general writing skills

15:57 Jul 28, 2017 

@Robert, @Marcelo
Si "isotónico" es un "término técnico", podría decirse que filosóficamente en sentido fuerte dado el carácter necesario (no puede no ser) y unívoco (no puede ser otro tipo de término que un término técnico), entonces, en todo contexto deberá ser leído como tal, mientras que al ser "aptitud" en sentido débil un término técnico (esto es: puede serlo o no, y la relación no es unívoca), por lo tanto contingente, esto implica -y acá no puedo dar sustento filosófico sino de sentido común, que en la determinación de su uso será dada contextualmente, y si está en un texto no técnico, será la de uso general la que prevalezca.

15:06 Jul 28, 2017 

The distinction exists. Perhaps you missed my additional note (at the 7-hr mark) with the definition from Webster's, along with my brief description of how aptitude tests work(ed) at the Defense Language Institute.

As for your "Exhibit A," I'm afraid it probably shouldn't be 'admitted to evidence,' as the SAT is no longer referred to as the 'Scholastic Aptitude Test.' You may want to draw your own conclusions.

As for the idea that we should provide timely support for our suggestions, I'd be inclined to agree. Cheers from the Marianas :-)

13:44 Jul 28, 2017 

I do now see that you were making a good-faith effort to draw a distinction here. I just don't think it is a particularly legitimate distinction. "Exhibit A" in this regard would be the "Scholastic Aptitude Test," widely used in the US to assess the college-readiness of high-school seniors. The purpose of the test is essentially to measure basic reading, writing, and math skills, and not some kind of non-culture-bound innate set of talents (although the latter of course come in to play).

This is a prominent example, but it is an important one of how "aptitude" is commonly used in English as a synonym of "skill" or "fitness" and not of "innate talent."

Once again, in an instance like this where you really were making an attempt to draw a fine distinction, you needed to support your suggestion with an initial (and not *a posteriori*) accompanying comment.

12:40 Jul 28, 2017 

Yes, I agree with the idea of fostering discussion. Thank you for all your interesting thoughts on this. I understand your point. Cheers from Argentina

05:04 Jul 28, 2017 

...exceptionally good translation is nuanced comprehension of the source-text. @ Veronica - My post was intended to foster discussion of this, as an underlying factor influencing translational quality (for a related discussion, see House, as well as Angelelli, in my "Metaphor and Agency in the English-Spanish Translation of Texts in the Social Science" (2015), which also includes a defense of a much-maligned practice (that actually dates back at least to Classical Antiquity, i.e., second language (L2) translation, also known as both 'non mother tongue translation' and 'inverse translation' (33-42).

https://figshare.com/articles/Metaphor_and_agency_in_the_Eng...

04:02 Jul 28, 2017 

Solo quería agregar, para completar mi argumento anterior, tomado de "Lexico Técnico de Filosofía Medieval" de Silvia Magnavaca, fabuloso diccionario filosófico, cuando describe los tipos de Analogía. Es "aptitud" un término técnico en el mismo sentido que lo es "isotónico"?, esto es, la relación entre "aptitud"/"término técnico", es la misma que entre "isotónico"/"término técnico", siempre que el valor de "término técnico" sea el mismo en ambas relaciones? Del mismo modo en que en filosofía escolástica la sustancia y el accidente se relacionan con el SER de distinta manera si bien ambas SON, una es en sí y la otra es en otro..., se podría decir, también por analogía, que el término "isotónico" tiene una relación más estrecha de dependencia estricta de la jerga técnica bioquímica o fisiológica y en cambio el término "aptitud" podría o no relacionarse con "término técnico", o sea que la relación en este último par no sería unívoca ni necesaria, cuando pareciera que en el primer caso lo es.

02:10 Jul 28, 2017 

I thank you for your explanation. However, I still doubt why we are considering the meaning of "aptitude" in English, when it is of the word "aptitud" in Spanish I had proposed, and therefore with a different meaning according to the RAE. I also understand there might be terms not yet included in the RAE dictionary. The fact that the Spanish speaking community within the US would associate "aptitude" with their tests, or any other possible topic, is a valid argument for adapting Spanish to that community, but I am a Latam Spanish speaker from Argentina, and that probably would not happen to anybody outside the US, so, I understand your point but would not take a local use of the language as a general restriction for the translation of the word. Besides, translation into Spanish would become impossible... I've seen a video about this not long ago, trying to make terms equivalent among different Latam countries and the same term named absolutely different things from one country to the other. That is why I consider the RAE important in this issue. As regards register, and not considering "aptitud" a technical jargon term, any educated person would use it in everyday speech...thanks

01:35 Jul 28, 2017 

The (additional) respect we may be inclined to have for an online resource named OxfordDictionaries.com notwithstanding, 'aptitude' has a slightly different technical meaning (and related usage) in not only applied linguistics, but also (at least in the US) in the context of employment--a context in which aptitude tests are taken to help identify potential career paths as well. And at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, students who did especially well on the language aptitude test were then chosen to study the more difficult languages (for native English speakers), i.e., Russian, Farsi, Arabic, etc. This is not to say that this additional technical meaning is necessarily seen (much less in equal measure) in Spanish, but if it is also used in Spanish in this particular way as well, then this should be taken into consideration. IMO. Cheers from the island of Tinian, in the Northern Mariana Islands :-)

01:14 Jul 28, 2017 

Cuando digo que "aptitud" no me resulta un término técnico quiero decir que no en su primer sentido... en el sentido en que más es usado en el lenguaje, no lo es en el mismo grado que "isotónico" en fisiología o bioquímica ...

00:57 Jul 28, 2017 

Marcelo, recién veo la nota agregada y suena perfecto, el tema es que según la RAE, máxima autoridad lingüística en Español, el término "aptitud" no tiene, como en inglés, la definición de "habilidad innata". Por otro lado, si ponderamos todas las jergas discursivas posibles, todo es pasible de devenir un término técnico en alguna jerga. En castellano, tendemos a decir "aptitudes naturales" para diferenciarlas del resto. Y por último, no considero que "aptitude" sea un término técnico, el Oxford dictionary online, lo define como esa https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/aptitude "natural ability to do sth", simplemente.