What you call this? Linguistic morphology of chemical names and lost in translation- by Fisheye Perspective

What you call this? Linguistic morphology of chemical names and lost in translation

Friday, November 6, 2009

Here is a real world example how Linguistic morphology of chemical names may have unwanted secondary effects

For example, English search engines such as Google and Yahoo! are unable to find "chlorobenzene" by searching for "benzene". Interestingly, in other languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (CJK languages), this is less of a problem, where for example the Japanese "

(chlorobenzene) can usually be found by querying for"
(benzene).

So next time you visit Japan and wish to buy an Aspirin be sure what you are asking for. Similarly when chemical names fluorescin and fluorescein transliterated to Japanese their distinction is totally lost. Phenylacetate and phenyl acetate are different compounds but again indistinguishable in Japanese because it does not retain a notion of whitespace. In fact when it comes to chemical naming there is an endless list for this type of linguistic confusions.

Indeed Mr Bob may not be only one who is lost in translation

Director [in Japanese, to the interpreter]: The translation is very important, O.K.? The translation.
Interpreter [in Japanese, to the director]: Yes, of course. I understand.
Director [in Japanese, to Bob]: Mr. Bob. You are sitting quietly in your study. And then there is a bottle of Suntory whisky on top of the table. You understand, right? With wholehearted feeling, slowly, look at the camera, tenderly, and as if you are meeting old friends, say the words. As if you are Bogie in Casablanca, saying, "Here's looking at you, kid," -- Suntory time!
Interpreter [In English, to Bob]: He wants you to turn, look in camera. O.K.?
Bob: Is that all he said?

Reference:
Sayle, R. (2009). Foreign Language Translation of Chemical Nomenclature by Computer Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 49 (3), 519-530 DOI: 10.1021/ci800243w