Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Working with Key Terms

So, amidst working on Partnership Development, I've been working on a Key Terms project for PBT PNG. It can look a little complicated, but when I got the hang of it it became almost mindless, something I can do while watching TV or carrying on a conversation.
Now the purpose of this is to help the national translators. There are key terms throughout the Bible in Greek and to make a good translation, you want those words to be translated the same way each time they appear. But what if a word in Greek could get translated in different ways depending on the context? For this, we need subcategories where a national can see, in verse A, the key term, X, should be translated as Y, but in verse B, the key term, X, should be translated as Z.
And with this, better and more accurate translations can be made!
(you can click the pic to make it bigger)

See, first (please find the number 1) I look for a word that is marked as 'notoriously contextual'.

Then (please find the number 2) I find that word in Paratext, who has already divided the word into subcategories.

Afterwards (number 3), I find the greek word in Logos and copy and paste it into Notepad++ (because I can't figure out how to change my font in Notepad++).

Proceeding to step number 4, I have to do my first bit of thinking: I look at the subcategories that Paratext provided and try to consolidate them. Then when I decide what categories I want, I put them into Notepad++.

At step number 5, I input all the times that greek word appeared with that definition into Notepad++. I have to do this with each definition and each greek word that gets translated into that definition. Notice the colorful dots beside the box beside the 5. Each color indicates a different greek word. They each need their own entry in Notepad++.


So this is what I've been up to. It can be boring work, frustrating work, monotonous work. But. It will help with the Bible Translation process. And that's my job.

Elizabeth Vahey
Serving the Bibleless of Papua New Guinea