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Chaire Développement Durable de Sciences Po
rempietement de quais

Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

alignant ses mots

English translation:

in its arrangement/placement of words

Added to glossary by Helen Shiner
Mar 1, 2009 21:31
15 yrs ago
French term

alignant ses mots

French to English Marketing Photography/Imaging (& Graphic Arts)
Hi,

I'm translating a book review about photo-novellas and am struggling with 'alignant ses mots' in the following sentence:

Le texte, alignant ses mots, élargit et enrichit le champ des significations qui se confrontent aux références culturelles et artistiques du « lecteur ».

My attempt of the paragraph is:

The text ***** widens and enhances the field of signification which
confronts the cultural and artistic referents of the
'reader'.

Thanks
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 in its arrangement/placement of words
3 +1 stringing its words together
3 +1 with each of its words astutely placed
3 organizing his words on paper
3 The meticulously crafted text
2 word after word
References
Littré
Change log

Mar 3, 2009 12:28: Helen Shiner Created KOG entry

Discussion

Stéphanie Soudais Mar 2, 2009:
Emma Oui peut-être, mais je ne suis pas capable de juger de la meilleure formulation en EN. Tout ce que je sais/pense, c'est qu'en FR "alignant ses mots" passe quasiment inaperçu (c'est certes subjectif), parce que le fait que les mots soient alignés est une évidence (on n'écrit pas de manière verticale). Donc à mon avis, il ne faudrait pas qu'en EN cette expression soit trop accentuée ou trop mise en valeur...(mais peut-être d'autres francophones auront une opinion différente !)
Emma Paulay Mar 2, 2009:
Stéphanie Alors ma suggestion ("word after word") n'était peut-être pas trop mal?
Stéphanie Soudais Mar 2, 2009:
meaning is simple À mon avis, il ne faut pas chercher midi à 14 heures. Cela signifie simplement que les mots du texte, en se succédant, élargissent et enrichissent le champ...On aurait pu d'ailleurs pu s'attendre à ce que le sujet de la phrase soit "l'auteur" et non "le texte" (l'auteur, alignant ses mots = l'auteur écrivant ses mots). Bref, il s'agit d'une expression qui ne sert qu'à "embellir" ce qui est dit, et qui pourrait être facilement supprimée sans changer le sens de la phrase
Emma Paulay Mar 2, 2009:
Photoromans Here's a link to the blog that explains and shows the work you're translating the review of. This is no ordinary "photo-novella" - no speech bubbles, not even a "story" as such. It's a succession of photos sent one by one by the photographer to the poet/author who put words to them.
http://photoromans.blogspot.com/
Helen Shiner Mar 1, 2009:
A difficult one In the link Louise provides of the text in its entirety, it refers to the text as being "court" and "incisif", so not sure generous would be right here.
Martin Cassell Mar 1, 2009:
profusion / generosity other idiomatic meanings of "aligner" are to do with reeling off spoken or written facts/figures, or paying a lot of money : so it struck me was that they are perhaps emphasising that the textual accompaniment is generous rather than sparse.
LouC1482 (asker) Mar 1, 2009:
Hi Helen, thank you for getting back to me. Unfotunately the client has not provided any images but I have found a pdf http://www.husson-editeur.be/images/pdf/MH-Photo.pdf
Helen Shiner Mar 1, 2009:
Hi Louise - do you have any other sort of information about this text? Is it about the way a written text is interlinked with visual images, for instance - the photo-novella? Has your client been kind enough to provide you with images!!

Proposed translations

+1
11 mins
Selected

in its arrangement/placement of words

Without further context, I think this is about how the written elements of the text are aligned with the imagery, how they are placed in relation to it. I would think this would be a key aspect of a photo-novella, like any other artist's book.

