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Grasping, comprendre, ... and insight | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| JanKG Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5767 days ago 245 posts - 280 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Italian, Finnish | Message 1 of 12 04 April 2009 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would like to know: how is 'to understand' translated in your and other languages ? I think that very often two metaphors are implied.
1a.I am particularly interested in whether the 'grasp metaphor' is used. (Which reminds me of worldviews, as in the other topic) For example: - DUT : be-grijpen (to seize) - ENG : grasp, comprehend (but see FRE) - FRE : com-prendre (take, maybe seize), saisir [I think] (seize) I am sure there are similar translations in other languages, maybe even not Indo-European.. 2b. I tend to think there is a link with the 'ex-plain' metaphor : explaining is un-wrapping things, loosening things from chaos - which allows us to grasp, get hold of it, control it . Cornelis Verhoeven, a Dutch philosopher, got me on that track by pointing that out in Dutch and German (uiteenzetten, auseinandersetzen), but it seems to be the case, so I found out, in Kinirwandan (unravelling a rope) and in Chinese ['release' seems implied in the Chinese translation of 'explaining')). And that is part of a worldview, I think. 2a. Understanding can also be translated using a light metaphor referring to seeing for example: - ENG : insight, see through (???), see clearly, ... - FRE : voir clairement - DUT: inzien, doorzien, ... 2b. That reminds me of the 'verklaren/ erklären/light' metaphor in verbs of explaining : we throw light on something, we create some kind of epi-phany (GR 'prainein' is appearing, 'epi' to light, I believe), we reveal or unveil, which seems to be common in quite some languages : (DUT) verklaren/ ENG make clear/ GER erklären, DUT verhelderen/ erhellen, DUT toelichten, LAT illustrare (etc.), ... I suspect one could even refer to Apollo (sis he a god of light ?), and rational thinking (generally associated with light: the Age of Enlightenment). More examples welcome. I cannot establish a clear link with worldview - or is it a reference to man's power of controlling and using the light himself (Prometheus brought fire - and light ?). 3. Where do ENG understand, DUT verstaan; GER verstehen belong in all this? Does under imply throwing down, and seizing - or is some humility implied in some sense (I do not think so,but the idea came up for a second). This leads to the idea of truth, or aletheia (a-Lethe-a), but that is another thread.I would love to hear how African, Indian, Arabic, ... languages translate 'to understand' (and maybe 'to explain'). Please use 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3 in your answer. Edited by JanKG on 04 April 2009 at 1:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JanKG Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5767 days ago 245 posts - 280 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Italian, Finnish | Message 2 of 12 08 April 2009 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Talking to myself (for lack of someone else responding)
ad 1a. GER beherschen, begreifen, kapieren, raffen, erkennen, erfassen, wahrnehmen, ad 2a. GER einsehen, erblicken, 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JanKG Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5767 days ago 245 posts - 280 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Italian, Finnish | Message 3 of 12 10 April 2009 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I found some more :
1b SWE forklare, &nb sp; fortydliga (root ?) DAN klarlegge 3. SWE/... forsta 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Maximus Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6749 days ago 417 posts - 427 votes Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Thai | Message 4 of 12 11 April 2009 at 2:07am | IP Logged | ||
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For Japanese there is also a work which means "to understand/to grasp" which includes the "grasp metephor".
把握する - To understand, to grasp (pronounced HAAKU SURU) This is a compound word derived from two characters therefore pronounced with the on-yomi (Sino-Japanese reading). However, the second character 握 has the kun-yomi (native Japanese reading) of 握る (pronounced NIGIRU) which means to grip, to grasp or to seize. Its meaning can range from actually grabbing with the hand up to the action of seizing political power. In Japanese, like in English, its meanings are wide in range. So as one can see, the "grasp metaphor" for understanding also exists even in Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Calvino Diglot Groupie Sweden sammafllod.wordpress Joined 5966 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 5 of 12 04 May 2009 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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In Swedish we have förstå, which means literally, "for-stand". It is, in other words, based on the "standing" metaphor just as the English "under-stand", but in my eyes, it seems more intuitive why comprehension should be expressed in terms of standing before something, rather than standing under something.
We also have fatta and greppa, which both utilize the "grasping" metaphor (they are cognate to, respectively, German "fassen" and English "grip"), and begripa, which is a direct loan from German "begreifen" As for the "light" metaphors, we have words like förklara ("for-clear"), klarlägga ("clear-lay"), among others, which carry the sense of "explaining". Edited by Calvino on 04 May 2009 at 10:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pitwo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6159 days ago 103 posts - 121 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 6 of 12 05 May 2009 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
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FRE: clairvoyant
not really the same concept, but still Edited by pitwo on 05 May 2009 at 3:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 12 19 May 2009 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Finnish also has the "grasping" metaphor in the word "käsittää" = understand, realise, derived from "käsi" = hand.
Other Finnish words for understand: ymmärtää, oivaltaa are not so easy to fit into these categories. Further, in the "grasping" group, Spanish has "comprender" (comprehend) but also "captar" (cf. English "capture")
That should be "förklara" in Swedish, meaning explain, clarify, and it obviously finds a home in the 2b "light"-metaphor group. I can't think of a counterpart in English with the same root as "förtydliga" (clarify) but "tydlig" is the same word as "deutlich" in German, and "tyda" means interpret, extract meaning. It seems somewhat related to the 2b group. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5697 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 12 19 May 2009 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting, really!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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