English translation: which is pondered by/has them stop and think
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French to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Geography / Urban planning
French term or phrase:questionne (here)
Can't figure out the use of 'questionne' in the context below... help??!
En effet, les ruines sont des marqueurs de la mémoire urbaine qui véhiculent un message politique et social de manière très efficace, pour diverses raisons : la taille de la ruine la rend plus visible qu’un marqueur de risque plus limité (comme une ligne de hauteur de crue), le choix de l’édifice ruiné conservé se porte souvent sur un édifice doté d’une valeur patrimoniale préexistante (comme une église), la ruine urbaine constitue un élément non fonctionnel dans la ville qui **questionne** l’habitant…
I think it's a source of reflection for the residents.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2011-11-28 18:26:39 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In other words, it gets them thinking.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2011-11-28 18:27:19 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I think the plural of "habitant" works best in English.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2011-11-28 18:50:18 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I'm afraid the meaning may not be overly clear, hence your problem!
The idea, imho, is still about the urban ruins making people stop and think, as it serves no practical purpose.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2011-11-28 18:52:56 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In informal contexts, "ça me questionne" can be translated as "it has me wondering", etc.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2011-11-28 22:08:49 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Imho, it is not so much that it elicits a response as it is that it makes them (that's to say "the residents") think about what this urban ruins may represent by being left standing.
both for your thoughts! Gilla, I believe you might be on to something. And Fiorsam, I agree that the text is ambiguous - but luckily, I know the author quite well, so although I want to have a decent stab at translating this, if I really have to, I suppose I could ask him exactly what he means!
Very ambiguous - by extrapolation it could mean that
the empty ruins stand as a question mark vis-à-vis the inhabited area seeking their own inhabitants and wondering why "they" are not inhabited. Just a thought...:)
I wonder if you could stretch the sense of "questionner" here to mean "puzzle". I don't know if this fits with the rest of your text but it might be suggesting that a town's population might be puzzled by the existence of non-functional buildings, especially ones that are in ruins.
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Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4
seeks to elicit a reaction/response from
Explanation: might be one possibility (or rather two!)
Colin Rowe Germany Local time: 18:06 Native speaker of: English
Notes to answerer
Asker: I think you might have something here! Thank you!
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4