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Note added at 14 mins (2009-03-01 21:45:35 GMT)
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For instance:

http://www.pageresource.com/html/image2.htm

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Note added at 25 mins (2009-03-01 21:57:09 GMT)
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I think I would say 'in its placement of the wording'. It is all aligned left under each of the images, but that is so unremarkable that I would advise you to use something equally vague in your translation.

A tip: if you ever do translations of texts about visual imagery of any kind, please ask the client to provide you with images so you can do your best for them.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 31 mins (2009-03-01 22:03:04 GMT)
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I wonder if what might be meant is that the text matches up to the imagery - I know that sounds obvious, but it is by no means always the case in such work. Sometimes dissonance is the point.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 37 mins (2009-03-01 22:08:50 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The final paragraph makes the point that author and photographer are trying to create poetic links between text and image. This won't be a straightforward narrative describing what is going on in the images. I think I would stick to 'in its placement of the text' or 'the wording' and let the rest of the text give it context. You could also flag it up with your client, because it is by no means obvious. Best of luck!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 58 mins (2009-03-01 22:29:54 GMT)
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All in all, ask the client - at least you can make a few suggestions now!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day14 hrs (2009-03-03 12:28:51 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the points, Louise
Peer comment(s):
agree B D Finch : I think that "in its arrangement of words" is nice and ambiguous and could refer to either the arrangement of words in relation to each other, or to their placement on the page.
12 hrs
Thank you, B D Finch - it is not often that a text stumps us all!!
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you very much for your help Helen"
+1
12 mins

stringing its words together

It may work.
Peer comment(s):
agree cjohnstone : bonne piste
10 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 hr

organizing his words on paper

Hello,

aligner ses mots = to organize his words on paper

I hope this helps.
Something went wrong...
+1
12 hrs

with each of its words astutely placed

I have had to infer a lot to get this sentence into English. Can't really know without weeing the text. The key for me was that it refers to photo-novella.

The text, with each of its words astutely placed, succeeds in broadening and enriching a field of signification that challenges the reader's cultural and artistic assumptions.

As for "with each of its words astutely placed", once you get the drift, there are many other ways to do it.
Peer comment(s):
agree MatthewLaSon : Hi. I said "organizing his words" (on paper). The idea is that the text organizes his thoughts/words onto paper.
1 day 7 hrs
Something went wrong...
19 hrs
French term (edited): Le texte, alignant ses mots

The meticulously crafted text

Emboldened by the comments on my reference entry, this is my suggestion for an English expression suited to the genre and register ...
Reference:

http://seocontentsolutions.com/blog/about

Something went wrong...
10 hrs

word after word

This might seem a strange interpretation, but I think this might be a reference to the way in which the text gradually builds up meaning as you read on and draws on the author's cultural influences etc. As I see it, the idea behind the sentence is gradual expansion: step by step or word by word.

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Note added at 22 hrs (2009-03-02 20:26:02 GMT)
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Obviously, you'd have to change the word order if you used this: Word after word, the text...
Peer comment(s):
neutral Helen Shiner : I like this interpretation, but feel as unsure as I did last night about which of all the possibilities is most likely./Yes, it is definitely that, but whether meant in terms of layout or metaphorically is not clear.
5 mins
Thanks Helen. I've just read the whole thing in Louise's link and it backs up the idea of creating a web of meaning between text and image.
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

40 mins
Reference:

Littré

http://littre.reverso.net/dictionnaire-francais/definition/a...
see meaning 3

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 52 mins (2009-03-01 22:24:13 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

my reservation is that I've generally encountered this and related phrases in a rather dismissive/damning sense (cf. atilf s.v. aligner "Aligner des (les, ses) phrases. Les agencer selon les règles, mais sans art ou souci de la vérité")
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Helen Shiner : A distinct possibility.
2 mins
thanks Helen
agree Stéphanie Soudais : c'est exactement ça
14 hrs
merci Stéphanie
agree Emma Paulay : Painstakingly written?
15 hrs
thanks Emma
Something went wrong...
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