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Atmospheric chemistry, fundamental aspects
Atmospheric Enuironmenr Printed ia Great Britain.
Vol. 16, No. 11, p*. 2759-2162,
~~98~/82/112759-04
1982
$03.00~0
Pergamon
Press Ltd.
BOOK REVIEWS Atmospheric
Chemistry, Fundamental Aspects, by E. Mtszbos, Akademiai Kiado, The Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary and Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, P.O. Box 211, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 52, Vanderbilt Ave., NY 10017,1981. 201 pp. Price $41.50; Dh. 85.00.
There is a certain conflict of interest involved in my reviewing this volume since, as the author notes in his preface, I assisted in its formation. A volume ofapproximately the same titleand scope was published in Hungarian in 1977; this is both a translation and an updating of that work, with new material added throughout 1978. There are few subjects that have consumed as much ink and paper as language, and few skills as underrated as translation. We still clearly do not fully understand the relationship between language and behavior, but that certainly does not prevent the publication of numerous papers on the subject. The New York Academy of Sciences, not long ago, published a Proceedings volume that considered, among other things, the relationship between “sexist” language and sexism. This turned up, among other things, the notion that there is in fact little correlation; Russian is a highly “sexist” language, spoken by people who probably make the Leastdistinction of gender roles of any society in the world, while China,admittedfy now more egalitarian, nevertheless has a long history of extreme differentiation of roles while speaking a language that is essentially genderless. But this is a diversion from the diversion in which I was engaged. Generally speaking, anything said in any of the contemporary western languages can be translated into any other European language, virtually on a word-for-word basis, requiring only some reordering of word order to become a grammatically acceptable statement in the new language. However, this is only the beginning, not the end, of the work ofa competent transtator. I have read all too many books in which translation halted of this point, and they are generally dreadful. For example, despite the very large number of mutual cognates, native English speakers simply do not use as many superlatives and as many emotionally charged words as the average native speaker of one of the Romance languages. As a result, much Spanish writing, if rendered directly into English, sounds embarrassingly emotional and hyperbolic, and I strongly suspect that direct translations in the other direction come off as dull and repressed. So far as I am aware, no language other than English uses the so-called “progressive” tenses in the way that English does, and few non-natives are ever comfortable or particularly accurate with these peculiar constructions. Examples could certainly be muhiplied, and become still more complex, where the writing is more literary or poetic, involving allusions, assonances, alliterations and the like. However, even with the driest of technical writing, there are purely stylistic differences that will lead the translator to phrase things differently in different languages if his product is to be fully accepted. In a sense, the job of an editor who attempts to accomptih the transformation from a literal translation to a smooth one is even more difficult. He is working totally in English. However, I can only testify from my own experience that this does not make things easier but, if anything, harder. When I do translation, I tend to ingest asentenceat a time,and then to render the sentence as an English sentence that says the same thing in appropriately idiomatic English. When I am editing, I must instead work on individual words or phrases, and the end product often still sounds foreign. Especially in a long
document, I find myself gradually being persuaded that the author’s writing is really not that bad, gradually coming to accept his peculiar word choice, word order and idioms. The end result is that the first page or two ends up as quite acceptabfe English, with the number of corrections gradually decreasing through the balance of the work, until the end is totatly unchanged. if I catch myself doing this, the cure is to stop, do something else entirely for an hour or two and then come back at the job of editing. A ten page manuscript may take several days of this sort of intermittent effort before it is truly converted from its original form into smooth English. On top of this, there are still other problems. In American scientific usage, a research paper is not generally accounted acceptable unless it provides sufficient detail to permit the reader, at least conce.ptually, to duplicate the work. This criterion is obviously not observed in much of the rest of the world, and it can account for long gaps in the editing process as clearer writing makes it obvious that necessary experimental details are missing. This last problem of lack of technical detail was never a problem with the manuscript of this book, but the problem of linguistic fatigue sketched earlier definitely was. Accordingly, I can only shoulder the blame for any shortcomings ofdiction in this book, and march ahead to look at its substantive content. 1 think it is fair to say that this book is, at the moment, unique, being organized around a single conceptual viewpoint-that of global budgets. It certainly does not neglect to mention other aspects ofatmospheric chemistry; on these the book seems authoritative, careful and reasonably complete within its chosen scope. Where there is disagreement or outright lack of knowledge, theseare freely admitted. Obviously, there are areas in which present knowledge has changed viewpoints expressed almost three years ago; this is no more than a testimony of the vitality of the field of atmospheric chemistry. However, this is overall a volume to be recommended highly, especially to those newly entering the held. The basic structure is sound and the summary of the information up to 1978 is accurate. The index appears adequate and the table of contents is sufficiently detailed almost to make the index Cnnecessary. All references are brought together in a single alphabetized bibliography; while one might also wish for an author index, this deficiency is certainly less critical than it is in volumes with separate chapter bibliographies, or with a bibliography in the order of citation. The relative novice to the field will find this an excellent orientation, and the old hand will find it the useful compilation of facts and figures, not to mention citations. A few typographical errors were noted, but none that were seriously misleading. Those active in the field will want a desk copy rather than occasional access via their libraries. JAMES
Effects of SO, and its Derivatives
P.
LODGE,
JR.
on Health and Ecology.
Reports of two Working Groups. Volume I-Human Health. Volume II-Natural Ecosystems, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, November, 1981. (Study sponsored by the International Electric Research Exchange. Copies of Executive and Technical Summaries available from IERE, c/o P.O. Box 50490, Palo Alto, CA 94303, U.S.A. Full reports available from national addresses listed in summaries.)
