NationStates Jolt Archive

I was just thinking about this last night. The babel fish gadget in Hitchhiker's Guide could not work instantly or at all because grammar is different in each language and the device could not tell the end of a sentence. Forgetting that last point for a second, it couldn't be instant translation because of grammar differences:

ie: cochon vert=green pig

It can't say green pig until after it hears "vert" because it would only have heard "cochon" and if it were instant, would say: pig green. (Look at the pig green).

...

I was just thinking about this last night. The babel fish gadget in Hitchhiker's Guide could not work instantly or at all because grammar is different in each language and the device could not tell the end of a sentence. Forgetting that last point for a second, it couldn't be instant translation because of grammar differences:

ie: cochon vert=green pig

It can't say green pig until after it hears "vert" because it would only have heard "cochon" and if it were instant, would say: pig green. (Look at the pig green).

...

Oh, yes, this corrupts the previously flawless plausibility of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. :rolleyes:

Hehe, imagine the Universal Translator in Star Trek on pause until the alien reaches the Germanic verb pile-up at the end of his sentence.

I was just thinking about this last night. The babel fish gadget in Hitchhiker's Guide could not work instantly or at all because grammar is different in each language and the device could not tell the end of a sentence. Forgetting that last point for a second, it couldn't be instant translation because of grammar differences:

ie: cochon vert=green pig

It can't say green pig until after it hears "vert" because it would only have heard "cochon" and if it were instant, would say: pig green. (Look at the pig green).

...

Heh... I hope that this wasn't the only logical problem you found in the Hitchhiker's Guide...

I'm just saying...

I'm just saying...
I know, I'm just mocking you. Most people who speak another language will have considered this problem, although, maybe not in relation to H2G2.

But the Babel fish is a dead giveaway. It proves the Hitchiker's universe cannot exist and therefore God reappears in a flash of inverse logic! :p

During a session at the United Nations General Assembly, the German representative was giving a long, impassioned speech with all the characteristic gesticulations, obviously drawing the close attention of both his compatriots and the interpreters. A tourist, uncomprehending, taps an interpreter on the shoulder.

"What's he saying?" she asks.

"I don't know," the interpreter answers. "I'm waiting for the verb."

During a session at the United Nations General Assembly, the German representative was giving a long, impassioned speech with all the characteristic gesticulations, obviously drawing the close attention of both his compatriots and the interpreters. A tourist, uncomprehending, taps an interpreter on the shoulder.

"What's he saying?" she asks.

"I don't know," the interpreter answers. "I'm waiting for the verb."

I'm aughing far harder than I should at that. Well done, that man.

I'm aughing far harder than I should at that. Well done, that man.
Once again proving that the traditional joke is not quite dead. ^^ Ta.

if youre going to talk about the problems with translators shouldnt you use the universal translator from star trek (or the non existant one in star wars) rather than the babel fish?

at least the one from star trek is suppposed to make sense where the one from hhgttg is a set up for a joke

The Babel fish is small, yellow and leechlike, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.

Did you, like, not even read the book? It says clearly how it works, and it works by reading minds, not listening to people.

The Babel Fish lives on brainwave radiation from every source but its host. It then excretes energy in the form of exactly the correct brainwaves needed by its host to understand what was just said.

Did you, like, not even read the book? It says perfectly clearly how it works, and it works by reading minds, not listening to people.

I tried, but I tired. I know it's a brilliant book.

Perhaps the Babel fish works out what you want to say and translates that? But then again the Babel fish is aparently uncontrained by space and time as it works on PA announcements which is the first thing Arthur Dent hears with it and it also seems to work for foreign movies.

It says clearly how it works, and it works by reading minds, not listening to people.

now that's just crazy talk

I was just thinking about this last night. The babel fish gadget in Hitchhiker's Guide could not work instantly or at all because grammar is different in each language and the device could not tell the end of a sentence. Forgetting that last point for a second, it couldn't be instant translation because of grammar differences:

ie: cochon vert=green pig

It can't say green pig until after it hears "vert" because it would only have heard "cochon" and if it were instant, would say: pig green. (Look at the pig green).

...

As I recall it worked off psychic waves or something, not sound, so it would already know what the person was thinking of saying before they even finished speaking the sentence, althoguh if that were the case it brings up many other problems including how to turn it off before completing a regrettable statement.

"What's he saying?" she asks.

"I don't know," the interpreter answers. "I'm waiting for the verb."
Ian Hislop once famously said a similar thing about Tony Blair's speeches. :D

Ian Hislop once famously said a similar thing about Tony Blair's speeches. :D
Heheh. :D

Tony blairs speeches have verbs in them they are just negative like 'we will NOT do anything useful this term' though occasionally uses positive verbs like 'we ARE crap':p

As I recall it worked off psychic waves or something, not sound, so it would already know what the person was thinking of saying before they even finished speaking the sentence, althoguh if that were the case it brings up many other problems including how to turn it off before completing a regrettable statement.

Perhaps the Babel fish rewrites your memory so that you think the regrettable statement wasn't completed?

Maybe Babel fish are the true masters of the universe glurh harmless but useful translation devices we should place in everyone's ear. Everyone's.

Perhaps the Babel fish rewrites your memory so that you think the regrettable statement wasn't completed?

Maybe Babel fish are the true masters of the universe glurh harmless but useful translation devices we should place in everyone's ear. Everyone's.

You mat be right, but mango juice is best consumed... I noticed this a while back, but you have far too many Game Overs. Sorry to be blunt, but you really stink at this game. Does a raw blink on Hara-kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61! An Anemone or Clematis plant's juice can cause a rash. When pruning them it's a good idea to wear gloves. *static* Nonsense, babel fish do not exist. Ignorance is strength, carry on.

But someone may not have thought the necessary noun yet.

During a session at the United Nations General Assembly, the German representative was giving a long, impassioned speech with all the characteristic gesticulations, obviously drawing the close attention of both his compatriots and the interpreters. A tourist, uncomprehending, taps an interpreter on the shoulder.

"What's he saying?" she asks.

"I don't know," the interpreter answers. "I'm waiting for the verb."

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the man, ney, the deity, who paraphrased and plagarised Mark Twain.

That 'quote' was copied and modified from "The Awful German Language" by Mark Twain.

I wonder where Mark Twain stole it from?

Could someone enlighten me about this German verb thing. Wikipedia offers no help.

Could someone enlighten me about this German verb thing. Wikipedia offers no help.

Germans at the end of their sentence verbs put.

HAHA

sapir-worf hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis)

Either way.

Germans at the end of their sentence verbs put.
I'm taking that is an example...that's screwed up.