The changing rules of typography
Two spaces after a period. Period! OK…maybe not anymore. The first time I was told to break this rule was about 15 years ago in an office entering bibliographies into a database. The office computer guy informed us the proprietary database didn’t like double spaces, and added that one space would be the new rule in the computer age.
No more underlining! Never in a printed document, according to the typographyforlawyers.com blog. Wayne Scheiss concurs that for legal writing underlining is out, italics are in, despite the Bluebook’s delay in catching up.
Quotation marks are yet another typographical element computers have upended. From the ambidextrous “dumb” quotes we’ve used since the days of typewriters to the curled “smart” quotes that Word almost always gets right, typography has come a long way.
The translator of course has more constraints in terms of typography than does the writer. The main one being the original. Slavishly copying the bold, italics, underlines, caps, etc., of the source document — even if the original drafter was completely careless, or the file 50-years old — is often the rule.
But when should we override the conventions of the original? I mean it is in a different language. We’re obviously not going to follow the Spanish question marks, or the French quotation marks. So why italics, bold and underline? Are we creating a look-alike document or a counterpart document?
6 responses so far ↓
1 Jen // Feb 24, 2010 at 2:22 pm
What? I can’t NOT double space after a period. My 7th grade English teacher might be watching! (But don’t go by my standards. I also could NOT figure out how to italicize in this “Leave a Comment” window.)
More importantly, I wonder which will prove more challenging: for us “classically trained” typists to update old habits, or for the upcoming generation to agree on new conventions. Either way, typography in translation should be as transparent as the translator.
2 Diane // Feb 24, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I’ve just finished reading an auto-biography which was the first printed text which only used one space after sentence-ending periods. It was often confusing. I now will attempt to italicize what need emphasizing. Nope. Couldn’t do it,either. (If we eliminate one space after a period, do we eliminate the one space after a comma?) Isn’t clarity the over-riding determinative?
3 Ryan Ginstrom // Feb 24, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I translate from Japanese to English. Of course the Japanese writing system doesn’t use the Roman alphabet, and the typographical conventions are also quite different, so it’s simply not possible to slavishly copy the formatting of the original.
I think that when you’re translating between two very dissimilar languages, it makes you more aware of the true goal of translation, which is to reproduce the effect of the original (IMHO). When you’re working between two similar languages (I also translate Spanish to English), there’s more of a risk of falling into a “just translate the words” mentality (also IMHO).
4 Nic loves languages // Feb 25, 2010 at 3:12 am
I picked up on the single space after a fullstop about 12 months ago and think that I’ve just about weened myself off of it. (Although right then I almost tap-tapped).
There’s also the dash debate about whether they should be used at all. I personally believe that commas and “those pesky semi-colons” give us enough punctuation to express ourselves. So I try to avoid dashes and brackets, where possible.
I’ve recently read a couple of posts by non-linguistic people, which have said that we don’t need punctuation at all.
And as for italics, I won’t even try it.
Nic at crosslingo
5 Heather // Mar 1, 2010 at 12:15 am
I’m a big fan of dashes—both the M dash just used and the N dash. I used to be an over-user of commas, which is why I converted to dashes. I’m now using single spaces after period, but I have to admit that I still use double spaces in more formal writing (not that blogs aren’t worthy of my doubles). Keep up the good grammer debates!
6 Professional Translation Services Guide // Apr 7, 2010 at 11:38 am
I was unaware of changing standards in terms of two spaces after the period or underlining. Interesting!
Regarding translation, I don’t think there is much value in copying the punctuation of the original. The translator’s job is to transfer the meaning, tone, and feeling of a text to the target language. In most cases, maintaining the original punctuation will be irrelevant or even counterproductive to that goal.
There are also different punctuation conventions in different languages. For example, Spanish uses “upside-down” question marks and exclamation points which do not exist in English. Maintaining this punctuation in a translation from Spanish to English would be incorrect. Similarly, it would be incorrect in a translation from English to French to follow English language punctuation conventions.
Leave a Comment