tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3518334.post3953422229571721487..comments2024-02-26T03:12:14.514-07:00Comments on About Translation: WordinessRiccardohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08033214185364578008noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3518334.post-82688190193272783412008-03-01T09:55:00.000-07:002008-03-01T09:55:00.000-07:00Since my source documents are almost never soft co...Since my source documents are almost never soft copies, I am paid by the target word about 90% of the time--because it's easier to do a word count on the final MS Word translation than on a xerox copy of some old handwritten lab notes or whatever the source happens to be. Whereas counting the source words is usually quite a bit more labor intensive.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3518334.post-52446761487846111662008-02-29T15:43:00.000-07:002008-02-29T15:43:00.000-07:00"Paying translators by the word encourages wordier..."Paying translators by the word encourages wordier translations"<BR/><BR/>Not if one is paid by the <I>source</I> word, which is, in fact usually the case. Paying by the target word has other disadvantages for customers, such as the impossibility of knowing precisely how much a translation is going to cost.Riccardohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08033214185364578008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3518334.post-44891593856823842342008-02-29T15:35:00.000-07:002008-02-29T15:35:00.000-07:00The "funny" thing about wordiness is that paying t...The "funny" thing about wordiness is that paying translators by the word encourages wordier translations (because they pay more than succinct translations!). Getting paid by the word, by the way, really made Charles Dickens's books unbearable to me. That's a whole separate issue from unnecessary words in the source text, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com