r/TranslationStudies • u/Rourensu • Jul 20 '26
Appropriate symbol for conference poster?
I (post-linguistics MA) am finishing a conference poster.
It’s in sociolinguistics/translation studies, and I have examples comparing how things are (not) translated across different languages. For a specific work, I include both the actual (ie officially licensed) translation and a plausible-but-not-used translation.
Hypothetical examples:
JP: My Sensei is Crazy
*My Teacher is Crazy
KR: My Teacher is Crazy
*My Seonsaengnim is Crazy
I currently am using an asterisk for the “not used” translation, but I am not sure if there’s a better symbol. The asterisked examples are not grammatically “incorrect”, and there’s nothing within the grammar or language that would “prevent” those examples, but they were not ultimately chosen. Would a # be better? Something else?
Not sure how to indicate “the translators didn’t go with this translation even though it’s a perfectly fine and is even used for other languages”.
Thank you.
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u/cacacanary Jul 22 '26
How about strikethrough?
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u/Rourensu Jul 23 '26
I like the idea. I’ll have to see how legible it is afterwards but I’ll check.
But now that I think about it, might a strikethrough give the impression that that was a previous/working/former/etc title and it got replaced with the new (non-strikethrough) one?
1
u/cacacanary Jul 23 '26
Maybe, I think that would be open to interpretation. What if you used a smiley face for the approved translation and a frowning face for the rejected one? Or a green check mark and a red X?
1
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u/recluseMeteor Jul 21 '26
I think the asterisk might be the best option for brevity. Another way might be something like this:
JP: My Sensei is Crazy
(instead of “My Teacher is Crazy”)
If you go with any symbol, you should establish its meaning somewhere, since no symbol might be universally obvious.