This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
English translation: ...and may) veer off course / take a different turn
21:32 Jan 9, 2019
French to English translations [PRO] Medical - Economics / public health/health econonomics
French term or phrase:dérive (here)
This is from a discussion about knowing whether open science means better science. The sentence is as follows: Chaque pratique émergente porte en soi des enjeux économiques avec des dérives potentielles. "Enjeux et dérives" seems to be a common turn of phrase when talking about the social challenges of technological progress, but I don't quite understand what the "dérive" part means.
We do not know, wether "enjeux"or "dérives" corresponds to "open science", what the author encourages. Both can be positive or negative.
Example: Maintaining the current environment policy with high carbon dioxide emissions will lead to a climate disaster. Deviating from this dangerous route by reducing emissions may reduce the impact on the temperature rise. In this case it is recommended to deviate from the original way and select new goals.
A pure linguistic consideration cannot solve the question. We should know, wether "open science" is the status-quo to deviate from. I doubt that open science is standard everywhere.
Thanks for agreeing with what I've been saying all along — 'dérapage' is exactly the synonym I mentioned 2 days ago, so I'm very glad you agree with that interpretation!
I do like the way pitfalls fits, although it's pretty loose, I think it captures the meaning. @Tony I'll leave this for a bit in case you recall the word you're looking for.
Really, it is that clear-cut: if we leave aside the nautical connection, clearly not applicable here, the noun itself, when used in the sort of sense here, does indeed usually tend to have a more or less negative connotation — in the same was as the much more strongly negative 'dérapage'. While the multiple meanings of the verb form can help inform our understanding of the overall notion, they should not be allowed to cloud understyanding of the term as used in a specific context.
derive a) (dévation) / drift, ~ des continents / continental drift; (lit) à la ~ / adrift; (fig) tout va à la derive / every is going to the dogs ou is going downhill b) (dispositive) (Aviat) / fin; (Naut) / centre-board
dériver 1 vt rivière / to divert, (chim, Ling, Math) to derive; (Élec) to shunt; 2. vt indir ~ de / to derive from 3. vi (Aviat, Naut) to drift; [orateur] to drift off the subject dérivé, e 1. Adj derived; 2. 2. Nm (Chim, Ling, Math) derivative; (produit) by-product 3. 3 nf (math) derivative (Collins/Robert, French Concise Dictionary French – English)
Some significations have a neutral connotation, some do only describe facts not assessing its value or importance.
misstep noun 1. A clumsy or badly judged step. ‘for a mountain goat one misstep could be fatal’ 1.1 North American A mistake or blunder. ‘his campaign has been a farrago of missteps and mixed messages’ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/misstep
mis·step (mĭs-stĕp′) n. 1. A misplaced or awkward step. 2. An instance of wrong or improper conduct; a blunder. intr.v. mis·stepped, mis·step·ping, mis·steps To make a mistake. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/misstep
There is a single word commonly used for this in EN, but I'm blowed if I can drag it up from my poor old brain right now; I'd see the expression being used here in your context as very much along the lines of e;g. "uses and abuses in/of..."
1) I'm not sure 'missteps' is even a valid noun? But in any case, unlikely to be immediately understandable to the average reader, i'd have thought; it also tends IMHO to convey a notion of 'inadvertenty stepping off the path', which is far from the 'deliberate mis-use' of soemthing.
2) And yes, the text that follows does indeed help a lot! It re-inforces that negative aspect of 'dérive', byt talking forst about the concept of 'openness' (which of course we generally believe to be a good thing!) with the clearly negative possibilities involved with the 'mis-use' of personal data — currently quite a big issue here in France, and indeed, as I learned today, even in the UK! How about this: personal DNA information (what a wonder of modern science that is!) is being sold off to private companies (seems to me negative whichever way you look at it!) — so for example, a health insurer might refuse to cover you if you have a genetic propensity to some condition or another!!! I only mention this as an illustration very much related to your context...
To keep it as a noun? @Phil the next sentence changes the subject to open data: "L'open data pose évidemment des questions éthiques, sous l'angle des données personnelles", so not really helpful
Not really — though of course they both stem from the same root! But a 'dérive' is very definitely something drifting of course, with a usually negative connotation — sometimes quite a strong one! Verging in some contexts on 'abuse'...
Les dérives de la justice / de la psycho-analyse, etc (common phrases) can only be interpreted as negative. There is the idea of going astray / off track.
agree with one exception: "dérive" means also to deviate, and this have two connotations, too. To find a better solution or to improve the process or to run in difficulties while trying anot her way.
Whilst I agree in general with the comment below from Bijan Khezri, do note that in everyday usage, 'dérive' more often than not does have a negative connotation of "going astray" — as one might say that nuclear weapons represent a 'dérive' from the original issue of generating unlimited safe power.
In this case, Dérive means drifting away from the original path into new areas of discovery or research. It could have positive as well as negative connotations, because drifting away from the original path may have costs in terms of time and money which are not planned for.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
45 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +7
...and may) veer off course / take a different turn
Explanation: Perfectly defined by Bijan. These might work here. I.e the intrinsic economic implications may have this effect.
ormiston Local time: 21:11 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 8