What’s on the What Resists Translation poster
A 7-row table: Difficulty · Why.
Where translators have to make a decision the original did not.
- Idioms — Meaning is not built from the parts
- Grammatical gender — No equivalent category to carry
- Formality (tu/vous) — English has no obligatory distinction
- Aspect — Some languages mark it, others do not
- Evidentiality — Some grammars require your source
- Wordplay — Depends on the specific forms
- Cultural concepts — No matching referent
Some languages force you to state whether you witnessed something. Translating into English silently discards that information.
Questions about the What Resists Translation poster
- What’s on the What Resists Translation poster?
- A 7-row table: Difficulty · Why. Where translators have to make a decision the original did not. Idioms — Meaning is not built from the parts; Grammatical gender — No equivalent category to carry; Formality (tu/vous) — English has no obligatory distinction; Aspect — Some languages mark it, others do not; Evidentiality — Some grammars require your source; Wordplay — Depends on the specific forms; Cultural concepts — No matching referent. Some languages force you to state whether you witnessed something. Translating into English silently discards that information.
- Who is the What Resists Translation poster for?
- What Resists Translation belongs to the Languages section rather than to a school year, because languages is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning how languages work can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the What Resists Translation poster?
- The hard part is rarely vocabulary. It is what the grammar forces you to specify. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so What Resists Translation belongs on the wall where that languages work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with What Resists Translation?
- Bilingualism, Grammatical Case and Code-Switching sit alongside What Resists Translation in the Languages section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.BilingualismGrammatical CaseCode-Switching
- Is the What Resists Translation poster free to download and print?
- Yes. What Resists Translation downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Languages section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the What Resists Translation poster print at?
- What Resists Translation is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of What Resists Translation loses nothing.Printing guide
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