Vol. 16, No. 11, p*. 2759-2162,
~~98~/82/112759-04
1982
$03.00~0
Pergamon
Press Ltd.
BOOK REVIEWS Atmospheric
Chemistry, Fundamental Aspects, by E. Mtszbos, Akademiai Kiado, The Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary and Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, P.O. Box 211, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 52, Vanderbilt Ave., NY 10017,1981. 201 pp. Price $41.50; Dh. 85.00.
There is a certain conflict of interest involved in my reviewing this volume since, as the author notes in his preface, I assisted in its formation. A volume ofapproximately the same titleand scope was published in Hungarian in 1977; this is both a translation and an updating of that work, with new material added throughout 1978. There are few subjects that have consumed as much ink and paper as language, and few skills as underrated as translation. We still clearly do not fully understand the relationship between language and behavior, but that certainly does not prevent the publication of numerous papers on the subject. The New York Academy of Sciences, not long ago, published a Proceedings volume that considered, among other things, the relationship between “sexist” language and sexism. This turned up, among other things, the notion that there is in fact little correlation; Russian is a highly “sexist” language, spoken by people who probably make the Leastdistinction of gender roles of any society in the world, while China,admittedfy now more egalitarian, nevertheless has a long history of extreme differentiation of roles while speaking a language that is essentially genderless. But this is a diversion from the diversion in which I was engaged. Generally speaking, anything said in any of the contemporary western languages can be translated into any other European language, virtually on a word-for-word basis, requiring only some reordering of word order to become a grammatically acceptable statement in the new language. However, this is only the beginning, not the end, of the work ofa competent transtator. I have read all too many books in which translation halted of this point, and they are generally dreadful. For example, despite the very large number of mutual cognates, native English speakers simply do not use as many superlatives and as many emotionally charged words as the average native speaker of one of the Romance languages. As a result, much Spanish writing, if rendered directly into English, sounds embarrassingly emotional and hyperbolic, and I strongly suspect that direct translations in the other direction come off as dull and repressed. So far as I am aware, no language other than English uses the so-called “progressive” tenses in the way that English does, and few non-natives are ever comfortable or particularly accurate with these peculiar constructions. Examples could certainly be muhiplied, and become still more complex, where the writing is more literary or poetic, involving allusions, assonances, alliterations and the like. However, even with the driest of technical writing, there are purely stylistic differences that will lead the translator to phrase things differently in different languages if his product is to be fully accepted. In a sense, the job of an editor who attempts to accomptih the transformation from a literal translation to a smooth one is even more difficult. He is working totally in English. However, I can only testify from my own experience that this does not make things easier but, if anything, harder. When I do translation, I tend to ingest asentenceat a time,and then to render the sentence as an English sentence that says the same thing in appropriately idiomatic English. When I am editing, I must instead work on individual words or phrases, and the end product often still sounds foreign. Especially in a long
document, I find myself gradually being persuaded that the author’s writing is really not that bad, gradually coming to accept his peculiar word choice, word order and idioms. The end result is that the first page or two ends up as quite acceptabfe English, with the number of corrections gradually decreasing through the balance of the work, until the end is totatly unchanged. if I catch myself doing this, the cure is to stop, do something else entirely for an hour or two and then come back at the job of editing. A ten page manuscript may take several days of this sort of intermittent effort before it is truly converted from its original form into smooth English. On top of this, there are still other problems. In American scientific usage, a research paper is not generally accounted acceptable unless it provides sufficient detail to permit the reader, at least conce.ptually, to duplicate the work. This criterion is obviously not observed in much of the rest of the world, and it can account for long gaps in the editing process as clearer writing makes it obvious that necessary experimental details are missing. This last problem of lack of technical detail was never a problem with the manuscript of this book, but the problem of linguistic fatigue sketched earlier definitely was. Accordingly, I can only shoulder the blame for any shortcomings ofdiction in this book, and march ahead to look at its substantive content. 1 think it is fair to say that this book is, at the moment, unique, being organized around a single conceptual viewpoint-that of global budgets. It certainly does not neglect to mention other aspects ofatmospheric chemistry; on these the book seems authoritative, careful and reasonably complete within its chosen scope. Where there is disagreement or outright lack of knowledge, theseare freely admitted. Obviously, there are areas in which present knowledge has changed viewpoints expressed almost three years ago; this is no more than a testimony of the vitality of the field of atmospheric chemistry. However, this is overall a volume to be recommended highly, especially to those newly entering the held. The basic structure is sound and the summary of the information up to 1978 is accurate. The index appears adequate and the table of contents is sufficiently detailed almost to make the index Cnnecessary. All references are brought together in a single alphabetized bibliography; while one might also wish for an author index, this deficiency is certainly less critical than it is in volumes with separate chapter bibliographies, or with a bibliography in the order of citation. The relative novice to the field will find this an excellent orientation, and the old hand will find it the useful compilation of facts and figures, not to mention citations. A few typographical errors were noted, but none that were seriously misleading. Those active in the field will want a desk copy rather than occasional access via their libraries. JAMES
Effects of SO, and its Derivatives
P.
LODGE,
JR.
on Health and Ecology.
Reports of two Working Groups. Volume I-Human Health. Volume II-Natural Ecosystems, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, November, 1981. (Study sponsored by the International Electric Research Exchange. Copies of Executive and Technical Summaries available from IERE, c/o P.O. Box 50490, Palo Alto, CA 94303, U.S.A. Full reports available from national addresses listed in summaries.)