Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2024 January 12

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January 12

What is the correct way to say this?

When asking for the meaning of a foreign word or phrase, am I supposed to say “What does [phrase] mean in [target language]” or “What does [phrase] mean in [original language]”? Primal Groudon (talk) 18:01, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

You can always go with "How do you say [phrase] in [target language]?" --Amble (talk) 19:42, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Are you talking about asking in Google? I've found it to be pretty flexible. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:43, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

The sentence "What does artificial intelligence mean in Turkish?", although unambiguous since Turkish is obviously not the source language, comes across to me as a strange way of formulating the question. I'd interpret either of the questions "What does yapay zekâ mean in English?" and "What does yapay zekâ mean in Turkish?" as asking for a translation to English. The first version is unnecessarily long; one may as well simply ask, "What does yapay zekâ mean?" The second version has the advantage that it identifies the source language to the speaker. A problem arises when a term occurs in both languages, as in, "What does define mean in Turkish?" Google is not particularly helpful in answering this question.^[1] An unambiguous way to phrase the question is, "What is the meaning of the Turkish term define?" The answer should reveal that this depends on the context; is it used as a noun or as an adjective?  --Lambiam 10:58, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

yapay zekâ means nothing in English, of course. —Tamfang (talk) 02:23, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

It is a type of question that is apparently regularly asked:

• What does "señor" mean in English?^[2]
• What does the Hebrew word אַל־מָוֶת‎ mean in English?^[3]
• The Jewish scholarly community wrote a document called Dabru Emet to encourage discussion – what does this title mean in English?^[4]

Phrases expressed in natural language are often ambiguous. This does not matter as long as the listener, using context and common sense, understands the speaker's intention.  --Lambiam 09:43, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

The second version provides more info, since the responder to the first might have to ask, "What language is that?" However, neither would raise any eyebrows and mark you out as a dang furriner. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:44, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

The second version may be ambiguous, though.  --Lambiam 00:04, 15 January 2024 (UTC)