We are all starting to see more and more texts written by what is misleadingly known as Artificial Intelligence (AI), usually by ‘Large Language Models’. Supposedly, texts written by AI differ in various ways from texts written by humans. I’ve read several times recently that one common hallmark of AI writing is using the punctation…… Continue reading I’m in a quandary about em-dashes
Month: July 2025
Some things I like about Hungarian
Hungarian differs from most European languages in several ways, partly because it is not a member of the Indo-European family of languages. Hungarian is a member of the Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. https://languagemiscellany.com/2024/01/the-uralic-languages/ This post covers some fascinating features of Hungarian: vowel harmony front and back vowels in deictic words possessive word…… Continue reading Some things I like about Hungarian
Trying too hard to avoid the passive
The US government website plainlanguage.gov gives some useful guidance on plain writing Federal plain language guidelines. Not surprisingly, one section advises using active sentences. https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/conversational/use-active-voice/ This guidance is good, but it falls into the same trap as much other guidance by similar organisations. Although many writers use the passive voice too much, there are times…… Continue reading Trying too hard to avoid the passive
Shapes of male and female English names
In English, male names differ from female names, and both male and female names differ from other nouns: male names tend to be shorter than other nouns. female nouns tend to be longer than other nouns. female names are more likely than male names to contain stressed vowels with [i] and less likely to…… Continue reading Shapes of male and female English names
Benefits and risks of AI in translation and interpreting
The American Translators’ Association published a statement on Adoption of Technology and AI in Translation and Interpreting on 20 May 2025. The ATA’s Board of Directors approved the statement on 3 May 2025. The statement notes that the latest wave of artificial intelligence (AI), powered by large language models (LLM), is reshaping many professions, including…… Continue reading Benefits and risks of AI in translation and interpreting
The sins of Adam: more on the Italian verb ‘fare’
This post looks at how Italian uses the verb fare (‘do’, ‘make’) in making a verb causative. A short book Fare: Elementi di sintassi, by Nunzio La Fauci and Ignazio M Mirto (2003) analyses that construction in a chapter called Com’è che Eva fece peccare Adamo? (‘How is it that Eva made Adam sin?’) In…… Continue reading The sins of Adam: more on the Italian verb ‘fare’
All language versions of EU law are equally valid, unless one version is wrong
European Union legislation is published in each of the EU’s official languages. Each language version is deemed to have equal validity. A court is now being asked to rule on the legal consequences of a translation mistake made in one language version. OnAir case: The legal effects of a mistranslation and its correction in EU…… Continue reading All language versions of EU law are equally valid, unless one version is wrong