May 17, 2006 15:43
18 yrs ago
2 viewers *
German term

Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv und fühlen sich dabei am ganzen Körper angespannt

German to English Social Sciences Psychology
I'm translating a psychological questionnaire which has lots of questions of this form:

Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv und atmen dabei unregelmäßig ein und aus?

Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv und fühlen sich dabei am ganzen Körper angespannt?

I'm having trouble wording the translation in a form which feels grammatically correct. To me "How often are you aggressive and feel that your whole body is tense?" is wrong, because the question form of the second part of that sentence needs to be "How often do you feel that your whole body is tense?" and yet the words "do you" don't appear - the verb is "are" and that doesn't go with "feel".

I've looked at this for so long that I now don't know whether I'm just being over-pedantic and whether the sentence is perhaps OK despite the grammatical inconsistency - so some objective comments would be welcome.
Change log

May 17, 2006 16:18: Marcus Malabad changed "Term asked" from "Grammar in questions" to "Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv und fühlen sich dabei am ganzen Körper angespannt"

Proposed translations

+9
4 mins
German term (edited): Grammar in questions
Selected

use more 'feel'

When asking a person, I would say, "How often do you feel aggressive and that your whole body is tense?"

I would describe a person's behavior as aggressive, but if asking them directly, I would ask about their feelings

Just my thought from the USA.
Peer comment(s):

agree Francis Lee (X) : Precisely - this is better, more diplomatic and more applicable than the German phrasing
4 mins
agree Stephen Roche
18 mins
agree Lori Dendy-Molz
29 mins
agree Emilie
32 mins
agree Melanie Nassar
35 mins
agree Maureen Millington-Brodie
1 hr
agree Henry Schroeder
1 hr
agree michael10705 (X)
2 hrs
agree Ingeborg Gowans (X) : definitely the "feely" touch, just for this context
3 hrs
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2 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to everyone. This was in fact one of the options I had originally considered myself but rejected on the grounds that "feeling" aggressive is different from "being" aggressive. However, after further discussion with the client (and bearing in mind that our main problem was the grammatical construction of the sentences, as I described), we eventually settled on "How often do you get aggressive and ...." This came closest to following the structure of the German questionnaire, which was what was needed."
-1
41 mins

how often do you your aggressive feelings cause your...

because of "dabei" there is an impression that the aggressiveness causes the physical reaction
Peer comment(s):

disagree Cilian O'Tuama : Too risky, IMO. Surely here dabei means "at the same time" and not "caused by"?
6 hrs
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2 hrs
German term (edited): Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv?

How often are you verbally or physically aggressive?

The question does not appear to address FEELINGS of aggression. "Wie häufig SIND Sie aggressiv" is a question about the frequency with which the respondent exhibits aggressive behavior (meaning verbal and physical acts of aggression such as yelling, swearing, kicking, throwing, punching, hitting, pushing and shoving, etc.).

The following questions were asked in the Child Behavior Inventory which was compiled by the Bergen Columbia Group for studies of war-affected children (see www.warchild.ca/docs/ist_1991_iraq_report.pdf):

Are you verbally aggressive (for example, yelling, swearing, verbally threatening others)?
Are you physically aggressive towards others (for example, hitting, pushing, physically intimidating others)?

Although the German "Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv" is not ambiguous, the English "How often are you aggressive?" is ambiguous as "aggressive" can also mean "having or showing determination and energetic pursuit of your ends" (e.g., an aggressive basketball player) or "marked by aggressive ambition and energy and initiative" (e.g., an aggressive young executive).

You could eliminate that ambiguity by translating the question as "How often are you aggressive towards others?" However, that would exclude all aggression towards oneself (e.g., the self-mutilating behavior observed in borderline patients). The question in your questionnaire does not differentiate between aggression towards oneself and others, so the translation shouldn't either.

I would, therefore, suggest the following translation for "Wie häufig sind Sie aggressiv": "How often are you verbally or physically aggressive?"
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7 hrs

how often is your aggression accompanied by ...?

To me, in this section of your questionnaire the emphasis seems to be more on what accompanies the aggression ("dabei") than on the aggression itself.
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