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German to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - Military / Defense / feminism, but general languge use
German term or phrase:Struktur
This word appears frequently in my document, in a context where it is awkward to translate it as "structure" or "pattern," which is what Duden and DE-EN dictionaries give. It really seems to mean institution or system. In this particular case (below), I am not sure how to translate it. It seems to mean "as a matter of routine," i.e., without any special provisions having to be made for women's conflict intervention, since they do it anyhow. But I'm not sure. (I first had "on a structural basis," but really, that makes no sense.)
Frauen verhindern auf strukturelle Art, dass Konflikte gewaltförmig eskalieren.
I am selecting this as "most helpful" because it focused me on the part of the phrase that I did not see as a problem - "die Art." Changing it from "basis" to "manner" makes more sense and reads better. I still don't grasp the meaning of the phrase, though, and am hoping to hear something from the author. I appreciate the help of all who knocked their heads against this one, which, as Tom said, seems so simple but somehow is not. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Good point. I am not in touch with the author, but will leave a query in the translation for the agency, and maybe they can find out. The PM is very cooperative and wants to get this done well.
to be quite honest, strukturell is such a simple word, but with so many meanings and subtleties, I would, as a man, and did after following the discussion, have difficulties in fully grasping what a feminist would have wanted to express. I had a few cases like this before, and it always helped a lot by actually asking the author of what precisely they meant. This asking the originator of the source was actually appreciated, because it showed the client or author that translation is not just plopping words from a dictionary together.
And apart from that, I learnt so much about things that I never studied and was able to understand (to some extent) enough to be able to translate (and sometimes ask the client /author an intelligent question).
When I suggested nature, I was not aware that this was a feminist text, but that it stemmed from Military/Defense... and we know what difficulties the German military had (and still have) with women wanting to serve (especially if armed).
Sorry for the long post, just to let you all know that here I learnt a lot, yet again... Thank you all for that.
The more I ponder the various possibilities suggested, the less sense the sentence, as written, makes to me. If you have to add your own plausible explanation ("social skills," "by nature," etc.), then you may be hitting on what the author intended--but maybe not. I think Elsefien's translation is probably the most accurate, but I really don't know what it would mean. So, I'm keeping the question open for awhile.
No thanks. As you rightly point out, KudoZ is indeed a ‘lottery’, with askers often awarding the points on an apparently arbitrary basis, though an endorsement of the asker’s own proposal does not seem to go amiss.
I hadn't noticed that effect in Kudoz! But I think your proposed translation might be a good one. Stick it up as a proposed solution, and maybe you'll win the Kudoz lottery!
For sure it has nothing to do with women's smaller size. Here's another use of Struktur from the same document, to give you an idea:
Um konfliktreduzierend zu wirken und friedensfähige Strukturen zu schaffen...
I translated Strukturen here as "institutions." It's different, of course, from the Kudoz question I asked, but provides another example of where "structure is not structure."
are you sure it doesn't imply they avoid violence because they are generally smaller structurally??
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
7 hrs confidence:
manner
Explanation: Women, in a structured manner, prevent conflicts to escalate to violence.
Elsje Apostel Local time: 04:15 Native speaker of: Dutch PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
I am selecting this as "most helpful" because it focused me on the part of the phrase that I did <b>not</b> see as a problem - "die Art." Changing it from "basis" to "manner" makes more sense and reads better. I still don't grasp the meaning of the phrase, though, and am hoping to hear something from the author. I appreciate the help of all who knocked their heads against this one, which, as Tom said, seems so simple but somehow is not.
Explanation: "Women use social skills to prevent ..." This avoids the issue of whether women are by nature less aggressive, while retaining the concept of "Struktur" which can convey the idea of conscious effort when it comes to human behavior.
Kevin Fulton United States Local time: 22:15 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 4
@ Phil: or using your "feminist" vocabulary avoiding the word nature: "Women inherently tend to" - and continue as above.
Tom Feise Switzerland Local time: 04:15 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English, German
Notes to answerer
Asker: Hmm, this would not go over well with the feminist author of the text, who argues that there is no biological reason ("nature") for any of this "female" behavior, but only gender stereotypes imposed by society.
The translation workplace 
