| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Posting synonyms of others' answers Thread poster: philgoddard
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Someone else has posted an answer to a question. You agree with it, but can think of another way of saying it - no better, no worse, just different.
Do you
1. Agree with their answer, and say: "Another way of translating this would be..."
2. Post your suggestion as a separate answer, in the hope that the asker will choose it?
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If I think my version is only a minor improvement on someone else's, I will agree with their answer and refrain from posting my own. The sensible thing to do, unless you want to alienate all your peer KudoZ answerers.
| | | | philgoddard
United States
German to English
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TOPIC STARTER | If it's a minor improvement | Jun 19, 2015 |
there may be a case for posting it as a separate answer. But I'm talking about pure synonyms.
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 06:48
Member (2007)
English
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| Agree, with comment | Jun 19, 2015 |
Unless you need to justify this term in preference to the other by providing references, explanation, etc. Then it would need to be a separate answer.
But you can always ask the Asker not to give your answer points if you don't think it would be fair. There's nothing to stop them giving the points to Answer A and then changing the glossary entry to the term suggested in Answer B.
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Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:48
Russian to English
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In memoriam | Yes, don't post another answer if it's just a synonym | Jun 19, 2015 |
You can make your point, as suggested, in a comment; or you can make a discussion entry about it.
| | | | | But then there are questions where synonyms make all the difference | Jun 19, 2015 |
For questions demanding accurate and precise choice of technical terms, replacing a word with synonym may only slightly improve on an existing answer, or even make it worse.
But then there are questions of style and flow, where the choice of words, including synonyms and near synonyms, makes all the difference.
| | | | Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 01:48
Spanish to English
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| I agree with Mikhail | Jun 19, 2015 |
It really is a matter of whether the alternative answer is *substantively* different or, shall we say, cosmetically different. I personally would tend to err on the side of caution and post my suggested improvement in a comment attached to an *agree* that I am playing off of. I think that this is the most courteous way to proceed.
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 23:48
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
It would seem that askers should feel free to ask what they wish, and answerers to provide or not provide an answer or agree with another's answer, or agree but with further suggestions. The asker should also free to choose any answer desired.
We do not need any rules for this.
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Phil Hand
China
Local time: 13:48
Chinese to English
| Shouldn't they all be synonyms? | Jun 20, 2015 |
I'm with Henry on this - just live and let live. Follow your own interests on Kudoz, and if others have a different approach, that's their problem.
In answer to the question, sometimes I agree and offer an alternative; sometimes I post my own answer (particularly if there are a number of synonyms that might do the trick, and I want to post a range to give the asker more ideas); sometimes I use the discussion box.
| | | | Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 11:18
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | I don't think there any synonymns in any language | Jun 21, 2015 |
It is a common fallacy to think that words with similar meanings (synonyms) are interchangeable, and one can substitute another in all situations where these words are used, much like you can replace a spare part of a car with another one and the car would run just the same.
Languages don't work that way. Words have several shades of meaning, and they have visual and aural qualities that are as important as their meanings, as anyone who has dabbled in poetry would know, and in most ... See more It is a common fallacy to think that words with similar meanings (synonyms) are interchangeable, and one can substitute another in all situations where these words are used, much like you can replace a spare part of a car with another one and the car would run just the same.
Languages don't work that way. Words have several shades of meaning, and they have visual and aural qualities that are as important as their meanings, as anyone who has dabbled in poetry would know, and in most cases one word cannot just replace another word with the same meaning without bringing about subtle changes in the feel and sense of the new sentence or phrase created as a result.
To give a simple example, big and large are synonyms but can these two always be used interchangeably? Or tiny and minuscule? The second is a tongue-twister even if it means the same as tiny and may not be appropriate for children's literature.
As far as kudoz is concerned, of course the issue there is entirely different and people deliberately misuse it in many ways and this may be one example of such a misuse. In the Hindi kudoz, leave alone synonyms, I have come across people posting the same word (I mean exactly the same word) as two different answers, and weirder still, one of these answers will get tons of agrees, whereas the other, not a single one. Obviously people have made prior arrangements to win kudoz points.
In the ideal situations, people wanting to post synonyms as different answers, should clearly explain why their answer is different from the other word and why it is more suitable as the right answer for the asker's question. ▲ Collapse
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:48
Spanish to English
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As our colleague Balasubramaniam L. notes above, synonymy is a rather grey area at the best of times. In cases where my suggestion is similar to earlier offerings, I usually just put "another option". I think it also depends on the asker. For example, there is someone currently posting lots of kudoz queries in my pair, all relating to the same text, which is obviously well beyond their grasp as a non-native. If we decide to help out this type of asker (non-natives out of their depth), it may b... See more As our colleague Balasubramaniam L. notes above, synonymy is a rather grey area at the best of times. In cases where my suggestion is similar to earlier offerings, I usually just put "another option". I think it also depends on the asker. For example, there is someone currently posting lots of kudoz queries in my pair, all relating to the same text, which is obviously well beyond their grasp as a non-native. If we decide to help out this type of asker (non-natives out of their depth), it may be necessary to explain things that we wouldn't need to with a competent target-language native-speaker, such as the finer shades of meaning that can be evoked by the proper lexical choices and collocations. Or by posting suggestions which may be (or appear to be) calques of previous offerings. To me, it's all part of the kudoz experience and no big deal. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The purpose of Kudoz | Jun 21, 2015 |
I always think it's a shame that the main purpose of Kudoz seems to be to "win" points and show off.
It would be nice if it was just a collaborative tool for discussing terminology.
But I suppose that's why it's called Kudoz and note Terminologeez.
That said, I use Kudoz much more than I contribute to it, so perhaps my opinion that it's easier to look up terms if "synonyms" are posted as separate answers is just pure selfishness.
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| Different trend | Jun 21, 2015 |
What I've noticed is a different trend, at least in my language pair - people posting an "Agree" then their own answer as a comment, which turns out not to be the same, but one that (in my mind at least) qualifies as a different answer...
Reminds me of a famous quote, normally attributed to Bukowski, but which actually appears to be by Bertrand Russell: "The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt".
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:48
Spanish to English
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Despite my earlier comments, I must admit it can be rather annoying - I've just seen an example which exasperated me, but I'm saying no more about it so as not to be churlish.
| | | | | Does it really matter? | Jun 22, 2015 |
?
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