdiges" into a noun
The full translation is "something remarkable", but I couldn't have put that into the list without giving away that it was either Merkwürdiges or Seltsames.