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Science Forum Index » Language Translation Forum » concrete
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| Hanna Burdon |
 Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:36 pm |
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Hello Everyone and all the best to you in this New Year.
I'm translating an interview with a patient with Alzeimer's. The doctor's
question is: "What is your favourite thing to do?", and after some
deliberation the patient answers: "My favorite thing is concrete". The
doctor moves the conversation forward by saying: "Okay, but outside of
concrete, what's your favorite thing? What's a hobby that you enjoy?"
Is the patient being a bit incoherent here, or am I missing something?
Another meaning of the word "concrete", or a homophone perhaps?
MTIA for any help,
Hanna
--
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Beauty is in the behind of the beholder. [Pickles] |
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| Evertjan. |
| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:51 pm |
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Hanna Burdon wrote on 06 jan 2007 in sci.lang.translation:
Quote: I'm translating an interview with a patient with Alzeimer's. The
doctor's question is: "What is your favourite thing to do?", and after
some deliberation the patient answers: "My favorite thing is
concrete". The doctor moves the conversation forward by saying: "Okay,
but outside of concrete, what's your favorite thing? What's a hobby
that you enjoy?"
Is the patient being a bit incoherent here, or am I missing something?
Another meaning of the word "concrete", or a homophone perhaps?
"Another meaning" depends on your primary definition.
I would think the patient did not like the abstract.
--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress) |
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| Hanna Burdon |
| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2007 8:02 pm |
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In news:Xns98B08B2DF931eejj99@194.109.133.242, Evertjan. wrote:
Quote: I'm translating an interview with a patient with Alzeimer's. The
doctor's question is: "What is your favourite thing to do?", and
after some deliberation the patient answers: "My favorite thing is
concrete". The doctor moves the conversation forward by saying:
"Okay, but outside of concrete, what's your favorite thing? What's a
hobby that you enjoy?"
Is the patient being a bit incoherent here, or am I missing
something? Another meaning of the word "concrete", or a homophone
perhaps?
"Another meaning" depends on your primary definition.
True. Frankly though, neither "opposite of abstract" nor "building
material" make sense to me in this context. I was wondering whether there
might be a third meaning that I'm not aware of, like, I don't know, the
name of a sports team ("Go, Concrete, go!") or a sweet ("Mmm, KonKrete,
I'm loving it") or something of that nature.
Quote: I would think the patient did not like the abstract.
Ah. I was leaning towards the building material. Just goes to show, the
difference between one who's up in the clouds and one who's painfully down
to earth.
Hanna
--
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Beauty is in the behind of the beholder. [Pickles] |
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| Edward Hennessey |
| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:20 am |
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Hanna Burdon wrote:
Quote: Hello Everyone and all the best to you in this New Year.
I'm translating an interview with a patient with Alzeimer's. The doctor's
question is: "What is your favourite thing to do?", and after some
deliberation the patient answers: "My favorite thing is concrete". The
doctor moves the conversation forward by saying: "Okay, but outside of
concrete, what's your favorite thing? What's a hobby that you enjoy?"
Is the patient being a bit incoherent here, or am I missing something?
Another meaning of the word "concrete", or a homophone perhaps?
MTIA for any help,
Hania:
My guess is that the patient's response exhibits a dissociated,
irrational understanding
of the question typical of one in his deteriorated mental condition.
Otherwise, why would the doctor
ask a second question which removes "do" from the equation and then
focuses on the logic of first aberrant response to see if he can
sensibly define what his other favorite material is?
I imagine a tree of questions would follow what you have to further
assess the patient's mental state. If the patient replied "wood" or "I
like to saw things" to the second question each response might be taken
to mean different things about the level of his Alzheimer's development
than if his answer is an obviously estranged one like, "I think it is 6
o'clock".
In short, I think the patient is indeed incoherent in his reply because
even if he meant to say "My favorite activity is carefully combining
ingredients to mix up a firm and durable batch of concrete", all he
said was "My favorite thing is concrete", and the two sentences
don't mean the same thing.
Regards,
Edward Hennessey |
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| Hanna Burdon |
| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:30 pm |
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In news:1168057216.719706.265060@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, Edward
Hennessey wrote:
Quote: In short, I think the patient is indeed incoherent in his reply
because even if he meant to say "My favorite activity is carefully
combining ingredients to mix up a firm and durable batch of
concrete", all he said was "My favorite thing is concrete", and the
two sentences don't mean the same thing.
Thank you, Edward. This was my inkling too.
Hanna
--
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Beauty is in the behind of the beholder. [Pickles] |
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| Edward Hennessey |
| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:52 am |
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Hanna Burdon wrote:
Quote: In news:1168057216.719706.265060@i15g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, Edward
Hennessey wrote:
In short, I think the patient is indeed incoherent in his reply
because even if he meant to say "My favorite activity is carefully
combining ingredients to mix up a firm and durable batch of
concrete", all he said was "My favorite thing is concrete", and the
two sentences don't mean the same thing.
Thank you, Edward. This was my inkling too.
Hanna
--
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HB:
You are welcome. Below is an excellent link to an excellent article on
the national element
of your homeland so much in unfortunate news of late which anyone
should find interesting:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-sci-polonium1jan01,1,850055.story
Regards,
Edward Hennessey |
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| Afoklala |
| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:55 am |
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Op Fri, 5 Jan 2007 23:36:54 -0000 schreef Hanna Burdon:
Quote: Hello Everyone and all the best to you in this New Year.
I'm translating an interview with a patient with Alzeimer's. The doctor's
question is: "What is your favourite thing to do?", and after some
deliberation the patient answers: "My favorite thing is concrete". The
doctor moves the conversation forward by saying: "Okay, but outside of
concrete, what's your favorite thing? What's a hobby that you enjoy?"
Is the patient being a bit incoherent here, or am I missing something?
Another meaning of the word "concrete", or a homophone perhaps?
My interpretation is that the patient didn't quite catch the exact meaning
of the question. He did hear 'what do you like' but not the 'to do' part.
So he answers: "I like concrete" (the building material). So then the
doctor specifies his question by introducing the word 'hobby', to steer
away the patient from materials to activities.
--
Jan Willem from Odijk, Netherlands
e-mail in From-field is wrong, real e-mail is:
jw point van point dormolen on xs4all point nl
(change point into dot, on into at)
And then there's this:
Music will get you through times with no money better than
money will get you through times with no music. |
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